| Disabling Automatic Startup Programs |
If you don't want certain programs or applications to run automatically on startup, there's an easy way to disable them.
If you need to re-enable any of the programs, go through the same process and check the boxes of programs you wish to run automatically on startup. |
A worm, Koobface, that hit Facebook last December is again active with a fresh appeal.
The virus has not only targeted Facebook but also friendster.com, hi5.com, livejournal.com, bebo.com, fubar.com, MySpace, myyearbook.com, netlog.com and tagged.com
The latest version of Koobface arrives as an invitation from a user’s friend, inviting the recipient to click on a link and view a video at a counterfeit YouTube website, with fake comments. Visitors are told they need to install an Adobe Flash plug-in to view the video.
What an art is that the malicious landing page pulls the photo from the Facebook profile of the inviter, according to Trend Micro blog.
Clicking the Install button installs the new Koobface variant detected as WORM_KOOBFACE.AZ.
In addition, the worm propagates through other social networking sites as well. It hijacks the victim’s account and sends additional invites to his contacts.
Users of the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network are protected from this threat, as per Trend Micro reporting.
So, be cautious while using such social networking sites. If possible, use the vendor’s site for downloading anything. Also, you can use any online antivirus.
Clipboard Hack Problem – Shocking news about CTRL+C
If you are a computer guy you might be a big fan of Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V as me was some times before. But Thanks to GOD, now I am very well aware of the serious drawbacks of this Cut, Copy, Paste. And I do take special precautions while doing this and you also follow the same please. Especially when you are connected to internet, don’t forget mine this article.
Ctrl+C may be the most important work we do everyday. But it’s not a very safe thing to do. What happens when we press Ctrl+C while we are online? We do copy various data by Ctrl+C for pasting elsewhere. This copied data is stored in clipboard and is accessible from the net by a combination of javascripts and php. This is called clipboard hack problem.
Just try this:
Copy any text by Ctrl+C.
Click on the link Clipboard Hack
You will see the text you copied was accessed by this web page.
Surprised!!!!!
I know you are because at first glance, I was also surprised to see it.
Do not keep sensitive data (like passwords, credit card numbers, PIN etc.) in the clipboard while surfing the web.
It is extremely easy to extract the text stored in the clipboard to steal your sensitive information. Share this article with as many friends as u can, to save them from online frauds.
It is true; text you last copied for pasting (copy & paste) can be stolen when you visit websites using a combination of Javascript and asp (or php, or cgi, or any server-side scripting language) to write your possible sensitive data to a database on another server.
How to safeguard yourself from Clipboard Hack Problem?
To avoid clipboard hack problem, do the following:
Go to Internet Options-> Security
Press Custom Level
In the Security settings, select disable under Allow paste operations via script.
Now the contents of your clipboard are safe.
Interestingly, this hack works only on Internet Explorer, and not on Mozilla Firefox browser.
Its true by following above procedure, you can avoid clipboard Hacking. But then also I would rather say ‘Prevention is better than cure’.
Please share this article with as many friends as you can to make them aware of this issue with CTRL+C.
| Navigation without a mouse | |
|---|---|
| SHIFT + F10 | Same as right clicking a file |
| TAB | Navigate menu elements forward |
| SHIFT + TAB | Navigate menu elements backward |
| ALT + F4 | Close the current application |
| ALT + SPACEBAR | Display application system menu |
| ALT + Underlined letter in menu | Open that menu |
| SPACEBAR | If a checkbox or radio box is selected, activates this. If a button is selected, clicks it |
| ENTER | Click the default button (usually OK) |
| ESC | Equivalent to clicking the CANCEL button |
Alt+P ->Display/ hide the Explorer preview pane
Windows Logo+G ->Display gadgets in front of other windows
Windows Logo++ (plus key) ->Zoom in, where appropriate
Windows Logo+- (minus key) ->Zoom out, where appropriate
Windows Logo+Up ->Maximise the current window
Windows Logo+Down ->Minimise the current window
Windows Logo+Left ->Snap to the left hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Right ->Snap to the right hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Home ->Minimise/ restore everything except the current window
Shift + Click on icon ->Open a new instance
Middle click on icon ->Open a new instance
Ctrl + Shift + Click on icon ->Open a new instance with Admin privileges
Shift + Right-click on icon ->Show window menu (Restore / Minimize / Move / etc) Note: Normally you can just right-click on the window thumbnail to get this menu
Shift + Right-click on grouped icon ->Menu with Restore All / Minimize All / Close All, etc.
Ctrl + Click on grouped icon ->Cycle between the windows (or tabs) in the group
Unless you use an HTTP-based account, such as Yahoo, or a Microsoft Exchange Server email account, all of your data for MSOutlook is stored in a file called thePersonal Folders File, a file with the .pst extension.
This file is responsible for storing messages and other essential items on your PC. Many use the .pst file as the default location for the delivery of their emails. You can also use it to organize data or backup items for safekeeping. Even if you have a Yahoo orMicrosoft Exchange Server account, you can still backup data to the .pst file on your local drive rather than the one stored on the mail server. I will let you know how to backup Outlook pst files.
How to Backup Your Outlook .pst File
To backup the .pst file in its entirety, follow the steps below:
First close any running messaging applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Exchange or Windows Messaging.
- Open the “Start” menu and click “Run”.
- Next, type “Control Panel” in the Open box.
- When the Control Panel opens, click on the Classic view from left and double-click the “Mail” icon .
- Click “Show Profiles”.
- Select the appropriate profile and click “Properties”.
- From there, click on “Data Files”.
- Under “Name”, select the Personal Folders Service to back up.
Though it could be named something else, the default name for this service is Personal Folders. Keep in mind that if your profile has more than one Personal Folders Service, you will have to backup each set of .pst files individually.
Take note that if you do not find any entries called Personal Folders, or if you have not stored any items such as messages, appointments or contacts in Outlook, there is a great chance that your .pst file has yet to be created.
If there is no Personal Folders Services in your profile but you can store items like messages, appointments and contacts in Outlook, this data is probably being stored somewhere else, such as the mail box on the Yahoo or Exchange Server.
To continue with the Outlook pst backup, click on “Settings” and note the path and file name that is displayed. Since the .pst file typically contains all the data the Outlook client uses, this file tends to be very large. To reduce the Outlook pst file size, select “Settings” and click “Compact Now”.
To finish up, close down all the “Properties” windows.
You can use either My Computer or the Windows Explorer utility to copy the file path you noted above. The .pst file can then be copied to another location on your local hard drive or any form of removable storage media such as a floppy disk, compact disc or a portable hard drive.
Conclusion
Performing an Outlook .pst backup is a relatively easy task. The key is to know how to locate the file and thankfully there are many ways to go about this task. If you do not feel comfortable manually backing up your .pst file, rest assured that there are a variety of software tools that will automate the process and make it much easier.
With the release of Windows XP in 2001 Microsoft implemented a technology called Microsoft Product Activation (MPA). According to Microsoft this was developed to combat software piracy. But it has never lived upto Microsoft’s expectation. After you install Windows XP (or Windows Vista) you need to activate it within 30 days, failing doing that it will become dysfunctional. Where as in Microsoft Office product the activation should be done within first 50 launch of the program. Most of the piracy of Windows XP took place from the Volume License key of Windows XP provided to corporate, who just needs only one key to install and activate thousands of Windows XP. So in vista this technique was modified and a cumbersome technology called Volume Licensing 2.0 which required to set up a “Key Management Service” (KMS). But it places a heavy burden to Corporate hence Microsoft developers invented a registry key (”skiprearm”) that helps to corporate IT administrators to reduce this burden.
Brian Livingstone of windowssecrets has demonstrated this simple registry hack by exploiting the skiprearm and a simple command to extend the Vista Activation requirement to almost a year.
Here is the step by step instruction:
Step 1. In Windows Vista
that hasn’t yet been activated, click the Start button, type ‘regedit’ without quote into the Search box, then press Enter to launch the Registry Editor.
Step 2. Explore down to the following Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ SL
Step 3. Right-click the Registry key named SkipRearm and click Edit. The default is a Dword (a double word or 4 bytes) with a hex value of 00000000. Change this value to any positive integer, such as 00000001, save the change, and close the Registry Editor.
Step 4. Start a command prompt with administrative rights. The fastest way to do this is to click the Start button, enter cmd in the Search box, then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. If you’re asked for a network username and password, provide the ones that log you into your domain. You may be asked to approve a User Account Control prompt and to provide an administrator password.
Step 5. Type one of the following two commands and press Enter:
slmgr -rearm
or
rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows
Either command uses Vista’s built-in Software Licensing Manager (SLMGR) to push theactivation deadline out to 30 days after the command is run. Changing SkipRearm from 0 to 1 allows SLMGR to do this an indefinite number of times. Running either commandinitializes the value of SkipRearm back to 0.
Step 6. Reboot the PC to make the postponement take effect. (After you log in, if you like, you can open a command prompt and run the command slmgr -xpr to see Vista’s new expiration date and time. I explained the slmgr command and its parameters in my Feb. 15 article.)
Step 7. To extend the activation deadline of Vista indefinitely, repeat steps 1 through 6 as necessary.
You can find the full article in Brian’s news letter in his website.
Windows Vista has built-in support for SATA hard drives, but the advanced write caching features it is not enable by default. You can speed up your system by enabling this mode in Device Manager. Here is how to perform it:
Click on Start and type Device Manager in Search box.
Expand the Disk drives section, select and right-click at the hard drive. Select the Policies tab, and you can see the option: Click the checkbox for Enable advanced performance (see figure) and Click OK.
If you are using this mode be sure to have a back up power supply coz a sudden power outage may result in loss of data.
While booting up with Windows, I am quite fade up with the Black boot screen. I want to have a different boot screen and finally found a more visually appealing boot screen that is hidden by Microsoft. It can easily be enabled with very little trouble. I’m not sure why they didn’t make the boot screen better.
If you want a better boot screen, you can try the h
idden boot screen by Microsoft. The default boot screen looks like the picture in the left. And when you do the trick and enable the hidden bootscreen you will find a visually appealing AURORA boot screen.
Perform the following steps to enable the Aurora boot screen:
1. Click Start > Type “msconfig” in search box, and Press Enter.
2. Navigate to the Boot tab, and then check the “No GUI boot” checkbox.
3. Press OK and restart your system. You should see the new boot screen immediately.
Note: You may get a Windows Defender error on the next startup. You can enable the system config utility using the tray icon and this error will go away.
That is a pretty nice Ester egg frm Microsoft.
This is a neat trick you can play on that lamer that has a huge ego, in this section I teach you, how to disable the Shut Down option in the Shut Down Dialog Box. This trick involves editing the registry, so please make backups. Launch regedit.exe and go to :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
In the right pane look for the NoClose Key. If it is not already there then create it by right clicking in the right pane and selecting New > String Value.(Name it NoCloseKey ) Now once you see the NoCloseKey in the right pane, right click on it and select Modify. Then Type 1 in the Value Data Box.
Doing the above on a Win98 system disables the Shut Down option in the Shut Down Dialog Box. But on a Win95 machine if the value of NoCloseKey is set to 1 then click on the Start > Shut Down button displays the following error message:
This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.
You can enable the shut down option by changing the value of NoCloseKey to 0 or simply deleting the particular entry i.e. deleting NoCloseKey.
Instead of performing the above difficult to remember process, simply save the following with an extension of .reg and add it's contents to the registry by double clicking on it.
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoClose"="1"
then go to Ports->Communication Port(double click on it and Open).
after open u can see a Communication Port properties.
go the Port Setting:----
and now increase ur "Bits per second" to 128000.
and "Flow control" change 2 Hardware.
U WILL NOTICE AN IMMEDIATE RESULT
this will increase the receiving capacity of your input port and thus ur netspeed will be increased
