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Permanently
delete files
If you want to permanently delete files without
moving them to Recycle bin, hold down the
Shift key while pressing delete. If you don't
want the recycle bin altogether, right-click
the Recycle Bin and click on Properties. On
the Global Tab, select Do not move files to
the Recycle Bin. If you enable configure drivers
independently, you can set this up for the
drivers you want.
Windows
System Configuration
A very useful tool included with Windows is
the System Configuration Utility. Select Start
> Run and type 'msconfig' in the Open box
to launch the application. The system Configuration
utility makes fiddling with programs to launch
at Startup or editing autoexec.bat, config.sys
etc. a lot easier. To system Configuration
Utility also allows you to crease a backup
of your system files. It would be a good idea
to use this before you begin making changed.
Preview
Images
You can easily preview your Image files by
enabling "Web View" from the toolbar or from
the Windows Explorer menu, select View >
As Web page. A better way to preview images
is as thumbnails instead of icons. To enable
this view in Windows Explorer, right-click
the folder you want to preview and click on
Properties. Check the box against Enable thumbnail
view and click OK to exit the dialog box.
Now, form the View menu, select Thumbnails.
Optimizing
the Swap File
Windows uses a portion of the hard disk as
RAM, constantly swapping data between RAM
and hard disk as required. The speed of your
hard disk is in the order of 1000 times slower
than that of your main memory. Inefficient
use of the swap file could considerable slow
down your system to a very great extent. One
of the best ways to speed up the swap file
usage is to create a permanent swap file.
In a permanent swap file, the file used for
swapping information has a fixed size and
location on your hard disk. When a temporary
swap file is used, the location and size of
the file is determined by application being
used and is not predictable. Also, since a
temporary swap file is constantly written
to and is not fixed in size, it would be highly
fragmented across the partition that holds
it. A better option is to create the swap
file on a dedicated partition on your hard
disk. By doing this, the swap file will never
be fragmented since that partition is only
being utilized by the swap file itself. You
can configure the swap file size and location
from Control Panel > System > Performance
> Virtual Memory. The size of the swap
file should be around 2.5 times the amount
of RAM on the system.
Dummy
entries in Add/Remove Programs list
Sometimes, even after program are uninstalled,
or due to the files being deleted instead
of a uninstalled, the entry in the Add/Remove
Programs list does not get deleted. To remove
it form the list: 1. Start the Registry Editor.
2. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\Uninstall. 3. Delete the program
entry here. You can also use TweakUI to do
this.
Restart
only Windows
When restarting Windows, you don't always
need to go to thought the BIOS initialization
and POST. Instead of simple clicking on Restart
form the Shut Down Windows dialog box, help
down the Shift key as you click on OK. This
will restart only Windows. This is particularly
useful when you change some registry entries
or a few system settings.
Improve
Removable Disk Drive Performance
Windows gives you the option to use write-behind
caching to improve the performance of removable
disk drivers.
-
Open
control Panel > System > Performance
and click on File System.
-
Check
the Enable write-behind caching on all removable
disk drives check box under the removable
Disk tab and click OK
Note:
If this result in a problem with disk operations,
uncheck the Enable write-behind caching on all
removable disk drives check box.
MS
Office memory hoggers
A typical installation of MS Office installs Find
Fast, an indexing utility that loads at startup.
This hogs system resources by regularly indexing
the entire hard disk(s). You can improve performance
of your computer by removing Find Fast form your
Startup folder. To reclaim the space used by the
Find Fast index, open Control Panel > Find
Fast, select your hard drives(s) and form the
Index menu, click on Delete Index. When you've
deleted your Index, click on Close and Stop form
the Index menu. Another item installed in the
Startup folder is named Microsoft Office. This
does nothing apart from loading all MS Office
libraries at startup to speed up launching of
any Office applications. Since this is not necessary,
you can delete this shortcut, too.
Stop
Automatic Dialing
Many Internet applications or software are
often set to automatically dialup and connect.
To setup automatic dialing, open Control Panel
> Internet Options. Under the Connections
tab, enable Never dial a connection.
Automatic
maintenance
The Windows Maintenance Wizard can automate
a lot of routine system maintenance tasks.
To open this wizard, choose Start > Programs
> Accessories > System Tools > Maintenance
Wizard. It sets up the Task Scheduler to regularly
run Scandisk, Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup.
Clean
Desktop
To hide all the icons on your Desktop, open
the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft
\Current Version\Policies\Explorer. Add a
DWORD value and name it NoDesktop. Change
it's value to 1. Close the Registry Editor
and restart Windows.
ToolTips
To disable ToolTips in Windows, open the Registry
Editor and navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control
Panel\Desktop. Double-click UserPreferencemask
and change its value to 3E 00 00 00. Chose
the Registry Editor and restart Windows.
Speed
up your modem
Even if your modem if apparently working well,
the baud rate of your COM Port might not allow
you to reach top-speed. To improve your port's
speed:
-
Click
Start >Settings > Control Panel >
System.
-
Click
the Device Manager tab, and click on the
"+" sign next to Ports (COM & LPT).
-
Select
the port your modem uses, click Properties,
then click the Port settings tab and set
the Bits per second to 115200 bps. That
way you won't have a sort of filter on the
Port.
Associations
in a jiffy
To associate files of a certain type with
a different program, hold down the Shift key
while right-clicking on a file of that type
and click on Open With... from the context
menu. Select the program you want to open
files of this type with and enable Always
use this program to open this type of file.
Henceforth, the file will always open with
this program when double-clicked.
A
clean Registry
As time passes the computer's registry accumulates
a lot of corrupted, unused, and unnecessary
register keys, especially if keys are not
removed when you uninstall a program. As a
result, you might experience problems and
your machine might function slower than expected.
The latest version of Microsoft's RegClean
could delete a lot of such registry junk.
You can download this from zdnet
Just search for RegClean and it will let you
download it. Best of all, it is free !!
Assigning
passwords to folders in win 98 and 2000
Right-click on empty space in the folder which
you want to protect and
select CUSTOMIZE THIS FOLDER, then choose
CREATE HTML DOCUMENT FOR THIS
FOLDER. Once the document is opened in Notepad,
scroll down until you see
<script language>="JavaScript">
Insert a blank line after this string.
Then insert the following text.
var
pass = prompt("Enter the password")
if(pass != "YOURPASSWORD")
{window.location="C:"}
Hit the Enter key on your keyboard
Put
a password in the place of YOURPASSWORD but
leave the quotes. Save the
document, exit Notepad,
refresh the folder (or hit F5), enter your
new password, and the next time
you try to enter that folder,
you'll be prompted for your password. If you
enter a wrong password you'll
end up in C: drive!
This
works on Windows 98 and 2000.
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