Windows XP Tips & Tricks(Easter Egg) - part 2

Sorry for the late. But this what you waiting for Game Secrets:D. Happy Trying.

3. Game Secrets

FreeCell
Secret - Instant Win
Instruction - Hold down Ctrl + Shift + F10 during game play. Then you will be asked if you want to Abort, Retry or Ignore. Choose Abort, then move any card to instantly win.

Secret - Hidden Game Modes
Instruction - In the "Game" menu choose "Select Game". Enter -1 or -2 to activate the hidden game modes.

Minesweeper
Secret - Reveal Mines
Instructions - Minimize or close all running applications. Launch Minesweeper, then type xyzzy. Next hold down either shift key for one second. Now when you move the mouse cursor over a Minesweeper square you will see a tiny pixel in the top left corner of your desktop screen. This pixel will change to black when your mouse moves over a mine. You may need to change you desktop background to a solid color other then white or black to see the pixel.

Pinball
Secret - Extra Balls
Instructions - Type lmax at the start of a new ball to get extra balls.

Secret - Gravity Well
Instructions - Type gmax at the start of a new game to activate Gravity Well.

Secret - Instant Promotion
Instructions - Type rmax at the start of a new game to go up in ranks.

Secret - Skill Shot
Instruction - Launch the ball partially up the chute past the third yellow light bar so it falls back down to get 75.000 points. There are six yellow light bars that are worth a varying amount of points :
First: 15.000
Second: 30.000
Third: 75.000
Fourth: 30.000
Fifth: 15.000
Sixth: 7.500

Secret - Test MOde
Instructions - Type hidden test at the start of a new ball to activate Test Mode. No notification will be given that this is activated but you can now left-click the mouse button an drag the ball around.

Secret - Unlimited Balls
Instructions - Type bmax at the start of a new ball. No notificatin will be given that this is activated but when a ball is lost a new ball will appear from the yellow wormhole indefinitely. Once this is activated you will be unable to activate other secrets without restarting the game.

Solitaire
Secret - Instant Win
Instruction - Press Alt + Shift + 2 during game play to instantly win.

Secret - Draw single cards in a Draw Three game
Instruction - Hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift while drawing a new card. Instead of drawing three cards you will only draw one.

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Windows XP Tips & Tricks(Easter Egg) - part 1

The programmers of Windows XP has made some hidden feature in XP, that not many people know. I will tell you, I got it from internet. I will tell you just Application Secrets and OS secrets, Game secrets will be posted next time. So keep reading this blog. I will post it within a week from now.

1. Application Secrets.

Defrag
Secret - Hidden Command Line Switch
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Run" and Type defrag c: -b to defragment the Boot and Application Prefetch information. Similar to what BootVis invokes.

Paint
Secret - Image Trails
Instructions - Open an image and hold down Shift then drag the image around to create an image trail.
Secret - 10 X zoomInstructions - Open an image and select the magnifying glass icon. Left-click exactly on the line below the 8 X.

2. OS Secrets.

Add/Remove
Secret - Hidden Uninstall Options
Instructions - Warning: Preceed at your own risk.
Browse to C:\Windows\inf\ and make a backup copy of sysoc.inf. Then open the original file C:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf in notepad. Go to "Edit" and select "Replace". In "Find what" type, hide and in "Replace with:" type, then select "Replace All", save and close the file. Go to the control panel, "Add/Remove", select "Add/Remove Windows Components". You will now see many more Windows components to uninstall. Do not remove anything with no label or that you do not recognize or fully understand what it does. Doing so can break certain functionality in Windows.

Control Panel
Secret - Hidden Control Panel Extensions
Instructions - Download and install Tweak UI, launch, go to "Control Panel" and check any item not selected, then "Apply" and "OK". You will now see the hidden control panel extensions.

Device Manager
Secret - Hidden Devices
Instructions - Go to the control panel, "System" icon, "Hardware" tab and select "Device Manager". Select View and Show hidden devices.

Music
Secret - Music from the Installer
Instruction - Browse to C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma and play

Shutdown
Secret - Display Hibernate Option on Shut Down dialog.
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Turn Off Computer" and press either Shift key to change "Stand By" button to "Hibernate".

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Hiding "Run" for your Safety

"Long time, not giving tips or news. Because there is internet problem:D."

I just got a new tips to hide and disable "Run" function at Start Menu. "Run" have very many function for helping us, like making a shortcut to some system aplication(regedit,msconfig,etc). But if it's a shared computer, it may be dangerous, because it's function actually can make problems for you. So, for safety we can hide and disable. There are 2 ways to do it from "Start Menu"(Easy) properties or "Registry Editor"(Hard) using "regedit". For security it's better from "Registry Editor".

The Easy Way - Start Menu Properties
1. "Right-Click" at the center of taskbar where there are no program opened.
2. Choose 'properties' then 'Taskbar and Start Menu Properties' should come out.
3. Choose 'Start Menu' tab -> Customize.
There are different because there are 2 start menu at WinXP the modern and classic.
For Modern: Choose 'Advanced' tab, at the Start menu items uncheck "Run Command" -> OK.
For Classic: Uncheck "Display Run" -> OK
4. OK

It should gone now:D. But it's easy to view it back.

The Hard Way - Modifying the Registry
Before you start, to hide/unhide it we need to use "Regedit" and "Regedit" is opened by "Run". So we can make a shortcut to open it without using "Run", so we can open "Regedit" faster.

Making shortcut to Regedit:
1. Right-click on the desktop -> New -> shortcut
2. Type "C:\Windows\System32\regedt32.exe" /OR/ Click "Browse" and go to "C:\Windows\System32"('C' is your current operating system partition) and choose "regedt32.exe"
3. OK -> Next -> OK.
OR
1. Open My Computer -> 'C'(your current operating system partition) -> Windows -> System32
2. Find and right-click "regedt32.exe" -> Send to -> Desktop(create shortcut)

Modifying the Registry
1. Start -> Run -> type "regedit"
2. Browse to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Policies -> Explorer"
3. Right-click at the right side -> New -> Dword Value "/OR/ Edit -> New -> Dword Value.
4. Type "NoRun" for the name, enter
5. Double-click it change the 'value data' to '1'
6. Restart

Note this will make "New Task(Run) at Task Manager gone too.
So, to unhide it just delete that 'Dword Value', then restart.

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New Hard Drive Head will Increase HDD Capacity to 4TB

" New Head for Hard Drive(HDD), new Head is being developed. And will be
released at 2011. It's a long time:D. This Head can write datas with smaller
size than the HDD Head now."

Hitachi develops new hard drive head technology that will increase storage capacity to 4TB by 2011

Hitachi recently announced that it has achieved a breakthrough in hard drive read-head design.

This breakthrough has produced read-heads in the 30-50 nanometer range, approximately 2,000 times smaller than the width of an average human hair. This new technology is called current perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistive heads.

Giant magnetoresistance principles won scientists Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physics.

These new heads will allow Hitachi to expand storage capacity in standard 3.5-inch desktop hard drives to 4TB and extend 2.5-inch laptop hard drives to 1TB of capacity. Hitachi says that it plans to integrate these new heads into hard drives starting in 2009 and that the technology will reach maturity in 2011.

The first products to reach market in 2009 will use recording heads of 50nm and products with recording heads of 30nm will hit market in 2011. Hitachi representatives believe the new heads will allow for storage densities of up to 500GB per square inch. The current highest capacity drives from Hitachi can only pack in 200GB per square inch.

Another benefit of the significantly smaller heads is that the hard drives will product less noise. Test products using 50nm heads produced 40dB of sound while the 30nm heads produced 30dB. Large capacity hard drives that produce less noise will be a welcome addition to digital video recorders.

Taken from DailyTech.

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Microsoft Provides XP Downgrade for Unhappy Vista Users

"Hello, long time not blogging. I just read that An OEM Vista Bussiness and
Ultimate User can downgrade not upgrade their OS to XP:D. So if you are unhappy you may downgrade it. Are you one of them??"

You can read it at DailyTech.

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ZPower Pushes Silver-Zinc Batteries as Alternative to Lithium-Ion

" Longer Battery Life course make more comfortable and more mobile. Now ZPower making battery just like we want a longer life battery."

ZPower promises 30 percent greater power density than lithium-ion cells

When it comes to mobile devices, battery life is paramount. Whether it’s a mobile phone, laptop or MP3 player; long battery life is an oft-requested feature by consumers.

Most of today's battery-powered devices make use of lithium-ion batteries which come with their own set of problems. As witnessed by the massive recalls last year of Sony-manufactured batteries, lithium-ion batteries can sometimes present a safety hazard.

ZPower's prototype silver-zinc notebook battery pack (Source: DailyTech, Brandon Hill)

Auto giant Toyota even shunned lithium-ion batteries for its next generation Prius. The company again cited safety concerns with the decision to stick with nickel-metal hydride batteries. Having a notebook catch fire due to faulty batteries is one thing, but having a $23,000 Prius rolling down the street on fire presents its own set of safety and legal challenges.

ZPower is looking to supplant lithium-ion technology with a battery chemistry that is safer and has improved energy output. The company had its new batteries on display this week at the Intel Developer Forum.

The ZPower batteries have an energy density that is 30 percent higher than that of lithium-ion batteries. According to ZPower president and CEO Ross Dueber, the batteries can even be safely overcharged to allow for additional runtime.

ZPower batteries are composed of a composite polymer zinc anode, layered separator and a nano-particle silver cathode. Since the cells used in ZPower's batteries are water-based, they are as safe to use as traditional alkaline batteries.

The zinc and silver used in the batteries are also 95 percent recyclable. ZPower will have a program in place in which customers can recycle their used batteries and get reimbursed for the value of the silver and zinc recovered. Customers will receive a check or receive credit towards the purchase of new cells according to Dueber.

All is not well, however, with ZPower's batteries. Pre-production batteries are only good for about 100 cycles compared to around 300 cycles for lithium-ion batteries. ZPower hopes to increase this figure to 200 cycles by mid-2008 and to 300+ cycles by 2010.

Due to the difference in voltage and battery chemistry of silver-zinc batteries, they are not at their most efficient when used in existing lithium-ion based devices. In other words, ZPower's batteries would be best suited for newly designed notebooks, mobile phones, etc. which can better cope with silver-zinc battery characteristics.

There is also no pricing information available for ZPower’s batteries in relation to traditional lithium-ion counterparts. And then there’s the issue of market adoption of silver-zinc batteries. As of now, ZPower only has one major OEM onboard to use its battery technology in notebooks, but Dueber declined to name the company.

Taken From DailyTech

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Internet Explorer 7 Now Available to Pirates

" Microsoft just made a new version of Internet Explorer that doesn't need Windows Genuine Validation,  that's mean non-Genuine Windows can now upgrade their Internet Explorer, without any other program. But what are their aiming, is there anything that like spyware?? We don't know."

Microsoft has released a minor update to Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP, removing the requirement for users to be validated through the company's Windows Genuine Advantage program. This means those with non-legitimate or pirated copies of Windows can now upgrade their browser.

IE7 was released to the public nearly a year ago, but has yet to overtake its predecessor as the most used Web browser. The removal of the WGA requirement is sure to boost install numbers over IE6, and -- as Microsoft notes -- in turn protect more users from security threats on the Web.


Although it continues to update IE6 for Windows XP with security fixes, the aging operating system is nearing the end of its mainstream support. In addition, IE7 includes a phishing filter that Microsoft says protects consumers at a rate of 900,000 times per week, along with native support for Extended Validation SSL Certificates to prevent fraud.

While the carrot-and-stick approach with WGA has been used to reduce piracy and catch unscrupulous resellers, Microsoft likely decided that those willing to validate their OS in order to upgrade to IE7 would have already done so in the past year, and those that have not would never do so.

Microsoft has made a number of minor changes to IE7 for Windows XP users as well. The menu bar is now enabled by default, and the "first run" experience and product tour have been expanded. An MSI installation is also now available to IT administrators.

Windows XP users can download the new IE7 release via FileForum, or wait for it to be delivered via Automatic Updates.
Taken from BetaNews

Download Internet Explorer 7 WGA Removed at FileForum.

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USB 3.0 to Bring 10x Speed Increase in 2008

" USB 3.0 is beign developed. It's 10x faster. Hope it coming soon. "

Intel discusses its plans for USB 3.0 technology

During Patrick Gelsinger's keynote at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) today, Intel made a small announcement regarding a group of companies who are now working together to create a "superspeed personal USB interconnect” with 10 times the speed of the current generation technology of USB 2.0. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group -- which consists of Intel, Hewlett-Packard, NEC Corporation, NXP Semiconductors, Microsoft and Texas Instruments -- looks to make several other major changes.

Along with the 10x speed difference between USB 3.0 and the current generation, the USB 3.0 Promoter Group is taking power consumption and better protocol efficiency into consideration while designing 3.0. USB 3.0 will be able to use the same architecture of wired USB, though no other specific details are yet available.

To help drive home the importance of USB technology, Gelsinger pointed out the usual USB devices everyday users have in their homes and offices: keyboards, mice, speakers, cameras, etc. He also introduced a number of novelty items that are powered by USB including refrigerators and mittens.

"USB 3.0 is the next logical step for the PC's most popular wired connectivity," said Jeff Ravencraft, Intel technology strategist and USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) president. "The digital era requires high-speed performance and reliable connectivity to move the enormous amounts of digital content now present in everyday life. USB 3.0 will meet this challenge while maintaining the ease-of-use experience that users have come to love and expect from any USB technology."

Specific USB 3.0 specifications should be available sometime in the first half of 2008.

Taken from DailyTech

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