- •Acknowledgments
- •About the Author
- •Credits
- •Contents at a Glance
- •Contents
- •Introduction
- •About This Book
- •Assumptions
- •How This Book Is Organized
- •Conventions Used in This Book
- •Hacking Precautions
- •Customizing the Logon Screen
- •Summary
- •Customizing the Start Panel
- •Customizing the Classic Start Menu
- •Customizing the Taskbar
- •Summary
- •Customizing Desktop Icons
- •Customizing the Behavior of the Desktop
- •Summary
- •Working with Themes
- •Modifying the Visual Styles
- •Visual Style Alternatives
- •Summary
- •Hacking File Associations
- •Hacking the Context Menu
- •Customizing Your Folders
- •Working with Hidden Files
- •Disabling the Common Tasks Pane
- •Summary
- •Modding Internet Explorer
- •Other Visual Enhancements
- •Summary
- •Monitoring Your System Hardware
- •Benchmarking Your System
- •Summary
- •Working with BIOS
- •Modifying the Operating System Boot
- •Summary
- •Speeding Up the Logon
- •Summary
- •Speeding up file browsing and access
- •Speeding Up the User Interface
- •Summary
- •Working with the Windows Prefetcher
- •Using the Intel Application Accelerator
- •Defragmenting Your Drive
- •Adjusting Your Application Priorities
- •Speeding Up Your Network
- •Summary
- •Summary
- •Defending against Viruses
- •Defending Spyware and Adware
- •Eliminating Spam
- •Summary
- •Controlling access to your computer
- •Wireless Networks
- •Disabling Unneeded Services
- •Firewalls
- •How Vulnerable Is Your System?
- •Internet Explorer
- •Windows Interface
- •Summary
- •System Requirements
- •Using the CD with Windows XP
- •Troubleshooting
- •Index
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Part I: Customizing Your System |
1 |
Chapter 1: Customizing the Look of the Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 |
|
Customizing the Windows XP Boot Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 3 |
Changing the boot screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
3 |
Customizing the Logon Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
14 |
Working with the Welcome screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
15 |
Working with the classic logon screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
28 |
Global logon/Welcome settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
34 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
38 |
Chapter 2: Customizing User Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 |
|
Customizing the Start Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
39 |
Using Group Policy Editor to customize the Start panel . . . . . . . . . . . |
40 |
Adding and removing navigation icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
44 |
Switching to small icons for frequently run apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
45 |
Increasing number of recently run programs |
|
displayed on the Start panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
48 |
Hiding programs from appearing in the Start panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
50 |
Pinning your programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
51 |
Adding Web site links to your Start panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
52 |
Customizing the Classic Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
54 |
Turning the classic Start Menu back on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
54 |
Customizing the classic Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
54 |
Customizing the Start Menu/Panel Program Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
55 |
Changing program listing display options for |
|
users of the Start panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
58 |
Changing program listing display options for users |
|
of the classic Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
59 |
Removing pop-up Help for users of both the Start |
|
panel and Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
61 |
Customizing the Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
62 |
Using and adjusting program grouping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
62 |
Quick Launching your programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
63 |
Hacking the Start button to replace the Start text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
64 |
xiv Contents
Modifying the taskbar location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . 68 |
Using the Taskbar Magnifier PowerToy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 69 |
Removing the notification area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 71 |
Removing the clock from the taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 71 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 71 |
Chapter 3: Hacking the Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 73 |
Customizing Desktop Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 73 |
Removing all icons from the desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 74 |
Customizing the icon drop shadow effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 74 |
Displaying the traditional Windows icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 75 |
Enabling large icons on the desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 77 |
Removing the text below the icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 78 |
Renaming the Recycle Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 79 |
Removing the shortcut arrow from icons on the desktop . . . . . . . . |
. . . 80 |
Changing the icons on the desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 81 |
Customizing the Behavior of the Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 83 |
Using the Virtual Desktop Manager PowerToy . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 84 |
Fun with Active Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 86 |
Using the wallpaper PowerToy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 89 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 90 |
Chapter 4: Customizing the Appearance of the Windows Interface |
. . . 91 |
Working with Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 91 |
Changing the current theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 92 |
Making your own themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 92 |
Modifying the Visual Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 100 |
Installing new visual styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 102 |
Tweaking the visual styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 108 |
Making your own visual styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 108 |
Visual Style Alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 112 |
Using WindowBlinds to change the |
|
way Windows XP looks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 113 |
Installing additional Windows XP skins for WindowBlinds . . . . . . . |
. . 114 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 115 |
Chapter 5: Hacking Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 117 |
Hacking File Associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 117 |
Changing the default launch app . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 118 |
Changing the icon of any file type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 119 |
Hacking the Context Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 120 |
Removing items from the context menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 121 |
Adding your own items to the context menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . 122 |
Modifying the Send To menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . 125 |
Contents xv
Customizing Your Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 126 |
Changing a folder icon and picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 126 |
Changing the template of a folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 127 |
Customizing the view folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 129 |
Applying your folder settings to all folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 132 |
Working with Hidden Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 132 |
Unhiding hidden files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 132 |
Revealing the super hidden files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 134 |
Disabling the Common Tasks Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 134 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 135 |
Chapter 6: Exploring Other Windows Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . 137 |
|
Modding Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 137 |
Changing the logo animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 137 |
Changing the toolbar background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 140 |
Making your own quick search address command . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 140 |
Other Visual Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 142 |
Replacing the task switcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 143 |
Adding Special Effects to your Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 144 |
Fine-Tuning ClearType . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 150 |
Branding Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 152 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 155 |
Part II: Increasing Your System’s Performance |
157 |
Chapter 7: Analyzing Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 |
|
Monitoring Your System Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 159 |
Using performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 159 |
Using Bootvis to analyze your system start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 166 |
Using Task Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 170 |
Benchmarking Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 173 |
How to benchmark your system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 174 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 181 |
Chapter 8: Speeding Up the System Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 |
|
Working with BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 183 |
Changing the boot order of your drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 184 |
Using the quick boot feature of the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 186 |
Modifying the Operating System Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 187 |
Lowering OS timeout values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 187 |
Disabling the system boot screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 189 |
Disabling unneeded hardware devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 191 |
Removing extra fonts for speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. 193 |
xvi Contents
Disabling unneeded services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 196 |
Optimizing the location of the boot files . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 203 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 207 |
Chapter 9: Making Your Computer Load Faster . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . 209 |
Speeding Up the Logon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 210 |
Enabling automatic logon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 210 |
Removing user passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 211 |
Adjust the startup programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 216 |
Customizing startup programs for different users . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 223 |
Other Time-Saving Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 225 |
Assigning alternative IP addresses . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 225 |
Turning off the logon music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 228 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 229 |
Chapter 10: Making Your Computer More Responsive . . . . . . . . . . 231 |
|
Speeding up file browsing and access . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 231 |
Disabling the file access timestamp . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 232 |
Disabling legacy filename creation . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 234 |
Speeding Up the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 236 |
Reducing the menu delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 237 |
Working with the performance options . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 238 |
Disable Indexing Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 244 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 246 |
Chapter 11: Speeding Up Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 |
|
Working with the Windows Prefetcher . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 247 |
Hacking the registry to optimize the Prefetcher . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 248 |
Accelerate specific applications with prefetch . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 249 |
Using the Intel Application Accelerator . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 251 |
How well does the Intel Application Accelerator work? |
. . . . . . . . . . . 253 |
What are the system requirements? . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 253 |
How to install Intel Application Accelerator . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 255 |
Fine-Tuning the Windows Paging File . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 255 |
Disabling the paging file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 256 |
Adjusting the size of the paging file . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 258 |
Changing the location of the paging file . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 260 |
Defragmenting Your Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 263 |
Defragmenting the Windows paging file . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 263 |
Defragmenting the NTFS master file table . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 264 |
Adjusting Your Application Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 264 |
Using Task Manager to adjust priorities . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 265 |
Starting applications with a user set priority . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 265 |
Using WinTasks to profile your priorities . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 267 |
Speeding Up Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 268 |
Increasing network browsing speed . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . 269 |
Contents xvii
Disabling unneeded protocols . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 |
Tweaking your Internet connection for speed . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 |
Part III: Securing Your System |
277 |
Chapter 12: Protecting Your Computer from Intruders . . . . . . . . . . 279 |
|
How Vulnerable Is Your System? . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 |
Testing your Internet security . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 |
Updating your computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 |
Firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 |
Using the Windows firewall . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 |
Using ZoneAlarm personal . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 |
Using Sygate Personal Firewall . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 |
Disabling Unneeded Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 |
Disabling Remote Desktop connection . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 |
Disabling Messenger Service . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 |
Disabling Universal Plug and Play . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 |
Disabling Remote Registry Access . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 |
Disable DCOM support . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 |
Wireless Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 |
Using WEP for secure communication . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 |
Using WPA for a more secure wireless connection |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 |
Controlling access to your computer . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 |
Managing user accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 |
Chapter 13: Fighting Spam, Spyware, and Viruses |
. . . . . . . . . . . . 303 |
Eliminating Spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 |
Stopping spam in the first place . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 |
Using filtering software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 |
Blocking external links in HTML mail . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 |
Defending Spyware and Adware . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 |
Detecting and removing spyware . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 |
Locking down Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 |
Immunizing your computer . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 |
Defending against Viruses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 |
Use an antivirus program . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314 |
Chapter 14: Protecting Your Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 |
|
Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 |
Removing address bar suggestions . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 |
Clearing visited Web sites history . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 |
Clearing temporary Internet files and cookies . . |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 |
xviii Contents
Adjusting your cookie security policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
319 |
Saying no to encrypted Web pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
321 |
Disabling AutoComplete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
321 |
Clearing Temporary Internet Files automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
324 |
Windows Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
325 |
Clearing Frequently Run Programs list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
325 |
Clearing the recently opened document list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
326 |
Removing temporary files from your hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
327 |
Removing saved passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
329 |
Setting file and folder permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
329 |
Encrypting Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
331 |
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
334 |
Appendix A: What’s on the CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 End-User License Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355