Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Why don't they tell us this stuff?



I found the neatest little website about Windoze XP that tells me things I never heard of and how to modify the Registry to make it happen:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm

For instance, a simple tip in the thousands of tips says:

"No To All When Overwriting Files

Added 4/5/02

When overwriting files in the Windows Explorer, there is an option for Yes To All.
This would overwrite any files you would normally be prompted for.

To have No To All, simply hold down the Shift key while you click on the No
option."

How easy is that? Did YOU know about it? I usually tell it to overwrite Yes-To-All just to stop it from asking me a thousand times on duplicate MP3 files moving them around....(sigh)

Wish I'd known about this years ago...

....or how about......

Logging in as Administrator

Added 4/11/02

If you want to log in as Administrator, but it is not show on the Welcome screen,
Hold the Ctrl-Alt key and press Del twice.
This will bring up the normal login and you can log on as Administrator

To unhide the Administrator account so it does show up:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList
Unhide the Administrator key by giving it a value of 1

Did you know about that? I never paid it much attention, before.

....or how about....for you Outlook users:

Getting Rid of Unread Email Messages

Updated 4/20/02

To remove the Unread Email message by user's login names:
Start Regedit
For a single user: Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
For all users: Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
Create a DWORD key called MessageExpiryDays
Give it a value of 0

How easy is that?!

This website is just great reading and tinkering, but if anyone screws up their registry and it won't boot, I don't wanna hear about it. IT WASN'T MY FAULT!

I did this one because I'm an old fart from DOS 1.0, know all the commands and I can copy/move/delete files a thousand times faster in DOS than stupid Explorer can, even if the guy running it has an MSCE.
It puts DOS in Explorer!....(c;

Opening a Command Prompt to a Particular Directory from Explorer

Added 3/18/02

If you want to open a command prompt to a directory that is selected in the
Explorer:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Directory \ shell

Create a new key called Command Give it the value of the name you want to appear in the Explorer. Something like Open DOS Box
Under this create a new key called command Give it a value of cmd.exe /k "cd %L" Now when you are in the Explorer, right click on a folder, select Open DOS Box, and a command prompt will open to the selected directory.



Well, I thought you might find something of interest on this website. Most of his registry edits have an link that will download the edit file he is talking about. Sure wish I knew as much about XP as this guy does. Hell, I wish MICRO$OFT knew as much about XP as this guy does!

Your humble hacker,

Monty