How Can You Hide Drives For security & Privacy Reason (WINDOWS XP, Windows Vista,Windows 7 TRICKS)

How Can You Hide Your Windows Drives

Here are few steps how will you hide your drives:

1. Start

2. Run (In windows Vista or 7 (windows logo + R))

3. Type gpedit.msc

4. Press Enter  (then you will go Local Group Policy Editor)

5. Then go to the Administrative Templates under User Configuration

6. Go to the Windows Components and expand it.

7. Now go the Windows Explorer

8. Now see on the right pane for Hide these specified drives in My Computer

9. Click on it and Enabled and Select on left side that what drives you want to hide, or hide all drives.

10. Now Apply and Ok. 


This will work after restart your system.

How Can You Clear Automatically The Windows Paging File When The Computer Shuts Down

In Windows Operating System has a very good feature called "virtual memory" which converts your hard drive space into RAM. It works in addition to the RAM which already installed in your Computer. This file is named pagefile.sys. The purpose of this is to create more memory available for running applications. This paging file has helpful feature,but  there is one drawback also that Data remains there even after your computer has been shut down and started back up. There is a simple value that can be added to the registry to have Windows automatically clear the paging file when the computer shuts down. This may slow the shutdown time by one to two minutes, but it will be safe in the long-run. NOTE:  Changing the registry's wrong setting or changing a setting incorrectly can cause Windows to not function correctly. Here are the steps to automatically clear the Windows paging file when the computer shuts down:         1.   Click Start          2.  Click Run (Windows key + R)           3.  Type regedit or regedt32.exe        4.  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE                      5.  SYSTEM              6. CurrentControlSet               7. Control                8. Session Manager                          9. Memory Management Go to the right side of the window (where the list of REG_DWORD entries are) for an entry called "ClearPageFileAtShutdown". If you see it, skip to step 15. If you don't see it, continue with step 10.  10. Right-click any blank space on the right side of the window  11. Click New  12. Select DWORD Value  13. A new value will be created and with the highlited text New Value #1.  14. Rename the text New Value #1 with ClearPageFileAtShutdown.  15. Right-click on it to pull down a small menu and select Modify.  16. Where it says "Value data:" and has a text field with the number "0" entered, change that to "1" (without the quote marks).  17. Click OK. The changes will take effect after you reboot your computer. I hope you like it!

No Need to Worry About Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 Passwords

Have you Forgot Your Windows XP Password ?

If you forgot your windows xp password then you need not  
to worry because it is possible to change your Adminstrator password in Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 without knowing it. If you somehow manage to login as an Administrator then you can change the all Accounts(Users, Administrator or Guest) passwords without knowing it.

Here are the few steps for it : 

1. Right-click on the “My Computer”on the desktop or from            Start Menu.

2. Select the option “Manage”.

3. On the left pane expand the "Computer Management (Local)"tree (if it is not already expanded).

4. Click “System Tools"
5.Click on “Local Users and Groups” 

6. Click the “Users” option.

7. Now you will see the list of users on the right side pane, such as Administrator, Guest etc.

8. Right click the “Administrator” and select the option “Set Password” .

9. Now, you will see a warning message, Click on "proceed".

10. Now the system will ask you for “New Password” and “Confirm Password” .

10. After entering the password click on “OK”. The password will be changed. 

How can You Login Automatically in Windows 7 User Accounts

If security isn't a matter for you, then configure Windows 7 to login to your user account automatically. You can save some time when your computer starts up.

Here is few steps for it:

1. Click on Start and then enter the following command in the search box (or You can type the command in Run)

2.  netplwiz

Press the ENTER key.

This command will load the Advanced User Accounts Control Panel applet.

3.      In the User Accounts tab, uncheck the box "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer".

4.  Click on the Apply button at the bottom of the "User Accounts" window.

5.  When the "Automatically Log On" dialog box appears, enter the "user name" you wish to automatically login to Windows 7 with. Then enter your account password in the two fields where it's asked.

Click the OK button.

6.  Click OK on the User Accounts window to complete the whole process.

From now on, when your PC starts up, Windows 7 will log on automatically.

How To Make A CD/DVD Autorun

• Here is some information that you will need to make a CD/DVD autorun.
• This feature of the CD is used by almost all the software manufacturers.
• When u insert a CD a program runs automatically.
• copy an icon(.ico extension) to a suitable folder that u want to give to ur CD.
• Then, open notepad & type the following code:

Code:

[autorun]

icon=icon.ico

open=filename.exe

• Then save the file as autorun.inf in a suitable folder.
• Here, "icon.ico" is an icon file with name "icon" and ".ico" is the icon's extension. "filename.exe" is the name of the executable file having "filename" as its name and ".exe" is the extension for any executable file.
• Now burn your CD/DVD normally as you do it usually.
• put the autorun.inf file that you created in the root directory not in any folder.
• If the Executive File and Icon File is not in the root drive, but in a folder, you will have to provide the path in the above code. Example:

Code:

[autorun]

icon=\folder\icon.ico

opne=\folder\filename.exe

• Make sure you do not put the autorun.inf file in any folder, else the CD/DVD wont autorun!
• Thats It...! You have Done!
• Enjoy!

How to Disable Task Manager

The following registry hack enables us to disable the Task Manager. Here is a step by step procedure to disable Windows task manager.

Step1: Goto start>run and type “regedit” in the run.

Step2: In the registry navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Step 3: Make the changes according to the following data

Value Name: DisableTaskMgr
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = default, 1 = disable Task Manager)

Step 4: Then navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Step 5: Make the changes according to the following data

Value Name: DisableTaskMgr
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = default, 1 = disable Task Manager)

Step 6. In the Step 3 and 4, if the values are set to 1 then the Task Manager is disabled. Revert back to 0 in order to enable it back

WARNING: Please Backup your registry before attemting this hack. Changes to registry may lead to system failure.

How To Reinstall Trial Software After Trial Period Has Expired

Method 1: Back Up Registry

Most trial software add a key in your system registry by tweaking it. When you uninstall a software after it’s trial period has expired, all files are deleted except the keys in the registry. Therefore when you try installing it again, it detects the key and gives you a message like for e.g, “Your trial period has expired”.

So the best way is to make a backup of the registry before installing any trial software. And when finally your trial has expired, you can uninstall the software, restore backup and try installing the software again. 

Method 2: Using Process Monitor

Process Monitor is a free tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. With this you can see which applications are accessing your Registry, which keys they are accessing, and the Registry data that they are reading and writing – all in real-time.

Note: By default it will show Registry activity, File System activity, Network activity, and Process and Thread activity. You can filter out all activities except Registry activity so that it becomes easy to track changes in registry. To red circle in the screenshot below shows where you can filter out other activities.

How to Install Windows 7 From a USB Drive

Installing Windows from a USB flash drive has several advantages – First of all, the overall speed of the installation process will increase significantly, carrying a USB stick is much more convenient than a DVD, and finally it becomes possible to install the OS even on those systems that do not have a DVD drive, such as a netbook.

In this post, I will show you how to load the Windows installation on to your USB flash drive and make it bootable just like the DVD.

Tools Required:

1. USB flash drive with a minimum capacity of 4 GB.

2. Windows 7 set-up DVD.

Step-1: Plug-in your USB flash drive and backup all the existing data in it.

Step-2: Open the command prompt. If you are using Windows 7/Vista then open it with administrator rights*.

* Goto Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right-click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator”.

Step 3: In the command prompt, type in the following command:

DISKPART

This will start the Microsoft DiskPart utility as shown below:

Now issue the following command:

LIST DISK

This will show you a list of  available disks on your system. Disk 0 is usually the hard disk. In my case, Disk 5 is the USB drive (this can be a different one in your case). Now issue the command as shown below:

SELECT DISK 5

NOTE: In the above command, 5 is the USB drive number on my system. If you have a different number on your system, then you need to replace 5 with that number.

Step-4: Now issue the following list of commands one by one as shown below:

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK

ASSIGN

EXIT

Minimize the command prompt and proceed to the next step.

Step 5: Insert the Windows 7/Vista installation disc and note down the “drive letter” of your DVD drive. In my case, it is “H:”. Now type the following list of commands as shown below:

H: CD BOOT

CD BOOT

BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 M:(NOTE: M: is your USB drive letter)

EXIT

Step-6: Copy the contents of your Windows 7/Vista installation disk into the USB flash drive.

That’s it! Your USB stick is now ready to boot and install the OS for you. Don’t forget to enable the “USB Boot” option and change the “boot priority to USB device from hard disk” in your BIOS settings.

How to Make Invisible Password Protected Folder

Do you want to password protect your folder? Do you want to make it invisible so that it remains unnoticed by the normal users? Well here is a way to do that. In this post I will show you how to make a password protected folder in Windows without using any additional software. Here is is step by step procedure to create a password protected folder.

How to create a Password Protected Folder?

Step-1: Create a new folder (Right-click -> New -> Folder) and give it any name of your choice. For instance I name it as ABC.

Step-2: Now in this folder place all the important files, documents or any folders that you want to password protect.

Step-3: Now Right-click on this folder (ABC) and select the option Send To -> Compressed (zipped) Folder.

Step-4: Now a new compressed zipped folder gets created next this folder (ABC) with the same name.

Step-5: Double-click on this compressed zipped folder and you should see your original folder (ABC) here.

Step-6: Now goto the File menu and select the option Add a password.

ie: File -> Add a password

Now a small window will pop up and here you can set your desired password. Once the password is set, the folder will ask for the password every time it is opened. Thus you have now created the password protected folder.

How to make it Invisible?

Step-1: Now Right-click on this password protected folder and select Properties.

Step-2: At the bottom select the option Hidden and press OK. Now your folder gets invisible (hidden).

Step-3: In order to unhide this folder go to My Computer – >Tools -> Folder options. Switch to View tab, scroll down and under Hidden files and folders you’ll see the following two options

• Do not show hidden files and folders
• Show hidden files and folders

Now select the second option and press OK. Now the invisible folder becomes visible in it’s location. To access it you need the password. To make it invisible again repeat step -1 through step-3 and select the first option and click OK. Now the folder becomes invisible once again.

How to Completely Erase a Hard Disk Drive

A new year has begun and perhaps you have decided to perform a system upgrade or get rid of your old computer system and purchase a new one. But before you sell or donate your old computer, it is very much necessary to completely erase your Hard Disk Drive. Yes, every one of us are aware of this fact and so, we delete the contents of the hard disk either by using the DELETE key on our keyboard or by Formatting the hard disk.

Deleting and Formatting – Just Not Secure Enough

But the fact is, the data will still be on the hard disk even after deleting it or formatting the hard disk. Using the delete key on your keyboard will only remove the shortcuts to the files making them invisible to users. Deleted files still reside on the hard drive and a quick Google search will show many options for system recovery software will allow anyone to reinstate that data.

Formatting the hard drive is a bit more secure way to erase the hard disk. Formatting a disk will not erase the data on the disk, only the address tables. It makes it much more difficult to recover the files. However a computer specialist would be able to recover most or all the data that was on the disk before the reformat. For those who accidentally reformat a hard disk, being able to recover most or all the data that was on the disk is a good thing. However, if you’re preparing a system for retirement to charity or any other organization, this obviously makes you more vulnerable to data theft.

Erasing the Hard Disk through DISK WIPING

So it is necessary for us to use a 100% secure way to erase the hard disk. The secure way of erasing the hard disk is called Disk Wiping. Disk wiping is a secure method of ensuring that data, including company and individually licensed software on your computer and storage devices is irrecoverably deleted before recycling or donating the equipment. Because previously stored data can be brought back with the right software and applications, the disk wiping process will actually overwrite your entire hard drive with data, several times. Once you format you’ll find it all but impossible to retrieve the data which was on the drive before the overwrite. The more times the disk is overwritten and formatted the more secure the disk wipe is.

There are a variety of disk wiping products available that you can purchase, or freely downloaded online to perform more secure disk wipes. One of my favorite disk wiping software is

WipeDrive/ WipeDrive Professional

You have to use this tool by burning the iso image file onto a CD or by using a floppy disk. After burning this tool you have to boot your PC and follow the screen instructions to completely erase the hard disk.

Customize Windows Media Player Title Bar

This hack allows you to change the title bar from Windows Media Player to Windows Media Player provided by <Yourname>. So if you enter the text [GoHacking.Com], it would read: Windows Media Player provided by GoHacking.Com

1. Goto Start->Run.

2. Type “regedit” (without quotes) in the run dialogue box .

3. In the registry editor navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft

4. Create the Key [WindowsMediaPlayer].

Modify/Create the Value Name [TitleBar] according to the Value Data listed below.

Data Type: REG_SZ [String Value]
Value Name: TitleBar
Value Data: [Enter the text to be displayed in the title bar]

5. Exit the Registry editor and reboot.