Create a Password Reset Disk

If you’re running Windows XP Professional as a local user in a workgroup environment, you can create a password reset disk to log onto your computer when you forget your password. To create the disk:

1.Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click User Accounts.
2.Click your account name.
3.Under Related Tasks, click Prevent a forgotten password.
4.Follow the directions in the Forgotten Password Wizard to create a password reset disk.
5.Store the disk in a secure location, because anyone using it can access your local user account.

How to protect your Rapidshare Premium Account from Phishing

Many Rapidshare premium accounts were phished recently. Below are the steps and safety precautions you need to know to protect your account.

1) Be extra cautious when someone uses link protecter that hides the real download links of the file. The real Rapidshare download link looks like this: http://rapidshare.com/files/111111111/xxxxx.rar

2) If you come upon a Rapidshare Login Page, open another tab using your internet browser, go to rapidshare.com, turn to the login page, and see if it asks you to login. Did it ask you to login? If not, now you know the other one is fake.

3) Enable direct download in your Rapidshare premium account option’s page. The download box should pop up instantly every time you click on a Rapidshare download link. If you get redirected to Rapidshare Login Page, you know it’s fake.

4) If you got tricked, instantly change your account password and logout.

Meet the laptop you'll use in 2015

Compenion

The Compenion concept notebook from independent designer Felix Schmidberger in Stuttgart, Germany, borrows heavily from slider cell phones to move beyond the clamshell. Rather than lifting the lid open, just slide it up.

The Compenion. Click for larger view.

The pair of superbright organic LED panels slide into place next to each other, with the lower panel acting as keyboard or scribble pad. The whole thing is only three-quarters of an inch thick.

"It reduces thickness, but the slider was more about the feel of using the notebook," said Schmidberger. "The idea is to break free from traditional notebook hardware without having to adapt to new ways of using a computer."

Together, the 11-in. screens will yield about 16 inches of usable workspace, so the system has the dimensions and weight of a thin and light system but the screen of a larger one.

Canova

Dual-screen systems could well be the rage in seven years. The Canova from V12 Design, a Milan, Italy-based design firm, is closer to the tried and true clamshell layout, but with a twist.

Instead of a display and a mechanical keyboard, the device has two touch-sensitive displays: The upper screen is primarily for viewing applications, and the lower screen is for the mundane activities of typing, drawing and jotting notes. But the Canova can also lie flat for a large expanse of working space.

The Canova as standard notebook and e-book. Click for larger views.

According to designer Valero Cometti, "the idea was to close the gap between man and machine." This notebook changes personality depending on how it's held. Opened all the way, it's a sketch pad. Fold it half open and rotate it 90 degrees, and it's an e-book. By emulating a musical keyboard on the lower half, when it's flat on a table, it can be a go-anywhere piano.

Siafu

Who needs a screen at all? Long Beach, Calif.-based independent designer Jonathan Lucas' eccentric Siafu concept can touch you, literally. That's because Siafu is for the blind and has no screen.

"The idea was to open a new realm of digital interface for the visually impaired by enhancing and even surpassing existing technologies that currently cater to this group," said Lucas.

Because the blind can't see what's on the screen, Siafu converts images into corresponding 3-D shapes that are created with Magneclay, an oil-based synthetic material that instantly forms shapes in response to electrical fields.

In such hands-on computing, you interact with Siafu with your fingers to feel the bumps and protrusions that pop up. The Magneclay surface could be used for reading a Braille newspaper, feeling the shape of someone's face or going over a tactile representation of a blueprint.

The screenless Siafu. Click for larger views.

When could it be available? "I don't know," answered Lucas. "How about 2015?"

Cario

Imagine a system that is at home in a car, in an Internet café or on a hotel desk, and you have the job description of Anna Lopez' Cario.

"The concept offers several ways of working on the move or at a desk," explained U.K.-based independent designer Lopez.

Equal parts form, function and fashion, this concept replaces the traditional lid hinge with a shiny bar that -- as the name implies -- is a carrying handle. It also allows the lid to fold up for travel and can be converted into a an easel or sit on a car's steering wheel.

Not surprisingly, then, Cario comes into its own on the road. So the driver doesn't get cross-eyed or crook-necked by looking down at the screen when it's locked into the steering wheel, Cario has a microprojector that projects its images onto the vehicle's windshield. This heads-up display can show maps, videoconferences and find the closest gas station.

Cario in the office and on the road. Click for larger views.

A safety hazard in the making? "The notebook is connected to the [car's] dashboard so that Cario can only be operated if the vehicle is stationary," said Lopez.

Changing materials

Some changes and new functionality in the laptops we'll use in 2015 will come about because of significant advances in the materials used to create the devices. Magneclay is just one example.

Another example is a change in the plastics used in the notebook case. In fact, by 2015, dropping a notebook might not be the catastrophe it can be today.

That's because a group at UCLA's Exotic Materials Institute led by Fred Wudl has come up with an epoxy that's strong, durable and can repair itself. Called Automend, small cracks can be sealed by just heating the surface with a hair dryer, making it a godsend for the clumsy among us.

Another example relates to peripherals used on the road. For instance, future mobile systems could easily include projectors, which will be reduced to about the size of a pack of cigarettes by 2015.

Because such projectors use a laser, "you can project images on a wall within a distance of several meters without having to adjust a lens," said Schmidberger. "It can even be bumpy or bent."

Powerful components

It doesn't take a very clear crystal ball to know that the next generation of notebooks will deliver much more computing power. And notebooks will also get smarter as components continue to shrink and more components get squeezed onto a sliver of silicon the size of a fingernail.

The result will be that notebooks will be able to perform tasks that we can only dream of today. Here's what our experts say those components will look like and what they'll be able to do.

Processors

It's a sure bet that we won't be using a mere single- or double-core processor by 2015. Most notebooks will have at least six computational cores, if not eight, according to the experts we contacted.

Such technology is available today, so it surely will be standard-issue on laptops of the future, the experts agreed. Having at least six computational cores at your disposal will not only make high-end simulations and data visualizations possible, but will also make for one heck of a game of Halo.

Missing your bus

The CPU's front-side bus will likely disappear by 2015. The bus acts like a traffic cop, sending data to the different parts of the system at a slower speed than the computational core. In its place will be an integrated controller that makes this distribution of data much more efficient by operating faster.

As with multiple-core processors, this trend is already under way -- Intel, for instance, has announced that its Nehalem CPU microarchitecture, set to debut later this year, will feature an integrated memory controller, eliminating the need for a front-side bus. However, it will take a long time for this trend to reach CPUs used in notebook computers -- the 2015 time frame seems reasonable, the experts agreed.

Storage

With most notebooks having built-in wireless broadband connections, a new onslaught of data is expected. As a result, where we'll store our accumulated files will be transformed.

According to Intel's Trainor, we'll see ever-more storage capacity in smaller and smaller packages, along with solid-state memory that is lighter and faster, while being more rugged and using less power.

Currently, adding 64GB of solid state capacity to a notebook's hard drive runs an extra $1,000. By 2015, the typical mainstream notebook could be outfitted with a 2TB hard disk drive, which should be plenty of room for even the biggest data hog, the experts speculated. For smaller and lighter machines, look to having something like 250GB of flash memory at your disposal, but it will likely come at a small premium.

There will be a new type of storage as well that has can boost performance, said Intel's Trainor. Currently, with Windows Vista, a USB flash memory key can act as an intermediate data cache for the system's hard drive.

This makes the most-used data more quickly available for the processor, streamlining its operation. Called Turbo or Robson memory, this technique will go into overdrive when the flash memory is put on the motherboard for faster access, Trainor noted.

Displays

We'll look at our notebooks in a different light in 2015 as sequential red, green, blue LED backlighting replaces the cold cathode fluorescent lighting tubes found in today's LCD screens. This technology will not only offer brighter images, but will also use less power.

Ultimately, organic LEDs will take over, although they may not be ready in time for a 2015 system in the sizes and quantities required for mass production. Because they make their own light, OLEDs can be made thinner than today's screens.

These screens have been used on phones for several years, and Sony's XEL-1 is the first TV to have an OLED display. Its 11-in. OLED screen is just over a tenth of an inch thick.

"We're very excited about OLEDs," said Trainor. "They're capable of producing beautiful, rich colors and using less power. It adds another choice."

In a more speculative vein, in seven years, we just might have 3-D displays that show the world as it really is. This will not only be great for gamers, but it can aid in representing complex data and displaying computer-aided designs.

Such displays could also revamp the way we interact with our desktops. Imagine an on-screen desktop that, rather than a flat expanse, has depth and perspective so that you can hide your list of passwords behind the icon for opening your Web browser.

More, better power

Most experts agree that future notebooks will be just as limited by battery life as they are now. But that doesn't mean we won't see significant advances in mobile power supplies -- such advances will be necessary to keep up with all the extra power.

While fuel cells that turn methanol into power showed promise over the past few years, batteries will continue to dominate the power scene. However, there will be a move from lithium-ion cells that have to be made in cylinders to lithium polymer cells that can be formed in a variety of shapes and sizes.

"This allows notebook designers to fill small nooks and crannies of a notebook with extra batteries," explained Trainor.

Powering up could also change with inductive charging, which is key to both the Compenion and Cario concept notebooks. Rather than plugging a cord into the notebook to charge it, you just put the notebook on a special surface that has an inductive power pad, and juice is sent wirelessly to charge the battery.

The payoff is that there's no AC power adapter to carry, but this new method of charging devices will work only if enough charging pads are available. They'd need to be at cafes, hotels and even on airliner tray tables. This technology is ready today, although it is a long way from being adopted widely enough to be useful.

"Inductive charging," said Lopez, "would allow easy access and a secure way to charge."

An innovative mobile approach to power is taken by Nikola Knezevic, a Serbian designer who has turned the clamshell format on its head with solar panels. His concept design, called, not surprisingly, the Solar Laptop Concept, has an extra hinged lid covered with solar cells that can be adjusted to get the most out of the sun.

It'll add a few tenths of an inch to the system's thickness and won't be able to fully charge the system, but when you're done, just fold it up and go.

Still, Trainor, who avidly follows developments of technologies such as solar power, cautioned against becoming too optimistic that this type of technology will make it easier to keep laptops of the future charged.

Nikola Knezevic's concept solar notebook. Click for more views.

"We're still a ways away from generating enough to power the notebook," explained Trainor.

In this one way, the more things change, the more they stay the same. While mobile computers in 2015 will significantly eclipse today's notebooks in terms of usability and capabilities, we'll still need to find ways to keep the devices charged.

Asus EEE PC- With touch screen

The Cool Modification for EEE PC.

Asus EEE PC- how to play Halo

This video will show you the options you need to choose in order to get around the error message that many people receive when trying to play halo on their eee pc.



download file:
http://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/tools/3d%5Fanalyze/download/

Asus EEE PC- how to overclock

This video will show you the necessary options to select and what to do in order to increase the processor speed of your Asus eee pc.




Download file:
http://www13.plala.or.jp/setfsb/download/beta/setfsb20b17w.zip
+
http://www13.plala.or.jp/setfsb/download/etc/directio.zip

How to store and recover your Firefox Bookmark

Can’t live without your own computer? You probably treat website bookmark list as an important thing to conserve besides other files in your computer like me. Usually, I store useful websites link in my Firefox bookmark list for future reading and I think it will be essential if we can bring the list to another computer that we will use.

There are few ways how we can store and recover our Firefox Bookmark in case something bad will happen like hard disk damage or we just want to use the bookmark list within internet browser in another computer. However, by using an utility called MozBackup, we can achieve that in few simple steps.

MozBackup is a simple utility for creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite, and Netscape profiles. With this software, we can backup and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, and even cache. What you need to do is just run the wizards, and finish! A guide in .pdf format is provided by developer for complete tutorial.

Download MozBackup

Enable | Disable Windows Task Manager

Task Manager is a smart small utility in Windows XP that provides us information about applications and processes running in our computer. In the task manager, we can see the status of the programs that are currently running and choose to end programs that have stopped responding.

Of course it would be frustrating if the task manager was disabled for certain reason, but fortunately there’s a method to enable it back using a registry tweak. You can also choose to disable it with this method.

1. Firstly, from the Start button click ‘run’ and start Regedit.
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
3. Create a new key called “System”.
4. In System, create new DWORD value: DisableTaskMgr
5. Set the data value to 0 to enable Task Manager.
6. Set the data value to 0 to disable it.

Geek Clock

Clock by Triple Nine Society. Useful design in a certain way…

windows vista easter egg discovered

[NOTE : This post originally appeared on April 1, 2007, and was an April Fools Day joke. Vista does not include a copy of BOB, but if you scroll down to the comments, one of my readers has posted a link to a download of the original BOB installer if you really want to run it.] It turns out that the folks over in Redmond might have a sense of humor after all. I was working on getting my new install of Vista Ultimate up and running on my machine this weekend, and stumbled across this awesome easter egg.

It turns out that there’s an entire functional copy of the 1995 Microsoft BOB operating system hidden inside of Windows Vista. BOB was supposed to be an easy-to-use interface for Windows 3.2, complete with fuzzy animated characters (who eventually led to “Clippy” the paper clip in Microsoft Office.)

Here’s how I managed to activate it:

First, you need to make sure you have full administrative permissions on your machine. Then, go to the Start menu and enter “W.0.w.B.0.b.” (note that those are Zeros not Os) while holding down the Alt key. Then, set your system time zone to “Cairo”. The next time you reboot, type in the same phrase backwards and you’ll be in the Windows Bob environment, complete with all of the original features. Once BOB is activated you can set your clock back to your regular time zone.

Surprisingly, the new version of BOB has been updated to include integration with Outlook 2007, so you can actually see your calendar entries and e-mails in the BOB organizer. Post back and let me know which character is your favorite. Personally, I like Scuzz the Rat.

Funny Ken Hirai Pop Star Video

This is my favorite Ken Hirai's Song. I always laugh if I watched this video

Rename a Series of Files

When you download photos from your digital camera, they often have unrecognizable names. You can rename several similar files at once with the following procedure. This also works for renaming other types of files.

1.Open the My Pictures folder. (Click Start, and then click My Pictures.) Or open another folder containing files that you want to rename.
2.Select the files you want to rename. If the files you want are not adjacent in the file list, press and hold CTRL, and then click each item to select it.
3.On the File menu, click Rename.
4.Type the new name, and then press ENTER.

All of the files in the series will be named in sequence using the new name you type. For example, if you type Birthday, the first will be named Birthday and subsequent files in the series will be named Birthday (1), Birthday (2), and so on. To specify the starting number for the series, type the starting number in parentheses after the new file name. The files in the series will be numbered in sequence starting with the number you type. For example, if you type Birthday (10), the other files will be named Birthday (11), Birthday (12), and so on.

Create a Password Reset Disk

If you’re running Windows XP Professional as a local user in a workgroup environment, you can create a password reset disk to log onto your computer when you forget your password. To create the disk:

1.Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click User Accounts.
2.Click your account name.
3.Under Related Tasks, click Prevent a forgotten password.
4.Follow the directions in the Forgotten Password Wizard to create a password reset disk.

5.Store the disk in a secure location, because anyone using it can access your local user account.

Funny Google Search

Watch the Video...

19 things you didn't know about Windows XP

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).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.

6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

Speed Up Browsing

When you connect to a web site your computer sends information back and forth. Some of this information deals with resolving the site name to an IP address, the stuff that TCP/IP really deals with, not words. This is DNS information and is used so that you will not need to ask for the site location each and every time you visit the site. Although Windows XP and Windows XP have a pretty efficient DNS cache, you can increase its overall performance by increasing its size. You can do this with the registry entries below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters]
"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001
"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180
"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00
"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d

Make a new text file and rename it to dnscache.reg. Then copy and paste the above into it and save it. Merge it into the registry.

Boot Defragment

A very important new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This basically means that all boot files are placed next to each other on the disk drive to allow for faster booting. By default this option is enabled but some upgrade users have reported that it isn't on their setup.

1. Start Regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction
3. Select Enable from the list on the right.
4. Right on it and select Modify.
5. Change the value to Y to enable and N to disable.
6. Reboot your computer.

Restricting Logon Access

If you work in a multiuser computing environment, and you have full (administrator level) access to your computer, you might want to restrict unauthorized access to your "sensitive" files under Windows 95/98.
One way is to disable the Cancel button in the Logon dialog box.
Just run Regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Network/Logon

Create the "Logon" subkey if it is not present on your machine: highlight the Network key -> right-click in the left hand Regedit pane -> select New -> Key -> name it "Logon" (no quotes) -> press Enter. Then add/modify a DWORD value and call it "MustBeValidated" (don't type the quotes). Double-click it, check the Decimal box and type 1 for value.
Now click the Start button -> Shut Down (Log off UserName) -> Log on as a different user, and you'll notice that the Logon Cancel button has been disabled.

Lots of Windows XP Easter Eggs (Video)

Lots of Windows Xp Easter Eggs and how to do them

Rapidshare Downloader - Universal Share Downloader

Universal Share Downloader allows an automated download from file sharing sites. Currently, the program can download from more than 150 file sharing sites including Rapidshare and Megaupload. When you use the program you will be able to load several Rapidshare links and download them automatically!

Universal Share Downloader can bypass download limit from Rapidshare, disable and bypass Megaupload country download slots limit also bypass captcha confirmation code from rapidshare. Fantastic, best Rapidshare Tools and Rapidshare Downloader which I know. You don’t need tricks and hacks to download files from Rapidshare or Megaupload. You don’t need rapidshare premium account to download files from Rapidshare. You don’t need Rapidshare premium link generator too.

Be sure to choose either Cap OCR System or AntiCaptcha, you do not need both. Cap OCR System will read and enter Rapidshare letters automatically.

Download Universal Share Downloader v1.3.4.92

Download Cap OCR System v1.7.9.9

Stop Motion Beatboxing

The most amazing stop-motioner is back with a beatbox routine. Well done Lasse Gjertsen

Bohemian Rhapsody Comedy

Performed by the 25 most annoying voices in the music industry. Performed at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal.

Faster way to access cpanel

Feeling lazy of going to your web hosting website to gain access of cpanel? Try this shorter method. Write your domain name into the URL box of your internet browser and add the port number “:2082″ after the letters “com”. For example: www.yourdomain.com:2082

The screen similar to above will appear right away after that asking for username and password. Enter the details required and login.

Save downloaded files to folders based on extension (Firefox)

Download with Mozilla Firefox internet browser, and you will have your downloaded files scattered in the download folder. One of Firefox and other internet browsers such as Internet Explorer weaknesses is the inability to save the file in specific folder based to its extension, but there’s something we could do to solve this problem if we’re using Firefox.

The method is to intall and use Download Sort extension. This add on is a sistematic way to keep your download folder tidy. As example, it will keep all your MP3’s file will in a specific folder while file with others format (.jpeg, .3gp, .wmv, .flv) will be stored in another folders for each type of the file. Try it out today!

Tips Converting DOC Files to PDF

During last year, an internet friend of mine asked for my suggestion on how to convert word document into PDF as he wanted to write an e-book using Microsoft Word. I suggested him a few ways I know and he was quite satisfied with the result.

Without further ado, let’s check the solutions available for you to convert your doc file to PDF format.

Using Online Conversion Tool

Onlin conversion services such as Zamzar.com let you convert your DOC file to PDF for free. You just need to upload your DOC file, and then they will send you the PDF version of the file diectly to your e-mail.

Using Adobe Acrobat Reader

EnterpriseDT.com has created a tutorial on how to convert Microsoft Word documents to Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) using Adobe Acrobat Reader which you can find here. The steps are quite long, but I believe that in return, you will get a good skill using the software.

Using Open Office.org

Love and use Open Office? You probably know that this free office suite has DOC to PDF conversion utility. The installation file is quite big if you want to download the office suite but fortunately, there is a portable version of Open Office which you can run in any pc with Microsoft Windows Operating System. Download Open Office Portable (69.5MB)

You might ask: How about if I want a specialize software for the file conversion..?

PrimoPDF which is free is there for you (13.19MB).

Make Windows XP Look Like Ubuntu

People like to modify their OS for self satisfaction. Here are the ways Ubuntu fans can get the Ubuntu mood in their Windows XP based desktop.

Firstly, if you haven’t patch your uxtheme.dll file to enable non-Microsoft release visual style to be loaded in Windows XP, get the patch by Windows X at Softpedia . Run the file, follow the instructions, install, and reboot your computer.

Once you’ve done that, download Ubuntu Visual Style made by FioreSSJ for Windows XP at DeviantArt. Copy appropriate files in the zip file to appropriate folder. As examples:

• Files in Wallpaper folder to C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper..
• Files in Cursor folder to C:\Windows\Cursors..
• Files in Fonts folder to C:\Windows\Fonts..

and the rest to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Ubuntu (create this ‘Ubuntu’ folder yourself)..

Next, load the Visual Style by clicking the file ‘Human’. Click Apply in the Display Properties window and see the result.

The transformation that depends on Visual Style, wallpaper, cursor, and fonts only is not good enough isn’t it? Now, it’s time for the icons and other system files.

Get Tango Shell Patcher which will integrate Tangerine Icons set used by Ubuntu 6.10 into your system files as easy as installing other piece of software. Run the file and follow the instructions ahead..and voila!

You’ll get the result like this:

Post inspiration: xeroxaven and manchurr

Free Hardisk Backup Software

Tired spending your money for backup software like Norton Ghost ($65) or Acronis True Image ($49)?

DriveImage XML could be the best alternative for you. DriveImage XML is an easy to use and reliable program from Runtime specially developed for imaging and backing up partitions and local drives. Best of all, it’s a freeware.

This program enables you to:

• Backup local drives and partitions to image files
• Browse these images, view and extract files
• Restore these images to the same or a different drive
• Copy directly from drive to drive
• Schedule automatic backups with Task Scheduler

DriveImage XML uses Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Services (VSS) so that you are able to create safe ‘hot images’ even from drives currently in use.

Images are stored in .xml files which are not propertiery and readable by any program which support the format, allowing you to process them using third party tools. You are also able to restore images to drives without having to reboot.

However, before you sing your praise or do anything with this software please do note that Runtime doesn’t offer any technical support so please refer to the program file help, F.A.Qs and documentation for a trouble-free backup process.

System Requirements:

Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista

Homepage

How To Sleep At Work

Feeling a little bit tired? Need to take a nap in the office for sleeping late last night?

Ironically, there is a solution to those conditions.

Get two stickers resembling the shape and colour of your eyes and stick them to the area above each one of your eyes. Sleep for a few minutes and regain your energy.

Cool isn’t it? source: forwared e-mail

How To Play the Piano?

With balls



or with 'Balls'

Flying Witches Film Over Mexican City

True / Real Witch Sighting : Flying Humanoids Filmed Over Mexican Skies

Testimony from dozens of persons and police officers depict seeing what appear to be witches flying through the skies of remote Mexican towns. Several people videotaped the strange phenomenon. The creatures appear to infest the skies over an old cemetery. Video taken in Monterrey, Mexico.

A video I found on www.liveleak.com about a witch sighting over in Mexico.
I think this was reported in July, 2007. Video not by me.

Malchik Guy Reversed

SECRET,HIDDEN MESSAGES
t.A.T.u. REVERSED SONG MALCHIK GAY

Auto Logon in Windows XP

Would you rather not have to log on after your computer starts? If you’re the only person who uses your computer, you can make life a little easier by skipping the Welcome screen completely and having Microsoft Windows XP take you straight to your desktop.

To automatically log on to Windows XP upon startup

1.	Click Start, and then click Run. Note: Remember your user name at the top of the Start menu, because you’ll need it later.
2.	In the Open box, type control userpasswords2 and click OK.
3.	Clear the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer check box. Click OK.
4.	Click the User name box, type the user name that was displayed on the Start menu in step 1. If you normally type a password to log on, type your password in both the Password and Confirm Password boxes. Otherwise, leave these boxes blank. Click OK.

Auto logon now allows anyone to start and use your computer without typing a password.

Note: Keep in mind that you should not enable auto logon if you need privacy for any files on your computer. If you need to maintain

Block USB Port (Registry Edit)

1. Disable usb storage
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Services\UsbStor]

"Start"=dword:00000004

2. Enable kembali usb storage
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Services\UsbStor]

"Start"=dword:00000003

Copy Text From Message Box

One of the common situation that Windows-based computer user usually faces in their daily computing life is having error message box popped-out that they have to copy the error message manually word per word to search for the solution through Google or by asking in computer-troubleshooting forum.

How to copy the text from the error message box easily and make the troubleshooting process easier?

Answer: The full content of the error message can be copied into the clipboard. Hit Ctrl+C (shortcut for ‘copy’), open your text editor (like notepad) and paste it out (Ctrl+V): (Example of the result is shown below):

—————————
bloganything
—————————
Windows cannot find ‘bloganything’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search.
—————————
OK
—————————

Copy the important/main single line of the error message to Google search engine now, press enter, and hopefully, you will find the solution within 10 seconds.

How To Create Hidden Folder (The Unconventional Way)

Usually, people will create a hidden folder in modern Windows operating system by setting the folder properties as hidden. But it’s not really convenient since you have to alter the file/folder viewing setting everytime you wish to view the hidden folder.

Is there any shortcut to this?

The method below was applied using Windows Vista, but I think you can do it with Windows XP or some earlier Windows versions as well. To create a hidden folder without having to mess up with the file/folder viewing setting…

1) Firstly, on your desktop press Right Click -> “New” -> “Folder”

2) Rename the folder and press Alt0160 simultaneously (use Alt key plus the numbers in numpad). You will see the folder name disappear.

3) Right-click on the folder, and clock on “Properties” -> “Customize”. Change the folder icon into none.

Voila!

The folder will reappear when you highlight all the icons on your desktop or click on the spot where the ‘hidden folder’ is located.

Found Software Setup Files Easily

How many times do you have to access a software website each time you want to download the software setup file to reinstall it again? The conventional way requires us to do those few clicks and wait for the web pages loading, but technology helps making it simpler.

Exefind.com enables you to find software setup files easily with their software searching technology. For example, if you want to download a pdf reader, just enter the terms “pdf reader” in the search field and you will be represented with wide selections of software, complete with descriptions, screenshot and direct download link.

Once you find the one you need, right click on the download link and save it manually or download it by using your own preferred internet download manager (I suggest Flashget for accelerated downloading).

There’s a limitation to this where you can’t find the download link to commercial software such as Adobe Photoshop or other non-freeware/shareware due to their own respetive companies’ policies.

Do you know any website that make the process of searching and downloading software easier than this? Do share about it with us.

Make Windows XP Boot Faster

First of all, this tweak only apply to those who only have one HDD on their primary IDE channel (nothing else on device 0 or 1) and a CD-ROM and/or DVD-ROM on the secondary IDE channel.

Each time you boot Windows XP, there’s an updated file called NTOSBOOT-*.pf who appears in your prefetch directory (%SystemRoot%Prefetch) and there’s no need to erease any other files as the new prefetch option in XP really improves loading time of installed programs. We only want WindowsXP to boot faster and not decrease its performance. Thanks to Rod Cahoon (for the prefetch automation process…with a minor change of mine) and Zeb for the IDE Channel tweak as those two tricks, coupled together with a little modification, result in an EXTREMELY fast bootup:

1. Open notepad.exe, type “del c:windowsprefetch tosboot-*.* /q” (without the quotes) & save as “ntosboot.bat” in c:
2. From the Start menu, select “Run…” & type “gpedit.msc”.
3. Double click “Windows Settings” under “Computer Configuration” and double click again on “Shutdown” in the right window.
4. In the new window, click “add”, “Browse”, locate your “ntosboot.bat” file & click “Open”.
5. Click “OK”, “Apply” & “OK” once again to exit.
6. From the Start menu, select “Run…” & type “devmgmt.msc”.
7. Double click on “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers”
8. Right click on “Primary IDE Channel” and select “Properties”.
9. Select the “Advanced Settings” tab then on the device 0 or 1 that doesn’t have ‘device type’ greyed out select ‘none’ instead of ‘autodetect’ & click “OK”.
10. Right click on “Secondary IDE channel”, select “Properties” and repeat step 9.
11. Reboot your computer.

WindowsXP should now boot REALLY faster.

Change Windows XP Home Edition to Windows XP Pro

1. Copy the root directory and the i386 directory of the WindowsXP CD to your harddisk.
2. Extract the Bootsector of your WindowsXP CD.
3. Change 2 Bytes in i386\Setupreg.hiv :
   1. Open Regedit.
   2. Highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
   3. Menu: File -> Load Structure -> i386\Setupreg.hiv
   4. Assign an arbitrary name to the imported structure e.g. “Homekey”.
   5. Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Homekey\ControlSet001\Services\setupdd.
   6. Edit the binary key “default” and change “01” to “00” and “02” to “00”.
   7. Highlight “Homekey” and select menu: File -> unload structure.
4. Burn your new XP Pro CD.
5. Install WindowsXP as usual. Your XP Home Key will work.

Note
You cannot apply SP2 to such a WindowsXP Pro, so step 3.2 might be to integrate SP2 in your Installation CD.

windows XP and Vista Four Desktop modification

I was looking around on the internet, and i came across this. looking around on instructables, i didnt see it so i thought i'd share it.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT MY IDEA, I AM SIMPLY POSTING IT ON INSTRUCTABLES FOR YOUR INFORMATION

this cool gadget lets you change your whole desktop & windows with two or more key-strokes in a matter of seconds.

download link: yodm-3d.uptodown.com/en/

Change Start Menu Text

I’ve read a number of articles on the internet about changing the text on the Start button in XP. On more than one occasion I’ve seen references to a five (5) letter limitation when the button is renamed. I always wondered if this was true or just an assumption someone made because the default ‘start’ just happened to fit the button size. So, I decided to run a test and see if there really was a five character limit.

As you can see from the screen capture above it would seem that the five character limit isn’t etched in stone. The button expanded to accept the text I entered with no problem. I’ve been using the system for a few weeks now with no adverse effects. That’s not to say I won’t discover something down the road a bit, but for now I feel comfortable with the changes. If you’d like to try the procedure I used, the instructions follow.

Step 1 – Modify Explorer.exe File

In order to make the changes, the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows needs to be edited. Since explorer.exe is a binary file it requires a special editor. For purposes of this article I have used Resource Hacker. Resource Hacker^TM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems. Navigate here to download Resource Hacker.

The first step is to make a backup copy of the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer. Place it in a folder somewhere on your hard drive where it will be safe. Start Resource Hacker and open explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer.exe as shown in Fig. 01.

Fig. 01

The category we are going to be using is String Table. Expand it by clicking the plus sign then navigate down to and expand string 37 followed by highlighting 1033. If you are using the Classic Layout rather than the XP Layout, use number 38. The right hand pane will display the stringtable as shown in Fig. 02. We’re going to modify item 578, currently showing the word “start” just as it displays on the current Start button.

Fig. 02

There is no magic here. Just double click on the word “start” so that it’s highlighted, making sure the quotation marks are not part of the highlight. They need to remain in place, surrounding the new text that you’ll type. Go ahead and type your new entry. In my case I used ElderGeek as shown in Fig. 03.

Fig. 03

Compare the screen captures in Fig. 02 and Fig. 03 and you’ll notice that after the new text string has been entered the Compile Script button that was grayed out in Fig. 02 is now active in Fig. 03. I won’t get into what’s involved in compiling a script, but suffice it to say it’s going to make this exercise worthwhile. Click Compile Script and then save the altered file using the Save As command on the File Menu. Do not use the Save command – Make sure to use the Save As command and choose a name for the file. See Fig. 04. Save the newly named file to C:\Windows.

Fig. 04

Step 2 – Modify the Registry

Now that the modified explorer.exe has been created it’s necessary to modify the registry so the file will be recognized when the user logs on to the system. If you don’t know how to access the registry I’m not sure this article is for you, but just in case it’s a temporary memory lapse, go to Start (soon to be something else) Run and type regedit in the Open: field. Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon

Fig. 05

In the right pane (Fig. 05), double click the Shell entry to open the Edit String dialog box as shown in Fig. 06. In Value data: line, enter the name that was used to save the modified explorer.exe file. Click OK.

Fig. 06

Close Registry Editor and either log off the system and log back in, or reboot the entire system if that’s your preference. If all went as planned you should see your new Start button with the revised text.

Original Article

XP Boot Logo Manual Modification

Edit the boot logo and boot logo palette in Windows XP

An Introduction

Let me start off by saying "WOW!" When I originally posted this little tutorial back on Dec 26, 2001, I never expected the huge response it would generate. Things have slowed down quite a bit since the heydays, when hits to this page alone would exceed my bandwidth limitations here on Geocities. Not bad for a page which, including graphics, came to a total size less than 20k.

A few things have obviously changed since I first posted this. There are literally dozens of utilities out there which will do all of this work for you quickly and painlessly (I listed a couple of the most popular ones on the sidebar), and Service Pack 2 for Windows XP is out. Despite these changes, I am still getting a steady flow of visitors to this page, and a good amount of e-mail from people like you, asking questions. (If I didn't answer, I apologize.)

So, realizing these things, and feeling guilty for letting the page stagnate, I decided it was time for an update.

Why? As I just said, there are literally dozens of tools to do this for you... Doesn't that make this tutorial obsolete? Well, yes, and no. Yes, even I use one of the many programs out now for changing the boot image rather than doing by hand anymore. But simply using a program like that, you don't really know what is going on. There is still a great amount of satisfaction to be had in simply knowing what is happening with these programs, what it is doing to your system, and even in taking the effort to do it yourself.

Also, I mentioned all of those e-mails people send me right? Believe it or not, some of them asked intelligent questions, or pointed out legitimate mistakes. Of course some of them were "I know you said to make a backup copy of NTOSKRNL32.EXE, but I didn't... Help me!" I want to answer as many of those questions as I can in this article, and try (in vain, I'm sure) to do a little bit more to convince people that something CAN go wrong to YOUR file, and fixing it is a REAL PAIN IN THE NECK if you don't make a backup.... So with that I'll start with:

A Warning:

Changing the boot screen palette in Windows XP involves getting in and making changes to the kernel of your system. If you screw things up, you can REALLY screw things up! Your system could become "unstable" or it might not even boot. If you are not prepared for this eventuality, I would suggest you quit reading now, and learn to live with the boot screen that comes standard in Windows XP. I will show you all of the steps to take to make sure you are able to recover from any errors, but nothing is foolproof. I simply cannot be responsible for anything that happens with your system because of steps taken in this How-To.

Resources Needed:

1. Windows XP Operating system
2. Paint Shop Pro (http://www.jasc.com)
3. Resource Hacker (http://www.users.on.net/johnson/resourcehacker/)
4. UltraEdit (http://www.ultraedit.com) or another hex editor (see list in the sidebar)

Safety First!

Before you even THINK about hacking into the kernel, make a backup. Of everything you even remotely care about on your system. Now make a backup copy of "..\Windows\System32\ntoskrnl.exe" in whatever directory you like. NOW make ANOTHER copy of it to actually do your hacking on. Put it into a completely separate directory from your backup copy. (Trust me on this, I had to learn the hard way!

Make Your Own Boot Screen

While it is possible to use Photoshop to do this, it is MUCH simpler to do in Paint Shop Pro. If you are using one of the many programs to change your boot screen, then you might consider using Irfanview to resize and reduce the color depth of the image you want to use. All of the following instructions use Paint Shop Pro, but the basic concept is exactly the same in any other image editing program.

Open up Paint Shop Pro, and design your boot screen. It has to be 640x480, and you'll need to reduce it to a 16 color palette. How do I do that? You ask? Once you have the image designed, go to the "Colors" menu, choose "Decrease Color Depth" then "16 Colors" Take a look at the screen shot below, for an example. You may need to experiment with this a bit to get things looking the best they can. And it may take a bit of work to clean things up (16 colors isn't very many!), but eventually you should have a 16 color image to your liking.

(In Photoshop, you will have to set the image mode to "index" Then "save as..." "bmp". After choosing the filename you want to save as, you will get another options window. Choose 4 bit, Windows, and be sure "Compress (RLE)" is NOT checked)

Now that you have a good 16 color image, it's time for some paperwork. The simplest way to start all of this is to save the palette used in your boot image. Again go to the "Colors" menu, and choose "Save Palette". This will let you choose a name for the file, and by default will save it in the "..\Program Files\PaintShopPro6\Palettes\..." directory. This is simply a text list of the RGB values of each color in your palette. In order. Don't quit yet, we're not done! Open up the .pal file you just saved in Notepad. We're going to keep some notes in there also. You will need to know the exact order of your palette, and the hex values of those colors in order to make the changes in your kernel. To get that information, we are going to bring up the "edit Palette" dialog box in PSP. Again, go to the "Colors" menu and choose "Edit Palette" You will get a dialog box that looks something like the screen shot below.

This dialog gives us all of the information we are going to need later when we go to make the changes to the kernel. Click on the first color on the left. You'll see the RGB values listed at the bottom center of the dialog box, and the hex values listed in the lower right labeled as "HTML". Now, make sure you can see this window, and the Notepad window with your Pal file open at the same time. Next to the first set of RGB values in the notepad file, type in the hex values shown for the leftmost color entry in the "Edit Palette" window. Work your way down the list, noting the hex values next to each RGB value. Don't worry, you'll understand why later. You should end up with something like the following:

JASC-PAL
0100
16
23 13 23 || 17 0D 17
48 40 72 || 30 28 48
53 71 49 || 35 47 31
52 77 92 || 34 4D 5C
84 30 43 || 54 1E 2B
92 45 77 || 5C 2D 4D
84 75 53 || 54 4B 35
97 84 95 || 61 54 5F
103 110 135 || 67 6E 87
111 137 111 || 6F 89 6F
102 145 155 || 66 91 9B
154 64 92 || 9A 40 5C
173 109 140 || AD 6D 8C
149 139 116 || 95 8B 74
200 186 193 || C8 BA C1
0 0 0  || 00 00 00

Now, you are going to need to create an all black palette. While you are in the "Edit Palette" window, double click on each color and make it black. Yes, all 16 entries need to be black. When you click on "OK" your image should be solid black. Go back to the "Colors" menu again and select "Save Palette" give this black palette a new name and save it. Then save your image (still all black) somewhere (just be sure you have "maintain indexes" checked.), and close out of Paint Shop. We're done in there.

Putting Your Image Into the Kernel

Now it is time to replace the standard Microsoft boot image with yours. Open up Resource Hacker and open up your "working" copy of "ntoskrnl32.exe". Then choose the "Action" menu and select "Replace Bitmap" A dialog box will open up that will allow you to choose which bitmap to replace (you are going to replace .bmp 1 in this case) and to browse to the .bmp you want to use as a replacement. When you have replaced the .bmp, go to the "File" menu, and choose "Save As". Give the file a new name like "mykrnl.exe" or whatever, and save it. You can go ahead and close out of Resource Hacker. We're done there.

Some Other Information About Ntoskrnl32.exe And ResHacker.

Resource Hacker is a great little program. I just want to give you some more information about the other things you may want to change while in Resource Hacker. First, you may want to save some of the other .bmp files in the kernel, and modify and replace them also. Here's a Quick rundown of the .bmp's :

1 - The main boot logo screen. This is the background image for the boot screen, there are a few other images that may be overlaid on this background. I have provided a "blank" layered Paint Shop Pro image file that marks where these overlays occur.

2 - Hibernating. This is the overlay for the waiting period when waking up from hibernation, It overlays in the same position as the progress bar during boot up.

3 - It is now safe to turn off your computer. This is the image for the message you see when shutting down windows. It is actually built differently and is separate from the boot up screen, so I didn't include it in the blank template.

4 - This is the gray progress bar. I'm not sure which flavor of XP uses this one, but if you see a gray progress bar while booting up, edit this file to make changes.

8 - This is the blue progress bar used by XP Pro.

9 - This is the green progress bar used by XP Home.

10 - Professional. This is the text overlay for XP Pro. I usually just replace it with a 1x1 pixel image, effectively erasing it.

11 - Home Edition. This is the overlay for XP Home. Again I'd just get rid of it as described above.

12 - Embedded. I don't think anyone is using this one yet, but here it is.

You can simply modify any of these resources, and place them back into the kernel with Res Hacker. You will need to have a "system" palette (the one you see during boot up) and a "black" palette (all black) that is used to store the bmp in the kernel. I have provided both in this zip file.

To use these palettes, simply extract them to the "..\Program Files\Paint Shop Pro 6\Palettes\" directory. When you want to see what the image will look like at boot, go to the "Colors" menu, and choose "Load Palette". Then select the "system16.pal" file. You may need to switch between this view, and full color mode quite a bit while designing your image, ad there will likely be some ugly artifacts from the reduction in colors. The final step before saving the modified image is to load the all black palette. Again, go to the "Colors" menu, choose "Load Palette" and select the "black16.pal" file. Be certain that you choose "Maintain Indexes" in the "Apply Palette Using" section at the bottom of the "Load Palette" dialog. Your image will turn all black, and you are all set to save it and place it into the kernel.

Changing The Built-In Palette.

Now comes the hard part. Microsoft seems to have gone to some bit of trouble to hide the palette in the kernel, so this will take a bit of explaining. Start off by opening up your "mykrnl.exe" (or whatever you named it) in UltraEdit or another hex editor. You need to do a search for the following hex string (without the quotes)...

"00 00 00 00 15 1A 20 00 46 46 46 00 D2 3E 2D 00 01 65 53 00 05 35 B2 00 7E 7E 7E 00 00 92 89 00 FC 7F 5E 00 20 6B F7 00 FF A6 8D 00 04 DC 8E 00 1B BC F3 00 BC BC BC 00 FC FC FC 00 FF FF FF"

Yes, That is a LOOONNGG search string. But when you find the entire thing, you know you are in the right place. Below is a screen shot of the results on my computer.

This shot is on Windows XP Professional Gold. Build 2600, corporate license, so it may be in a slightly different place on your computer, but it will be there. (Be sure to search for the entire string, as I believe the position has changed in SP1, and I would imagine it has again in SP2)

Now to explain a bit about what you are looking at. Each color on your screen is made up of an RGB value. White, for example is "255 255 255". Those RGB values can be translated into a hexadecimal value. White is "FF FF FF". Those of you familiar with web design or image editing at all are probably already aware of all of this. What you see in the image above, and in your own hex editor, is a list of 16 such hex values separated by a "null" character (00). This is the palette windows uses to turn the all black boot screen image into what you see on screen.

Like I said though, Microsoft evidently went to a little bit of trouble to hide this, because each hex value is backwards! For example, one of the orange colors in the original palette has the RGB value of "247 107 42", which translates in hex to "F7 6B 20". In the screen shot above though, you will notice that it is listed as "20 6B F7" The values of each color in the palette are listed in this manner. So, Let's take another look at our notes, and just to simplify things, make another listing next to each value of the reversed hex values. My example came out looking like the following:

JASC-PAL
0100
16
23 13 23 || 17 0D 17 || 17 0D 17
48 40 72 || 30 28 48 || 48 28 30
53 71 49 || 35 47 31 || 31 47 35
52 77 92 || 34 4D 5C || 5C 4D 34
84 30 43 || 54 1E 2B || 54 1E 2B
92 45 77 || 5C 2D 4D || 4D 2D 5C
84 75 53 || 54 4B 35 || 35 4B 54
97 84 95 || 61 54 5F || 5F 54 61
103 110 135 || 67 6E 87 || 87 6E 67
111 137 111 || 6F 89 6F || 6F 89 6F
102 145 155 || 66 91 9B || 9B 91 66
154 64 92 || 9A 40 5C || 5C 40 9A
173 109 140 || AD 6D 8C || 8C 6D AD
149 139 116 || 95 8B 74 || 74 8B 95
200 186 193 || C8 BA C1 || C1 BA C8
0 0 0  || 00 00 00 || 00 00 00

Now, the first column is the RGB values of each color, the second is the hex values, and the third is the reversed hex values we are going to type into our kernel. If You look again at the screen shot, you'll notice that each set of 3 hex values is separated by a "null" or "00". Be sure to leave those in there, or there's no telling what things will come out looking like! If they work at all.

So what we need to do is replace the existing entries with our palette values. This is where our notes will pay off. Just start with the top line of the third column, and type over what's already in the kernel file. Remember to leave the "nulls" between each listing! The image below is a screen shot of my kernel file after the changes. When you are done, save the file. Believe it or not, we are done! All we have left is to boot to our new kernel.

Booting To Your New Kernel.

The next step is to copy your hacked kernel into the ..\Windows\System32\ directory. Leave it named whatever you did before. You do not want to overwrite the existing "ntoskrnl.exe"! What would you do if it didn't work!? Boot to a command prompt and do a lot of typing and praying! That's what! There is a much safer and simpler way to do this. Open up "C:\boot.ini" in Notepad. On my system it looks like the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect 

What we are going to do is copy the bottom line, and paste it at the bottom of the file. Then we'll modify it as follows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"  /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="JJoelC's Hacked OS"       /fastdetect /kernel=mykrnl.exe

Notice the "/kernel=" switch at the end of the line. This is where you would enter the name you saved your hacked kernel as. Now when you boot up your computer, you will get a menu asking you which operating system you would like to start. Choose your hacked OS, and watch the show. If anything doesn't go right, just reboot, and choose the original configuration. No hassle, no fuss. When everything is working to your satisfaction, you can remove the original entry from the boot.ini file, leaving only the edited entry and you won't get the menu at boot anymore.

Here's a shot of the image I created to test all of this out. And yes, this is the 16 color version.

Thanks!

JJoelC

Common questions:

As I said, I get a lot of e-mails about this, and unfortunately there is no way I can answer them all. I'll try to answer the most common questions here.

How do I change the position of the progress bar?

How do I get rid of the progress bar?

Well, to be honest, the only way I would recommend changing the position of the progress bar is to use one of the several programs out there to change Windows boot screens. But if you are like me, you will hate having to rely on something someone else did to get it done. So with that in mind, here is a brief explanation:

In order to change progress bar's position you must change 5 values (4 bytes each) inside ntoskrnl.exe. Three of them have the value of the top of the progress bar. The other 2 have the value of top position + the height of the progress bar (=the bottom of the progress bar). So we can change the height of progress bar too!

So, in a hex editor we will find these values, (for ntoskrnl.exe file version 5.1.2600.1106 {SP1}). Note that there's multiple in between versions since the launch of XP, where the location of these values differs, and there are lots more of those same values in several other places, so again, manual editing is mostly not advised:

For ntoskrnl.exe file version 5.1.2600.1106 (SP1):

1. At position 211263 (offset 3393F) the value 62 01 00 00. That is a long value swapped, so 00 00 01 62 in hex = the value 354 in decimal. This means the top of the progress bar is 354 pixels from the top of the screen.
2. At position 207838 (offset 32BDE) the value 62 01 00 00. Same as above.
3. At position 207808 (offset 32BC0) the value 62 01 00 00. Same as above.

4. At position 211389 (offset 339BD) the value 6A 01 00 00. That is a long value swapped, so 00 00 01 6A in hex = the value 362 in decimal (or 354 + 9 pixels the height of progress bar -1). In other words from pixel 354 to pixel 362 there are 9 pixels (the height of progress bar).
5. At position 207798 (offset 32BB6) the value 6A 01 00 00. Same as above.

So, if you want to change the position or size of the progress bar, you must change the above 5 values.

For example... If you want the progress bar to be the same size, just at the very bottom of the screen, you would change the first three values to decimal 471 (="D7 01 00 00" as you would type it into the kernel) and the last 2 to decimal 480 (="E0 01 00 00" as you would type it into the kernel.)

If you want to make the progress bar disappear (I've never tried it, so let me know) you would simply change the last 2 values to match the first 3.

If you want a bigger progress bar make values 4 and 5 bigger (bigger difference between valeus1,2,3, and values 4,5), and if you want a smaller progress bar, make them smaller (less difference between values 1,2,3, and values 4,5.)

This is a calculator to change decimal to reversed hex, like that placed into ntoskrnl.exe:
" onclick="document.dechex.hex.value = decToHex(document.dechex.decimal.value);" type="button">

I didn't make a backup of NTOSKRNL.EXE! How do I fix it?

Well, friend, you have a long road ahead of you. And it may end with you simply reinstalling Windows XP. But there are a couple of things you can try first:

1. Did you modify your "boot.ini" file like I instructed? If so, all you have to do is choose the first option in the menu that comes up when you boot. End of problem.

2. Boot from your Windows XP installation CD. Then follow these instructions:

1. When prompted, press "R" to "repair a Windows XP installation using the recovery console"
2. You will be prompted to select the installation you want to repair (usually there is only one listed, so just type "1" and hit enter...)
3. You will be prompted to enter the Administrator password.
4. Now you will be at a command prompt. Assuming your windows directory is "C:\Windows" and the Windows XP CD is in the "D:\" drive type in the following command: expand d:\i386\ntoskrnl.ex_ c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
5. When that is done, type: exit and your computer will reboot. be sure to remove the CD from the drive, or choose not to boot from it.
6. If this works, you will need to re-install any updates (like SP1 or SP2) that have been applied since you originally installed Windows.

3. If all else fails, you have no choice but to reinstall Windows, all of your programs, re-do all of your settings, tweaks, and customizations. And unless you made regular backups (HAH!) you will have completely lost all of your e-mails, bookmarks, downloaded images, or other documents created in other programs like Word, Excel, etc. (Remember that term paper you were supposed to be working on instead of trying to change your boot logo?) Have fun, and remember to make a backup next time!

How do I slipstream my boot image onto an install CD so I don't have to keep re-doing it?

This is actually pretty simple to do. Follow these Instructions on how to create a CD with SP1 (or 2) slipstreamed. But after you have applied the SP update, and before you start to burn the CD, hack the "ntoskrnl.exe" file inside the folders you are about to slipstream. From there, proceed as usual to burn the bootable CD.

Honestly, I don't see a whole lot of value in this approach, as you will still have to reinstall all of your other programs, make all of your customizations again, etc. I prefer to use Norton Ghost, or Powerquest DriveImage to make an image of my drive, and put that onto a bootable CD. All of your settings and files will then be EXACTLY as they were when you made the image. Personalized "System Restore" disks!

I Downloaded a "ntoskrnl.exe" file from a web site, but it is a different version than mine. Can I still use It?

NO!

Actually I would strongly urge you to NEVER use an entire "ntoskrnl.exe" downloaded from some strange web site. This is the core of the Windows operating system.... Do you really trust these people with everything on your computer?

Instead, find and download an image file and use that to insert into your own ntoskrnl.exe file. If you just HAVE to have a pic, and you can only find it as a ntoskrnl.exe file, then use Resource Hacker to extract the boot screen from the downloaded file, then place that image into your own file.