THE TIPS & TRICKS thread post only tips no questions


Recommended Posts

  • 2 weeks later...
Tweak: How to Disable System File Checker/Windows File Protection in XP

Purpose: If you replace system files a lot and don't want to see WFP popups then just simply use this tweak.

How To:

  • Make a copy of sfc_os.dll (C:\windows\system32\) and open it in a hexeditor.
  • FOR XP WITHOUT SP1: At offset 76C6EEB8(0E2B8) find the values 8B C6 and replace it with 90 90
  • FOR XP WITH SP1: At offset 76C6EFBB(0E3BB) find the values 8B C6 and replace it with 90 90
  • Then replace the original one with the patched sfc_os.dll. (Delete the sfc_os.dll in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\Dllcache\ and ignore the WFP warning.)
  • Open Regedit, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and change SFCDisable to ffffff9d to disable SFC completely.
  • Allowed SFC values:
    •    
    • 0 = Enable SFC.
         
    • 1 = Disable SFC with prompt at reboot to re-enable it.
         
    • 2 = Disable SFC without nag prompt at reboot to re-enable it.
         
    • 4 = Enable SFC but disable all prompts.
         
    • FFFFFF9D = Disable WFP/SFC completely.

    [*]Reboot and enjoy!

After you reboot check event viewer (in Administrative tools) to see if SFC is disabled or not.

574839[/snapback]

.. .. .. does this work for sp2 ??

D.

First I recommend always that you back up your registry. This is done by firstly loading RegEdit from your Start/Run menu bar. Just type RegEdit and it should load correctly. Now select the Registry menu item and then select Export Registry File. Make sure your Export Range has All selected. Once this has been checked, Enter a file name and press save into your prefered location. By doing this it ensures that if everything did go horribly wrong, you can revert to a previous version.

Now if you look at your registry you will see the huge list of folders down the left hand side. Now what you need to do is select the following in the correct order:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER>

Software>

Microsoft>

Windows>

CurrentVersion>

Internet Settings>

Once you have selected the correct sequence, the following selections and changes are the most important.

Within the right hand window of RegEdit you will see there are two strings named MaxConnectionsPerServer and MaxConnectionsPerl_OServer, if these are not there then see below. Click on the first one, MaxConnectionsPerServer and then with the right mouse button click your right mouse button and then select Modify. A window will pop up at this point and you need to change the Value data to 6. Make sure at this point that Decimal is selected to the right. Even if you did not select Decimal, it would not matter because this will be the same as Hexadecimal unless it was over 10. So just ensure that Decimal is selected and it contains a value of 6. Now, Click ok and do exactly the same for the other registry entry called MaxConnectionsPerl_OServer.

If you find that 1 or both of these registry entries are no in your registry, then you will have to add them manually. To do this you need to move your mouse over to some white space in the right hand side of the registry editor. Right click and select the new option and then select DWORD Value. Now enter MaxConnectionsPerServer as the string name and then press the return key. Now repeat this process for MaxConnectionsPerl_OServer as the string name. Now modify these entries using the procedure above.

Once you are happy that everything has been done. Quit regedit and away you go. There is no need to reboot. If you fire up Internet Explorer you should notice a speed improvement when browsing the Internet.

  • 2 weeks later...

Customizing Folders - Setting a folder background in Windows XP

This is a unique customization feature that allows users to set a custom background in folders. This background supposedly can be any .jpg, .gif, .bmp file or for that matter, most any picture file. Let's begin the process of how to achieve this.

I'll start by saying that this is a very simple process, and will not harm your computer. Here we go! Step-by-step.

To make things simpler, I will use an example. Let us suppose I am customizing a folder called \Program files\Doom3\ which is located in D: drive and I want to use FOLDERshot00001.bmp, which is located in D:\Program Files\Doom 3\base\screenshots\FOLDERshot00001.bmp, as the folder background.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Step 1- Open up notepad, or your favorite text editor. Type in the exact line below:

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]

Note: The above line contains only zeroes and not the alphabet O.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Step 2- Specify the picture to use:

In the next line we will specify the picture that we want to use as the background for the folder. We will do this by typing the following line:

iconarea_image="D:\Program Files\Doom 3\base\screenshots\FOLDERshot00001.bmp"

Use quotes before and after the path if it contains spaces.

The image to be used as the folder background is specified through iconarea_image. So you can type in the exact path to any image of your liking after the ?=? sign as shown above.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Step 3- Specify the icon label color:

Additionally you can also specify the color of the icon labels.(Text Color) This color will be used to display the icon labels in that specific folder. This one is a bit tricky but very easy if you get the idea. The icon label color is specified through iconarea_text. The value for the color is specified in a 24 bit 0x00bbggrr format (b,g and r stand for blue,green and red respectively) which specifies how much blue, green and red to mix. The bbggrr values are in hexadecimal. It sounds complicated but is very simple. Smart Color available at this address http://www.isotton.com/smartcolor/ is a program which can help you decide what color to use and will give you the hex equivalent to enter. And the program is free.

Now In my case, I want the icon labels (Text color) to be white in color. Because my background image is going to be an actual screen shot from the game Doom3 which will be quite dark. To get white, I will mix all blue, red, and green to their max values. So the value will be 0x00FFFFFF. Note the values of blue, red, and green are all FF, which is FFFFFF. The ini file requires the 0x00 in front of these hex values so the final result would be 0x00FFFFFF. The value 0x00FFFFFF equals pure white. Black of course would be the complete opposite 000000 or for this format 0x00000000. My text color preference in the proper format is shown below:

iconarea_text=0x00FFFFFF

-----------------------------------------------------------------

So here's what we have so far in our text editor:

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]

iconarea_image="D:\Program Files\Doom 3\base\screenshots\FOLDERshot00001.bmp"

iconarea_text=0x00FFFFFF

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Step 4- Save the file.

All I need to do now is save the file as desktop.ini in D:\Program Files\Doom 3

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Step 5- make your folder a system folder.

Open a command prompt and enter the command:

Attrib +s "D:\Program Files\Doom 3"

-----------------------------------------------------------------

That's it. If you did everything right you should have a background image in your explorer right pane for the specified folder. Example of my final result below.

post-21000-1099295104_thumb.jpg

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

using resource hacker... open any of these files to edit and costumize win xp your way

C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.exe - for the picture and word of the start button and some of the right clicks

C:\WINDOWS\System32\NTOSKRNL.dll - for the bootscreen!

C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Luna\luna.msstyles - for almost all the graphics you see...

Ive learned it whit a lot of patinece and time... I know a lot of more tricks like to edit the video that apears in the windows when you are erasing, copying or doing something like that whit files, but i dont remember the name of the dll but sure that it was in the windows file

  • 5 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

CBF to read this thread through, but here's my tip.

Fed up of Windows Explorer starting in My Documents when you load it? Then change the target in your shortcut to Windows Explorer to

C:\WINNT\explorer.exe /n,/e,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

and Windows Explorer will start with My Computer focused instead. Much nicer!

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • I think it depends on what you're looking for to do, and the time you have to spare. With my Dwarf 3, I easily spend 3-4 hour sessions; half an hour driving to an un-light polluted place, unpacking and setting up the smart scope + tripod for equatorial tracking, mucking around with settings, maybe shoot some calibration frames, spending a few hours shooting, merging with past photo sessions, etc. It's crazy how time flies and I often get home later than I expected. It's something I still need to set aside a good part of an evening to do, all in all. For one session, where you often need like four for best results when it comes to deep space objects. With practice, I can probably begin cutting time here but I think where smart scopes find their home is among people who love to shoot the night sky but don't have the spare time to go deep with the "navigator level" attunement to the night sky itself. Having said this, _if_ you have even more time to spend on this hobby, it will probably be even more rewarding to do it more by hand and learn the skies and the details of how it all works.
    • I misread the title and thought Teams itself would be redesigned. Imagine having this one as a native WinUI app.
    • Dell, HP PCs ran into endless reboot, BitLocker recovery loops but Windows 11 isn't to blame by Sayan Sen Last month Neowin reported on a major issue on Dell systems wherein a bug in its official support tool was leading to endless blue screen of death (BSOD) and restarts. Following our report, Dell officially acknowledged its SupportAssist-related crash issue, confirming that the culprit is not Microsoft's operating system but rather a faulty version of its own remediation software. In a newly published support advisory, Dell stated that version 5.5.16.0 of Dell SupportAssist Remediation and Alienware SupportAssist Remediation can trigger blue screen errors and unexpected system restarts. The company notes that the problematic component operates independently of the main SupportAssist application, meaning users should not remove the primary SupportAssist software when troubleshooting the issue. According to Dell, the crashes are linked specifically to the SupportAssist Remediation service, which is bundled with SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools, and as such it has since released an updated version, 5.5.16.1, which is said to resolve the problem. Affected users are advised to first verify whether version 5.5.16.0 is installed by checking the Installed Apps section in Windows Settings. If so, Dell recommends updating SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools through either SupportAssist's "Update Software" feature or Dell Command Update. Dell also advises users to back up important data before performing the update and to ensure systems remain connected to power throughout the installation process. If you are still having issues though make sure to report to the Dell support forum. As it turns out though Dell is not the only PC maker currently dealing with update-related headaches as HP is also facing a separate but probably equally frustrating issue involving recent Windows Secure Boot updates that were released with recent Windows 11 Patch Tuesdays. Similar to Dell, HP also put up its own support article where it explains the issue. The company says that affected devices could hit a brick wall when booting as they run into a BitLocker recovery loop after the April 2026 updates. The problem appears to affect systems wherein the new UEFI Secure Boot CA 2023 certificates fail to apply properly. As such affected users will find themselves entering their recovery key over and over again despite the system otherwise functioning normally. HP says such PCs should be updated to the latest available BIOS version and configured with the necessary Secure Boot certificates before installing Microsoft's Windows 11 Patch Tuesday updates. Systems that are already experiencing the problem may require BIOS configuration changes to restore normal boot behavior. Admins can find information regarding that in the support article here on HP's official website.
    • Getting further away from the artistic study of mental disease that was the first game... (which never needed any sequels to begin with) But I get it, a company has to make money. And the second was at least visually impressive, if not in any other way.
    • If its the devs fault you would think Unreal would help M$ take full advantage of Unreal and work with them to fix the performance issues. Otherwise they are catching unwarranted bad press.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      DJC50PLUS earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      DJC50PLUS earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Proficient
      Eric Biran went up a rank
      Proficient
    • Dedicated
      Conjor earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Week One Done
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      493
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      246
    3. 3
      Steven P.
      72
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      69
    5. 5
      neufuse
      68
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!