Bridge to Nova

The Vista SP1 is thought to be launched in the first quarter of 2008.

However, Microsoft released beta versions of Vista SP1 to their chosen 12,000 beta testers. As always, even though it is possible to close the lid of the bottle, it is impossible to shut the mouth. That's being said, the Beta Build 6001.16659 of the service pack has been leaked to peer-to-peer file sharing networks. You might be able to grab it from your favorite torrent site. But some of you might be afraid to download such an important pack from other sites than Microsoft.

Don't worry! Now there's a workaround available (Thanks to ghacks.net)

• Download This zip file and unpack it to your system.
• Run SP1Beta_Hack.cmd with administrator privileges and Windows Updates afterwards. You should see KB935509. Download it and restart your computer.
• Run Windows Updates again, you should see KB937287. Download and restart your computer again.
  
• Run Windows Updates again (Yeah! it's quite a lot!). Download KB938371, restart your computer again (I know, I know, it's a lot of restart).
  
• Finally, visit Windows Updates again and you should see the Service Pack 1 Beta for Microsoft Windows Vista available for download.

If evaluation message annoys you, follow the steps below:

• Run watermark_fix.reg first
• Rename user32.dll.mui to user32.dll.mui.old in C:\Windows\System32\en-US\
• copy user32.dll.mui from the archive to that location
• Restart your computer

With no official reaction from Microsoft about this workarounds, a lot of debate is going on in the blogosphere whether this method is legal or not. Judge yourself whether it is legal or not. Remember this is beta version to limited 12,000 testers only. So that it is very high probability that it would be buggy. My advice to you is that wait for official release of Vista SP1.

Some folder you want to view as thumbnails, for some you want to view as Tiles and for some you may want List, Icons, or Details. Your Windows used to remember all those settings for you and suddenly, your computer looks like it got brain washed. What is happening? Firstly, make sure you select Remember each folder's view settings in Control Panel -->> Folder Options as in the following diagram.



Even after that, if your XP still dumbs, the answer is that by default, Windows XP is limited to 200 local folders and 200 network folders, for a total of 400 folders. So that after it remembers for 400 folders, that's it. It's full.

How you can solve this?

First Method

This effect only to before Windows XP SP2. So the quick fix would be to download and install Windows XP Service Pack 2. What if you don't want to install Service Pack 2 for some reasons? Read the second way.

Second Method,

You need to edit registry. As always dealing with registry, use it with great caution and use at your own risk.

• Go to Start Menu -->> Run
• Type regedit and press Enter.
• Browse to the following registry key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
• You will see the registry value BagMRU Size in the following pic.

• Double click on that and change the value to 5000. Make sure you select Decimal. After that click OK.

• After that browse to another registry key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam>
• Change the BagMRU Size to 5000 too.

After you've done editing the registry, make sure you restart your Windows to make change effective. Hey, Windows is not as dumb as you think!

Source : Microsoft

If you haven't heard it before, you may wonder what is Dr. Watson? Here is a brief explanation:

Dr. Watson for Windows is a program error debugger that gathers information about your computer when an error (or user-mode fault) occurs with a program. Technical support groups can use the information that Dr. Watson obtains and logs to diagnose a program error.

So, that means this debugger will collect information and send to Microsoft for further analysis. But for your testing computer that don't have internet, or if you feel it's useless for you anyway, just follow these steps to turn off.

• 1.Go to Start Menu -->> Run and type regedit.exe then press Enter.
• 2.Browse to the following registry. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug
• 3.Click the AeDebug key, and then click Export Registry File on the Registry menu. Save the file and remember it.
• 4.Then you can delete the AeDebug key.

That's it! Whenever any programs crash again, Windows won't ask you whether you want to send data to Microsoft or not.

If you change your mind and want to enable Dr. Watson back. It's easy.

• Double-click the file you save in step 3.
• And then go to Start -->> Run -->> cmd.exe
• At the command prompt, type drwtsn32 -i

Have fun playing around Windows!

Source : Microsoft

This is just minor and very easy tweak. If you think your start menu don't show up fast enough when you click, you can remove any delay from menus sliding out.

To do this, you can simply edit registry value.

• First Go to Start menu -->> Run
• Then type regedit, press enter
• Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
• You will see the key, called MenuShowDelay, with the value 400.
• Double click and change the value to 0.

Just like any other registry change to take effect, you need to restart your computer. That's it! Your start menu will show faster.

Another boring tip again!

I have already told you guys about "How to run multiple Gtalk clients?". But, most of my friends are hardcore Yahoo! fans. They keep asking me about how's about Yahoo? Can't we do it in simple way? They can find tweaking program, but that's very version sensitie.

Okay! now I've found very easy workaround. Just add this registry key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\yahoo\pager\Test
"Plural"=dword:00000001

After that, all you have to do is just click and click at Yahoo messenger icon to run as much as you want.

Old news continue again. I told you guys about how to download from megaupload without toolbar a couple of months ago, but that's for Firefox users only.

For Opera, it is as easy as Firefox.

Type about:config in the address bar
-Search there for ISP
-Click on ISP and set the id to MEGAUPLOAD 1.0 and save

That's it! Your Opera can download from megaupload without country limit slots anymore.

If you are a solid fan of IE, then you may want to know IE tricks. For IE, it is not as easy as Firefox or Opera, you need to edit registry.

Start-->Run-->Regedit
For IE 6 and below:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform]
New-->String Value--> Type "Alexa Toolbar"

For IE 7.0 and above:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]
New-->String Value--> Type "Alexa Toolbar"

After that restart your PC.

After you have uninstall the program and the name is still there in the Add/Remove programs list? Well, you can solve this problem by tweaking a registry value.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedt32, and then click OK.
3. In Registry Editor, locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

4. Each key listed under Uninstall in the left pane of Registry Editor represents a program that is displayed in the Currently installed programs list of the Add or Remove Programs tool. To determine which program that each key represents, click the key, and then view the following values in the details pane on the right:
DisplayName: The value data for the DisplayName key is the name that is listed in Add or Remove Programs.
-and-
UninstallString: The value data for the UninstallString key is the program that is used to uninstall the program.

5. After you identify the registry key that represents the program that you removed but which is still displayed in the Currently installed programs list of Add or Remove Programs, right-click the key in the left pane of the Registry Editor window, and then click Delete.
Click Yes in response to the "Are you sure you want to delete this key and all of its subkeys?" message.

6. On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.
7. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Add or Remove Programs.
In the Currently installed programs list, verify that the program whose registry key you deleted is no longer listed.

There you go, don't forget to backup registry first, if you're afraid of touching it.

Source : Microsoft