XP Tricks that Would Rock Your World

Posted by Shashank Krishna Friday, February 29, 2008


sharethis: Here are some more XP tricks that you could use…

Lost Admin Password
It seems as though formatting is the only solution for fixing the lost password issue but thanks to this website, you can just download their boot disk and follow the instructions to reset your password.

The only downside is that someone who has access to a computer and who knows the username can get into a computer using this bootdisk.

Backup Registry
Next few tips will be altering registry and I will recommend backing up the registry. Hence this tip.

Click start -> run -> regedit -> OK

Click File -> Export

Provide a name and a destination. Hit OK.

This should back up your registry.

Disable Balloon Tips
Does anybody get annoyed by the balloon that pops up every now and then like an angel instructing me or giving me a friendly reminder about some of my programs or the updates. I find it very annoying and found a way to disable them.

I strongly suggest that you backup your registry before attempting this.

Click start -> run -> regedit -> OK

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\

Create a DWORD value of EnableBalloonTips

Let the DWORD value be 0

Thats it. This should do the trick. If anything goes bad, restore your backed up registry.

Get Rid of Unread Mails
On your logon screen, you may see how many unread mails you have and blah blah blah. You can actually get rid of this if you find it annoying. This could be achieved by fixing the registry. I once again strongly suggest that you back up your registry before attempting this hack.

Click start -> run -> regedit -> OK

For a particular user: Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail

For all users: Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail

Create a DWORD key called MessageExpiryDays

Give it a value of 0

Customize Folder Background
This isn’t really a native Windows XP Trick but this one uses an external file to do the trick. Ever wondered if you could change the background of your folder in your C drive. There is a solution for this. Download this file and place it in the same folder that you want to customize. Run this program and follow the instructions. This should do the trick.

Duplicate User Profile
There could be many reasons why you would want to duplicate a user profile. Here is an easy way of doing so.

Create new user account

Log onto the new user account

Log off the account

Log on as the main admin

Control Panel -> User Profiles -> Settings

Click on a profile and hit copy to and select the destination profile

System Statistics
Ever wondered if your computer had statistics just like a website. It does and it gives you accurate information. It provides you information like how long your computer has been running, when your OS was installed and other stuff… This is how you obtain the statistics :

Click Start -> Run -> cmd -> OK

type “systeminfo” and hit “Enter”

This should give you all the wonderful info…

Lock Desktop
Contrary to Windows 2000 or Windows server 2003, there isn’t an option on XP to lock the desktop. But, there is a keyboard shortcut that does the trick.

Winkey + L is all it takes…

Remove Windows Messenger
Wanna get rid of the annoying windows messenger in your taskbar? Just follow these instructions

Click Start -> Run and type “RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\inf\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove” and hit OK

Prank
I had read this long time back on codemasters and it took me some time to find it again. This is from codemasters.

For any of you at work who want to play a practical joke on one of your colleagues I have the answer. When he/she is away from their desk hold down the alt key, then the ctrl key and press the down cursor key. The screen will temporarily switch off, when it comes back on the screen will be upside down!

I think this will only work on XP.

To get the screen back just repeat the process with the up cursor.

To make it even funnier tell the person in question that this is a keyboard fault, hold the relevant keys in to switch the screen back and bang the keyboard on the desk, the screen will switch back. When your work colleague moves from his/her desk again switch it back, sit back and p*ss yourself stupid as they bang the keyboard on the desk!!

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Shashank Krishna
Bangalore, up, India
nothin much to say.........doin B.tech in IIIT allahabad loves bloggingn hacking.... :) and loooves blogging
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