You can  install  it directly from your DVD-drive (from My Computer) but what  if  your OS gets corrupt? At that point of time, you’ll require a bootable CD.

Now here are the steps to create a  bootable CD  from a non-bootable Windows XP iso:

1. First insert a blank CD and  mount your Windows XP iso image using  Magic disc or  some mounting  software.
2. For creating a bootable CD you’ll  require  boot file  known as  boot.ima . Download it from  http://www.mediafire.com/myfiles.php
3. Open  Nero Burning Rom 8 or 9  and select CD-ROM(boot) on the left side.
4. Click on Boot tab, browse to the boot image file boot.ima, then select Enable Expert Settiings.
5. Now Change Kind of Emulation to No Emulation and  Number of load sectors to 4.



6. Now  click on  ISO tab. Select Mode 1 in data mode, select ISO 9660+Juliet from File System, Max of 31 Chars from file name length and ISO 9660 from character set.Also check all in  relax restrictions



7. Click on the label tab and give any name  for your cd.
8. Now click on new at the bottom, browse the Windows XP image and  select all contents of image on the right panel.



9. Now  copy  and  paste the  selected  items into  left  panel space.
10. Click on burn.

Simple wasn’t it?

This next video over here shows the new pattern-based login system in the new Windows :

Hmm, interesting to say the least. We’ve gotta wait and watch for future more stable releases.

Of course the best way to solve this problem is to format the pen-drive. However this will lead to loss of data in it. The following method shows you how to solve this problem without formatting:

• Firstly, goto Start => Run (or Start+R)
• Now type the drive of your pen drive followed by semi-colon (eg. my pen drive’s drive is ‘J’. Then enter ‘J:’ – without the quotes)
• Now type
  

  attrib autorun.inf

  and press Enter. This is to verify whether the file is present.

• Now type the following command:
  

  attrib -h -r -s autorun.inf

  and press enter. This removes the hidden attribute of autorun.inf file.

• Now type the last command
  

  del autorun.inf

  this deletes the above-mentioned file.

• One last step is to goto your My Computer Window and rename the pen drive. eg:
  

  Rename pen drive (you can use F2 key)

That’s it your done. Your pen drive has now been cleaned and you can use your pen drive normally, as you could do before. Piece of cake, wasn’t it?

Here are some of the Commands and Functions for ‘System Management Control Panel’ and ‘Control Panel’

Commands and Functions for ‘Internet’ and ‘Files and Folders’

Commands and Functions for ‘Diagnostics and Repair’

Following are Commands and Functions for ‘Tools‘

I’ll post more of these commands related to Internet, System, System soon…

Well there are two ways here. One is the software way and the other is the command prompt way. Yeah cmd does look a little intimidating but just here me out. Once you complete the following steps, you’ll see how easy it really is.

1. So first you’ll have to go to Start => Run or Start+R.
2. Now just type the following
   

   shutdown.exe -s -t 20

Thats it! But don’t press OK or Enter yet. There’s some explanation to be done with.

So the command that you’ve entered here is shutdown.exe -s -t 20. Lets break it down now.

• shutdown.exe : Quite self explanatory. The program which shut’s down your computer.
• -s : Called as an argument, it says to shutdown the computer. Similarly if you would replace it with -r, the computer would have restarted -l would have logged of the computer.
• -t : Again an argument. It functions as a timer. The number succeeding it is the number of seconds the computer must wait before shutting down. So 20 here says the computer to shut-down after 20 seconds.

You could change the time. Suppose you want the computer to shutdown after 15 minutes, just enter the period in seconds. 15×60 = 900.

Animation showing the computer shutdown process.

Trick: Although this is not needed, this step can add a cool message to your shutdown window. Just add a -c “comment” to the earlier command. You can replace comment with anything you like. eg:

shutdown.exe -s -t 900 -c “This shutdown has been inititaed bby Richie – the greatest hacker!”

You’ll get a cool message like this:

Shutdown with Comment

You could use the following table for your reference as to which arguments to use:

Your computer is a sophisticated system that keeps track of each and every happening on it (how much ever you curse it for not even doing the most trivial tasks easily!). So how do you do it?

Well, here it is:

• First go to the RUN box (Start => Run or Start+R)
• Now type the following in the text-box:
  

  eventvwr.msc

• Alternatively you could go to the Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Event Viewer.
• Once the Event Viewer window is open click on the System link in the left pane.

Now scroll through the times given in the right pane. Consider the following example to get a clearer idea:

Here I had switched off my computer around 6 PM which has entries with time upto 5:42:05 PM as well as 5:56:59 PM. However notice that there is also a event recorded at 7:05:58 PM and another at 9:24:40 PM.

Well those were the times that my computer were last switched on. Interesting, who could it be? (don’t worry it was my sis )

Got any other ways to find it out? Please do share.

Note: The following tutorial assumes that your Windows installation directory as well as Internet Explorer has been installed on the C drive. If not, just change the drive letter.

Well its pretty simple, just enter the following in the RUN text-box:

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe

Huh, don’t you think it’s pretty long? Well there’s a simple work-around. You need to do the following steps (just once).

1. Just go to the the RUN box again. (Keyboard Shortcut : Win + R)
2. In the text-box type:
   

   C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\

3. Copy the file named ‘iexplore’ or ‘iexplore.exe’
4. Again open the RUN box (Win + R)
5. Now in the text-box type:
   

   %systemroot%\system32\

6. Now just paste the the iexplore file (which we had earlier copied) in this folder.

That’s it your done! Now to open Internet Explorer from the RUN box, just open it up and then type ‘iexplore’ (without quotes). How’s that!

You could do the similar for Firefox (firefox.exe) or any other related software.

This version of Nero 9 contains simply data burning and disc copying features for CDs and DVDs. Additional features and functionality are available with an upgrade to Nero 9 full version.

Screenshot:

Requirements:

Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher.
· 1 GHz Intel Pentium III or equivalent AMD and Intel processor
· 2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent AMD and Intel processor for Windows Vista
· 256 MB RAM
· 512 MB RAM for Windows Vista
· 270MB hard drive space for a typical installation of all components.
· 500MB hard drive space temporary for the installation
· CD or DVD recordable or rewritable drive for burning.
· DirectX 9.0c revision 30 (August 2006) or higher.
· Up to 9 GB available hard drive space for DVD images and temporary DVD files.
· Graphics card with at least 32 MB video memory
· minimum resolution of 800 x 600 pixels
· 16-bit color settings
· 24-bit or 32-bit true color is recommended

The installer of nero 9 is 55mb in size and it works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

You can download it from here.

Important Note: This freeware version of Nero 9 will try and reset your default browser search page and install the Ask toolbar. Make sure you choose “Install Nero without the Ask Toolbar” option while installing.

Follow the instructions to make you own Locker ( Without any software !! ) :

• Open notepad.
• Copy the following code in notepad file :

cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Locker
if EXIST “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p “cho=>”
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Locker “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”
attrib +h +s “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to Unlock folder
set/p “pass=>”
if NOT %pass%==YOUR PASSWORD HERE goto FAIL
attrib -h -s “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”
ren “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” Locker
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Locker
echo Locker created successfully
goto End
:End

• Change the “YOUR PASSWORD HERE” with your password ( Marked as RED above ).
• Save it as batch file ( with extension .bat ) For eg. Locker.bat
• Now you will see a batch file. Double click it to create a folder locker ( A new folder named Locker would be formed at the same location )
• Thats it you have now created your own locker and that too without using any software !

Brings all the files you want to hide in the locker folder. Double click the batch ( As created above ) file to lock the folder namely Locker.

If you want to unlock your files, simple double click the batch file again and you would be prompted for password ( In DOS window ). Enter the password and enjoy access to the folder.

Actually the process is quite simple. First of all go to download.live.com, and download the software (you can download it in your language as well, by clicking on the Download button to the right.

After you have downloaded the software, open it. There will be a loading window at first. Wait a little, this may take some time especially on slow computers.

Now a new window must have opened with  a list of softwares that you can install. Check the software that you want to install, in our case Movie Maker, and then just press the Install button.

Well now all you got to do is wait. Go grab a cup of coffee while the softwares are downloaded.

After the download is complete, you may be asked to reboot. Do so, and there you are, you’ve got Windows Movie Maker installed in Windows 7!

Tip: If you want to install any other application (for eg. Live Writer) just open the software that you downloaded at the first step, and check the software that you want. Just follow the above steps.

If you want to uninstall it, you can do so by going to Control Panel -> Programs -> Uninstall a Program, and in the new window that opens, scroll down to Windows Live Essentials. Double Click on it and click Continue.

Follow these tips to quickly remove IE from Windows 7:

1. Go to Start, and then click on Control Panel





2. Click on System and Security



3. From the left pane, click on Programs



4. Now in the main menu click on Turn Windows features on or off



5. In the new windows that opens, uncheck Internet Explorer (usually on the third line)



6. Now click on OK. A warning will be displayed, just click on Yes. You may be asked to reboot your system. Just do it, and now you have IE uninstalled from your Windows 7 system!

An alternative method is to open Start Menu (by clicking on the Start icon in the bottom-left of your screen), and search for Turn Windows features on or off. Click on the very first optin/result and follow from step 5 above.

Easy wasn’t it!

So it’s very important that you disable auto-run in your PC’s quickly. Use the appropriate method according to your OS, and perform it:

1. The easiest and most effective means to truly disable autorun can be done via this simple autorun registry hack:REGEDIT4
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\Autorun.inf]
   @=”@SYS:DoesNotExist”
2. To use this method, Open Notepad and copy/paste the following into a text file:REGEDIT4
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\Autorun.inf]
   @=”@SYS:DoesNotExist”Save the file as something.reg. (You have to be sure to change the “Save File as Type” to “All Files” before saving, or Windows will try to save it as a .txt even if you typed in .reg.
3. Locate the file you just saved and double-click the file to run it. You will receive a prompt asking if you want to add the data to the registry. Click yes to allow the modification.
4. The above method nulls any request for autorun.inf and works on XP Home or Pro, as well as Windows Vista. Credit for this tip goes to Nick Brown.If you opt to disable autorun using any other method, you will first need to install an autorun patch from Microsoft that allegedly resolves issues that cause autorun to run even after it’s been disabled (using methods other than the above recommended method).
5. XP Pro users who have installed the appropriate Microsoft patch for your system and wish to disable autorun using a method other than described above, follow steps 3 through 8 only. XP Home users begin at step 9. Vista users, see How to Disable Autorun in Windows Vista.
6. XP Pro users: Click Start and then click Run. Type gpedit.msc and click OK. The Group Policy window will open. In the left pane, double-click Administrative Templates
7. the right pane, double-click System, scroll down the list and double-click Turn Off Autoplay
8. the Turn Off Autoplay Properties window, select Enabled. From the dropdown next to Turn Off Autoplay on, select All drives and then click OK. Exit Group Policy by selecting File, then choosing Exit from the menu.
9. Home users will need to make the changes by editing the registry directly. To begin, click Start and then click Run
10. regedit and click OK. The Registry Editor window will open.
11. the left pane, navigate to:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Software
    Microsoft
    Windows
    CurrentVersion
    Policies
    Explorer.
    (Note: For help navigating the registry, see the Windows Basics System Registry tutorial).
12. Explorer highlighted, in the right-pane right click the value NoDriveTypeAutoRun and select Modify from the drop down menu. The base value will be set to Hexadecimal. If not, select Hexadecimal.
13. 95 and click OK.
    Note that this will stop Autorun on removable/USB drives, but still allow it on CD ROM drives. If you want to disable autorun on both, substitute b5 for the 95. (Thanks to Ian L. of Manitoba for the tip).
14. Registry Editor by selecting File, then choosing Exit from the menu.
15. will now need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.