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Categories:
Amazing Tricks,
HACKING
Originally Posted by DarkSoul
Hack the Windows Explorer Shortcut Menu
The
right-click menu in Windows Explorer is quite useful; right-click a
file and a menu appears, letting you take a variety of actions, such as
opening the file, printing it, deleting it, copying it, creating a
shortcut to it, and so on. Figure 1 shows you the screen you'll see.
(Note that the "Scan with…" option is only available if you install
antivirus software, such as avast! Anti-virus.)
Figure 1. The normal menu that appears when you right-click a file in Windows Explorer
But
there's a way to power up the menu. Hold down the Shift key as you
right-click a file, and you get several new menu options, as you can
see circled in Figure 2.
Figure 2. The options circled are added when you hold down Shift when right-clicking a file.
Here's what the options do: Open as Read-Only: As the name says, it opens the file as a read-only file. Pin
to Start Menu: This pins a shortcut to the file in the top section of
the Start menu. To remove the shortcut to the file from the Start menu,
right-click the shortcut and select "Remove from this list." Add
to Quick Launch: This adds a shortcut to the file to the Quick Launch
toolbar, on the left side of the Taskbar. To remove the shortcut,
right-click it and choose Delete. Copy
as Path: This copies the file name and path to the Windows clipboard,
for example, C:\Budget\2007 memo.xls. You can then paste the text
wherever you want.
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Hack Windows Vista Screensavers
Windows
Vista's screensavers, for incomprehensible reasons, cannot be
customized using the user interface. Want to change the way bubbles
look in the Bubbles screensaver? Forget about it. You won't find a way
to do it.
You
can, though, hack the Windows Registry to customize many of the
screensavers. For the Bubbles screensaver, for example, you can add
three new values to the Registry, and turn the bubbles metallic or keep
them transparent; configure whether the bubbles should have shadows;
and display the bubbles against the desktop or instead against a solid
black background.
To
do it, open the Registry Editor, then go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Screensavers\Bubbles.
Select Edit-->New DWORD (32-bit) Value, and create a new DWORD
called MaterialGlass. Give it a value of 1 for glassy, transparent
bubbles, and a value of 0 for metallic bubbles.
Create
a DWORD called ShowShadows, and give it a value of 1 to display shadows
below the bubbles, and a value of 0 to have no shadow displayed.
Create
a DWORD called ShowBubbles and give it a value of 1 to show the bubbles
on the desktop, and a value of 0 to show them against a solid black
background.
When you exit the Registry Editor, your new settings will take effect.
You
can similarly hack the Ribbons screensaver. Open the Registry Editor,
then go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Screensavers\Ribbons.
Select Edit-->New DWORD (32-bit) Value, and create a new DWORD
called NumRibbons. Click Decimal, and then type in the number of
ribbons you want to be displayed. The minimum number of ribbons is 1;
the maximum is 256.
Create
a DWORD called RibbonWidth, click Decimal, and then type in a number to
determine the width of each ribbon. The smaller the number, the
narrower the ribbon.
When you exit the Registry Editor, your new settings will take effect.
To go back to your old settings, delete the Registry values.
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Hack the Elevated Command Prompt
When
you run certain commands from the command prompt, you're told that you
don't have administrative rights to run them, even if you're currently
logged in as an administrator.
What gives?
You'll have to run the command prompt itself as an administrator, which is called running an elevated command prompt.
One
way to do it is to type cmd into the Search box on the Start menu,
right-click the command prompt icon that appears at the top of the
Start menu, and then select "Run as administrator."
But
if you don't want to go about doing that each time you run a command
prompt, there's a simpler way. You can create a Desktop shortcut for an
elevated prompt, or pin the elevated prompt to the Start menu.
To create a shortcut on the Desktop: Right-click the Desktop, and select New-->Shortcut. In the text box of the Create Shortcut dialog box that appears, type CMD and then click Next. On the next screen, type a name for the shortcut--for example, Elevated Command Prompt. Then click Finish. Right-click on the shortcut you just created and select Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and click Advanced. (See Figure 3.) Check the box entitled "Run as administrator," click OK, and then OK again.
Figure 3. Creating a shortcut for an elevated command prompt
Now, when you want to run an elevated command prompt, simply double-click the shortcut.
If
you'd like the elevated command prompt to appear on the Start menu,
drag it from the Desktop to the Start button, and place it where you
would like it to be. Hack Aero's Glass Borders
The
borders around system windows, such as dialog boxes and the Control
Panel, are transparent in Windows Vista's Aero interface. If you'd
like, you can make those transparent borders larger or smaller: Right-click the Desktop and select Personalize. Click Windows Color and Appearance. Click "Open classic appearance properties" for more color options. From
the dialog box that appears, make sure that Windows Aero is selected as
the color scheme. Click the Advanced button on the right side of the
dialog box. Select "Border Padding"
in the Item drop-down box. To change the size of the border, type a new
size for the border. (The default is 4.) Click OK, then OK again. The
sizes of the borders will now change.
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Hack System Restore
System
Restore can chew up tens of gigabytes very quickly. If you want to
regain that precious hard disk space, you can delete all restore points
except your most recent one: Click Start, then choose All Programs-->Accessories-->System Tools-->Disk Cleanup. From the screen that appears, choose "Files from all users on this computer." If a dialog asks which drive to clean up, choose the drive on which Windows Vista is installed. Click OK. Disk Cleanup will now scan your hard drive and display a dialog box. Click the More Options tab. In the System Restore and Shadow Copies section, click "Clean up." A dialog will ask, "Are you sure you want to delete all but the most recent restore point?" Click "Delete." Click OK to close the Disk Cleanup window.
Figure 4. Deleting System Restore points
Keep
in mind, though, that when you do this, you will also delete any older
Shadow Copies of files, and older Windows Complete PC Backup images as
well.
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Hack Vista's Blinking Cursor
Windows
Vista's blinking cursor can be razor thin, and sometimes it can be very
hard to find, especially if you're using a laptop. But it's easy to
make the cursor thicker--pretty much as thick as you want. Select
Control Panel-->Ease of Access-->Optimize visual display. Scroll
toward the bottom of the screen until you come to "Make things on the
screen easier to see," as shown in the nearby figure.
Figure 5. From here, you can fatten up Windows Vista's cursor.
In
the box next to "Set the thickness of the blinking cursor," select a
number. The larger the number, the fatter the cursor. You'll see a
preview of the cursor next to the box. Click Save. The cursor
throughout Windows Vista will now be fatter and easier to see.
I AM NOT VISTA USER SO PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR COMMNETS! |
