King

Aneesh radhakrishnan

To Open Explorer in MyComputer,

when we click on the My Computer icon, we use to get a display of all drives, But to see as a Explorer view ,do the following

1. Open RegEdit

2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\ {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\ Shell

3 . Add a new Key named "Open" if it does not exists by right clicking "Shell" and selecting new.

4. Add a new Key named "Command" by right clicking "Open" and selecting new

5. Set the (Default) value for the Command Key to "Explorer.exe" or "C:\Windows\Explorer.exe"

To Disable Drives in My Computer

To disable the local or networked drives when we click on My Computer:

1.Run-->RegEdit

2.Browse HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer

3.Now add a New DWORD item and name it NoDrives

4.Give it a value of 3FFFFFF

5.Now check My Computer, none of your drives will show.

To Make Browsing more speed.

Make a text file (notepad) and copy the following text,

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters]
"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001
"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180
"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00
"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d
and rename the file as "dnscache.reg" and execute it. It will increase the Dnscache size and let u to browse more speeder.

Restricting guest access

Unauthorised users can access your Win2K PC by specifying Guest in the login window. To disable the Guest account, open Users and Passwords from the Control Panel. Click on the Advanced button twice to display the Local Users and Groups window. In the left pane, double-click on Users. Here, right-click on Guest and choose Properties. Once there, disable all options by clicking in the check box against each.

Monitoring shared folders

If you don't set the right permissions for your shared folders, unwanted users might gain access to them. Unlike in Windows 95 or 98, Windows 2000 allows you to close files that have been opened by unauthorised users-without unsharing the folders that contain them. To do this, right-click on the My Computer icon and choose Manage. In the window that opens, click on Shared Folders and then on Open Files. In the right pane, you can see all the files on your machine that have been opened by various users. Simply right-click on the file that you want to close, and click Close Open File.

Changing name for Multiple files at one shot.

To avoid unrecognizable file names of our photos after downloading from our digital cameras,
We can rename several similar files at once with the following procedure. This will also works for renaming other types of files.
1.Open the My Pictures folder. (Click Start, and then click My Pictures.) Or open another folder containing files that you want to rename.
2.Select the files you want to rename. If the files you want are not adjacent in the file list, press and hold CTRL, and then click each item to select it.
3.On the File menu, click Rename.
4.Type the new name, and then press ENTER.

Disabling startup programs

To disable programs from automatically starting, you will need to do some registry tweaking.

Go to Start > Run and type Regedit; the registry editor will open. Here, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Run. Here, look for the program strings of programs that you don't want to load at start up. Right click on that string and select Delete. The program will not be loaded during the next start up.

Note: before you do anything to the registry, always make a backup, so you can restore it in case something goes wrong.

Free system resources

We know that Windows 2000 is resource-hungry. To free up some memory-usage, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. You will see the list of applications. From this list, look for applications you do not use. Double-click on them, and disable those services from the window that pops up.

Adding sub-menus to the Start menu

In Windows 2000, you can add a sub-menu to the Start menu for a group of users. This means that if you log in as user ABC, you will see a certain sub-menu, while user XYZ will see a completely different one. To enable this feature first log in as an administrator, then right click on the Start menu and click on Open All Users, and an explorer window will open. Click on the program folder, where you would like to add a sub-menu. Then click File > New > Menu. Enter the name of the new sub-menu and click anywhere on the desktop. Now, when users log in, they will see their personalised menus, as specified by you.

Increasing page file size (Virtual Memory)

You can increase the size of your virtual memory to improve performance by using a Page file. A page file is a certain amount of allocated space on the hard disk, that acts as additional memory. To change the amount of disk space allocated to page files, go to Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Options > Change. Now you will see the drives in your computer and the current disk space allocated for page file on each drive. To change the size, select the drive and, in the blank field below, specify the initial and maximum size in MB. Finally click on Set. Click on OK and restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Shortcuts to Task and Device Managers

In order to quickly get to the Windows Task Manager or Device Manager, first create a shortcut, by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting New and then Shortcut.When you are in the Create Shortcut window, type in the following string: %windir%\System32\mmc.exe %systemroot%\system32\devmgmt.msc.

Click Next, and call the shortcut 'Device Manager'. Finally click Finish and the shortcut will be created on your system. The following are default shortcuts:[Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Esc] to access the Task Manager, and [Windows] + [Break] for System Properties.

Unable to uninstall MSN Messenger

To remove MSN Messenger in Windows XP, you have to locate the SYSOC.INF file, located in the \Windows\INF folder-this is a hidden file and folder. Open it in Notepad and locate the line 'msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7'. Remove the word 'hide' from the line and save the file. After making the necessary changes, you'll be able to see MSN Messenger in the Add/Remove Windows components list. You can then remove it for good.

Using OnScreen Keyboard

An onscreen keyboard is in-built in Windows XP. It can be useful if you are using a tablet PC or if your keyboard goes on the blink. To access the keyboard, go to Start > Run, type OK and press [Enter]. The keyboard opens up on your computer screen, featuring three typing modes that you can use to type data:
Clicking mode: you click the on-screen keys.
Scanning mode: you press a hot key, or use a switch-input device, to type highlighted characters.
Hovering mode: you use a mouse or joystick to point to a key, which is then typed.

Speeding up network browsing

A bug in Windows 2000, causes the scheduled tasks folder to be searched, whenever the user browses network drives. While Microsoft has developed a fix for this bug, the fix slows down the browsing of Microsoft networks. In order to fix this problem, go to Start > Run,type in regedit and press [Enter]. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace. Then find a key named {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Right-click on it and delete it. Restart the computer. Now you will be able to browse the network a lot faster.

Switching users

Windows XP allows you to switch users, without actually quitting programs and logging off. To make use of this, go to Start > Log off. You will be greeted with an option of 'switching user' wherein another user can log on without you having to quit your programs.

Speedup the Start menu

The Start menu takes quite a while to display the list of programs installed. In order to get Windows XP to display the list faster, you will have to edit the registry settings. To speed up your Start menu, go to Start > Run and type regedit. This will open the registry window. Then navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Scroll down in the right panel and double-click on 'menushowdelay'. In the Value Data box, change the default value for the menu speed from 400 to a lesser number, such as 1 or even 0. Click OK. You should now find a significant increase in the Start menu speed.Note: Remember to back up your registry before making any changes.

Clearing Document list

The Start menu, in Windows XP, has been completely revamped and made extremely customisable. If you want the Start menu to display only certain applications, right click in an empty section of the Start menu's left column and select Properties > Start menu > Customise. Then, go to the General tab, click on Clear List, and set the counter to zero. Now no one can keep track of the programs or applications you've recently used.

Disabling error reporting

Windows XP, like Windows 2000, provides a report of errors that are generated during a session. In order to disable it, right-click on the My Computer icon, go to Properties, and click on the Advanced tab. At the bottom of this tab, you will find the 'Error reporting' option. Click it and you will get an option to enable or disable it. Click Disable and you are done.

Bridging connections

If you'd like to connect two or more computers via a LAN, then you should utilise the Network Bridge option, provided in Windows XP. There is no configuration required, and you do not need to purchase additional hardware, such as routers or bridges. IP addressing, address allocation, and name resolution, are highly simplified in a single subnet IP network. To use this feature you will have to open Network Connections. Under LAN or High-Speed Internet, select each of the private network connections that you want to be part of the bridge. Right-click one of the highlighted private network connections and click Bridge Connections.