Tweak and Customize your Windows Xp

We had shown earlier how to hack, tweak your Windows Xp. Here is another one to customize your windows Xp and its called Group policy Editor, and if you didn't know about this earlier then you would wonder why didn't give this in Control panel !

How to launch it ?
Go to Start Menu > Run > Type gpedit.msc
Or Hit Windows + R and then type gpedit.msc



In this there are various options to customize and tweak not just your Windows but also components such as Task Scheduler Programs such as Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player !

This is perfect way to enable/disable features in Windows and other windows component.

Here are some of the things you can do with Group Policy Editor.

Start Menu and Taskbar options

1. Allows you to remove the Run command from the Start menu, Internet Explorer, and Task Manager.
2. Prevents users from adding the Favorites menu to the Start menu or classic Start menu.
   
3. Prevents users from shutting down or restarting Windows.
4. Removes the Taskbar and Start Menu item from Settings on the Start menu. This setting also prevents the user from opening the Taskbar Properties dialog box.
5. Prevents the operating system from recently opened documents.
6. Prevents the taskbar from grouping items that share the same program name.
7. Hide pop-up text on the Start menu and in the notification area.
8. The "All Programs" item can be removed from the simple Start menu.
9. Prevent the clock in the system notification area from being displayed.

Alt+Ctrl+Del Options

1. Prevents users from starting Task Manager (Taskmgr.exe).
2. Prevents users from locking the system.

Windows Media Player

1. Enable the Windows Media Player to be shown only in skin mode, using a specified skin.
2. Specify the MMS proxy settings for the Windows Media Player.
3. Specify that the selected protocols are used when receiving streaming media from an mms:// URL.

This is how companies and internet cafe modify Internet explorer.

Internet explorer

1. Prevents users from viewing the HTML source of Web pages by clicking the Source command on the View menu.
2. Remove the Security tab, Content tab, Programs tab, Advanced tab from the interface in the Internet Options dialog box.
3. Disable Save as from the Menu and prevents user from saving Web pages from the browser File menu to their hard disk or to a network share.
4. Prevent users from opening a new browser window from the File menu.
5. Prevent users from closing Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer.
6. Prevent users from adding, removing, or editing the list of Favorite links.
7. Prevent users from opening the Internet Options dialog box from the Tools menu in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
8. Prevent the shortcut menu from appearing when users click the right mouse button while using the browser.
9. Prevent users from saving a program or file that Microsoft Internet Explorer has downloaded to the hard disk.
   

We will be discussing many of the above tweaks in details and give a link them to the above list.

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Spice up your Windows Xp with Powertoys !

Powertoys is cheesy name for widgets or add-ons that you can add to your windows xp to make your windows look like MAC...emm.... spice up windows xp !

We will be reviewing these power toys in our coming posts !

According to Microsoft however :-

PowerToys add fun and functionality to the Windows experience. What are they? PowerToys are additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released.

Hmmmm...... !


Here is quick list of powertoys for Windows Xp.
SyncToy
SyncToy can help you copy, move, and synchronize files in different sources such as digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Download

ClearType Tuner
Cleartype is technology developed to improve the appearance of text on certain types of computer display screens, especially LCD monitors. The app also allows you to adjust the setting according to your needs. Download (2MB)

Virtual Desktop Manager

This powertoy allows you to manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar similar to the Spaces in Leopord. This helps in segregating the different types of applications and switch between them, not for RAM deficient systems. Download (550 KB)

Alt-Tab Replacement

With this PowerToy, the icon of the application window you are switching to is also shown, also a preview of the page is displayed. But even with 256 MB ram the display was laboured and somtimes irritating. Download (534 KB)

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