129. Bring back Windows 2000 classic search on XP.

To brings back the classisc Windows 2000 search box on your xp machine.
Start Start the Registry Editor (run -> regedit)

Go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState
and set it into "use search asst"="no".

128. Remove image and/or media preview in Explorer

Windows XP Explorer has a 'feature' to provide a preview in the Details box on the left of the file you have selected, if it's supported. Image files, HTML pages, video clips, MP3s, etc are all previewed (even with the folder view open).

If you have a large movie clip and it either is corrupt (ie. no index from a partial download) or it uses an unsupported codec, then Explorer tries to load the whole file. This can slow your computer a lot and prevent deleting/renaming/moving/etc the file until it's finished.

Simply do the following steps:

1) Open a command window (Start->Run, type in 'cmd' hit enter)
2) To remove image preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll
3) To readd image preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 shimgvw.dll
4) To remove media preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll
5) To readd media preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 shmedia.dll

Thats it !!

127. You cannot create a folder named CON !!!

It is fact that you cannot create a folder named "CON", nor can you rename an existing folder to "CON". "CON" and a number of other character strings are in fact reserved names that go back to the days of DOS and cannot be used to name folders or files. Other reserved names are:

* PRN
* AUX
* NUL
* LPT1
* COM1
* Potential drive letter - A: to Z:
* A number of others


If you try to name a folder using one of these reserved names, the name will automatically revert to the default, generally "New Folder". Moreover, if you try to use a reserved name to name a file such as a Notepad or Microsoft Word document you will generally receive an error message similar to the following:



Depending on exactly how you save the file, you may instead receive a warning message advising that a file with that name already exists. However, even if you choose "Yes" to overwrite the existing file, you will still not be allowed to save the file.

125. Associate an icon with a drive

To set the icon of any drive (hard disk, cd rom or anything else) with a letter (C:\ etc.), run REGEDIT (Start -> Run -> regedit)

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

If one doesn't already exist, create a new KEY called "DriveIcons". Under this key, create a new key with the letter of your drive.

I.e. C for your C:\ drive.

To change the icon for that drive, create a key inside that one called DefaultIcon and set the path of (Default) to the location of your icon

eg C\DefaultIcon\
then (Default) = D:\Documents\C Drive Icon.ico

To change the name of that drive, create a key in the drive letter one (eg C\) called DefaultLabel and set the (Default) to what you want the drive to be called.
This is useful if you want to assign a long name to the floppy drive.

105. Personalize your Explorer window

Feel bored with the white background for your thumb drive explorer?

To fresh it with a colorful wallpaper, copy the code below (green color) and paste it into notepad and save as desktop.ini:

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
ICONAREA_IMAGE=ur_desired_wallpaper.jpg
ICONAREA_TEXT=222

ICONAREA_IMAGE=ur_desired_wallpaper.jpg replace it with ur wallpaper name with the file location and file extension.

ICONAREA_TEXT=222 means that u can change the text color, click on the link below to find out the code for desired color.
http://html-color-codes.com/

U can also personalize the icon for ur hard drive/thumb drive, and it is simple. All u need to do is copy the code below (purple color) and paste it into notepad and save as autorun.inf .
[autorun]
icon=iconname.ico

PS: Both desktop.ini and autorun.inf MUST place it on the root, eg. F:/, G:/. But for the wallpaper and icon, it is not necessary, u can place it into a sub-folder with anyname, eg. if u put the wallpaper into a subfolder named HERE, u must change the ur_desired_wallpaper.jpg to HERE/ur_desired_wallpaper.jpg. Same thing with the icon.

Before:

After:

101. Lock a folder without any software

To lock a folder with out any software just follow the steps

1. Copy and paste the following code (in green color) in to Notepad.

2. Type your password in place of "Type your password here"

3. Save the file with *.bat extension instead of *.txt

4. Now double click to open the file.

5. When you open it, a new folder named Locker will be created in the same place.

6. Move all the folders and files you want to lock into this folder.

7. Now double click the batch file again and in the confirmation type 'y' to lock the folder, and the locker folder will disappear.

Whenever you want to unlock the folder, open the batch file and enter the password, the locker folder will reappear again.

/***********Start Copying here************/

cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Locker
if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Locker "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to Unlock folder
set/p "pass=>"
if NOT %pass%==type your password here goto FAIL
attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Locker
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Locker
echo Locker created successfully
goto End
:End

/****************Stop Copying here*************/

97. Turn off XP Animations

You can turn off window animation ("exploding" windows), displayed when you play around with minimizing/maximizing open windows. This makes navigating Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP a lot quicker, especially if you don't have a fast video controller, or if you got tired of seeing it all the time (like I did). :)To do this, run Regedit (or Regedt32) and go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER Control Panel Desktop WindowMetrics or if you are the only user of your Windows computer go to:

HKEY_USERS .Default Control Panel Desktop WindowMetrics

Right-click on an empty spot in the right hand pane. Select New -> String [REG_SZ] Value. Name it MinAnimate. Click OK. Double-click on "MinAnimate" and type 0 to turn OFF window animation or 1 to turn it ON. Click OK. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows. Done.

TweakUI, the famous Microsoft Power Toy [110 KB, free, unsupported] can also turn off animated windows. Just remove the check mark from the "Window Animation" box under the General tab.

76.Hide file name on thumbnail view

Hold down the shift key when switching to thumbnail view to hide the file names. Do it again to bring them back.

75.Rename multiple files

You can rename multiple files all at once: Select a group of files, right-click the first file, and select "Rename". Type in a name for the first file, and the rest will follow.

67.Create auto-play CDs

The application CDs that you buy launch automatically, and your burned CDs can do the same. They can invoke a setup program or display an HTML page that links to the CD's contents. Use Notepad to create a three-line text file based on the lines below, and name it Autorun.inf. Place the file in the CD's root directory.

[autorun]

open=setup.exe

icon=icon.ico

Replace setup.exe with the program that should launch when the CD is inserted, and replace icon.ico with the file containing the CD's icon. In both cases, be sure to omit the drive letter.

59.Auto Complete file and folder name

You can automatically fill in file and folder names at the command prompt, much like a UNIX terminal. Launch the Registry editor and move down to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Microsoft\Command Processor. Select CompletionChar and set its value of to 9. Restart the system for the changes to take effect. Now, at the Command Prompt window, type in the first few characters of the file or folders and press Tab to complete it automatically.

55.Close several window at once

To close several windows at once, hold down the Control key while clicking on the taskbar buttons of each window. Once you have selected all the windows you want to close, right-click the last button you selected and pick "Close Group".

54. Arrange windows side by side

To arrange two windows side-by-side, switch to the first window, then hold the Control key while right-clicking the taskbar button of the second window. Select "Tile Vertically".

48.Customizing Windows Explorer Context menu (right click menu in windows explorer)

Ever wondered how does the right click menu (which is actually a context menu) work ? For example, when I right click in windows explorer, I see an option which says "open command window here". Do You know why I see this ? Well I see this because I have following entries in my registry.
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd] @="Open Command Window Here"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd\command] @="C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe /k cd "%1""
If You have never used a tweaking utility and have newly installed Windows XP, You would not see this option. You would have to navigate to [[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive] go and create two subkeys ("cmd" and within that "command" and would have to put the text "Open Command Window Here" without quotes in default string value of "cmd" key and the text "C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe /k CD"%1"" without quotes in default string value of command key). After this You need to REBOOT for these changes to take effect.
Trick is in adding similar entries for other applications as well even though its much harder to come with ideas about what to put in the context menu!!!! .

14. Remove the Shared Documents folders from My Computer

One of the most annoying things about the new Windows XP user interface is that Microsoft saw fit to provide links to all of the Shared Documents folders on your system, right at the top of the My Computer window. I can't imagine why this would be the default, even in a shared PC environment at home, but what's even more annoying is that you cannot change this behavior through the shell: Those icons are stuck there and you have to live with it.
Until now, that is.
Simply fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key (To open the Registry Editor simply type 'regedit' on Run window): HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders
You'll see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you delete this, all of the Shared Documents folders (which are normally under the group called "Other Files Stored on This Computer") will be gone.
You do not need to reboot your system to see the change.

8.Rename multiple files at a time

You can rename multiple files all at once: Select a group of files, right-click the first file, and select "Rename". Type in a name for the first file, and the rest will follow.

6. Turn 'no' into 'no to all'

If you hold down the shift key while clicking "No" in a Confirm File Operation dialog, the response will be interpreted as "No to All".

2. Wanna add your photos into my computer properties

Do this:
1. Open Notepad.
2. Type the following:
[General]Manufacturer="Mirage"Model=AMD Sempron 4.7GHZ
[Support Information]Line1= Your Ph NoLine2= Your Address.....
3. Save as "oeminfo.ini" in the System32 folder.(Without Quote)
4. Create a bmp file(Your Photo) and save it the System32 folder as "oemlogo.bmp"(Without Quote).
5. Now Check your My Computer Properties.