Untitled Document

Changing Buffer Settings to Resolve Connection Problems

This is one measure you can take to correct connection problems. If you find yourself getting disconnected frequently, this is

known to help.

1. Click the START button. Then choose settings. Click on Control Panel.

2. Look for the "Modems" icon in Control Panel and double click on it.

3. Select the modem being used by clicking one time on it. Then click the "Properties" button.

4. Click the "Connection" tab, and then click the "Port Settings" button.

5. Move the buffer settings all the way to the left. Click the "OK" button.

Force Users to Logon to Windows (Windows 9x)

Usually users can simply press 'Cancel' at the Windows logon box to bypass the login process and gain access to the local computer. This tweak will logout the user if the authentication fails or the user clicks Cancel.

Like all registry tweaks, this is for advanced users, please do not attempt to try this if you are not confident with the Windows registry and recovering from any subsequent problems.

Firstly, setup your computer for multiple users by using the 'Users' wizard in the Control Panel. Create a new user in addition to any existing users, then restart Windows and login as the new user (this will become your new default account).

While you are logged in open your registry and expand the [HKEY_USERS] key, there should be several sub-folders including ".DEFAULT", "Software" and a folder corresponding to the new username you created above.

Open the key listed below (if the 'Run' key does not already exist then create it), and create a new string value named "NoLogon", and set the value to equal "RUNDLL32 shell32,SHExitWindowsEx 0". Log-off and now when you login using the new username you should gain access to the desktop, but when you press Cancel or enter the wrong password the desktop should partially load, and then the computer should return to the login screen.

Note: If you have problems with this tweak, press F8 while the "Starting Windows 98..." boot-up message is showing, and select Safe Mode. Then open your registry and delete the "NoLogon" key created above.

Note: Once this tweak has been implemented any subsequent users accounts that are created will inherit the 'NoLogon' value and therefore reboot when they login. To avoid this; when you first create a new user, open the key below for the newly created account name (e.g. [HKEY_USERS\jdoe]) and remove the 'NoLogon' value.

Settings:

Key: [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Run]

Value Name: NoLogon

Data Type: REG_SZ (String Value)

Hide the Desktop Icons

If you are a person that generally uses the Start menu to access all your programs and would prefer your desktop to be free of icons, use this setting to hide all of the items on your desktop. To set this option, go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\Explorer

Edit/create the value NoDesktop (DWORD value) and set the value to "1" (without quotes) to hide the desktop icons, or "0" to display the desktop icons.

One-click shutdown

If you have Clean Sweep Deluxe, Mike recommends that you disable it before proceeding. On the desktop, right-click and go to New, then to Shortcut. (In other words, create a new shortcut.) Then on the following path name type:

C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows

If the C: drive is not your local hard drive, then replace C with the correct letter of the hard drive. That's all. Now whenever you want to shut down, just click on this shortcut and you're done. Also, if you want to make life better and faster, you can right-click the new shortcut you just made, go to Properties, and type in X (or whatever letter) in the Shortcut Key box.

One-click restart

On the desktop, right-click and select New, then Shortcut. (In other words, create a new shortcut.) Then on the following path name type in

C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec

Disable the MS-DOS Command Prompt (Windows 9x and NT)

Disable the MS-DOS Command Prompt (Windows 9x and NT)This setting allows you to disable the use of the MS-DOS command prompt in Windows.

1. Using Regedit find the key below, creating it if it doesn't already exist.

2. Create a new DWORD value, and name it 'Disabled'.

3. To disable the command prompt modify the value of 'Disabled' to '1', and to re-enable it again later change the value to '0'.

Note: You need to reboot for this restriction to come into force.

Registry Settings:
Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\WinOldApp]
Value Name: Disabled
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Data: (0 = disable, 1 = enable)

Handy Keyboard Shortcuts

Delete everything in the right pane EXCEPT the value named Default. Restart Windows and the run menu will be empty.

This explains how to remove those annoying entries in the Add/Remove programs list. I commonly delete the folder from the directory and I am left with a non-removable entry in the Add/Remove programs list.

7. select UninstallThis will give you a list of all the programs in your Add/Remove programs list. Highlight the file and select delete. This will remove the entry from the list.

To change the default application of a file type, simply select the file, hold down SHIFT, and click the right mouse button. Select Open With, and choose the program you want to use for this file type. Select "Always use this program to open this type of file" at the bottom of the dialog box.

Right click on 'Recycle Bin', go to properties and decrease the size of the recycle bin. 10% of a 2GB hard drive is a 200MB recycle bin!

Having problems trying to find those programs that load but are not in your startup folder? Try looking in the registry. Run Regedit and look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, Software, Microsoft, Windows, Current Version, Run or Run service. This is where things like system agent, NetMeeting, the active movie check and other such things hang out

Format {Partitionletter]:/z:n where n is a number 1, 2, 3, 4 will give you 512byte, 1k, or 2k clusters depending on the value of n and the size of the partition. On a partition n=1 will give you 512byte clusters.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\WinOldApp]

A. You can boot off of the three NT installation disks and follow the instructions below:

Usually a NTFS partition can be deleted using FDISK (delete non-DOS partition), however this will not work if the NTFS partition is in the extended partition.

The following are other DWORD settings that can be set in the same HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer key:

NoSetTaskBar. Takes away the ability to change settings in the task bar from the Start menu choice settings

NoDispAppearancePage. Removes the appearance settings page from the Display applet

NoDispBackgroundPage. Removes the background settings page from the Display applet

NoDispScrSavPage. Removes the screen-saver settings page from the Display applet

This setting controls which drives are visible in 'My Computer', it is possible to hide all drives or just selected ones. The value of 'NoDrives' defines which drives are visible. The low order (right most) bit is drive A: while the 26th bit is Drive Z: To hide a drive, turn on it's bit. If your not happy working in Hex, add these decimal numbers to hide the drive(s):

A: 1, B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E: 16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048, M: 4096, N: 8192, O: 16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S: 262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X: 8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, ALL: 67108863

Want to further slim down your Start Menu? Well then, I have another one for you. To disable the Documents menu from the Start button AND to "anihilate" the \Windows\Recent subfolder, go to the Registry key mentioned above, and search in the right hand pane for the "NoRecentDocsHistory" entry. If you can't find it, create it. Right-click it and select New -> Binary Value. Name it NoRecentDocsHistory. Double-click on it and type in the

Now you need to repeat the steps above to add/modify another Binary Value called "NoRecentDocsMenu" (don't type the quotes), and then give it the same numeric value, but don't type the spaces:

This one is for users who don't like using the IE Favorites folder outside the IE interface (the only difference is when you open the Favorites menu from the Start button, it displays its contents in the same window). It also takes quite a while to "dig" through all your Favorites folders and subfolders to get to the link you're looking for, if you have a load of them, like I do. To make the Favorites item disappear from your Start Menu, run Regedit and look in the right hand pane of the same Registry key (shown above) for the "NoFavoritesMenu" entry. If it's not there, create it: right-click and choose New -> DWORD Value. Rename it to read "NoFavoritesMenu" (no quotes). Now double-click on it and give it a Value Data of 1. Click OK to save it. Now close Regedit and restart Windows. You can still access the Favorites menu from any Explorer window, but not from your Start Menu from now on.

Windows NT lets you decide if you want NumLock on or off whenever you log on. Find the key

and change the value for InitialKeyboardIndicators. Set the value to 0 to turn NumLock off; make the value 2 if you want NumLock on.

You can change the text displayed on the NT log-on screen above the user name and password. Set a string value at