How do I capture an image from a movie in Microsoft Windows

Often a user may attempt to capture an image from a video in Microsoft Windows Media Player using the print screen button. Unfortunately when pasting the image into an image editor the capture will be a blank or black image.

Answer:
There are several different answers that can apply to this question. Depending on the type of movie that is being played and what codec it is using may change what will work and what will not work. We suggest going through each of the below recommendations, if a solution does not work continue down the list.

First Option:


While in Microsoft Windows Media Player press "CTRL + I", if the video you are watching is using a Microsoft supported movie file you should receive a "Save Captured Image" window, allowing you to save the image as "capture" or any other name.

Although this solution is a quick and easy solution, you may not get the results you want as the image will often be smaller and lesser quality then what you see when you press the keys. If you wish to capture better images at any size, even full screen try the second solution.

Second Option:
This solution should only be used to capture images from any video, once done it should be changed back as it may cause other issues. However, this should work with all types of video files.

1. Open Microsoft Windows Media Player.
2. Click Tools and then Options.
3. Within the Options window click the Performance tab.
4. Within Performance click the Advanced button.
5. In Video Acceleration Settings uncheck "Use Overlays"
6. Click Ok.
7. Finally, click Apply and then Ok in the Options window.

Final Option:
Use a third-party capturing program..

http://www.fox-magic.com/mc_gb/capture_media_player_screen.html
http://www.atlantsoft.com/utils/ssm.htm
http://www.screen-capture.net/
http://www.screenshot-utility.com/
http://www.techsmith.com/products/snagit/default.asp
http://www.howiesfunware.com/ScreenCp.exe

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Hiding user account on XP

Hopefully someone will find this useful. Ive done this on my machine as well.

To a hide an account to display on the welcome screen of xp here is a nifty way:
1. Open regedit
2. Browse to
Hkey_local_machine> software>microsoft>windows nt>winlogon>special Accounts>Userlist

Here you will see a list of all accounts on XP which are hidden and dont display on welcome screen. Yes XP does create useless accounts as you see there.
3. Go on the right pane, right click, create a new dword value with its name as the exact username you want to hide and its value as "0" without the quotes.
Now if you have only one account on XP and you want to hide it, DO NOT DO THE ABOVE! READ BELOW AND FOLLOW A NEW PROCEDURE

If you do this accidently, it will make an infinite restart loop in your computer. If you accidently do it, then just login in safe mode and remove the value you just set in the regedit.
If you only have one account and want to do this, you will have to disable welcome screen & fast user switching in USERS in control panel.

What I did was: create a dummy limited account for people who want to access my machine sometimes. And I hided my own account using the proceedure mentioned.

To access this hidden account from the welcome screen press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice and you can enter your username and password.


ps: Might I add a disclaimer that I take no responsibility if someone manages to mess up their computer using the procedure above. Backup your registry thats all I want to suggest.

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Yes u can change a static IP

To start off, you need a direct connection to your modem and computer. If you have a router, disconnect it and directly hook up your modem to your computer.

1. Open up the command prompt by pressing Start->Run and typing in cmd

2. In the command prompt, type “Ipconfig/all”. This will tell you your current IP Address. After, type “ipconfig/release”. Keep the command prompt open for easy access.

3. Go to “Network Connections” (accessible through the control panel). Right click “Local Area Connection” and click “Properties”

4. With “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) selected, click the “Properties” button.

5. A new window will open. Under the “General” tab, select “Use the Following IP address”. Under “Ip Address”, put “10.0.0.1″. Press the “Tab” key on your keyboard.

6. Press Ok on both open windows.

7. Repeat steps 3-4. Under the “General” tab, press the radio button “Automatically Assign Me an Ip Address”. Press ok on both windows.

8. Go back to the command prompt and type in “Ipconfig/all”. You’ll now notice you have a new IP address.

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8 People Can Use The Same Msn Dial Up Account

its easy really. want to have an entire family on dial-up with just one bill?

step one. purchase 20 dollar a month subscription to MSN unlimited access dial up. This will include an MSN 9 cd which you will need. With the software installed, fill up your secondary account slots with new users. Make sure you pick @msn if it gives you the choice, hotmail email addresses will not work..

say the secondary account is johnsmith@msn.com type in the Dial up connection

USER : MSN/johnsmith
PASS: ******* (whatever)

connect to your local msn phone number and the other people you gave secondary accounts to will be able to do the same, while you are connected. Its a sweet deal considering everyone is paying about 2 bucks a month for internet access, especially if you cannot get broadband. if you wanted to sell off the access to people you could actually make money doing this.. but i do not suggest it.

I used to be an msn tech and this was a little known secret even to most of the employees.

After you do this you do not need the software any more. I would suggest keeping it on to micromanage everyone else's accounts. and for the simple fact that if they don't pitch in, cut them off HEHEHE

i'm on broadband now so i dont care if i tell you my little secret. anyone else knew of this?

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Tweaking Windows XP for Gaming

This is a nice tutorial on tweaking XP.
Table of Contents

* Disabling useless processers & Windows features.
* Optimising your Windows Page file.
* Cleaning up your system.
* Configuring your systems BIOS for maximum gaming power.
* Updating your system drivers.
* Tweaking your nVIDIA card.
* Tips.
* Conclusion.



1. Disabling useless processers & Windows features.
*******************************************
Windows XP has came with quite a few new but extremly useless and memory hogging features that constantly run in the background and slow your system down.

Some of the features that should be disabled are automatic updates, system restore and remote assistance.

To disable these 3 fairly useless services...

1. Hit Start
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select Performance and Maintenance
4. Select System
5. Select System Restore Tab
6. Check "Turn off System Restore"
7. Select Automatic Updates tab
8. Select "Turn off autoamtic updates"
9. Hit the Remote tab
10. Uncheck "Remote Assistance" & "Remote Desktop"

Now that the three main WIndows features that severly hog your PC's power are disabled, its time to move onto the numerous other Windows processers that further drag down your system.

1. Hit start
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select Adminastrative Tools
4. Select Services

Now there should be a large list of services and alot of them are running on your system right now.

Alot are vital for running Windows and alot are completely useless.

The average PC user will have about 27 of these processers running all the time, more than half of them she/he does not need.

Now for a standard PC with maybe a printer & a broadband connection and no fancey networking, routing or any advanced pheriples and wireless devices, the following services should be set as disabled.

To disable a service, double-click it and set the Startup Type drop-down menue as "Disabled" then click "apply" and "ok" and move onto the next.

Automatic Updates
ClipBook
COM+ Event System
Creative Service for CDROM Access (If you have a Creative soundcard)
Cryptographic Services
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
DNS Client (Do NOT disable if your on a Dial-up internet connection)
Error Reporting Service
HID Input Service
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
Messenger
MS Software Shadow Copy Provider
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
NVIDIA Display Driver Service (For nVIDIA card users)
Performance Logs and Alerts
Portable Media Serial Number
Print Spooler (Only if you dont have a printer)
QoS RSVP
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access
Security Accounts Manager
Server
Shell Hardware Detection
Smart Card
Smart Card Helper
System Event Notification
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet
Terminal Services
Themes (If you are not bothered about fancey looks for your desktop)
Upload Manager
WebClient
Wireless Zero Configuration
WMDM PMSP Service
WMI Performance Adapter
Workstation

Note that everyones system is differant so dont be wondering why some services in the list above are not on your list.

Now that you have disabled those Windows services, its time to clean up your startup programs and system tray...

1. Hit Start
2. Hit Run
3. Type "msconfig" without the quotes and hit enter
4. Hit Startup tab
5. Click on "Disable All"
6. Press Apply then Ok and answer YES to reboot your PC.

Now you dont have all that junk starting up when Windows starts and I can guarentee you that you'll notice a phonomenol power boost that will be equally as noticable in games.


2. Optimising your Windows Page file.
*******************************
Windwows uses whats called a pagefile to act as RAM for file swapping duties and the-like & is vital for games.

The pagefile itself is harddrive space taken off your harddrive and kept in the pagefile itself so for example if my harddrive is 20GB and I set my pagefile to 1GB then my HDD would suddenly become 19GB in size.

To edit Windows pagefile...

1. Click Start
2. Click Control panel
3. Click System
4. Click Advanced tab
5. Click "Settings" for the "Performance" section
6. Click Advanced tab
7. At the bottom, click "Change"
8. Check the "Custom Size" box
9. Set your pagefile usng the following uide...

If you have...

128MB of RAM - set to 1500MB
256MB of RAM - set to 1000MB
512MB of RAM - set to 700MB
1GB of RAM - set to 500MB


3. Cleaning up your system.
***********************
Now its time to give your system a spring-clean and free from unused invalid light bulb that litters many PC users systems and over time can lead to configuration problems and nasty software conflicts and slightly slow application response rates.

You'll need to downlaod the following free programs and install them...

Ad-Aware http://majorgeeks.com/download506.html
Spybot S&D http://majorgeeks.com/download2471.html
Reg Seeker http://majorgeeks.com/download2579.html
light bulb Cleaner http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html
Cacheman (A must-have utility for people with 512MB RAM or less) http://majorgeeks.com/download308.html
Hijack This http://majorgeeks.com/download3155.html

Now then, to get the most out of these program, you must configure them correctly...

Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D are pretty well configured to begin with so i'll go straight to light bulb Cleaner...

1. Open light bulb Cleaner
2. Click Windows tab
3. Tick all boxes except "Menue Order Cache & Windows Size/Location Cache
4. Click Applications tab
5. Tick everything
6. Click Issues tab
7. Click everything
8. Click Options button
9. Click Settings tab
10. Uncheck the box that reads "Only delete files in Windows Temp folder older than 10 days"
11. Click ok and exit the program.

Now open Cacheman...

1. Click on the Settings button
2. Click the "RAM" icon
3. Under "Memory Ammount", set it to "User defined" then move the slider as far to the right as it goes
4. Uncheck all four boxes but leave "Extreme recovery mode" checked
5. Click the "Optimization" tab at the top
6. Check both "Disable executive paging" & "Unload DLL's from memory"
7. Exit the program and answer "yes" to save settings and answer yes to the reboot prompt.

Ok now that you've tweaked your programs to work at there best, its now time to use them...

NOTE: No other programs should be running while you run the programs so bookmark this page and exit IRC or whatever other programs you have running and come back here when your done.

Open and run the following programs in the following order...

Ad-Aware
Spybot S&D
light bulb Cleaner
Reg Seeker
Hijack This

Ok now your back, your PC should be alot more clutter free but these programs never do a complete job of it so its now time to manually clean your Windows up...

1. Look on your desktop and delete any icons & shortcuts that you no longer need or use or have its software uninstalled
2. Go into your start menue and do the same thing
3. Go into Control panel
4. Go into Add or Remove programs
5. Uninstall any programs that you no longer use or want from the list
6. Go into your Program Files folder typically located at C:\Program Files
7. Delete all files and folders that relate to programs or games you uninstalled or do not want any longer.


4. Configuring your systems BIOS for maximum gaming power.
************************************************** *
Accesing your systems BIOS varies from PC to PC but typically its a good 10 second hammering of the Del or F1 key while Windows is booting up.

BIOS vary from motherboard to motherboard but modern gaming boards will have alot more options in them than basic motherboards like Dell PC's have which is why i'm not going to be specific, rather just point out the general things to change that I think most PC's will have.

AGP Aperture size should be set to the highest possible.
AGP mode should be set to 8.0 or how high it can go
AGP Fastwrite should be enabled
USB 2.0 controller mode should be set to "Fullspeed" if you have USB 2 ports on your PC
Any performance enhancing options that many, many gaming boards have should be set to there maximum for example my Asus K8V SE board has an option where I can set the overall speed of my PC to "slow", "normal", "fast" or "turbo". Obviously the Turbo option is going to produce more thermal output on my CPU, RAM & motherboard but its not really enough to worry about especially if you have fans in your case.


5.Updating your system drivers.
***************************
Updating your systems drivers is vital for squeezing as much performance out of it as possible, especially sound card and graphics card drivers.

Here is a list of driver links for the differant components from all the major manufactuers...

Graphics card
-----------------
nVIDIA http://nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
ATI http://ati.com/support/driver.html

Sound cards
---------------
Creative Soundblaster http://creative.com/support/

Windows Updates
--------------------
1. Hit Start
2. Click on Windows Update icon

Now it will take you to the Microsoft website and will scan your system and come up with a list of reccoemnded updates.

Alot of these updates are rubbish and unncessary. I cannot be specific about what not to downlaod and what to download since everyones PC is differan but updates such as language packs and stuff like that.

Critical update patches for Windows Media player and stuff like that should be downloaded and so should Microsoft .NET framework since alot of software nowadays relies on this code.

Remember that uninstalling previous drivers before installing new ones is highly reccomended since it ensures a bug-free crashless install.

Heres how to PROPERLY uninstall drivers...

1. Go into add/remove programs
2. Uninstall the driver you want from the list
3. GO into your Program Files folder and delte all folders and files associated with the driver you have just uninstalled
4. Delete any start menue entries associated with the deleted driver
5. Run Reg Seeker
6. Run light bulb Cleaner
7. Reboot your system and then install the latest driver

I would of made links to motherboard drivers but I find updating mobo drivers to be quite a risky and an often unsucsesfull procedure and to cover it in this guide would take up far too much time.

If you would like to update your BIOS, there are many guides out there, one I reccomend would be BIOS Guide from the trusty tweaktown.com website which I highly reccomend also.


6. Tweaking your nVIDIA card.
*************************
I'm sorry ATI owners but I have only had experiance with nVIDIA cards so my intructions wont be perfect to follow but should be ok as the two cards GUI is pretty similer.

To access your nVIDIA cards options...

1. Right-click on your desktop & select Properties
2. Click Settings tab
3. Click advanced button
4. Click on the tab that reads your graphics card name, i.e GeForce FX 5600 for me.
5. On the pop-up menue on the left, click on Performance & Quality"
6. Set Antialiasing to off
7. Set Anisotriopic filtering to off
8. Set Image quality to high and if your card is good then set to maximum
9. Set v-sync to off
10. Set Force Minimaps to "none"
11. Set Conformant texture clamp to off
12. Go into the Direct 3D section
13. Set Max frames to render ahead to 0

Your card is now set to give the best balance of image quality and performance.


7. Tips.
******
Here are some tips to maintain your PC at its full potential forever...

1. Run them programs often, especially when you've been making alot of changes or have been installing/uninstalling alot of sfotware on your PC.

2. Run Cacheman before you play games and recover as much RAM as possible so you can get smoother gameplay.

3. Setting games to "High CPU Priority" in Windows Task Manager can sometimes give noticable performance gains.

4. Try to keep your files and folders organized so that your PC is as clutter free as possible.

5. Exit all programs and applications such as MSN messanger or IRC before you play games to maiximise gaming performance.


8. Conclusion.
************

If you have followed my guide correctly then there is no doubt whatsoever that you have gained atleast 20fps in your games

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Simple Sig tutorial in photoshop

This tutorial is basically is going to help you make a simple sig using grunge angel dust techniques for brushing.

Start out with filter>render>clouds, press control+f to get it how you like.

Next were going to use some simple brushing, just go crazy, using black and white for each layer, remember allways set layer mode to soft light or overlay. Brushes can be found here: http://www.silent-sceptiks.com/conscell/

Next i used some abstract brushes to create an angelic effect add a little outer glow if you like.

Add your render, add a layer mask and pull out some round grunge brushes to fade the edges.

Time for color balance layer just adjust how you like, remember to use midtones, shadows and highlights.

Time for some angel dust pick a 1px hard round brush and go to the
brush drop down list. Settings: Shape dynamics: 0% on all three dials, Scattering: 1000% scatter, 1 count
100% count jitter

Now use your 1 px hard round brush and brush randomly, then use 4 px hard
round brush, then 8 px brush to get variation. remember some outer glow!

Time for text! settings on main text :Innder shadow (default), satin (default)
1 px stroke set on soft light, Bevel 0-1 in size.

Now just add a 1 px border by going to edit>stroke then set mode to overlay
or soft light, add a brightness contrast layer settings i used: Brightness:-21
contrast:24

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Disable Windows startup sound

There was a lot of controversy of the new Windows Start sound in Windows Vista. Originally, Microsoft was planning on making this a mandatory sound that users would not be able to disable. This sounds like a great idea from a Marketing perspective since all Windows users world-wide would hear the same notes when their computer starts up. However from a user perspective this could be a nightmare. Thankfully Microsoft responded to the vocal Microsoft community and gave users the option to disable this sound.

Follow these steps to disable your Windows startup sound:

1. Click on the Start Button and type in Sound. Select Sound from the list.
2. Click on the Sounds tab.
3. Remove the check from Play Windows Startup sound.
4. Hit OK.
Enjoy.

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Use Notepad As A Diary

1. Open a blank Notepad file

2. Write .LOG as the first line of the file, followed by a enter. Save
the file and close it.

3. Double-click the file to open it and notice that Notepad appends the

current date and time to the end of the file and places the cursor on
the line after.

4. Type your notes and then save and close the file.

5. Each time you open the file, Notepad repeats the process, appending
the time and date to the end of the file and placing the cursor below it

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Turn your Windows Home Edition CD into Professional Edition

Follow the steps below on how to turn your Windows XP Home edition CD to professional!

Note: If your Windows XP CD does not contain Service Pack 2, you might want to Slipstream Your Windows XP CD first as you will not be able to upgrade an installation after using the CD.

1. Copy the root directory and the i386 directory of the WindowsXP CD to your hard drive.

2. Extract the Bootsector of your Windows XP CD. You can use BBIE to do this.

3. Click START–>RUN–>REGEDIT

4. Highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

5. Click FILE–>LOAD HIVE and select the Setupreg.hiv file
This file is located in the i386 folder. Use the one you extracted to your hard drive from your Windows XP CD.

6. Locate the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Homekey\ControlSet001\Services\setupdd

7. Edit the DEFAULT key and change the following values:

01 to 00
02 to 00

8. Change the name to the value HOMEKEY to anything.

9. Locate the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Homekey\ControlSet001\Services\setupdd

Edit the DEFAULT key and change the following values:

01 to 00
02 to 00

10. Highlight HOMEKEY and select FILE–>UNLOAD HIVE

You can now burn the data on your hard drive to a CD to make a new Windows XP CD. Then use the CD to install Windows XP. Be sure to make the CD bootable. You can use the instructions here to help you do that.
The weird thing is your Windows XP Home serial will still be valid.

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Free up Disk Space by deleting backup files

Windows Vista has loads of new backup features such as previous versions of your documents and system state points that are part of System Restore. All of these features are turned on by default and offer you a great deal of backup protection. However, you pay a big price in disk space. Every once in a while when your system is stable and you need to free up some disk space, it is a good idea to clear all of these previous versions of your files and System Restore points from your computer. This is a very easy way to free up a few gigabytes of space across all of your hard drives.

To get started, just follow these steps:

1. Click on the Start Button and key in disk cleanup and hit Enter.
2. Select Files from all users on this computer.
3. Select the drive you want to clean.
4. On the More Options tab, click on Clean Up under System Restore and Shadow Copies.
5. Hit Delete on the confirmation screen.

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How to use Your Apple iPod as a Hard Disk

To use your iPod as a drive, hard drive or flash drive, depends on your iPod, to store and transfer data files on check this steps below.

To put music files on your iPod, use iTunes. Keep in mind that you can’t see the songs that iTunes copies to your iPod in the “Finder” or “My Computer”.

Using your iPod as a drive:

1. Connect your iPod to a computer.
2. Open iTunes.(if it doesn’t open itself)
3. Click the iPod icon in the Source pane.
4. Click the Summary tab.
5. For most iPod models (excluding iPod shuffle): Select “Enable disk use” or “Manually manage songs and playlists”. Either of them will allow you to use iPod as a drive. If you choose “Manually manage songs and playlists”, iTunes won’t automatically update iPod with the iTunes library. If you want iTunes to automatically update your iPod, choose “Enable disk use”.

For iPod shuffle:
Select the “Enable disk use” checkbox and set the Storage Allocation slider to indicate the space you want to be used by audio files and the space you want to be used for data files.

6. The iPod disk icon appears on the desktop and in Finder windows, and in My Computer in Windows. Double-click the icon and drag files to or from iPod’s window to copy them.

7. Make sure to eject iPod before disconnecting it from your computer. The iPod display will say “Do Not Disconnect when disk use is enabled” so you won’t forget.

For iPod shuffle:

Select the “Enable disk use” checkbox and set the Storage Allocation slider to indicate the space you want to be used by audio files and the space you want to be used for data files.

6. The iPod disk icon appears on the desktop and in Finder windows, and in My Computer in Windows. Double-click the icon and drag files to or from iPod’s window to copy them.

7. Make sure to eject iPod before disconnecting it from your computer. The iPod display will say “Do Not Disconnect when disk use is enabled” so you won’t forget.

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15 Firefox Tricks to make browsing better

Everybody’s favorite open-source browser, Firefox, is great right out of the box. And by adding some of the awesome extensions available out there, the browser just gets better and better.

But look under the hood, and there are a bunch of hidden (and some not-so-secret) tips and tricks available that will crank Firefox up and pimp your browser. Make it faster, cooler, more efficient. Get to be a Jedi master with the following cool Firefox tricks.

1. More screen space. Make your icons small. Go to View - Toolbars - Customize and check the “Use small icons” box.
2. Smart keywords. If there’s a search you use a lot (let’s say IMDB.com’s people search), this is an awesome tool that not many people use. Right-click on the search box, select “Add a Keyword for this search”, give the keyword a name and an easy-to-type and easy-to-remember shortcut name (let’s say “actor”) and save it. Now, when you want to do an actor search, go to Firefox’s address bar, type “actor” and the name of the actor and press return. Instant search! You can do this with any search box.
3.Keyboard shortcuts. This is where you become a real Jedi. It just takes a little while to learn these, but once you do, your browsing will be super fast. Here are some of the most common (and my personal favs):

* Spacebar (page down)
* Shift-Spacebar (page up)
* Ctrl+F (find)
* Alt-N (find next)
* Ctrl+D (bookmark page)
* Ctrl+T (new tab)
* Ctrl+K (go to search box)
* Ctrl+L (go to address bar)
* Ctrl+= (increase text size)
* Ctrl+- (decrease text size)
* Ctrl-W (close tab)
* F5 (reload)
* Alt-Home (go to home page)
4.Auto-complete. This is another keyboard shortcut, but it’s not commonly known and very useful. Go to the address bar (Control-L) and type the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”. Let’s say “google”. Then press Control-Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there - like magic! For .net addresses, press Shift-Enter, and for .org addresses, press Control-Shift-Enter.

5.Tab navigation. Instead of using the mouse to select different tabs that you have open, use the keyboard. Here are the shortcuts:

* Ctrl+Tab (rotate forward among tabs)
* Ctrl+Shft+Tab (rotate to the previous tab)
* Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab)

6.Mouse shortcuts. Sometimes you’re already using your mouse and it’s easier to use a mouse shortcut than to go back to the keyboard. Master these cool ones:

* Middle click on link (opens in new tab)
* Shift-scroll down (previous page)
* Shift-scroll up (next page)
* Ctrl-scroll up (decrease text size)
* Ctrl-scroll down (increase text size)
* Middle click on a tab (closes tab)

7. Delete items from address bar history. Firefox’s ability to automatically show previous URLs you’ve visited, as you type, in the address bar’s drop-down history menu is very cool. But sometimes you just don’t want those URLs to show up (I won’t ask why). Go to the address bar (Ctrl-L), start typing an address, and the drop-down menu will appear with the URLs of pages you’ve visited with those letters in them. Use the down-arrow to go down to an address you want to delete, and press the Delete key to make it disappear.
8. User chrome. If you really want to trick out your Firefox, you’ll want to create a UserChrome.css file and customize your browser. It’s a bit complicated to get into here, but check out this tutorial.
9. Create a user.js file. Another way to customize Firefox, creating a user.js file can really speed up your browsing. You’ll need to create a text file named user.js in your profile folder (see this to find out where the profile folder is) and see this example user.js file that you can modify. Created by techlifeweb.com, this example explains some of the things you can do in its comments.
10.about:config. The true power user’s tool, about.config isn’t something to mess with if you don’t know what a setting does. You can get to the main configuration screen by putting about:config in the browser’s address bar. See Mozillazine’s about:config tips and screenshots.
11.Add a keyword for a bookmark. Go to your bookmarks much faster by giving them keywords. Right-click the bookmark and then select Properties. Put a short keyword in the keyword field, save it, and now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go to that bookmark.
12.Speed up Firefox. If you have a broadband connection (and most of us do), you can use pipelining to speed up your page loads. This allows Firefox to load multiple things on a page at once, instead of one at a time (by default, it’s optimized for dialup connections). Here’s how:

* Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Type “network.http” in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them):
* Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
* Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
* Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to a number like 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once.
* Also, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0?. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.
13. Limit RAM usage. If Firefox takes up too much memory on your computer, you can limit the amount of RAM it is allowed to us. Again, go to about:config, filter “browser.cache” and select “browser.cache.disk.capacity”. It’s set to 50000, but you can lower it, depending on how much memory you have. Try 15000 if you have between 512MB and 1GB ram.
14. Reduce RAM usage further for when Firefox is minimized. This setting will move Firefox to your hard drive when you minimize it, taking up much less memory. And there is no noticeable difference in speed when you restore Firefox, so it’s definitely worth a go. Again, go to about:config, right-click anywhere and select New-> Boolean. Name it “config.trim_on_minimize” and set it to TRUE. You have to restart Firefox for these settings to take effect.
15. Move or remove the close tab button. Do you accidentally click on the close button of Firefox’s tabs? You can move them or remove them, again through about:config. Edit the preference for “browser.tabs.closeButtons”. Here are the meanings of each value:

* 0: Display a close button on the active tab only
* 1:(Default) Display close buttons on all tabs
* 2:Don’t display any close buttons
* 3:Display a single close button at the end of the tab bar (Firefox 1.x behavior)

Read more!

Make Your Internet and Bandwidth Rapid

Here are Registry Tweaks and Scroll down to see Patches


1.Increase bandwidth by tweaking QoS in Windows XP Pro 

The following tweak applies only to Windows XP Professional edition.

The default system behavior is that all 100% bandwidth is available, however, if there is a running application that indicates to the OS it needs to send high priority/real time data, then as long as it has the socket open, Windows XP will restrict “best effort” traffic to 80% of the bandwidth so that high priority traffic can be accommodated. Basically, applications can make this request to the operating system for QoS support using the QoS application programming interfaces (APIs) in Windows and this only applies if a specific app is requesting QoS.

If you'd like to change how much bandwidth is reserved for QoS (the default is 20% of the total bandwidth), do the following:

1. Make sure you're logged in as "Administrator" (not just any account with admin privileges).
2. Navigate to START>Run and type: gpedit.msc
3. Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Administrative Templates > Network > QOS Packet Scheduler
4. In the right window, double-click the limit reservable bandwidth setting
5. On the setting tab, check the enabled setting.
6. Where it says "Bandwidth limit %", change it to read 0 (or whatever percentage you want to reserve for high priority QoS data)
7. Click OK, close gpedit.msc

Under START > My Computer > My Network Connections > View Network Connections, right-click on your connection and under Properties (where it lists your protocols), make sure QOS Packet Scheduler is enabled.



The tweak desribed below helps boost priority for DNS & hostname resolution in general. What this means is, it helps web pages load faster, and has negligible effect on downloads (not counting the couple of ms gain with the host resolution at connect-time).

Applying this tweak assumes some proficiency in editing the Windows Registry using Regedit (Start > Run > type: regedit). As always, backup your Registry before making any changes so you can revert to the previous state if you don't like the results.


2.Host Resolution Priority Tweak 
host name resolution priority
Windows 2k/XP

First, open the Windows Registry using Regedit, and (after backing up) navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\ServiceProvider



Note the following lines (all hex dwords):
Class = 008 (8) - indicates that TCP/IP is a name service provider, don't change.

LocalPriority = 1f3 (499) - local names cache
HostsPriority = 1f4 (500) - the HOSTS file
DnsPriority = 7d0 (2000) - DNS
NetbtPriority = 7d1 (2001) - NetBT name-resolution, including WINS

What we're aiming to do is increase the priority of the last 4 settings, while keeping their order. The valid range is from -32768 to +32767 and lower numbers mean higher priority compared to other services. What we're aiming at is lower numbers without going to extremes, something like what's shown below should work well:

Change the "Priority" lines to:
LocalPriority = 005 (5) - local names cache
HostsPriority = 006 (6) - the HOSTS file
DnsPriority = 007 (7) - DNS
NetbtPriority = 008 (8) - NetBT name-resolution, including WINS

Windows 9x/ME

The tweak is essentialy the same as in Windows 2000/XP, just the location in the Registry is slightly different. For a more detailed description see the Windows 2000/XP section above.

Open the Windows Registry using Regedit, and (after backing up) navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\ServiceProvider

You should see the following settings:
Class=hex:08,00,00,00

LocalPriority=hex:f3,01,00,00
HostsPriority=hex:f4,01,00,00
DnsPriority=hex:d0,07,00,00
NetbtPriority=hex:d1,07,00,00

The "priority" lines should be changed to:
LocalPriority=hex:05,00,00,00
HostsPriority=hex:06,00,00,00
DnsPriority=hex:07,00,00,00
NetbtPriority=hex:08,00,00,00

Reboot for changes to take effect.


In addition to the tweaks already covered in Win 2k/XP Registry Tweaks and More Win 2k/XP Tweaks, the Windows XP Service Pack 2 introduces a few new issues covered in the article below. Please make sure you understand what you are doing before making any changes to your Operating System. Note the information below only applies to Windows XP Service Pack 2.



3.Remove the limit on TCP connection attempts 

Windws XP SP2 introduces a few new twists to TCP/IP in order to babysit users and "reduce the threat" of worms spreading fast without control. In one such attempt, the devs seem to have limited the number of possible TCP connection attempts per second to 10 (from unlimited in SP1). This argumentative feature can possibly affect server and P2P programs that need to open many outbound connections at the same time.

Rant: The forward thinking of Microsoft developers here is that you can only infect 10 new systems per second via TCP/IP ?!?... If you also consider that each of those infected computers will infect 10 others at the same rate:
second 1: 1+10 computers
second 2: 10+10*10 computers (110 new ones)
second 3: 10+100*10 computers ( 1110 new ones)
second 4: 10+1000*10 computers (11110 new ones)
....
all the way to 10*60 + 10^60 computers in a single minute (that's a number with 60 digits, or it would far exceed Earth's population). Even if we consider that 90% of those computers are unreachable/protected, one would still reach ALL of them within a minute.

In other words, even though it is not going to stop worm spreading, it's going to delay it a few seconds, limit possible network congestion a bit, and limit the use of your PC to 10 connection attempts per second in the process ! I have no problem with the new default setting limiting outbound connection attempts. Still, users should have the option to easily disable or change this setting. I might be going out on a limb here, but ever since the introduction of Windows XP I can't help thinking that I dislike all the bult-in Windows "wisardry" in a sense that the system also limits user access. That irritating trend to ease the mental load on end users is somewhat insulting, considering that Windows is to make the more "intelligent" choice instead of the end user, as well as limit their access to tuning such settings...
End of rant.

With the new implementation, if a P2P or some other network program attempts to connect to 100 sites at once, it would only be able to connect to 10 per second, so it would take it 10 seconds to reach all 100. In addition, even though the setting was registry editable in XP SP1, it is now only possible to edit by changing it directly in the system file tcpip.sys. To make matters worse, that file is in use, so you also need to be in Safe mode in order to edit it.

You only need to worry about the number of connection attempts per second if you have noticed a slowdown in network programs requiring a number of connections opened at once. You can check if you're hitting this limit from the Event Viewer, under System - look for TCP/IP Warnings saying: "TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts". Keep in mind this is a cap only on incomplete outbound connect attempts per second, not total connections. Still, running servers and P2P programs can definitely be affected by this new limitation. Use the fix as you see fit.

To change or remove the limit, you can use the following program:

Event ID 4226 Patcher v2.11
http://www.speedguide.net/files/xp_sp2/EvID4226Patch211a-en.zip
- A patching program for removing or changing the limit imposed on connection attempts in SP2. The patcher has the ability to restore tcpip.sys back to the original... Still, you might want to back up tcpip.sys, use it at your own risk. The author of this patch can be reached @ http://www.lvllord.de/

4. Recommended settings for Windows 2000 / XP
Windows 2000 & XP, unlike NT supports large windows as described in RFC1323 ( the 'RcvWindow' has a maximum value of 2**30 rather than 64K), and includes some other improvements over its predecessors you can use to speed up any TCP/IP transfers. , the descriptions and other options are added to provide you with better understanding and enable you to customize your settings.

All the following entries, unless otherwise noted should be placed in the Windows 2000/XP Registry under the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

TCPWindowSize

The value of TCP Window in the Windows 2000 Registry is DWORD, representing number of bytes, with range from 0 to 2^30. The recommended values (in red) optimize TCP for any high speed Internet connection and work best in most cases, however if you'd like to use a custom value follow these guidelines:

For best results, the TCPWindow should be a multiple of MSS (Maximum Segment Size). MSS is generally MTU - 40, where MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) is the largest packet size that can be transmitted. MTU is usually 1500 (1492 for PPPoE connections). To determine the MTU value of your ISP, check out the Advanced Registry Editing section of our site.

There are three places in the Windows 2000 Registry where you can add the TCP Window parameter.

HKLM/SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize="256960" (DWORD, number of bytes) Valid range is from MSS to 2^30. Add the value as a decimal. Note: For best results RWIN has to be a multiple of MSS lower than 65535 times a scale factor that's a power of 2, i.e. 44 x 1460 = 64240 x 2^2 = 256960. If you choose to use a RWIN lower than 65535, you can simply make it multiple of MSS and turn scaling off (Tcp1323Opts=0)

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
TcpWindowSize="256960" (DWORD, number of bytes) Valid range is from MSS to 2^30. Add the value as a decimal. TcpWindowSize can also exist under TcpipParametersInterface - if added at this location, it overrides the global setting for this particular . Note (10/20/00): Seems MS has found another bug in Windows 2000, the TCPWindowSize should be configured with the global setting (GlobalMaxTcpWindowsSize) rather than this one - Q263088

Note: For best results RWIN has to be a multiple of MSS lower than 65535 times a scale factor that's a power of 2, i.e. 44 x 1460 = 64240 x 2^2 = 256960. If you choose to use a RWIN lower than 65535, you can simply make it multiple of MSS and turn scaling off (Tcp1323Opts=0)

Tcp1323Opts

Tcp1323Opts is a necessary setting in order to enable Large TCPWindow support as described in RFC 1323. Without this parameter, the TCPWindow is limited to 64K.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
Tcp1323Opts="1" (DWORD, recommended setting is 1. The possible settings are 0 - Disable RFC 1323 options, 1 - Window scaling but no Timestamp options, 3 - Window scaling and Time stamp options.)

Note: Tcp1323Opts="3" might help in some cases where there is increased packet loss, however generally you'll achieve better throughput with Tcp1323Opts="1", since Timestamps add 12 bytes to the header of each packet.

DefaultTTL

DefaultTTL determines the time in seconds and the number of hops a packet lives. While it does not directly affect speed, a larger value increases the amount of time it takes for a packet to be considered lost, discarded and retransmitted. A value that's too small can cause packets to be unable to reach distant servers at all.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
DefaultTTL="64" (DWORD, recommended setting is 64. Other settings that are widely used are 128 and 32)

EnablePMTUDiscovery

When set to 1 (True), TCP attempts to discover MTU automatically over the path to a remote host. Setting this parameter to 0 causes MTU to default to 576 which reduces overall performance over high speed connections. Note that this setting is different than our Windows 9x recommendation.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
EnablePMTUDiscovery="1" (DWORD - boolean, valid settings are 0-->False and 1-->True. Many connections perform better with this entry at 1, however, if you prefer to set your upstream to send fixed 1500 packets, you might want to use 0 instead). When set at 1, establishing connections and initial transfer speed might slow down a bit, however you will get better throughput if somewhere in the path large packets need to be fragmented.

EnablePMTUBHDetect

Setting this parameter to 1 (True) enables "black hole" routers to be detected, however it also increases the maximum number of retransmissions for a given segment. In most cases you'd want to keep BHDetect to 0 (False).

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
EnablePMTUBHDetect="0" (DWORD - boolean, valid settings are 0-->False and 1-->True. Recommended setting is 0)

SackOpts

This parameter controls whether or not SACK (Selective Acknowledgement) support is enabled, as specified in RFC 2018. SACK is especially important for connections using large TCP Window sizes.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
SackOpts="1" (DWORD - boolean, recommended setting is 1. Possible settings are 0 - No Sack options or 1 - Sack Option enabled).

TcpMaxDupAcks

This parameter determines the number of duplicate ACKs that must be received for the same sequence number of sent data before "fast retransmit" is triggered to resend the segment that has been dropped in transit.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
TcpMaxDupAcks="2" (DWORD - range 1-3, recommended setting is 2).

Patches

This Includes

1. sguide_tweak_2k.zip
Description: Generic patch for Windows XP and Windows 2000 (all versions). This patch will optimize your TCP/IP Registry settings for high speed Internet connections. To install, extract the .inf file first, then double-click (or right-click on filename and choose install from the pull-down menu) and reboot for changes to take effect.
http://www.speedguide.net/files/sguide_tweak_2k.zip

2.sguide_tweak_2k_pppoe.zip

Description: Generic patch for Windows XP/2000 and DSL connections using PPPoE. This patch will optimize your TCP/IP Registry settings for high speed Internet connections. It is specifically designed for PPPoE DSL connections. To install, extract the .inf file first, then double-click (or right-click on filename and choose install from the pull-down menu) and reboot for changes to take effect.
http://www.speedguide.net/files/sguide_tweak_2k_pppoe.zip

3. winxp_dnscache.zip

Description: Patch Windows 2k/XP not to cache failed DNS entries. By default, when a DNS lookup fails (due to temporary DNS problems), Windows still caches the unsuccessful DNS query, and in turn fails to connect to a host regardless of the fact that the DNS server might be able to handle your lookup seconds later. This patch fixes the problem by configuring the DNS client to continue sending queries to an unresponsive network. To install, save to your HD, unzip the .reg file, then double-click the filename.

Web Patches - faster loading of Web Pages

The following patch increases Web page loading speed, by doubling the number of possible concurrent open connections. For example, imagine a web page has 20 images and some text - in order for your browser to get all these files, it opens 2 or 4 concurrent connections, depending on the Web server. Increasing the number of open connections allows for faster retrieving of the data. Please note that the patch sets some values outside of the HTML specs. If you decide to install it, backup your Registry first. Changes will take effect after you reboot. Download the patch appropriate for your OS:

OS: Windows 9x/ME
http://www.speedguide.net/files/sg_webtweak_9x.zip

OS: Windows 2K/XP/2k3
http://www.speedguide.net/files/sg_webtweak_2k.zip

TCP OPTIMISER

Description: The TCP Optimizer is a free, easy Windows program that provides an intuitive interface for tuning and optimizing your Internet connection. Just download and run, there is no installaion required. The program makes it easy to find the best MTU and RWIN values, test latency and tweak all the important broadband related registry parameters. The Optimizer can be helpful with tuning any Internet connection type, from dialup to Gigabit+

Download:
http://www.speedguide.net/files/TCPOptimizer.exe

Read more!

How'to install Mac OSX 10.4.6 on a PC [Dual Boot]

There are only two ways to install OSX 10.4.6 legal on your Windows computer:

1. Become an Apple developer
2. You can also buy an Intel Mac (I would recommend the Macbook Pro), install Windows XP on it using Apple’s Boot Camp and remove OSX completely, so that you have a legally bought osx86 licence. This metod isn’t confirmed and some most people say it’s illegal because the EULA says that you aren’t allowed to install OSX on non-Apple hardware.

This means that for most people it is ILLEGAL to install osx on their computer. If you aren’t an Apple developer, leave page site now. This site is in no way liable or responsible for the actions of its visitors.

You need:

1. A prepatched OSX 10.4.6 install image
2. An empty dvd recordable (+R or –R, NO Rewritable!)
3. At least 6 GB free space.
4. spfdisk
http://spfdisk.sourceforge.net/Spf2K3rE.exe
5. Acronis Disk Director Suite

The guide:
1. Get an prepatched OSX 10.4.6 install image.

2. Burn the image to an empty dvd recordable (+R or –R)

>> Use your favourite burn program for this (I recommend Nero Burning Rom or Alcohol 120%)

3. Create at least 6GB unallocated space on your harddisk using Partition Magic:

>> Start partition Magic
>> Click on ‘Resize/Move Partition
>> Move the slider to make the partition smaller and hit OK
>> Click on ‘Apply’
>> Close Partition Magic

4. Click ‘START > Run…’ and type ‘diskpart’ (without quotes)

3. Type in (press enter after you typed in a line):

list disk
select disk [the number of your disk
create partition primary id=af

5. Close the command window.

6. Make sure you have a bootable disk with fdisk (I recommend spfdisk), so that you can change your active partition if it goes wrong! Also: After this step you can’t use your computer for up to 1 hour!

>> To install spfdisk just insert a formatted diskette and open the exe file
http://spfdisk.sourceforge.net/Spf2K3rE.exe
7. Click ‘START > Run…’ and type ‘diskpart’ (without quotes)

8. Type in (press enter after you typed in a line):

list disk
select disk [the number of your disk]
list partition
select partition [the number of your osx partition]
set active

9. Insert the OSX install disk and reboot your computer, follow the installation steps on your screen.

10. Boot into Windows.

11. Install Acronis Disk Director Suite, install the OS selector.

12. Start OS selector, configure (follow on screen steps) it and restart your computer.

13. After the last reboot you should see a nice dual boot menu and should be able to boot OSX.

Info: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
More info: http://www.osx86project.org/

Read more!

How to Test your Video Card for errors in the DirectX Menu

Sometimes instability problems with your video card occurs. To see if the problems are caused by the card itself you’ll have to test it in the DirectX menu.

1. Click Start and then open ” RUN ” .
2. Type in the box ” dxdiag ”
3. In the menu that appeared click on the ” Display ” tab.
4. Now in the ” DirectX Features ” section click the ” Test Direct Draw ” and ” Test Direct 3D ” buttons. You’ll be asked if you see some boxes and logos spinning answer with yes or no, after you finish all the tests you’ll see the results, if you had any errors or not.

If you had errors the problems usually come from a instable video card or corrupted drivers.

Read more!

List Of Free TV Sites Online

TV Shows, Movies And Cartoons:
DVDCosmos: Nice and simple search engie for finding movies, tv shows, anime and Movies

TVlinks: A directory that amalgamates the most popular tv shows, cartoon & anime series. Once you’ve
found a show you want to watch, all you have to do is just click on the link and it will take you through to the website hosting the movie

Alluc.org: You could spend days watching the 17992 TV shows, 2582 movings and 5741 music videos.

ChannelSurfr: sexy looking site with nice video montage showing what’s hot. Even has full movies available and pretty up to date TV listings. All you have to do is click on a thumbnail and the video will start playing.

Streamick: More then 300 real TV channels to choose from including NBC, ABC, ESPN, BBC1 and many more, organized in categories and ranked by the site users

Shoutcast_Streams: Streaing Shows direct from Shoutcast and TV Torrents

TIOTI (Tape It Off The Internet): Over 2,000+ TV shows or 90,000+ episodes, including all the big shows like Lost, Prison Break, Heroes, Veronica Mars etc etc

TV-Video.net: All the latest TV shows as they aired including 24, Smallville, Prison Break, Lost etc
New! TeeVee: Does a very good job of keeping links up to date. Lots of cartoons, comedy, top shows, anime and even some adult stuff

BeelineTV: Free TV shows, movies, music, entertainment and sports from around the world. 159 channels

SopCast: Easy way to watch foreign channels full screen.

Vidlist: Contains 1925 videos, 69 shows and 36 movies!

Tevootv.com: Movie, news, sports and music channels sorted by country

Quicksilverscreen: EveryTV show under the sun nicely categorized

WeeTeeVee: Nothing wee about this service! Whatever you want is here - funny, sexy, cartoons and of course, tv shows

PPlive: Popular service for watching foreign tv and sport.

Great Stuff: Simple list of links to watch popular TV shows

wwiTV: Huge collection of free television stations. Over 1600 channels

Sickeric: One of the few non-US sites. Typically understated English service, but not lacking in content

Freetvonline.com: Approximately 100 channels. Plugin required

FreeTube: nicely laid out site with clear categories. Movies, sports and TV shows available

VeniVideoVici: Very high quality tv shows and movies

Peekvid.com: Over 700 episodes of popular shows such as 24, Buffy, Desperate Housewives, Family Guy. Shows can be downloaded

ABC (US Only): Watch popular shows like Lost, Desperate Houswives, Alias etc online
PPStream: Sports, movies - all in one please. Just choose a show from the list of available channels.

Sports:
Sopcast.org: Easy Way to watch international football including English Premier League. Once you’ve installed the client then bookmark this site which has up-to-date schedules

FreeTube: nicely laid out site with clear categories. Movies, sports and TV shows available

PPlive: Popular service for watching foreign tv and sport. Once you’ve installed the client then bookmark this site which has up-to-date schedules

Alluc.org: Many sports listed

EuroGoalsNews: stream details for all top European football matches

TVants: can be hard to use as in chinese, but features some games not available elsewhere

TVU Player: In English which helps!

Read more!

Tips on Keeping Your Windows PC Running Fast

By following a few simple guidelines, you can greatly extend the time between necessary reinstalls of Windows.

First, as a general rule of thumb, only put software that you will need on your computer. That Bonzai Buddy might seem like a great idea at first, but keep in mind that most free programs up for download on the Internet fall into the category of “malware,” or malicious software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer without the owners informed consent. Keep in mind what you use your computer for-most people need one office suite, one CD/DVD authoring program, one graphics editing program, one IM program, one browser, a firewall/virus control program, and one media player. Choose one of everything that you like and stick with it. Before you install something, do a search for it on Google and see if any articles come up referring to it as spyware, adware or malware. Tying into this, choose an Internet service provider that doesn’t require any additional software installed to use. AOL is probably the best example of an ISP whose software can cause numerous PC problems: entire articles could be and have been written on the problems it causes.

Microsoft Office is generally the standard for office suites. When installing it, make sure you do a custom install and only select what you need. Depending on which version you use, the options might be somewhere different, but FindFast, the animated helpers and Office shortcut bar are all completely unnecessary. For CD and DVD burning, I recommend Nero for a variety of reasons including its lack of malware and ability to burn almost any kind of disc you could possibly dream of. If you use more than one instant messenger program, gAIM is probably the software for you. It’s malware free, works with AIM, ICQ, MSN and every other major protocol out there. ZoneAlarm is the best software firewall suite I’ve found and includes antivirus/antispyware in its most recent incarnations. If Windows Media Player isn’t cutting it for you, give WinAmp or VLC a try. Again, these are suggestions: the underlying guideline is to install only the programs you need and seek out the ones that include only what you need.

Finally, clean the existing unnecessary software off of the computer. This is a matter of damage control and is often the most difficult step. If you purchased a computer from any of the major brand names, it probably came with a lot of software you do not need included. You can see a list of everything installed on your computer by going to the Start menu, then to the Control Panel and then “Add/Remove Programs.” Anything you do not recognize or isn’t labeled as a driver or Windows update can go. Much software of this sort affects a computer’s performance by causing a program to run every time it starts. You can see everything that’s running at startup by going to the Start menu, to Programs, and then Startup. Unfortunately, many of these programs are very good at hiding themselves and some will not show up under Startup. For a complete list of what’s starting with your computer, go to the Start menu and click “Run.” In the text box, type “regedit,” hit enter, and browse to hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run using the folders on the left. The right will now display every program running at startup. Again, you can use Google to search for everything running and determine whether it’s necessary or not. Finally, you can turn off some unnecessary (and sometimes dangerously insecure) portions of Windows. This can be done by once again going to the Start menu, to Run, and this time typing in, “msconfig” and hitting enter. Clicking the Services tab will show you a list of everything else running at startup. The following services are unnecessary (if you use them, you’ll know not to disable them) and may be unchecked: Alterter, Computer Browser, Clipbook, Error Reporting Service, Fast User Switching, Help and Support, Messenger, Net Logon, NT LM Security Support, Remote Desktop Help, Remote Registry, Telnet, Volume Shadow Copy, Portable Media Serial Number. If you use Windows XP Home, some of these may not show up-this is one of its disadvantages over Windows XP Professional.

By following these simple guidelines, you can extend the time between reformatting and installing the operating system on your computer considerably.

Read more!

Add “Open with Notepad” to right-click context menu

Do you use notepad very frequently to open all types of text files? This quick tweak will add “Open with Notepad” to all of your file context menus. Whenever you right click on a file, you will have the option to open it in Notepad.

Copy and paste the code below into Notepad. Then save it as a .reg file and import it by clicking on it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Open with Notepad]
@=”"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Open with Notepad\command]
@=”notepad.exe %1″

Read more!

Tools And Addons For YouTube

YouTube has become one of the most popular sites in the world in a very short time by providing a simple way to upload and share content.

However, there are a number of services available now that will make it easier to upload videos, find deleted videos, make videos play even smoother etc. Here’s a review of some of the best YouTube tools you may find useful.

Delutube - Find Deleted YouTube Videos -
http://youtube.infamousx.com/

Every now and then YouTube deletes a video, normally because of copyright issues. But, there is a way to still watch the deleted videos which is quite clever.
Delutube have put together a script which will allow you to watch deleted videos. All you have to do is enter the ID of the YouTube video that has been deleted by YouTube, and it will magically start playing. Most recent videos will work, but you may have problems with older videos as YouTube eventually physically deletes videos.

YouRipper - Download YouTube Videos -
http://www.remlapsoftware.com/
There are many tools for downloading YouTube videos but I find YouRipper to be the easiest to use. YouRipper also has its own video player that makes it easy to add YouTube videos to a blog or a website.

YouTube Uploader 1.1 -Convert Any Video To YouTube Friendly Format -http://www.bestsoftware4download.com/download/t-free-free-youtube-uploader-download-vcekrzoe.html

Although YouTube can handle most file formats, optimizing your video before you upload it can pay dividents. YouTube Uploader 1.1 is a free tool that will convert any video to a YouTube friendly video format with optimal size and quality, so that anyone watching your videos will see your work in its best light.

Speedbit Video Accelerator - Smooth & Speedup YouTube Videos -
http://www.speedbit.com/video_accelerator/
Speedbit Video Accelerator works on a similar principle to popular download managers by opening multiple connections to YouTube videos as soon as you start playing. The benefits of this is it that if you are on a slow connection or even a dialup connection, then you videos will start playing quicker and the the playback itself willl be smoother.

TubeSock - YouTube On Your iPod -
http://stinkbot.com/Tubesock/index.html
TubeSock will download YouTube videos and saves them to your video iPod, Mac, or PlayStation Portable. It’s not free ($15 - but the trial version will do 30 secs for free), but I don’t know of a free app that will automatically convert the video using the codecs and bitrates best for each device. It even allows you to preview the video before it does the conversion.

Search The Tube - Find YouTube Videos For Your Site -
http://www.searchthetube.com/
The YouTube search engine is pretty good, but the Search The Tube service is a good way to find YouTube videos for your website, blog or profile. This service is dedicated just to finding videos and provides about 100 thumbnail results very quickly.

UserScripts.org - Scripts For Improving YouTube -
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/6281
If you’re a bit more technical then you may find this collection of scripts from userscripts.org useful that perform useful tasks like improving YouTube embedded code, allow you to view Yahoo Music videos in YouTube, removes ads etc

PODZINGER - Search Within YouTube Videos -
http://podzinger.com/
By day, PODZINGER is a speech-to-text search engine that uses this functionality to search YouTube videos for terms that are actually mentioned inside the audio. The service also allows you to setup an RSS alert so that if a new video is uploaded which includes those words, then you will get an automatic alert!

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Disable ” Low Disk Space ” Notification

Although is a simple thing to do, i’ve never used it until today. My computer was killing me with this notification, i donwloaded the entire Dragon Ball Z series because i’m a anime maniac and the partition was full, i had enough. Anyway i though i would share it with you although is everywhere on the net, maiby i will help someone.

So, here we go:

1. Press the Start Button and select Run
2. Type in the Run Box REGEDIT and press enter.
3. Got to this address: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer.
4. There, right click on an empty space, select NEW, create a new DWORD value named NoLowDiskSpaceChecks then double click it and type 1

Now restart your computer and you are free forever from this annoying pop up message.

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How to Update your Ipod

1. Install the latest version of iTunes. Download iTunes
2. Connect your iPod to your computer.
3. To update your iPod on a PC the iPod must be formated for a PC.
4. Open iTunes.
5. Itunes will detect the latest version available and will prompt you to install it.
6. Depending on your iPod’s model you will be prompted to leave your iPod connected to the computer for the update to complete or you may be asked to connect the iPod to the iPod Power Adapter.
7. While updating, you will notice an Apple logo and progress bar appear on the iPod display. Once this is completed, you can resume normal use of your iPod.

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Create a direct shortcut to Network Connections

The new Network and Sharing Center in Windows Vista is great for the average Windows user but can be a huge headache for advanced users. When I need to make a change to my network settings I don’t want to be forced to go through the networking interface for the average non-technical users. I want to go right to the settings screen and make the change.

I am a big fan of the old Windows XP network approach where I could modify all of the network settings and connect to wireless network from the Network Connections screen. In Windows Vista, the Network Connections screen still exists, as shown above, but you have to go through the Network and Sharing Center screen first. Using a very useful explorer trick I discovered when playing with “::” and explorer class IDs, you can create a shortcut that will take you directly to the Network Connections screen.

1. Right click on the desktop and select New and then Shortcut.

2. In the location box, copy and paste explorer.exe ::{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E} and hit Next.

3. Type in Network Connections as the name and Finish.

Your shortcut directly to Network Connections is now on your desktop. I like to create a copy in my quick launch bar for easy access. If you want to change the icon to the correct Network connections icon, the icon can be found in %SystemRoot%\system32\netshell.dll in the first position.

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Windows Start Key Shortcuts

When used in combination with other keys, here’s what you can do:

Windows Key + Tab: Cycle through the buttons in the Task Bar.
Windows Key + D: Minimize or restore all windows
Windows Key + E: Launch Windows Explorer
Windows Key + F: Launch Search for Files
Windows Key + Ctrl + F: Launch Search for Computers
Windows Key + F1: Launch the Help and Support Center
Windows Key + R: Launch the Run dialog box
Windows Key + Pause/Break: Launch System Properties dialog box
Windows Key + M: Minimizes all open windows.
Windows Key + Shift + M: Undo minimize all windows
Windows Key + L: Locks the workstation
Windows Key + U: Launch the Utility Manager
Windows Key + Ctrl + Tab: According to Microsoft: Moves focus from Start, to the Quick Launch toolbar, to the system tray. What it does for me in XP: moves through the tabs in your current application (Firefox 2, IE 7, Homesite+ and Paint Shop Pro XI)




If you have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType software installed you can use the following shortcuts as well. As it happens, I do have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, so I installed IntelliType and sure enough these now work:

Windows Key + L: Log off Windows
Windows Key + P: Starts Print Manager
Windows Key + C: Opens Control Panel
Windows Key + V: Starts Clipboard
Windows Key + K: Opens Keyboard Properties dialog box
Windows Key + I: Opens Mouse Properties dialog box
Windows Key + A: Starts Accessibility Options (if installed)
Windows Key + Spacebar: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys
Windows Key + S: Toggles CAPS LOCK on and off

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Elevator Trick

Tired of being on an elevator and someone else gets on every floor you go down to? Well I was also, until I found out you could skip the floors that people would like to get on at. This works best in big office buildings with 30 floors and it sometimes takes like 15 minutes to get to floor 1. This is a really simple trick to do just to let you readers know.

Okay, the only thing you need to do is press down the close door button, and the floor you would like to go to at the same time.

Then it should skip all the floors that people want to get on and go straight to your floor that you would like to get off on. This can also piss some people off I would imagine. This trick has also worked on all the office elevators I have tried so far.

I find it works the easiest on:
Otis Elevators
Dover Elevators
And Most Desert Elevators
So have fun causing total elevator mayhem

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Bypass school filters

Does your school have computers that they allow the students to access but they are filtered and you can barely do anything on them like even check your e-mail?

Well there are a number of ways to get around this...1st off if they have a website filter you can bypass that by doing the obvious and going through a proxy, however, if they blocked all the proxies you know here is a good trick... go to Start->Run and type in "cmd" a command prompt box should pop up.
now type in "ping blockedsite.com" without the quotation marks of course
a message will come up saying the packet send times,refresh times, and some other stuff but most importantly in parenthesis you will see the ip of that website...now jus go to your browser and type in http://ipgoeshere
example: http://143.23.543.23

Ok onto the next issue of not being able to run programs because access is denied- one way to bypass this is to put the program onto a floppy disk and then run it off of that and another way of fixing this issue is to get the computer's admin password...there are many programs to do that here on xSx so look it up and im sure you will find some that can run off of a guest account and obtain an admin password.

Ok onto the big issue of your school's site...my school uses a website to store grades and such personal info...now what if you wanted to access that so that you could change/modify it? well it is really quite simple if you know what you are doing...our school's site requires you to login on the home page..all the students have an account and so do the teachers..so what i did was i made a fake login which is exactly identical to their login only i made a php mailing script that mails me their username and password(instead of logging them in when they press enter) and i made it redirect to the real login when they press enter...so from their eyes they think they jus entered the wrong password or sumn...and i get their login and password If you would like a fake login like this made for your school plz PM me and i will do it...it doesnt take too long if you are good with php. Take care

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Windows XP Hidden Star Wars Movie!

Microsoft hid a version of Star Wars done entirely with ASCII in the Windows XP operating system. You can try this yourself by going to Start / Run and type: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl Check it out!If you don’t have Windows XP, you can also check it on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdhrE5RMDfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxW2EePW8qA

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How To Change Drive Letters in Windows Vista

After a new hard drive installation or maybe just to keep things organized the way you like, you may want to change the drive letter of a hard drive partition, CD or DVD drive in Windows Vista. The Computer Management tool makes this a snap.

Note: You cannot modify the drive letter of your main partition on your PC. In a normal Windows Vista installation, this is the “C Drive”. All other drive letters, including CD and DVD drive letters, can be modified though.

1. Click on Start and then Control Panel.

Tip: In a hurry? Type computer management in the search box after clicking Start. Choose Computer Management from the list of results and then skip to Step 4.

2. Click on the System and Maintenance link.

Note: If you’re viewing the Classic View of Control Panel, you won’t see this link. Simply double-click on the Administrative Tools icon and proceed to Step 4.

3. Click on the Administrative Tools link.

4. In the Administrative Tools window, open the Computer Management program.

5. In the Computer Management window, locate the Disk Management option on the left and left-click on it.

6. If the Disk Management option is not visible, look under the Storage option by clicking the small arrow next to the word Storage.

On the right-hand side of the screen, locate and right-click on the drive that you wish to change the drive letter of and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths….

7. In the Change Drive Letter and Paths window, click on the Change… button.

8. The Change Drive Letter or Path dialog box will appear. Choose the drive letter you wish to assign to this partition.

Click OK.

9. The Confirm window that appears advises you that “Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Do you want to continue?”.

Note: If you have software installed to this drive, the software may stop functioning after a drive letter change. Nearly all software defaults to the primary drive though, so this is rarely a concern.

10. If you’re sure you want to make this change, click Yes. Depending on the speed of your PC, the change should be nearly instant.

11. You can now close the Computer Management and Administrative Tools windows.

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How To Change the Windows Vista Product Key Code

Changing the Windows Vista product key may be necessary if you discover your current key is pirated or illegal but you don’t want to reinstall Windows Vista to activate your new legal key.

1. Click on Start and then Control Panel.

Tip: In a hurry? Type system in the search box after clicking Start. Choose System from the list of results and then skip to Step 4.

2. Click on the System and Maintenance link.

Note: If you’re viewing the Classic View of Control Panel, you won’t see this link. Simply double-click on the System icon and proceed to Step 4.

3. Click on the System link.

4. In the Windows activation area of the View basic information about your computer window, you’ll see the status of your Windows Vista activation and your Product ID number.

Note: The product id is not the same as your product key. To display your product key, check out the guide on how to find the Windows Vista product key code.

5. Next to this information, you should see a Change product key link. Click on this link to start the process of changing your Windows Vista product key.

6. When the Windows Activation window appears, enter your new product key in the Product Key: text box.

Click Next to continue.

7. Wait on the Activating Windows… message until the progress bar is complete. Windows Vista is communicating with Microsoft to ensure that your product key is valid and to reactivate your Windows Vista installation.

8. The Activation was successful message will appear after your product key has been validated and your copy of Windows Vista has been activated.

9. That’s it! Your Windows Vista product key has been changed!

Click Close to close this window. You can now also close the System window.

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How to dump a PS3 game

1. Install Fedora Core 5 on your PS3
2. Open Terminal
3. Type dd if=/dev/sdb of=/foo.img
4. Be patient as it rips your game to your hard drive.

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Disable USB storage device write (make them read-only)

In the corporate world, a lot of time is spent on locking down computers to minimize the risk of confidential information leaving the company. With the popularity of USB storage devices in recent years the problem for large corporations has exploded. Almost all users want to use USB storage devices to move data around. With the size of USB storage devices increasing so much in recent years, the risk is increasing as more and more data could possibly be stolen or lost accidentally. In companies, USB storage devices have been banned completely and disabled from use on company computers.

In Windows Vista there is an alternative that will allow your corporate users to be able to read from USB storage devices but not write any data to them. Effectively turning on USB storage devices for all users but making them read-only. This way users can still read information off of USB storage devices that a third-party vendor may provide data on while preventing the employee from writing any data back to the storage device.

To setup read only USB storage device operation, follow these steps below:

1. Click on the Start Button and type in Regedit and hit Enter.
2. Navigate through HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control.
3. Right click on Control and select New and then Key. Call the new key StorageDevicePolicies.
4. Right click on StorageDevicePolicies and select New and then Dword. Call the new dword WriteProtect.
5. Right click on WriteProtect and select Properties. Set the value to 1 and hit OK.
The computer is now configured to disable writing to USB storage devices.
 

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How To Disable Internet Explorer In Windows XP Using The Program Defaults Utility

One way of disabling Internet Explorer in Windows XP is by using the Set Program Access and Defaults utility available as part of all Windows XP installations with at least Service Pack 2 installed.

Make sure you’ve installed and tested an alternative browser (like Firefox) and then follow the easy steps below to disable Internet Explorer using the Set Program Access and Defaults utility:

Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: Disabling IE in Windows XP using the Program Defaults Utility usually takes less than 15 minutes
Here’s How:

1. Navigate to the Control Panel by clicking on Start, followed by Control Panel (or Settings and then Control Panel, depending on how you’re setup).

2. In the Control Panel window, open Add or Remove Programs.

Note: In Microsoft Windows XP, depending on how your operating system is setup, you may not see the Add or Remove Programs icon. To correct this, click on the link on the left-hand side of the Control Panel window that says Switch to Classic View.

3. In the Add or Remove Programs window, click on the Set Program Access and Defaults button on the menu on the left.

4. Choose the Custom option in the Choose a configuration: area.

5. In the Choose a default Web browser: area, uncheck the Enable access to this program check box next to Internet Explorer.

6. Click OK. Windows XP will apply your changes and the Add or Remove Programs window will close automatically.

Tips:

1. Since the Windows Update site requires the use of Internet Explorer, manual updates will no longer be possible. Automatic updates, if enabled, should continue unaffected.

2. Even though you may be disabling Internet Explorer, you are not actually removing it. Your Windows XP PC still uses Internet Explorer for a number of internal processes.

3. Keep in mind that updates related to Internet Explorer will still need to be performed because IE is still on your PC.

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3ds Max Tutorials

LINKS:

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tut3ds.asp
http://www4.discreet.com/3dsmax/3dsmax.php?id=870
http://www.3dlinks.com/links.cfm?categoryid=13&subcategoryid=105

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How To Secure your Computer or Network, A Step by Step Approach

This section explains, step-by-step, how to secure your computer against spyware, hackers, and hijackers. While there is no such thing as total security, it can vastly reduce your vulnerability to unauthorized access to and from your computer.
There are two routes you can take: the quick-and-dirty 4 Step route, or the much more secure 8 Step route. The quick-and-dirty way gives little in the way of explanations: it basically says "do this and this". The normal total time to go through it, not including downloads, is about 15 minutes.
If you choose the better 8-Step way, you'll get more complete explanations of each step before it is carried out and what the effects will be. It will take a little longer to do mostly because I explain what you're doing and why. Either way, some individual steps may reduce functionality of your computer (which usually is what you want) but it will be explained in the 8-Step section.
Remember: This site is meant to be informative! The site itself will make absolutely NO changes to your computer and you may always choose not to follow a particular step. Make sure to Bookmark this page or add it to your Favorites because some links may take you off this site!

http://www.geocities.com/yosponge/4or8.html

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Run Programs Automatically As Administrator In Windows Vista

Windows Vista has amazing in-built security, and although I find the number of popup alerts acceptable, what does bug me is that Vista repeatedly asks me the same questions. I haven’t quite worked out how to stop Vista doing this, but I have worked out how to automatically run programs as an administrator.

To do this all you have to do is the following:

1. Right-click on the shortcut for the program
2. Click on the Advanced button
3. In the Dialog window that pops up check the box ‘Run As Administrator’

Once you’ve done this that particular application will always run as administrator, which can help solve compatibility problems.

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Modify the Windows XP System Properties logo

The Windows XP System Properties logo is often changed by computer manufacturers. Hardware vendors use this general system information dialog to brand your computer with their own logo and support contact information.

In this tip you can learn how you can insert your own logo in the system properties dialog and complete it with your own contact information.

To invoke the system properties dialog, click the Start button, right-click “My Computer” and select “Properties”.

This will open up your general system information dialog.

If you want to put your own graphic in there, you should create your image in a .bmp graphic file. It’s also a good idea to create this bitmap image with the same background shade of gray (RGB: 192, 192, 192) used in the Properties dialog. Otherwise, you risk letting Windows make its own judgments regarding color contrast and background shading.

The next thing to consider is the image size. The system properties dialog only offers enough real estate for an image of about 180 (wide) x120 (high) pixels. Make sure that you can fit your logo in this area.

Once you have created your logo and saved it as a .bmp file, copy it over to the system32 subfolder of your Windows system folder. If you don’t know where your system folder is :

- Click the Start button and select “Run”
- In the “open” field, enter “cmd” (without the quotes) and click ok
- Windows will open up a dos command window
- In the command window, type “set system” (without the quotes)
- Look for the line that contains “SystemRoot”, this is where your system directory is (generally, the Windows XP system folder is c:\windows)

Now that you know where your system folder is, copy your logo image file over to the system32 subfolder of your system folder. Then rename your logo image file to oemlogo.bmp

Additionally you can create a new file in this same folder and name the new file oeminfo.ini

In this file you can enter your contact information like in the example below :

[General]
Manufacturer=Pctipsbox
Model=ShowCase

[Support Information]
Line1=” ”
Line2=” For support, sales, upgrades or questions:”
Line3=”"
Line4=” Some text to demonstrate the XP System Properties logo”
Line5=” Windows XP Tips and Tricks ”
Line6=” Pctipsbox”
Line7=”"
Line8=” +1 (888) 888-888 (voice)”
Line9=” +1 (888) 888-889 (fax)”
Line10=”"
Line11=”"
Line12=” http://www.pctipsbox.com/”

Save and close the file and you are ready. From now on, if someone opens up the system properties dialog, your own Windows XP System Properties logo is in there.

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Change taskbar time to military/international format

Would you like to change the time format in the taskbar to military or international time format?

1. Click on the Start Button, type in intl.cpl and hit Enter.
2. Click the Customize this format button.
3. Click on the Time tab.
4. Change the time format to H:mm:ss and hit OK.
5. Hit OK once more to close Regional and Language Options.

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Change the registered owner of your PC

Would you like the change the registered owner and organization for your Windows Vista installation? Follow these steps below to make the registry changes necessary:

1. Click on the Start Button and type in regedit and hit Enter.
2. Navigate through HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SOFTWARE, Microsoft, Windows NT and CurrentVersion.
3. Right click on RegisteredOwner and select Properties.
4. Enter in the new RegisteredOwner value.
5. Right click on RegisteredOrganization and select Properties.
6. Enter in the new RegisteredOrganization value.
7. Close Registry Editor.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
RegisteredOwner
RegisteredOrganization

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a website tells u if your computer ports are hacked or not

You need to wait 1 min before the test will start.
info:Port Scan
This server will now attempt to open several common ports on your computer. The results of these attempts will be displayed on this page as Open, Closed, or Secure:

If your firewall is configured to block a port, and it is operating correctly, you will see Secure and an event will be logged on your firewall.
A Closed port indicates that the port is reachable but there is no program currently accepting connections there.
If the port is indicated as Open there is an application or service on your computer actively accepting connections.

The time to check each port will range from less than a second up to 20 seconds. Ports which are Secure will take the most time and if u are secured after the test ends tells u

Test complete.
No open ports were found


Website: http://probe.hackerwatch.org/probe/probe.asp

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What is Windows Messenger Service? How to stop Windows Messenger Service?

There are two messenger services available for Windows and Internet users. They are Windows Messenger Service and Instant Messaging.

Instant Messenger is used to chat, call, share files, video conference, send SMS messages between two internet users.

Windows Messenger is used to just send messages between two users in the network.

This article is about Windows Messenger Service not about Instant messaging. We will discuss how we can stop the Windows Messenger Service that can be really troublesome at times.

Is Windows Messenger Service problematic?

Yes. A total stranger can use Windows Messenger Service to send you a message. When you are seriously engaged in your work, a pop window will suddently appear in your window. You will see the message sent by the stranger. The title bar of the pop window will show ‘Messenger Service’.

Users of Windows 98/ME/2000/NT/XP will have this Windows Messenger Service. The person who send these messages over internet may not even know who you are. Likewise you too may not know who sent these messages.

To play hide and seek like this Windows Messenger Service is used. You do not need any special skills to send these messages. Even new computer users can send these messages. The Windows messenger service is so easy to use.

They may send messages that threaten as if your computer has been infected by a virus. Or a message that sends advertisements. It may even prompt you to change passwords by clicking on a link and taking you to another website. Or the message can be just about anything.

If you can stop the windows messenger service in your computer then you can prevent all these pop up windows from your computer. If required you can bring back windows messenger service anytime later.

How to Stop Windows Messenger Service?

For those Windows 98 users and Windows ME users, sorry you cannot stop this windows messenger service in your computer.

To stop Windows Messenger service in Windows NT

Click on Start->Control Panel
Double click the ‘Administrative tools’ icon.
Click on the ‘Services’ icon and double click the ‘Messenger’
In the ‘Messenger Properties’ window select the ‘Stop’ option
In the ‘Startup type’ option select the ‘Disable’ option
Click on OK
To stop Windows Messenger in Windows 2000

Click on Start->Settings->Control Panel
Click on the ‘Administrative tools’
Click on ‘Services’
Scroll down and find the ‘Messenger’ service and click on properties command
Click on ‘Stop’ button
In the Startup type select ‘Disable’
Click on ‘OK’
To stop Windows Messenger Service in Windows XP Home edition

Click on Start=>settings=>Control Panel
Click on ‘Performance and Maintenance’
Click on the ‘Administrative Tools’
Click on ‘Services’
Scroll down and choose the ‘Messenger’ and right click and select ‘Properties’
Click on ‘Stop’
In the ‘Startup type’ select ‘Disable’.
To stop Windows Messenger Service in Windows XP Professional

Click on Start=>settings=>Control Panel
Click on the ‘Administrative Tools’
Click on ‘Services
Scroll down and choose the ‘Messenger’ and right click and select ‘Properties’
Click on ‘Stop’
In the ‘Startup type’ select ‘Disable’.
Congratulations you have successfully stopped your Windows Messenger Service. Now you will not get those annoying pop windows from strangers anymore.

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How To Combine Video Files

Here’s a great tip for re-combining video files, if a website has split it into smaller parts to make it easier for people with slow internet connections to download them. It’s so simple, it’s beautiful.

The method is different depending on the type of movie that you are playing. If the movie consists of multiple mpg movies you can use the windows command line to merge them.

Start the command line by pressing the windows key and R. Enter cmd in the prompt which will start the command line window. Enter the following line into the command line, make sure you enter the right filepath to the movie. I suggest you move the files to the top of a hard drive to ease the amount of typing that needs to be done.

copy /B “C:\movie1.mpg” + “C:\movie2.mpg” + “C:\movie3.mpg” “C:\completemovie.mpg”

This joins movie1.mpg, movie2.mpg and movie3.mpg into completemovie.mpg. You can add more movies to join more parts without problems.

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