HACKING WINDOWS XP
CONTENTS PART I: CUSTOMIZING YOUR SYSTEM CHAPTER 1: CUSTOMIZING THE LOOK OF THE STARTUP CUSTOMIZING THE WINDOWS XP BOOT SCREEN CHANGING THE BOOT SCREEN CUSTOMIZING THE LOGON SCREEN WORKING WITH THE WELCOME SCREEN WORKING WITH THE CLASSIC LOGON SCREEN GLOBAL LOGON/WELCOME SETTINGS SUMMARY CHAPTER 2: CUSTOMIZING USER NAVIGATION CUSTOMIZING THE START PANEL USING GROUP POLICY EDITOR TO CUSTOMIZE THE START PANEL ADDING AND REMOVING NAVIGATION ICONS SWITCHING TO SMALL ICONS FOR FREQUENTLY RUN APPS INCREASING NUMBER OF RECENTLY RUN PROGRAMS DISPLAYED ON THE START PANEL HIDING PROGRAMS FROM APPEARING IN THE START PANEL PINNING YOUR PROGRAMS ADDING WEB SITE LINKS TO YOUR START PANEL CUSTOMIZING THE CLASSIC START MENU TURNING THE CLASSIC START MENU BACK ON CUSTOMIZING THE START MENU/PANEL PROGRAM LISTINGS CHANGING PROGRAM LISTING DISPLAY OPTIONS FOR USERS OF THE START PANEL CHANGING PROGRAM LISTING DISPLAY OPTIONS FOR USERS OF THE CLASSIC START MENU REMOVING POP-UP HELP FOR USERS OF BOTH THE START PANEL AND MENU CUSTOMIZING THE TASKBAR USING AND ADJUSTING PROGRAM GROUPING QUICK LAUNCHING YOUR PROGRAMS HACKING THE START BUTTON TO REPLACE THE START TEXT MODIFYING THE TASKBAR LOCATION USING THE TASKBAR MAGNIFIER POWERTOY REMOVING THE NOTIFICATION AREA REMOVING THE CLOCK FROM THE TASKBAR CHAPTER 3: HACKING THE DESKTOP CUSTOMIZING DESKTOP ICONS REMOVING ALL ICONS FROM THE DESKTOP CUSTOMIZING THE ICON DROP SHADOW EFFECT DISPLAYING THE TRADITIONAL WINDOWS ICONS ENABLING LARGE ICONS ON THE DESKTOP REMOVING THE TEXT BELOW THE ICONS RENAMING THE RECYCLE BIN REMOVING THE SHORTCUT ARROW FROM ICONS ON THE DESKTOP CHANGING THE ICONS ON THE DESKTOP CUSTOMIZING THE BEHAVIOR OF THE DESKTOP USING THE VIRTUAL DESKTOP MANAGER POWERTOY FUN WITH ACTIVE DESKTOP USING THE WALLPAPER POWERTOY CHAPTER 4: CUSTOMIZING THE APPEARANCE OF THE WINDOWS INTERFACE WORKING WITH THEMES CHANGING THE CURRENT THEME MAKING YOUR OWN THEMES MODIFYING THE VISUAL STYLES INSTALLING NEW VISUAL STYLES TWEAKING THE VISUAL STYLES MAKING YOUR OWN VISUAL STYLES VISUAL STYLE ALTERNATIVES USING WINDOWBLINDS TO CHANGE THE WAY WINDOWS XP LOOKS INSTALLING ADDITIONAL WINDOWS XP SKINS FOR WINDOWBLINDS CHAPTER 5: HACKING WINDOWS EXPLORER HACKING FILE ASSOCIATIONS CHANGING THE DEFAULT LAUNCH APP CHANGING THE ICON OF ANY FILE TYPE HACKING THE CONTEXT MENU REMOVING ITEMS FROM THE CONTEXT MENU ADDING YOUR OWN ITEMS TO THE CONTEXT MENU MODIFYING THE SEND TO MENU CUSTOMIZING YOUR FOLDERS CHANGING A FOLDER ICON AND PICTURE CHANGING THE TEMPLATE OF A FOLDER CUSTOMIZING THE VIEW FOLDER APPLYING YOUR FOLDER SETTINGS TO ALL FOLDERS WORKING WITH HIDDEN FILES UNHIDING HIDDEN FILES REVEALING THE SUPER HIDDEN FILES DISABLING THE COMMON TASKS PANE CHAPTER 6: EXPLORING OTHER WINDOWS ENHANCEMENTS MODDING INTERNET EXPLORER CHANGING THE LOGO ANIMATION CHANGING THE TOOLBAR BACKGROUND MAKING YOUR OWN QUICK SEARCH ADDRESS COMMAND OTHER VISUAL ENHANCEMENTS REPLACING THE TASK SWITCHER ADDING SPECIAL EFFECTS TO YOUR WINDOWS FINE-TUNING CLEARTYPE BRANDING WINDOWS XP PART II: INCREASING YOUR SYSTEM’S PERFORMANCE CHAPTER 7: ANALYZING YOUR SYSTEM MONITORING YOUR SYSTEM HARDWARE USING PERFORMANCE USING BOOTVIS TO ANALYZE YOUR SYSTEM START USING TASK MANAGER BENCHMARKING YOUR SYSTEM HOW TO BENCHMARK YOUR SYSTEM CHAPTER 8: SPEEDING UP THE SYSTEM BOOT WORKING WITH BIOS CHANGING THE BOOT ORDER OF YOUR DRIVES USING THE QUICK BOOT FEATURE OF THE BIOS MODIFYING THE OPERATING SYSTEM BOOT LOWERING OS TIMEOUT VALUES DISABLING THE SYSTEM BOOT SCREEN DISABLING UNNEEDED HARDWARE DEVICES REMOVING EXTRA FONTS FOR SPEED DISABLING UNNEEDED SERVICES OPTIMIZING THE LOCATION OF THE BOOT FILES CHAPTER 9: MAKING YOUR COMPUTER LOAD FASTER SPEEDING UP THE LOGON ENABLING AUTOMATIC LOGON REMOVING USER PASSWORDS ADJUST THE STARTUP PROGRAMS CUSTOMIZING STARTUP PROGRAMS FOR DIFFERENT USERS OTHER TIME-SAVING TIPS ASSIGNING ALTERNATIVE IP ADDRESSES TURNING OFF THE LOGON MUSIC CHAPTER 10: MAKING YOUR COMPUTER MORE RESPONSIVE SPEEDING UP FILE BROWSING AND ACCESS DISABLING THE FILE ACCESS TIMESTAMP DISABLING LEGACY FILENAME CREATION SPEEDING UP THE USER INTERFACE REDUCING THE MENU DELAY WORKING WITH THE PERFORMANCE OPTIONS DISABLE INDEXING SERVICE CHAPTER 11: SPEEDING UP YOUR COMPUTER WORKING WITH THE WINDOWS PREFETCHER HACKING THE REGISTRY TO OPTIMIZE THE PREFETCHER ACCELERATE SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS WITH PREFETCH USING THE INTEL APPLICATION ACCELERATOR HOW WELL DOES THE INTEL APPLICATION ACCELERATOR WORK? WHAT ARE THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS? HOW TO INSTALL INTEL APPLICATION ACCELERATOR FINE-TUNING THE WINDOWS PAGING FILE DISABLING THE PAGING FILE ADJUSTING THE SIZE OF THE PAGING FILE CHANGING THE LOCATION OF THE PAGING FILE DEFRAGMENTING YOUR DRIVE DEFRAGMENTING THE WINDOWS PAGING FILE DEFRAGMENTING THE NTFS MASTER FILE TABLE ADJUSTING YOUR APPLICATION PRIORITIES USING TASK MANAGER TO ADJUST PRIORITIES STARTING APPLICATIONS WITH A USER SET PRIORITY USING WINTASKS TO PROFILE YOUR PRIORITIES SPEEDING UP YOUR NETWORK INCREASING NETWORK BROWSING SPEED DISABLING UNNEEDED PROTOCOLS TWEAKING YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION FOR SPEED PART III: SECURING YOUR SYSTEM CHAPTER 12: PROTECTING YOUR COMPUTER FROM INTRUDERS HOW VULNERABLE IS YOUR SYSTEM? TESTING YOUR INTERNET SECURITY UPDATING YOUR COMPUTER FIREWALLS USING THE WINDOWS FIREWALL USING ZONEALARM PERSONAL USING SYGATE PERSONAL FIREWALL DISABLING REMOTE DESKTOP CONNECTION DISABLING MESSENGER SERVICE DISABLING UNIVERSAL PLUG AND PLAY DISABLING REMOTE REGISTRY ACCESS DISABLE DCOM SUPPORT WIRELESS NETWORKS USING WEP FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION USING WPA FOR A MORE SECURE WIRELESS CONNECTION CONTROLLING ACCESS TO YOUR COMPUTER MANAGING USER ACCOUNTS CHAPTER 13: FIGHTING SPAM, SPYWARE, AND VIRUSES ELIMINATING SPAM STOPPING SPAM IN THE FIRST PLACE USING FILTERING SOFTWARE BLOCKING EXTERNAL LINKS IN HTML MAIL DEFENDING SPYWARE AND ADWARE DETECTING AND REMOVING SPYWARE LOCKING DOWN INTERNET EXPLORER IMMUNIZING YOUR COMPUTER DEFENDING AGAINST VIRUSES USE AN ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM CHAPTER 14: PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY INTERNET EXPLORER REMOVING ADDRESS BAR SUGGESTIONS CLEARING VISITED WEB SITES HISTORY CLEARING TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES AND COOKIES ADJUSTING YOUR COOKIE SECURITY POLICY SAYING NO TO ENCRYPTED WEB PAGES DISABLING AUTOCOMPLETE CLEARING TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES AUTOMATICALLY WINDOWS INTERFACE CLEARING FREQUENTLY RUN PROGRAMS LIST CLEARING THE RECENTLY OPENED DOCUMENT LIST REMOVING TEMPORARY FILES FROM YOUR HARD DRIVE REMOVING SAVED PASSWORDS SETTING FILE AND FOLDER PERMISSIONS ENCRYPTING FILES CHAPTER CUSTOMIZING THE LOOK OF THE STARTUP CHAPTER CUSTOMIZING USER NAVIGATION CHAPTER HACKING THE DESKTOP CHAPTER CUSTOMIZING THE APPEARANCE OF THE WINDOWS INTERFACE CHAPTER HACKING WINDOWS EXPLORER CHAPTER