Remote Shutdown

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

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

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.

How To Customise Your start Button

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

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>

Create A Personal Screen Saver In Win Xp ! ! !

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

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

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

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???

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

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

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!!!!!!!!