Nov 29, 2008

Limit Reservable Bandwidth in Windows

I want all the bandwidth I can get from my connection so I do many little things to get everything out of my connection I am sure many of you also do the same thing or want to do it.

Windows keeps 20% of your available bandwidth for quality of service or QOS. If you are using windows xp or windows vista then you can use this tip to get that bandwidth back.

To reclaim your bandwidth

--- Go to local group policy editor by typing gpedit.msc in the run window.

--- Then go to this address in the left pane of Group policy editor
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > QoS Packet Scheduler

--- Now in the right pane look for the entry Limit reservable bandwidth and double click on it.

--- In the setting tab click Enabled and change the bandwidth limit from 20% to 0%.

--- Click apply and OK and exit the group policy editor.

You claimed back your bandwidth.


Extend Trial Period of Windows Vista

Microsoft allows to take a trial of Windows Vista for 30 days before activation i.e. you can use vista for 30 day without any activation. This is a great move by Microsoft for the buyers. They can test the operating system any way they like for a month before making their decision of buying.

Now if you think in those 30 days you have not seen all the features of Vista and you want to have more time then there is a trick for this within windows. No need to use any third party or illegal software. This trick will increase trial period from 30 days to 120 days.

If you check your basic system information window by right clicking on My Computer and selecting properties you will see the number of days remaining for activation. This trick will be of great if used near the end of the activation period like the last day of activation. Because if you use it earlier then the remaining days from earlier will be lost.

Now to start the process..

--- Go to start menu and type cmd, then right click on cmd and click Run as administrator.

--- Now run this command slmgr -rearm

--- After some time a window will appear asking you to reboot the system. Do so and check the activation days again in the system information you will have the 30 days back.

--- You can use this command 3 times only and if you want to maximize the period to 120 days then its better to use this command on the last day of activation.


There are many illegal hacks or tricks used by some people to use Vista for unlimited days like the timestopper hacks. But be advised its illegal to use and may cause unnecessary problems for you.

If you like Vista after using it for the extended period then you should go and buy it.


Remove ntde1ect or avpo.exe virus

Ntdetect is a system file, a very important file without which your system won't boot. And virus makers used this name to create a virus to confuse people. The virus is named ntde1ect.com. You can see that only difference is the virus has '1' instead of 't'. This virus is also called the avpo.exe virus. In some parts it leaves this name also.

This virus doesn't allow you to see the hidden files as well as double click will not open the drives. It has the files placed in the root of all the drives.

Now to get rid of this you can follow steps here to get back your settings for hidden files and task manager if its disabled.

--- Then go to task manager and end the process explorer.exe

--- Again restart that process by typing explorer.exe in the File --> New task in the task manager window.

--- If your task manager was not disabled then you can follow the two previous steps and download this file reg_ntde1ect instead of doing things manually as given in the link at the start.

--- Just double click on this .reg file and merge it into your registry. This will bring the folder options and other settings back to normal.

--- Now go to Folder Options --> View then select 'Show the hidden files and folders' and also uncheck the value 'Hide protected operating system files'

--- Now to delete the infected files go to the windows explorer and type the drive letter in the address bar like C: instead of opening the drives by double clicking.

--- Now you can see the ntde1ect.com file and also the autorun.inf files delete these files. Do not delete the ntdetect system file be very careful.

--- Now remove the avpo entry in the startup by going to msconfig from run dialog box.

--- Now go to the windows/system32 folder and search for avpo.exe and avpo0.dll files and delete them.

--- Once again end the process explorer. exe in task manager and restart it as earlier.

--- Restart your system and you are free from the virus.

If you have any difficulties to get rid of it just post here and i will try to help.

Nov 28, 2008

Add Open in Command Prompt Option in Vista

Most of the tasks can be done directly from the GUI of windows vista but sometimes it requires a command window to do some serious work. You can got to command prompt by typing cmd in run window. But sometimes you have to go deep in directories and you need to change the default path of cmd all the time to get there.

A fast way to get to the working folder of your choice is to add the "Open command windows here" option to the context menu of explorer. Fortunately Microsoft has integrated this feature in Windows vista but you don't see this option enabled when you right click on the folders.

To get this option all you have to do is hold the shift key and right click on the folder that you want to open in command window as your working directory.

You can also make this option appear on right click only without you having to hold the shift key. To do this you have to edit a registry entry.

--- Go to registry editor by typing regedit in run window

--- Backup the registry as shown here before you do any changes.

--- Then go to this address HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd

--- In the right pane look for the key named Extended and delete it.

--- Close regedit.

And you have the "Open command window here" option in the context menu of windows vista.


Backup Registry in Windows

Windows registry is the tool which allows you to change any setting of windows and contains all the information about running you system smoothly.

Even though it give so much control over your windows system it is advisable to use registry only if you don't have any other option. Any incorrect entries might render your system unusable so be careful while editing it.

The best option to be on the safer side is to backup the registry before making any changes to it.

One way of doing it is by creating a system restore point when everything is working fine. How you create a restore point and how you can restore your system to a previous state is given here.

Another way of backing up the registry is to Export the branch which you are going to edit. To do this-

--- Go to start menu --> run and type regedit and press enter.

--- Then go to the address in which the registry entry is to be edited.

--- In the left pane right click on that key which you want to backup and click Export.

--- In the next Save as window name the file as you wish and save it as a .reg file.

--- And save it to a location which is safe.

--- If you want to get these settings back you just need to double click on the .reg file you created and merge it.

Remove regsvr.exe Virus

The regsvr.exe is most common virus for people who deal with transferring files across PC's using their Pen drives or USB drives. These are the main sources from where this virus travels. Most of the anti virus softwares should detect this virus and delete it but if your system gets infected for some reason get ready to clean it manually.

regsvr.exe virus first creates entries in the startup folders so that it will execute at every startup. It also creates entries in scheduled tasks so as to execute at a specific time and date. And finally it creates autorun.inf files in the root of all the drives, which prevent you from opening these drives.

Here are the steps to get this resvr.exe virus out of your computer.
--- If the virus disables your task manager and registry then you should consider the tips given here to get them back.

--- After that you need to get rid of the autorun.inf file. This file will be hidden so follow these tips here to delete these files.

--- Now type msconfig in start menu --> Run and press enter and uncheck the option that says regsvr. Press ok and dont restart yet.

--- Now go to ControlPanel --> Scheduled tasks and delete the entry At1 which is created by the virus.

--- Now go to registry editor by typing regedit in run dialog box and then to find menu in regedit and search for regsvr.exe and delete all entries except one that say "Explorer.exe regsvr.exe". You need to edit this entry to only remove the regsvr.exe part and leave the other part as it is.

--- Now search your entire system for regsvr.exe and delete any entries you find. Make sure you search within Hidden files & system files also.

--- Reboot your system for the changes to take effect and the virus is gone without any traces.

Nov 27, 2008

Enable Folder Options & Task Manager

This is an alternate method for getting the folder options and task manager.

If your registry editor is not disabled then you can follow this method to get those things back. If Regedit is also disable then you need to enable it. See here or check the earlier method here

Now that you have the registry editor, its simple to get back both the optins.

--- First go to registry editor by typing regedit in start menu --> run and press enter.

--- Then go to these addresses in left pane

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

--- In the right pane look for a Dword value named NoFolderOption and delete it or double click on it and set the value to 0.

--- Close the registry

And Folder options are back.

Similarly to get back Task manager; in the registry editor go to is address

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\System

In the right pane look for the Dword value Disable TaskMgr

--- Double click on it and change its value to '0' to enable task manager and to '1' to disable the task manager.


Nov 26, 2008

Enable Regedit

As said in the earlier post here is an alternate method to get the registry editor back after a virus infection. Do exactly as given below..

--- Open notepad.

--- Copy and Paste the code given below as it is.

[Version]
Signature="$Chicago$"
Provider=Symantec

[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=UnhookRegKey

[UnhookRegKey]
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\batfile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\comfile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\exefile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\piffile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\regfile\shell\open\command,,,"regedit.exe ""%1"""
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\scrfile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"
HKCU, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System,DisableRegistryTools,0x00000020,0


--- Then go to file menu in notepad and then save as. Save this file as repair.inf or any name but save it as a .inf extension.

--- After the file is saved, double click on it or right click on it and press install.

That's it you got the Regedit back.


Nov 25, 2008

Enable Registry Editor, Task Manager and Folder Options

Many of us see that when a virus infects our system, the first thing it does is Disable Registry Editor, Task Manager and Folder Options. As soon as you see these option disabled you have to know your system is infected.

If you press Ctrl+Alt+Del you ll get a dialog box saying "Task manager has been disabled by your Administrator" and the same thing comes up when you try to edit registry using regedit.

It is irritating that, you cannot remove this problem by going to registry and you cannot see the Folder options also so you will not be able to delete the hidden files.

Now to first enable the Task manager

--- Go to Start menu --> Run and type gpedit.msc and press enter

--- Now in the left pane select
User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> System --> Ctrl+Alt+Delete options

--- In the right pane double click on Remove task manager and disable it and press Apply and then OK.

You got back your Task manager

The process to get back regedit is similar

--- Go to Start menu --> Run and type gpedit.msc and press enter

--- Now in the left pane select User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> System

--- In the right pane double click on "Prevent access to registry editing tools"

--- Disable this option

Now your registry editor is back.

To get the Folder options

--- Go to gpedit as given earlier.

--- Then to
User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Windows Component --> Windows Explorer

--- In the right pane look for "Removes the Folder Options menu item from the Tools menu"

--- Double click on it then disable it to get folder options back.

There are alternate methods for getting these settings back which I will give in the next post.


Double Click on Drive Gives Open With Options - Fix

Everyone at some time has experienced the problem where, if we double click on a drive to open it instead of the drive opening, a dialog box with open with options comes up. And you know as soon as this dialog box opens your PC is infected with a virus.

This problem occurs because the virus creates a Autorun.inf file in the root of every drive, which is activated every time you double click the drive. You will not be able to see this file as it is kept as a system file and that's why this file gets left behind on the virus check.

This file is not needed by the system and hence you can delete it. But as it is system file and has hidden and read only attributes you will not be able to delete it. So we first need to clear these attributes and then you can delete these files from all the drives. Here is how you do it..

--- Click on Start menu --> Run and type cmd to open the command prompt.

--- Now type "attrib X:\Autorun.inf -s -r -h" without the quotes, where X is the drive letter you are going to clean.

--- Now you can see this file in explorer and its ready to be deleted.

--- Delete this file and then restart your system or restart explorer.

and your problem is fixed.


Nov 24, 2008

Disable CD Autorun in xp

As many of you may know a lot of viruses spread from CD's and DVD's and most of the times it happens without you knowing it and even when you don't open the CD/DVD to browse the files on it. It happens because of the Autorun feature in windows xp, which directly opens the contents of the CD/DVD to make your life easier, but it makes harder for you to keep your system safe.

Any virus can infect your system if the CD/DVD has it and Autorun in xp is enabled. Autorun will automatically execute the files for you in this case virus infected files which may then affect your system so much so that you have to re-format your system.


I always disable the autorun feature whenever I reinstall windows to make the chances of getting my system infected less from CD/DVD. I will advice you people also to do the same.

Here is how you do it.

--- Click on start and then press run and type this gpedit.msc

--- Then in the left pane go to computer configuration --> Administrative Templates --> System

--- In the right pane look for the entry turn autoplay off and then double click on it and enable it.

--- You can re-enable the autorun by disabling this option by doing the same thing as before and disbling the turn autoplay off function.

This should keep your system safer.


Nov 20, 2008

Fixing the slow file transfers problem in Vista

When you move from windows xp to windows vista the first thing you will notice is how slow the file transfer operation is in vista.

When you have to transfer large number of files it will be very slow and you cannot always have xp on your hand if you are using only one OS, and it also will not be viable to boot in xp just to transfer some files.

A little search on google led me to the solution of this problem. The cause of slow file operations in vista is Remote Differential Compression. So we have to disable this feature.

This is how to do it...

--- Go to start menu --> control panel --> Programs and features.

--- In the left pane choose the option 'Turn windows features on or off'

--- In the next window that pops up uncheck the "Remote Differential Compression" option and press OK.




That's it, you will see the difference in file transfer operation.


Default Administrator Account in Vista

We know that Windows Vista comes with a few default accounts, referred to as built-in accounts. One of them as we know being the Guest account. The Guest account is present by default in the User Accounts section of the Control Panel and we only need to activate it.

Similarly Vista also has a Default or we can say built in Administrator account, which is not only disabled by default as the Guest account but also hidden.

In order to enable it and bring it up

--- Type cmd in the start menu search.

--- Then right click on cmd and launch the process with elevated privileges by the Run as Administrator command.

--- In the Command Prompt windows enter "net user administrator /active:yes" in order to enable the Administrator account.

--- If you want to revert back to the original setting for some reason then type "net user administrator /active:no" and hit enter.

The built in adminitrator account has all the control over vista and it will not be restricted by the User Accounts Control (UAC)


Nov 19, 2008

Uptime of Windows Vista and XP

If you keep your computer running for a long time without shutdown or reboot you may want to know how time it has been since last reboot or what is the time the system is running for, this is called uptime for windows.

You can know the uptime of Windows vista as well as xp very easily.

--- To find Vista’s uptime just open Task Manager by right clicking the Taskbar and selecting Task Manager.

--- Now open the performance tab. Here you will see the uptime in the system section.


You can do this from command line also

--- Type cmd in start menu search box and hit enter

--- At the command prompt type systeminfo and press enter

This will not give the actual uptime but it will show the time when the computer booted.


To easily find the uptime in Windows XP

--- Go to Start-->Run and type CMD then click OK.

--- This will bring up the command prompt where you have to again type systeminfo

--- After a few moments the system information will be shown along with the uptime in day, hours, minutes and seconds



Automatic Login for Windows Vista

I didn't want to type my password or username everytime I started the PC. I was using a technique to auto login in xp. So checked how to do this for vista and it turned out to be very similar to xp. To do this

--- Go to start menu search and then type NETPLWIZ and press enter.

--- A dialog box will open where you uncheck the box next to “Users should enter a username and password to use this computer”, and then press OK.

--- Another window will come up where you have to put your username and password which you want to auto login with.

--- Reboot your system.

From now on Vista will remember your username and password and login automatically on bootup.

For windows xp you just have to type Control Userpasswords in the run field and the dialog box as earlier will appear follow the same procedure as above to get the auto login in xp. You can also use this command in Vista to acheive the same result. Hope this will help you all.


Nov 18, 2008

Convert FAT32 To NTFS

Many people still use FAT32 file system on their systems, but the NTFS file system is much secure than FAT32 and Windows xp professional supports encryption with NTFS. The only concern is NTFS volumes are not recognized by Windows 95/98/Me and when the system is set up for dual or multi-booting with these operating systems you cannot see those partitions from windows xp with NTFS.

FAT and FAT32 volumes can be converted to NTFS volumes. NTFS cannot be converted to FAT32 without reformatting.

Even if you don't utilize NTFS's full scope of features, the stability and reliability it offers makes it the hands down choice.

So to convert your FAT32 drive to NTFS do this

--- Go to run and type cmd.

--- Command prompt will open.

--- Now type this without the quotes "Convert X: /FS:NTFS"

X --> being the drive to be converted

You will be asked for confirmation twice, just type Y and press enter each time and your selected drive will be converted to NTFS.

Note: Make sure you backup everythig before doing this as a precaution.


Remove Unwanted Fonts

When windows boots up it loads up fonts that are installed on your system in the 'Fonts' folder for daily use. But there are so many fonts in the folder of which hardly 10 are used by many users and rest of them are lying there doing nothing but add to the resources used by them. As windows loads these fonts at startup it increases the time for boot up. A simple way to make things easier is to move the unused fonts to a different folder.

For this

--- You can create a folder like fonts-backup on any of your drives

--- Then go to Start --> Control Panel --> Fonts

--- Select all the fonts in the folder and drag and drop them into the backup folder created earlier.

--- You will see some gibberish on the screen but worry not windows will automatically install the basic fonts which it uses.

--- Now the system has the bare minimum fonts the performance at boot up will be increased

--- Now you can pick up some fonts that you use like Times New Roman, Verdana, Arial and more if you use them from the backup folder and copy them to the Fonts folder in control panel.

--- If you removed a large number of fonts then you will definitely see the improvement.

For more tips like these keep coming.....


Optimisation of Boot Files

Constant copy pasting and moving of files results in fragmentation. Fragmentation scatters the pieces of files all over the hard disk. This also affects the files that load at the boot time. And as everyone want their PC to boot a little faster you need to defragment these files so they are put in order to be able to be accessed quickly. There is a registry trick to do this, this is how you do it.

--- First go to start menu --> Run and type regedit

--- Once there find this key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\microsoft\dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction

--- In the right pane you will find a Dword entry named Enable. You need to set it value to Y (yes)

--- You need to restart the PC for the changes to take effect.

This setting defragments the boot files and relocate startup files continuously which will reduce the time taken by the hard disk to locate these files. Whick in turn will make the boot process a little faster.

This setting kicks in when the computer is idle for 10 minutes.

If you used the setting you can say about your boot time reduced or no in comments.


Nov 17, 2008

Disable Vista User Account Control (UAC)

I know this is a security feature in Windows Vista which protects your PC. But it irritates with constant propmpts to accept even very simple actions which kind of gets out of hand. This feature will be useful for the beginners but for someone who is above the beginner will get annoyed with it and will think of going back to old and reliable Windows Xp, i also thought of that once. But once i disabled User Account Control or the UAC it gets easier. So if you want to disable it, here is how you do it.

--- First go to start menu there you will see the control panel link. Go to control panel.

--- When there click on "User accounts and family safety" and then on "user accounts"

--- At the next screen you will see the last option is to turn the UAC on/off. so disable it from there.


Another way to do it is when in control panel search for the word UAC in the vista search in top right corner. You will be directly taken to the link to turn on/off screen of UAC.

Do this and enjoy your Vista as you did with xp.

You can do this also by going to run --> msconfig --> tools
and look for the entry disable UAC. Click on it and press launch it will open a window with confirmation of the action. You need to reboot the PC.

For any suggestions or any help post in the comments.


Show hidden files after virus removal

The first a virus does after infecting your system is to disable the show hidden files option in folder options. So that you cannot delete the infected files. So to get rid of the virus from your system, first you need to get the hidden files option back.

Here is how you do it.

First you have to clean your PC to get rid of the virus.
You can download the trial version of the anvtivirus like ESET NOD32 or kaspersky Antivirus.
Install and scan your entire system with any of these. Then you are ready to get the hidden files back to visible, to do this..

--- Go to start menu --> Run

--- Type regedit and press enter

--- Then go to this key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advan ced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL"

--- Look for the Dword value on the right pane named CheckedValue and change its value to 1

--- Now check the folder option now.

--- Repeat this once again if the option still doesn't work and close regedit.


For any help post in the comments


Folder Options Gone

Everyone at some point have lost their folder options from the tools menu in explorer for various reasons but mostly the reason is virus attack. Now here is a ways or should i say two ways to get it back.

Lets see the first method

--- Click on 'start' and then 'run'.

--- In the 'run' dialog box type gpedit.msc. The Group Policy window will open.

--- Navigate to the following location:
User Configuration> Administrative Templates> Window Components> Windows Explorer

--- In the right pane, find the 'Remove the folder options menu item'. Set its value to 'Not Configured' by double clicking and setting the correct option.

Now if you are familiar with the registry you can try the second one also.

---Open registry editor by typing regedit in the run dialog box.

--- Navigate to the following key:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CureentVersin\ Policies\ Explorer

--- Find the NoFolderOptions key in right pane. Change its value to 0.

--- If this key does not exist then create a Dword value there with the exact same name and give a value of 0.That should do the trick for you.If you have any questions or want help just post in the comments and i ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Welcome

I have started this blog to give you people some tips and tricks about everything from Windows 98 to windows vista and all the help i can give here. This place will have solutions to many problems like virus removal, getting your settings back from a virus, optimize your PC for better performance and such things.

so get ready for some tricks........