How To Format USB Drive With NTFS File System

The advantage of NTFS file system is that it is fast and it has got security options. But the problem is that usually the USB drives are small enough that NTFS is not recommended for them. But nowadays the USB drives are coming with larger sizes. So it’s better to format a drive as NTFS than the traditional FAT32 of FAT file systems which have no security at all. Having NTFS file system on the USB drive has an advantage that one can configure the security of the drive so that it is write-able only on one system and becomes read only on all other systems. So you can read and write on your own system and transfer the files elsewhere without the fear of the virus infections etc as the drive becomes read-only in all other systems.

Usually when we want to format the USB drive, only FAT and FAT32 file systems are available for the format. Here is the trick by which you can format the drive with NTFS file system.

1. Plug in your USB drive
2. Go to Start –> Run –> devmgmt.msc
3. Device manager will open up. Expand Disk Drives. Right Click your USB drive and select Properties.
   
4. Go to policies tab and select Optimize for performance.
   
5. Click OK
6. Now go to My Computer, right click the USB drive and select Format
7. In the File system selection combo, the option of NTFS will be available now
   
8. Select NTFS and click Start.
9. Your USB drive will be formatted with NTFS file system. Now you can configure it’s security by right clicking the drive and going to properties –> security tab.

Note: To be always safe with data using NTFS, always safely eject the USB drive. See my article

Gtalk trick-How to open Multiple gtalk windows???

Gtalk trick-How to open Multiple gtalk windows
1. Right-click GTalk shortcut and select Properties.
2. The shortcut properties dialog box as shown below should popup.
3. Just add /nomutex to the existing text
Eg: "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex
4. Now you can launch multiple windows and use different ID's.

Cheers!!!

How to Fix Internet Explorer Crashes

Internet Explorer to me is a very delicate browser. There are some major improvements in IE 7 but the base remains the same. People find it very difficult when Internet Explorer crashes and all the data is lost. Sometimes, the Internet Explorer keeps on crashing. There are several reasons behind this but the most common reason is the add-ons which are installed in Internet Explorer.

How to Find Out the Installed Add-ons:

Internet Explorer 7 includes an add-on manager which can be accessed from Internet Explorer Tools Menu –> Manage Add-Ons –> Enable or Disable Add-Ons.

Internet Explorer 6 or less has this option in Tools –> Internet Options –> Programs –> Manage Add-Ons..

Here you will see all the Add-Ons which are installed in Internet Explorer. The most common reason of Internet Explorer crash is that some application has probably installed an add-on for Internet Explorer and it’s not working properly.

How to Fix Crashes:

When Internet Explorer is constantly crashing, go to Control Panel –> Internet Options –> Programs –> Manage Add-Ons.

See in your Crash error report that will be displayed after the crash, which module has created the crash. If you can’t find it, just try disabling the enabled add-ons one by one and see if your Internet Explorer start working again or not. Keep on doing this until you get the module which was creating troubles. Disable it and enable all others.

Having more problems?

Microsoft has a very good troubleshooter regarding Internet Explorer. If you are having more problems with Internet Explorer, I would recommend going to the following site and troubleshoot your problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/pc_ie_start

Make Folder A Drive In My Computer

There are several methods to make a drive in My Computer. I will list a few of them.

Method 1 - Map Network Drive

1- Right Click the folder you want to make a drive. Go to Properties –> Sharing.
Share the folder with a name.

2- Go to My Computer –> Tools –> Map Network Drive.
Select the Drive letter and browse to the folder which you shared.

Method 2 - Using subst command

Open Command Prompt (type cmd in Run) and type the following commands to create the folder as a drive in My Computer

SUBST [drive1: [drive2:]path]

For Example if I want to create a drive of C:\Windows and the drive name is W. Then I will use the following command:

subst W: C:\Windows

For more options type subst /?

The problem with this method is that it is temporary. If you restart your computer, all the virtual drives will be gone. You need to write a batch script and put it in your startup to make the changes permanent.

Method 3 - Using Software

There is a small handy utility which does all the work which subst command does. It also lets you keep the drives as permanent even when you’re restarting. It’s name is Virtual Drive Manager.

How To Remove infostealer pws-yahmali Virus

Today I got a mail from John stating that he wanted to remove pws-yahmali virus. So I have researched on the removal of this virus. McAfee detection center calls it pws-yahmali trojen and Symantec calls it infostealer.yahmali. It’s risk level is very low. And it’s only a password stealer. It attempts to steal the password of the yahoo messenger (whichever user logs in) and sends to hxxp://www.ilam-mind-makers.com.

How It Infects The System

The Trojan may be downloaded or may arrive in spammed email as one of the following files:

• %Temp%\services.exe
• %Temp%\LSASS.EXE
• %Temp%\SMSS.EXE
• %Temp%\CSRSS.EXE
• %Temp%\WINLOGON.EXE

Once executed, the Trojan creates one of the following file:
%CurrentFolder%\[RANDOM FILENAME]

It also creates and modifies some registry keys.

The Trojan specifically checks for Yahoo! Messenger with the following text in the window title:
Yahoo! Messenger with Voice (BETA)

How to remove pws-yahmali

First of all I would strongly suggest that all the users should have a good antivirus installed in their systems so that chance of malware is as less as possible. Here is my article of how to get a 6 months trial of Kaspersky Internet Security.

After scanning with an antivirus, follow the instructions below to remove pws-yahmali completely:

1. Disable System Restore (How to disable system restore)
2. Clean all the temporary files on the system. Use CCleaner to clean your system. You can use the third method of cleaning which is described in the following article (How To Edit Run Command History)
3. Delete the following registry keys: (Go to Start –> Run –> regedit and find the following key and delete it)
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\”shell” = “explorer.exe “C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\[ORIGINAL TROJAN FILENAME].exe [RANDOM CHARACTERS]“
4. Run the following commands: (Go to Start –> Run and copy and paste the following commands one by one):

REG add HKCU\software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced /v HideFileExt /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

REG add HKCU\software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced /v ShowSuperHidden /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

This is all you have to do. If you are still having problems, please let me know. Also share your experiences in comments

How To Restore Compressed (Zipped) Folder in Send To Menu

Kavi from Gujrat has asked about how to restore compressed (Zipped) Folder in Send To Menu. Here is his question reproduced:

Recently i am facing one new problem. in my pc when i try to send any file to Compress doing right click on it, where the option SEND TO COMPRESSED FOLDER should be visible, that is disappear from the menu.
I have to send about 10mb of excel files to my company and such file must be compressed, i don’t know suddenly why this facility gone from the right click menu,

The file compression utility is included in Windows XP by default. If you can’t find the shortcut of Compressed (Zipped) Folder in your Send To menu, please follow the instructions below:

Method 1:

Go to Start –> Run and copy and paste the following command:
rundll32 zipfldr.dll,RegisterSendto

This will automatically restore Compressed (Zipped) Folder in Send To Menu.

Method 2:

Just download this Compressed (Zipped) Folder file, unzip it and save it in the following location:

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\SendTo
where C is your Operating System drive and %username% is your user folder which you’ll find in Documents and Settings.

If you still have problems, please let me know through comments. Share your experiences.

My Documents Folder Opens At Windows Startup

One of our regular reader, has asked that why My Documents folder opens at Windows Startup. Here’s his question:

My documents opens automatically when computer is booted. How to get rid of this unexpectedely opening of my documents?

The Reason:

The reason for this is simple. My Documents folder is in your startup that’s why it’s opening at startup. But this startup is a special type of startup which is initiated by userinit process.

How to fix this:

To fix the problem of My Documents Folder opening at Windows startup, just follow the steps below:

1. Go to Start –> Run –> Regedit
2. Find the following key:
   HKEY_ LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Win­dows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. On the right hand pane, find Userinit and double click it to edit its value. Its value should be something like this (depending on your Windows Installation Directory):
   c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe
4. If any additional values are there (most probably My Documents folder will be listed there), remove them and click OK.
   
5. Restart Your Computer.

Most probably My Documents Folder will not come up at startup again.

Diagnose Your Network Problems In Windows XP

The computers which are on the network counter a lot of network problems from time to time. Windows Vista has a cool function of diagnosing the network problems automatically and informing about the possible causes. Windows XP also includes a network diagnostics utility which is hidden. So you have to digg in Windows system folders to find the utility. Here are two useful ways to diagnose your network problems in Windows XP without using a third party software:

Method 1: Using Help and Support

Windows XP is the least that is used. It includes all the documentation of Windows XP. So you’ll mostly find some extra things when you look around in Windows XP Help and Support. I am also guilty of not using Help and Support function in most of my problems. Today I’ll show how to diagnose network problems using help and support.

Go to Start –> Help and Support (shortcut for this is Start –> Run –> helpctr)

Select Use Tools to view your computer information and diagnose problems

Select Network Diagnosis from the left hand Tools Pane.

In the right hand pane, select Scan your system.

Windows will scan your system for different types of network options and tell you if there is a problem with something. You can select which options should be checked. The image below shows the options available in Windows XP.

Method 2: Using XPNETDIAG

This utility I discovered two days back. It does the same thing as Method 1 but it doesn’t have any configuration options and it only shows you the connectivity stats. To access this utility, go to C:\WINDOWS\network diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe where C is your Windows System drive. This will open up the Network Diagnostics utility.

Click Next to start the diagnosis process.

If there is any problem, it will tell you the problem and possible solutions. If there are any other ways that are built into Windows, please let us know.

How To Enable or Disable Thumbs.db In Windows

Thumbs.db is a database file which stores the thumbnails of all pictures and videos in a folder so that Windows doesn’t have to create the thumbnails every time the folder is opened. I don’t use the thumbnails view most of the time as I’m not dealing with pictures all the time. So I prefer to turn off this feature so that it may save me some processing time and hard drive space. Here are the two methods by which you can disable Thumbs.db file in Windows.

Method 1: Using Control Panel

To disable Thumbs.db, go to Start –> Control Panel –> Folder Options –> View

Check “Do not cache thumbnails”

Method 2: Through Group Policy

To disable or enable thumbnails.db through group policy, do the following:

Go to Start –> Run –> gpedit.msc

Group policy editor will open. Now go to the following in the left hand pane:

User Configuration –> Administrative templates –> Windows Components –> Windows Explorer

In the right hand pane, double click “Turn off caching of thumbnail pictures”

Enable or disable it appropriately

Please note that group policy may take some time to be applied correctly. If you want to forcibly apply the changes you’ve made immediately, please do the following:

Go to Start –> Run –> gpupdate /force

How To Eject USB Devices Safely

When ejecting a USB device, you may get the following error message:

The device ‘generic volume’cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later.

This error usually comes because some files from the USB device are being used or open by some running process. You can’t eject the device until you close all the files that are open from the USB device. Sometimes, even though we have closed all the programs but the USB eject still displays the same error. This is because some process is accessing the file. There are several ways to see which files are open from USB device. Two of them are as under.

Method 1: Using EjectUSB

EjectUSB is a small utility which will automatically close all the files that are being used from the USB device and then eject the USB for safe removal.

How to use EjectUSB

Just download EjectUSB from the below link:
Download EjectUSB




Extract the zip file and then copy EjectUSB.exe and EjectUSB.ini in your Windows folder (C:\Windows). This is recommended for easy access from your Run menu.

Now whenever you want to eject your USB device, just go to Start –> Run –> ejectusb O:
(Replace O is your USB drive you want to eject)

This will automatically close all the open files from your USB device and then eject it automatically.

Method 2: Using Filemon

If you want to see which files are open from your USB device and manually close all of them, then you should use this method. Download Filemon from below. Unzip it.

Run Filemon.exe. It will show up all the files that are open in your computer.

Now go to Volumes menu and select No Volumes. This will deselect all the selected volumes. Now go to Volumes menu again and select your USB drive. This will give you all the files that are open from your USB drive.

Now you can see which files are open from your USB drive and which process is using it. Identifying that, you can easily close the process to release the file.

Internet Explorer Error: The Memory Could Not Be Read

Kavi, a regular reader here asks about his problem that he’s facing. He asks:

Now a Days I’m facing following problem.On working more than one browser the error comes which I’ve attached here.Clicking OK button it disconnects Internet and all browsers as well.

Actually this is a problem with Internet Explorer 6 which Microsoft has confirmed. This error occurs with the websites which use long URL strings called from scripts. Internet Explorer uses Index.dat file to store all the URLs accessed through Internet Explorer but it is not good enough to store any additional information that Internet Explorer wants to save due to long URL string of the website. So some information is lost and when that webpage is accessed again, this error is displayed. A hotfix is available from Microsoft to correct this problem. Please follow the link below to request the hotfix from Microsoft.

Hotfix for Internet Explorer 6

I think Internet Explorer 6 should be upgraded to version 7 atleast which is more stable and more secure.

However my recommendation is to use Firefox which is more secure and fast and offers many other features which no other browser does.

5 Ways To Change Password Of Users In Windows XP

My friend asked about how to change the passwords of users in Windows XP. I just researched and found out five ways to change the password of users in Windows XP. I’m explaining every way one by one. If you know any other interesting way, please let me know through comments.

Using Ctrl Alt Delete

This is the easiest one in my opinion. If your press Ctrl Alt Del when you are logged onto your Windows XP machine, it will show you the classic security options.

Select change password and change the password of the logged on user.

Note: If the security options does not appear. Task manager shows up instead of the security options. Just go to Start –> Control Panel –> User Accounts –> Change the way Users Log on or off.

Uncheck Use the Welcome Screen. Log off and logon again. Now pressing Ctrl Alt Del will show the security options window.

Using Control Panel

To change your password using Control Panel, go to Start –> Control Panel –> User Accounts

Tip: You can also open control panel by Start –> Run –> control. This will open Control Panel.

Select the user for which you want to change the password and select Change my password.

Please note that you may need appropriate privileges to change the password of another user.

Using Command Prompt

To change the password of a user from the command prompt, go to Run –> cmd.

Command prompt will open. Use the following commands to change the password:

net user username password /domain

Replace username with the original username and password with the new password you want to assign to that user. /domain is optional. If you are in a domain environment, specify the domain name otherwise, if you’re using a local user, leave /domain. If I want to change the password of user Sanix to 12345. I will issue the following command at command prompt:

net user Sanix 12345

It will change the password of the user Sanix to 12345. Please note that if you’re not logged on as an administrator, you will get the following error:

“System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied”

If you want to have full usage of the net user command, go to the following Microsoft Article.

Using Control userpasswords2

To use this classic user management, go to Start –> Run –> control userpasswords2

This will open the classic user accounts management window. Select any user and select reset password.

Using Computer Management Console

To use the computer management console to change the passwords of the users, right click My Computer –> Manage –> Local Users And Groups –> Users

Right click the username for which you want to change the password and select Reset Password.

If you have any other method of changing the password, please let me know through comments. Thanks.

Six Ways To Backup Windows Registry

Sometime back, Abdullah wrote about how to backup your registry. I was also in the process of writing the same article but Abdullah was faster than me :-). So I abandoned my article. But today I was searching in my drafts and I found out the article again. Actually there are several methods to backup Windows registry. Some of them, I’m discussing in this article which is a combination of my previous article plus some additional useful ways to backup your registry.

Method 1: Using System Restore

When we create a system restore point in Windows XP, it backs up the following items:

• Registry
• DllCache
• Local User Profile
• COM+ and WMI databases
• IIS Metabase

So if you want to backup the registry, creating a restore point is the safest way to do so. To create a restore point go to Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> System Restore. Create a system restore point from there.

Medhod 2: Backing up Individual registry keys

If you want to backup individual registry keys, go to Start –> Run –> regedit

This will open the registry editor. Go to the registry you want to backup, right click it and select Export.

Method 3: Backing up the whole registry

To backup the whole registry, go to Start –> Run –> regedit

This will open the registry editor. Go to File –> Export. This will open the save registry dialog. After the name, select “All” from Export Range and save the registry.

Method 4: Using NTBackup utility

Using the Windows backup utility, we can save the system state including the registry and all the files and folders we wish to backup. To use the Windows backup utility, go to Start –> Run –> ntbackup.

This will open the backup utility. Start the backup Wizard and select “Only select system state data”

If you want to backup the whole system, the select “Backup everything on this computer”

Method 5: Using command line

To backup the registry from the command line, use the following commands:

REG EXPORT KeyName FileName

Keyname ROOTKEY\SubKey (local machine only)
ROOTKEY [ HKLM | HKCU | HKCR | HKU | HKCC ]
SubKey The full name of a registry key under the selected ROOTKEY
FileName The name of the disk file to export

Examples:

REG EXPORT HKLM\Software\MyCo\MyApp AppBkUp.reg
Exports all subkeys and values of the key MyApp to the file AppBkUp.reg

Method 6: Using ERUNT automatic backup

Orkut Is Banned - Heap41a - win32.USBworm Removal

One of my friend had a problem with his computer. He was getting the following message when opening Orkut:

ORKUT IS BANNED,Orkut is banned you fool`,The administrators didnt write this program guess who did??`r`r MUHAHAHA!!

On further research I found out that this is caused by a worm called win32.USBworm. It also blocks Firefox from accessing the internet. The following message comes when opening Firefox:

I Dnt Hate Mozilla But Use IE Or Else… with title as Use Internet Explorer U Dope.

And it also blocks Youtube popping up the following message:

youtube IS BANNED,Orkut is banned you fool`,The administrators didnt write this program guess who did??`r`r MUHAHAHA!!

Follow the steps below to remove this worm from the infected machine:

1. Open Task Manager –> Processes –> Find svchost.exe under the user account (There will be others under network and system accounts. Don’t close them). There will be two svchost.exe under the user account. Kill both of them.
2. Then go to Start –> Run –> regedit and find the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\Run
   Delete Winlogon key from the right hand pane.
3. Enable your “Show hidden files and folders” which is explained in the following article:
   http://www.technize.com/2007/05/13/show-hidden-files-and-folders-not-working/
4. After completing step 3, issue the following commands from the command prompt:
   Open command prompt and execute the following command:
   attrib -S -H -R C:\heap41a
   After executing the above command, execute the following command:
   rmdir /s /q C:\heap41a
   Replace C:\ with your system drive.
5. If you are using a flash drive, remove microsoftpowerpoint.exe and autorun.inf from the drive.
6. Go to your start menu –> All Programs –> Startup. Make sure there is no unnamed suspicious file in the startup folder.
7. Turn off system restore and turn it on again.
8. Restart your computer.

Hopefully this will remove the worm from the infected system. Please tell us your experiences about this. If you have any doubts, please ask me via comments below.

How To Find Old Versions Of Software

There are times when we want to stick with the old software to which we are used to. We just don’t want to go for those newer ones which are more fancy and rather take up more resources from our system’s limited horsepower and they provide us with functionality which we don’t need. So we prefer to stick on to our favorite versions. But the reality is that the software vendors always want people to use the latest versions of their software. So they make it difficult, sometimes impossible, to get the old versions of the software. But there are some sites dedicated only to providing the older versions of popular software. I had a list of three sites where I mostly go to find out my favorite software.

The first site where I go to find the old versions of software is http://www.oldversion.com. A quick look at the site reveals that it has got about 2421 versions of 181 programs. You will find versions of almost all the popular free software here. Some of the most popular software that this site serves are:

Bearshare Lite 5.2.5
MSN Messenger 7.5
Yahoo Messenger 7.0
LimeWire 4.12.6
Yahoo Messenger 7.5.0.647
Bearshare Lite 5.1.0
AOL Instant Messenger 5.9.3861
MSN Messenger 8.0.0812
Windows Media Player 10
Internet Explorer 6.0

The second site for finding the older versions of software is http://www.oldapps.com. This site is also as good as the first one. It currently provides about 2822 versions of 193 programs. The most popular software provided by this site are:

iTunes 6.0.5
BearShare Lite 5.2.5
MusicMatch 10
iTunes 7.2
LimeWire 4.12.6
SnagIT 7.2.5
Yahoo Messenger 7.5
LimeWire 4.12.6
AIM 5.9.3861
MSN Messenger 7.5
Ares Galaxy 2.09
WinMX 3.53

The third and the last site which I know about for finding the old versions of popular software is

http://www.old-versions.net/. I don’t visit this site much as I mostly find most of my favorite software from the above sites. But certainly this is also in my bookmarks. If I can’t find the software version from the above two sites, I will go to this site and search for my software. It’s most popular software which it serves are:

Yahoo Messenger 7.0
Kazaa Lite 2.4.3
LimeWire 4.0.7
Yahoo Messenger 6.1922
Morpheus 3.1

If you know of any other site from where we can get the old versions of software, please let us know. We will share it with everybody.

Four Ways To Insert/Eject CD-ROM Tray In Windows

Most of the time the desktop PCs are located under the tables or in locations where we can't get our hands easily. The most frequently used item from the desktop PC itself is the CD-ROM drive which has to be opened and closed by pressing the button on the CD-ROM. This is not convenient for all of us. So it is better to eject and insert the tray from within Windows. Here are a few methods that can be used to insert/eject the CD-ROM tray from within Windows easily:

Method 1: Using Command Line Tool: Eject

Eject is a small command line utility that can be used to insert and eject the CD-ROM tray from command prompt. Download the utility from below and extract all the files in your Windows directory (So that you may be able to access it from command prompt easily).
Now open command prompt from Start –> Run –> cmd.
Write  the following command to eject the CD-ROM tray:
C:\>eject D:
(Where D is your CD-ROM Drive)

If you want to insert the ejected CD-ROM tray, then issue the following command in the command prompt:
C:\>eject D: /l
(Where D is your CD-ROM Drive)

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Method 2: Using Express CD Ejector (From the status bar)

If you are not fond of using the command line utilities, you can go for this small utility. Download and install the utility from below. It will minimize itself into the status bar. If you want to eject the CD-ROM tray, just double click the icon. And if you want to insert the CD-ROM tray, just right click the status bar icon and select "Close tray"

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Method 3: Using Emsa CD Tray Pal

This is a really cool small utility for managing your CD-ROMs eject and insert functions. This utility can take care of multiple CD-ROM drives. One more advantage of this is that hot keys can be assigned to the Insert and Eject function. So if you are a keyboard shortcut junkie, this utility is perfect for you. Download the utility from below.

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Method 4: Using Registry To Add "Insert" In CD-ROM Drive Context Menu

Download cdeject.dll from below and copy to C:\Windows\system32\
(Where C is the Windows drive)
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
Now download the following registry key, double click it to add to your registry.
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
Right click your CD-ROM drive and enjoy the insert and eject options :-).

If you have any other ways of doing all this, please let me know. I'll put it here.

Get Back Missing Search Option In Windows

It is a common tactic of malware nowadays to disable certain helpful Windows functions that can help get rid of those malware. Some of the functions that are usually disabled are the Task Manager, the registry editor, Folder Options, show hidden files and folders, Run dialog from the start menu and the Search function of Windows. Today a friend of mine asked me that his Search option was missing from his Windows. I did a little research and found out that usually the malware is responsible for disabling the search function. Here are some ways to get back the missing Search option in Windows.

Method 1: Using the Group Policy Editor

To use the group policy editor, do the following:

Go to Start –> Run –> gpedit.msc

The group policy editor will open. Now go to the following key:

User Configuration –> Administrative templates –> Start Menu and Task Bar

In the right hand pane, select “Remove Search menu from Start menu”

Most probably it will be set to enabled. Just disable it once, click Apply and then select “Not Configured” and again click Apply. OK.

Usually the Search function is enabled instantaneously. If it is not enabled, go to Start –> Run –> cmd
and issue the following command:
C:\>gpupdate /force

This will force the settings to be applied instantaneously.

Method 2: Using the REG command

Sometimes it is better to add the registry through command line rather than going through all the manual processes of opening the registry editor, finding the correct key and changing it. So I am giving the command line solution to enabling the search function of Windows. To enable search function, just go to Start –> Run
and copy and paste the following command and press OK to proceed.

REG ADD “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer” /v NoFind /t REG_DWORD /d 0

This will enable the search function in general (as this will enable the search option in HKEY_Local_Machine). If you are still experiencing problems, go to Start –> Run and copy and paste the following command which will enable the search function specifically for the current user:

REG ADD “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer” /v NoFind /t REG_DWORD /d 0

Method 3: Using Automated Registry Script

If you are unsure of all of the methods above, I have created this script which will enable the search function automatically without the intervention of the user. Download the script below. When you run it, it will ask you whether to add the registry information. Please press Yes.

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Adding Custom Sound Event in XP

We all know how to change a sound when window starts. But what if we want to create a Custom sound event. What if we like to add a sound whenever a program is opened? Just imagine how good it would be to add a sound whenever Firefox starts, After all sometimes it takes long to open.To add a custom sound effect, you need to open your registry, and please do not forget to backup your registry before making any changes.
Go to Start –> Run, type Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps
Right Click on Apps, New –> Key
Name the key with the programs EXE file, like Firefox for Firefox, Winword for Office word, without the extension
Now on right pane, right click Default, and click Modify and type in the same application name
Right click on new key and create a new key, and name whatever you want to
Go to Control Panel –> Sounds and Audio devices –> Sounds, there you should be able to see the Custom sound event you added.
You can now assign any sound event you want to.Do try it, an great tip to personalize your system more