When you are editing an image using Windows Paint application, hold ctrl key while you select the image and drag the selected part in new location where you want to copy it. Holding Shift key will leave a trail of the image that you have dragged.

To access the Properties of a file/folder quickly, double-click on that file/folder name holding down the ALT key.

In folder C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\SendTo, Create a shortcut c:\Windows\notepad.exe. In this way you can quickly view your txt files, you can also edit files like autoexec.bat, config.sys or log files.

If your desktop link is deleted then you can add it. First open the folder C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\SendTo, now right click on the background of folder. Choose New > Text Document and rename it Shortcut.DESKLINK. This is the link which you have created.

If you are using scroll mouse, then you can resize on-screen fonts in I.E. by holding ctrl key and rolling the mouse whell up and down ( to increase/ decrease the font size).

The Back Up program helps to take the back up of all your important files and folders. You can use this utility by Accessories>System Tools> Back Up. If this utility is not installed then you have to install it from Add/Remove Programs from Control Panel.

To trace the route from your internet provider to your location, and show you each and every computer system along the way. Use the program called Trace Route. Open a DOS windows and type tracert. The location name can be any IP address or number such as xyz@abc.ef. This also helps you to locate any breaks in communication such as Error locating server.

By default when you save a program using notepad it saves it with extension txt. Now if you want to save a file asc.efg in notepad having extension efg, save file with File> Save as and in dialog box save in quotation marks abc.efg. This gives you extension of .efg not adc.efg.txt.

To view properties of all drives at once, then open My Computer select all drives by holding Ctrl key and clicking on each drive. Right-click and choose Properties from context menu. Windows will create one Dialog box with tabs for each drives.

If you want to use themes of Plus Pack then copy themes.cpl and themes.exe from \windows\system to \winnt\system32. Now you can use themes of Plus pack in NT. Restart required. This tweaks assumes that Windows Plus and Win NT are loaded in same system.

If you have installed two operating system and using ntldr to boot your system, you can change this settings, right click on My Computer, select Properties, under Advanced Tab look for Startup and Recovery click Settings here you can set default Operating System, boot up time according to your choice.

When you need to verify that you have 40 bit or 128 bit version of NT, then open the file from location of I386, prodspec.ini in notepad.the last line should read BitVersion=128 or BitVersion= 40 as per the case. The 128 bit version is for North america only.

To start msconfig click on Start > Run and type msconfig, click on Startup tab, from here you can select the programs which are launch during boot up of your system. Select minimum number of programs, as this effect your boot up time and you can start at your programs manually afterwards.

Use the command CONVERT volume /FS:NTFS. Here volume specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), FS specifies that the volume is to be converted to NTFS. But it is advice if you are planning to use NTFS, then convert your volume during installation of Windows 2000 or Windows Xp.

If you regularly work on shared PC's drives, then you must map your drives. Right click on My Computer > Map the drive, select the n/w drive and assign a drive letter for your convinence.

You can browse, explore from the taskbar by using Address bar. Right-click on Taskbar, select Taskbars > Address. The address bar will appear on taskbar.

If you want to use support for many languages other than English. When you change the input locale to another language, the keyboard layout is also change. To control this click on Control Panel > Regional Options > Input Locales From here you can select the options for the shifting of the languages.

If you want to increase the security of your system then activate this setting. This setting helps your system to protect against trojans. Click on Control Panel > Users and passwords. Click on Advanced tabs, and check the option Require user to press Ctrl + Alt + Del before logging .

To change drive icons, create a file autorun.ini by using notepad, add lines

[Autorun]
ICON= PATH
Here give path of your icon.

To change folder icons, create a file desktop.ini by using notepad, add lines

[.ShellClassInfo]
ICON= PATH
Here give path of your icon.

To create shortcut on desktop, right-click on desktop, select New > Shortcut, now enter the path C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe -r -t 01. By clicking on this icon you can restart your system.

To create shortcut on desktop, right-click on desktop, select New> Shortcut, now enter the path C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe -s -t 01. By clicking on this icon you can restart your system.

There are a few utilities provided for this purpose. Select Control Panel> Accessibility Options. Here you can find options which will make your work easy. To install this Control Panel> Add/Remove Programs> Windows Setup> Accessibility Options.

Select Start > Settings > Task Bar Here you can find lot of customisation on Start Menu.

You can adjust the dates according to your choice, like M/d/yyyy, M/d/yy, yyyy-MM-dd etc. Select Control Panel > Regional Settings. . For Windows Xp select Control Panel > Regional And Language Option > Regional Options> Customize.

You can use System File Checker to solve such problems. From command run Sfc /scannow this will automatically correct files. You will be requiring Installation CD.

Windows Xp allows users to switch between one user to another without logging out the user. When you click on logout button, then it gives the option of Switching Users. Selecting this will allow you to enter another user while the programs of the first user keep running. This is enabled by default. You can also set through Control Panel > Users Account.

If you want to increase your Windows Xp Performance then right-click on My Computer > Properties > Advance > Performance > Settings Here in visual effects you can disable some of the visual effects so as to increase your system performance. Not selecting visual effects will give more memory to Operating System and it will increase your performance.

Open the properties of Start Menu and choose the option Classic Start Menu. Next time you click your start menu, the classical view will appear.

To ungroup taskbar items, right-click on taskbar, select properties, the first option you will see is Lock the taskbar uncheck it.

To hide inactive icons from taskbar, right-click on taskbar, select properties, the last option you will see is Hide inactive icons check it.you can also customise the icons, that whether you want to show or hide.

If you want to update windows manually and do not like windows to remember this than select My Computer > Properties > Automatic Update. Select the option according to your choice.

If you want to save a lot of space on your hard disk drive than select My Computer > Properties > System Restore. Here there are many options, you can select according to your preference. This is adviced that you do not turn off this service, instead select the drive space of each drive according to your preference.

If you want to customise the picture that you see in Welcome Screen or on the Start Menu, simply open Control Panel > User Account. Here open your account information, look for the option of changing picture. Click on it and browse your favorite picture and select it.

Now there are many options in View menu. Viz Thumbnails ,Tiles, Detail, Icons, List . Want more, you can view your pictures in another option Filmstrip

If you want to disable error reporting service than select My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Error Reporting. Select the option according to you choice.

While formatting a floppy in Windows Xp it provides an option of Create an MS-DOS startup disk , unlike Windows 2000. This allows access to Dos partitions only.

If you want to add date and time, simply press F5 key. It will make the required entry.

You can select different folders for your folder background. Right Click in any folder, select Customise this folder> Select a background picture press next, select any picture( bmp, jpg, tif) and click next and finish. You can do this to any folder. This requires IE 4.0 or above. Do not work in Windows Xp.

To close them quickly hold Shift key and click close button. This will close all windows.

When you open your Volume Control windows, then press Ctrl + S, you will find that your windows is shrink. It will remain in small state unless you press Ctrl + S again.

You can uninstall several other Windows component from Add/Remove Program. But for this you have to edit file Sysoc.inf file, this resides in C:\Windows\inf. This is a hidden file. Search for the word Hide in this file and remove it, save it. Now when you open Add/ Remove Program you will See other Windows Component are also available.

If you want to start an application and wish that application to work in background then, select that application and press Shift key, double click the application and you will see that the application will be launched in the background.

Click on help topic where you would like to add your own help topic. Click Options and select Annotate. A text box appears where user can type his own tips and select Save. A bookmark will appear on top-left corner of the Help box. This Bookmark will take you to your newly saved file which is saved by .ann extension.

By default, Windows hide extensions of known types, but this can be dangerous too. Therefore you can remove this setting by select Tools > Folder Options > View, here uncheck option Hide file extensions of known types.

If you are advance user and want to remove delete confirmations which appear every time you delete a file or folder, right-click on Recycle Bin, select Properties> Global . Uncheck option Display delete confirmation dialog box.

To find out how much RAM is used by a particular application, press Ctrl + Alt + Del or right click on taskbar and select Task Manager. Here under Process tab you can find amount of memory used by applications,

To make a network share hidden, simply add a dollar sign $ on the end of share name. Only users who know the exact share name can access it.

To create a icon without a name simply rename it using num pad. Rename it to 255. Do not forget that you should type this number from Num pad only.

To increase performance of your system change your swap space from boot partition (generally c) to another partition. If possible leave one partition for swap space. Fix the swap size (min and max size same). This will help to increase performance.

If you want to close an application you use Ctrl + Alt + Del, same here to close an process press keys Ctrl + Alt + Del and select a process and press End Task.

Following are command line options

/scannow Scans all protected system files immediately.
/scanonce Scans all protected system files once at the next boot.
/scanboot Scans all protected system files at every boot.
/cancel Cancels all pending scans of protected system files.
/Quiet Replaces all incorrect file versions without prompting the user.

To set Windows temporary directory edit autoexec.bat and add a line
SET TMP= DIRECTORY PATH
SET TEMP= DIRECTORY PATH.
Restart required.

To change the OS selection time, edit boot.ini by changing attributes, path c:\boot.ini, change the value timeout = n, where n is customised time.

To change Date And Time quickly, instead of going to Control Panel, double click on the Clock displayed on the bar.

Edit your boot.ini, so that you can add switches or options when the operating system is loaded. Add these switches in front of the line which is loading OS
/basevideo Boots the computer using a standard VGA video driver. This option is used when you change video driver and then cannot use the new driver.
/fastdetect=comx Keeps the computer from auto-detecting a serial mouse attached to a serial port.
/maxmem = n Specifies the maximum amount of RAM that is recognized.
/noguiboot Boots Windows without loading the GUI.

To create a boot disk, format a floppy and copy files NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, NTBOOTDD.SYS, BOOT.INI. Copy ntbootdd.sys if you have SCSI controller. It might be possible that you need to edit boot.ini. This works when Windows fails to boot not on formatted hard disk.

For running DOS-based applications in Windows 2000/Xp, edit the config.nt file located at C:\Windows\system32\config.nt. Like we configure config.sys in Windows 9x, we can add lines in this file also. Eg.
files=250
buffers=40.

Open the Run Dialog box by pressing Window Key + R, and type iexpress and press OK button.

Edit under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StruckRect. Now delete the file StruckRects or struckRects2. Reboot required. Plz take a backup of the key before deleting.

To remove Messenger from Windows Xp, locate sysoc.inf file in c:\windows\inf folder. Open it in notepad. Locate the line msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 and remove the word hide, leave the commas as they are. Now go to Control Panel> Add oir Remove Programs > Add/Remove Windows Component. Now you can easily uninstall it from the component list.

To hide filename in thumbnail view, hold shift key when switching to thumbnail view. Repeat again to bring them back.

Create a file Folder.jpg, in the folder where you have placed your songs. Now, change your visualization setting of Windows Media Player to album art. Now when you play the song of that directory you can view that picture.

Create a file called Folder.jpg, that image will be used as thumbnail for that filder.

In Windows Xp, you can create a batch file using extension cmd. Eg
filename.cmd

To capture the screen of acitve window only then, press Alt + Print Screen and copy it in mspaint, now you can save it in your desired format.

While starting, Windows Xp runs scandisk. It asks to press a key to cancel the scandisk. The default time is 10 sec. however you can shorten up this time by chkntfs [/t[:time]] command in Command Prompt. Here enter time in seconds. Eg.
chkntfs /t:3 This will set the default wait time to 3 seconds.

Normally, when BSOD appears the system is halted, But you can reboot system by editing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet > CrashControl > AutoReboot set its value to 1. Now the system will reboot, when BSOD appears. It will append the crash log file.

To quickly preview animated cursor, right-click on the ANI file and choose Properties. In the upper-left corner of the dialog box you'll see the animation.

To view Zip files in folder view i.e. zip files viewed as ordinary folderthen, goto Start > Run, type regsvr32 zipfldr.dll and press OK.

If you don’t want to view Zip files in folder view i.e. zip files viewed as ordinary folderthen, goto Start > Run, type regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll and press OK.

Goto Start > Run and type RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove and press ok.

You can give a title to a command prompt in the title bar by using command title in the command prompt.

In Windows Xp, you can synchronize your System time with internet, edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DateTime\Servers . Add new string keys named 2, 3, etc. with a value of the time server you want to use.

To configure auto logon, goto Start > Run and type control userpasswords2. Uncheck User must enter a user name and password to use this computer.

Edit under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\ WindowsMediaPlayer, modify or create the string value TitleBar. Double Click on it, and enter the title of your choice.

Edit under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\ Settings, create or modify String value, EnableDVDUI, to enable enter value yes.

Edit under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders , delete the key{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you delete this, all of the Shared Documents folders which are normally under the group called Other Files Stored on This Computer will be gone. We recommend to take back up before deleting the key.

Edit under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList, Add a DWORD with the name of the user account you want to hide. Make sure it has a value of 0 If there is an existing account, you can unhide it by giving it a value of 1 .

Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD. At the first R=Repair option, press the R key. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair. Typically this will be #1.Change to the drive that has the CD ROM. Go to directory I386, expand ntkrnlmp.ex_ C:\Windows\System32\ntoskrnl.exe.If WindowsXP is installed in a different location, just make the necessary change to C:\Windows. Take out the CD ROM and type exit.

Save your image as a .gif file as lvback.gif in the messenger folder. Generally the messenger folder is c:\program files\messenger

To check wha has added you in contact list goto Tools > Options > Privacy and click View.

It represents the services running in computer. Goto Run > cmd, command prompt will open. Type Tasklist -svc. It will show the list of all process.

Some times, in Outlook Express, the spell check doesn't work. It's checked in the tools options menu, but still not working then do a search for csapi3t1.dll and copy it over to the Outlook Express folder.

Find the executable or program shortcut icon you'd like to run. Right-click the icon/exe and > Properties. Click the Compatibility tab. Select the operating system and other options according to program requirement.

In Windows Xp, you can shutdown windows using command shutdown. Run command from run or command prompt shutdown -s -t xx here xx is the time in seconds.

Run command systeminfo from command prompt. This will give you a lot of information about your system. Also you can information of other system running in same domain by using SYSTEMINFO [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]].

Goto Regedit > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > App Paths > HELPCTR.EXE. Create or modify a new key helpctr.exe. It should contain value C:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\HelpCtr.exe. Reboot require.

This allows users on a remote computer to connect to your computer and access resources. If you have no intention of using Remote Desktop, you should disable this option to increase security on your computer.You can easily disable Remote Desktop on your computer. Simply right click My Computer on your desktop and click Properties. Select the Remote tab and remove the check beside the Allow users to connect remotely to this computer option. Once you Click OK, users will no longer be able to connect to your computer.

Go to Run command > Type gpedit.msc to go to editor of Group Policy > Go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start menu and Taskbar > Locate and double click the Remove User Name from Start menu setting > Select the Enabled radio button > Click OK.

Create a shortcut with %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

To disable Windows Firewall in Windows PE, type net stop ipnat at the command prompt. To enable Windows Firewall in Windows PE, type net start ipnat.

Run command driverquery, this will display driver installed with their properties.

Right click on Recycle bin icon on desktop > Go to Properties > Global tab > Uncheck the option Display delete confirmation dialog

Run command from command prompt, C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis.exe -i -enable to register asp .net 2.0

From command prompt, run command net use * \\networksharedpath.
This will map available driver letter with network shared folder. If you want any specific drive letter then replace * with drive letter.

Go to Control Panel > User Accounts. Click on your account name. Under Related Tasks, click Prevent a forgotten password. A wizard will appear. Follow the directions in the Forgotten Password Wizard to create a password reset disk. Created disk will allow user to login without password.

You can underline the typed text in notepad, from registry add/modify the DWORD value HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad\lfUnderline, set the value to 1. Make sure, during this process notepad is not running. Now, open notepad and type, the type text appear will be underline.

To create an empty file in Windows, run command copy NUL filename, from command prompt. This will create 0 byte empty file.

Type fsmgmt.msc command in Run Window to know Shared files and folders , Sessions and Open Files.

Telnet is the user interface that communicates with another host using telnet protocol. Type telnet on command prompt, it enters in command mode, accepts and executes commands. For the list of commands type ? at the command prompt. Telnet can be used with following simple options: syntax: telnet [options]
-a - Automatic login to remote system.
-c - Disable reading of the users .telnetrc file.
-d - turn on socket level debugging.
-k - Do not allow automatic login to remote system.
-E - Disable the escape character functionality
-K - Do not allow automatic login to the remote system
-L - Specify an 8 bit data path on output
-X atype - Disable the atype type of authentication

This option is for users who do not want to allow system to be shut down without having to log on. Follow the steps below:
-Logon to computer as administrator.
-Go to Control Panel > Performance and Maintainence > Administrative tools > Local security policy > Expand Local Policies and select Security options.
-In the right pane double click Shutdown:Allow system to be shut down without having to logon policy
-Select Diabled and click OK.
This option will no more allow users to shutdown computer without logging.

To Refresh/update your windows Group Policy, run command gpupdate from command prompt. This will refresh User Policy and Computer Policy.

To get all the policy settings, run the command line GPResult.exe from command prompt. This will display a complete information about policy on your machine. For remote computer, execute command GPResult /s Computer Name.