ShowpiZ Press

Many of the system hangs about 2 to 3 minutes while startup process , in that time you can't access or control over the Start button,Taskbar etc.
It may be due to one specific service "Background Intelligent Transfer " running in the background services.

We have to disable it to avoid such things to happen at startup.

Procedure:

* Click on Start/Run, type 'msconfig', then click 'OK'.

* Go to the 'Services' tab, find the 'Background Intelligent Transfer' service.

* Disable it, apply the changes & Reboot.

That's it and enjoy the windows.

Hide the things u like all the stuff good or bad...



step01:

• Create a new folder
• Rename it by holding ALT and typing "0160"
• Once u have done their will be no name for it

• Right click on the folder and go to properties
• Click on customize > change icon to the invisible one and click ok
• Then the folder disappears...

 

Internet has proved to be a good place of investment for many entrepreneurs, young and old. Some of the young entrepreneurs have earned huge success in their projects and have become millionaires at an early age.

This list includes 10 such young entrepreneurs who have become millionaires on the internet.



10) Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith


Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith Tagged Inc. co-founded

Age: 28 years old
Project: Tagged
Wealth: $45 million

Tagged Inc. was co-founded by Harvard graduates and entrepreneurs Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith. Tagged.com was launched in October 2004 by Tagged Inc. and is privately owned.Tagged.com is a social networking site founded in 2004. Tagged is the subject of numerous customer complaints for sending deceptive bulk mail and is regarded as a phishing and spamming site and an "E-mail scam" by consumer anti-fraud advocates. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States





9 Jake Nickell


Threadless Co-founders Jake Nickell

Age: 28 years old
Project: Threadless
Wealth: $50 million

Threadless is a community-centered online apparel store run by skinnyCorp of Chicago, Illinois, since 2000. Co-founders Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart started the company with $1,000 in seed money after entering an Internet t-shirt design contest.

Members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online; the designs are then put to a public vote. A small percentage of submitted designs are selected for printing and sold through an online store. Creators of the winning designs receive a prize of cash and store credit.





8 Alexander Levin

ImageShack Co.founder Alexander Levin

Age: 23 years old
Project: ImageShack
Wealth: $56 million

ImageShack is an image hosting website on the Internet. ImageShack has a subscription service, but the majority of their revenue is produced from advertising related to their free image hosting. The imageshack.us Alexa ranking as of September 25, 2007 is one of the top 40's. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, ImageShack was the fourth fastest growing web brand in July, 2006.





7 John Vechey



PopCap Games Co-founder John Vechey

Age: 28 years old
Project: PopCap Games
Wealth: $60 million

PopCap Games is a leading American casual game developer and publisher, based in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka, and currently employs more than 180 people. Most of Popcap's games can be played free in a limited form, with the full version available for a fee.

PopCap’s flagship title Bejeweled has sold more than 25 million units across all major platforms. PopCap games are available for Web, PC and Mac, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, cell-phones, PDAs, iPod Classic, iPhone/Touch and other mobile devices.





6) Angelo Sotira


DeviantArt Co-founder Angelo Sotira

Age: 26 years old
Project: DeviantART
Wealth: $75 million

DeviantArt (official typeset as deviantART; commonly abbreviated as dA) is an American online community with worldwide appeal showcasing various forms of user-made artwork. It was first launched on August 7, 2000 by Scott Jarkoff, Matthew Stephens, Angelo Sotira and others. DeviantArt, Inc. is headquartered in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States. As of May 2009[update] the site consists of over 10 million members, over 81 million submissions, and receives around 105,000 submissions per day. The domain deviantart.com attracted at least 36 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.

DeviantArt aims to provide a place for any artist to exhibit and discuss works. Works are organized in a comprehensive category structure, including photography, digital art, traditional art, literature, Flash, filmmaking, skins for applications and others, along with extensive downloadable resources such as tutorials and stock photography. "Fella," a small robotic cat character, is the official DeviantArt mascot.





5) Andrew Michael



Fast Hosts founder Andrew Michael

Age: 29 years old
Project: Fast Hosts
Wealth: $110 million





4) Blake Ross and David Hyatt



Mozilla firefox project by Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross.

Age: 22 years old
Project: Mozilla
Wealth: $120 million

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. Firefox has 22.98% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of August 2009[update], making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide after Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which has 66.97%.

To display web pages, Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine, which implements most current web standards in addition to several features which are intended to anticipate likely additions to the standards.

Latest Firefox features include tabbed browsing, spell checking, incremental find, live bookmarking, a download manager, private browsing, location-aware browsing (aka "geolocation") based exclusively on a Google service and an integrated search system that uses Google by default in most localizations. Functions can be added through add-ons, created by third-party developers, of which there is a wide selection, a feature that has attracted many of Firefox's users.

Firefox runs on various versions of Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and many other Unix-like operating systems. Its current stable release is version 3.5.3, released on September 9, 2009[update]. Firefox's source code is free software, released under a tri-license GNU GPL/GNU LGPL/MPL





3) Chad Hurley

Chad Hurley co-founder and Chief Executive Officer youtube

Age: 30 years old
Project: YouTube
Wealth: $300 million

Chad Meredith Hurley (born 1976) is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the popular San Bruno, California-based video sharing website YouTube. In June 2006, he was voted 28th on Business 2.0's "50 People Who Matter Now" list. In October 2006 he sold YouTube for $1.65 billion to Google.

Hurley worked in eBay's PayPal division—one of his tasks involved designing the original PayPal logo before starting YouTube with fellow PayPal colleagues Steve Chen and Jawed Karim.

Hurley is a user interface expert and was primarily responsible for the tagging and video sharing aspects of YouTube





2) Andrew Gower



Andrew Christopher Gower is a British games developer and co-founder of Jagex Ltd

Age: 28 years old
Project: Runescape
Wealth: $650 million

Andrew Christopher Gower (born 2 December 1978) is a British games developer and co-founder of Jagex Ltd, the company he founded with Paul Gower and Constant Tedder. He is noted for writing MMORPG RuneScape, with the assistance of his brother, Paul Gower and also a lead developer.

Jagex Games Studio (or Jagex Ltd./Jagex Software/JAGeX) is a producer of online computer games based in Cambridge, UK. It is best known for the three versions of its RuneScape MMO, as well as for having produced the FunOrb games site and developing the 'to be released' MechScape MMO. Jagex has over 350 employees, with all content development, management, and customer support provided 'in house'.

The company produces games exclusively written using the Java language, its name standing for "JAva Gaming EXperts". It has received a number of awards for its achievements and is one of the highest profile developers in the UK.





1) Mark Zuckerberg


Mark Elliot Zuckerberg Facebook Founder

Age: 23 years old
Project: Facebook
Wealth: $700 million



Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. As a Harvard student, he created the online social website Facebook with fellow computer science major students and his roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Facebook is a social networking site popular worldwide. Zuckerberg serves as Facebook's CEO. He has been the subject of controversy for the origins of his business and his wealth.

Time Magazine added Zuckerberg as one of The World's Most Influential People of 2008. He fell under the Scientists & Thinkers category for his web phenomenon, Facebook, and ranked 52 out of 101 people.

Hello Guys Thout of sharing a new method of downloading Torrent files without any Torrent Client yes u heard it rite .. no torrent client such as U torrent,

Bit Comet , etc is needed.

Its a Web Based Torrent client.. all u need is

1) A Good Web Browser

2) High Speed Internet

3) JAVA runtime Edition (JRE)

Download from

 http://java.com

 http://www.bitlet.org 

STEP 2 :



In the text area copy paste the torrent file 



via firefox right click on da torrent n click on copy link location



and then click DOWNLOAD.



it would look some what like dis !

HOPE U HAVE FUN DOWNLOADING 



 

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Did it ever happened to you?
You download some hefty bootable disk image file, burn it on DVD following all instructions religiously, but... your Mac simply refuse to boot from new DVD?

Here is very simple solution which worked marvels on my MBP:

Do not open disk image file (.dmg for instance) !
If you do so without Locking the file first, you are busted.

• Right click on downloaded disk image file, use "Open with... Disk Utility" tool dialog;
• Disk Utility tool will open up with desired disk image file in the Left Panel;
• Select that Image file from Left Panel and use "Burn" button find in the top menu.
• Stick with Default options when burning your bootable DVD;
• Perhaps it is safer to use low writing speed,especially if DVD media brand is not so good.

All keyboard Shortcuts

1.) Windows Hotkeys

Shift + F10 right-clicks.
Win + L (XP Only): Locks keyboard. Similar to Lock Workstation.
Win + F or F3: Open Find dialog. (All Files) F3 may not work in some applications which use F3 for their own find dialogs.
Win + Control + F: Open Find dialog. (Computers)
Win + U: Open Utility Manager.
Win + F1: Open Windows help.
Win + Pause: Open System Properties dialog.
Win + Tab: Cycle through taskbar buttons. Enter clicks, AppsKey or Shift + F10 right-clicks.
Win + Shift + Tab: Cycle through taskbar buttons in reverse.
Alt + Tab: Display CoolSwitch. More commonly known as the AltTab dialog.
Alt + Shift + Tab: Display CoolSwitch; go in reverse.
Alt + Escape: Send active window to the bottom of the z-order.
Alt + Shift + Escape: Activate the window at the bottom of the z-order.
Alt + F4: Close active window; or, if all windows are closed, open shutdown dialog.
Shift while a CD is loading: Bypass AutoPlay.
Shift while login: Bypass startup folder. Only those applications will be ignored which are in the startup folder, not those started from the registry (Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\)
Ctrl + Alt + Delete or Ctrl + Alt + NumpadDel (Both NumLock states): Invoke the Task Manager or NT Security dialog.
Ctrl + Shift + Escape (2000/XP ) or (Ctrl + Alt + NumpadDot) : Invoke the task manager. On earlier OSes, acts like Ctrl + Escape.
Printscreen: Copy screenshot of current screen to clipboard.
Alt + Printscreen: Copy screenshot of current active window to clipboard.
Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow: Invert screen. Untested on OSes other than XP.
Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow: Undo inversion.
Win + B : Move focus to systray icons.

2.) Generic

Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert: Copy.
Ctrl + X or Shift + Delete: Cut.
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert: Paste/Move.
Ctrl + N: New... File, Tab, Entry, etc.
Ctrl + S: Save.
Ctrl + O: Open...
Ctrl + P: Print.
Ctrl + Z: Undo.
Ctrl + A: Select all.
Ctrl + F: Find...
Ctrl+W : to close the current window
Ctrl + F4: Close tab or child window.
F1: Open help.
F11: Toggle full screen mode.
Alt or F10: Activate menu bar.
Alt + Space: Display system menu. Same as clicking the icon on the titlebar.
Escape: Remove focus from current control/menu, or close dialog box.

3.) Generic Navigation

Tab: Forward one item.
Shift + Tab: Backward one item.
Ctrl + Tab: Cycle through tabs/child windows.
Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Cycle backwards through tabs/child windows.
Enter: If a button's selected, click it, otherwise, click default button.
Space: Toggle items such as radio buttons or checkboxes.
Alt + (Letter): Activate item corresponding to (Letter). (Letter) is the underlined letter on the item's name.
Ctrl + Left: Move cursor to the beginning of previous word.
Ctrl + Right: Move cursor to the beginning of next word.
Ctrl + Up: Move cursor to beginning of previous paragraph. This and all subsequent Up/Down hotkeys in this section have only been known to work in RichEdit controls.
Ctrl + Down: Move cursor to beginning of next paragraph.
Shift + Left: Highlight one character to the left.
Shift + Right: Highlight one character to the right.
Shift + Up: Highlight from current cursor position, to one line up.
Shift + Down: Highlight from current cursor position, to one line down.
Ctrl + Shift + Left: Highlight to beginning of previous word.
Ctrl + Shift + Right: Highlight to beginning of next word.
Ctrl + Shift + Up: Highlight to beginning of previous paragraph.
Ctrl + Shift + Down: Highlight to beginning of next paragraph.
Home: Move cursor to top of a scrollable control.
End: Move cursor to bottom of a scrollable control.

4.) Generic File Browser

Arrow Keys: Navigate.
Shift + Arrow Keys: Select multiple items.
Ctrl + Arrow Keys: Change focus without changing selection. "Focus" is the object that will run on Enter. Space toggles selection of the focused item.
(Letter): Select first found item that begins with (Letter).
BackSpace: Go up one level to the parent directory.
Alt + Left: Go back one folder.
Alt + Right: Go forward one folder.
Enter: Activate (Double-click) selected item(s).
Alt + Enter: View properties for selected item.
F2: Rename selected item(s).
Ctrl + NumpadPlus: In a Details view, resizes all columns to fit the longest item in each one.
Delete: Delete selected item(s).
Shift + Delete: Delete selected item(s); bypass Recycle Bin.
Ctrl while dragging item(s): Copy.
Ctrl + Shift while dragging item(s): Create shortcut(s).
In tree pane, if any:
Left: Collapse the current selection if expanded, or select the parent folder.
Right: Expand the current selection if collapsed, or select the first subfolder.
NumpadAsterisk: Expand currently selected directory and all subdirectories. No undo.
NumpadPlus: Expand currently selected directory.
NumpadMinus: Collapse currently selected directory.

5.) Accessibility


Right Shift for eight seconds: Toggle FilterKeys on and off. FilterKeys must be enabled.
Left Alt + Left Shift + PrintScreen: Toggle High Contrast on and off. High Contrast must be enabled.
Left Alt + Left Shift + NumLock: Toggle MouseKeys on and off. MouseKeys must be enabled.
NumLock for five seconds: Toggle ToggleKeys on and off. ToggleKeys must be enabled.
Shift five times: Toggle StickyKeys on and off. StickyKeys must be enabled.
6.) Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType Software Installed
Win + L: Log off Windows.
Win + P: Open Print Manager.
Win + C: Open control panel.
Win + V: Open clipboard.
Win + K: Open keyboard properties.
Win + I: Open mouse properties.
Win + A: Open Accessibility properties.
Win + Space: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys.
Win + S: Toggle CapsLock on and off.

7.) Remote Desktop Connection Navigation


Ctrl + Alt + End: Open the NT Security dialog.
Alt + PageUp: Switch between programs.
Alt + PageDown: Switch between programs in reverse.
Alt + Insert: Cycle through the programs in most recently used order.
Alt + Home: Display start menu.
Ctrl + Alt + Break: Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen.
Alt + Delete: Display the Windows menu.
Ctrl + Alt + NumpadMinus: Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing Alt + PrintScreen on a local computer.
Ctrl + Alt + NumpadPlus: Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PrintScreen on a local computer.

8.) Mozilla Firefox Shortcuts


Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + PageDown: Cycle through tabs.
Ctrl + Shift + Tab or Ctrl + PageUp: Cycle through tabs in reverse.
Ctrl + (1-9): Switch to tab corresponding to number.
Ctrl + N: New window.
Ctrl + T: New tab.
Ctrl + L or Alt + D or F6: Switch focus to location bar.
Ctrl + Enter: Open location in new tab.
Shift + Enter: Open location in new window.
Ctrl + K or Ctrl + E: Switch focus to search bar.
Ctrl + O: Open a local file.
Ctrl + W: Close tab, or window if there's only one tab open.
Ctrl + Shift + W: Close window.
Ctrl + S: Save page as a local file.
Ctrl + P: Print page.
Ctrl + F or F3: Open find toolbar.
Ctrl + G or F3: Find next...
Ctrl + Shift + G or Shift + F3: Find previous...
Ctrl + B or Ctrl + I: Open Bookmarks sidebar.
Ctrl + H: Open History sidebar.
Escape: Stop loading page.
Ctrl + R or F5: Reload current page.
Ctrl + Shift + R or Ctrl + F5: Reload current page; bypass cache.
Ctrl + U: View page source.
Ctrl + D: Bookmark current page.
Ctrl + NumpadPlus or Ctrl + Equals (+/=): Increase text size.
Ctrl + NumpadMinus or Ctrl + Minus: Decrease text size.
Ctrl + Numpad0 or Ctrl + 0: Set text size to default.
Alt + Left or Backspace: Back.
Alt + Right or Shift + Backspace: Forward.
Alt + Home: Open home page.
Ctrl + M: Open new message in integrated mail client.
Ctrl + J: Open Downloads dialog.
F6: Switch to next frame. You must have selected something on the page already, e.g. by use of Tab.
Shift + F6: Switch to previous frame.
Apostrophe ('): Find link as you type.
Slash (/): Find text as you type.

9.) GMail

Note: Must have "keyboard shortcuts" on in settings.
C: Compose new message.
Shift + C: Open new window to compose new message.
Slash (/): Switch focus to search box.
K: Switch focus to the next most recent email. Enter or "O" opens focused email.
J: Switch focus to the next oldest email.
N: Switch focus to the next message in the "conversation." Enter or "O" expands/collapses messages.
P: Switch focus to the previous message.
U: Takes you back to the inbox and checks for new mail.
Y: Various actions depending on current view:
Has no effect in "Sent" and "All Mail" views.
Inbox: Archive email or message.
Starred: Unstar email or message.
Spam: Unmark as spam and move back to "Inbox."
Trash: Move back to "Inbox."
Any label: Remove the label.
X: "Check" an email. Various actions can be performed against all checked emails.
S: "Star" an email. Identical to the more familiar term, "flagging."
R: Reply to the email.
A: Reply to all recipients of the email.
F: Forward an email.
Shift + R: Reply to the email in a new window.
Shift + A: Reply to all recipients of the email in a new window.
Shift + F: Forward an email in a new window.
Shift + 1 (!): Mark an email as spam and remove it from the inbox.
G then I: Switch to "Inbox" view.
G then S: Switch to "Starred" view.
G then A: Switch to "All Mail" view.
G then C: Switch to "Contacts" view.
G then S: Switch to "Drafts" view.

10.) List of F1-F9 Key Commands for the Command Prompt

F1 / right arrow: Repeats the letters of the last command line, one by one.
F2: Displays a dialog asking user to "enter the char to copy up to" of the last command line
F3: Repeats the last command line
F4: Displays a dialog asking user to "enter the char to delete up to" of the last command line
F5: Goes back one command line
F6: Enters the traditional CTRL+Z (^z)
F7: Displays a menu with the command line history
F8: Cycles back through previous command lines (beginning with most recent)
F9: Displays a dialog asking user to enter a command number, where 0 is for first command line entered.
Alt+Enter: toggle fullScreen mode.
up/down: scroll thru/repeat previous entries
Esc: delete line
Note: The buffer allows a maximum of 50 command lines. After this number is reached, the first line will be replaced in sequence.

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type ' gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.

6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to

Code:
www.whatismyip.com-- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.
11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

This one will create a way to hacking too, if he do mischief

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

1. Useful key shortcuts available:

- Windows key + D - shows the desktop
- Windows key + M - minimizes all open windows
- Windows key + Shift + M - maximizes all open windows
- Windows key + E - Runs Windows Explorer
- Windows key + R - shows the RUN dialog
- Windows key + F - shows Search window
- Windows key + Break - shows System Properties box
- Windows key + TAB - Go through taskbar applications
- Windows key + PAUSE Display the System Properties dialog box
- Windows key + U Open Utility Manager
- ALT + TAB - Cycle through opened applications
- Hold down CTRL while dragging an item to Copy it
- CTRL + ESC Display the Start menu
- ALT + ENTER View the properties for the selected item
- F4 key Display the Address bar list in My Computer or
- NUM LOCK + Asterisk (*) Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder

2. Lock Windows to protect computer
You can lock Windows to protect the computer when leaving the station easily by creating a shortcut with the path rundll32.exeuser32.dll, LockWorkStation. The Windows key + L is also a shortcut to this feature.

3. Edit sysoc.inf to list all software
To show all software that can be removed from your computer (including protected Windows services), you can manually edit (using notepad for example) the sysoc.inf file located in Windows\inf\. Just remove the word hide next to the software pack.
*Note* - use this at your own risk. Removing critical components of the system will make Windows instable.

4. Windows XP comes with IPv4 and IPv6
Windows XP comes both IPv4 and IPv6 support. To enable IPv6, you can install the protocols needed with the command "ipv6 install" in the command-prompt. Then type ipv6 /? to see the options. The installation will not remove the IPv4 protocols so your current configuration will still work.

5. Access Task Manager with shortcut
To access the Task Manager easier, you can make a shortcut that points to %windir%\system32\taskmgr.exe.

6. Stop treating ZIP files like Folders
If you don't want your Windows XP to treat ZIP files like folders, you can disable this component by running regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll at the command prompt or Run dialog. If you start missing it, you can enable it by typing regsvr32 zipfldr.dll.

7. Run program as diffrent user
You can run a program as a different user. Right click an application and select Run As command.

8. Switch users leaving applications opened
You can switch users leaving the applications opened too (*NOTE* use this only when needed since it could lead to system instability).
Go to Task Manager - processes and end the process explorer.exe. This will end only your session and not all applications. Then go to Applications tab, click New task and type runas /user:domainname\username explorer.exe. A password prompt will appear to login to the desired username. The user's session will start, with all your previously applications running.
I recommend to open first a command-line prompt and type runas /? to see all the options available.

9. Rename multiple files in Windows at once
Rename multiple files in Windows at once. Select them all, right click and select Rename. Enter the desired name. They will be renamed using what you specified, with a number in brackets to distinguish them.

10. Task kill feature in Windows
Windows has a task kill feature similar to Linux. Go to a command prompt and run the command tasklist to see running processes with PID numbers. Then type tskill to end the specific task. This forces an instant closing of the task.

11. Edit features with GPEDIT.MSC
You can edit many features by running gpedit.msc. You can add log on/log off scripts here and many features.

12. Edit accounts in the command prompt
You can edit accounts by running "control userpasswords2" at the command prompt.

13. Use systeminfo.exe to see System Information
You can use the systeminfo.exe command in the command prompt to see System Information, including all Windows updates and hotfixes.

14. Disable system services for maximum performance
There are system services that you can disable to free up the system's load. To access the interface that permits you to make changes to system's services, type services.msc and the command prompt.
This is a list of services that are *usually* useless and can be safely disabled.

alerter
Application Layer Gateway Service,
Application Management
Automatic Updates
Background Intelligent Transfer
Clipbook
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinater
Error Reporting Service
Fast User Switching Compatibility
IMAPI CD-Burning
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
Messenger
Net Logon
Net Meeting
Remote Desktop Sharing
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Secondary Logon
Smartcard
SSDP Discovery Service
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Webclient
Wireless Zero Configuration
WMI Performance Adaptor

*NOTE*: Make sure you don't need them since some applications you're using could depend on them. If you make any application to fail by disabling any of the services, go back and enable it again.

15. Repair Windows XP by using the XP installation CD
If your system failes to start due to an error related to missing HAL.DLL, invalid Boot.ini or any other critical system boot files you can repair this by using the XP installation CD. Simply boot from your XP Setup CD and enter the Recovery Console. Then run "attrib -H -R -S" on the C:\Boot.ini file and delete it. Run "Bootcfg /Rebuild" and then Fixboot.

One keyboard shortcut we suppose to use almost daily for deleting items without having to go and empty the recycling bin is to highlight the item (single left click or hover depending weather your system is set to single or double click) & then hold shift and then hit delete and then enter to confirm the delete.

Having to go and empty a recycling bin sometimes is a useless waste of time (double work) and also hard drive space.

Also turning off the remote registry service and remote assistance, & remote desktop services is paramount for me. Hijacking malwares are based on these services being turned ON !!!

For a truly XP Secret try this... when installing XP, keep hammering the F5 key during the initial stages (where it say "Press F2 for ASR; Press F6 for using a driver disc", etc. You can change which HAL is used for the installation. Only thing I've found this useful for is a for getting around a bug that corrupts the screen when running the installer on a machine with one of a small sub-set of nVidia GeForce 2 cards (like one of my old ones).

Another useful tool... sysprep! If your machine is getting bogged down with old drivers, etc, try the following:

+ Run Sysprep to remove the current association of drivers (there are lots of options, though, so chose wisely).
+ Reboot the machine.
+ Let Windows find all the hardware again and make sure you have the latest drivers that you want on a CD or in a known folder on your machine.
+ When it finishes re-installing all the drivers, make sure you've done a thorough defrag.

Your computer should be running nice and smoothly again, almost like a fresh install... but without the need to re-install all your 1001 applications.

Secret - Hidden Command Line Switch
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Run" and Type defrag c: -b to defragment the Boot and Application Prefetch information.

Secret - Hidden Install Creator
Instructions - Go to Start, Run, type iexpress
Secret - Hidden Internet Conference Application
Instructions - Go to Start, Run, type conf

Secret - Create a Log File
Instructions - Launch Notepad, Type .LOG on the first line, and then press Enter to move to the next line. On the File menu, click Save As, type a descriptive name for your file in the File name box, and then click OK. When you next open the file, note that the date and time have been appended to the end of the log, immediately preceding the place where new text can be added. You can use this functionality to automatically add the current date and time to each log entry.
Secret - Image Trails
Instructions - Open an image and hold down Shift then drag the image around to create an image trail.

Secret - 10x Zoom
Instructions - Open an image and select the magnifying glass icon. Left-Click exactly on the line below the 8x.

Secret - Hidden Font Editor
Instructions - Go to Start, Run, type eudcedit
Secret - Hidden Windows Media Player
Instructions - Go to Start, Run, type mplayer2

Add/Remove

Secret - Hidden Uninstall Options
Instructions - Warning: Proceed at your own risk! Browse to C:\Windows\inf\ and make a backup copy of sysoc.inf. Then open the original file C:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf in notepad. Go to "Edit" and select "Replace". In "Find what:" type ,hide and in "Replace with:" type , then select "Replace All", save and close the file. Go to the "Control Panel", "Add/Remove", select "Add/Remove Windows Components". You will now see many more Windows components to uninstall. Do not remove anything with no label or that you do not recognize or fully understand what it does. Doing so can break certain functionality in Windows.
Control Panel

Secret - Hidden Control Panel Extensions
Instructions - Download and install TweakUI, launch, go to "Control Panel" and check any item not selected, then "Apply" and "OK". You will now see the hidden control panel extensions.
Device Manager

Secret - Hidden Devices
Instructions - Go to the "Control Panel", "System" icon, "Hardware" tab and select "Device Manager". Select "View" and Show hidden devices.

Secret - Phantom Devices
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Programs", "Accessories" and select "Command Prompt". At the command prompt, type "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" and press Enter. At the command prompt, type "start devmgmt.msc" and press Enter. Select "View" and Show hidden devices. You can see devices that are not connected to the computer.

When you close the command prompt window, Windows clears the "devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" variable that you set and prevents phantom devices from being displayed when you select "Show hidden devices".
Music

Secret - Music from the Installer
Instructions - Browse to C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma and play.
Shutdown

Secret - Display Hibernate Option on the Shut Down dialog
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Turn Off Computer..." and press either Shift key to change the "Stand By" button to "Hibernate".
Support Tools

Secret - Over 100 Windows XP Support Utilities are on the install CD
Instruction - Run the D:\Support\Tools\setup.exe file.

FreeCell

Secret - Instant WinInstructions - Hold down Ctrl + Shift + F10 during game play. Then you will be asked if you want to Abort, Retry or Ignore. Choose Abort, then move any card to instantly win.

Secret - Hidden Game ModesInstructions - In the "Game" menu choose "Select Game". Enter -1 or -2 to activate the hidden game modes.
Hearts

Secret - Show All Cards
Instructions - Edit this registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Applets\Hearts and create a new String value named ZB with a Data value of 42. Start Hearts and Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + F12 to show all the cards.
Minesweeper

Secret - Reveal Mines
Instructions - Minimize or close all running applications. Launch Minesweeper, then type xyzzy. Next hold down either shift key for one second. Now when you move the mouse cursor over a Minesweeper square you will see a tiny white pixel in the top left corner of your desktop screen. This pixel will change to black when your mouse moves over a mine. You may need to change you desktop background to a solid color other then white or black to see the pixel.

Secret - Stop Timer
Instructions - Launch Minesweeper and start a game so the timer starts counting, then press the Windows Key + D to show the desktop. Now when you select minesweeper from the taskbar you can continue playing with the timer stopped.
Pinball

Secret - Extra Balls
Instructions - Type 1max at the start of a new ball to get extra balls.

Secret - Gravity Well
Instructions - Type gmax at the start of a new game to activate the Gravity Well.

Secret - Instant Promotion
Instructions - Type rmax at the start of a new game to go up in ranks.

Secret - Skill Shot
Instructions - Launch the ball partially up the chute past the third yellow light bar so it falls back down to get 75,000 points. There are six yellow light bars that are worth a varying amount of points:

First: 15,000 points
Second: 30,000 points
Third: 75,000 points
Fourth: 30,000 points
Fifth: 15,000 points
Sixth: 7,500 points

Secret - Test Mode
Instructions - Type hidden test at the start of a new ball to activate Test Mode. No notification will be given that this is activated but you can now left-click the mouse button and drag the ball around. While in test mode press the following keys for more secrets:

H - Get a 1,000,000,000 High Score
M - Shows the amount of system memory
R - Increases your rank in game
Y - Shows the Frames/sec rate

Secret - Unlimited Balls
Instructions - Type bmax at the start of a new ball. No notification will be given that this is activated but when a ball is lost a new ball will appear from the yellow wormhole indefinitely. Once this is activated you will be unable to activate other secrets without restarting the game.
Solitaire

Secret - Instant Win
Instructions - Press Alt + Shift + 2 during game play to instantly win.

Secret - Draw single cards in a Draw Three game
Instructions - Hold down CTRL + ALT + SHIFT while drawing a new card. Instead of drawing three cards you will only draw one.