Ten useful tips of Windows XP !!

1. To prevent Security Center alerts from popping up (without disabling Security Center’s monitoring of your firewall, automatic updates, and antivirus status), in Security Center click Change The Way Security Center Alerts Me.
2. While the Welcome screen is displayed, you can open the Log On To Windows dialog box by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete two times. This allows you to log on using an account that isn’t shown on the Welcome screen (Administrator, for example).
3. Pressing the Windows logo key+L is a terrific shortcut for switching users or locking your computer. If your keyboard doesn’t have a Windows logo key or you prefer using a mouse, you can create a program shortcut that provides single-click access to the same feature.
4. Anything stored in %UserProfile%\Favorites appears on your Favorites menu or Favorites bar. Most people use this folder exclusively for Internet shortcuts, but you can put shortcuts to files and folders there as well.
5. As a quicker way to display or hide a toolbar, right-click any toolbar. This action displays the View, Toolbars submenu.
6. It’s difficult to work with the tiny thumbnail images in the Scanner And Camera Wizard. You’ll generally find it most efficient to copy all images to your hard disk, where you can cull the shots you don’t want to keep and then work with the rest.
7. Run the Windows XP Network Setup Wizard on every system that’s connected to your network. Doing so is the only reliable way to ensure that your network has the proper baseline configuration. Afterwards, you can manually adjust settings and enable or disable features as required.
8. The My Network Places folder can hold shortcuts to folders and files you use often. To create such a place, type the complete path (in the form \\computername\sharename\folder) on the wizard’s third page. Or drag the folder or file from a Windows Explorer window to the My Network Places window.
9. You can back up settings (including your password) for each e-mail account in Outlook Express. Choose Tools, Accounts, select the account name, and then click Export. To re-establish the account, import the saved .iaf file.
10. The Windows XP Backup Utility does not support backing up directly to CD-R or CD-RW devices. However, if you plan your backups carefully you can accomplish the same goal in a two-step process. Back up to a file first, and then copy that backup file to a CD-R or CD-RW.

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Yahoo Messanger Hidden Emoticons !!

:-?? - I don't know

%-( - not listening

:@) - pig

3:-O - cow

|) - monkey

~:> - chicken

@};- - rose

%%- - good luck

**== - flag

(~~) - pumpkin

~O) - coffee

*- - idea

8-X - skull

>-) - alien

:-L - frustrated

[-O< - praying

$-) - money eyes

:-" - whistling

b-( - feeling beat up

>- - peace sign

[-X - shame on you

\/ - dancing

>:/ - bring it on

:-@ - chatterbox

^^ - not worthy

:-j - oh go on

(*) - star

o-> - hiro

o=> - billy

o-+ - april

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Hide drives in Windows XP

We can hide specific drives in Windows XP by using Group Policy Editor. Follow the simple method here and your drive is hidden from My Computer with all your secret Data & Files

Step 1: Click on Start > Run and type in GPEDIT.MSC and click OK

Step 2 : In the left pane click on ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES under USER CONFIGURATION.

Step 3 : In the right pane double click on WINDOWS COMPONENTS

Step 4 : In the right pane again double click on WINDOWS EXPLORER.

Step 5 : Inside WINDOWS EXPLORER you will find a lot of options. Find "Hide these specific drives in My Computer" and double click on it.

Step 6 : Click on ENABLED radio button and in the drop down list below select the drive you want to hide.

Now click on apply > ok and you are done. No one will know except you that there is a hidden drive in your computer. To access the drive simply type in the drive letter in the windows explorer address bar and press enter. Voila !! your Hidden drive will come up.

This works in Windows 2000 also.

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Disable Error Reporting in Windows XP

Every time a programm crashes Windows XP tries to send an Error Report to Microsoft. It may be useful to Microsoft but annoys us mostly. We can simply put it off. here is how to do it.

• Navigate to Start > Settings > Control Panel
• Double click on SYSTEM
• Click on Advances Tab
• Click on the ERROR REPORTING located at the bottom
• Select DISABLE radio button
• You may or may not select "But notify me when critical errors occur" check box.
• Now click OK, Again Click OK and you are done.

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Create Single Click Shutdown and Reboot Shortcuts on the Desktop

Follow the steps to create Shortcut to Shutdown.

• Right click anywhere on the Desktop and navigate to NEW > SHORTCUT.
• Enter the following line in the Shortcut dialogue Box.

shutdown -s -t 03 -c "Bye Bye YourName"

• Click Next.
• Type the Name as Shutdown.
• Click Finish.

Now you can Shutdown your PC right from your Desktop.


Follow these steps to create Shortcut to Restart.

• Right click anywhere on the Desktop and navigate to NEW > SHORTCUT.
• Enter the following line in the Shortcut dialogue Box.

shutdown -r -t 01 -c "Rebooting your PC Mr. YourName"

• Click Next.
• Type the Name as Restart.
• Click Finish.

There are different switches for these purpose and you can do a lot more with the right kind of combination of the switches. The switches are describd below


-s
Shuts down the PC.

-l
Logs off the current user.

-t nn
Indicates the duration of delay, in seconds, before performing the action. ("nn" means the specified duration in seconds)

-c "messagetext"
Displays a message in the System Shutdown window. A maximum of 127 characters can be used. The message must be enclosed in quotation marks.

-f
Forces any running applications to shut down.

-r
Reboots the PC.

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Changing Default Location of My Documents

Imaging a situation that all of a sudden your Windows crashed and u had to format and reinstall it. In the process you have lost all the valuable files stored in the My Documents folder. Don't you think it would be nice if we can change the default location of My Documents folder. Yes we can change the default location of "My Documents" from "C" Drive to any other partition of our Hard Disk.

Follow the lines below and your My Documents folder is moved to a different partition of your hard disk along with all your files.

• Right click on My Documents.
• In the context menu go to PROPERTIES and click.
• In the dilogue box click on MOVE and choose the location where you want to keep your files.
• Click OK and you are done.

Now even if you have to format your C drive your files will remain safe at a different location.

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Add Move to & Copy to in the Right Click Context Menu

Open Registry Editor by clicking Start>Run

Then type REGEDIT and click OK

Navigate to the following key

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
• Right click the ContextMenuHandlers key and choose New>Key.
• Name the new key as "Copy To" (do not include the quotes).
• Now select the "Copy To" key and in the right hand pane, double click "Default"
• Enter value data as {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Repeat the above and create another new key named Move To.

• Now select the "Move To" key and in the right hand pane, double click default
• Enter value data as {C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Close the Registry Editor and Restart the PC


You can add the same options to the right click menu of all your folders.

Navigate to the following key
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHan dlers

• Right click ContextMenuHandlers and create a new key named Copy To.
• Now select the "Copy To" key and in the right hand pane, double click "Default"
• Enter value data as {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Right click it again and create another new key named Move To.

• Now click on the right hand pane, add the same default values as you did for Files:
• Now select the "Move To" key and in the right hand pane, double click "Default"
• Enter value data as {C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Close the Registry Editor and restart the PC.

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