Add a Map Drive Button to the Toolbar

If you map drives often, use one of these options to add a Map Drive button to the folder toolbar.

1. Option One (Long Term Fix)
• Click Start, click My Computer, right-click the toolbar, then unlock the toolbars, if necessary.
• Right-click the toolbar again, and then click Customize.
• Under Available toolbar buttons, locate Map Drive, and drag it into the position you want on the right under Current toolbar buttons.
• Click Close, click OK, and then click OK again.

You now have drive mapping buttons on your toolbar, so you can map drives from any folder window. To unmap drives, follow the above procedure, selecting Disconnect under Available toolbar buttons. To quickly map a drive, try this option.

or

2. Option Two (Quick Fix)
• Click Start, and right-click My Computer.
• Click Map Network Drive.

If you place your My Computer icon directly on the desktop, you can make this move in only two clicks!

How to Create a Password Reset Disk for computers that are part of a domain

Note that this procedure requires one blank, formatted floppy disk.

To create a password reset disk for your local user account:

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE. The Windows Security dialog box appears.
2. Click Change Password . The Change Password dialog box appears.
3. In the Log on to box, click the local computer. For example, click Computer (this computer) .
4. Click Backup . The Forgotten Password Wizard starts.
5. On the "Welcome to the Forgotten Password Wizard" page, click Next .
6. Insert a blank, formatted disk in drive A, and then click Next .
7. In the Current user account password box, type your password, and then click Next . The Forgotten Password Wizard creates the disk.
8. When the progress bar reaches 100 percent complete, click Next , and then click Finish . The Forgotten Password Wizard quits and you return to the Change Password dialog box.
9. Remove, and then label the password reset disk. Store the disk in a safe place.
10. In the Change Password dialog box, click Cancel .
11. In the Windows Security dialog box, click Cancel.

If you forget your password, you can log on to the computer with a new password that you create by using the Password Reset Wizard and your password reset disk.
To gain access to your local user account on a computer that is a member of a domain, or has been disconnected from a domain:

1. In the Welcome to Windows dialog box, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
2. In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type an incorrect password in the Password box, and then click OK .
3. In the Logon Failed dialog box that appears, click Reset . The Password Reset Wizard starts. The Password Reset Wizard lets you create a new password for your local user account.
4. On the "Welcome to the Password Reset Wizard" page, click Next .
5. Insert the password reset disk in drive A, and then click Next .
6. On the "Reset the User Account Password" page, type a new password in the Type a new password box.
7. Type the same password in the Type the password again to confirm box.
8. In the Type a new password hint box, type a hint that will help you remember the password if you forget it. NOTE : This hint is visible to anyone who attempts to log on to the computer by using your user account.
9. Click Next , and then click Finish . The Password Reset Wizard quits and you return to the Log On to Windows dialog box. The password reset disk is automatically updated with the new password information. You do not have to create a new password reset disk.
10. In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type your new password in the Password box.
11. In the Log on to box, click the local computer. For example, click Computer (this computer) , and then click OK . You are logged on to the local computer with your local account information.

Free 3GP Video Converter

"Convert 3GP files to MP4 and AVI, video with Free 3GP Video Converter"Free

3GP Video converter:-Convert 3GP video files recorded with your cell phone to more common PC video formats AVI or MP4 or back other video files to 3GP. Extract audio from 3GP video files.Convert 3GP to AVI, 3GP to MP4, 3GP to MP3 audio and back AVI, MP4 and others to 3GP. It's clearly free and absolutely safe to install and run.
This 3GP converter is to convert the video files to several format and the main advantage is freeware.You can download it from this site

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Speed up the Start Menu

You can use this tip to speed up the Start Menu in Windows XP release candidate 1. You can customize the speed of the Start Menu by editing a Registry Key.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type Regedit in the box, and then click OK.
3. Expand the menu in the left panel and select the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop folder.
4. Scroll down in the right panel and double click on the MenuShowDelay file.
5. In the Value Data box, change to default value for the menu speed from 400 to a lesser number, such as 1.
6. Click OK.

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on your computer.

Increase your cable modem or DSL speed in XP

This tips is for broad band cable connections on stand alone machines with winXP professional version - might work on Home version also. It will probably work with networked machines as well but I haven't tried it in that configuration. This is for windows XP only, it does not work on win2000.

This tweak assumes that you have let winXP create a connection on install for your cable modem/NIC combination and that your connection has tcp/ip - QoS - file and print sharing - and client for microsoft networks , only, installed. It also assumes that winxp will detect your NIC and has in-box drivers for it.

or

If it doesn't do not try this.

In the "My Network Places" properties (right click on the desktop icon and choose properties), highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose "Advanced" then "Advanced Settings". Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK

1. From the windows XP cd in the support directory from the support cab, extract the file netcap.exe and place it in a directory on your hard drive or even in the root of your C:\ drive.
2. next, open up a command prompt window and change directories to where you put netcap.exe. then type "netcap/?". It will list some commands that are available for netcap and a netmon driver will be installed. At the bottom you will see your adapters. You should see two of them if using a 3Com card. One will be for LAN and the other will be for WAN something or other.
3. Next type "netcap/Remove". This will remove the netmon driver.
4. Open up control panel / system / dev man and look at your network adapters. You should now see two of them and one will have a yellow ! on it. Right click on the one without the yellow ! and choose uninstall. YES! you are uninstalling your network adapter, continue with the uninstall. Do not restart yet.
5. Check your connection properties to make sure that no connection exists. If you get a wizard just cancel out of it.
6. Now re-start the machine.
7. After re-start go to your connection properties again and you should have a new connection called "Local area connection 2". highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose "Advanced" then "Advanced Settings". Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK.
8. Choose connection properties and uncheck the "QOS" box
9. Re-start the machine
10. after restart enjoy the increased responsivness of IE, faster page loading, and a connection speed boost.

Why it works, it seems that windows XP, in its zeal to make sure every base is covered installs two seperate versions of the NIC card. One you do not normally see in any properties. Remember the "netcap/?" command above showing two different adapters? The LAN one is the one you see. The invisible one loads everything down and its like your running two separate cards together, sharing a connection among two cards, this method breaks this "bond" and allows the NIC to run un-hindered.

Download Acclerator Plus

Download manager brings much more to the table than fast file transfers, but it definitely delivers those, too. Increased download speeds are Download Accelerator Plus speed up downloads by almost 200 percent in most cases and occasionally as high as 400 percent.Besides splitting files into smaller pieces, it thrives on automatically seeking faster mirrors. It also can get a file simultaneously from several sites, which is useful if a particular site limits the download speed; it can resume downloads; and it can preview some media files while downloading. There's also a blacklist for sites that you never want to accept downloads from, and categorized folders and filters to keep your downloads organized. DAP rolls in a media buffer, too, that allegedly will prevent streaming-video hiccups. Two new features include a UI change that lets users choose a Firefox- or Internet Explorer-styled download window, and integration with DAP's publisher's video converter. Downloading and converting video on the fly is a pretty smart way to keep the program fresh. The program will prompt you at your first attempt if you don't have the converter installed and guide you through its installation. Frustratingly, the install process will weigh you down with a ton of toolbars, default switches, and e-mail recommendations that you must opt out of for a clean installation.

Downloads

Increase BROADBAND Internet connection Speed

1. Make sure your logged on as actually "Administrator". do not log on with any account that just has administrator privileges.
2. Start - run - type gpedit.msc
3. Expand the "local computer policy" branch
4. Expand the "administrative templates" branch
5. Expand the "network branch"
6. Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left window
7. In right window double click the "limit reservable bandwidth" setting
8. On setting tab check the "enabled" item
9. It says "Bandwidth limit %" change it to read 0

Effect is immediate on some systems, some need to re-boot. This is more of a "counter what XP does" thing. In other words, programs can request up to 20% of the bandwidth be reserved for them, even with QoS disabled, this is no big deal and most programs do not request it. So, although QOS has caused a big stink because people think it reserves 20% of their bandwidth, you can still disable it

Internet Connection Sharing

To enable Internet Connection Sharing on a network connection:

1. Open Network Connections.
2. Click the dial-up, local area network, PPPoE, or VPN connection you want to share, and then, under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection.
3. On the Advanced tab, select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box.
4. If you want this connection to dial automatically when another computer on your home or small office network attempts to access external resources, select the Establish a dial-up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet check box.
5. If you want other network users to enable or disable the shared Internet connection, select the Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection check box.
6. Under Internet Connection Sharing, in Home networking connection, select any adapter that connects the computer sharing its Internet connection to the other computers on your network.

Youtube Downloader

This simple freeware application software works pretty well, given how basic the interface is. It has two main features: to download FLV files from YouTube, and to convert them to most major formats. If there's a YouTube URL in your clipboard, it will automatically paste it for you when you click on the dialog box. From there, just hit OK and the downloading will commence. One more left-click is all it takes to load the file in the converter, which supports iPhone, iPod, PSP, cell phone, AVI, MP3, WMV, and Xvid. Surprisingly, there's also a basic video editor for cropping videos by time stamp. You can also cut out the sound when converting.

This is one of the lightest editors around, but the simplistic interface belies its functionality and it performs exactly as advertised. We'd like to see support in future editions for hunting down missing codecs, and version 2.1.5 and earlier won't work because of embed code changes on YouTube itself. Still, the YouTube Downloader is proof that not only is video-making accessible to everyone, so is video downloading and editing.

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Win XP Won't Completely Shutdown

Windows xp is not shutting down completely

• Goto Control Panel, then goto Power Options.
• Click on the APM Tab, then check the "Enable Advanced Power Management support."

Shut down your PC. It should now successfully complete the Shut Down process

Reduce Temporary Internet File Space

The temporary internet files clutter your hard drive with copies of each page visited. These can build up over time and take up disk space. Even more bother some is that instead of getting new pages each time IE often takes the page out the temp internet files. This can be a problem if you are viewing a website that is updated all the time. If you are on a slow connection such as a 56K or lower then this can be good but if you are on a fast broadband connection, like me, then you can get away with decreasing the size of your temp internet files to just one meg without any performance decrease.

Disable error reporting in windows xp

Disabling Windows XP error reporting

• Open Control Panel
• Click on Performance and Maintenance.
• Click on System.
• Then click on the Advanced tab
• Click on the error-reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
• Select Disable error reporting.
• Click OK
• Click OK

Remove shortcut arrow from desktop icons

how to remove those shortcut arrows from your desktop icons in Windows XP.

1. Start regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTlnkfile.
3. Delete the Shortcut registry value.

You may need to restart Windows XP.

How to remove the MSN Messenger service from XP

Want to remove MSN Messenger?

Locate SYSOC.INF in the \Windows\INF folder (hidden file and folder), Open it in Notepad and locate the line: msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

Remove the word "hide" from the line and save the file. You will now have an entry in add/remove programs.)

OR (XP Pro Only) leaves it installed, but tell Windows to never let it run. If you're running XP Professional, you can use GPEDIT.MSC to prevent Messenger from loading. Otherwise, even disabling it in startup won't cause it to "always" not run.

NOTE: Outlook, Outlook Express and some Microsoft web pages can still make it load.

· Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC

· Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Messenger

· You can now modify whether it starts initially and/or whether it's to run at all.

UPDATE: I got some email that say this fix slows down outlook when starting, that is because outlook wants to start messenger when it starts, the easiest and fastest way to disable messenger and still have a quickj starttime with outlook is to rename the exe file, located here c:\program files\messenger\msmsgs.exe, to something other than msmsgs.exe, such as msmsgsnew.exe.

How to Install the Netbeui Protocol on a Windows XP-Based Computer

This steps describes how to install the NetBEUI protocol on a Windows XP-based computer. This may be useful because the NetBEUI protocol is not included in the list of installable protocols in Windows XP even though the files that are needed to install the protocol are included with the installation CD-ROM. It is important to note that the NetBEUI protocol is not supported on Windows XP.

The Netnbf.inf and Nbf.sys files are the files that are needed to install the NetBEUI protocol. To install the NetBEUI protocol:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections.
2. Right-click the adapter you want to add NetBEUI to, and then click Properties.
3. On the General tab, click Install.
4. Click Protocol, and then click Add.
5. Click Have Disk, insert your Windows XP CD-ROM, open the Valueadd\msft\net\netbeui folder, click the Netnbf.inf file, and then click Open.
6. Click OK, and then click OK to complete the installation.