1.)   Saving Memory and Increasing Speed

After you have set your cache setting to its optimum size as mentioned above, you will find more free memory. With the following tips, you can save even more memory...

• Clear the startup programs: When you start up Windows, several programs start and get loaded on to memory. These take up precious memory. Ideally, you should remove them using the settings provided in the programs themselves. But, if you can't, then use Startup Control Panel to do that. This program after its installation will be found in the Control Panel.

• RAM: A machine's speed can be simply improved by adding more RAM rather than going for a CPU upgrade. Get some additional RAM and see the improvement. If you have adequate RAM, but memory supply seems to be bottlenecked, then use RamBooster. It routinely frees some memory and can be custom adjusted for your needs. There are several such programs, but most of them make your system unstable. I had found no such problems with Rambooster.

• Watch the programs in memory: Using software such as TaskInfo to find out which are the programs that are running in memory and weed out those that you do not need.

• Three-button salute: If you cannot get software such as Taskinfo, then just press Ctrl+Alt+Delete combination once to bring up the Close Program dialog box. Ideally, when you have all programs closed and your taskbar is empty, there should be just three programs in this box - explorer, system tray, and your antivirus program. All other programs should be a waste. Most common culprits are Microsoft office, RealPlayer, Winamp, antivirus scheduler, etc. Just remove all those that are not needed using Startup Control Panel or using msconfig from the Run dialog box.

• Increasing the performance of individual programs: You can increase the speed of a program, by setting the priority of the program's process thread to either High or Realtime. Use TaskInfo (in Win 9x/ME) or Task Manager (in Windows 2000 by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del). Do not go overboard on this or your system will look very unresponsive.

• Active Desktop: Unless you run stock market price tickers on your desktop, deactivate Active Desktop to save memory. If you have enabled Active Desktop just to enable a GIF or JPEG file as the background, then convert the file to a BMP file and set that as the wallpaper without Active Desktop.

• Plain desktop: Remove the desktop background image and set it None. This will save some memory.

• Screen resolution: Set your screen resolution to 15 bit or 16 bit for both speed and saving memory. Set a higher level only when playing games and other such special stuff that require better resolutions.

• Clean the Desktop: Remove all unwanted icons from the desktop and shortcuts from the desktop and the quick launch bar. If you have shortcuts for CD drives, windows will check for their contents every time it loads up and cause a delay.

• Remove sound events: If you remove the sound events, your operations will get faster and are less likely to hang. To do so, go to Control Panel » Sounds and Multimedia » Schemes and then choose No Sounds.

2.)  Tips ∓ Tricks for Windows Explorer

• Keyboard and mouse shortcuts:
  • Open any folder and press F3. This will bring up the Find Files dialog box for that folder.
  • Press Start+TAB key combination just once. Now, pressing TAB repeatedly will allow you to jump between various areas of the desktop, such as the desktop proper, taskbar, system tray, quicklaunch toolbar, and Start button.
  • When you drag a file with the right mouse button, you will be presented with an option to move or copy the file when you drop it elsewhere.
  • If you drag a file from some location and hover it over a folder that is minimized on the desktop without dropping it, then that folder will spring open allowing you to drop the file there.
  • If you drag a shortcut and place it over the Start button without dropping it, then the Start menu will spring open and you can navigate to your special program groups and drop it there.
  • Sometimes, when you have many programs open and you use the Alt+TAB combination to switch to another program, it does not switch. In this situation, press the Start button twice.
  • Press Alt+F4, to close a program. If no program is open, then it functions like a Shutdown command.
  • Pressing Alt+Enter after selecting an item will bring up its properties box.
  • Pressing Start+Pause will bring up the System Properties of your computer.
• Adding extra options to the Send To menu: Open the Windows\SendTo folder. Create shortcuts to the programs and folders that you commonly use. My suggestion is for shortcuts to Desktop, My Documents, IrfanView, Subhash VCDPlayer, Winamp, and Windows Media Player. When you use this operation on any file, the file will copied to the chosen location or opened in the respective program.

• Adding extra options to context menu: Usually, a certain file type can be opened with many programs, but when you double-click on it only the default program opens it. To have a choice, add some extra custom options to the context menu.
  Supposing you have MP3 files in your machine, which by default opens with Windows Media Player, you can have options in the context menu so that it can be opened with other programs such as Subhash VCDPlayer, Winamp, etc.
  Say you want to have an option with Subhash VCDPlayer, here is what you need to do. Go to Folder Options. Click on File Types tab. From the list under Registered File Types, search for and select MP3 Format Sound. Now click on Advanced. In the Edit File Type window, click on New. In the New Action window, enter Open with Subhash VCDPlayer in the text box under Action and "C:\Program Files\Subhash VCDPlayer" "%1" (including the quotation marks) in the Application used to perform action.
  Here, the ampersand symbol '∓' is placed before the 'S' in Subhash VCDPlayer so that 's' becomes the hot key in the context menu. You can follow a similar procedure, to do the same with Winamp or Sonique. Use the Edit button to modify any previous setting you have created. Exercise caution with the choice of the program. If the program and the file type are incompatible, the result can be undesirable.
  In Windows 9x, go to Folder Options » File Types. Here, select the file type that you need to add custom options. Now, click on Edit. In the Edit File Type window, click on New and follow the above-mentioned procedure.
  Create different options for different file types with compatible programs using this method.

• Resize columns: Press Ctrl+Plus to resize columns to best fit the contents. Do not use this trick in the Temporary Internet Files folder though. Super bad news if you frequent this folder to manually pick out files.

• Folder Options: Customizing the Windows Explorer is done via the Folder Options. To access this,
  • In Windows Me/2000: From the menu, choose Tools » Folder Options.
  • In Windows 9x: From the menu, choose View » Folder Options
  To move between the different tabs, press the Ctrl+TAB key combination or just use the mouse.

• Setting the default view: There are five types of views available
  • Large Icons
  • Small Icons
  • List
  • Details
  • Thumbnails
  Open any folder and choose the type of view that you want from the toolbar. If you were to choose the Details view, then adjust the column sizes now. Then, go to Folder Options. In the View tab, click on the Like Current Folder.

• Single-click operation: Normally, to select a file you single-click and to run you double-click. You can change this to hover for select and single-click to run. Go to Folder Options. Here, in the Click items as follows section, check the Single-click to open an item and Underline items only when I point at them.
  
  In Windows 9x, go to Folder Options, and choose Custom, based on settings you choose and click on Settings. In the Click items as follows section, choose the above-mentioned setting.

• Expanding and collapsing levels: On the folder pane, you can expand a level by pressing ASTERISK or *. To collapse a level press MINUS or -.

• Customized Links Toolbar: The Links toolbar has shortcuts to several Internet sites that you never have use for. You can replace them with shortcuts to folders or files in your hard disk or your own choice of Internet sites. To do this, go to the Windows\Favorites\Links folder. Here remove the shortcuts that Microsoft has provided and create some shortcuts to your own files and folders in your hard disk or network.

• Open links in the same window: In the above tip, when you click on any link, the link opens in a new window. To open the link in the same window, right click on the link and select Open from the context menu.

• Removing the Links toolbar: If you want to remove toolbar from showing up at all then, open a Windows Explorer window and from the menu, choose Views » Toolbars and click on Links. This will remove the Links toolbar from you Explorer window. To get it back again, repeat the process and see that the Links option is checked again.

• Favorites: You can use the Favorites instead of the Links toolbar. This is especially useful in a networked environment where you need to navigate between several nodes and folders to access any file. Go to the Windows\Favorites folder. Create a folder and give it a name of your choice. Cut all the MS-supplied shortcuts and paste them in this new folder. Now go to your Network Neighborhood and navigate to the folders that you often access and add them to your Favorites by choosing Add to Favorites from the Favorites menu. Now, to hop over to some distant folder in just a couple of clicks, you need to choose it from the Favorites menu.

• Using Favorites in other programs: The above tip can come to good use not just in Explorer windows, but also in other programs such as Word or Excel. If you need to save a file in a location that you have added to the Favorites, locate the Favorites icon in the Save As dialog box, click on it, and choose the appropriate favorite to open the folder.

• Customising the Toolbar: In Windows Me and Windows 2000, you can customise the toolbar with your own choice of buttons. For this, from the Windows Explorer menu, choose Views » Toolbars » Customize. Remove those buttons that you do not need and add those that you need.

3.)   Tips ∓ Tricks for Xteq X-Setup

Xteq X-Setup is a great tool to tweak your system. It has different settings for Win 9x/Me/NT/2000. Instead of manually editing the registry, one can tweak the registry using X-Setup as a frontend. Choose the following settings.

• To create a DOS box with current folder as its default directory, go to Appearance » Explorer » Context Menu » Context Menu Options and check on Enable 'DOS Prompt here' command for directories.

• To hide certain drives, go to Appearance » Explorer » Options » Hide drives. For settings on shortcuts, go to Appearance » Explorer » Shortcuts.

• To set up your own customized OEM logo on the Device Manager, go to Appearance » OEM information. Set the outer portions of the BMP file to the color of the 3D object (in your color scheme) before that.

• To speed up your modem, choose the port in Hardware » Modem » COM Port Speed.

• To prevent others from changing the screensaver or background, go to Appearance » Control Panel » Other Settings » Visible Pages in 'Display'.

4.)   Miscellaneous Tips ∓ Tricks

• With faxing software, if you cannot locate the recommended initialization string for your particular modem, try fax class 1 in combination with the generic initialization string: AT∓F∓C1∓D2∓K3S7=55 If this doesn’t work, try fax class 2 in combination with the generic initialization string: AT∓F∓C1∓D2∓K4S7=55

• Windows 9x/Me might sometimes throw up error message that some system file has gone corrupt. You can restore things using System File Checker from Start » Programs » Accessories » System Tools » System Information » Tools.

• To show the correct speed with which your modem connects to the ISP, enter the initialization string ATW2

• Of all antivirus programs, AVG Antivirus is the best and the lightest. It is better than Norton or McAfee.

• Run your antivirus program's complete checkup every week. Also, defrag your hard disk every week. Use Disk Cleanup every now and then to clear your hard disk of junk files.

• When Windows throws up a lot of errors and refuses to stop them even after a reinstall, a clean install of Windows is in order. This process can be done more safely and easily if your data files reside in a drive other than the one where Windows sits. This way you don't have to do time-consuming backups. So, after the first time you install Windows, follow these steps.
  • Your My Documents would typically be in C:\My Documents or C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents. If you have a drive D, then right-click on your My Documents and select Properties » Move. Here, select a folder in the D drive. Now, your My Documents will be moved to that folder.
  • Change the store folder of your Outlook Express email messages as mentioned above, to a folder in the other drive.
  • It also helps to backup email account settings too. Select Tools » Accounts » Mail. Select the email account and click on Export. This will create a file with the extension .iaf. Whenever you want to re-create the email account, click on the Import button and select this .iaf file.
  Most people format their Windows drive before doing a clean install. This is not necessary. If you have more than one OS, it will delete the boot files of the other OSes too. Just delete the Program Files folder and the Windows folder from MS-DOS or from another OS and go ahead with the install. After that is done, import your email messages from the folder you had created previously. Now, delete any files in that folder. Next, change the message store back to that folder. Also, change the My Documents back to the folder you had created earlier. 

• Use a download manager to manage your downloads. Second-generation download managers allow for the files to be downloaded in pieces simultaneously by more than one thread, and combine them together after download is over.

• If you keep a lot of programs installed, your program menu can get very long. So, divide them into sections such as Multimedia, Internet, System Tools, Utilities, etc., by creating appropriately named folders inside the c:\windows\Start Menu\Programs folder and making appropriate choices during installation.

• Quicklaunch Toolbar: Keep the Show Desktop icon in it. If you had deleted it for some reason, then do a search for *.scf in the drive and if you find the Show Desktop.scf file, copy it to the Quicklaunch folder. If you do not find it, then create a new folder. Open Notepad and type the following

  [Shell]
  Command=2
  IconFile=explorer.exe,3
  [Taskbar]
  Command=ToggleDesktop
  

  Choose Save as from the File menu. In the dialog box, change Save as type to All files. Give the filename as Show Desktop.scf. Make sure you save it in the folder you had created just then. Now, right click the taskbar and choose Toolbar»New Toolbar. Here choose the folder where you had put the Show Desktop.scf file.
  
  Keep shortcuts in your Quicklaunch bar for your drives. Create a shortcut with the target as c:\windows\rundll32.exe user.exe,exitwindows. Clicking on this icon will shut down Windows in a snap. However, this command works for Windows 9x/Me only. For Windows NT/2000/XP, you need something more sophisticated. I suggest you download Wizmo (Windows Gizmo - 37 KB). Create shortcuts to this small program using appropriate parameters for logoff, shutdown, restart, hibernate, reboot, and several other functions.

1.)  Tips and Tricks For Hardware Configuration

Choice of CPU
My suggestion for a CPU would be one from AMD. I choose AMD for the following reasons...

1. Price-to-performance ratio: Athlon processors beat the best from the Intel's equally clocked processors. Besides, they are cheaper than Intel's. Because they support DDR-RAM, the overall system cost is lower.
2. True FSB speed of 200 MHz: Though Intel advertises an FSB of 800 MHz, its true FSB is only 200 MHz, which is the same as the latest AMD Athlon XP processors. This is because not all subsystems of a PC can work at 800 MHz.
3. DDR-RAM support: DDR-RAM allows two data fetches per clock cycle. The newer dual-channel DDR-RAM does four data fetches per clock cycle, which is the same number as RDRAM. RDRAM however has higher latencies. Besides, you cannot upgrade RDRAM easily. If you add another module of RDRAM to an existing one, you will only increase the total latency because RDRAM is serial in nature. Compared to this, because DDR-RAM is parallel in nature, you can easily add additional modules of DDR RAM as and when you have the money, and expect the throughput to multiply. Because RDRAM technology is proprietary and difficult to make, it is expensive. DDR-RAM on the other hand is cheaper because its specification is made by a nonprofit standards organization. Even Intel seems to moving towards DDRRAM, as many Pentium-4 chipsets now support DDR-RAM.
4. HyperTransport: This technology was developed by AMD to upgrade the PCI bus of its limited capacity and all its other deficiencies. HyperTransport has been used in nVidia's nForce2 chipset. It beats all other PCI-based systems in terms of performance.

• Choice of motherboard
  There was a time when integrated motherboards meant lower performance and limited functionality. Not anymore. With the nForce and the forthcoming chipsets from ATI, this feeling will definitely undergo a change. The nForce currently supports not only AMD processors, DDR-RAM, and HyperTransport, but also carries a GeForce GPU and a Dolby^® 5.1 onboard sound processor. Other things to look for in a motherboard would be support for ATA 133, USB 2.0, AGP 8x, CNR, enough memory slots, space for larger heatsink/fan combination, etc.

• IDE drives setup: A motherboard usually has 2 IDE connectors each capable of connecting 2 devices in a master/slave combination for a total of 4 devices. If you have just a single hard disk and a single CD drive, set them as separately as masters in each IDE connector. If you have a CD drive and CD-RW drive, set the CD-RW as the master and the CD drive as its slave.

• ATX (cabinet): When buying the ATX, make sure it supports your CPU/motherboard/AGP combination. Intel Pentium IV processors and motherboards require a special kind of ATX that conforms to their standard (ATX 2.03). Do not buy an ATX with less than 300 W power supply. Also, make sure the cabinet has provisions for two extra fans (one in the front and one in the back). The power supply comes with a fan, which also tries to takes some hot air off the CPU through a grill placed just above the CPU. This grill needs to big enough and properly placed and spaced out to provide effective cooling. Another thing to look for in an ATX is a socket for the monitor. Some cabinets do not come with them. So, these have to be connected directly to the mains and cannot be switched off with the rest of the system when the PC is shutdown.
  With Windows Me/2000/XP, there is an option in Control Panel » Power Options called Hibernate. Hibernate is used to quickly shut down the PC and restart it with the same programs you had kept open when you shut down the system. This option is possible with ATX cabinets only. Hibernate does not function properly if you have devices that do not use Win32 ^® Driver Model (WDM) drivers.

• COM ports: If you are using a serial mouse, connect it to the COM1 port as the OS first checks this port for a mouse. You can connect your modem to the COM2.

• CNR port: This port (known as Audio Modem Riser or AMR in older motherboards) can be used to add a specially made low-cost peripheral replacement. The replacement is far cheaper than a separate sound card or modem.

• Fans: If your cabinet allows it, install additional fans for extra cooling.

• Dust: Remove dust regularly from the insides of your cabinet and prevent them from forming a coating over the motherboard and other parts.

• Driver updates: Check the websites of the various hardware vendors for updates and install them. Most important among them would be those of the motherboard chipset.

1.)   Tips ∓ Tricks For Browsing

Use Opera, if you are looking for speed and its tabbed interface. Use Internet Explorer, if you do a lot of offline browsing. Internet Explorer is also good for O2 phones equipped with web browsers. Netscape 7, like Opera, allows tabbed browsing, ie., opening multiple web pages in a single window under different tabs. Besides, it has numerous add-ons such as Mail, AOL IM, Winamp, etc. The only thing that Netscape 7 lacks is IE's panache for offline browsing with the History side-pane...

In Opera, settings can be changed by choosing Preference under the File menu. To get a tabbed interface for new windows, check Open windows inside Opera workspace under Windows. In the same place, select Open pop-up windows in the background under Browser Windows. To use the cache effectively, check Never under History and cache. Press F5 to manually refresh pages.

• To save on the time spent online, start your browser along with Outlook Express. Open as many windows in the browser and enter the urls of the sites you need to visit. Do not click on Go or press Enter. Now start your dialer. Once you are connected, ask OE to send and receive messages. As the messages are being received and sent, go the browser windows and click on the Go buttons. When OE finishes its job, disconnect.

• Do not type your messages online. If you have an HotMAIL account, integrate it with OE. Type and read your messages offline. If you are using other accounts such as Yahoo, type them first in Notepad when you are offline. Then, when you go online, in the Compose section, cut and past the message.

• You can send messages to machines running the Messenger service (Windows NT/2000/XP) by using the command net send <address> message from the MS-DOS prompt. To send a message to yourself, type net send 127.0.0.1 hello.

• If you have to keep in touch with the latest news, then get the Reuters Desktop Ticker. Reuters is the world's leading news provider and almost every newspaper and TV station in the world gets feeds from it. Once connected to the Net, headlines flash across the ticker and you can click on the headlines to see the news stories in a browser window.

• ESCAPE: Many people do not know this. If a page is being downloaded and you want to stop it, then pressing the Escape key will do that. Also, pressing Backspace key will take you to the previous page.

• Saving web pages: Beginning with Version 5, IE allows saving a web page in a single file including its images and other embedded content. To do this, choose Save As from the File menu. Here in the Save as type, choose Web Archive, single file (*.mht). Sometimes, MHT files may not show anything even though its thumbnail does show something. If you disable Javascript, you will be able to see the whatever something you saw in the thumbnail.

3.)  Tips &mp; Tricks For Outlook Express

Outlook Express is free and comes bundled with IE. You can integrate your HotMAIL account with it.

• Save some space by unchecking Contact, Outlook Bar, and View Bar in the Window Layout Properties. This is chosen by selecting Layout from the View menu.

• Implementing Spam Filters For POP Accounts: Create two folders in your mail client - Filtered Inbox and Spam. Create the following four Message Rules in Outlook Express (Tools » Message Rules » Mail). Use your old messages as a guide while picking the words for your filters. Check the Spam folder once in a while for any false-positives. If you find any spam among the flagged messages in the Filtered Inbox, then update the filters in the third rule with new words.

Mail Rule #1: Mail From Known Contacts
Where the From line contains 'friendname' or 'contact@emailaddress.com'
Move it to the Filtered Inbox folder
    and Stop processing more rules

Mail Rule #2: Mail Not Addressed To Me
Where the To or CC line does not contain 'your@emailaddress.com'
Move it to the Spam folder
   and Stop processing more rules

Mail Rule #3: Word filters on From, To, &mp; Subject lines
Where the From line contains 'debt' or 'enlargement' or 'teens' or 'viagra'
    or Where the Subject line contains 'debt' or 'enlargement' or 'teens' or 'viagra'
     or Where the To line contains 'debt' or 'enlargement' or 'teens' or 'viagra'
Move it to the Spam folder
    and Stop processing more rules

Mail Rule #4: Suspect Mail
For all messages
Move it to the Filtered Inbox folder
      and Flag it
      and Stop processing more rules

• Integrating HotMAIL: You can integrate your HotMAIL account with Outlook Express. Just go about as you would do with adding a POP account. After you enter your HotMAIL address, OE will automatically identify it as a HotMAIL account and pre-fill the E-mail Server Names details. Click Next enter the userid and password. When you are done, OE will ask if you want to download folders for that account. Here, choose Yes. After the folders have been downloaded, you can use it like you would use a POP mail account except that you will not be able to use the Message Rules (available under the Tools menu) on this account.

• Handling Junk Mail &mp; Viruses In HotMAIL: If you get a lot of junk mail, then through the HotMAIL website activate the bulk mail folder. Create appropriate mail filters to prevent junk from landing into your inbox. Despite this, you might get junk mail and sometimes viruses. To handle these annoyances, you have to configure OE to download only mail headers. Right click on Bulk Mail and Inbox folders, and follow this - Synchronization Settings » Headers Only. Keep the Preview option off by clicking on its button on the toolbar. Some viruses get activated when Preview is on. Now, connect to the net and receive your mail. Then, read the from addresses and subject lines. Leave mails that appear to be viruses or spam alone. Mark the good ones by clicking under the column Mark for Offline. After this, once more receive your mail. Now, the messages that you had marked alone will be downloaded in full. The viruses and junk would not have been downloaded. Sometimes, your well-meaning contacts might be sending you viruses unknown to them. So, instead of opening the attachments, save them to your desktop. If the attachments contain any viruses, your antivirus should kick in at this time. I am using AVG antivirus and it does a pretty good job of handling viruses.

Email Headers: Spammers and viruses do a lot of spoofing when it comes to leaving traces. Check the screenshot for the header of a virus-laden mail that I received. Both the to and from address belong to me but the sender was actually jmcneill@stx.rr.com. By reading the header, it becomes clear from which ISP this guy has been using. In this case, RoadRunner.com or rr.com. By sending a mail to abuse@WhicheverISP.com, you will be able alert the ISP provider of the nuisance. When contacting the ISP, make sure you send them a plain text message along with the Internet header of the offending email. Without the header, they will not be able to take any action. To read the email headers, keep the Preview off. Right click on the message and select Properties » Details.
Most viruses usually attack the Address Book. The virus reads the addresses stored in the Address Book and mails a copy of the virus to all the contacts, sometimes along with a file found in your machine. Some viruses forge the to and from addresses. So, it may not be always be right to yell at your friend for sending viruses. It is best not to keep any contacts in the Address Book not just in the interest of your contacts, but also in the interest of your own privacy.
People who send junk mail or spam have large databases of email addresses. They are paid by companies that sell something. All current measures against spam are devoted against spammers rather than the spam sponsors. Spam sponsors are at the root of this evil.

• Archiving HotMAIL messages: When you import messages from a backup copy of the message store folder, your HotMAIL messages will not be imported. So, create two folders under Local Folders called Archived Inbox and Archived Outbox. Copy the messages from your HotMAIL folders to these folders appropriately. Before you reinstall Windows or something drastic as that, create a backup copy the store folder in some other location. The store folder's location can be found by going to Options » Maintenance » Store Folder. After you are done with your reinstall, ask OE or whichever mail client you are using to import the messages from this folder. Now, your HotMAIL messages will be imported.

• Options: To change the various settings of OE, choose Options in the Tools menu. If you have a dial-up account, then under the General tab, uncheck all the check boxes. Under the Send tab, uncheck the Send messages immediately. Under the Compose tab, under Font Settings choose the Verdana 9pt font or anything else that you might fancy. Under the Signatures tab, create different signatures for different accounts or one for all accounts. If you are in India, then setting the dictionary to English (United Kingdom) in the Language section of the Spelling tab will prevent conflicts with American spelling.

• Blind Carbon Copy (bcc): Not many people know the advantages of bcc. When an email is cc'd to different people, each one of them get to know the other ids. Many people would be annoyed if their ids are distributed around in a careless fashion. Also, many a time, people just cc all others when replying. So, when broadcasting a message leave the "To" and "cc" fields empty and instead fill up the "bcc" with the addresses. To send mails using the bcc option in Outlook Express, choose View » All headers in the New Message window.

FDISK.EXE is a DOS based command line driven Microsoft partitioning utility. Its purpose is to display boot, disk and partition information, modify existing partitions, create new ones and/or delete the ones you want on all installed fixed hard disk(s), but ONLY WITH COMPLETE DATA LOSS!..

run one of these commands from any DOS prompt:
FDISK /?
or:
HELP FDISK
to display the FDISK.EXE help screen.
1) FDISK /FPRMT :
FDISK /FPRMT bypasses the FDISK startup screen, but enables interactive FAT16/FAT32 support. This can be used to force FDISK to create FAT32 partitions smaller than 512 MB, normally not possible by default.
2) FDISK /MBR :
FDISK /MBR recreates the boot sector of the first (bootable) hard disk overwriting it with a fresh copy, by writing a new Master Boot Record (MBR) based on existent disk structure, without altering the partition table information.
Can be used to repair a damaged/corrupted MBR (i.e. by a virus).

3) FDISK /ACTOK :
FDISK /ACTOK skips disk integrity checking, thus speeding up the partitioning process.
4) FDISK /PARTN :
FDISK /PARTN saves the partition information to a plain text file called PARTSAV.FIL, which can be viewed afterwards using any text editor/viewer, like EDIT.COM in DOS or Notepad in Windows.
DOES NOT prompt for a volume label!
DOES NOT prompt to format another disk(ette)!
NO delay: NO user intervention!
Ends WITHOUT pausing!
After completion, it DOES display disk space statistics.

2)FORMAT drive: /U :
FORMAT drive: /U performs an UNCONDITIONAL format, which DESTROYS every byte of data on ANY hard disk/floppy by overwriting it with zeroes (hex F6h).

3) FORMAT drive: /SELECT /U :
FORMAT drive: /SELECT /U makes a disk(ette) UNREADABLE by filling the system area (sector 0) with zeroes (hex F6h), due to using these two incompatible options together. All other sectors are left intact.
Note that most switches are NOT case sensitive.
Run SETUP /?:
it will show the available parameters.
UNDOCUMENTED SETUP SWITCHES:

/IP Bypasses detection of undocumented plug and play devices.
/IR Bypasses detection of system CMOS/BIOS and does not update Master Boot Record (MBR).It is very helpful in installing windows on the system on which LINUX is already installed
/IW Bypasses Microsoft EULA licensing screens/dialog boxes.
/NTLDR Bypasses existing Operating System detection.
win/Z automatically forces the ATX power supply to (soft-)power off the
computer ONLY on ATX motherboards, without prompting or waiting for input (key
press).
This switch works ONLY if executed from the native/real/true MS-DOS mode
OUTSIDE the Windows GUI, NOT from WITHIN Windows in a DOS prompt/box/session.

1.)  Windows Hotkeys

• Ctrl + Escape or Win: Display start menu.
  
• Shift + F10 or AppsKey: Display context menu.
• Win + E: Open Windows Explorer.
• Win + R: Open Run dialog.
• Win + M: Minimize all windows...

• Win + Shift + M: Undo minimize all windows.
• Win + D: Toggle minimize all windows. or toggle desktop view, using Show_Desktop.scf, while MinimizeAllWindows doesn't minimize dialog boxes (including Properties windows).'.
• Windows Hotkeys: Activate system tray. Arrow keys select, Enter double-clicks, and AppsKey or Shift + F10 right-clicks.
• Win + L (XP Only): Locks keyboard. Similar to Lock Workstation.
• Win + F or F3: Open Find dialog. (All Files) F3 may not work in some applications which use F3 for their own find dialogs.
• Win + Control + F: Open Find dialog. (Computers)
• Win + U: Open Utility Manager.
• Win + F1: Open Windows help.
• Win + Pause: Open System Properties dialog.
• Win + Tab: Cycle through taskbar buttons. Enter clicks, AppsKey or Shift + F10 right-clicks.
• Win + Shift + Tab: Cycle through taskbar buttons in reverse.
• Alt + Tab: Display CoolSwitch. More commonly known as the AltTab dialog.
• Alt + Shift + Tab: Display CoolSwitch; go in reverse.
• Alt + Escape: Send active window to the bottom of the z-order.
• Alt + Shift + Escape: Activate the window at the bottom of the z-order.
• Alt + F4: Close active window; or, if all windows are closed, open shutdown dialog.
• Shift while a CD is loading: Bypass AutoPlay.
• Shift while login: Bypass startup folder. Only those applications will be ignored which are in the startup folder, not those started from the registry (Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\)
  
• Ctrl + Alt + Delete or Ctrl + Alt + NumpadDel (Both NumLock states): Invoke the Task Manager or NT Security dialog.
• Ctrl + Shift + Escape (2000/XP ) or (Ctrl + Alt + NumpadDot) : Invoke the task manager. On earlier OSes, acts like Ctrl + Escape.
• Printscreen: Copy screenshot of current screen to clipboard.
• Alt + Printscreen: Copy screenshot of current active window to clipboard.
• Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow: Invert screen. Untested on OSes other than XP.
• Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow: Undo inversion.
• Win + B : Move focus to systray icons.

2.)  Generic

• Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert: Copy.
• Ctrl + X or Shift + Delete: Cut.
• Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert: Paste/Move.
• Ctrl + N: New... File, Tab, Entry, etc.
• Ctrl + S: Save.
• Ctrl + O: Open...
• Ctrl + P: Print.
• Ctrl + Z: Undo.
• Ctrl + A: Select all.
• Ctrl + F: Find...
• Ctrl+W : to close the current window
• Ctrl + F4: Close tab or child window.
• F1: Open help.
• F11: Toggle full screen mode.
• Alt or F10: Activate menu bar.
• Alt + Space: Display system menu. Same as clicking the icon on the titlebar.
• Escape: Remove focus from current control/menu, or close dialog box.  

3.)  Generic Navigation

• Tab: Forward one item.
• Shift + Tab: Backward one item.
• Ctrl + Tab: Cycle through tabs/child windows.
• Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Cycle backwards through tabs/child windows.
• Enter: If a button's selected, click it, otherwise, click default button.
• Space: Toggle items such as radio buttons or checkboxes.
• Alt + (Letter): Activate item corresponding to (Letter). (Letter) is the underlined letter on the item's name.
• Ctrl + Left: Move cursor to the beginning of previous word.
• Ctrl + Right: Move cursor to the beginning of next word.
• Ctrl + Up: Move cursor to beginning of previous paragraph. This and all subsequent Up/Down hotkeys in this section have only been known to work in RichEdit controls.
• Ctrl + Down: Move cursor to beginning of next paragraph.
• Shift + Left: Highlight one character to the left.
• Shift + Right: Highlight one character to the right.
• Shift + Up: Highlight from current cursor position, to one line up.
• Shift + Down: Highlight from current cursor position, to one line down.
• Ctrl + Shift + Left: Highlight to beginning of previous word.
• Ctrl + Shift + Right: Highlight to beginning of next word.
• Ctrl + Shift + Up: Highlight to beginning of previous paragraph.
• Ctrl + Shift + Down: Highlight to beginning of next paragraph.
• Home: Move cursor to top of a scrollable control.
• End: Move cursor to bottom of a scrollable control.

4.)  Generic File Browser

• Arrow Keys: Navigate.
• Shift + Arrow Keys: Select multiple items.
• Ctrl + Arrow Keys: Change focus without changing selection. "Focus" is the object that will run on Enter. Space toggles selection of the focused item.
• (Letter): Select first found item that begins with (Letter).
• BackSpace: Go up one level to the parent directory.
• Alt + Left: Go back one folder.
• Alt + Right: Go forward one folder.
• Enter: Activate (Double-click) selected item(s).
• Alt + Enter: View properties for selected item.
• F2: Rename selected item(s).
• Ctrl + NumpadPlus: In a Details view, resizes all columns to fit the longest item in each one.
• Delete: Delete selected item(s).
• Shift + Delete: Delete selected item(s); bypass Recycle Bin.
• Ctrl while dragging item(s): Copy.
• Ctrl + Shift while dragging item(s): Create shortcut(s).
In tree pane, if any:
• Left: Collapse the current selection if expanded, or select the parent folder.
• Right: Expand the current selection if collapsed, or select the first subfolder.
• NumpadAsterisk: Expand currently selected directory and all subdirectories. No undo.
• NumpadPlus: Expand currently selected directory.
• NumpadMinus: Collapse currently selected directory. 

5.)  Accessibility

• Right Shift for eight seconds: Toggle FilterKeys on and off. FilterKeys must be enabled.
• Left Alt + Left Shift + PrintScreen: Toggle High Contrast on and off. High Contrast must be enabled.
• Left Alt + Left Shift + NumLock: Toggle MouseKeys on and off. MouseKeys must be enabled.
• NumLock for five seconds: Toggle ToggleKeys on and off. ToggleKeys must be enabled.
• Shift five times: Toggle StickyKeys on and off. StickyKeys must be enabled.

6.)  Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType Software Installed

• Win + L: Log off Windows.
• Win + P: Open Print Manager.
• Win + C: Open control panel.
• Win + V: Open clipboard.
• Win + K: Open keyboard properties.
• Win + I: Open mouse properties.
• Win + A: Open Accessibility properties.
• Win + Space: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys.
• Win + S: Toggle CapsLock on and off.
  

7.)  Remote Desktop Connection Navigation

• Ctrl + Alt + End: Open the NT Security dialog.
• Alt + PageUp: Switch between programs.
• Alt + PageDown: Switch between programs in reverse.
• Alt + Insert: Cycle through the programs in most recently used order.
• Alt + Home: Display start menu.
• Ctrl + Alt + Break: Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen.
• Alt + Delete: Display the Windows menu.
• Ctrl + Alt + NumpadMinus: Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing Alt + PrintScreen on a local computer.
• Ctrl + Alt + NumpadPlus: Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PrintScreen on a local computer.

8.)  Mozilla Firefox Shortcuts

• Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + PageDown: Cycle through tabs.
• Ctrl + Shift + Tab or Ctrl + PageUp: Cycle through tabs in reverse.
• Ctrl + (1-9): Switch to tab corresponding to number.
• Ctrl + N: New window.
• Ctrl + T: New tab.
• Ctrl + L or Alt + D or F6: Switch focus to location bar.
• Ctrl + Enter: Open location in new tab.
• Shift + Enter: Open location in new window.
• Ctrl + K or Ctrl + E: Switch focus to search bar.
• Ctrl + O: Open a local file.
• Ctrl + W: Close tab, or window if there's only one tab open.
• Ctrl + Shift + W: Close window.
• Ctrl + S: Save page as a local file.
• Ctrl + P: Print page.
• Ctrl + F or F3: Open find toolbar.
• Ctrl + G or F3: Find next...
• Ctrl + Shift + G or Shift + F3: Find previous...
• Ctrl + B or Ctrl + I: Open Bookmarks sidebar.
• Ctrl + H: Open History sidebar.
• Escape: Stop loading page.
• Ctrl + R or F5: Reload current page.
• Ctrl + Shift + R or Ctrl + F5: Reload current page; bypass cache.
• Ctrl + U: View page source.
• Ctrl + D: Bookmark current page.
• Ctrl + NumpadPlus or Ctrl + Equals (+/=): Increase text size.
• Ctrl + NumpadMinus or Ctrl + Minus: Decrease text size.
• Ctrl + Numpad0 or Ctrl + 0: Set text size to default.
• Alt + Left or Backspace: Back.
• Alt + Right or Shift + Backspace: Forward.
• Alt + Home: Open home page.
• Ctrl + M: Open new message in integrated mail client.
• Ctrl + J: Open Downloads dialog.
• F6: Switch to next frame. You must have selected something on the page already, e.g. by use of Tab.
• Shift + F6: Switch to previous frame.
• Apostrophe ('): Find link as you type.
• Slash (/): Find text as you type.
  

9.)  GMail

Note: Must have "keyboard shortcuts" on in settings.

• C: Compose new message.
• Shift + C: Open new window to compose new message.
• Slash (/): Switch focus to search box.
• K: Switch focus to the next most recent email. Enter or "O" opens focused email.
• J: Switch focus to the next oldest email.
• N: Switch focus to the next message in the "conversation." Enter or "O" expands/collapses messages.
• P: Switch focus to the previous message.
• U: Takes you back to the inbox and checks for new mail.
• Y: Various actions depending on current view:
  Has no effect in "Sent" and "All Mail" views.
  
  • Inbox: Archive email or message.
    
  • Starred: Unstar email or message.
    
  • Spam: Unmark as spam and move back to "Inbox."
    
  • Trash: Move back to "Inbox."
    
  • Any label: Remove the label.
• X: "Check" an email. Various actions can be performed against all checked emails.
• S: "Star" an email. Identical to the more familiar term, "flagging."
• R: Reply to the email.
• A: Reply to all recipients of the email.
• F: Forward an email.
• Shift + R: Reply to the email in a new window.
• Shift + A: Reply to all recipients of the email in a new window.
• Shift + F: Forward an email in a new window.
• Shift + 1 (!): Mark an email as spam and remove it from the inbox.
• G then I: Switch to "Inbox" view.
• G then S: Switch to "Starred" view.
• G then A: Switch to "All Mail" view.
• G then C: Switch to "Contacts" view.
• G then S: Switch to "Drafts" view.
  

10.)  List of F1-F9 Key Commands for the Command Prompt

• F1 / right arrow: Repeats the letters of the last command line, one by one.
• F2: Displays a dialog asking user to "enter the char to copy up to" of the last command line
• F3: Repeats the last command line
• F4: Displays a dialog asking user to "enter the char to delete up to" of the last command line
• F5: Goes back one command line
• F6: Enters the traditional CTRL+Z (^z)
• F7: Displays a menu with the command line history
• F8: Cycles back through previous command lines (beginning with most recent)
• F9: Displays a dialog asking user to enter a command number, where 0 is for first command line entered.
• Alt+Enter: toggle fullScreen mode.
• up/down: scroll thru/repeat previous entries
• Esc: delete line
  Note: The buffer allows a maximum of 50 command lines. After this number is reached, the first line will be replaced in sequence.

Important Note: Before you read on, you need to keep one thing in mind. Whenever you make changes to the Windows Registry you need to Refresh it before the changes take place. Simply press F5 to refresh the registry and enable the changes. If this does not work Restart your system...


1) Disabling Display of Drives in My Computer :
This is yet another trick you can play on your geek friend. To disable the display of local or networked drives when you click My Computer go to :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Now in the right pane create a new DWORD item and name it NoDrives. Now modify it's value and set it to 3FFFFFF (Hexadecimal) Now press F5 to refresh. When you click on My Computer, no drives will be shown. To enable display of drives in My Computer, simply delete this DWORD item. It's .reg file is as follows:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDrives"=dword:03ffffff
2) Pop a banner each time Windows Boots :
To pop a banner which can contain any message you want to display just before a user is going to log on, go to the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinLogon
Now create a new string Value in the right pane named LegalNoticeCaption and enter the value that you want to see in the Menu Bar. Now create yet another new string value and name it: LegalNoticeText. Modify it and insert the message you want to display each time Windows boots. This can be effectively used to display the company's private policy each time the user logs on to his NT box. It's .reg file would be:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"LegalNoticeCaption"="Caption here."
3) Secure your Desktop Icons and Settings :
You can save your desktop settings and secure it from your nerdy friend by playing with the registry. Simply launch the Registry Editor go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
In the right pane create a new DWORD Value named NoSaveSettings and modify it's value to 1. Refresh and restart for the settings to get saved.
4) Deleting System Options from the Start menu :
You can actually remove the Find and Run options from the start menu by performing a simple registry hack. Again like always Launch the registry editor and scroll down to the below key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Right-click on the right pane and select New, DWORD Value. Name it NoFind.(To remove the RUN option name it NoRun). Double-click the newly create DWORD to edit it's value and enter 1 as its value. This will disable the FIND option of the Start Menu and will also disable the default Shortcut key(F3 for Find.)
To restore the Run or find command modify the value of the DWORD to 0 or simply Delete the DWORD value.

5) Cleaning Recent Docs Menu and the RUN MRU :
The Recent Docs menu can be easily disabled by editing the Registry. To do this go to the following Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Now in the right pane, create a new DWORD value by the name: NoRecentDocsMenu and set it's value to 1. Restart Explorer to save the changes.
You can also clear the RUN MRU history. All the listings are stored in the key:
HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU
You can delete individual listings or the entire listing. To delete History of Find listings go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Doc Find Spec MRU and delete.
6) Other Similar Useful Tricks :
Launch Regedit and go to the following Registry Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Policies
Under this key, there will definitely be a key named explorer. Now under this explorer key we can create new DWORD values and modify it's value to 1 in order to impose the restriction. If you want to remove the Restriction, then you can simply delete the respective DWORD values or instead change their values to 0. The following is a list of DWORD values that can be created under the Explorer Key-:
NoDeletePrinter: Disables Deletion of already installed Printers
NoAddPrinter: Disables Addition of new Printers
NoRun : Disables or hides the Run Command
NoSetFolders: Removes Folders from the Settings option on Start Menu (Control Panel, Printers, Taskbar)
NoSetTaskbar: Removes Taskbar system folder from the Settings option on Start Menu
NoFind: Removes the Find Tool (Start >Find)
NoDrives: Hides and does not display any Drives in My Computer
NoNetHood: Hides or removes the Network Neighborhood icon from the desktop
NoDesktop: Hides all items including, file, folders and system folders from the Desktop
NoClose: Disables Shutdown and prevents the user from normally shutting down Windows.
NoSaveSettings: Means to say, 'Don't save settings on exit'
DisableRegistryTools: Disable Registry Editing Tools (If you disable this option, the Windows Registry Editor(regedit.exe) too will not work.)
NoRecentDocsHistory: Removes Recent Document system folder from the Start Menu (IE 4 and above)
ClearRecentDocsOnExit: Clears the Recent Documents system folder on Exit.
Nolnternetlcon: Removes the Internet (system folder) icon from the Desktop
Under the same key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Policies you can create new subkeys other than the already existing Explorer key. Now create a new key and name it System. Under this new key, system we can create the following new DWORD values(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular option):

• NODispCPL: Hides Control Panel
  
  
• NoDispBackgroundPage: Hides Background page.
  
  
• NoDispScrsavPage: Hides Screen Saver Page
  
  
• NoDispAppearancePage: Hides Appearance Page
  
  
• NoDispSettingsPage: Hides Settings Page
  
  
• NoSecCPL: Disables Password Control Panel
  
  
• NoPwdPage: Hides Password Change Page
  
  
• NoAdminPaqe: Hides Remote Administration Page
  
  
• NoProfilePage: Hides User Profiles Page
  
  
• NoDevMgrPage: Hides Device Manager Page
  
  
• NoConfigPage: Hides Hardware Profiles Page
  
  
• NoFileSysPage: Hides File System Button
  
  
• NoVirtMemPage: Hides Virtual Memory Button

Similarly, if we create a new subkey named WinOldApp, we can add the following DWORD values under it(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular option): Disabled: Disable MS-DOS Prompt
NoRealMode: Disable Single-Mode MS-DOS.