Windows Tips & Tricks

Windows XP System Hangs Response

2009-03-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been using your computer and your system suddenly stops responding in ways like it if you try to open something it just hangs? One time I tried deleting a folder and it said it was in use, but it really wasn't. If this ever happens to you, you can follow these simple steps to 'reboot' your computer without 'rebooting' it.

Press CRTL + ALT + DEL

Goto the 'processes' tab and click explorer.exe once and then click 'end process'.

Now, click File > New Task and type explorer.exe

Everything should be fine now! If the problem is major, I would recommend actually shutting down then starting up again.

Boot Winindows XP Fast

2009-03-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

Follow the following steps:

1. Open notepad.exe, type "del c:\windows\prefetch\ntosboot-*.* /q" (without the quotes) & save as "ntosboot.bat" in c:\
2. From the Start menu, select "Run..." & type "gpedit.msc".
3. Double click "Windows Settings" under "Computer Configuration" and double click again on "Shutdown" in the right window.
4. In the new window, click "add", "Browse", locate your "ntosboot.bat" file & click "Open".
5. Click "OK", "Apply" & "OK" once again to exit.
6. From the Start menu, select "Run..." & type "devmgmt.msc".
7. Double click on "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
8. Right click on "Primary IDE Channel" and select "Properties".
9. Select the "Advanced Settings" tab then on the device or 1 that doesn't have 'device type' greyed out select 'none' instead of 'autodetect' & click "OK".
10. Right click on "Secondary IDE channel", select "Properties" and repeat step 9.
11. Reboot your computer.

Defending WinXP Pro -with what win-xp has to offer

2009-02-20T04:32:00.000-08:00

Today I will tell you about various ways to Securing WinXP Pro with what win-xp has to offer by default. No extra third party software to tweak things which might make your system unstable and push it into the verge of reinstalling soon often.

Note: These are just notes of the changes i made to win-xp pro using win-xp options
after my default install. These changes will not secure your box 100% but they
make a good couple of 1st steps. They are in no specific order other than the
order that I performed them.

1. NTFS Partition.
2. Disable Error Reporting
3. Disable Automatic Updates (only if your XP copy is pirated)
4. Disable "Recent Documents" Viewed
5. Setup XP Firewall
6. Setup screensaver password
7. Setup BIOS password
8. Setup "AfterBios" login password
9. Account Modifications
-Rename Admin Account
-Disable Guest Account
-Disable Help_Assistant Account
-Disable Support Account
10. Install a virus scanner.
11. Change Login Screen (default shows user names)
12. Disable Remote Registry (and other services)
13. Disable/Change Auto-Search settings in IE.

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1. NTFS Partition (I like being God over system users)
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Be sure to install XP onto an NTFS partition so that you (the administrator) can take advantage
of file permissions. You want this option so that "you" can decide who reads, writes,
executes what files.

If you didn't install XP onto an NTFS partition. Convert It. To convert to NTFS follow
the instructions below.

Open a command prompt and type "convert c: /FT:NTFS /v"

This command will convert your c: partition from FAT to NTFS in verbose mode.

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2. Disable Error Reporting - we don't want microsft to know every time we fuck up.
especially if we didn't pay for winxp.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

control panel >> performance and maintenance >> system >> advanced >> error reporting
(disable all)

right click "my computer" >> manage >> services and applications >> services >> " stop
and disable" Error Reporting.

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3. Disable automatic updates - to update, they must know what we have. thats a NO NO!
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NOTE: DO THIS ONLY IF YOUR COPY OF XP IS PIRATED!! I suggest "auto update" if your copy
of XP is legal. If your copy is pirated then i suggest that you stay updated with
the latest fixes and patches manually.

control panel >> performance and maintenance >> system >> automatic updates
(disable updates)

right click "my computer" >> manage >> services and applications >> services >> " stop
and disable" Automatic Updates.

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4. Quit listing most recent documents opened under the start button - Don't want the
girlfriend or the parents to find that interesting things you being viewing lately.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

control panel >> appearance and themes >> task bar and start menu >> start menu >>
customize >> advanced

remove the check mark next to "List my most recently opened documents".

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5. Block incoming traffic to your winxp box. - Before this change, i scanned my xp box and
found it to have many ports wide open. After this change, I found nothing and xp logged
the attempts in c:\windows\pfirewall.log.
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control panel >> network connections >> right click "local area connection" >> properties
>> advanced >> check the box under "Internet Connection Firewall" then choose "settings".

Services Tab - leave all unchecked unless there is a service you are running that people
must be able to access.

Logging Options - Log everything.

ICMP - I left all these unchecked for the time being. (allowing nothing)

(this does not protect you from "Spy Ware". This only stops traffic from coming into
your win-xp box (not all traffic). It does not stop traffic from going out.) If you
need to stop traffic from going out and need a more secure firewall then download a real
firewall like "zone alarm or black ice".

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6. Setting a screensaver password in case you leave some of your sensitive documents open when you walk away.
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right click on the desktop >> properties >> screen saver >> check the box next to " On
Resume, Password Protect."

If you don't have a password set on your user account, you can do so in control panel >>
user accounts >> change account.

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7. Setting a BIOS password - We don't want anyone rebooting the computer or trying to sneak
into your system while we are away at school or work.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't explain to one how this is done due to the differences between all computers and
how the BIOS settings are entered. If you know what I am talking about then do it. If you
don't know what I am talking about then learn how to do it. A screensaver password is useless
unless you setup a BIOS password.

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8. Setting up the "AfterBios" password. Sometimes bios passwords are easily cracked. This
password will add extra local login security in case your bios pass is cracked. I don't
know bout you but i love having to type in 3 passwards and a username to login to my box.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Start >> run >> type "syskey" >> choose "update" >> choose "Password Startup" >> enter a
password and choose ok.

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9. Renaming and Disabling Accounts for adminstrator, guest, help_assistant and support.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right click my_computer >> manage >> local users and groups

rename administrator account
disable guest account
disable help_assistant account
disable support account

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10. Install Virus Protection............. (We like our uncorrupted data and trojan free system)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Install a virus scanner. Your firewall might protect your system from unwanted hackers but
what about an unwanted virus or trojan?. I recommend installing a virus scanner such as
"Nortons" or "McAfee".

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11. Change Default Login Screen............ (why do we want to share usernames with anyone?)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xp uses the "welcome screen" by default. This screen has the names of all accounts on the
system so that the user only has to click on their name and type a password. Come on now....
We aren't that damn lazy. If we change this screen to the normal login, then prying eyes
will have to know a username and password to get in. Follow the instruction below to change
this.

control panel >> user accounts >> change the way users log on or off

uncheck the box next to "Use Welcome Screen" and choose "apply options".

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12. Disable Remote Registry..........(why would I need to edit my registry remotely anyway?)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

right click "my computer" >> manage >> services and applications >> services >> " stop
and disable" Remote Registry.

NOTE: disable any services running in this area that you aren't using.

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13. Disable/Change Auto-search in Internet Explorer. This is not really a security risk but it
is important to some people that prefer to keep their internet surfing to themselves and
away from microsoft.
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Open Internet Explorer >> Click the "search" button >> click the "customize" button >> click
"autosearch settings" >> FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS BELOW...........

DISABLE: In the "When Searching" drop down menu, select "Do not search from the address bar".
>> click "ok" >> "ok". Type an invalid address in your address bar and see if it
takes you to the msn search page or if it gives a "page not found" error. In this
case, the "page not found" error is what we want.

CHANGE: If you wish not to disable, but you wish to change it to your favorite "google.com"
search page. Instead of following the "DISABLE" instructions, follow the instructions
below. Choose "Google Sites (or whatever you prefer)" from the "choose a search provider
to search from address bar" drop down menu >> click "ok" >> "ok"

I,myself personally believe that there is much more to securing your box than this. Maybe i will come up with more information soon. Don't miss them...

Securing your WIN XP computer

2009-02-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

Do you work in a corporate environment where you don't appreciate your co-workers or boss having access to your comp and private files when you are not around?

You can provide added level of security to your WIN XP System. This is called securing your Win XP accounts database. You can store all information related to your accounts in a encrypted form on a floppy disk. What this would do is that if You do not have access to your floppy disk, You can not access the system. I am not sure You realized what I just said ! Even if You know your user id/password, You will not be able to access the system unless and until You have this startup disk.

The process of generating this secure startup floppy disk is simple. Go to START-RUN and type syskey. You will see a window come up. Click on Upgrade command button. You would see another window popping up which will give You the option of storing the encrypted accounts database either locally or on your floppy disk. Choose floppy disk and click OK and let the process complete. You are done.

Next time You reboot the computer and get to the login prompt, make sure that You have the floppy disk available in A: drive else You can not log in.

Tips And Tricks, Windows XP - Part4

2009-01-20T04:32:00.000-08:00

Disable Windows XP Boot Logo:

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 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.

Clean Your Prefetch to Improve Performance:

This is a unique technique for WinXP. We know that it is necessary to scrub registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodically. Prefetch is a new and
very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch directory can get full of junk and obsolete links in the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer noticeably.

Open C (system drive):/windows/prefetch, delete those junk and obsolete files,
reboot. It is recommended that you do this every month.

Performance Increase Through My Computer:

Easy enough tweak to usually find out about it on your own, but still, some of
us still don't find it right away. So here it is:
Start > right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
Click on the "Advanced" tab.
See the "Performance" section? Click "Settings".
Disable the following:

Fade or slide menus into view
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Show Shadows under menus
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Use a background image for each folder type
Use common tasks in folders

There, now Windows will still look nice and perform faster.

Easy Way to Adjust LargeSystemCache:

Normally, the tweak I've seen asks you to go into
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management and
change the value to either O or 1 to the adjustment the LargeSystemCache.

However, in Windows XP, all you have to do is:

Right-click My Computer.
Select Properties.
Click Advanced.
Choose Performance.
Click Advanced again.
Select either Programs or System Cache under Memory Usage.
Programs = 0 for the registry tweak equivalent
System Cache = 1 for the registry tweak equivalent

Startup & Shutdown Windows XP More Faster:

Like previous versions of windows, it takes long time to restart or shutdown
windows XP when the "Exit Windows" sound is enabled. To solve this problem you
must disable this useless sound.

Click Start button.
Go to settings > Control Panel > Sound, Speech and Audio devices > Sounds and
Audio Devices > Sounds.
Then under program events and windows menu click on "Exit Windows" sub-menu and
highlight it. Now from sounds you can select, choose "none" and then click
Apply and OK.
Now you should see some improvements when starting up or shutting down your system.

Turn Off Autoplay for Program CDs:

How can you stop Windows XP from launching program CDs?

Click Start, click Run, type GPEDIT.MSC to open Group Policy in the Microsoft
Management Console.
Double-click Computer Configuration, double-click Administrative templates,
double-click System, and then click Turn off autoplay.
The instructions on your screen describe how to configure this setting. Click
Properties to display the setting dialog.
Click Enabled, and choose CD-ROM drives, then click OK, to stop CD autoplay.
This setting does not prevent Autoplay for music CDs.

Tips And Tricks, Windows XP - Part3

2009-01-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

Forgetting What Your Files Are?
===============================

This procedure works under NTFS.

As times goes along you have a lot files on your computer. You are going to forget what they are. Well here is way to identify them as you scroll through Windows Explorer in the future.

This procedure works under NTFS.

1.. Open up a folder on your system that you want to keep track of the different files you might one to identify in the future.

2.. Under View make certain that you set it to the Details.

3.. Highlight the file you want to keep more information on. Right click the file and you will get a pop up menu. Click on properties.

4.. Click on the Summary Tab (make sure it says simple not advanced on the button in the box), You should now get the following fields,

Title,Subject, Author, Category, Keywords, Comments

You will see advanced also if you have changed it to simple, Here will be other fields you can fill in.

5.. Next you can fill in what ever field you want.

6.. After you finished click the apply button then OK.

7.. Next right click the bar above your files, under the address barand you should get a drop down menu. Here you can click the fields you want to display.

8.. You should now see a list with the new fields and any comments you have done.

9.. Now if you want to sort these just right click a blank spot and then you sort the information to your liking.

Change Web Page Font Size on the Fly
====================================

If your mouse contains a wheel for scrolling, you can change font size on the fly when viewing a Web page. To do so:

Press and hold Ctrl. Scroll down (or towards yourself) to enlarge the font size. Scroll up (or away from yourself) to reduce the font size.

You might find it useful to reduce font size when printing a Web page, so that you can fit more content on the page.

Remove the Shared Documents folders from My Computer
====================================================

One of the most annoying things about the new Windows XP user interface is that Microsoft saw fit to provide links to all of the Shared Documents folders on your system, right at the top of the My Computer window. I can't imagine why this would be the default, even in a shared PC environment at home, but what's even more annoying is that you cannot change this behavior through the sh*ll
: Those icons are stuck there and you have to live with it.
Until now, that is.

Simply fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders

You'll see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you delete this, all of the Shared Documents folders (which are normally under the group called "Other Files Stored on This Computer" will be gone.

You do not need to reboot your system to see the change.

Before: A cluttered mess with icons no one will ever use (especially that orphaned one). After: Simplicity itself, and the way it should be by default.

Some Registry Hacks:

@Auto Sort Start Menu:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder
Go to Edit/Permissions, click Advanced, clear the "Inherit From Parent" check box, click Copy from the dialog box, click OK and then clear the "Full Control" for your account and now Windows will autp sort the start menu, but you can still do it too

@Disable User Tracking:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Add or Edit DWORD = NoInstrumentation, Value = 1
Disables Windows user tracking; better performance, much better privacy

@Cache Thumbnails:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Add or Edit DWORD = DisableThumbnailCache, Value = 1
Disables thumbnails in Windows, saving hard drive space

@Kill Chrashed Apps Quicker:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Add or Edit Sring = HungAppTimeout, Value = 1000-5000
Cuts time for Windows to recongize a crashed application and allow you to kill it; default is 5000(for 5 seconds)

@Faster Start Menu:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Add or Edit Sring = MenuShowDelay, Value = 0 - 400
Changes the delay that for Windows to show a menu in the start menu; value is in ms

@Network Intelligently:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
Add or Edit String = DisableTaskOffload, Value = 1
Frees processor from doing network-card work

@Browse the Network Faster:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace
Delete subkeys {2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} and {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
Speeds up network browsing of old Windows machines on the LAN by ignoring their scheduled tasks and printers

@Remove Compression Option In Disk Cleanup:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress old files
Delete the Default Value Key and the next time you start Disk Cleanup, it will skip the compression analyisis

Tips And Tricks, Windows XP - Part 2

2008-12-20T07:26:00.000-08:00

@SPEED UP BROWSING WITH DNS CATCH:

When you connect to a web site your computer sends information back and forth, this is obvious. Some of this information deals with resolving the site name to an IP address, the stuff that tcp/ip really deals with, not words. This is DNS information and is used so that you will not need to ask

for the site location each and every time you visit the site. Although WinXP and win2000 has a pretty efficient DNS cache, you can increase its

overall performance by increasing its size. You can do this with the registry entries below:
*****************************************
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
Dnscache\Parameters]
"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001
"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180
"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00
"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d
*****************************************
1. Make a new text file and rename it to dnscache.reg.
2. Then copy and paste the above into it and save it.
3. Then merge it into the registry by double clicking on dnscache.reg

@SPEED UP DETAILED VIEW IN WINDOWS EXPLORER:

If you like to view your files in Windows Explorer using the "Details" view here is a tweak to speed up the listing of file attributes: Viewing files in

Windows Explorer using the "Details" mode shows various attributes associated with each file shown. Some of these must be retrieved from the individual files when you click on the directory for viewing. For a directory with numerous and relatively large files (such as a folder in which one stores media, eg: *.mp3's, *.avi's etc.)

Windows Explorer lags as it reads through each one. Here's how to disable viewing of unwanted attributes and speed up file browsing:
1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Navigate to the folder which you wish to optimize.
3. In "Details" mode right click the bar at the top which displays the names of the attribute columns.
4. Uncheck any that are unwanted/unneeded.
Explorer will apply your preferences immediately, and longs lists of unnecessary attributes will not be displayed.

Likewise, one may choose to display any information which is regarded as needed, getting more out of Explorer.

@DELETING My eBooks AND SPECIALS FOLDER IN MY DOCUMENTS:

1. Click Start
2.Go to Run and type: regsvr32 /u mydocs.dll
3. Now delete them.

@ADMINISTRATOR IN WELCOME SCREEN:
When you install Windows XP an Administrator Account is created (you are asked to supply an administrator password), but the "Welcome Screen" does not give you the option to log on as Administrator unless you boot up in Safe Mode.

First you must ensure that the Administrator Account is enabled:
1. open Control Panel
2. open Administrative Tools
3. open Local Security Policy
4. expand Local Policies
5. click on Security Options
6. ensure that Accounts: Administrator account status is enabled.

Then follow the instructions below
1. open Control Panel
2. open User Accounts
3. click Change the way users log on or log off
4. untick Use the Welcome Screen
5. click Apply Options

You will now be able to log on to Windows XP as Administrator in Normal Mode.

@OUTLOOK EXPRESS WINDOWS TITLE TWEAKS:
Change the window title of Outlook Express to anything you want!
In regedt32 and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{EE383506-901D-43C6-8E40-9A61901DF7CC}\
Software\Microsoft\Outlook

Express\5.0. Add a new string key called WindowTitle and make its value the desired window title. Then close the registry editor, and restart

Outlook Express (if it's running.) Your new title now shows up in the title bar!

@CHANGING THE WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER TITLEBAR:

This is a per-user tweak.
1. Open RegEdit.

2. Browse to the following key:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxx\
Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaPlayer(the x's will vary from computer to computer, it's the key without the "_Classes" at the end)

3. Create the following String, "TitleBar" , the value of this will now become the TitleBar of Windows Media Player.

@TURN OFF INDEXING TO SPEED UP XP:
Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then I suggest turning this feature off:

1. Control Panel
2. Administrative Tools
3. Services
4. Disable Indexing Services

Enjoy, Fast Browsing!!!!!!!!!!

@SPEED UP BOOT BY DISABLING UNUSED PORTS:
You may have tried many tweaks like modifying windowsXP start-up applications, prefetches, unload DLLs method,etc. And yes those methods do work for me.
I have just accidentally found out another way to give you an extra boost in windows XP's boot performance. This is done by disabling your unused devices in Device Manager. for example, if you don't have input devices that are connected to one of your USBs or COM ports, disabling them will give you an extra performance boost in booting.

Go to Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab -> device manager

Disable devices that you don't use for your PC and then restart.

@CD ROM STOPS AUTOPLAYING/AUTORUN:
If the AutoPlay Tab has disappeared in My Computer, Devices With Removable Storage, Right Click on CDROM, Properties, Autoplay,Choose a appropriate action for yourself.

Now, Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services. The service: "Shell Hardware Detection" has been set to Manual or Disabled.

Return this service to "Automatic".

Tips And Tricks, Windows XP - Part 1

2008-12-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

@STOP NOISE IN COPYING AUDIO CD:

When using 3rd party burning software (eg, Nero Burning Rom) to copy audio CD,some noise may be heard at the end of each track. To prevent this,try the following method:
1. Enter System Properties\device manager
2. Select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
3. Double click on thee CD writer IDE channel
4. Select advance setting
5. Change the transfer mode to 'PIO Only'
6. Restart Computer

You are done!!!

@RESTORING MEDIA PLAYER:

To restore Windows Media Player insert the the XP CD into the CD drive (if it autostarts click exit). Open a command window and type the following :
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection InstallWMP7 132 c:\windows\inf\wmp.inf

@RESTORING ACCESS TO CD ROM'S:

If you removed CD Burning software, or for some other mystical reason, can not longer access your CD ROM's, in most cases following registry keys needs to be deleted: Locate and delete the UpperFilters and LowerFilters values under the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\
{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Your CD ROM is good boy now!!!

@REMOVING USERNAME IN THE STARTMENU:

Open Registry Editor Then Go To :
1. "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer"
2. On The Right, Make A New Entry With Right Click On Your Mouse Then Choose "New | DWORD Value"
3. Change The Entry's Name Into "NoUserNameInStartMenu", Double Click In The New Entry And Fill The "Value Data" With "1".
4. Press OK, Exit From The Registry Editor.
5. Restart Your Computer.

Oops!!! Where is your little picture in the start menu??!!!!!

@INTERNET EXPLORER LIGHTING-FAST STARTUP:

Isn't it annoying when you want to go to a new website, or any other site but your homepage, and you have to wait for your 'home' to load? This tweak tells Internet Explorer to simply 'run', without loading any webpages. (If you use a 'blank' page, that is still a page, and slows access. Notice the 'about:blank' in the address bar. The blank html page must still be loaded..). To load IE with 'nothing' [nothing is different than blank]:
1. Right-click on any shortcut you have to IE
[You should create a shortcut out of your desktop IE icon, and delete the original icon]
2. Click Properties
3. Add ' -nohome' [with a space before the dash] after the endquotes in the Target field.
4. Click OK
Fire up IE from your modified shortcut, and be amazed by how fast you are able to use IE!

Voillaa!!!!!!!!

@ORIGINAL WALLPAPERS:

This is more of a fun tweak than it is useful. Go to run, type regedit press ok. when that comes up go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>Desktop
Now find the orginalwallpaper, right click and select modify.In the text box type the path to the file you want to be your orginal desktop wallpaper.

@REMOVE PAST ITEMS ICONS IN TASKBAR.
Some times When you check your TasKbar properties or when you hide or unhide icons you can see old icons from Uninstalled or old programs you dont have anymore. This Tweak will help you how to get rid of this problem. Here is how to clear the past items or icons list in the TaskBar, perform the following steps:
1.Open Regedit Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify
2.Delete the IconStreams and PastIconsStream values
3.Open Task Manager, click the Processes tab, click Explorer.exe , and then click End Process .
4.In Task Manager, click File , click New Task , type explorer , and then click OK .

continue....

Hacking Websites

2008-11-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

If you have the html and javascript knowledge then you can access password protected websites. So you want to know how??

keep reading.....

1. Open the website you want to hack. Provide wrong username-password in its log in form.

(e.g : Username : me and Password: ' or 1=1 --)

An error will occur saying wrong username-password. Now be prepared

Your experiment starts from here...

2. Right click anywhere on that error page =>> go to view source.

3. There you can see the html codings with javascripts.

4. There you find somewhat like this....<_form action="..login....">

5. Before this login information copy the url of the site in which you are.

(e.g :"<_form..........action=http://www.targetwebsite.com/login.......>")

6. Then delete the javascript from the above that validates your information in the server.(Do this very carefully, ur success to hack the site depends upon this i.e how efficiently you delete the javascripts that validate ur account information)

7. Then take a close look for "<_input name="password" type="password">"[without quotes] -> replace "<_type=text> " there instead of "<_type=password>". See there if maxlength of password is less than 11 then increase it to 11 (e.g : if then write )

8. Just go to file => save as and save it any where in your hardisk with ext.html(e.g: c:\chan.html)

9. Reopen your target web page by double clicking 'chan.html' file that you saved in your

harddisk earlier.

10. U see that some changes in current page as compared to original One. Don't get worried.

11. Provide any username[e.g:hacker] and password[e.g:' or 1=1 --]

Congrats!!!!!! You have successfully cracked the above website and entered into the account of Ist user saved in the server's database.

*****[Please read "_form"="form" & "_type"="type" & "_input"="input" without quotes]

The above trick won't work on the websites using latest technique to protect there servers. Still you may find some websites to use this trick. Enjoy!!!!

WARNING: We post this trick just for your educational knowledge only. Don't misuse it other wise you will be in trouble. I take no responsibility of usage of the above trick]

No Text Icons

2008-06-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

If you would like your desktop Icons to have no text underneath then try this tweak:

Right click the icon and select "Rename"

Now hold the "Alt" key and type "255" and hit Enter

Or you can do it by holding "Alt" key and type "0160" and hit Enter

NOTE : It may only work with the keypad numbers and not the number keys on top of the keyboard.

Search a specific site

2008-06-14T03:29:00.000-07:00

Imagine that when you enter any web site, and you are surprised that when searching for any program in it you can not find it. By this fabulous trick, you can find the link for downloading any program in this site through any search engine.

For example, suppose you want to search for the program "Norton" in the web site www.download.com ; when you go to www.google.com and write the following code, you will be surprised that the "Google" search engine searches only in the site www.download.com. To do this:

Write in the address bar of the web browser this address: www.google.com.
When opening the web site; write in the search engine this code: "norton site: www.download.com", and press the button search.
As mentioned earlier: the code is easy, you just write in the place of the word "Norton"; any word you need to search for in the site followed in the code.
The code again is....
norton site:www.download.com

By the way, you can practice this code at any search engine.

Another trick is that you can force the search engine of the "Google" web site to search for a certain category like "Linux" topics. When you add any category after the Google link and write any thing in the search engine, you will surprised that the site searched for Linux only. For example, if you wrote the following code:
http://www.google.com/linux
As I mentioned in the code earlier, the site followed by the word "Linux". So the web site is forced for searching for the Linux topics only all over the internet.

Remote Shutdown

2008-06-02T03:29:00.000-07:00

XP PRO has a lot of fun utilities. One of the most useful ones I have found to date is the ability to remotely reboot a PC. There are 2 ways of doing this. You will need to have admin access to the PC to preform these actions. That being said, here is the first way to do it:

Right click my computer, choose manage.
Highlight the Computer Management (Local) then click on Action, choose connect to another computer.
In the window that opens fill in the machine name of the PC you want to connect to and click ok.
Once connected right click on Computer Management (Remote machine name) and choose properties.
Go to the "Advanced" tab and click the Settings button under Start up and recovery.
Click on the Shutdown button.
Under action choose what you want to do (you can log off current user, shut down, restart, or power down. you can also choose if you want to force all applications to close, close hung apps, or wait for all apps to close by themselves).

The second way... Remember dos... that good old thing. Open up a command prompt and enter in the following:

%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r -m \\Machinename. The command prompt has more switches and options. I highly suggest using shutdown.exe /? to see all the possibilities.

How to copy songs from your iPod to your PC

2008-05-20T03:29:00.000-07:00

Let me introduce you with a straightforward way for Windows users to transfer music from an iPod to your hard drive, without extra software:

1. Connect the iPod to your PC. If iTunes starts syncing (ie erasing) your music automatically, hit the X in the upper right hand corner of iTunes display, to the left of the search box, to stop it.
2. In Control Panel, Portable Media Devices, double-click your iPod.
3. Navigate to the Music folder.
4. Select all the music folders, and drag and drop them into a folder on your hard drive, or directly into iTunes.

And you’re done! The iPod music folder structure is strange and inexplicable, but once you move your files into iTunes you can set it to automatically organize your folder by artist and album to clean that up. (To do this, in iTunes Edit menu, choose Preferences and in the Advanced tab, check “Keep iTunes Music Folder organized.”)

If you give this a go, lemme know how it goes. I’ll amend the instructions with any additional info for other versions of Windows and iPods.

Create One-Click Shutdown and Reboot Shortcuts

2008-05-07T03:29:00.000-07:00

First, create a shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking on the desktop, choosing New, and then choosing Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard appears. In the box asking for the location of the shortcut, type shutdown. After you create the shortcut, double-clicking on it will shut down your PC.

But you can do much more with a shutdown shortcut than merely shut down your PC. You can add any combination of several switches to do extra duty, like this:

shutdown -r -t 01 -c "Rebooting your PC"
Double-clicking on that shortcut will reboot your PC after a one-second delay and display the message "Rebooting your PC." The shutdown command includes a variety of switches you can use to customize it. Table 1-3 lists all of them and describes their use.

I use this technique to create two shutdown shortcuts on my desktop—one for turning off my PC, and one for rebooting. Here are the ones I use:

shutdown -s -t 03 -c "Bye Bye m8!"
shutdown -r -t 03 -c "Ill be back m8 ;)!"

Switch
What it does

-s
Shuts down the PC.

-l
Logs off the current user.

-t nn
Indicates the duration of delay, in seconds, before performing the action.

-c "messagetext"
Displays a message in the System Shutdown window. A maximum of 127 characters can be used. The message must be enclosed in quotation marks.

-f
Forces any running applications to shut down.

-r
Reboots the PC.

Google Crack Search

2008-04-06T03:29:00.000-07:00

just type crack: app name

example: crack: flashget 1.6a

hxxp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=crack%3A+flashget+1.6a

Happy cracking!!!!!!

2008-03-05T03:29:00.000-08:00

Utilizing search engines

So much information is on the web, its mind boggling. Thankfully we have search
engines to sift through them and catagorize them for us. Unfortunatly, there is still so
much info that even with these search engines, its often a painstakingly slow process
(something comparable to death for a hacker) to find exactly what you're looking for.

Lets get right into it.

I use google.com as my primary search engine because it presently tops the charts as far as
the sites that it indexes which means more pertinent info per search.

1. Page translation.
Just because someone speaks another language doesn't mean they dont have anything useful to say. I use translation tools like the ones found at

http://babelfish.altavista.com
and

http://world.altavista.com
to translate a few key words I am searching for. Be specific and creative because these tools arent the most accurate things on the planet.

2. Directories.
These days everything is about $$$. We have to deal/w SEO (search engine optimization) which seems like a good idea on paper until you do a search for toys and get 5 pornsites in the first 10 results. Using a sites directory will eliminate that. You can narrow your search down easily by looking for the info in specific catagories. (PS google DOES have directories, they're at: directory.google.com)

3. Here are some tips that google refers to as "advanced"

A. "xxxx" / will look for the exact phrase. (google isnt case sensitive)
B. -x / will search for something excluding a certain term
C. filetype:xxx / searches for a particular file extention (exe, mp3, etc)
D. -filetype:xxx / excludes a particular file extention
E. allinurl:x / term in the url
F. allintext:x / terms in the text of the page
G. allintitle:x / terms in the html title of that page
H. allinanchor:x / terms in the links

4. OR
Self explanatory, one or the other... (ie: binder OR joiner)

5. ~X
Synonyms/similar terms (in case you can't think of any yourself)

6. Numbers in a range.
Lets say you're looking for an mp3 player but only want to spend up to $90. Why swim through all the others? MP3 player $0..$90 The 2 periods will set a numeric range to search between. This also works with dates, weights, etc

7. +
Ever type in a search and see something like this:
"The following words are very common and were not included in your search:"
Well, what if those common words are important in your search? You can force google to search through even the common terms by putting a + in front of the denied word.

8. Preferences
It amazes me when I use other peoples PCs that they dont have their google search preferences saved. When you use google as much as I do, who can afford to not have preferences? They're located on the right of the search box, and have several options, though I only find 2 applicable for myself...
A. Open results in new browser
B. Display 10-100 results per page. (I currently use 50 per page, but thats a resolution preference, and 5X's the default)

9. *
Wildcard searches. Great when applied to a previously mentioned method. If you only know the name of a prog, or are looking for ALL of a particular file (ie. you're DLing tunes) something like *.mp3 would list every mp3.

10. Ever see this?
"In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the X already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included." The answer is YES. yes yes yes. Did I mention yes? I meant to.

11. Search EVERYWHERE
Use the engine to its fullest. If you dont find your answer in the web section, try the group section. Hell, try a whole different search engine. Dont limit yourself, because sometimes engines seem to intentionally leave results out.
ex. use google, yahoo, and altavista. search the same terms... pretty close, right? Now search for disney death. Funny, altavista has plenty of disney, but no death...hmmm.

If you've read this far into this tutorial without saying, "Great, a guy that copied a few google help pages and thinks its useful info" then I will show you WHY (besides accuracy, speed, and consistancy finding info on ANYTHING) its nice to know how a search engine works. You combine it/w your knowledge of other protocol.

Example:
Want free music? Free games? Free software? Free movies? God bless FTP! Try this search:
intitle:"Index of music" "rolling stones" mp3
Substitute rolling stones/w your favorite band. No? Try the song name, or another file format. Play with it. Assuming SOMEONE made an FTP and uploaded it, you'll find it.

For example....I wanted to find some Sepultura. If you never heard them before, they're a Brazilian heavy metal band that kicks ass. I started with this:
intitle:"Index of music" "Sepultura" mp3 <-- nothing
intitle:"Index of música" "Sepultura" mp3 <-- nothing
intitle:"Index of musica" "Sepultura" mp3 <-- not good enough
intitle:"Index of music" "Sepultura" * <-- found great stuff, but not enough Sepultura

At this point it occurs to me that I may be missing something, so I try:
intitle:"index of *" "sepultura" mp3 <-- BANG!
(and thats without searching for spelling errors)
Also try inurl:ftp

I find that * works better for me than trying to guess other peoples mis-spellings.

The same method applies for ebooks, games, movies, SW, anything that may be on an FTP site.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I saw that recently a book and an article was written on the very same topic. I havn't read them as of yet, but check em out, and get back to me if you feel I missed something important and should include anything else.

intitle:"index of" "google hacks" ebook

I've said it before, I'll say it again... BE CREATIVE.

You'll be surprised what you can find.

2008-02-18T07:33:00.000-08:00

Useful information on Internet Merchant Account

Choosing An Internet Merchant Account:

Surf to Google and perform a search on "Internet Merchant Account". The results are staggering (2,300,000 results!) If you have created a web based business and need to accept credit card payments, your choices are limitless. Before you partner with a provider, take time to understand the different components of Internet credit card processing, and know what to look for in a merchant provider.

How It Works:

Accepting credit card payments through your web site actually requires multiple components. Between a paying customer and your bank account, three layers exist:

Payment Gateway - This is the code that will transmit a customer's order to and from an Internet merchant account provider. The payment gateway provides you the ability to accept customer billing information (credit card number, credit card type, expiration date, and payment amount) and the necessary validation steps that must be followed before the credit card is actually billed.

Internet Merchant Account - A Merchant Account is an account with a financial institution or bank, which enables you to accept credit card payments from your clients. The payment gateway actually transmits the billing information to the Internet merchant account provider. Unfortunately, most local banks do not provide Internet merchant account capability.

The main reason why most local financial institutions or banks do not want to provide online merchant accounts is because transactions conducted over the Internet are totally different from face to face transactions where a signature is required to authorize the purchase. This makes online transactions prone to credit card fraud. Fraud protection should be one of your primary considerations when choosing an Internet merchant account provider.

Web Site - Regardless of which merchant provider and gateway service you choose, your web site will need to integrate with your service providers. Most providers include detailed web integration instructions.

How Much Does It Cost ?

Understanding the total costs of your merchant provider can be tricky. Remember my Google example - there are more merchant account providers than there are people looking for internet merchant accounts so ask questions and be picky! Typically, an internet merchant account will have three types of costs:

- Up Front Application Fees
- On Going Fixed Fee
- Discount Rate
- Fixed Transaction Fee
- Termination Fees
- Miscellaneous Fees

Let us discuss each type of cost:

* Up Front Application Fees

Many Internet merchant accounts will require an up front application fee. This fee, supposedly, is to cover their costs for processing your application. In case you choose not to open an Internet merchant account, they still cover their initial costs. Although common, many providers waive these fees and I recommend that you choose a provider that does not require an up front fee.

* On Going Fixed Fee

Most all Internet merchant providers require a monthly fixed fee or "statement fee" as it is commonly named, which is simply another way to cover their costs and make money. You will be hard pressed to find a provider that does not require this type of fee on a monthly basis. However, do not choose an Internet merchant account that requires more than $10 per month. Additionally, most Internet merchant providers require a monthly minimum (usually $25). The bottom line is that you will be paying at least $25 per month (on top of the monthly statement fee) for your account.

* Discount Rate

Usually, the discount rate will be between 2 and 4 percent. The discount rate is the sales commission the provider earns on each sale. For example, if the discount rate offered is 3%, and you receive a sale over your web site for $20, you will owe 60 cents to your Internet merchant provider.

* Fixed Transaction Fee

Usually between $0.20 and $0.30, the fixed transaction fee is the fixed fee portion of each sale. Unlike the discount rate, the fixed transaction fee is the same for every transaction. Whether you get a $1 sale or a $100 sale, the transaction fee will be the same.

* Termination Fee

A bit more hidden in the small print, a termination fee can apply if you cancel your merchant account within a specified period of time (usually within one year). But beware, some merchant providers require a three year commitment!

* Miscellaneous Fees

If a customer requests a refund and they want their credit card credited, an Internet merchant provider will charge you a separate fee (usually between $10 - $20). Read the contract carefully, as other special fees may apply.

Putting It All Together

Now that the different fees have been explained, let us look at an example set of transactions to help understand what an Internet merchant account may cost your business on a monthly basis.

I have created a simple formula to help you calculate your monthly charges:

Total Charges = Statement Fee + Number of Transactions x (Average Sale x Discount Rate + Fixed Transaction Fee) + (Number of Charge backs x Charge back Fee)

For example, let us see you sell widgets over the Internet. The sales price for each widget is $10. You typically have 100 sales per month and about 5 people request refunds (charge backs). For this example, let us assume you have signed up with Jones&Jones Internet merchant account services and have the following terms:

Discount Rate - %2.5
Statement Fee - $10
Fixed Transaction Fee - $0.30
Charge back Fee - $15

Using my formula above, your monthly Jones&Jones charges will be:

Total Charges = 10 + 100 x (10 x .025 + 0.3) + (5 x 15) = $140

You can calculate your monthly sales revenue by multiplying your sales volume by your price:

Monthly Sales Revenue = 100 x $10 = $1000

Your Internet merchant provider is costing you 14% of your total sales.

Making Your Decision

Before you choose and Internet merchant provider, understand all of the cost components. Use your current or projected sales data to forecast what your Internet merchant account costs will be. Planning ahead can save you time and money.

I hope this insight will provide a good use for those who want to do business on the web.

2008-02-15T05:49:00.000-08:00

Play and Feed the Poor

Here is some thing for people who want to do some good to the world but are too lazy to get out of their beds. All you have to do is visit the non-profit website named freerice.com and play a vocabulary game.
Every time you get a word correctly, the website donates 20 grains of rice to the needy.
The vocabulary game has 50 levels and the more levels you clear, the more rice the site donates to the poor and needy through the United Nations World Food Programme.
If you are keen to know where all the rice you won is going. You can find out from the UNWFP website.
The funds for this venture come from the ads which flash on the site.

2008-02-02T04:19:00.000-08:00

The Most Effective Link Building Strategies for Your Website

Google and other major search engines should be your top priority if you wish to make money online. To reach the top of Google, your website will need to offer something of value, provide quality content, and build a lot of inbound links.

Inbound links are a key factor for improving Google rankings. How do you build links to your website? There are a number of strategies that have proven effective time and again. Use these seven strategies for building links and improving search engine rankings.

1. Identify the right websites for link targeting. Getting links from other websites is beneficial, but not if you don't have a plan. Trying to acquire links from just any old website won't generate the type of return you're looking for. To determine the best sites for link targeting purpose, simply visit Google and type the keyword or keyword phrase you're trying to optimize for. Record the #1 Google ranked website for that keyword and see who's linking to that website. By targeting the same sites, you can mirror the achievements of the #1 ranked website. There are many tools that can help you do this. One is to type in "link:" into the Google search box and the name of the top ranked website. This will list all of the sites that link to the top ranked site.

2. Build a links page. Before starting any link building program, I strongly encourages those I consult for to build their own Partner page. A partner page or links page is where you can post links from your website to those who may be placing your link on their own website. This is referred to as reciprocal linking and is a great way to start building valuable links to your website. This links page can also be used for other types of link exchanges like 3-way linking. The key is to have some real estate on your own website that you can use to barter for links on other sites.

3. Contacting other websites. Once you've identified the sites you should be getting links from, the next step is to begin contacting them and asking for a link exchange or post. There are a variety of ways to acquire links from these sites but one of the best, and most simple ways, is to ask with a contextual email. This is simply an email you send to the websmaster of the site revealing your intentions. The key is to spend some time on the website you're targeting and to reference something on the site and the fact that a link exchange would be beneficial for both parties.

4. Directory submissions. Getting links from quality directories is a great way to start building links to your website. There are many free directories, and some paid, that can provide one-way links to your site. One-way links are the most valuable kinds of links because each serves as a vote from another website to yours. These are even more valuable if the site that is linking to yours has a high Google PR and only a few other links present on the page where your link is placed.

5. Article Submission. Distributing valuable content in the form of article marketing is a great way to build valuable one-way links. When you create article content and distribute the content via article directories or submissions, you benefit by the links which are present in the "About the Author" section of your article. As others post your articles to their own websites, they include your author box and links back to your website. Article marketing is one of the quickest and most powerful way to build meaningful links.

Link building is the most important SEO strategy you can employ for improving search engine rankings. As we've discussed in this article, start by identifying the right sites to target. Contact other websites and ask for a link exchange. Submit to website and article directories and include links back to your website in the about the author section. Using these top SEO strategies are sure to improve your search engine rankings.

Computer Acronyms

2008-01-26T07:33:00.000-08:00

ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port
ALI - Acer Labs, Incorporated
ALU - Arithmetic Logic Unit
AMD - Advanced Micro Devices
APC - American Power Conversion
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASIC - Application Specific Integrated Circuit
ASPI - Advanced SCSI Programming Interface
AT - Advanced Technology
ATI - ATI Technologies Inc.
ATX - Advanced Technology Extended

--- B ---
BFG - BFG Technologies
BIOS - Basic Input Output System
BNC - Barrel Nut Connector

--- C ---
CAS - Column Address Signal
CD - Compact Disk
CDR - Compact Disk Recorder
CDRW - Compact Disk Re-Writer
CD-ROM - Compact Disk - Read Only Memory
CFM - Cubic Feet per Minute (ft�/min)
CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
CPU - Central Processing Unit
CTX - CTX Technology Corporation (Commited to Excellence)

--- D ---

DDR - Double Data Rate
DDR-SDRAM - Double Data Rate - Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
DFI - DFI Inc. (Design for Innovation)
DIMM - Dual Inline Memory Module
DRAM - Dynamic Random Access Memory
DPI - Dots Per Inch
DSL - See ASDL
DVD - Digital Versatile Disc
DVD-RAM - Digital Versatile Disk - Random Access Memory

--- E ---
ECC - Error Correction Code
ECS - Elitegroup Computer Systems
EDO - Extended Data Out
EEPROM - Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
EPROM - Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
EVGA - EVGA Corporation

--- F ---
FC-PGA - Flip Chip Pin Grid Array
FDC - Floppy Disk Controller
FDD - Floppy Disk Drive
FPS - Frame Per Second
FPU - Floating Point Unit
FSAA - Full Screen Anti-Aliasing
FS - For Sale
FSB - Front Side Bus

--- G ---
GB - Gigabytes
GBps - Gigabytes per second or Gigabits per second
GDI - Graphical Device Interface
GHz - GigaHertz

--- H ---
HDD - Hard Disk Drive
HIS - Hightech Information System Limited
HP - Hewlett-Packard Development Company
HSF - Heatsink-Fan

--- I ---
IBM - International Business Machines Corporation
IC - Integrated Circuit
IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics
IFS- Item for Sale
IRQ - Interrupt Request
ISA - Industry Standard Architecture
ISO - International Standards Organization

--- J ---
JBL - JBL (Jame B. Lansing) Speakers
JVC - JVC Company of America

- K ---
Kbps - Kilobits Per Second
KBps - KiloBytes per second

--- L ---
LG - LG Electronics
LAN - Local Are Network
LCD - Liquid Crystal Display
LDT - Lightning Data Transport
LED - Light Emitting Diode

--- M ---
MAC - Media Access Control
MB � MotherBoard or Megabyte
MBps - Megabytes Per Second
Mbps - Megabits Per Second or Megabits Per Second
MHz - MegaHertz
MIPS - Million Instructions Per Second
MMX - Multi-Media Extensions
MSI - Micro Star International

--- N ---
NAS - Network Attached Storage
NAT - Network Address Translation
NEC - NEC Corporation
NIC - Network Interface Card

--- O ---
OC - Overclock (Over Clock)
OCZ - OCZ Technology
OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer

--- P ---
PC - Personal Computer
PCB - Printed Circuit Board
PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect
PDA - Personal Digital Assistant
PCMCIA - Peripheral Component Microchannel Interconnect Architecture
PGA - Professional Graphics Array
PLD - Programmable Logic Device
PM - Private Message / Private Messaging
PnP - Plug 'n Play
PNY - PNY Technology
POST - Power On Self Test
PPPoA - Point-to-Point Protocol over ATM
PPPoE - Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet
PQI - PQI Corporation
PSU - Power Supply Unit

--- R ---
RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
RAM - Random Access Memory
RAMDAC - Random Access Memory Digital Analog Convertor
RDRAM - Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory
ROM - Read Only Memory
RPM - Revolutions Per Minute

--- S ---
SASID - Self-scanned Amorphous Silicon Integrated Display
SCA - SCSI Configured Automatically
SCSI - Small Computer System Interface
SDRAM - Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
SECC - Single Edge Contact Connector
SODIMM - Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module
SPARC - Scalable Processor ArChitecture
SOHO - Small Office Home Office
SRAM - Static Random Access Memory
SSE - Streaming SIMD Extensions
SVGA - Super Video Graphics Array
S/PDIF - Sony/Philips Digital Interface

--- T ---
TB - Terabytes
TBps - Terabytes per second
Tbps - Terabits per second
TDK - TDK Electronics
TEC - Thermoelectric Cooler
TPC - TipidPC
TWAIN - Technology Without An Important Name

--- U ---
UART - Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
USB - Universal Serial Bus
UTP - Unshieled Twisted Pair

--- V ---
VCD - Video CD
VPN - Virtual Private Network

--- W ---
WAN - Wide Area Network
WTB - Want to Buy
WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get

--- X ---
XGA - Extended Graphics Array
XFX - XFX Graphics, a Division of Pine
XMS - Extended Memory Specification
XT - Extended Technology

Jihadi Software promises secure Web contacts

2008-01-26T02:31:00.000-08:00

An Islamist Web site often used by Al-Qaeda supporters carried updated encryption software on friday which, it said , would help Islamic militants communicate with greater security on the Internet. The 'Mujahideen Secrets 2' was promoted as " the first Islamic program for secure communications through networks with the highest technical level of encoding." The software, available free on the passwored-protected Ekhlaas.org site which often carries al Qaeda messages is a newer version of mujahedeen Secrets issued in early 2007 by the Global Islamic Media Front, an al Qaeda-linked Web-based group.
This special edition of the software was developed and issued by... Ekhlaas in order to support the mujahideen (holy war fighters) in general and the (al Qaeda-linked group) Islamic State in Iraq inparticular," the site said.
The efficacy of the new Arabic -language software to ensure secure e-mail and other communications could not be immediately gauged. But some security experts had warned that the wide distribution of its earlier version among Islamists and Arabic speaking hackers could prove significant. Al Qaeda supporters widely use the Internet to spread the group's statements through hundreds of Islamist sites, which frequently have to move after being shut by Internet service providers.
Al Qaeda's own media arm, As-Sahab, has become invreasingly sophisticated in recent years. It issued 97 audio and video web messages in 2007 compared with just 6 in 2002, according to IntelCenter (intelcenter.com), a U.S.- based group that monitors Islamist sites.

How To Customise Your start Button

2008-01-12T03:29:00.000-08:00

First you need a tool called "Resource Hacker". This free program allows you to change resources in any .exe file such as "Explorer.exe", which includes the [Start] button's Label. You can visit Download.com and search there for "Resource Hacker".
After you download it, follow the guide here:

Step 1:

A - Run "Resource Hacker" and open the file "%windir%\Explorer.exe".
B - You see a Tree of all Resources in this file, expand the "String Table"
C - Find the "start" (look for the place 37->1033 on the "String Table") and replace it with your own text. then press the [Compile Script] button.
D - Save "Explorer.exe" as "MyStart.exe" DONT save it as Explorer.exe, do "save as.." and give it a new name.
E - Quit "Resource Hacker".

Step 2:

A - Click on the [Start] button and choose the "Run..." item from the start menu. (Or use the shortcut key WinKey+R)
B - Type "RegEdit" in the Run "Dialog Box". And then press the [Ok] buton to run the "Registry Editor" program.
C - Go to: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" and find the "Shell" property.
D - Replace value of the "Shell" property to "MyStart.exe".
E - Quit "Registry Editor".
F - Restart your system.

Note about Registry Editor:
if you did not find the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon", you can search the Registry for the "Explorer.exe", to do this use the Edit Menu | Find Next (Ctrl+F).

Download Mp3 for FREE

2007-12-30T03:29:00.000-08:00

Check out this sites, you will have loads of mp3, just waiting for you to get them for FREE!!!

http://www.mp3dimension.com/search/1/in/da/club/?dnsa=1
http://www.emp3s.com/dsong.aspx?id=51539&rID=X82psy
http://www.mp3-find.com/
http://www.emp3world.com/
http://zoek.vinden.nl/?where=mp3&vid=l8020222738I1102894906&refer=resultonline&sess=a3a3a303&query=21+questions&x=0&y=0
http://www.maxalbums.com/

CAUTION: Some of this listed site may have pornographic contents.

To link to this blog, copy and paste the code below into your site.

<a href="http://tricksofcomputer.blogspot.com/2007/12/download-mp3-for-free.html">Download Mp3 for FREE</a>

Search Google For RAPIDSHARE Links

2007-12-25T20:37:00.000-08:00

If you wanna find some apps, files etc on rapidshare.de via google, do the following.

Paste this into the google search window (not the adress bar):

site:rapidshare.de -filetype:zip OR rar daterange:2453402-2453412

* this searches the site rapidshare.de for any file that is rar or zip, and
has been indexed between 1-11 February.

dvd site:rapidshare.de -filetype:zip OR rar daterange:2453402-2453412

* this is the same search but it specifically searches for "dvd" with the same
search criteria, so any app posted with the word dvd in it will be found.

There are mainly three criteria to keep in mind when doing this search.

1. site: your site of choice to search

2. filetype: filetypes you wanna search,if you put a "OR" after the first
filetype you can add more.

3. daterange: (start date-enddate)

* this uses the "julian calendar", converter can be found here:

Code:

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/JulianDate.html

To link to this blog, copy and paste the code below into your site.

<a href="http://tricksofcomputer.blogspot.com/2007/12/search-google-for-rapidshare-links.html">Search Google For RAPIDSHARE Links</a>

Gmail

2007-12-10T07:33:00.000-08:00

Anyone who needs to have an account in the google mail for "One GigaByte", go to the following address bar. No need to ask any friend to send you an invitation in order to open your own gmail account. You will receive within "36 hours" the confirmation mail for your registration:

http://www.googlemail.cjb.net/

Or from:

http://www.gmailforums.com/index.php

By the way, you can open your Google mail from your browser through this link:

http://toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/

To link to this blog, copy and paste the code below into your site.

<a href="http://tricksofcomputer.blogspot.com/2007/09/gmail.html">Gmail</a>

Recover Your Damaged CDs

2007-12-08T02:26:00.000-08:00

I learn an old technique to how to recover damaged or scratched disks
with some lost of data. Here we cover some special technique of how to create a full working CD from the scratched one.

First some tools will be needed:

1. Alcohol 120%
2. UltraISO
3. Windows XP/2000 (not tested on 95/98/me)
3. Small piece of cotton
4. Dry cleaner paper
5. Finally, oil for cooking.

First step - preparing the CD

Get the cotton and drop some water, start cleaning vertically the surface of CD.
Do it 3 times and dry the water with a piece of dry cleaner paper. With a new piece
of cotton, drop some oil for cooking and start to wet the surface like you are
washing the CD with the oil. Dry carefully now. Some particles of oil will stay on the
micro surface of the scratch. It's okay. Seems the oil helps the laser of the CD/DVD driver
to read the surface again. Sure this will work with small unreadable scratchs - some hard
scratches loose parts of the surface of the CD where we have data and it's lost forever.
But if it is loosed try anyway. With this tip 80% of the small scratched CD's could be
recovered.

Second Step - testing the CD

With Alcohol 120% make an ISO - image making wizard - and lets see if the app can
read the loosed surface. In my case Alcohol 120% had recovered 60% of the data.
This is not enough. Have tryed other appz, they do not recover all the data. But the
CD/DVD driver laser CAN recover all data in this case. the data is still there, what we do?

Third step - making the new CD

With the main copy system of windows explorer you can do it. Just create one folder
with the same name of the CD label for future burn reference, and copy the CD content
to the folder. When the CD copy process find the scratch, in majority of the cases, it's
slow down the reading and will recover ALL loosed data.If not, it just tell you there's
an unreadable sector. In this case your CD is lost. But it's not my case, finally
windows explorer got all the data from the scratch and made a copy in the folder.
with the ultraISO, wrote the original CD label, drop the content of the folder and
save as Iso. You can Test the new CD just mounting the iso in the Alcohol 120%. In my
case i did ISO of the two discs from MAX PAYNE 2 and tested installing from the mounted
ISO. Works like a charm. I got the 4 mb lost again. So, I have burned the CD and now i
have a working copy from the scratched one.

Sounds too bizzarre, but works. Course you can jump the cleaning process and try to copy
the content with Windows explorer. But in my case did not work without oil...

To link to this blog, copy and paste the code below into your site.

<a href="http://tricksofcomputer.blogspot.com/2007/12/recover-your-damaged-cds.html">Recover Your Damaged CDs</a>

Create A Personal Screen Saver In Win Xp ! ! !

2007-12-04T03:29:00.000-08:00

This isn't a tweak, but a great little feature! For a great way to put your digital photos to work, try creating a slide show presentation for use as a screen saver. Here's how:

1. Right-click an empty spot on your desktop and then click Properties.

2. Click the Screen Saver tab.

3. In the Screen saver list, click My Pictures Slide show.

4. Click Settings to make any adjustments, such as how often the pictures should change, what size they should be, and whether you'll use transition effects between pictures, and then click OK.

Now your screen saver is a random display of the pictures taken from your My Pictures folder.

Create A Huge File

2007-09-25T03:29:00.019-07:00

You can create a file of any size using nothing more than what's supplied with Windows.
Start by converting the desired file size into hexadecimal notation. You can use the Windows
Calculator in Scientific mode do to this. Suppose you want a file of 1 million bytes. Enter 1000000 in the calculator and click on the Hex option to convert it (1 million in hex is F4240.) Pad the result with zeroes at the left until the file size reaches eight digits—000F4240.

Now open a command prompt window. In Windows 95, 98, or Me, you can do this by entering COMMAND in the Start menu's Run dialog; in Windows NT 4.0, 2000, or XP enter CMD instead. Enter the command DEBUG BIGFILE.DAT and ignore the File not found message. Type RCX and press Enter. Debug will display a colon prompt. Enter the last four digits of the hexadecimal number you calculated (4240, in our example). Type RBX and press Enter, then enter the first four digits of the hexadecimal size (000F, in our example). Enter W for Write and Q for Quit. You've just created a 1-million-bite file using Debug. Of course you can create a file of any desired size using the same technique.

Make Mp3 Files Smaller Without Losing Quality

2007-09-25T03:29:00.018-07:00

If you don't already have a copy of MusicMatch Jukebox, download one from musicmatch.com. The "Plus" version has more features and burns CDs faster, but the free version works just fine for converting files

1. Install music match box and then restart your computer if it asks
2. open music matchbox and click file convert files
3. in the bottom right hand corner called 'destination type' change it to mp3 pro.
4.you can edit the bitrate but the higher the bitrate the bigger the size
5. choose the songs you want to convert and click start

***if you want to try something different repeat step one and 2 and instead of making the destintion type mp3 pro make it 'mp3pro vbr'

again the lower the setting the smaller the size.

Cool Way To Get Cool Music

2007-09-25T03:29:00.015-07:00

Found out a really cool way to get cool music without p2p progs or HTTP/FTP sites.Best thing of all:NO QUEUES,NO PASSWORDS...
Here it is:
1.Get Yahoo Messenger [BETA] here:
CODE
hxxp://download.yahoo.com/dl/installs/msgr6suite.exe

2.Wait for it to download,then run it and let it download another 5 MB or so.

3.Get FairStar MP3 Recorder here:
CODE
Try some goggle, guyzzzzz

After testing Total Recorder and another prog,the FairStar product is the best RECORDING MP3s from a source,in our case the INTERNET RADIO.

4.Fire up LAUNCHcastRadion in Yahoo Messenger [BETA] and choose a station or a genre.

5.Start up FairStart MP3 Recorder,go to Record Options and CHECK autosetting,go to Encoder-MP3 and UN-CHECK enable VBR and choose 128 or 192 KBs.Also make sure you choose your OUTPUT folder and you're done.

6.Hit record or whatever and awaaaaaay you go.

How do I Test My VirusScan Installation???

2007-09-25T03:29:00.013-07:00

After installing VirusScan, you may logically wonder, how do I know if it's working? The answer is a test virus. The EICAR Standard AntiVirus Test File is a combined effort by anti-virus vendors throughout the world to implement one standard by which customers can verify their anti-virus installations.

Solution:

To test your installation, copy the following line into its own file, then save the file with the name EICAR.COM. More detailed instructions are found below.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

The file size will be 68 or 70 bytes.

If VirusScan is running and configured correctly, when you try to save the file, VirusScan will detect the virus. If VirusScan is not running, start it and scan the directory that contains EICAR.COM. When your software scans this file, it will report finding the EICAR test file.

Note that this file is NOT A VIRUS. Delete the file when you have finished testing your installation to avoid alarming unsuspecting
users.

The eicar test virus is available for download from the following website:
hxxp://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com

Creating Eicar.com

1. Click on Start.
2. Select Run.
3. In the Open box type: notepad
4. Maximize the window.
5. Highlight the following on the following line of text:
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
6. Right click on the highlighted text and choose 'copy'.
7. Switch back to Notepad.
8. Right click anywhere inside of Notepad and select 'paste'.
9. Click the File menu and select 'save as'.
10. Change the 'Save as Type' to 'all files'.
11. Name the file eicar.com.

Keep Folders Hidden

2007-09-25T03:29:00.009-07:00

First create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive when you name it hold down "Alt" and press "0160" from Nam pad, this will create an ' ' [invisible space] so it will appear as if it has no name.

Then right click in and select "Properties" select the tab "customize" and select "change icon" scroll along and you should a few blanc spaces click on any one and click ok, when you have saved the settings the folder will be invisible to hide all your personal files.

Fun:- now drag the folder to the top right corner of desktop and let it sleep there quietly. It will be in front of everyone yet only your watchful eyes can see it. Try this prank on your friends...

Anyways you can always save the folder any place on hard disk you want. To make the folder visible again, go to the folder/desktop you saved the our specially customized folder -> press Ctrl+A and locate the place where the folder is secretly staring at you -> rename it ->change the folder icon back to normal.

Have fun!!!!!

Hidden Windows XP Applications

2007-09-25T03:29:00.008-07:00

To run any of these apps go to Start > Run and type the executable name (ie charmap).

WINDOWS XP HIDDEN APPS:
=========================================

1) Character Map = charmap.exe (very useful for finding unusual characters)

2) Disk Cleanup = cleanmgr.exe

3) Clipboard Viewer = clipbrd.exe (views contents of Windows clipboard)

4) Dr Watson = drwtsn32.exe (Troubleshooting tool)

5) DirectX diagnosis = dxdiag.exe (Diagnose & test DirectX, video & sound cards)

6) Private character editor = eudcedit.exe (allows creation or modification of characters)

7) IExpress Wizard = iexpress.exe (Create self-extracting / self-installing package)

8) Microsoft Synchronization Manager = mobsync.exe (appears to allow synchronization of files on the network for when working offline. Apparently undocumented).

9) Windows Media Player 5.1 = mplay32.exe (Retro version of Media Player, very basic).

10) ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbcad32.exe (something to do with databases)

11) Object Packager = packager.exe (to do with packaging objects for insertion in files, appears to have comprehensive help files).

12) System Monitor = perfmon.exe (very useful, highly configurable tool, tells you everything you ever wanted to know about any aspect of PC performance, for uber-geeks only )

13) Program Manager = progman.exe (Legacy Windows 3.x desktop shell).

14) Remote Access phone book = rasphone.exe (documentation is virtually non-existant).

15) Registry Editor = regedt32.exe [also regedit.exe] (for hacking the Windows Registry).

16) Network shared folder wizard = shrpubw.exe (creates shared folders on network).

17) File siganture verification tool = sigverif.exe

18) Volume Contro = sndvol32.exe (I've included this for those people that lose it from the System Notification area).

19) System Configuration Editor = sysedit.exe (modify System.ini & Win.ini just like in Win98! ).

20) Syskey = syskey.exe (Secures XP Account database - use with care, it's virtually undocumented but it appears to encrypt all passwords, I'm not sure of the full implications).

21) Microsoft Telnet Client = telnet.exe

22) Driver Verifier Manager = verifier.exe (seems to be a utility for monitoring the actions of drivers, might be useful for people having driver problems. Undocumented).

23) Windows for Workgroups Chat = winchat.exe (appears to be an old NT utility to allow chat sessions over a LAN, help files available).

24) System configuration = msconfig.exe (can use to control starup programs)

25) gpedit.msc used to manage group policies, and permissions[a very powerful tool if you know how to use it properly;-) ]

In order to run some of the above mentioned programs, you need to have an administrator groups account. Each of this tools deserves an entire tutorial of its own. Maybe soon i will come up with some more fascinating facts and tutorials about each of them.

Till then experiment with them a bit and enjoy!!!!!!!!

Google secrets

2007-09-25T03:29:00.006-07:00

method 1
?ww.google.com

put this string in google search:

"parent directory " /appz/ -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " DVDRip -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory "Xvid -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " Gamez -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " Name of Singer or album -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

Notice that i am only changing the word after the parent directory, change it to what you want and you will get a lot of stuff.

voila!

method 2
?ww.google.com

put this string in google search:

?intitle:index.of? mp3

You only need add the name of the song/artist/singer.
Example: ?intitle:index.of? mp3 jackson

To link to this blog, copy and paste the code below into your site.

<a href="http://tricksofcomputer.blogspot.com/2007/09/google-secrets.html">Google secrets</a>

Search Google For Ebook Server

2007-09-25T03:29:00.001-07:00

As you know Google.com is the most popular search engine in the world.

Here are some tips to helps you find eBooks with Google:

Find Apache's (default) Index page

Try this query:

+("index of") +("/ebooks"|"/book") +(chm|pdf|zip|rar) +apache

Find a particular eBook file:

Try this query:

allinurl: +(rar|chm|zip|pdf|tgz) hacking

To link to this blog, copy and paste the code below into your site.

<a href="http://tricksofcomputer.blogspot.com/2007/09/search-google-for-ebook-server.html">Search Google For Ebook Server</a>

How to modify any exe files

2007-09-24T07:33:00.049-07:00

Learn how to change *.exe files, in 5 easy steps:

1) Don't try to modify a prog by editing his source in a dissasembler.Why?
Cause that's for programmers and assembly experts only.

try to view it in hex you'll only get tons of crap you don't understand.
First off, you need Resource Hacker(last version). It's a resource editor-
very easy to use, You can download it at h**p://www.users.on.net/johnson/resourcehacker/

2) Unzip the archive, and run ResHacker.exe. You can check out the help file too

3) You will see that the interface is simple and clean. Go to the menu FileOpen or press Ctrl+O to open a file. Browse your way to the file you would like to edit. You can edit *.exe, *.dll, *.ocx, *.scr and *.cpl files, but this tutorial is to teach you how to edit *.exe files, so open one.

4) In the left side of the screen a list of sections will appear.
The most common sections are
-String table;
-RCData;
-Dialog;
-Cursor group;
-Bitmap;
-WAV.
*Icon: You can wiew and change the icon(s) of the program by double-clicking the icon section,chossing the icon, right-clicking on it an pressing "replace resource". After that you can choose the icon you want to replace the original with.
*String table: a bunch of crap, useful sometimes, basic programming knowladge needed.
*RCData: Here the real hacking begins. Modify window titles, buttons, text, and lots more!
*Dialog:Here you can modify the messages or dialogs that appear in a program. Don't forget to press "Compile" when you're done!
*Cursor group: Change the mouse cursors used in the program just like you would change the icon.
*Bitmap: View or change images in the programs easy!
*WAV:Change the sounds in the prog. with your own.

5) In the RCData,Dialog,Menu and String table sections you can do a lot of changes. You can modify or translate the text change links, change buttons, etc.

TIP: To change a window title, search for something like: CAPTION "edit this".
TIP: After all operations press the "Compile Script" button, and when you're done editing save, your work @ FileSave(Save as).
TIP: When you save a file,the original file will be backed up by default and renamed to Name_original and the saved file will have the normal name of the changed prog.
TIP: Sometimes you may get a message like: "This program has a non-standard resource layout... it has probably been compressed with an .EXE compressor." That means that Resource Hacker can't modify it because of it's structure.

To link to this blog, copy and paste the code below into your site.

<a href="http://tricksofcomputer.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to-modify-any-exe-files.html">How to modify any exe files</a>

Cracking Zip Password Files

2007-09-24T07:33:00.047-07:00

What is FZC? FZC is a program that cracks zip files (zip is a method of compressing multiple files into one smaller file) that are password-protected (which means you're gonna need a password to open the zip file and extract files out of it). You can get it anywhere - just use a search engine such as altavista.com or google.com
FZC uses multiple methods of cracking - bruteforce (guessing passwords systematically until the program gets it) or wordlist attacks (otherwise known as dictionary attacks. Instead of just guessing passwords systematically, the program takes passwords out of a "wordlist", which is a text file that contains possible passwords. You can get lots of wordlists at _www.theargon.com.).
FZC can be used in order to achieve two different goals: you can either use it to recover a lost zip password which you used to remember but somehow forgot, or to crack zip passwords which you're not supposed to have. So like every tool, this one can be used for good and for evil.
The first thing I want to say is that reading this tutorial... is the easy way to learn how to use this program, but after reading this part of how to use the FZC you should go and check the texts that come with that program and read them all. You are also going to see the phrase "check name.txt" often in this text. These files should be in FZC's directory. They contain more information about FZC.
FZC is a good password recovery tool, because it's very fast and also support resuming so you don't have to keep the computer turned on until you get the password, like it used to be some years ago with older cracking programs. You would probably always get the password unless the password is longer than 32 chars (a char is a character, which can be anything - a number, a lowercase or undercase letter or a symbol such as ! or &) because 32 chars is the maximum value that FZC will accept, but it doesn't really matter, because in order to bruteforce a password with 32 chars you'll need to be at least immortal..heehhe.. to see the time that FZC takes with bruteforce just open the Bforce.txt file, which contains such information.
FZC supports brute-force attacks, as well as wordlist attacks. While brute-force attacks don't require you to have anything, wordlist attacks require you to have wordlists, which you can get from _www.theargon.com. There are wordlists in various languages, various topics or just miscellaneous wordlists. The bigger the wordlist is, the more chances you have to crack the password.
Now that you have a good wordlist, just get FZC working on the locked zip file, lie down and wait... and wait... and wait...and have good thoughts like "In wordlist mode I'm gonna get the password in minutes" or something like this... you start doing all this and remember "Hey this guy started with all this crap and didn't say how I can start a wordlist attack!..." So please wait just a little more, read this tutorial 'till the end and you can do all this "crap".

We need to keep in mind that are some people might choose some really weird passwords (for example: 'e8t7@$^%*gfh), which are harder to crack and are certainly impossible to crack (unless you have some weird wordlist). If you have a bad luck and you got such a file, having a 200MB list won't help you anymore. Instead, you'll have to use a different type of attack. If you are a person that gives up at the first sign of failure, stop being like that or you won't get anywhere. What you need to do in such a situation is to put aside your sweet xxx MB's list and start using the Brute Force attack.
If you have some sort of a really fast and new computer and you're afraid that you won't be able to use your computer's power to the fullest because the zip cracker doesn't support this kind of technology, it's your lucky day! FZC has multiple settings for all sorts of hardware, and will automatically select the best method.

Now that we've gone through all the theoretical stuff, let's get to the actual commands.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruteforce
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The command line you'll need to use for using brute force is:

fzc -mb -nzFile.zip -lChr Lenght -cType of chars

Now if you read the bforce.txt that comes with fzc you'll find the description of how works Chr Lenght and the Type of chars, but hey, I'm gonna explain this too. Why not, right?... (but remember look at the bforce.txt too)

For Chr Lenght you can use 4 kind of switches...

-> You can use range -> 4-6 :it would brute force from 4 Chr passwors to 6 chr passwords
-> You can use just one lenght -> 5 :it would just brute force using passwords with 5 chars
-> You can use also the all number -> 0 :it would start brute forcing from passwords with lenght 0 to lenght 32, even if you are crazy i don't think that you would do this.... if you are thinking in doing this get a live...
-> You can use the + sign with a number -> 3+ :in this case it would brute force from passwords with lenght 3 to passwords with 32 chars of lenght, almost like the last option...

For the Type of chars we have 5 switches they are:

-> a for using lowercase letters
-> A for using uppercase letters
-> ! for using simbols (check the Bforce.txt if you want to see what simbols)
-> s for using space
-> 1 for using numbers

Example:
If you want to find a password with lowercase and numbers by brute force you would just do something like:

fzc -mb -nzTest.zip -l4-7 -ca1

This would try all combinations from passwords with 4 chars of lenght till 7 chars, but just using numbers and lowercase.

*****
hint
*****

You should never start the first brute force attack to a file using all the chars switches, first just try lowercase, then uppercase, then uppercase with number then lowercase with numbers, just do like this because you can get lucky and find the password much faster, if this doesn't work just prepare your brain and start with a brute force that would take a lot of time. With a combination like lowercase, uppercase, special chars and numbers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wordlis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Like I said in the bottom and like you should be thinking now, the wordlist is the most powerfull mode in this program. Using this mode, you can choose between 3 modes, where each one do some changes to the text that is in the wordlist, I'm not going to say what each mode does to the words, for knowing that just check the file wlist.txt, the only thing I'm going to tell you is that the best mode to get passwords is mode 3, but it takes longer time too.
To start a wordlist attak you'll do something like.

fzc -mwMode number -nzFile.zip -nwWordlist

Where:

Mode number is 1, 2 or 3 just check wlist.txt to see the changes in each mode.
File.zip is the filename and Wordlist is the name of the wordlist that you want to use. Remember that if the file or the wordlist isn't in the same directory of FZC you'll need to give the all path.

You can add other switches to that line like -fLine where you define in which line will FZC start reading, and the -lChar Length where it will just be read the words in that char length, the switche works like in bruteforce mode.
So if you something like

fzc -mw1 -nztest.zip -nwMywordlist.txt -f50 -l9+

FZC would just start reading at line 50 and would just read with length >= to 9.

Example:

If you want to crack a file called myfile.zip using the "theargonlistserver1.txt" wordlist, selecting mode 3, and you wanted FZC to start reading at line 50 you would do:

fzc -mw3 -nzmyfile.zip -nwtheargonlistserver1.txt -f50

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resuming
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other good feature in FZC is that FZC supports resuming. If you need to shutdown your computer and FZC is running you just need to press the ESC key, and fzc will stop. Now if you are using a brute force attack the current status will be saved in a file called resume.fzc but if you are using a wordlist it will say to you in what line it ended (you can find the line in the file fzc.log too).
To resume the bruteforce attack you just need to do:

fzc -mr

And the bruteforce attack will start from the place where it stopped when you pressed the ESC key.
But if you want to resume a wordlist attack you'll need to start a new wordlist attack, saying where it's gonna start. So if you ended the attack to the file.zip in line 100 using wordlist.txt in mode 3 to resume you'll type

fzc -mw3 -nzfile.zip -nwwordlist.txt -f100

Doing this FZC would start in line 100, since the others 99 lines where already checked in an earlier FZC session.

Well, it looks like I covered most of what you need to know. I certainly hope it helped you... don't forget to read the files that come with the program

To link to this blog, copy and paste the code below into your site.

<a href="http://tricksofcomputer.blogspot.com/2007/09/cracking-zip-password-files.html">Cracking Zip Password Files</a>

Breaking into Win XP without passwords

2007-09-24T07:33:00.046-07:00

Because of the security features built into Windows XP, it is virtually [not actually ] impossible to get back into the system without the password.
You have several options to try and get around this problem.

If you have access to another user account with administrator rights, you can use that account to change the password
of the account that is locked out. You can also use the default Administrator account that is built into Windows XP.

First you need to boot the system into Safe Mode.
1.Restart your system.
2.When you see the blue Dell globe or screen, press the ( F8 ) key about 3 times a second.
3.You should get the Windows startup menu. Use the (Up or Down) arrow keys to highlight (SafeMode)
4.Press (Enter) on (Safe Mode), then press (Enter) on (Windows XP).
5.The system should boot to Safe Mode.

Once you are at the Account Log on Screen, click on the icon
for the user account with administrator rights, or click on the icon
for the administrators account.
Note: For Home the Administrator account isn't normally shown & in Safe Mode you have to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys twice to show.
For PRO you can do this in normal mode

When the system has booted to the desktop, use the following steps to change the accounts password.
1.Click Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools.
2.Click Computer Management.
3.Double click Local Users and Groups, double click the folder Users.
4.Right click on the account name that is locked out, and click on Set Password.
5.You may get a warning message about changing the password, simply click proceed.
6.Leave the New Password box blank, also leave the Confirm Password box blank.
7.Click OK, and OK again.
8.Then close all Windows, reboot the system and try to log in.

Now there are also applications that can recover the password for you.
The following companies provide these applications at a cost.
iOpus® Password Recovery XP here.
LostPassword.com, here.
Asterisk Password Recovery XP v1.89 here.
Windows XP / 2000 / NT Key here.

Now consider a situation, where you have all the user accounts including default 'administrator' account has been kept password protected. Seems like trouble????
Well, don't worry.Soon i will explain to you about ways which enables you to log in through any account you want.Isn't that gr8!!!!!!! Stay tunned...

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How to Bypass BIOS Passwords

2007-09-24T07:33:00.045-07:00

BIOS passwords can add an extra layer of security for desktop and laptop computers. They are used to either prevent a user from changing the BIOS settings or to prevent the PC from booting without a password. Unfortunately, BIOS passwords can also be a liability if a user forgets their password, or changes the password to intentionally lock out the corporate IT department. Sending the unit back to the manufacturer to have the BIOS reset can be expensive and is usually not covered in the warranty. Never fear, all is not lost. There are a few known backdoors and other tricks of the trade that can be used to bypass or reset the BIOS

DISCLAIMER
This article is intended for IT Professionals and systems administrators with experience servicing computer hardware. It is not intended for home users, hackers, or computer thieves attempting to crack the password on a stolen PC. Please do not attempt any of these procedures if you are unfamiliar with computer hardware, and please use this information responsibly. LabMice.net is not responsible for the use or misuse of this material, including loss of data, damage to hardware, or personal injury.

Before attempting to bypass the BIOS password on a computer, please take a minute to contact the hardware manufacturer support staff directly and ask for their recommended methods of bypassing the BIOS security. In the event the manufacturer cannot (or will not) help you, there are a number of methods that can be used to bypass or reset the BIOS password yourself. They include:

Using a manufacturers backdoor password to access the BIOS

Use password cracking software

Reset the CMOS using the jumpers or solder beads.

Removing the CMOS battery for at least 10 minutes

Overloading the keyboard buffer

Using a professional service

Please remember that most BIOS passwords do not protect the hard drive, so if you need to recover the data, simply remove the hard drive and install it in an identical system, or configure it as a slave drive in an existing system. The exception to this are laptops, especially IBM Thinkpads, which silently lock the hard drive if the supervisor password is enabled. If the supervisor password is reset without resetting the and hard drive as well, you will be unable to access the data on the drive.

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Backdoor passwords

Many BIOS manufacturers have provided backdoor passwords that can be used to access the BIOS setup in the event you have lost your password. These passwords are case sensitive, so you may wish to try a variety of combinations. Keep in mind that the key associated to "_" in the US keyboard corresponds to "?" in some European keyboards. Laptops typically have better BIOS security than desktop systems, and we are not aware of any backdoor passwords that will work with name brand laptops.

WARNING: Some BIOS configurations will lock you out of the system completely if you type in an incorrect password more than 3 times. Read your manufacturers documentation for the BIOS setting before you begin typing in passwords

Award BIOS backdoor passwords:

ALFAROME ALLy aLLy aLLY ALLY aPAf _award AWARD_SW AWARD?SW AWARD SW AWARD PW AWKWARD awkward BIOSTAR CONCAT CONDO Condo d8on djonet HLT J64 J256 J262 j332 j322 KDD Lkwpeter LKWPETER PINT pint SER SKY_FOX SYXZ syxz shift + syxz TTPTHA ZAAADA ZBAAACA ZJAAADC 01322222
589589 589721 595595 598598

AMI BIOS backdoor passwords:

AMI AAAMMMIII BIOS PASSWORD HEWITT RAND AMI?SW AMI_SW LKWPETER A.M.I. CONDO

PHOENIX BIOS backdoor passwords:

phoenix, PHOENIX, CMOS, BIOS

MISC. COMMON PASSWORDS

ALFAROME BIOSTAR biostar biosstar CMOS cmos LKWPETER lkwpeter setup SETUP Syxz Wodj

OTHER BIOS PASSWORDS BY MANUFACTURER

Manufacturer Password
VOBIS & IBM merlin
Dell Dell
Biostar Biostar
Compaq Compaq
Enox xo11nE
Epox central
Freetech Posterie
IWill iwill
Jetway spooml
Packard Bell bell9
QDI QDI
Siemens SKY_FOX
TMC BIGO
Toshiba Toshiba

TOSHIBA BIOS

Most Toshiba laptops and some desktop systems will bypass the BIOS password if the left shift key is held down during boot

IBM APTIVA BIOS

Press both mouse buttons repeatedly during the boot

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Password cracking software

The following software can be used to either crack or reset the BIOS on many chipsets. If your PC is locked with a BIOS administrator password that will not allow access to the floppy drive, these utilities may not work. Also, since these utilities do not come from the manufacturer, use them cautiously and at your own risk.

Cmos password recovery tools 3.1
!BIOS (get the how-to article)
RemPass
KILLCMOS

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Using the Motherboard "Clear CMOS" Jumper or Dipswitch settings

Many motherboards feature a set of jumpers or dipswitches that will clear the CMOS and wipe all of the custom settings including BIOS passwords. The locations of these jumpers / dipswitches will vary depending on the motherboard manufacturer and ideally you should always refer to the motherboard or computer manufacturers documentation. If the documentation is unavailable, the jumpers/dipswitches can sometimes be found along the edge of the motherboard, next to the CMOS battery, or near the processor. Some manufacturers may label the jumper / dipswitch CLEAR - CLEAR CMOS - CLR - CLRPWD - PASSWD - PASSWORD - PWD. On laptop computers, the dipswitches are usually found under the keyboard or within a compartment at the bottom of the laptop.
Please remember to unplug your PC and use a grounding strip before reaching into your PC and touching the motherboard. Once you locate and rest the jumper switches, turn the computer on and check if the password has been cleared. If it has, turn the computer off and return the jumpers or dipswitches to its original position.

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Removing the CMOS Battery

The CMOS settings on most systems are buffered by a small battery that is attached to the motherboard. (It looks like a small watch battery). If you unplug the PC and remove the battery for 10-15 minutes, the CMOS may reset itself and the password should be blank. (Along with any other machine specific settings, so be sure you are familiar with manually reconfiguring the BIOS settings before you do this.) Some manufacturers backup the power to the CMOS chipset by using a capacitor, so if your first attempt fails, leave the battery out (with the system unplugged) for at least 24 hours. Some batteries are actually soldered onto the motherboard making this task more difficult. Unsoldering the battery incorrectly may damage your motherboard and other components, so please don't attempt this if you are inexperienced. Another option may be to remove the CMOS chip from the motherboard for a period of time.
Note: Removing the battery to reset the CMOS will not work for all PC's, and almost all of the newer laptops store their BIOS passwords in a manner which does not require continuous power, so removing the CMOS battery may not work at all. IBM Thinkpad laptops lock the hard drive as well as the BIOS when the supervisor password is set. If you reset the BIOS password, but cannot reset the hard drive password, you may not be able to access the drive and it will remain locked, even if you place it in a new laptop. IBM Thinkpads have special jumper switches on the motherboard, and these should be used to reset the system.

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Overloading the KeyBoard Buffer

On some older computer systems, you can force the CMOS to enter its setup screen on boot by overloading the keyboard buffer. This can be done by booting with the keyboard or mouse unattached to the systems, or on some systems by hitting the ESC key over 100 times in rapid succession.

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Jumping the Solder Beads on the CMOS

It is also possible to reset the CMOS by connecting or "jumping" specific solder beads on the chipset. There are too many chipsets to do a breakdown of which points to jump on individual chipsets, and the location of these solder beads can vary by manufacturer, so please check your computer and motherboard documentation for details. This technique is not recommended for the inexperienced and should be only be used as a "last ditch" effort.

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Using a professional service

If the manufacturer of the laptop or desktop PC can't or won't reset the BIOS password, you still have the option of using a professional service. Password Crackers, Inc., offers a variety of services for desktop and laptop computers for between $100 and $400. For most of these services, you'll need to provide some type of legitimate proof of ownership. This may be difficult if you've acquired the computer second hand or from an online auction.

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How to hack Win XP Admin Passwords

2007-09-24T07:33:00.041-07:00

This hack will only work if the person that owns the machine
has no intelligence. This is how it works:
When you or anyone installs Win XP for the first time your
asked to put in your username and up to five others.
Now, unknownst to a lot of other people this is the only place in
Win XP that you can password the default Administrator Diagnostic
Account. This means that to by pass most administrators accounts
on Win XP all you have to do is boot to safe mode by pressing F8
during boot up and choosing it. Log into the Administrator Account
and create your own or change the password on the current Account.
This only works if the user on setup specified a password for the
Administrator Account.

This has worked for me on both Win XP Home and Pro.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now this one seems to be machine dependant, it works randomly(don't know why)

If you log into a limited account on your target machine and open up a dos prompt
then enter this set of commands Exactly:
(this appeared on w*w.astalavista.com a few days ago but i found that it wouldn't work
on the welcome screen of a normal booted machine)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
cd\ *drops to root
cd\windows\system32 *directs to the system32 dir
mkdir temphack *creates the folder temphack
copy logon.scr temphack\logon.scr *backsup logon.scr
copy cmd.exe temphack\cmd.exe *backsup cmd.exe
del logon.scr *deletes original logon.scr
rename cmd.exe logon.scr *renames cmd.exe to logon.scr
exit *quits dos
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now what you have just done is told the computer to backup the command program
and the screen saver file, then edits the settings so when the machine boots the
screen saver you will get an unprotected dos prompt with out logging into XP.
Once this happens if you enter this command minus the quotes
"net user password"
If the Administrator Account is called Frank and you want the password blah enter this
"net user Frank blah"
and this changes the password on franks machine to blah and your in.

Have fun!!!!!!!!

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Performance Increase Through My Computer

2007-09-24T07:33:00.005-07:00

1: Start > Right Click on My Computer and select properties.
2: Click on the "Advanced" tab
3: See the "Perfomance" section? Click "Settings"
4: Disable all or some of the following:

Fade or slide menus into view
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Show Shadows under menus
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Use a background image for each folder type
Use common tasks in folders

There, now Windows will still look nice and perform faster!!!!!!!

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Add A Url Address Bar To The Task Bar

2007-09-23T04:32:00.003-07:00

You can add an Internet URL address bar to your Windows XP taskbar. Doing so will let you type in URLs and launch Web pages without first launching a browser. It will also let you launch some native Windows XP applications in much the same way as you would via the Run menu (so you could type in 'calc' without quotes to launch the calculator or 'mspaint' without quotes to launch Microsoft Paint. Here's how you add the address bar:

1. Right-click on the taskbar, select Toolbars, and then click Address.

2. The word Address will appear on your taskbar.

3. Double click it to access it.

4. If that doesn't work, your taskbar is locked. You can unlock it by right-clicking on the taskbar again and uncheck Lock the Taskbar.

NOTE: You may also need to grab the vertical dotted lines beside the word Address and drag it to the left to make the Address window appear.

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Rename Multiple Files In Winxp with ease

2007-09-23T04:32:00.002-07:00

XP lets you rename files in bulk by simply selecting multiple files within Windows Explorer and pressing the F2 key. When you use this feature, the OS applies the name you enter to the first file and applies the same name with a number in parentheses to the other files you selected (the file extensions remain unchanged).

For example, if you select the following files,
* notes.doc
* figures.xls
* disney.jpg
* holiday.gif

and rename the first file (notes.doc) to SoD.doc, XP renames the remaining files as follows:
* SoD (1).xls
* SoD (2).jpg
* SoD(3).gif

I used to get a particular problem when i try to transfer and save the images and video clips taken by my cellphone to hard disk.Every time i tried to copy those stuff from my phone memory to my 'cell_image' folder, windows can not copy because already exists files with the same name. Now changing those file names to a different, is a mammoth task. This technique helped me a lot to resolve this issue. I hope, you will catch a situation too, where you can act smartly and find this tutorial useful.

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