Life Changing tips

“Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all”………John F Kennedy

And yet there are so many cool tricks we manage to pull off with that wonderful machine that has perpetually changed our lives forever and hopefully for good. Here are some of those tricks:

• Removing Shared Documents folder From My Computer

Open registry editor by going to Start then Run and entering regedit. Once in registry, navigate to key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders

You must see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you delete this key, you have effectively removed the my shared documents folder.

• Disabling Recent Documents History

The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to calculate
what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow things down.
1. Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
3. Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it
once it is created.
4. Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.
5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the
change to take effect

• Lock your folder without any software

Suppose you want to lock the folder movies in d: which has the path D:\http://movies.In the same drive create a text file and type
ren movies movies.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Now save this text file as loc.bat
Create another text file and type in it
ren movies.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} movies
Now save this text file as key.bat

• How to Hide the drives(c,d....etc) in MY COMPUTER

This is a great trick you can play on your friends. To disable the display of local or networked drives when you click My Computer.

1.Go to start->run.Type regedit.Now go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Now in the right pane create a new DWORD item and name it NoDrives(it is case sensitive). Now modify it's value and set it to 3FFFFFF (Hexadecimal) .Now restart your computer. So, now when you click on My Computer, no drives will be shown(all gone...). To enable display of drives in My Computer, simply delete this DWORD item that you created.Again restart your computer.You can now see all the drives again. Magic........lol..

• Fast Menu Opening....

Go to Start then Run
Type 'Regedit' then click 'Ok'
Find "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\"
Select "MenuShowDelay"
Right click and select "Modify'
Reduce the number to around "100"
This is the delay time before a menu is opened. You can set it to "0" but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open if you just look at them - well move your mouse over them anyway. I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my mood.

• Hack Admin Password From User Mode

Disclaimer: Use this article for eductational purpose ONLY.

Follow these steps:
1. Open command prompt (Start->Run->cmd),
2. Enter the following command, then press ENTER

3. Enter the followin command, then press ENTER:
compmgmt.msc
This should open the computer management console.
4. Go to local users & groups->users. Right click on any user and select "set password".

If you get a "access denied" do the following:

start>run>cmd
then use following commands
1) net user test /add (this command will make test named user)
2) net localgroup administrators test /add (this command will make test user as administrators rights)

and use net user command to reset your admin. password

• Speed up your internet by 20%

Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes like Windows Updates and interrogating your PC etc

You can get it back:

Click Start then Run and type "gpedit.msc" without quotes.This opens the group policy editor. Then go to:
Local Computer Policy
then Computer Configuration
then Administrative Templates then Network then QOS Packet Scheduler and then to Limit Reservable Bandwidth.
Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the 'Explain' tab i.e."By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default."
So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default 20%.It works on Win 2000 as well.

• Change Icons of your Desktop Objects

Change Icons of your Desktop Objects (MyComputer, Recycle bin..):
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID, and look for the CLSID subkey from the table above for
the object whose icon you want to change. Open the subkey and then the DefaultIcon
subkey under that. To change the icon for My Computer, open the subkey
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\DefaultIcon.
Change the Default value to the path of the icon that you want displayed. Follow the same
for changing the icons of ther items as well. Exit the Registry. You might have to reboot for
the new settings to take effect. If you aren't able to change your icons still, then try editing the
following: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft \Windows\CurrentVersion \
Explorer\ CLSID\, and you will be in

Some cool and helpful computer tricks

1. Have fun with Notepad
   If you think that Notepad is just a basic text editor, then, you will be amazed by its capabilities. You can use Notepad to create everything from personalized logs to harmless viruses that are incredibly annoying. Go see this post to know just how useful Notepad is.
2. 
3. Command Prompt too has some tricks up its sleeves
   If you think that the Command prompt is a boring old program that no one uses, you are making a huge mistake. It can be used for everything from watching ASCII Star Wars to making folders that you cannot delete. See this post to know about all the cool stuff you can do with the Windows Command Prompt.
4. Use Keyboard Shortcuts to get work done in no time
   If you are tired of having to alternate between your mouse and keyboard to operate your Windows computer, you would love to know these really useful keyboard shortcuts which greatly increase your speed and efficiency. See this post for details.
5. Make your computer speak what you type
   You can use your PC's built in features and some VBScript magic to create a simple program that will make your computer speak whatever you input to it. Enter the right words and you could imitate a real conversation. Head over to this post to talk with your PC.
6. Make your computer greet you every time you start Windows
   A simple modification in the previous trick will make your computer welcome you in its own mechanical voice every time you log onto Windows. This is achieved by placing the VBS script responsible for making your computer talk in the Start up folder. Read this post to have a computer said welcome.
7. Find your computer's gender
   Want to know if your PC is a male or a female? Simple. Try the previous trick to know if your computer is a 'he' or a 'she'. On a serious note, this depends upon the voice you have selected in Microsoft Text to Speech options.
8. Lock Folders with password
   If you have important personal files that you do not want other people to see, you can hide them in a password protected folder to prevent unwanted users from seeing them. Go see this post to hide your personal files effectively.
9. Change your Processor's name
   If you are bored of your old processor and want a new one with a staggering name, you will definitely want to see this trick which allows you to change its name to something extraordinary to make your PC special.
10. Make a Keyboard Disco
    You can use some VBScript coding to create a live disco on your keyboard by making the LED lights flash alternately. See this post to know how your keyboard can turn into a disco.
11. Recover permanently deleted files in Windows
    If you have ever deleted a file in Windows that you did not want to and now want to recover it, you would definitely want to know about some free tools to recover your deleted fileseasily.

shortcuts and tricks to force close a unresponsive application

Well . . ! It’s really annoying when any application suddenly freezes and total computer hangs. There are a few shortcuts and tricks to force close a unresponsive application. There are ways in Linux and Windows for this.

In Ubuntu (Linux):

• Conventional method: Open System Monitor >> Click on ‘Processes’ tab >> right click on the selected application >> Kill process.

• When the system monitor is unable to open, then ?
• Click Alt + F2 >> Type xkill >> the Mouse cursor changes to X >> Just click on the unresponsive application.

• Shortcut: Now, instead of such long process, you can just assign certain key or group of keys on the keyboard to draw out the xkill’s ‘X’cursor and force close the application.

• Open Keyboard settings in System settings >> click on the ‘+’ option.

• Fill in the Name: as you wish; Command: ‘xkill’ >> Click Apply.

• Click on “Disabled” option >> Select the key or combination of keys of your choice >> Done.

• I chose Ctrl + Alt + k. You can choose any of your choice. Once you click the combination of these keys, the xkill begins and you can kill any frozen application.

In Windows:

• Conventional method: Go to Task Manager >> Right click on the selected application >> End Task.

• Shortcut:
• Open a notepad file and type or paste the following:

taskkill /f /fi "status eq not responding"

• Save the file with ‘.bat’ extension on your desktop.(Example: Killer.bat)

• When any of your application stops responding just click the “show desktop button” on the bottom right corner or click windows + M to minimize all windows.
• Open the killer.bat file; Voila! your frozen application is automatically killed or restarted. You can change the icon if you want.
• This can be applied in case of ‘Not responding trackpad’ in laptops which is a common problem.
• Shortest-cut:
• You’ll have to make a few changes to the Registry Editor, which if done wrong may be fatal for your system functions.
• So, You can just add a new key to the Registry Editor of windows with this normal ready-made script

• Install the Add Kill Not Responding Tasks in Desktop Context Menu.reg file from ‘For Windows 7’ file.
• Run the script >> Accept all the prompts.

• Now, you can get the shortcut to kill the unresponsive application, in the right-click menu.

• To do it manually, visit this ste.
• So, that makes life easy when stuck in trouble.

Normal Browsing in File Explorer: For searching a file kept inside many folders, we use a lot of mouse clicks. Don’t we ? Well, mouse really makes a person slow. The keyboard is quite fast enough. How ?

After entering My Computer or This PC, you can just direct through keyboard.

• Windows + E (or This PC) >> Click the first letter of your drive >> Enter >> First letter of your desired folder >> Enter. Fast isn’t it ?

Option Key: This is one of the most useful keys instead of mouse.

• Click on the options button >> Click the underlined letter for each option to use it (almost all the necessary tools have the underlined letters).

• For Cut = ‘t’, for Rename = ‘m’ etc.

Auto-Fill in Terminal: In linux, while working in terminal, you don’t have to enter the complete name of the file or application; instead use the button ‘Tab’ which auto fills the file name.

• For Example: If you’re about to use the following command in your terminal

gfortran navier-stokes.f90 

• Now, just after typing ‘nav’ use the Tab button, the terminal will auto-fill the file name with extension if there aren’t any other files with the same name.
• This saves a lot of time while working in the terminal.

Virtual Printer: If you are taking any one time print from any website, you better use virtual printers like ‘doPDF’ in windows. So, you can get a pdf file in your computer and you can make multiple copies out of it.

In chrome, there’s a “Save as PDF” option, but the virtual printer works in any browser or software print.

PS: I’ll add more in future