Devilslab » computer tricks

How to disable Windows XP Boot logo

Shekhar Saxena — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:37:02 +0000

It is possible to disable the XP splash screen, which will slightly speed up the overall boot process. Be aware that removing the splash screen will also cause you not to see any boot-up messages that might come up (chkdsk, convert … ), but if your system runs without any problems then it should not matter.

Edit C:boot.ini.
Add ” /noguiboot” right after “/fastdetect”.

Upon restarting, the splash screen will be gone. It can be re-enabled by removing the new switch.

How to Enable Task Manager in Windows XP Home / Pro

Shekhar Saxena — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:45:24 +0000

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key: SoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesSystem
Name: DisableTaskMgr
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1=Enablethis key, that is DISABLE TaskManager
Value: 0=Disablethis key, that is Don’t Disable, Enable TaskManager

As part of the enhanced management available in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, rather than risking a registry change, as an administrator you can enable or disable Windows 2000 Pro or Windows XP Pro’s TaskManager using Group Policy Editor. This can be applied to the local policy. Note: if you are trying to override your organizations group policy, you can’t. As soon as you re-authenticate to the domain, the domain or OU Group Policy will rewrite the registry setting. But if the TaskManager was accidently disabled or you need to control this item for a set of standalone boxes this is for you:

Click Start
Click Run
Enter gpedit.msc in the Open box and click OK
In the Group Policy settings window
- Select User Configuration
- Select Administrative Templates
- Select System
- Select Ctrl+Alt+Delete options
- Select Remove Task Manager
- Double-click the Remove Task Manager option

And as I mentioned above, since the policy is Remove Task Manager, by disabling the policy, you are enabling the Task Manager

How to disable USB ports ?

Shekhar Saxena — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:52:27 +0000

Here is a way to disable USB ports in an Active Directory Domain

In Active Directory Users and Computers, open an existing GPO or create a new one and open it. Use the security settings of that GPO to specify which computers it affects.

In that GPO, go to Computer Configuration – Windows Settings – Security Settings – File System and create a new entry (right-click File System and select Add File). Specify the location of USBSTOR.INF (usually SystemRoot%InfUSBSTOR.INF)
Change the security settings of the new entry. The security settings that you specify here will be enforced on the USBSTOR.INF of every computer to which the GPO is applied. This process is not additive, which means that the previous security settings of USBSTOR.INF will be overwritten by the ones given in the GPO. It is therefore recommended to grant full control to SYSTEM and local administrators. But unlike in the default security settings of USBSTOR.INF, you should not grant any priviledges to Everybody. You do not need to explicitly deny access – just omit an entry for Everybody. Optionally, you can grant read access to a certain group. Members of this group will be able to use USB storage.

Repeat the above two steps for USBSTOR.PNF.

Download USBSTOR.ADM.

Back in the GPO, right-click Administrative Templates under Computer Configuration and select Add/Remove Templates. Click Add and browse to the location of USBSTOR.ADM. Close the dialog.

You should now have an additional entry called Services and Drivers in Administrative Templates. Click on it. If it is empty, select View from the menu and uncheck Show Policies Only. Click back on Services and Drivers in Administrative Templates. It should now show the USB Storage policy. Double click it, select Enabled and pick Disabled from the Startup Type drop down. Again, the policy must be enabled wheras Startup Type must be Disabled.
Close the dialog as well as the GPO and boot/reboot one of your workstations. Make sure no USB strorage device is connected to that computer. Log on with administrative privileges and check the permissions of USBSTOR.INF and USBSTOR.PNF. Check the value of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesUsbStorStart. It should be 4. It is also ok if the UsbStor key doesn’t exist at all.
On the same workstation, log off and back on as a user that should not have access to USB storage. Connect a USB memory stick or a similar device. Nothing should happen. Remove the memory stick.

Log on as a user that should have access to USB storage and execute net start usbstor in a command shell or at Start – Run before connecting the memory stick. The memory stick should initialized and mapped to a drive letter. If USBSTOR fails to start, it’s probably because this is the first time a memory stick is plugged into the workstation in which case USBSTOR is not yet installed. Nevertheless, the memory stick should be initialized and mapped correctly but you need to reboot in order to reapply the administrative template such that USBSTOR is disabled again. Alternatively, you can disable it manually by downloading and double clicking USBSTOR.REG as well as executing net stop usbstor.

Instruct the users with access to USB storage that they need to execute net start usbstor before they can connect a USB storage device.

"Virtual Memory Too low" Warning Trouble in win xp and vista

Shekhar Saxena — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:43:08 +0000

When there is less physical memory than needed, then some virtual memory (virtual RAM) is created on the disk. When there is a limit set to the size of virtual memory usage and there is not enough of it present there is a warning that frequently comes “Virtual Memory too low”.

Solution 1 :

This problem occurs when physical RAM + Virtual RAM (usually created on hard disk) together are not sufficient to take care of the currently needed RAM size, or this situation is about to arise. This usually happens when some fixed upper limit for Virtual Memory has been set. To solve this problem, you can either upgrade you physical RAM on your computer (recommended), or you can set the Virtual Memory to system managed size or you can do both. Setting Virtual Memory to system managed size means windows will set it to higher size whenever needed automatically,for this,

Right click on My computer –> goto properties, goto advanced tab, click on performance settings, now click on advanced, now click on advanced, now click on change button for Virtual memory.

On this screen select the System managed size, press OK. After this re-start your computer. This will solve the virtual memory too low problem.

Solution 2:
Recommended solution is to upgrade your physical memory (RAM) according to requirements of the kind of applications that you run on your computer. If you upgrade RAM or not, the following procedure will help prevent this warning by increasing the virtual memory limit.

Right click on My computer icon and click properties.
This will show system properties window. Click on a advanced tab and click on the settings button under heading performance.
This will open performance options window. Click on advanced tab and click on change button under heading virtual memory.
Check if the space available is set to some custom value or double the RAM size ?
If it is not double the RAM memory size , then select the size option set the virtual memory size double the RAM Size and press set button and press OK button.
Restart the computer.

How to solve most common problems in computer/laptops ?

Shekhar Saxena — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:40:42 +0000

1. Task Manager Disabled:

If you are working on Windows XP pro, following steps will help u to enable Task Manager

SOLUTION 1:
Click Start –> Run
Enter gpedit.msc in the Open box and click OK
In the Group Policy settings window, select User Configuration
Select Administrative Templates
Select System
Select Ctrl+Alt+Delete options
Select Remove Task Manager
Double-click the Remove Task Manager option
Disable that option

SOLUTION 2:
Click on Start >> Run and in the Open box type:

REG add HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesSystem /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Click OK.

2. Double-clicking any drive opens search option:

Solution 1:
That’s a virus named as ravmon.exe and autorun.inf
Scan first with a good antivirus [Nod32 Recommanded]
then try this trick.

First show the hidden files and folders options then try this method

1. Go to Start–>run and type cmd then click ok

2. If u want to remove the infected file from c drive then type C: in command prompt and press enter

3. Type autorun.inf and press enter
autorun.inf file is opened

4. Now type “attrib autorun.inf -s -h -r” and press enter

5. Now delete the file by typing
“del autorun.inf” and press enter

6.Now type autorun.inf and press enter now, u will find no infected autorun.inf file.

7. same way do for all other drives then restart ur pc

3. I accidentally deleted my “mspaint.exe”/”notepad.exe”/etc. file, how can I get it back?

Solution::

You can use any of following methods:

A. Goto “%windir%System32DLLCache” folder and look for the file, if its there then copy it to “%windir%System32″ folder.

B. Insert your Windows Setup CD and goto “I386″ folder. Now look for the same file, it’ll present there but the last letter of extension will be “_”. e.g., u’ll get “mspaint.ex_”/”notepad.ex_”/etc. Now open Command Prompt and goto “I386″ folder and give following command:

expand mspaint.ex_ mspaint.exe
expand notepad.ex_ notepad.exe
etc.

Now u can copy the file to “%windir%System32″ folder.

C. Give following command in Command Prompt:

sfc /SCANNOW

It’ll automatically restore the files.

4. When I right-click on Start button and select “Open”, a “Copy To” or “Move To” dialog box opens automatically.

Solution:
Open regedit and goto:
Code:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTAllFilesystemObjectsshellexContextMenuHandlers

Now under this key, delete following 2 keys:
Copy To
Move To

5. Windows is showing some wrong icons of files. How can I reset the corrupted icons?
Solution:

You can use any of following methods:

A. Download TweakUI and then click on “Repair Icons” in “Repair” section.

B. Open My Computer and goto:
C:Documents and SettingsUser_NameLocal SettingsApplication Data

Replace C: with your system drive and “user_Name” with your username.
Now there’ll be a HIDDEN file “iconcache.db”, delete it and restart your system.

6. A strange process “ctfmon.exe” always runs in background and if I click on “End Process” button, it restarts automatically.

Solution:
Open Control Panel and goto Add/Remove Programs list. Now click on the Microsoft Office entry and then click on “Change” button. Now select “Add/Remove Features” and click on “Next”. Now expand “Office Shared Features” and click on “Alternative User Input” and then select “Not Available” and finally click on Update. It’ll permanently remove that ctfmon.exe and your problem will be solved.

7. My Windows Login Screen has changed to “Classic Logon Box”. I want the new Welcome Screen back.

Solution:
Type “control userpasswords” in RUN dialog box or Open “User Accounts” in Control Panel. Then click on “Change the way Users log on and off”. Now check the option “Use Welcome Screen”. If you get following error:

Uninstall client services for netware.

Then Open “Network Connections” and open Properties of your Internet Connection. Now goto “Networking” tab and select “Client services on Netware” option and click on the”Uninstall” button.

8. Whenever I start my computer, Scandisk starts running even I proper shut down the PC last time.

Solution:
Do as following:

A. Open regedit and goto:

Code:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession Manager

In right-side pane, change the value of BootExecute to:

autocheck autochk *

B. If the above trick doesnt help then give following commands in Command Prompt:

chkntfs /x drive_name

for e.g., if ScanDisk runs automatically for C: and D: drives, then give following commands one by one:

chkntfs /x C:
chkntfs /x D:

9. When I start my computer, I get error message:

“WindowsSystem32configsystem” file missing or corrupt

Solution::
Boot using Windows Setup CD and enter into “Recovery Console” by pressing “R”. Now Log into windows installation and enter admin password. Now give following commands at prompt:

copy %windir%Repairsystem %windir%System32Config

If it doesnt work, then again boot into “Recovery Console” and give following commands:

fixmbr
bootcfg /scan
bootcfg /rebuild
fixboot

Win XP Tweaks

STARTUP

Disable Windows Genuine Advantage Notification in 3 Simple Steps

Shekhar Saxena — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:32:05 +0000

Following three simple steps now you can get rid of the pesky and sometimes buggy Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) notifications:
1. Reboot Windows in safe mode (hold the f8 key while booting and you will get the option to boot in safe mode) and then:

2. Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and search for wgalogon folder and delete it. You should backup up the registry beforehand, in case somethiong goes wrong.

3. In your windows directory search for files wga* and delete them.

You are done!

Now reboot back normally and continue your work. Windows Genuine Advantage will not bother you anymore.

Warning: Use at your own risk. Backup everything before you do.

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