XP Home advanced file permissions

This is actually an addition to an earlier post entitled "Howto get XP Pro file security with XP Home". In the aforementioned post we have outlined how to access *Advance file Permissions* on NTFS file systems for XP Home simply by booting into *Safe Mode*, rt-clicking any file or folder, and navigating to the *Security tab*. This gives the user the ability to allow or deny read, write, execute, read & write, display contents, full-control, iheritance, and take ownership permissions, with many more options available to apply to different users and groups stored on the computer.

Well, you don't have to do this in *Safe Mode* (XP Home). Although it is a little less intuitive, you can simply go to your command prompt - Start>All Programs>Accessories>Command Prompt. Now type "cacls" in the window (without the quotes). This gives you the ability to add, remove or modify file permissions on files and folders through the command prompt. Type "cacls /?" for help on different options and variables. You do not need to be in safe mode to use this so it makes it a little quicker than using the safe mode security tab GUI.

Remember - this only applies to NTFS.

Here also is a very useful link to find a lot of extras and tweaks straight from the horse's mouth - the Microsoft Resource Center. You will find a lot of very useful web-based extra's here, most of them left unknowing to the general public - such as, "Online Crash Analysis" - a site that looks like Windows Update but you can upload your crash "dump logs" (when you get those system or application crash error reports). Microsoft will then analyze the log file and tell you some more info about WHY the system crashed (ie. faulty hardware/software/conflicts, etc).
To visit the microsoft article on the topic click here.

Howto place Windows 2000 CTRL+ALT+DEL Style in XP

If you want the Windows 2000 CTRL+ALT+DEL screen to appear in XP instead of immediatly jumping to the task manager simply deactivate the welcome screen:
start > settings > control panel > change the way users log on and log off > uncheck "Use the welcome screen"
now reboot your machine (it didnt work on my machine until I rebooted). now when you use CTRL+ALT+DEL you can do all the same things you could with 2000 (eg. Lock The Computer or force a shutdown)

Howto save memory used by wallpapers

When you choose a wallpaper using the standard method (selecting a background on the desktop tab, in the properties window), Windows converts this image to a huge .bmp file (even if you selected a .jpg). Then instead of having a nice 220K wallpaper, you get a 3,15MB wallpaper. To get rid of this, try using active desktop's web capabilities, like this:

1. Right click on your desktop and select "properties", then select the "desktop" tab.
2. Click on "Customize Desktop".
3. Select the "Web" tab and click on "New..."
4. Browse for your favorite image and click OK when you are done.
5. Make sure "Lock desktop items" is uncheck.
6. Click OK, and OK again.
7. Now your image is like another window. Drag it to where you want and then right clik over it.
8. Select "arrange icons by" and the check "Lock Web Items on Desktop".
9. That's it. Now you have a "low memory usage wallpaper".

With this you can make interesting things, like using various small wallpapers, or even animated ones!! (you can select an animated .gif too!!). Simply select various images, and when you click OK, drag all them to its right location, and lock the content again.
 

If you want to check the huge wallpaper windows makes, select a wallpaper the standard way, then browse to "C:\Documents and Settings\USER PROFILE\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft" (where USER PROFILE, is the profile you're using, i.e. Administrator). There should be a file called Wallpaper.bmp, open it and you'll see your cureent wallpaper.

Howto Turn off Thumbs.db

Thumbs.db (db stands for database) is a file which is created in a folder with Movies or Pictures so that you can view a piece of their content without actualy opening them (you can't see thumbnails unless you have the option to view system files turned on). Thumbs.db is there so that you don't need to reload a thumbnail everytime you browse that folder. Sad fact is, is Thumbs.db takes up about 2kb per file and if you edit a lot of stuff its annoying to keep seeing them popping up all over your computer. You can remove thumbs.db quite easily by following these steps:

1. Go to Run in the startmenu
2. Type gpedit.msc
3. Click OK and the Group Policy will open
4. Go to User Configuration/Administrative Template/Windows Components/Windows Explorer
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the long list of stuff that now shows up in the menu on the right. Double-Click on Turn off caching of thumbnail pictures.
6. Click on Enable then Apply, Ok. And now you no longer have this annoying problem.


Alternatively or if you use XP Home you can make this change in Control Panel > Folder Options > View > "Do not cache thumbnails"
Disabling thumbnail caching will considerably slow down opening folders in thumbnail view. So if you use thumbnail view a lot, think about it.

Howto Turn off autoplay for CDs

its very easy...for this u have to proceed as follows :
1. Go to Start->Run->gpedit.msc
2. Computer Config -> Administrative Template -> System
3. Select Drive(s)
3. Double clik Turn off Autoplay
4. Enable it.

NOTE : with gpedit.msc , you can do a number of tweaks n tricks so keep exploring it & plz tell me as well if u found something new :)

Tray Icons Be Gone

Do you need to hide a program running in the background that shows in your System Tray? Try this reg trick to hide all tray icons. It’s not anything like the Windows XP tray icon hider, this one shows no trace of any icons. It would look like someone closed all background programs.


1) Click on START>RUN and type "regedit" (without the quotes).
Navigate to the following key;

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer

2) Add a "REG_DWORD" entry entitled "NoTrayItemsDisplay". Open it up and assign the Hex value of 1 to hide the Icons. The value of 0 is normal (default), showing the icons.

3) Close "regedit" and reboot computer and the icons should not be there anymore. Control Alt and Delete will bring up Windows Task Manager and items can be displayed and closed (if need be) from in there instead.


I found this trick to be very useful when using telephone recording software. Now if ur friend is engaged in his/her game of  his choice on PC while talking on the phone and being recorded and he/she has no idea. lol

Enjoy :)

Howto do super fast user switching

Super fast user switching is a powertoy which makes it easy to switch the active user. But you must be a member of the administrator group to see other users! Quite useless for normal users, but this is done on purpose. The solution opens a hole, but makes super fast user switching usable. THIS IS ONLY FOR EXPERIENCED USERS!

1. remove task.exe from the local_machine ~ windows ~ run registry entry (you can use start --> run --> msconfig for that)
2. create a fast.cmd file wich contains the line below:
runas /noprofile /env /savecred /user:YOURMACHINE\Administrator "c:\windows\system32\fast.exe"
replace YOURMACHINE by your machine name
3. copy fast.cmd to your windows directory
4. make a shortcut to c:\windows\fast.cmd, let the shortcut run minimized
5. copy the shortcut to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

You have to run fast.cmd manually one time for each user to supply the administrator password. This has to be done only once.

This solution won't work for XP home edition because that edition won't store the security credentials.

For your information: the user process fast.exe will communicate with the service task.exe to perform it's task. Meddling with the fast -service properties won't work (I tried...).

Don't do this on production systems, it's meant for home use where security is less important.
(EXPERIENCED USERS ONLY)

Happy user switching!