WINDOWS XP HACKS & MODS FOR BEGINNERS
ABOUT THIS BOOK CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS BOOK WHAT YOU’RE NOT TO READ FOOLISH ASSUMPTIONS HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED PART I: THE NUTS & BOLTS OF HACKS & MODS PART II: CONTROLLING THE LOOK AND FEEL OF WINDOWS XP PART III: ADJUSTING EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES PART IV: MODDING TO MONITOR AND MANAGE PART V: PROTECTING YOURSELF (AND YOUR PC) PART VI: ENTERTAINING YOURSELF PART VII: THE PART OF TENS ICONS USED IN THIS BOOK WHERE TO GO FROM HERE WELL, PERHAPS THERE’S ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT WHEN TO HACK WINDOWS XP — AND WHEN TO LET IT BE HACKS THAT DON’T WORK KEEPING HACKS AND MODS IN PERSPECTIVE A QUICK LOOK AT SOME COOL XP HACKS AND MODS STAYING SAFE AND SOUND WHILE YOU WORK UNDERSTANDING HOW WINDOWS HANGS TOGETHER A WORLD OF PROCESSES WINDOWS AS REFEREE AMOEBUS INTERRUPTUS PROGRAMS TALK, TALK, TALK THE ROLE OF THE REGISTRY GREAT SOURCES FOR HACKING TOOLS DO YOU NEED A MAKEOVER? SECURITY CHECK — NOW GET UP-TO-DATE CHECK YOUR FIREWALL FIRE YOUR ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM SHOW FILENAME EXTENSIONS PROTECT AGAINST SPYWARE PERSONALIZE YOUR EXPERIENCE CHANGE THE WALLPAPER SET THE SCREENSAVER ALIGN YOUR ACCOUNTS ELIMINATE THE OBNOXIOUS TAME (OR TRASH!) MESSENGER REMOVE THE LANGUAGE BAR GET BETTER (FREE!) SOFTWARE DUMP MICROSOFT’S BROWSER SEARCH LIKE A PRO READ PDFS DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING TWEAKUI TWEAKUI FROM 30,000 FEET KNOWING THE ESSENTIAL TWEAKUI LINGO SQUEEZING TWEAKUI MAKING YOUR MOUSE SENSITIVE CHANGING PLACES DISABLING AUTOPLAY SCOPING OUT THE START MENU CUSTOMIZING THE LEFT SIDE OF THE START MENU PINNING THE TAIL ON THIS DONKEY PINNING A PROGRAM PINNING A FOLDER PINNING A FILE PINNING A WEB PAGE RENAMING, MOVING, AND UNPINNING CONTROLLING THE FREQUENTLY USED PROGRAMS LIST REARRANGING ALL PROGRAMS CONTROLLING THE MY RECENT DOCUMENTS LIST ADVANCED START TWEAKS CUSTOMIZING THE TASKBAR SIZING THE TASKBAR TAMING THE SYSTEM TRAY CONTROLLING GROUPS OF BUTTONS MODIFYING QUICK LAUNCH DELETING QUICK LAUNCH ICONS ADDING PROGRAMS TO QUICK LAUNCH ADDING FOLDERS AND FILES TO QUICK LAUNCH ADDING WEB PAGES TO QUICK LAUNCH MAKING ROOM FOR MORE ICONS CHANGING QUICK LAUNCH SCREEN TIPS CHANGING QUICK LAUNCH ICONS MAKING YOUR DESKTOP HOME WRANGLING WITH ICONS EXPLORING AND INSTALLING ICONOID “SNAPPING” ICONS TO WINDOWS’ INVISIBLE GRID AUTOARRANGING ICONS MOVING ALL ICONS TO THE UPPER-LEFT CORNER OF THE SCREEN WORKING WITH THEMES USING A PURPOSE-BUILT INSTALLER INSTALLING A THEME MANUALLY GETTING THE MOST FROM CLEARTYPE UNDERSTANDING CLEARTYPE MODIFYING CLEARTYPE FIXING KEY EXPLORER SETTINGS HOW PROGRAMS START CHANGING FILENAME EXTENSION ASSOCIATIONS SHOWING FILENAME EXTENSIONS AND HIDDEN/SYSTEM FILES SETTING FILE FOLDER TEMPLATES SETTING A FOLDER’S TEMPLATE CURING TEMPLATE AMNESIA BY SETTING ASIDE EXTRA MEMORY CUSTOMIZING SHORTCUTS RENAMING FILES EN MASSE LISTING FILES IN A FOLDER COPY TO FOLDER AND MOVE TO FOLDER CREATING CUSTOM KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS KEY COMBINATIONS YOU NEED TO KNOW THE LOWDOWN ON SEARCHING INSTALLING GOOGLE DESKTOP SEARCH RUNNING GOOGLE DESKTOP SEARCH GOOGLE DESKTOP SEARCH MODS PREVENTING GDS FROM INDEXING SPECIFIC FILES REMOVING FILES FROM THE INDEX MOVING GDS’S INDEX FILE SURFING WITH THE FOX INSTALLING FIREFOX WORKING WITH TABS INSTALLING EXTENSIONS HACKING AND MODDING FIREFOX KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR FIREFOX AND IE PRINTING A PAGE IN FIREFOX AND IE IMING WITH TRILLIAN INSTALLING TRILLIAN ADDING CONTACTS WITH TRILLIAN DISABLING MSN MESSENGER SHUTTING DOWN MSN MESSENGER THE POLITE WAY SHUTTING DOWN MSN MESSENGER THE IMPOLITE WAY REMOVING PROBLEMATIC CAMERA SOFTWARE TRANSFERRING PICTURES FROM A CAMERA COPYING FROM A CAMERA MEMORY CARD RUMMAGING THROUGH NEW PHOTOS UNDELETING IMAGES ON A CAMERA RESIZING PICTURES CONVERTING PICTURE FILE FORMATS CHANGING FILE FORMATS WITH PAINT SAVING THE CONTENTS OF THE CLIPBOARD AS A PICTURE FILE USING WINDOWS EVENT VIEWER OPENING THE EVENT LOGS FROM THE START MENU POKING AROUND WINDOWS EVENT VIEWER SAVING A LOG FILE HARDWARE TROUBLESHOOTING WITH WINDOWS DEVICE MANAGER MAKING IT EASY TO START DEVICE MANAGER TAKING FULL ADVANTAGE OF DEVICE MANAGER VIEWS LOOKING UP DEVICE MANAGER ERROR CODES CHECK FOR “GHOSTED” HARDWARE CONTROLLING APPLICATIONS WITH TASK MANAGER TRACKING MEMORY WITH TASK MANAGER TRACKING CPU USAGE WITH TASK MANAGER ACTIVATING AND REACTIVATING WINDOWS ACTIVATING SHRINK-WRAPPED WINDOWS DEALING WITH PREINSTALLED WINDOWS USING VOLUME LICENSES CHANGING REGISTERED USER AND ORGANIZATION TWEAKING USER ACCOUNTS WORKING WITH GUEST CHANGING USERNAMES SHOWING/HIDING ACCOUNTS AT LOGON CHANGING THE PICTURE BYPASSING THE WINDOWS WELCOME SCREEN HELPING A FRIEND — LONG DISTANCE ASKING FOR HELP CONNECTING VIA MSN OR WINDOWS MESSENGER CONNECTING VIA E-MAIL OR BY FILE POKING THROUGH THE FIREWALLS SETTING UP RA SO THAT YOU CAN ALWAYS USE IT INSTALLING A SECOND HARD DRIVE REASSIGNING DRIVE LETTERS CONVERTING A FAT DISK TO NTFS FINDING OUT WHAT KIND OF DRIVE YOU HAVE CONVERTING FAT32 TO NTFS MAINTENANCE HACKS STIFLING THE DISK CLEANUP WARNING FORCING A DEFRAG DON’T LET MICROSOFT MUCK WITH YOUR COMPUTER PATCH KEYSTONE KOPS WHAT IS A CRITICAL PATCH? TURNING OFF AUTOMATIC UPDATING ANALYZING UPDATES APPLYING UPDATES DEALING WITH WINDOWS FIREWALL SETTING UP WINDOWS FIREWALL TESTING YOUR FIREWALL CATCHING VIRUSES FREE INSTALLING AVG FREE ADJUSTING AVG FREE SETTINGS FIGHTING SPYWARE USING MICROSOFT ANTISPYWARE RUNNING COUNTERSPY BLOCKING YOUR REGISTRY WITH MIKE LIN’S STARTUPMONITOR STARTUP SLEUTHING COVERING YOUR TRACKS ONLINE ANONYMOUS SURFING BROWSER AMNESIA COVERING YOUR TRACKS IN WINDOWS PROTECTING FROM PRYING EYES CLOBBERING THE MRU LISTS KEEPING WINDOWS FROM PHONING HOME KNOWING YOUR FILE FORMAT$ INSTALLING THE LATEST WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER SETTING UP WMP USING TWEAKMP MUSIC RESTRICTIONS RENT OR BUY? WHICH ONLINE MUSIC STORE IS BEST? BYPASSING RESTRICTIONS WINDOWS AND THE IPOD 2P OR NOT 2P? CHOOSING A P2P NETWORK DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING BITTORRENT FINDING FILES IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES THE GAMER’S CONUNDRUM GETTING AHEAD IN GAMES TROUBLESHOOTING HARDWARE PROBLEMS SURVIVING THE DIRECTX EXPERIENCE UNDERSTANDING THE REGISTRY’S ANATOMY STEP 1: UNDERSTAND HOW THE REGISTRY IS LIKE WINDOWS EXPLORER STEP 2: KNOW THE FIVE HIGH-LEVEL KEYS STEP 3: RECOGNIZE THE DIFFERENT DATA TYPES RUNNING AN EXAMPLE STEP 4: CREATE A RESTORE POINT STEP 5: FIND THE KEY STEP 6: BACK UP THE KEY STEP 7: CHANGE, ADD, OR DELETE A VALUE STEP 8: GET OUT OF THE REGISTRY STEP 9: MAKE WINDOWS ACCEPT THE CHANGE STEP 10: RECOVER IF THINGS GO BUMP PERFORMANCE VERSUS PIZZAZZ INTEL APPLICATION ACCELERATOR BIG MEMORY VIRTUAL SPEEDUP BYPASSING ZIP SPACE-SAVING CALCULATIONS ON CLEANUP FORGET CREATING OLD-STYLE NAMES FOR FOLDERS STOP “SHARING” SCHEDULED TASKS CHANGE LOCATION OF EVENT LOGS TWEAKING COMMUNICATION SETTINGS REMOVING NEGATIVE DNS CACHE ENTRIES REALLY SPEED UP WINDOWS XP