December, 2008 Archive
December 29, 2008 by
Jason
Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista extends the operating system’s support for drivers that play nice with all Windows operating systems. Even as early as the first Beta of SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the upgraded Windows Driver Model is permitting developers to get a taste of what the gold bits for the service pack will offer in terms of driver compatibility. According to Microsoft, the Registry Callback feature of WDM was kicked up a notch.
“Microsoft developers have upgraded and improved the Registry Callback feature of the Windows Driver Model (WDM). They have added 6 enumerations and 3 structures to the kernel architecture that will give you more flexibility in working with registry keys for filter drivers,” a member of the Windows Driver Kit team revealed.
At the start of December 2008 Microsoft made available for download the first Beta bits of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 RTM/SP1. The Redmond company revealed that the 6 fresh enumerations added were: RegNtPreRestoreKey, RegNtPostRestoreKey, RegNtPreSaveKey, RegNtPostSaveKey, RegNtPreReplaceKey, and RegNtPostReplaceKey. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
December 28, 2008 by
Jason This December Microsoft has prioritized the update releases for Windows Embedded operating system. In this context, the company delivered the patches for security vulnerabilities in the platforms, but did not offer the package of optional refreshes. The explanation offered by the Redmond company indicated that the work poured into the finalization of Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 3 and Windows Embedded Standard 2009 caused the optional updates for December to be discontinued, according to Gina Bentley, the Servicing and Support program manager for the Vertical Industries and Embedded Windows (VIEW) group.
“We are putting the final touches on the December Security roll-ups to bring these products up to date with all security releases since they went into code freeze,” Bentley explained on December 12. “We want you to have everything you need to start creating your new device images built with Windows Embedded Standard 2009! We gave extra consideration to this roll-up release, and that, combined with holiday schedules, means that we opted to take a break and not release an Optional Update package for December.” Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 1 Comment »
December 26, 2008 by
Jason In part eight of the our tweaking series we’ll go through a few Control Panel optimizations for Windows XP power users that may not interest most people using their operating system for basic tasks. When they wish to install and especially uninstall a program, users access the Add or Remove Programs component in the Control Panel. However, this window has many other options that a system administrator, for example, would remove for safety reasons.
As we’ve grown accustomed to it by now, Microsoft does not allow users to customize this window in the “old-fashion” way, therefore a workaround is needed and a few modifications to the registry must be performed. That’s where we come in and, fortunately, the registry patching is fast and very easy to perform. For starters, if you’re not familiar with the tweaking process, please take the time to read the first article that will help you understand what the bolded lines below mean and what you should do with them. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | No Comments »
December 24, 2008 by
Jason In this episode of our Windows XP tweaking saga, we’ll learn how to customize a few default applications of this operating system. If you’re just joining us, please allow me to ‘fill you in’ on the details: the “Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience” series provides tweaks that do not require any IT knowledge whatsoever, that are easy and fast to apply and don’t need any third-party software to be installed on your computer. Notepad is all you need. During the process, you will create an optimization file with just the tweaks you’re interested in, that you can apply on any number of computers.
The first thing you have to do, if you’re not familiar with this series, is to read the first article. There, you’ll find the few steps that must be followed in order for the optimization process to be completed successfully (and for you to understand what must be done with the bolded lines below).
So, now that you’ve created your tweaks.reg file and wrote ‘Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00′ at the beginning, let’s start changing a few things under the hood of Notepad. Before making these modifications, please be sure that Notepad is not running. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 1 Comment »
December 24, 2008 by
Jason
Even with Windows 7 Beta 1 just around the corner, Microsoft is by no means focused exclusively on Build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400, the unconfirmed version number of the first beta for the operating system. In fact, not only is the company reportedly moving onward with the Win7 development in the Release Candidate branch with Build 7004 (also unconfirmed), but, in accordance with the multi-faceted Windows business, the software giant is aligning its strategy with that of original equipment manufactures.
In this context, as early as December 10, 2008, even before the Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400 was reportedly signed-off internally, Microsoft approached OEM partners in an attempt to gather feedback for a Windows 7 Upgrade Program.
The giant manufacturer is planning a remake of the Windows Vista Express Upgrade Program, but this time with Windows 7, according to MyDrivers. The project does not have an official name, the Redmond company referring to the initiative as the Windows 7 Upgrade Program. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
December 23, 2008 by
Jason You’ve read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now it’s time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP’s secrets.
1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type ’systeminfo’. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type ’systeminfo > info.txt’. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).
2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run… and type ‘gpedit.msc’; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only). Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 4 Comments »
December 23, 2008 by
Jason With Christmas just around the corner, Microsoft is offering an early gift to PowerShell users. On December 22, 2008, the Community Technology Preview 3 bits for Windows PowerShell 2 went live on the Microsoft Download Center and are now available for download. According to the software giant, Windows PowerShell 2 CTP is designed to kick the level of the usage and usability up a notch compared to previous releases, namely Windows PowerShell 1.0, but also v2 CTP 2. Essentially, the evolution from Windows PowerShell v2 CTP2 to CTP3 is synonymous with enhancing the control and manageability offered by the solution over the Windows environment.
“This release brings, among other things, performance improvements. [...] Things will be faster/more efficient than before. PowerShell remoting now allows implicit remoting where command execution appears to be local even though they are remote,” Hemant Mahawar, program manager Windows PowerShell, revealed. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista, Windows XP | No Comments »
December 21, 2008 by
Jason I have collected some Hidden list in Windows xp.
1. Application Secrets.
Defrag
Secret – Hidden Command Line Switch
Instructions – Go to “Start”, “Run” and Type defrag c: -b to defragment the Boot and Application Prefetch information. Similar to what BootVis invokes.
Paint
Secret – Image Trails
Instructions – Open an image and hold down Shift then drag the image around to create an image trail.
Secret – 10 X zoom
Instructions – Open an image and select the magnifying glass icon. Left-click exactly on the line below the 8 X.
2. OS Secrets.
Add/Remove
Secret – Hidden Uninstall Options
Instructions – Warning: Proceed at your own risk.
Browse to C:\Windows\inf\ and make a backup copy of sysoc.inf. Then open the original file C:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf in notepad. Go to “Edit” and select “Replace”. In “Find what” type, hide and in “Replace with:” type, then select “Replace All”, save and close the file. Go to the control panel, “Add/Remove”, select “Add/Remove Windows Components”. You will now see many more Windows components to uninstall. Do not remove anything with no label or that you do not recognize or fully understand what it does. Doing so can break certain functionality in Windows. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | No Comments »
December 21, 2008 by
Jason These are some uncommon but very useful tips tricks & hacks for windows vista to enhance the user experience in windows vista.
Enable Auto-Logon in Windows Vista (Warning: Security Risk)
a) click Start and type ‘netplwiz’ or click that name on the Start menu
b) in the GUI window that comes up, uncheck the “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer” box
c) click ‘Apply’
d) in the new dialog box that opens type the name of the account you want to auto-logon by default (if the account is not normally passworded then it blank)
e) click OK and exit.
Remove ToolTips From Showing When You Mouse Over Something
a) start > run = “regedit”
b) HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced
c) set “ShowInfoTip”=dword:00000000
d) exit and reboot Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
December 17, 2008 by
Jason
There’s no easy way to secure IE against similar flaws that will inevitably be discovered and used by hackers to their advantage in the future. For this reason and in response to pleas for help by many Pctipsbox readers here’s my recommendation on the best way to surf the Web more securely:
Step 1: Switch to Firefox, Opera, Chrome, or another contender and configure it to be your default browser. Use IE only to visit sites that require Microsoft-specific technology probably because they rely on ActiveX to function. (For example, you need to use IE to download patches at the Windows Update site.) I recommend Firefox because of the numerous add-ons available for that browser, some of which I describe in Steps 2 and 3.
Step 2: Install the Firefox add-ons known as User Agent Switcher (see UAS’s download page) and IE Tab (download page).
User Agent Switcher lets you change your browser’s identity. If a Web site demands the use of IE but actually works fine with other browsers, you can change the name of the operating system and browser the site thinks you’re using. Many “IE only” sites render perfectly well in Firefox and other browsers. Read More»
Posted in Firefox, Internet | No Comments »
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