- To edit this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
- First click on Start button to open "Run" and type "regedit" then press Ok button to open the Registry Editor.
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- Double click on new DWORD value and set its value 0 under "Value data" section.
- Close the Registry editor and restart your computer for changes to apply.
- Change this value 1 to display this user at welcome screen.
- To logon this hidden user account, simply press the CTRL+ALT+DELETE twice at the login screen then type username and password.
The Best Computer Tips and Tricks: Windows XP
Control Inactive System Tray Icons
You don't have to hide or show all the icons in your system tray—you can control their disappearing acts. Right-click on the taskbar and select Properties. Click on the checkbox next to "Hide inactive icons" (if it's not checked by default), then click on the Customize button. For each item on this list, you can choose "Hide when inactive," "Always hide," or "Always show" options to decide what you'll see and when.
Fit More Icons on Your Desktop
If your screen is so cluttered with Word documents and program shortcuts that you can't see the rolling meadows of your wallpaper, you don't need to move piles of stuff to the Recycling Bin. Just change the amount of space between icons. Right-click on the desktop, select Properties, then click on the Appearance tab, and click the Advanced button. In the "Item" drop-down, scroll down to Icon Spacing (Horizontal) and Icon Spacing (Vertical); changing the value in the "Size" field will move icons closer together (while increasing the number will move them farther apart). When you're done, click OK. To make your existing icons follow these rules, right-click on the desktop, select "Arrange Icons By" and then click Align to Grid, then go back to the same menu and click "Auto Arrange."Shut Down from Your Desktop
If you're trying to eliminate every extraneous mouse click, you can shut down your computer with an icon on the desktop. Right-click on your desktop, click "New," and then click "Shortcut." In the "Type the location of the item" field, type "shutdown -s -t 00" to give you a way to shut down the computer immediately. (Change the -s to -r to create a reboot shortcut instead.)Change What Programs Start When Windows Does
You can prevent a lot of apps forcing Windows into chilled-molasses boot times—without uninstalling anything. Click Start, then "Run...," and type msconfig. This brings up the System Configuration Utility window. Click on the Startup tab to see a list of all the apps slated to start when you boot up Windows. Click the check mark next to any you don't want, and then click OK to save your choices.Type With an Onscreen Keyboard
Whether you have trouble with your hands or you just prefer using the mouse, typing with Windows' onscreen keyboard can be a great convenience. Navigate to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Accessibility, and click "On-Screen Keyboard." Click OK to clear the dialogue box and then start "typing"—you can even change the settings to "press" keys just by hovering your mouse over the letter you want (enable this feature by selecting "Typing Mode" from the Settings menu).
No-wait Screen Savers
Don't want to wait for your screen saver to kick in? Create a shortcut to it just as you would for any other program by hitting Windows key + F to search your computer and click on "All files and folders." Type "*.scr" in the "All or part of the file name" field to find every screen saver file on your computer. In the resulting list, right-click and drag the screen saver you want to your desktop. Whenever you want it to start, just double-click its icon.
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The windows XP welcome screen displays the list of all local users accounts except the built in administrator account, but if system administrator add a new user account for troubleshooting purpose and he wants windows XP does not display this user name at the welcome screen. So you can hide this user at the welcome screen using windows registry editor.
Perform the following steps to hide the user at logon screen:
In registry editor locate the given path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
First right click in the right side of the registry editor panel and create the new DWORD value then rename this key exactly as the username.
For example, you want to hide the username "tony" then DWORD value will be as:
Tony REG_DWORD
How to insert a sound or music on a PowerPoint Slide?
MS- Power Point helps to create and organize presentations very easily and quickly and presentation is a systematic approach through which ideas are delivered to others in a will-mannered way. The slides created have different information, graphics and clipart are arranged in a proper order. You can also insert sound or music on a slide. It may be a sound or movie. When you run slide show, movie or sound also plays with that presentation.
- Perform the following steps to insert a music file on a slide:
- First display the slide you want to add music or sound to.
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- On the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sound, submenu will appear then do one of the following steps.
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- To insert a sound from the Clip Gallery, click Sound from Gallery, and then locate and insert the sound you want.
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- To insert a sound from another location, click Sound from File, locate the folder that contains the sound, and then double-click the sound file that you want to add.
- Here a sound icon appears on the slide.
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- A message is display, if you want the sound to play automatically when you go to the slide, click Yes, if you want the sound to play only when you click the sound icon during a slide show, click No button.
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- To preview the sound in normal view, double click the sound icon.
How to take a Screen Shot in XP and Windows 7?
The feature which allows you to take a screen shot in Windows XP is very useful. You can capture the image on your screen as you take a screen shot in Windows XP and save it for later. It can be saved for many reasons. Sometimes you need to save the image of the screen e.g. if you get an error message on your system, you can take a screen shot in Windows XP operating system and send it to your support person. You can show the webpage you are looking at to someone. That way you won’t have to send a link of the web site. Screen shots are very helpful when you want to show how to perform different computer tasks or solve problems while using Windows. Screen shots can demonstrate all these things as you send them via Microsoft Word, instant messaging and e-mails.
This is how you take a screen shot and then save it:
Choose the window you want to take the screen shot of by clicking it. Press ALT+PRINT SCREEN. The PRINT SCREEN key is close to the upper right of the keyboard. If you want to take the screen shot of the entire desktop instead of a single window, you just have to press the PRINT SCREEN key. You won’t need to press the ALT key along with it.
Click on the Start button, from Programs go to Accessories, and click on Paint.
When the Paint window opens, click on Edit, and then choose and click on Paste.
When you see the image in the Paint window, click on File, and then scroll down and click on Save As.
When the Save As dialog box appears, type a name for the screen shot in the File name box.
Click on Save in the end.
Now this picture is like any other picture save on your computer as you can print or e-mail it.
You can take a screen shot in Windows XP whenever you want. But you can’t take a screen shot prior to you logging onto your computer and also while a video is being played in Microsoft Windows Media Player.
How to add background picture to Excel 2007 spreadsheet?
You can insert a picture in Word, PowerPoint or Excel 2007 very easily. Many people know how to insert a picture in Excel 2007 spreadsheet but they don’t know how to add background picture to Excel 2007 spreadsheet. Excel 2007 spreadsheets largely consist of numbers, charts, tables etc. You can give your personal creative touch to your work on Excel 2007 if you add background picture to Excel 2007 spreadsheet. After you add background picture to Excel 2007 spreadsheet, you will be able to make it look less boring and much more interesting. Follow these easy and simple steps to add background picture to Excel 2007 spreadsheet.
Open the Excel spreadsheet to which you would like to add the background picture.
Select Page Layout from the ribbon.
Click on Background.
The Sheet Background window pane will appear. Choose the graphics or image you want to add as the background.
Click on Insert at the bottom.
You have successfully added a background image to your Excel 2007 spreadsheet! You can change the colors as well as the font to suit the background picture. It is recommended that you select a very light or a very dark colored picture so that the data on the foreground stands out.
How to Make a PowerPoint 2007 Presentation CD Package?
After you create a presentation or slideshow on PowerPoint 2007, you might want to take it with you to the place where you have to convey the presentation. You can easily make a PowerPoint 2007 presentation CD if you can’t carry your computer with you. If you make a PowerPoint 2007 presentation CD, you can easily distribute it to others as well. You will need a writable CD drive installed in the computer you are using. A blank CD will also be required. Put it in the CD drive before starting this procedure. Follow these steps in order to make a PowerPoint 2007 presentation CD:
Open the PowerPoint 2007 presentation you want to transfer into a compact disk.
Click on the "Office" button.
Select "Publish" and click on "Package for CD" from the menu.
The "Package for CD" window will open. Choose the kind of package you want to use by clicking on Options. The "Viewer Package" choice contains the PowerPoint viewer. The Viewer Package choice is suitable when the person you want to give the CD to doesn’t have PowerPoint in his computer.
Select the "Embedded Truetype Fonts" checkbox on the Options menu. This will make the presentation fonts legible on a different computer.
Click on the "OK" button.
Select the "Copy to Folder" option from the “Package for CD” window. A back-up copy of the presentation will be made on the drive.
Now click on the "Copy to CD" button from the “Package for CD” window pane.
After you make a PowerPoint 2007 presentation CD, you can take it out of your computer and check if it is working on a different computer.
How to disable/enable the usage of USB storage devices?
USB drives (also known as flash drive, mobile disk or pen drive) are becoming the most popular standard in these days to store and move data. USB support is available in PCs of both IBM-compatible and Apple computers. USB port support hot plugging and plug & play. The USB allows up to 127 devices to be connected to the bus via a single port. The driver name "usbstor.sys" is used to communicate any USB drives to the operating system.
USB drives are indeed very useful in these days but a user can easily use to transfer any confidential information from your computer to others and can also upload viruses affected files to your computer by accidentally or deliberately. But you can prevent the users to connect any USB drives in the computer by disabling the ability of "usbstor.sys" (USB driver) to load in system. It will block the USB storage devices only and your system USB keyboard, mouse and others USB devices will work properly.
Perform the following steps to block the USB storage devices:
- To edit this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
- First click on Start button to open "Run" and type "regedit" then press Ok button to open the Registry Editor.
In registry editor locate the given path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR
Here select the "USBSTOR" folder and in right side of the registry editor panel find the value with name "Start".
Close the Registry editor and restart your computer for changes to apply.
Now when you want to restore the default setting, open the Registry Editor and set its value back to 3.
Now again close the Registry editor and restart your computer for changes to apply.
How to hide your important data from other users?
Normally when you need to secure your important data from other users, then your first choice is to burn it on CD or put it to removable drive instead of hard drive. But imagine if your data size is more than 100 GB then it is not easy to burn it on CD. No worry, you can save your full drive from other users access using this trick. Check out InfoSec Institute for IT courses including computer forensics boot camp training
Perform the given steps to hide your system data partition:
- To enable this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
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- First click on Start button to open "Run" and type "CMD" (without the quotes) then press Ok button to open Command Prompt.
Now type diskpart on the blinking cursor and wait for 5 seconds to appear diskpart> utility.
To show the list of volume, type list volume command after the diskpart> prompt, this command will show you all system drives detail.
Now first select the volume that you want to hide, for example,
if you need to hide F drive then first type select volume 2 (in this case) and press enter button.
After loading volume, type remove letter F (in this case) to hide F drive.
Now exit from command prompt and open My Computer to verify drives.
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How to clear your sensitive information on system shutdown?
During data processing some operating systems use the hard disk as memory, called virtual memory. During processing, operating system transfers some data and programs from Ram to hard disk and reloads again when required. The data or programs are stored in hard disk in temporary file called the swap file. This technique of swapping data between memory and hard disk is called paging. Operating system spends a lot of time in paging process, instead of executing the application software. But the problem is that while working you use different software programs on computer and page file may contain your confidential information or stored in non encrypted format. To reduce this risk, you can set your computer to clear out page file automatically each time you shutdown your computer.
Perform the given steps to set your system clear page file automatically:
- To enable this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
- First click on start button to open control panel and then click here on "Administrative Tools" option.
- Now "Local Security Settings" panel will appear, on lift side of this panel click on "Local Policies".
- Here click on "Security Options" then double click on "Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile" option.
- Now small dialog box will appear with options, "Enabled or Disabled" the page file.
- Select the "Enabled" radio button to set clear page file each time you shutdown computer.
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How to create data backup in windows XP?
Perform the following steps to run the backup and restore process:
The Backup or Restore Wizard will appear, click Next button to continue.
Here select "Back up files and settings" check box and click Next button.
Now you can specify the option, select "Let me choose what to backup" option and click Next button.
Select the items (any file, folder and drive) to be backup and click Next button.
Now give the destination for backup file and type a name for this backup and click Next.
In next windows, you can select the backup types (Normal, Copy, Incremental, Differential, and daily), click advance button otherwise click to Finish.
For Advanced settings, select the backup type and click Next button.
Now specify" How to Backup" (compression, verification and shadow copy option) and click Next button.
Now select backup options (Append to existing backups, Replace the existing backups), click Next.
Now you can scheduled the backup mean when to backup (start backup now or schedule for later).
Click Finish button to start backup process.
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How to Restore data backup in windows XP?
The Backup or Restore Wizard will appear, click Next to continue.
Now choose "What to restore", select item to restore then click Next button.
Click Finish button for restore.
For restore on different location click "Advanced" button.
Now specify" How to Restore" and click Next button.
Select the advance options for restore then click Next button to finish the process.
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