Microsoft Talk

I just came across some secret codes for 3D Pinball in Windows XP. Now you don’t need to start from ground zero! Howzzatt?!!

Note that the 3D Pinball window must be active for these codes to work.

• Regain your old rank from a previous game by starting a new game and immediately typing rmax. Each time you type this secret command, you’ll advance one rank level.
• Get an extra ball while the Awaiting Deployment message displays by typing 1max.
• Activate the Gravity Well by starting a new game and immediately typing gmax.
• Get an unlimited number of balls and essentially play for as long as you like by starting a new game and immediately typing bmax. Each time you lose a ball, a new one will appear. (While playing with an unlimited number of balls, none of the other tricks will work.)
• Control the ball with your mouse by starting a new game and immediately typing hidden test. When you do, you can click the ball with your left mouse button and essentially drag it anywhere you want and rack up an unbelievable number of points.

Keep in mind that there isn’t a text box into which you enter these secret codes — you simply type them.

In addition to this, how about tweaking your Windows XP sound scheme to play Pinball sound effects!

Here’s how:

1. Go to Start | Control Panel and double-click the Sounds And Audio Devices Properties tool.
2. Select the Sounds tab and then choose the program event that you wish from the Program Events menu.
3. Click the Browse button
4. Select the Look In drop-down list and navigate to the C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Pinball folder.
5. Sample the .wav files by hovering over a file and clicking the Play Sound button in the Preview panel located in the bottom left corner of the Browse For Default Beep Sound dialog box.
6. Once you’ve identified an interesting sound, double-click the .wav file, click the Apply button, and save your Sound Scheme.

Trick: Try assigning Sound999.wav to the Minimize Program event.

How cool is that?!

Source TechRepublic

Recommended Downloads: Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility | Downloads: Windows Media Codecs

One of the nice little features in Windows Vista that you don’t think about is the graph of drive space for your drive icons, so you can visually see at a glance how much space is used. There’s no reason to upgrade for this feature, especially since some programmers created a small utility for XP that gives you the same functionality.

You’ll notice the new icon looks very similar to the ones in Vista, but the more interesting addition is the new bar under the icon that gives you a tiny graph of the current drive space.

The graph will show up on most of the icon sizes other than the details view.

When your drive is running low on space the graph will turn red to indicate that you should probably stop downloading so much.

You can see in task manager that it really doesn’t use all that much memory.

Download Drvicon from Sourceforge.net

This update includes minor changes to how Internet Explorer handles some web pages that use Microsoft ActiveX controls. Please see the Overview section of this page for more information.

So you haven’t made a move to Windows Vista.

Fair enough! How about transforming the look and feel of XP to look like Vista?

All you need to do is follow these steps:

• Download UX Theme MultiPatcher from here
• Run the setup file
• Grab anyone of the following styles and download them on to your PC
• Double click on the .msstyle file and apply the style.
• Voila! Your XP has a new look

Razor Vista

(Download)

VistaVG

(Download)

AeroGlass

(Download)

Thanks Shankar!

Just as you can hack Vista registry to take advantage of Vista ReadyBoost feature, you can use this simple guide to ‘activate’ ReadyBoost like features in Windows XP as well.

Right click on My Computer, go to Properties, and then navigate to the Advanced or Performance tab.
After you have reached this point, follow the images below.



Once you have reached the screen above, select your flask drive, and add it to your virtual memory (paging size is up to you).

*It is recommend making a partition just for file swaping (if using a hard drive instead of a flask drive), so that system fragmentation won?t force the swap file to fragment as well.

Source

Get Vista cursors (lookalikes) for XP

Source | Download

How to automate Windows software updates
How to automate cleanup of Windows temporary directories
How to automate Windows desktop folder synchronization
How to automate Windows desktop backup tasks
How to automate advanced Windows desktop tasks

Sysinternals’ PageDefrag is one freeware programs that you must have on your usb drive.

PageDefrag lets you defragment immovable system files.

It won’t defrag while the system is actually running, but at the next reboot it will defrag the system.

The utility defragments the page file, the event logs, the Registry hives and the hibernation files, all of which normally cannot be defragmented.

When first run, PageDefrag generates a report that describes the location of those files, how many clusters they occupy and how many fragments they’re in. You’re then presented with three options:

1. Defragment once at the next reboot,
2. Defragment at each boot time with a countdown delay, or
3. Disable defragmentation.

If you choose either of the first two options, defragmentation will occur at the next reboot before the Windows GUI loads, and the program will provide real-time feedback on its progress. PageDefrag can also be invoked from the command line or in a script; you don’t need to use the GUI to trigger it.

Here’s how to configure Windows to by pass AutoPlay dialog box and launch Windows Explorer when you insert your USB key in.

1. Insert your flash drive into the USB port.
2. When you see the AutoPlay dialog box, click Cancel.
3. Open My Computer, right-click your flash drive icon, and select Properties.
4. In the Properties dialog box, select the AutoPlay tab.
5. Perform the following steps for each item in the Content Type drop-down list:
   - Select an item in the Content Type drop-down list.
   - Choose Select An Action To Perform in the Actions panel.
   - Select the Open Folder To View Files In Windows Explorer action.
   - Click the Apply button.
6. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box.

Windows Explorer, USB, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Windows Explorer, USB, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

A lot of Windows applications retain memory and this generally happens when you see the icon in the Taskbar, but it doesn’t appear or come to the foreground when you click on it.

Here is the fix for it:

1. Right-click on the application button in the Taskbar and select Size. Better yet, press the S key. This way, you’ll be using the keyboard immediately.
2. Look for a four-way arrow cursor somewhere on the screen. It might be along one of the edges of the screen, or tucked up in a corner.
3. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to try and expand the window size. If you don’t see anything, you might be expanding an extent of the window that’s not visible yet (i.e., it might be offscreen). Press Enter to end the sizing operation.

Immediately after you select Size, the arrow key you strike will determine which edge of the window you’re resizing. For instance, if you hit Size and then press the right arrow key, the right edge of the window will be the one sized. You might need to size each window edge separately by selecting an edge, sizing it, pressing Enter and then repeating the process for another edge. This is a simple two-step process.

1. Right-click on the application button in the Taskbar and select Move. This will again cause a four-way cursor to appear somewhere.
2. Use the arrow keys to move the window into view now that it’s been sized properly.

Via TechTarget

Windows Tip, XP Tip, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Windows Tip, XP Tip, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Here?s how:

1. Right-click the Start button and select the Explore command.
2. Go to File | New | Folder.
3. Name the new folder My Control Panel.
4. Right-click your new My Control Panel folder, select the Properties command, choose the Customize tab, click the Change Icon button, and select an icon that will differentiate this folder from all the rest on the Start menu.
5. Open your new My Control Panel folder, and then open the original Control Panel and select Classic View.
6. Drag and drop your favorite tools from the original Control Panel to your new My Control Panel folder.
7. Close both your new My Control Panel folder and the original Control Panel.

Now when you need to use your favorite tool, just click Start | All Programs and at the top of the All Programs menu select the My Control Panel folder. You?ll see your favorite tools in an easy to access drop-down menu.

Windows XP, XP Tips, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Windows XP, XP Tips, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Are you unable to access some sites or facing network timeout issues? In most cases this could mean your network stack is stuffed. Many malware programs deliberately tamper with network settings.

It’s easy to fix network stack. Use the WinsockXPFix utility.

No need to install this utility. Just run it. Make sure you backup your registry.

Vista search rocks! You can spruce up your Windows XP search too.

Follow any one of these methods, depending on your preference.

In your Windows XP’s search companion, click All Files And Folders and select My Documents in the Look In drop-down list. This prevents the Search Companion from searching the entire hard disk.

Alternatively if you want to search in other locations, like the root directory (folder), sans the system files - Click All Files And Folders, open the More Advanced Options panel, and clear the Search System Folders check box. If the Search Hidden Files And Folders check box is selected, clear it too.

Also note that you can disable support for searching within zip files.

To disable this support, access the Run dialog box, type the command regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll in the Open text box and click OK. You’ll then need to restart the system for the change to take effect. (To re-enable Windows XP’s support for compressed folders, use the command regsvr32 zipfldr.dll.)

Note: Editing the registry is risky; so be sure you’ve performed a full backup before making any changes.

XP, XP Search, Vista, XP Tip, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

XP, XP Search, Vista, XP Tip, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

It’s called WOWLoader! Basically a patch by hackers that lets you play Halo2, meant for Windows Vista, on Windows XP SP2.

he latest version of the patch called Wowloader, first introduced at Filefront Forum earlier this week, contains a game setup loader (loader.exe) and a few DLL files like dwmapi.dll, mf.dll, mfplat.dll, wow.dll and xtaskdlg.dll which need to be placed in the directory where Halo 2 is installed. The loader.exe is required to install the game and subsequently launch it everytime. Users have reported to play Halo 2 successfully on Windows XP with Wowloader.

Download Wowloader 0.3

VIA ThinkAbdul

Until Microsoft release Windows XP SP3, you will have to manually update your Windows XP installation. And if you have done a fresh install, you are doomed

Now now.. don’t despair. There is a workaround.

RyanVM’s Post-SP2 Update Pack by Ryan VanderMeulen, which automates the procedure to a high degree

Unfortunately, Post-SP2 Update Pack is only designed to update a Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD image?it doesn’t update live systems. That said, if you’re starting to build desktops with Windows XP and want the most up-to-the-second disk image you can create, this utility is fairly effective. It also ensures that the installed packages are pre-validated through Microsoft’s own code-signing mechanisms.

Using RyanVM’s Post-SP2 Update Pack

To use RyanVM’s Post- SP2 Update Pack, you need the application and the update collection (this can be downloaded directly from Microsoft and collated by the application author). After copying the contents of the installation CD to a writeable folder, you simply point the SP2 Update Pack program at the writeable folder and at the update packs to apply. Once integration is finished, all that remains is to re-burn the results to a CD or use the patched files in a network-based installation.

Other than the usual collection of hotfixes and Windows updates, you can also download update packs to add Windows Media Player 10, Windows Genuine Advantage (the most recent edition), DirectX 9.0C and other additional/optional programs (such as SyncToy and TweakUI) that do not come with Windows by default.

As a safety measure, it’s recommended that you only do this by starting with the install files from a factory-created or MSDN-downloaded XP SP2 install CD. Don’t attempt this with an install disc that has already been manually updated. Also, if you download future update packs to use with this program, they should only be applied to a factory-fresh SP2 CD. Finally, RyanVM’s Post-SP2 Update Pack should be considered an unofficial solution to the post-SP2 update situation, so it’s best to test it out before using it in any kind of production environment.

XP, SP3, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

XP, SP3, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar