Force windows XP to reboot upon crashing

This registry edit will cause your system to reboot itself automatically upon crashing. This can be useful if you have a reason for keeping your system on 24 /7:
Open REGEDIT
Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet\Control\C rashControl'
Edit the 'AutoReboot' value to '1'

Remove Hidden Shares from Win32 Boxes

NetBIOS open way for many Intruders if the port is open in a LAN, by default the port number for the NetBOS would be 139, and if it is in open state, then the hackers can take advantage over the default hidden share present in windows box specifically the IPC$ share, ( IPC - Inter Process Connect ), here the attacker can exploit this just by using the 'net use' command that is shiped with the windows machine itself, they will juts use the 'net use ' command and will establish a remote connection via IPC$ and once done, they can remotely create user account on the compromised box and can establish a telnet connection and can easily root the box. Here is a counter measure that can be taken to avoid this sort of attack, By default Windows 2000, Windows XP and WinNT automatically enables the hidden shares (admin$, c$, d$ and IPC$ - Inter Process Connect ). The following Registry Key will help you in disabling the Hidden shares. System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet > Services > LanmanServer > Parameters]
Value Name: AutoShareWks
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disable shares, 1 = enable)
Goto Run and type compmgmt.msc, this will take you to the computer management, here Click on 'shared folders' and then 'share' then delete the shares that you want to remove. Note : To remove the admin share for only the current session use the second method (Computer Management console), if you want a permanent removal, add the AutoShareWks in the registry.

Activate the administrative share (C$, D$, etc.) on Windows Vista

Since Windows Vista administrative share is not enabled by default, probably because of security reasons, therefore I will show you how to activate the administrative share. Clearly, this trick is for people who use their computers at home (except professionals who can connect to the VPN and corporate network and log on to a Microsoft). Launch First the Registry Editor using the module with real-time search from Start menu and then type "regedit" and click on search. Once you are inside the register go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ System From there, make a right click on the "System" and, in the context menu that appears, click on "New" then "Key DWORD 32 -bit", if you have Windows Vista 64 then type "Key DWORD 64 -bit" A new key appears. Select it and press F2 to change it's name.Name it"LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy" and then double mouse click on the key and change it's value to "1" Now, you can access hidden resources, here are some examples of use:
A Windows XP PC can access C$, D$, etc. on a Windows Vista
A Windows Vista PC (registry key unmodified) may reach C$, D$, etc. on a Windows Vista
A Windows Vista PC (registry key amended) does not have access to C$, D$, etc. on a Windows Vista (registry key unchanged)
If you want to access to these resources, even if you made good changes to the registry, you must have a valid user account with the necessary rights.

svchost.exe procees explored

You are no doubt reading this article because you are wondering why on earth there are nearly a dozen processes running with the name svchost.exe. You can't kill them, and you don't remember starting them... so what are they? So What Is It? According to Microsoft: "svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries". Could we have that in english please? Some time ago, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality from internal Windows services into.dll files instead of.exe files. From a programming perspective this makes more sense for reusability... but the problem is that you can't launch a.dll file directly from Windows, it has to be loaded up from a running executable (.exe). Thus the svchost.exe process was born. Why Are There So Many svchost.exes Running? If you've ever taken a look at the Services section in control panel you might notice that there are a Lot of services required by Windows. If every single service ran under a single svchost.exe instance, a failure in one might bring down all of Windows... so they are separated out. Those services are organized into logical groups, and then a single svchost.exe instance is created for each group. For instance, one svchost.exe instance runs the 3 services related to the firewall. Another svchost.exe instance might run all the services related to the user interface, and so on. So What Can I Do About It? You can trim down unneeded services by disabling or stopping the services that don't absolutely need to be running. Additionally, if you are noticing very heavy CPU usage on a single svchost.exe instance you can restart the services running under that instance. The biggest problem is identifying what services are being run on a particular svchost.exe instance... we'll cover that below. If you are curious what we're talking about, just open up Task Manager and check the "Show processes from all users" box:
Checking From the Command Line (Vista or XP Pro) If you want to see what services are being hosted by a particular svchost.exe instance, you can use the tasklist command from the command prompt in order to see the list of services.
tasklist /SVC
The problem with using the command line method is that you don't necessarily know what these cryptic names refer to. Checking in Task Manager in Vista You can right-click on a particular svchost.exe process, and then choose the "Go to Service" option.
This will flip over to the Services tab, where the services running under that svchost.exe process will be selected:
The great thing about doing it this way is that you can see the real name under the Description column, so you can choose to disable the service if you don't want it running. Using Process Explorer in Vista or XP You can use the excellent Process Explorer utility from Microsoft/Sysinternals to see what services are running as a part of a svchost.exe process. Hovering your mouse over one of the processes will show you a popup list of all the services:
Or you can double-click on a svchost.exe instance and select the Services tab, where you can choose to stop one of the services if you choose.
Disabling Services Open up Services from the administrative tools section of Control Panel, or type services.msc into the start menu search or run box. Find the service in the list that you'd like to disable, and either double-click on it or right-click and choose Properties.
Change the Startup Type to Disabled, and then click the Stop button to immediately stop it.
You could also use the command prompt to disable the service if you choose. In this command "trkwks" is the Service name from the above dialog, but if you go back to the tasklist command at the beginning of this article you'll notice you can find it there as well.
sc config trkwks start= disabled Hopefully this helps somebody!

Undo an Accidental Move or Delete With a Keyboard Shortcut

Have you ever accidentally deleted the wrong file, or duplicated files while trying to select them with the mouse? Those types of mistakes can be extremely frustrating, but there's a really, really simple way to reverse them. All you have to do is use the Ctrl+Z keyboard shortcut, or use Edit \ Undo on the menu.
This is especially handy when you are trying to select a bunch of files, and accidentally move the mouse and copy them into the same folder instead:
Once you do that, just immediately use the Ctrl+Z shortcut and the files will be removed, although you will get the regular delete confirmation dialog:
This can be confusing, but since the accidentally copied file is now going to be removed permanently, it makes sense that you'll have to accept the deletion. Also note that this works in any version of Windows.

Show your name on SYSTEM CLOCK

This tip is absolutely and completely useless, and will even make applications that depend on timestamps have issues. It's mostly just to be used as a cool trick you can show off to your friends, so we're going to show you how it works. The way this trick works is by modifying the regional settings for the time format. Instead of using just AM or PM, you can put up to 12 characters of text in that field.
Start by opening Regional and Language Options from the start menu search box or the control panel.
On the Formats tab you'll see the "Customize this format" button, which you'll need to choose.
Select the Time tab, and then here's where we can make whatever settings we want.
I chose to set mine to "AM - Geek" so I could still see AM or PM, but you can choose any 12 characters for either field. Keep in mind that the PM symbol is only going to display during the "PM" hours. This does change more than just the displayed clock, so I'd advise not using this on a computer you do actual work on. Using the F5 key in notepad shows the "Geek" text as well:
It's one of those things that's interesting to know... just not very useful. It does work in XP as well.

How to use data validation in Excel

In Excel we usually find a situation wherein we want to limit the values of certain fields. This tip is useful if you want to standardize a certain field and limit it to a few predefined values.
For example, we want a gender field to have only one of the two values: "MALE" or "FEMALE".
Instead of letting users type "MALE" or "FEMALE" we can provide a dropdown like field to make sure we won't type other information:
As an added validation, Excel will also prompt you if you inputted a value other than the options provided:
This is what we call data validation in Excel. So how do we do that? First position your cursor on the field that you want to add data validation. Then click the Data menu and then Validation:
The Validation dialog box will appear, enter the list of choices delimited by comma on the "source" field, check in-cell dropdown option, choose "list" on the "Allow" field:
You can also apply the data validation rule to a column or row or even a few selected cells. With data validation, you can be assured that there are no invalid data inside your spreadsheet.

How to detect computer & email monitoring or spying software

Computer Monitoring
So now, if you still think someone is spying on you, here's what you can do! The good thing right now is that neither Windows XP SP3 nor Windows Vista support multiple concurrent connections while someone is logged into the console (there is a hack for this, but I would not worry about). What this means is that if you're logged into your XP or Vista computer (like you are now if you're reading this), and someone were to connect to it using the BUILT-IN REMOTE DESKTOP feature of Windows, your screen would become locked and it would tell tell you who is connected. So why is that useful? It's useful because it means that in order for someone to connect to YOUR session without you noticing or your screen being taken over, they have use third-party software and it's a lot easier to detect third-party software than a normal process in Windows. So now we're looking for third-party software, which is usually referred to as remote control software or virtual network computing (VNC) software. First, the easy thing to do is to simply check in your Start Menu All Programs and check whether or not something like VNC, RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, etc is installed. A lot of times IT people are sloppy and figure that a normal user won't know what a piece of software is and will simply ignore it. If any of those programs are installed, then someone can connect to your computer without you knowing it as long as the program is running in the background as a Windows service. That brings us to the second point. Usually, if one of the above listed programs are installed, there will be an icon for it in the task bar because it needs to be constantly running to work.
Check all of your icons (even the hidden ones) and see what is running. If you find something you've not heard of, do a quick Google search to see what pops up. It's usually quite hard to remove something from the taskbar, so if there is something installed to monitor your computer, it should be there. However, if someone really sneaky installed it and nothing shows up there, you can try another way. Again, because these are third-party apps, they have to connect to Windows XP or Vista on different communication ports. Ports are simply a virtual data connection by which computers share information directly. As you may already know, XP and Vista come with a built-in Firewall that blocks many of the incoming ports for security reasons. If you're not running an FTP site, why should your port 23 be open, right? So in order for these third-party apps to connect to your computer, they must come through a port, which has to be open on your computer. You can check all the open ports by going to Start , Control Panel , and Windows Firewall .
Click on the Exceptions tab and you'll see see a list of programs with check boxes next to them. The ones that are checked are "open" and the unchecked or unlisted ones are "closed". Go through the list and see if there is a program you're not familiar with or that matches VNC, remote control, etc. If so, you can block the program by un-checking the box for it!
The only other way I can think of to see if someone is connected to your computer is to see if there are any processes running under a different name! If you go to the Windows Task Manager (press Cntr + Shift + Esc together) and go to the Processes tab, you'll see a column titled User Name .
Scroll through all the processes and you should only see your user name, Local Service, Network Service, and System. Anything else means someone is logged into the computer!
Email & Web Site Monitoring
To check whether your email is being monitored is quite simple. Always, when you send an email from Outlook or some email client on your computer, it has to connect to the email server. Now it can either connect directly or it can connect through what is called a proxy server, which takes a request, alters or checks it, and forwards it on to another server. If you're going through a proxy server for email or web browsing, than the web sites you access or the emails you write can be saved and viewed later on. You can check for both and here's how. For IE, go to Tools , then Internet Options . Click on the Connections tab and choose LAN Settings .
If the Proxy Server box is checked and it has a local IP address with a port number, then that means you're going through a local server first before it reaches the web server. This means that any web site you visit first goes through another server running some kind of software that either blocks the address or simply logs it. For your email, you're checking for the same thing, a local IP address for the POP and SMTP mail servers. To check in Outlook, go to Tools , Email Accounts , and click Change or Properties, and find the values for POP and SMTP server.
If you're working in a big corporate environment, it's more than likely that the Internet and email are being monitored. You should always be careful in writing emails or browsing web sites while at the office. Trying to break through the security also might get you in trouble if they find out you bypassed their systems!

Create Custom Desktop Themes

Learn to create custom themes for your desktop through three fantastic tutorials. First up we have RocketDock which allows you to bring Mac OS X to your PC. You can create your own icons, manage programs, it's completely customizable and easy to use.

Next up we have Samurize , another solution for desktop customization. It allows you to monitor various aspects of your PC through widgets along with plenty of other features.

Finally, we have a step by step guide which guides you through the process of creating your own themes

Protect your Computer from USB Virus

Have you ever attached a USB to a computer and later found out that the Computer is infected by a virus? I have definitely faced this situation many times. If you attach your infected USB drive to the infected computer the virus is transferred to the Computer in no time infecting all the important documents. But now you don't have to worry about any USB Virus because USB Disk Security provides 100 % protection against any threats via USB drive. USB Disk Security provides 100% protection against any threats via USB drive, however, the majority of other products are unable even to guarantee 90% protection. USB Disk Security is the best antivirus software to permanently protect offline computer without the need for signature updates, but other antivirus software should update signature database regularly, and they cannot effectively protect offline computer. This light and easy to use solution is 100% compatible with all software and doesn't slow down your computer at all. You pay USB Disk Security once and get it all, however, other antivirus products should be paid for updates every year.
Product Highlights: 100 % protection against any malicious programs via USB storage USB Disk Security uses innovative proactive technology to block any threats via USB drive. There are relatively few products available in shops or on the Internet which offer even close to 100% protection against any malicious programs via USB drive. The majority of products are unable even to guarantee 90% protection. USB Disk Security is the world's best software to block threats via USB drive. The best solution to protect offline computer Other antivirus software should update signature database regularly, and they cannot effectively protect offline computer that is not connected to the Internet. When new viruses, worms and other malicious attacks strike, traditional signatures are insufficient. Every minute one waits for a virus signature update creates a window of vulnerability that could have devastating consequences. USB Disk Security uses advanced proactive detection techniques, requires no signature updates, and closes the window of vulnerability left open by other reactive, signature-based responses. The world's fastest and smallest antivirus software With USB Disk Security, it's not necessary to sacrifice speed for detection and scanning. Compare antivirus software and you'll discover that USB Disk Security is by far one of the smallest applications in the industry. For example, the v5.0 of USB Disk Security installer is just 1 MB. The program utilizes approximately 1 to 7 MB of RAM. 100% compatible with all software Incompatibility between antivirus programs is an issue. In the vast majority of cases, installing two antivirus programs from different vendors on one machine (for increased protection) is technically impossible, as the two programs will disrupt each other's functioning. However, USB Disk Security is 100% compatible with all software, including Windows Vista. Simple to use USB Disk Security has been specifically designed to perform effectively regardless of the user's level of computer expertise. Just install and forget it. System Requirement 100 MHz Processor or more, 16 MB RAM or more. The operating system should be Windows 95 , Windows 98 , Windows 2000 , Windows XP, Windows NT 4.0, Windows ME, or Vista. Download
http://w17 .easy-share.com/ 1702778903 .html

Add Your Name or Application to right click Of My Computer

How To Add Your Name or Application to right click Of My Computer
Play with your windows Xp with these Registry Hacks
To write your name on right click application please follow the steps:
1.Copy & Paste the following code in Notepad And then Save it as "hack.reg"
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLS ID\{20 D04 FE0-3 AEA-1069 - A2 D 8-08002 B 30309 D}\shell\Registry Editor]
@="Your Name Or Name of the Application"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLS ID\{20 D04 FE0-3 AEA-1069 - A2 D 8-08002 B 30309 D}\shell\Registry Editor\command]
@="Location Of The Application"
2. Now edit it and then Type your name In
Eg:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLS ID\{20 D04 FE0-3 AEA-1069 - A2 D 8-08002 B 30309 D}\shell\Registry Editor]
@="roney"
3. If u want to get any application, once you click Your name or name of application
Then , Type the location Of the application Which u want to open In:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLS ID\{20 D04 FE0-3 AEA-1069 - A2 D 8-08002 B 30309 D}\shell\Registry Editor\command]
@="Location Of The Application"
For eg . C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\ messenger.exe
Thats It finally save it And then Run it .
--------------------------- --------------------------- --------------------------- ---------------
How To add Application Control Panel
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWA RE\Classes\CLSID\{20 D04 FE0-3 AEA-1069 -A2 D 8-08002 B 30309 D}\shell\Control Panel\command]
@="rundll32 .exe shell32.dll , Control_RunDLL"
How To add Application Add/Remove
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20 D04 FE0-3 AEA-1069 -A2 D 8-08002 B 30309 D}\shell\Add/Remove\command]
@="control appwiz.cpl"
How To add Application Reboot/Restart
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20 D04 FE0-3 AEA-1069 -A2 D 8-08002 B 30309 D}\shell\[Reboot]\command]
@="shutdown -r -f -t 5"
How To add Application Shutdown
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20 D04 FE0-3 AEA-1069 -A2 D 8-08002 B 30309 D}\shell\[Shutdown]\command]
@="shutdown -s -f -t 5"
Hope these Old hacks will be useful for you.If you have Some more Registry Hacks Share it here.

How To: Manage Your Passwords With Credential Manager in Windows 7 or in Vista

Credential Manager is a new SSO solution that Microsoft offers in Windows Server 2003 , Windows XP and also includes in new generation operating systems Windows Vista and in Windows 7 .Single sign-on (SSO) is an approach that attempts to reduce the time users spend performing logon tasks and the number of passwords users must remember.Credential Manager is a central store for all of your usernames, passwords, and X.509 certificates. It's based on a secure client-side credential- caching mechanism.
To use Credential Manager in Windows Vista:
Open Control Panel.
Open User Accounts.
Click Manage My Network Passwords on the Related Tasks panel (on the left side of the window). You'll get a dialog box listing all of your stored usernames and passwords.
Add another username and password, or remove the existing ones or change their properties.
To use Credential Manager in Windows 7:

Microsoft's new generation operating system Windows 7(code named as Vienna) will include a system for managing the online IDs, logons, and passwords that you must manage for all of the Web sites you visit. Dubbed Windows Credentials , this feature utilizes a KeyRing for storing online credentials and a Credential Manager user interface. These settings can be backed up to and restored from a secure online vault. To access Credential Manager in Windows 7 go to Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Credential Manager Download Windows 7 if you doesn't have it

Remove PDF files Restriction on Print,Copy,Paste etc..

Some PDF documents prevent the user from copying and pasting or printing it's contents. This sometimes presents a problem since the creator of the PDF file might have used a font that is not available in the system trying to read it. Ensode contains a free online utility that allows you to upload a PDF, once uploaded, a version of the PDF without printing or copying/pasting restrictions is displayed in a new browser window.
How to Remove Restrictions on Printing & Copying - Unlock the Pdf File
Method 1
To unlock a PDF file, enter it's location in the "PDF file to unlock" field, by either typing it in the field or clicking on the "browse" button, then navigating to it's location. See Screenshot Below


Method 2
The Tricks Given by us in our previous post for hacking password protected PDF's in Remove Restrictions from PDF Files
The unlocked version of the PDF will be displayed in a new browser window, opened in the default PDF application for your system (usually Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Back Up your Hard Drive Automatically

When was the last time you backed up your important files? Last year when your friend called in tears after the Blue Screen of Death ate his thesis? We thought so. Learn to set up a program called SyncBack which automatically generates password protected zip files of your important documents.
Benefits:
It's free and pretty easy to use.
You can choose to save them to an external hard drive or upload them to an FTP server.
Schedule nightly, weekly, and monthly backups so you don't have to lift a finger.
No, don't just bookmark this post and do it later. Do it now! Before it's too late! If you need assistance automating backup, see a full guide to using SyncBack