If you would like to change your boot up screen follow the directions below. These instructions assume that you have a place to download the boot screen from the net. If you would like to download a boot screen, visit http://www.themexp.org

1. Backup (copy) the file %windir%\system32\ntoskrnl.exe (most likely C:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe - the boot screen)
2. Download the .zip to your computer (important: make sure to get the right version, XP or XP SP1)
3. Extract ntoskrnl.exe to a directory other than %windir%\system32 (most likely C:\windows\system32)
4. Reboot your computer into Safe Mode (hit F8 before the boot screen) or into true DOS (from a boot disk)
5. Overwrite the file %windir%\system32\ntoskrnl.exe (which should have been backed up) with the extracted exe
6. Reboot your computer as you normally would

If you have XP Home and want to disable the screen that Windows shows when you insert certain cds then follow this guide!

To disable autoplay for cd/dvd drives and removable media

1: Copy & Paste the following into Notepad:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:000000b5

2: Save as a registry (.reg) file

3: Run the file to add the settings to the registry and there you have it - no more autorun or pop-ups!

NJOY!

Like lots of other people my computer wouldn't shutdown automatically after shutting down windows xp...I tried enabling APM, but then the computer wouldn't shutdown at all, and just restarted all the time. so I always had to manually turn off my computer when the "It is now safe to turn off your computer" screen came up.

Well I fixed this problem, and came across the solution, for me accidently. I went to Device Manager, then to View then Show Hidden Devices, then you look on the list for NT Apm/Legacy Support. Under that is NT Apm/Legacy Interface Node. I found that this driver was disabled. Why, I'm not too sure, but I enabled it and now when I shut down windows, my computer turns off automatically. I went into power management and the APM was also activated/enabled....It must do this when you enable the driver.

One of the most common questions about system processes is what is svchost.exe and why are there so many processes running? First appearing in Windows XP, svchost.exe hosts multiple services within one process. This allows the operating system to save memory by reducing process overhead by cutting down on the number of processes that need to be running.

Every system service such as Windows Update, Event Log, Terminal Services, Audio Service, etc. runs within svchost.exe. Depending on the access the services need, they are grouped together and are run in a number of processes which explains why you see so many in Task Manager running under different accounts such as System, Local Service and Network Service.

Identifying what services are running is different depending on the version of Windows you have.

Windows XP

In Windows XP at a command prompt run:

tasklist /svc
The tasklist utility will show you what processes are running under each svchost.exe process.

Windows Vista and Windows 7



Task manager in Windows Vista and Windows 7 has been enhanced so you can easily see what services are running inside a host process such as svchost.exe.

Click on the Start Button, type in taskmgr and hit Enter. When task manager loads, click on the Processes tab and click Show processes from all users to see all of the svchost.exe processes. Then, right click on a svchost.exe process and select Go to Service(s). You will be taken to the Services tab with all services running in that process highlighted.



All Versions of Windows

Microsoft Sysinternals has a great free utility called Process Explorer that is like a task manager on steroids. It works on all versions of Windows and allows you to easily see services running inside of svchost.exe. Download Process Explorer here. Once you have it running right click on any process and select Properties. Then click on the Services tab and you will see all processes running inside the host process.

I'm sure you are familiar with the traditional way to kill or end a process in Windows using Task Manager. This method is effective but not nearly as fun as killing a process in Command Prompt. Additionally, killing processes in Command Prompt provides much more control and the ability to end multiple processes at once.

All of this is possible with the TaskKill command. First, let's cover the basics. You can kill a process by the process ID (PID) or by image name (EXE filename).

Open up an Administrative level Command Prompt and run tasklist to see all of the running processes:

C:\>tasklist

Image Name PID Session Name Mem Usage
========================= ======== ================ ============
firefox.exe 26356 Console 139,352 K
regedit.exe 24244 Console 9,768 K
cmd.exe 18664 Console 2,380 K
conhost.exe 2528 Console 7,852 K
notepad.exe 17364 Console 7,892 K
notepad.exe 24696 Console 22,028 K
notepad.exe 25304 Console 5,852 K
explorer.exe 2864 Console 72,232 K
In the example above you can see the image name and the PID for each process. If you want to kill the firefox process run:

C:\>Taskkill /IM firefox.exe /F
or

C:\>Taskkill /PID 26356 /F
The /f flag is kills the process forcefully. Failure to use the /F flag will result in nothing happening in some cases. One example is whenever I want to kill the explorer.exe process I have to use the /F flag or else the process just does not terminate.

If you have multiple instances of an image open such as multiple firefox.exe processes, running the taskkill /IM firefox.exe command will kill all instances. When you specify the PID only the specific instane of firefox will be terminated.

The real power of taskkill are the filtering options that allow you to use the following variables and operators.

Variables:

STATUS
IMAGENAME
PID
SESSION
CPUTIME
MEMUSAGE
USERNAME
MODULES
SERVICES
WINDOWTITLE
Operators:

eq (equals)
ne (not equal)
gt (greater than)
lt (less than)
ge (greater than or equal)
le (less than or equal)
"*" is the wildcard.

You can use the variables and operators with the /FI filtering flag. For example, let's say you want to end all processes that have a window title that starts with "Internet":

C:\>taskkill /FI "WINDOWTITLE eq Internet*" /F
How about killing all processes running under the Steve account:

C:\>taskkill /FI "USERNAME eq Steve" /F
It is also possible to kill a process running on a remote computer with taskkill. Just run the following to kill notepad.exe on a remote computer called SteveDesktop:

C:\>taskkill /S SteveDesktop /U RemoteAccountName /P RemoteAccountPassword /IM notepad.exe /F
To learn more about taskkill run it with the /? command just like any other Windows command.

Four criteria must be met to have transparent text on your desktop icon.

1. Go to Start>> Right Click My Computer>> Properties>> Advanced tab>> Performance Settings>> Visual Effects tab.
The entry "use drop shadows for icon labels..." must be checked 

2. Right click any blank area of your desktop>> Arrange Icons by...>> The entry "Lock Web Items on Desktop" entry must be unchecked.

3. Having any web content on your desktop will not allow transparency to work. 

Here's how to check for web content:

Right click a blank area of your desktop>> Properties>> Desktop tab>> Customize Desktop button>> Web tab>> make sure all checkboxes are unchecked. 

4. Wallpaper must be an image file, not HTML. 

The Title Bar is designed to quickly inform you of which program, document or web site you have open windows for. The Active Title Bar will inform you of which window you are currently viewing.

The default colors for the title bars are basic blue with white writing. If you would like to change this to your own color of choice, here's how:

1. Right-click on an empty area of your desktop.
2. Choose Properties.
3. Click the Appearance Tab.
4. Click the Advanced button.
5. Choose Active Title Bar or Inactive Title Bar from the 'Item' drop-down menu.
6. Change Color 1 and Color 2 to your color of choice.
7. Press Apply when you're finished.

If you want to remove programs that are installed with Windows but are not visible in "Add/Remove Windows Components" (such as MSN Messenger in WinXP), edit a file called "C:\WINDOWS\INF\SYSOC.INF". 

Go to: Start>> Run>> type in: C:\WINDOWS\INF\SYSOC.INF [Enter]

In there you will find a listing of programs, and you will note that some programs have the word 'hide' at the end. Simply remove the word 'hide' but leave the preceding comma. Examples:

BEFORE:msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 

AFTER:msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7 

Exit saving changes.

Now when you open Add/Remove Windows Components, you will see the now viewable, in this example, "Windows Messenger".

Ever wish to skip the boring part of Youtube video and directly start the video from where the interesting part start ? You can do it with a single click of a mouse button.



Splicd.com allows you to isolate an interesting tidbit from a YouTube video and provides you with a link to share it with your family, friends, and colleagues.

How to use it : Just enter the URL of Youtube video and enter the time from where you want to start viewing the video and click on Continue.

Visit and enjoy : http://splicd.com

If you like to increase/optimize your Hard Disk I/O - read/write speed without buying expensive software utilities to do that job or changing the HD, just follow next steps. With doing these steps you will increase Hard disk speed (depends of manufacture and specification, but its worth to try). The most speed improvement is visible with IDE drives; however there are reports that this tweak also does good for SCSI disks.

In any case, it won't harm your system, so try it yourself and let me know what you find!

Steps:

1. Run SYSEDIT.EXE from the start.
2. Expand the system.ini file window.
3. Scroll down almost to the end of the file until you find a line called [386enh].
4. Press Enter to make one blank line, and in that line type
5. Irq14=4096 (note: This line IS CASE SENSITIVE)
6. Click on the File menu, then choose Save.
7. Close SYSEDIT and reboot your computer.
8. Restart windows!

The speed improvement will be noticed just after the system reboots, any system info. software can be used to check the improvement.