NOTE: This trick hasn't been tried on Win98. 

You can easily change the boring yellow folder icons to your own personalized icons. Simply create a text file and copy the following lines into it: 

[.ShellClassInfo] 

ICONFILE=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension 

Save this text file by the name, desktop.ini in the folder, whose icon you want to change. Now to prevent this file from getting deleted change it's attributes to Hidden and Read Only by using the ATTRIB command. 

To change the icon of a drive, create a text file containing the following lines: 

[Autorun] 

ICON=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension 

Save this file in the root of the drive whose icon you want to change and name it autorun.inf For Example, if you want to change the icon of a floppy, SAVE THE icon in a:\icon_name.ico One can also create a kewl icon for the Hard Disk and create a text file [autorun.inf] and store it in "c:\".

You can save your desktop settings and secure it from your nerdy friend by playing with the registry. Simply launchthe 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. 

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." 

Startup Screen
Create a 320x400 bitmap in the root directory and name it LOGO.SYS
You can use LOGOW.SYS file in the Windows directory as a starter.


Logoff Screens
There are many system file that constitutes Lofoff screen.
They are actually bitmaps 320x400 that just have a different extension
The hidden file in the root directory LOGO.SYS is the startup logo.
There are two files in the Windows directory.
LOGOW.SYS is the Wait while Shutting down ... screen.
LOGOS.SYS is the You may now shut-off or Reboot screen.
Make two new image files of your chice in Paint and name it as LOGOW.SYS and LOGOS.SYS and replce the actual windows file by this two.
But make sure they should be of the same size.

1) Download "Windows.Genuine.Advantage.Validation..rar"
2) Extract It.
3) Run "installer.bat" file.
4) Reboot.
5) Enjoy Your Validated Windows.


Download Code: http://rapidshare.com/files/115531401/Windows.Genuine.Advantage.Validation..rar

After browsing to any website copy the below javascript and paste
it to the address bar.Then have fun time altering the webpage.
 

javascript: document.body.contentEditable = 'true'; document.designMode = 'on'; void 0.

Even with the ability to store and retrieve your security, it does no good if the operating system is inaccessible. Ignoring your PC for a few years, removing a computer from a domain, or simply needing administrative rights on a PC are just a few reasons that the admin password may need to be reset. With Microsoft’s improved security over the last few years, it became more difficult to resent Windows administrator password. However, there are still several ways to get around it and I am bringing you three of the easiest ways to reset forgotten windows password for XP, Vista and Server 2003.

1. Reset Windows Admin Password with Ubuntu

Ubuntu has become, far and away, the most popular distribution of Linux in the world. Its ease of installation and use makes it the ‘go to’ operating system for an open source alternative. In this case you don’t even have to install the OS. You simply use the Live CD that is included with the burned ISO of Ubuntu.

Here are the instructions for resetting the Windows administrator password using Ubuntu Linux.

(Internet Connection Required)

1. Go to Ubuntu and download the latest ISO of the operating system.

2. Use one of the free ISO burning applications to create a bootable Ubuntu CD. Of course you’ll need another PC in order to do this.

3. Use the Live Ubuntu CD to boot into the live version of the OS.

4. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.

5. Then Settings>Repositories

6. Once the ‘Software Sources’ window appears, make sure you select ‘Software restricted by copyright or legal issues’, then click close.

7. Click reload on synaptic package manager.

8. Click Search, and type in ‘chntpw’.

9. Once the ‘chntpw’ app is found, right-click on it and ‘mark for installation’.

10. Click “Apply on Summary Window” and also to confirm changes.

**Remember an internet connection is required for the above steps. If there is no availability for a connection, a USB flash drive will be required.**

12. Next, we must mount the Windows drive. In Ubuntu, go to Places> Select the appropriate drive.

13. The final step of the process is actually resetting the password via the Linux terminal.

14. In Ubuntu go to Applications>Accessories>Terminal.

15. Type ‘cd /media/disk/WINDOWS/system32/config/’ in the terminal window.

16. Type ’sudo chntpw SAM’

17. This by default will change the Administrator password. If you would prefer to change a particular user. Type ’sudo chntpw -u username SAM’.

18. Afterwards, you’ll see a long display of information, most of which can be ignored.

19. The next step is to actually reset the windows password. It is recommended to make the password blank with an asterisk * .

20. You’ll then have to confirm the change with a Y, and reboot.

2. With Barts PreInstalled Environment

Bart’s PreInstalled Environment has been a popular method on offline troubleshooting for Windows System Administrators for some time now whether it be for disk recovery, malware removal or in this instance, password removal. It’s a bootable operating system, just like the Ubuntu Live CD, but with more of a Windows-like feel.

Below are the instructions for using a small EXE file called Password Renew within the PE environment.

(XP CD Required - If your Windows drive is SATA, you may need to follow additional instructions on the PEBuilder site)

1. Go Bart’s website and download the ISO for the PreInstalled Environment.

2. Download Password Renew.

3. Open PEBuilder and for the Windows directory, select the location of the i386 directory on your XP disk. Under the custom directory, select the directory that holds the PasswordRenew.exe file. Select a title for your CD and finally create a name for your ISO file. I’d recommend creating an ISO over burning directly to the CD, because of problems that may arise.

7. This program is very straight forward. Simply press ‘Select Target’ and browse to your Windows directory.

8. Once there, you can will see options to reset a password, create a new administrator or convert a current user to an administrator.

9. You will then have the option to install there after.

10. Reboot, and changes will be applied.

3. With Offline NT Password Disk(Google Cache)

Offline NT Password Disk is a very simple and very fast command line Linux tool to reset your forgotten Windows administrator password. At the time of this writing the site was down, hence the Google Cache link.

1. Download the bootable CD image.

2. Burn the ISO to a CD with one of the ISO burning applications, as we stated before.

3. Boot up your PC with the bootable CD.

4. Drivers for both SATA and IDE drivers typically load automatically.

5. Select the location of your Windows Operating System.

6. Select windows/system32/config as your directory.

7. Select “Password Reset” as your option.

8. I would recommend to reset as a ‘blank password’. This works best.

9. Once blanked, press ‘q’ to quit and write the values to the registry.

As you can see, the dread of forgetting your Windows administrator password can typically be put behind you. These are just a few of the options to reset that hard to remember nemesis, but they are a few of the simplest.

 

The sole function of this key is to take a snapshot or picture of your computer screen and copy it to the clipboard (the clipboard is an invisible holding area for content that is copied).

 Use the Print Screen key to obtain Screen Capturesuse the Print Screen key to obtain Screen Captures.
Using your keyboard, press Ctrl + V which will Paste the screenshot in your open document. Now you can Save (Ctrl + S) the document to wherever you wish, make sure to name it appropriately so you can easily find it.

Windows Alt Prt Scr

Another little feature of the Windows Print Screen Key. Pressing these keys...

Alt + Print Screen

...will take a screenshot of the currently selected window, not the entire screen like the normal screenshot function. This allows you to target that specific window that you have open and nothing else. No more cropping those screenshots to grab the content you were after

Sometimes we’ve to start it by specifying long commandline arguments. In those cases, instead of double click and running the application, usually we take command prompt and start applications by entering commandline. When, Console opens, it points to the default path and we’ve change the directory to required folder by CD command. Is there any easy way to start command prompt with default path as selected folder in Windows explorer? Yep! there is

Just do the following steps.

1) Take Windows explorer.
2) Take Tools > Folder options.
3) Take File Types tab.
4) Select “Folder” Filetype.
5) Click advanced.
6) Click “New“
7) Now give Action: “Cmd” and application used to perform action as “cmd.exe“
8 ) Now, click ok in all dialogs.
9) Now press WinKey+E to see the windows explorer.
10) Now right click on any of the folders in tree and you can see the menu item cmd.
11) Now click on that, a new console will be opened with default path as selected folder’s path.