Control Master File Table Zone Reservation

On NTFS-enabled XP systems, you can control the amount of space allocated to the Master File Table(MFT). The MFT contains reference entries to all the files on the system. This can get fragmented over time and affect system performance. Use this hack to allocate sufficient space for the MFT.

Navigate to:

HLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Modify NtfsMftZoneReservation to a value between 1 and 4. For most users, a value of 3 is good enough. To be completely effective, this setting should be specified at the time the volume is formatted.

Enable/Disable Thumbnail Caching

One of Explorer's great features is to display a thumbnail of images and

the first frame of the video when seen in Thumbnail view. This is either done when you access the folder or it fetches from the thumbnail cache. Fetching thumbnails from the cache is  lot faster, but will consume a lot of hard disk space, especially if your system is full of images and video.Thankfully you can disable this. or in case you have sufficient space but want to speedup your system then you can enable it in case disabled.

Navigate to:

HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion  \Explorer\Advanced

Set the DWORD Value DisableThumbnailCache to 1 if you are low on hard disk space. Otherwise chang/leave it at 0 to enable thumbnail caching

Unload Unused DLLs

XP has a very bad habit, Even after an application is closed the associated DLL files still exist in memory. This can waste some precious resources and memory. This also cause stability problems. Make the DLLs unload themselves from memory after the program is done running.

Navigate to:

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\

Explorer\AlwaysUnloadDLL

If the DWORD AlwaysUnloadDLL is not present, you will need to create it. Set the Value of the ?(Default)? setting to 1. Application-associated DLLs will get unloaded when the application

is closed.

Speedup Softwares By Changing Priority

Instances of the same software will share a single process thread(same resources).

If you have stability problems or slow application loads then this registry hack will solve your problem.

This registry hack will make each application start in its own process will improve stability and speed up load times. Go to REGEDIT(Start>>>RUN>>Type REGEDIT)

Navigate to:

HLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl

Change the value of the DWORD Win32PrioritySeperation to 27, 28, 37, 38 (in decimal). The default is 2. This is not over yet one more thing has to be done.



Go to My Computer. Select Folder Options under the Tools menu and choose the View tab.

Now select(check) the box ?Launch folder windows in a separate process.?



This will make each application window run in a separate process. Remember now each instance will consume the same amount of memory so use this only if you have 512 MB or more of RAM. You may need to restart your comp.



You may also speedup the softwares by decreasing up their load time.(click here to know how to do it)

Disable Frequent software

Windows normally shows the frequently used softwares in the start menu. this could be annoying for those who dont need it/use it. Use this hack if you don?t want the list of frequently used programs in the Start Menu to show up.This will only work with the XP Start Menu, not the Classic Start Menu.

Navigate to:

HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer

And to:

HLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer

Change the value of DWORD NoStartMenuMFUprogramsList to 1 to disable the display of the frequent programs list. If that DWORD doesn?t exist, create it.

Add New Command To Right-Click

After a Windows update, the much-used ?New? option in the rightclick

could go missing. This hack will fix it.



Navigate to:

HCR\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers \New



Add the following String Value:

{D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719} to the ?(Default)?

setting under that key. If the ?New? key is not present, create it

and add the value.

Run at startup without getting noticed

When ever you add a program to run at Start up it appears in the startup folder. You may be wondering if is there any way that you can add a software to the start up and still go undetected. then the answer is "Yes"



This Registry Hack will allows a program to be launched at startup without any trace of the executable in the Startup folder on the Start Menu . Go To regedit (Start>>>Run >>>type regedit )

Navigate to :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Run

Finally Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s) as given below:

• Data Type: REG_SZ [String Value]


• Value Name: [Enter the Name of Program Executable]


• Value Data: [Enter the Path to the Program Executable]

Exit Registry and Reboot your system.This is for win xp. Back up your registry before you do it(click here)

Edit Master Startup List

Many of the programs that start up at boot time do not figure in the Startup folder. If you want to stop more than one application from loading at bootup, you will normally need to go

and turn off the preference in each application one by one.



Tedious and time consuming. This Registry Hack can help you do this in one go. Just open Regedit(START>>RUN>>Type REGEDIT)

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows

\CurrentVersion\Run

And to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows

\CurrentVersion\Run

All the programs that load at boot time will be specified under these two keys. Review the applications listed in this list and delete all the entries you don?t want started up at boot time. Next bootup, they?ll be gone.



Be careful not to delete needed programs such as anti-virus and antispyware programs. You should be able to identify them by their path if not by the file name.





You need not restart the computer for the change/effect to take place. Back up your registry before you do it(click here)

Creating .reg file

A .reg file is used to create a entry in to the registry. If you don't know anything on the registry visit the encyclopedia or registry section.



This is how a registry file looks like (the .reg's syntax)

RegistryEditorVersion

Blank line

[RegistryPath1]

"DataItemName1?="DataType1:DataValue1"

Blank line

[RegistryPath2]

"DataItemName2"="DataType2:DataValue2"

"DataItemName3"="DataType3:DataValue3"

RegistryEditorVersion is the version of the registry editor. if you are using windows xp or windows 2000 it should be "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00". For Windows 98 and NT4.0 systems REGEDIT4 is the version entry in the header of the .reg file .



The blank line is a must. The Blank line informs the Registry the start of a new Registry path. Before every new path you must add a blank line.





RegistryPath is the path to the location of the particular key or sub-key in the Registry . The enclosed in square brackets is a must and each sub-key level has to be separated by a backslash just like a normal file path or a url.



For example:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\viruswriting]



If the subkey does not exist, it will be created. Multiple entries will each start with their own paths separated by blank lines.



The ?DataItemName1?=?DataType1:DataValue1? specfies the values of the key (or sub-key).DataItemName is the specified name of the data.Each key may have more than one name. This is enclosed in quotation marks.

Next is the the data type (DWORD or hexadecimal) , followed by the actual data. Incase of the

data beging of the String type, then no data type is specified. The DataType and DataValue are separated by colons. Quote("") is not necessary for the type:value if they are not string.





Here?s an example.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00



[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\viruswriting]

?Current?=?Windows XP?

?PreviewMode?=hex:04,00,00,00

Hack IE/ Media Player

What if you want you change the Title of IE or windows media player(WMP). I was particularly annoyed when i download the Yahoo version of IE. The title read WINDOWS INTERNET EXPLORER - YAHOO or something like this. This reduced the site title space. This Registry Hack will show how to do it.Go to Regedit (start>>>run >>> TYPE regedit ) .

Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet explorer\main

Now Modify/Create the value data "windows title" with anything you want. Click ok. Press F5. Now go to internet explorer. See the title of it.



Similarly for WMP you need to modify 'TitleBar".



If you want systemwide change replace HKEY_CURRENT_USER with HKEY_CURRENT_MACHINE

Speed Up Your Comp

This Registry Hack will make all applications load faster . This will speed up your system considerably Just open Regedit(START>>RUN>>Type REGEDIT)

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management\ PrefetchParameters

The default value for the EnablePrefetcher setting is 3. Change this value to 5 to make applications load faster. You can experiment with higher values?up to 9?and see if you get a further improvement.



Normally, multiple instances of the same application (such as multiple windows in IE) will share a single process thread. If you have stability problems or slow application loads, launching each application in its own process will improve stability and speed up load times.

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ Control\PriorityControl

Optimise XP?s process priority control by setting the DWORD Value for in32PrioritySeperation to? well, the default is 2, and 27, 28, 37, 38, and more have all been quoted as good values (in decimal).



But after doing this,

• Go to My Computer


• select Tools menu.


• Choose the View tab in Folder Options .


• Check "Launch folder windows in a separate process."

This will run each application window in a separate process. Note that that each process will consume the same amount of memory so perform this only if you have 1GB or more of RAM.

This is for win xp. You may need to restart the computer for the change/effect to take place.

Optimise System Cache

Desktop systems are normally optimised for applications, and servers for file caching. Depending on how you use your system, you may want to optimise your system for either. This Registry Hack will show you how to do it. Just open Regedit(START>>RUN>>Type REGEDIT)

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet \ControlSession Manager\Memory Management

Find the setting LargeSystemCache. Set this DWORD value to 1 for server behaviour or to 0 for desktop behaviour.





This is for win xp. You need to restart the computer for the change/effect to take place.If particular key to which we asked you to navigate doesn?t exist, you?ll need to create it.Be doubly sure that the path is correct and the key doesn't exist before you create it. Back up your registry before you do it(click here)

Disable User Tracking/Spying in Xp

Did you know your XP was spying on you all this while?

XP has a inbuilt user tracking system uses up precious resources. The system keeps track of the programs run by a user, the paths followed, and the documents used. Disable this to free up system resources. This Registry Hack Disable User Tracking Just open Regedit (START>>RUN>>Type REGEDIT)

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows

\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Set the DWORD NoInstrumentation to 1. This will disable most of the user tracking features of XP.



This is Useless to most users?except perhaps for system administrators.If particular key to which we asked you to navigate doesn?t exist, you?ll need to create it.Be doubly sure that the path is correct and the key doesn't exist before you create it. Back up your registry before you do it(click here)

Change Special Folder Location

Special folders such as My Documents, Desktop, and so on can be changed to any other location from that set by the default installation. This hack will change the locations.There are 2 ways tto do this

• First, just move the required folders to the new locations. This will change the location of the folder.
  
  

• Second Just open Regedit(START>>RUN>>Type REGEDIT)
  
  
  
  

  Navigate to:
  
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

  
  
  
  
  Now change the paths of the folders. HKEY_CURRENT_USER is for current_user's folder only .Change it to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for All users. The change should take effect immediately. Back up your registry before you do it(click here)

Automatic Window Refresh

Normally, there is a some delay before the changes reflects in the GUI. To see it

right away, you would need to press [F5]. The following Registry Hack will enable the system to do faster updates.

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control \Update

For faster updates, change the DWORD value called UpdateMode to 0. The default is 1.



A reboot will be required for the changes to take effect. Back up your registry before you do it(click here)



Note:- There is a likelihood of conflict if this setting is applied with system policies running. Change it back to the default if you are running system policies or are connected to a domain controller.

Close softwares faster

If an sofware/app does not respond during shutdown, XP will normally wait for a while for the applications to shut down safely.This is great but would make shutdown slower.



This Registry Hack will show you how to shut down straightaway and not wait for any response from the application. Just open Regedit(START>>RUN>>Type REGEDIT)

Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

And to:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

The first one is user-specific, and the second one is system-wide. In both these locations, change the String value called AutoEndTasks to 1 to kill the application immediately, or 0 to prompt for user action.



WaitToKillAppTimeout controls the default time, in milliseconds, before killing the application. You can reduce this time to further speed up the process.



Back up your registry before you do it(click here)

Enable/Disable Internet Explorer Downloads

Poor thing a virus has disabled downloads in IE but nothing to worry you can enable it in 1 min.To enable file downloads via Internet Explorer just open regedit(start>>Run>>type regedit)



Navigate to:

HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet

Settings\Zones\3



And to:



HLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet

Settings\Zones\3



In both these locations, set the value of the setting  1083 to a DWORD value of 3 to disable downloads. To re-enable downloads change this value to 0.

Auto complete urls in IE

 The Partial Address Feature of IE is a great . The Internet Explorer partial address feature scans common domains for a match to a keyword entered in the address bar. The feature is limited by default to searching only .com, .net, .org and .edu domains.



This tip allows you to add new domains and modify their priorities.

Navigate to:

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\UrlTemplate

The values listed under that key control which domains are auto-searched for matches to the keyword entered in the address bar. To add a new domain, simply create a new String Value and name  5 . Set the data of the new value to equal the domain you want to search

Like .info or .in is becoming popular. To add .info add the value www.%s.info.



If you want the IE to first search for .info change their priorities, simply rename the values with sequential numbers(like in this case 1 to www.%s.info). This includes the existing domains (.com, .net, .org and .edu).

Open in New Window

Unless you are using the IE7 , the default behavior is for Internet shortcuts/hyperlinks to open in an same window. In many cases, you might want a new window spawned.You can achieve this easily

Navigate to:

HCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Create or modify the DWORD value called AllowWindowReuse. Set it to  0 to make IE open a new window for each link  and to 1 to use an existing window. You may need to restart / log off for the change to take effect.

Edit HTML With What You Want

In IE you will find that thehtml file  is normaly opened in program using which it was created. IE  attempts to detect the program that was originally used to create an HTML file. Once detected it opens the same program for editing the document .



You in all possibilities  want to see your default editor open which you have set. Now using this hack you can prevent IE from doing this. Open Regedit(Start>>Run>>Type regedit).

Navigate to:

HCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Create or modify the String Value called CheckDocumentForProgID. Set it to Yes or No. Restart/Log off  for the change to take effect. Disabling the feature will cause Internet Explorer to use the default

HTML editor for all editing.