Tecx

»»WINDOWS HACKS««

FIRST FIND THE REGEDIT.EXE FROM C:/PROGRAM FILES

1. Improve security
If others have access to your PC, it's easy for them to input a USB flash drive and make copies of your data. If you're using Windows XP or later, though, there's a simple way to prevent this from happening.
Go to 'HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies',
and create a DWORD value called 'WriteProtect' and set it to 1. You'll be able to read USB drives, but not write to them any more.

2.Change the Registered Owner
While Installing Windows on your PC, you were asked for a name, which was then stored as the registered owner (run WinVer to see this on your system). In case you have a second hand PC or there are other reasons you want to change that name, there's no obvious way to do this, and that's where the Registry comes in.
Browse to 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion' and you'll see both a 'RegisteredOwner' and 'RegisteredOrganization' value. Double-click either to change them.

3. Sort Files Properly
Sorting filenames in Explorer can be a problem. By default, it will place 'File_v2.txt' before 'File_v15. txt': that's not ASCII ordering, but it seems to be sensible. But what if the 'v' refers to a version number, and actually File_v15.txt should come first? Suddenly Explorer's default system doesn't work at all.
To restore regular ASCII file ordering, go to 'HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Policies\Explorer',
create a DWORD value called 'NoStrCmpLogical' and set it to 1.
Delete the key to restore the standard Explorer approach.

4. Manage Folder Types
Windows Vista's Explorer will automatically choose your folder type based on its contents. But this means that a Download folder will change its default to a Music folder if you get a few MP3s there. To fix this problem, go to 'HCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell', delete the 'Bags' subkey and then create a new Bags key in the same location.
Create a key called 'AllFolders' under the Bags, and a key called 'Shell' beneath that.
Click it to open 'HCU\Software\Classes\LocalSettings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\ Bags\AllFolders\Shell'.
Right-click the right-hand pane, choose 'New | String Value' and call this 'FolderType'. Then double-click FolderType and set its value to 'NotSpecified'. You'll still be able to change the folder type, but Vista will no longer assign one automatically.

5. Disable AutoRun The AutoRun feature is potentially a security risk as it automatically runs code when you connect a removable device to your PC. If you don't need it badly, its better to be desabled.
On some systems, this can only be done from the Registry.
To do so, go to 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping' and create a key called 'Autorun.inf'.
Next, double-click the new key's (Default) value and enter the new value '@SYS:DoesNotExist'. Now delete the Registry key 'HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2'.
Windows now won't automatically run any code on CDs, DVDs or removable drives; you will have to manually launch it.

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