View Admin At welcome Screen
By default Windows XP doesn't show the Administrator in the user list at the welcome screen. Here's a way to get around it.
Now head up to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ WindowsNT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon\ SpecialAccounts\ Userlist
Create a new DWORD entry and name it as Administrator and change its value to 1.
Exit and reboot for the changes to take effect.
To change it back change its value to 0 or simply delete the key.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Decoding Error Messages - Web
As you surf the Net, you will undoubtedly find that at times you can't access certain websites. Why, you make wonder? Error messages attempt to explain the reason for that and other problems. Unfortunately, these cryptic messages baffle most people. We've deciphered the most common ones:
400 - Bad Request
Problem: There's something wrong with the address you entered. You may not be authorized to access the web page, or maybe it no longer exists.
Solution: Check the address carefully, especially if the address is long. Make sure that the slashes are correct (they should be forward slashes) and that all the names are properly spelled. Web addresses are case sensitive, so check that the names are capitalized in your entry as they are in the original reference to the website.
401 - Unauthorized
Problem: You can't access a website because you're not on the guest list, your password is invalid or you have entered your password incorrectly.
Solution: If you think you have authorization, try typing your password again. Remember that passwords are case sensitive.
403 - Forbidden
Problem: Essentially the same as a 401.
Solution: Try entering your password again or move on to another site.
404 - Not Found
Problem: Either the web page no longer exists on the server or it is nowhere to be found.
Solution: Check the address carefully and try entering it again. You might also see if the site has a search engine. If so, use it to hunt for the document. (It's not uncommon for pages to change their addresses when a website is redesigned.) To get to the home page of the site, delete everything after the domain name and hit the Enter or Return key. For example, if the address is:
http://pcpandit. com/index. php/internet/ decoding- error-messages- 22102008. html
Remove English/HTML/ email.htm.
503 - Service unavailable
Problem: Your Internet service provider (ISP) or your Internet connection may be down.
Solution: Take a stretch, wait a few minutes and try again. If you still have no luck, phone your ISP or system administrator.
400 - Bad Request
Problem: There's something wrong with the address you entered. You may not be authorized to access the web page, or maybe it no longer exists.
Solution: Check the address carefully, especially if the address is long. Make sure that the slashes are correct (they should be forward slashes) and that all the names are properly spelled. Web addresses are case sensitive, so check that the names are capitalized in your entry as they are in the original reference to the website.
401 - Unauthorized
Problem: You can't access a website because you're not on the guest list, your password is invalid or you have entered your password incorrectly.
Solution: If you think you have authorization, try typing your password again. Remember that passwords are case sensitive.
403 - Forbidden
Problem: Essentially the same as a 401.
Solution: Try entering your password again or move on to another site.
404 - Not Found
Problem: Either the web page no longer exists on the server or it is nowhere to be found.
Solution: Check the address carefully and try entering it again. You might also see if the site has a search engine. If so, use it to hunt for the document. (It's not uncommon for pages to change their addresses when a website is redesigned.) To get to the home page of the site, delete everything after the domain name and hit the Enter or Return key. For example, if the address is:
http://pcpandit. com/index. php/internet/ decoding- error-messages- 22102008. html
Remove English/HTML/ email.htm.
503 - Service unavailable
Problem: Your Internet service provider (ISP) or your Internet connection may be down.
Solution: Take a stretch, wait a few minutes and try again. If you still have no luck, phone your ISP or system administrator.
Learn to Control Your PC
Learn these tips and tricks to create a more fun and organized PC to help optimize your computing time and enjoyment. The following tips should work with Windows 98 up to XP, but there may be slight differences in the method for the various Windows operating systems. There are many different PC configurations and each user has different levels of computer knowledge that it would be impossible to say these will work for you. We are not responsible for any problems you may encounter as a result of using these tips and tricks. You will be proceeding at your own risk. Please read our disclaimer.
Basic PC Tips and Tricks
Desktop icons can be easily moved as one unit by holding down your left mouse button then forming a square around the icons you wish to move. Let go of the button and click and hold on one of the icons and you'll be able to move all of the highlighted icons at once. This one may seem obvious to those in the know, but I recently spotted a friend of mine trying to move a single icon at a time until I showed him this tip. Well, unless you have oodles of time to waste, you can't possibly know all the ins and outs of your computer.
Shortcut icon graphics can easily be changed by right-clicking them and selecting properties. Click change icon and you'll be presented with a generic list of icon graphics to replace the current one or you can browse your entire computer for anyone you like. Be careful, once you change the icon, you may have trouble finding the original again (usually in the same folder as the program the icon points to) This only works for shortcut icons. For other icons, such as my computer etc. You may change them by right-clicking any empty space of your desktop and select properties, then choose effects.
The Start menu is a great place to put important shortcuts to essential web-sites, folders, or often used control panel options. For example to place an Add-Remove Programs shortcut in the Start menu. Click Start, go to settings and then click control panel. Drag (left click hold and move) Add-Remove Programs, or whichever you want, to the Start button and let go. The shortcut will automatically be placed in the Start menu. Now whenever you press Start it will be in the top selections. If there's more than one there, you can arrange the order by left-click-hold and move up or down.
Sound settings can be changed to point to custom sound files you may have downloaded off the Internet. Or simply select a favorite sound already on your system. You can even have no sound played during startup if you wish for your system to boot faster. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, and open Sounds. There's many different sounds in this list and it's out of the reach of this simple tutorial to explain them all. Start Windows is obviously your startup sound and Exit Windows is your shutdown sound. You can select none to speed up slower machines or become obsessed and find cool voice sounds on the Internet that say something like "Initiating Computer Setup" or even sound-bites from your favorite movies. You can fool around and try different sounds for opening and closing files, etc. But write down your original sound files or else you may end up with an annoying sound every time you open a file.
Microsoft's Crazy Facts
MAGIC #1
Nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON".
This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable. ..
At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!
TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE "CON" FOLDER
MAGIC #2
This is something pretty cool and neat...and unbelievable. ..
At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!
Try it out yourself...
Open Microsoft Word and type
=rand (200, 99)
And then press ENTER
MAGIC #3
For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1. Open an empty notepad file
2. Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3. Save it as whatever you want.
4. Close it, and re-open it.
Is it just a really weird bug?
You can try the same thing above with another sentence "this app can break"
Explanation for Magic #1:
In windows the folder name and the special system variables share the same interface,
so when you create a folder with a system variable name it will consider that folder already exist!!
These special system variables are available irrespective of path
You cannot create a folder with these names also:
CON, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3,COM1 to COM9 and LPT1 to LPT9....
CON means console, COM1 means serial port 1, LPT1 means parallel port 1
Nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON".
This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable. ..
At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!
TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE "CON" FOLDER
MAGIC #2
This is something pretty cool and neat...and unbelievable. ..
At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!
Try it out yourself...
Open Microsoft Word and type
=rand (200, 99)
And then press ENTER
MAGIC #3
For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1. Open an empty notepad file
2. Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3. Save it as whatever you want.
4. Close it, and re-open it.
Is it just a really weird bug?
You can try the same thing above with another sentence "this app can break"
Explanation for Magic #1:
In windows the folder name and the special system variables share the same interface,
so when you create a folder with a system variable name it will consider that folder already exist!!
These special system variables are available irrespective of path
You cannot create a folder with these names also:
CON, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3,COM1 to COM9 and LPT1 to LPT9....
CON means console, COM1 means serial port 1, LPT1 means parallel port 1
A Few Windows XP Tips
A Few Windows XP Tips
Reach Run quickly
Here's a quicker way to reach the Run dialog box, if you don't want to go through the Start menu. Just hit the Windows key + R.
Looking for a better screen font display?
Enable ClearType, Microsoft's trademark font display technology, for a drastic improvement in screen font rendering. Right-click anywhere on your desktop. Now select Properties. Under the Appearance tab, click Effects. Check the box for Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts, and in the drop-down menu, select ClearType. Press OK, and apply the change.
Change your mouse pointer scheme
Bored of the same old arrow? To change your mouse pointer scheme, in the Control Panel, select Mouse and go to the Pointers tab. Scroll through the available schemes, pick one that you like and click Apply.
Check that your Windows Firewall is turned on
To make sure your Windows Firewall hasn't been accidentally disabled, go to your Control Panel and click Windows Firewall. Make sure the radio button for On (recommended) is selected. Add exceptions to your Firewall by going to the Exceptions tab and adding the programs that you think should have access to the Internet to the list of exceptions.
Instantly activate your screensaver
In XP, you can put a short cut of your favourite screensaver on your desktop to instantly start your screen saver. Here's how. Go to Start on your desktop and click on Search. In the help box, click on All files and folders. and then type in *.scr. Select your screen saver file and right click. Then select Send To, and then Desktop.
Put your Monitor to sleep
Right click on the desktop and click on Properties. In the dialog box that appears, click on the Screen Saver tab. Click on Power and in the dialog box that appears click on the Turn off Monitor list. Select a time to automatically after which the monitor will be turned off. Click OK twice and you're set.
Using your Windows Key
Your Windows key can be used to for many short cuts. If you want to open your Windows Explorer quickly just press your Windows key and E. If you want to open the Run dialog box, just press the Windows key and R. If you want to open your search dialog box, press your Windows key and F.
Instantly lock your PC
If you have password protected your Windows, here is a quick way to lock it. Press the Windows key and L together.
Change the look of folder icons
If you don't like the look of the folder icons on your desktop, you can change them. Right click on the folder, select Properties. Click on the Customize tab, and under the Folder icons area, click on the Change Icons button. Select the icon of your choice and select OK.
Minimize a Window to your taskbar
If you're tired of using the mouse over and over again to minimize a window, here's a handy tip. To minimize a window using just the keyboard, press Alt, Spacebar and N together.
Display album art in your music folder thumbnails
If your music files are in WMA format, XP automatically picks up the album art and displays it, both in the folder thumbnail as well as in the Windows Media Player display. If your files are in MP3 format, you can download the album art from the Internet and then customize each folder to display it. But this takes a lot of time. A faster way around is to save each image as 'folder.jpg' and put it in the correct folder. Once you do this, XP will pick up that image and use it as the thumbnail for the folder, and also use the image to display in Windows Media Player while playing songs from the album.
How to stop Windows Media Player from accessing your information
You may be uncomfortable with the idea of Windows Media Player collecting your information and sending it to various websites. You can stop this. Go to the Tools menu of Windows Media Player. Select Options and then go to the Player tab. Look for the check box that says "Allow Internet sites to uniquely identify your player?" and make sure it is not selected.
Opening folders with a single click
If you'd rather not have to double-click everything to open it, here's the way out. Go to My Computer, and select Options in the Tools menu. Choose Folder options. In the dialog box that opens, select the check box that says 'Single-click to open an item (point to select)', and click OK.
Making web pages available offline
You may occasionally need to refer to a website, and you may not be able to connect to the Internet at the time. An easy way out of the situation is to go to the Favorites tab in Internet Explorer, and click Add to Favorites. In the dialog box that is displayed, select the Make available offline check box, and press OK.
Reach Run quickly
Here's a quicker way to reach the Run dialog box, if you don't want to go through the Start menu. Just hit the Windows key + R.
Looking for a better screen font display?
Enable ClearType, Microsoft's trademark font display technology, for a drastic improvement in screen font rendering. Right-click anywhere on your desktop. Now select Properties. Under the Appearance tab, click Effects. Check the box for Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts, and in the drop-down menu, select ClearType. Press OK, and apply the change.
Change your mouse pointer scheme
Bored of the same old arrow? To change your mouse pointer scheme, in the Control Panel, select Mouse and go to the Pointers tab. Scroll through the available schemes, pick one that you like and click Apply.
Check that your Windows Firewall is turned on
To make sure your Windows Firewall hasn't been accidentally disabled, go to your Control Panel and click Windows Firewall. Make sure the radio button for On (recommended) is selected. Add exceptions to your Firewall by going to the Exceptions tab and adding the programs that you think should have access to the Internet to the list of exceptions.
Instantly activate your screensaver
In XP, you can put a short cut of your favourite screensaver on your desktop to instantly start your screen saver. Here's how. Go to Start on your desktop and click on Search. In the help box, click on All files and folders. and then type in *.scr. Select your screen saver file and right click. Then select Send To, and then Desktop.
Put your Monitor to sleep
Right click on the desktop and click on Properties. In the dialog box that appears, click on the Screen Saver tab. Click on Power and in the dialog box that appears click on the Turn off Monitor list. Select a time to automatically after which the monitor will be turned off. Click OK twice and you're set.
Using your Windows Key
Your Windows key can be used to for many short cuts. If you want to open your Windows Explorer quickly just press your Windows key and E. If you want to open the Run dialog box, just press the Windows key and R. If you want to open your search dialog box, press your Windows key and F.
Instantly lock your PC
If you have password protected your Windows, here is a quick way to lock it. Press the Windows key and L together.
Change the look of folder icons
If you don't like the look of the folder icons on your desktop, you can change them. Right click on the folder, select Properties. Click on the Customize tab, and under the Folder icons area, click on the Change Icons button. Select the icon of your choice and select OK.
Minimize a Window to your taskbar
If you're tired of using the mouse over and over again to minimize a window, here's a handy tip. To minimize a window using just the keyboard, press Alt, Spacebar and N together.
Display album art in your music folder thumbnails
If your music files are in WMA format, XP automatically picks up the album art and displays it, both in the folder thumbnail as well as in the Windows Media Player display. If your files are in MP3 format, you can download the album art from the Internet and then customize each folder to display it. But this takes a lot of time. A faster way around is to save each image as 'folder.jpg' and put it in the correct folder. Once you do this, XP will pick up that image and use it as the thumbnail for the folder, and also use the image to display in Windows Media Player while playing songs from the album.
How to stop Windows Media Player from accessing your information
You may be uncomfortable with the idea of Windows Media Player collecting your information and sending it to various websites. You can stop this. Go to the Tools menu of Windows Media Player. Select Options and then go to the Player tab. Look for the check box that says "Allow Internet sites to uniquely identify your player?" and make sure it is not selected.
Opening folders with a single click
If you'd rather not have to double-click everything to open it, here's the way out. Go to My Computer, and select Options in the Tools menu. Choose Folder options. In the dialog box that opens, select the check box that says 'Single-click to open an item (point to select)', and click OK.
Making web pages available offline
You may occasionally need to refer to a website, and you may not be able to connect to the Internet at the time. An easy way out of the situation is to go to the Favorites tab in Internet Explorer, and click Add to Favorites. In the dialog box that is displayed, select the Make available offline check box, and press OK.
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