Google Calculator.

I did not know if I can use Google search engine as calculator, this because I did not pay attention to the features that Google offered, and I’m not saying that Google is better search engine than others. Every blogger have his/her favorite search engine, but to know and learn something new is always better for me and maybe you’ll agree with my opinion too. Ok let’s start.
Open your Google, don’t know how? (type in ‘ google.com ‘ in your favorite browser) :)
Now, in search box just type any number and operator function and then hit search button, here list of operators from Google.

Operator \\ Function\\Example:

1. + \\ addition\\ 3+44
2. - \\subtraction \\ 13-5
3. * \\ multiplication\\7*8
4. / \\ division \\ 12/3
5. ^ \\ exponentiation (raise to a power of)\\ 8^2
6. %\\ modulo (finds the remainderafter division)\\ 8%7
7. choose \\ X chooseY determines the number of ways of choosing a set of Y
   elements from a set of X elements \\18 choose 4
8. th root of \\ calculates the nth root of a number\\ 5th root of 32
9. % of X % of Y\\ computes X percent of Y\\ 20%of 150
10. sqrt\\ square root\\ sqrt(9)
11. sin\ cos\ tan\\ trigonometric functions (numbers are assumed to be radians)\\sin(pi/3) \tan(45 degrees)
12. ln\\ logarithm base e\\ ln(17)
13. log\\ logarithm base 10\\ log(1,000)
14. !\\ factorial\\ 5!
    

To make you an advance user here other good things to know:
You can force the calculator to try and evaluate an expression by putting an equals sign (=) after it. This only works if the expression is mathematically resolvable. For example, 1-800-555-1234= will return a result, but 1/0= will not.

Parentheses can be used to enclose the parts of your expression that you want evaluated first. For example, (1+2)*3 causes the addition to happen before the multiplication.

The in operator is used to specify what units you want used to express the answer. Put the word in followed by the name of a unit at the end of your expression. This works well for unit conversions such as: 5 kilometers in miles.

You can use hexadecimal, octal and binary numbers. Prefix hexadecimal numbers with 0x, octal numbers with 0o and binary numbers with 0b. For example: 0x7f + 0b10010101.

The calculator understands many different units, as well as many physical and mathematical constants. These can be used in your expression. Many of these constants and units have both long and short names. You can use either name in most cases. For example, km and kilometer both work, as do c and the speed of light.
Now, you know what I know that some blogger don’t know :)

Enable Disk Quotas.

Your hard drive must be formatted with NTFS to be able to use disk quota. This is the right tip if you are an administrator, and you want to restrict used of hard disk volume for your user. Disk Quotas are based on file ownership (which means that it counts against the one who owns it). Follow these steps to enable disk quotas:

1. Open My Computer and right-click the hard drive you wish to enable the feature on.
2. Select Properties.
3. Click the Quota tab.
4. Check the Enable quota management checkbox.
5. Check the Deny disk space to users exceeding their quota limit checkbox. This will cause the user to receive an insufficient disk space error their space limit is exceeded.
6. Select the Limit disk space to radio button.
7. Set the amount of disk space to be allocated to the user.
8. Enter value for the Set warning level to option.
9. Click OK.

Reset Windows Media Player File Associations.

We have a lot of different media file, like mpeg, mp3, avi, midi. First time you install Window XP, the default file player is Window Media Player, then later on you also install different media player. If you have lost the file associations for Windows Media Player (WMP) and WMP no longer plays your music or video files, and you want make WMP as your default media player again follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Media Player.
2. Select Tools Options.
3. Click the File Types tab.
4. Click Select All, note: if you want to specify only some file associate with WMP then make sure you give a check mark on each file that you want to associate with WMP.
5. Click Apply.
6. Click OK.

Hide Control Panel from Start menu.

I don’t like it, if another user change my computer setting especially when that changes cause error on my computer and in the end still I have to fix that problems. Maybe you’ll have same opinion with me. Control Panel is one way to change our computer setting, before I learned this trick I always wonder if I can hide Control Panel, that would be very helpful for me, since my computer used by more than 2 person and some of them have administrator account. Well ... if you want to learn this trick, here I will share this trick with you.

1. Click Start > Run > type ‘regedit’ to open Registry Editor window.
2. Find this path from left pane: HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software| Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion|Policies | Explorer
3. Make new entry (click Edit |New | Dword Value), named it ‘NoControlPanel ‘, double click it and assign value ‘1’ to Value data.
   
4. Click Ok button.Close your Registry Editor window, and then restart your computer.
   

Disable low disk space warning.

You already known how much space left in your hard disk, and your Windows keep telling you that you almost run out of space. Follow these steps to disable this warning:

1. Click Start > Run >type ‘regedit’. Registry Editor window will open.
2. From right pane, find this path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer
   
3. Add a new DWORD Value and named it ‘NoLowDiskSpaceChecks’. Assign value ‘1’.
4. Close your Registry Editor window.

Make file list from directory.

You could use this to make list of your mp3 files, jpg files, and then you can edit it or maybe print it. Steps:

1. Click Start > Run > type ‘cmd’. This will open Command Prompt window.
2. Go to folder that you want to make list (type ‘ cd ‘).
3. Type ‘ dir >files.txt ‘. This will create .txt file contains your folder list, you can open this file with notepad or another word processor.
4. You can use wildcard to make restriction( ex :‘dir *.jpg >files.txt ‘ This will create list of files with .jpg extension).

You can open or edit files.txt with notepad or maybe MS Word.

Detect and clean up junk drivers.

We installed so many different hardware in our computer, some of them we don’t use it anymore, and driver of that device still reside in your computer, this could trigger potential problem. Here how to detect them and remove these junk drivers:

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > System. This will open System Properties window.
2. Click Advanced tab > Environment Variables button. This will open Environment Variables window.
3. Make new entry in System variables section (click New button in System variables section). This will open New System Variable window.
4. Type in ‘ devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices ‘ in Variable name, and for Variable value type in ‘1’. Click Ok button (New System Variable window). Click Ok button ( Environment Variables window).
5. Back to System Properties window, click Hardware tab > click Device Manager button. This will open Device Manager window.
6. Click View > Show hidden devices, devices that we don’t use anymore will showed with transparent icons. You can uninstall them now(Right click on it and choose Uninstall).

Activated warning for system folder.

If you open system folder (Windows folder) for the first time, Windows will show a warning. You can see folder content after you click ‘Show folder’ or ‘Show the whole content of this folder’, but after your first click Windows will deactivate this feature, and next time you open this folder there will be no warning again. You can activate this warning again if you want, follow these steps to do this:

1. Click Start > Run > type ‘regedit’ > click Ok button. This will open Registry Editor window.
2. From left pane find this path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\WebView\BarricadeFolders

3. From right pane find entry ‘shell:Windows’. Double click that entry and change its value from 0 to 1. If you change this entry, warning will showed if you open Windows main folder.
4. You can change entry ‘shell:System’, if you want warning showed when you open System32 folder. Double click that entry and change its value from 0 to 1.
5. Close your Registry Editor.

Now try to open Windows folder, Windows will show a warning.

Protect your data every time you shutdown your computer.

Applications always write it’s data in temporary file, sometimes that data is very important data like password. After you shut down your computer, that data still reside in your temporary file, and using specific applications people can collect and read your data.

To prevent this happened you can set up your Windows XP to delete temporary file every time you shut down your computer, but of course this will take a little bit time and make your shut down time longger. Follow these steps to do this:

1. Click Start > Run > type ‘regedit’. This will open Registry Editor window.
2. Find this path from left pane:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\

Session Manager\MemoryManagement

3. Double click ‘ClearPageAtShutdown’ (right pane).
4. Change it’s value form 0 to 1. If you can’t find ‘ClearPageAtShutdown’ then make a new one (click Edit > New > Dword Value).
5. Close Registry Editor window, restart your computer.

No more unread email message from logon screen.

Here steps to disable unread email message:

1. Click Start > Run > type ‘regedit’. This will open Registry Editor window.
2. From left pane find path :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\UnreadMail

3. On the right pane you’ll see entry ‘MessageExpiryDays’ if you can’t find it, make a new one (Click Edit > New > Dword value).
4. Double click on that entry (from No.3), type in value 0, confirm with Ok button.
5. Close your Registry Editor window and restart your computer.

Take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP.

To take ownership of a folder you must be logged on to the computer with an account that has administrative credentials. If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, you must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an account that

has Administrative rights to have access to the Security tab. If you are using Windows XP Professional, you must disable Simple File Sharing.

To take ownership of a folder, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
3. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
4. In the Name list, click your user name, or click Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group. If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
5. Click OK, and then click Yes when you receive the following message: 'You do not have permission to read the contents of directory folder name. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control?' All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes. Note folder name is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of.
6. Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and its contents.

To take ownership of a file you must be logged on to the computer with an account that has administrative credentials. Follow these steps:

1. Right-click the file that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
3. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
4. In the Name list, click Administrator, or click the Administrators group, and then click OK. The administrator or the Administrators group now owns the file. To change the permissions on the files and folders under this folder, go to step 5.
5. Click Add.
6. In the Enter the object names to select (examples) list, type the user or group account that you want to give access to the file. For example, type Administrator.
7. Click OK.
8. In the Group or user names list, click the account that you want, and then select the check boxes of the permissions that you want to assign that user.
9. When you are finished assigning permissions, click OK.

Disable simplified sharing and set permissions on a shared folder in Windows XP.

By default, simple file sharing is enabled on a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer if the computer is not a member of a domain. With simple file sharing, you can share folders with everyone on your workgroup or network and make folders in your user profile private. However, if simple file sharing is enabled, you cannot prevent specific users and groups from accessing your shared folders. If you turn off simple file sharing, you can permit specific users and groups to access a shared folder. Those users must be logged on with the credentials of user accounts that you have granted access to your shared folder.

If simple file sharing is enabled, you see the simple file sharing user interface appears instead of the Security and Sharing tabs. By default, this new user interface is implemented in Windows XP Home Edition and in Microsoft Windows XP Professional if you are working in a workgroup. If you turn off simple file sharing, the classic Security and Sharing tabs appear, and you can specify which users and groups have access to shared folders on your computer.

To disable simple file sharing, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
3. In the Advanced Settings section, clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box.
4. Click OK.

To share a folder or a drive with other users, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click My Computer, and then locate the folder or drive that you want to share.
2. Right-click the folder or drive, and then click Sharing and Security.
3. On the Sharing tab, click Share this folder.
4. To change the share name of the shared folder or drive, type a new name in the Share name box. Other users see the new name when they connect to this shared folder or drive. The actual name of the folder or drive does not change.
5. To add a comment about the shared folder or drive, type the text in the Comment box.
6. To limit the number of people who can connect to the shared folder or drive at the same time, click Allow under User limit, and then type the number of users.
7. To set share permissions on the shared folder or drive, click Permissions.

Note To share folders and drives, you must be logged on as a member of any one of the following groups:

•Administrators

•Server Operators

•Power Users

8. Click OK.

Applies to: Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

Enable or Disable the CTRL+ALT+DELETE Sequence.

Follow these steps if you want to enable or disable CTRL+ALT+DELETE Sequence:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click User Accounts.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. In the Secure logon section, select or clear the Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete check box.

Change drive letter assignments in Windows XP.

Our computer can use up to 26 drive letters, from A through Z. Use drive letters C through Z for hard disk drives. Drive letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives. However, if your computer does not have a floppy disk drive, you can assign these letters to removable drives. To assign a drive letter:

1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
   Note If you do not see Performance and Maintenance, go to step 3. Performance and Maintenance appears in Control Panel only if you use Category view. If you use Classic view, Performance and Maintenance does not appear.
3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
5. Click Add.
6. Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, and then either accept the default drive letter or click the drive letter that you want to use.
7. Click OK.

To change a drive letter:

1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
5. Click Change.
6. Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK.
7. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change.

To remove a drive letter:

1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
5. Click Remove.
6. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the removal.

Force users to quit programs and log off after a period of inactivity in Windows XP.

If you concern about security in your network, then you should do this. People can stole information from workstations that are left logged on, so if you don’t this happened follow this steps:

1. Use Windows Explorer to locate the Winexit.scr file in the Windows 2000 Resource Kit folder on your hard disk.
2. Right-click the Winexit.scr file, and then click Install.
3. The Display Properties dialog box appears with the Screen Saver tab active. The Logoff Screen Saver entry is automatically selected. Click Settings.
4. Select the Force application termination check box to force programs to quit.
5. In the Countdown for n seconds box, type the number of seconds for which the logoff dialog box appears before the user is logged off.
6. In the Logoff Message box, type the message that appears during the logoff countdown. Click OK.
7. In the Display Properties dialog box, click Preview.
8. You see the Auto Logoff dialog box. It displays the logoff message and the countdown timer. Click Cancel.
9. Click OK.

Applies to Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition.

Delete an undeletable file.

Delete a file is an easy task, but sometimes when we want to delete a file, we can’t do it with regular way. Here how we can delete that kind of file:

1. Open a Command Prompt window and leave it open.
2. Close all open programs. Click Start, Run and enter TASKMGR.EXE Go to the Processes tab and End Process on Explorer.exe. Leave Task Manager open.
3. Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory where is that file located. At the command prompt type DEL where is the file you wish to delete.
4. Go back to Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the GUI shell. Close Task Manager.

Use multiple monitors in Windows XP

If you think one monitor is not enough for you, and you need more space in your desktop. Then learn this one to satisfy your need. To configure the arrangement of multiple monitors:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Appearance and Themes, and then click Display.
3. On the Settings tab, click Identify to display a large number on each of your monitors. This shows which monitor corresponds with each icon.
4. Click the monitor icons and drag them to positions that represent how you want to move items from one monitor to another, and then click OK or Apply to view changes.

NOTE: The icon positions determine how you move items from one monitor to another. For example, if you are using two monitors and you want to move items from one monitor to the other by dragging left and right, place the icons side by side. To move items between monitors by dragging up and down, place the icons one above the other. The icon positions do not have to correspond to the physical positions of the monitors. You can place the icons one above the other even though your monitors are side by side.

To change primary monitor:

1. On the Settings tab of the Display Properties dialog box, click the monitor icon that represents the monitor you want to designate as the primary monitor.
2. Click to select the Use this device as the primary monitor check box. Note that this check box is unavailable when you select the monitor icon that is currently set as your primary monitor.

To view same desktop in multiple monitors:

1. On the Settings tab of the Display Properties dialog box, click the monitor icon that represents the monitor you want to use in addition to your primary monitor.
2. Click to select the Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor check box. After you enable this feature, you can drag items across your screen onto alternate monitors. Or, you can resize a window to stretch it across more than one monitor.

To move items between monitors:

1. On the Settings tab of the Display Properties dialog box, click Identify to display a large number on each of your monitors. This shows which monitor corresponds with each icon.
2. Click the monitor icons and drag them to positions that represent how you want to move items from one monitor to another, and then click OK or Apply.
3. Drag an item on your desktop across your screen until it appears on the alternate monitor. Or, you can resize a window to stretch it across more than one monitor.

Enjoy ...

A few ways to find your IP address.

Some of us don’t know what is our IP address or maybe don’t care about IP address.

This tip for who wants to know their IP address and don’t know how to find it. Just choose one of these methods:

1. If the Network Connection icon is in the System tray, right click it, select Status. Then click the Support tab.
2. Open a Command Prompt window and type IPCONFIG /ALL
3. You can visit some websites that will tell you your IP address, for ex: www.whatismyip.com

Enjoy ....

X-Ray our computer specs (Windows XP).

Simple and fast way to know our computer spec. Follow these steps:

Click Start > Run, type “dxdiag”. Click Ok button.

This will open DirectX Diagnostic Toll window, from this window you will find a lot of information about your computer specs.

Enjoy ...

Manually Remove Programs from the Add/Remove Programs List.

We don’t like if something goes wrong and we don’t how to fix it, but things happened. When you uninstall a program and that program still listed in Add/Remove Programs List, maybe this can help you. Follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
2. Locate and click the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion \Uninstall.
3. After you click the Uninstall registry key, click Export Registry File on the Registry menu.
4. In the Export Registry File dialog box, click Desktop in the Save in box, type uninstall in the File name box, and then click Save.
5. Each key under Uninstall represents a program that appears in Add/Remove Programs. To determine which program that each key represents, click the key, and then view the following values:

DisplayName - the value data for the DisplayName key is the name that is listed in Add/Remove Programs
-and-
UninstallString - the value data for the UninstallString key is the program that is used to uninstall the program

6. After you identify the registry key that represents the program that is still in Add/Remove Programs, right-click the key, and then click Delete.
7. After you delete the key, click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
8. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
9. In Add/Remove Programs, verify that the program for which you deleted the registry key is not listed.
10. If the program list is not correct in Add/Remove Programs, you can double-click the Uninstall.reg file on your desktop to restore the original list of programs in the registry.
11. If the program list is correct in Add/Remove Programs, you can right-click the Uninstall.reg file on your desktop, and then click Delete.

Applies to: Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows 95

Enjoy .......

Disable the splash screen.

I always wonder, what’s Windows XP doing behind splash screen. Let’s find out bloggers.

1. Right click My Computer. Select Properties then click on the Advanced tab.
2. Next click Settings under Startup and Recovery. Click Edit.
3. You'll need to edit this file "BOOT.INI" Add '/SOS' right after /fastdetect with a space between them. The line should look something like this :multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows Professional" /fastdetect /SOS

After you restart, the splash screen should be gone! You can set it back by removing the /SOS switch

Make auto shutdown with shortcut.

You can find free auto shutdown applications on the net, but your Windows XP has this feature too. If you want to make your own then follow these steps:

1. Make a new shortcut on your desktop, don’t know how to make new shortcut, read on bloggers. Right click on empty area of your desktop, choose New and then Shortcut. This will open Create Shortcut wizard window. Now type ‘ shutdown –s –t 3600 –c “Maintenance” ‘. Click Next and then give a name for your new shortcut, Click Finish.
2. The number ‘3600’ is the number for countdown in second, so you can give your own number here (just change the number). If you don’t want to display any message then delete this part ‘ –c “Maintenance” ‘. If you want to change the message then just change this part “Maintenance” with your own message.
3. After you create a shutdown shortcut, you can make it prettier. How ? ... Easy, just right click on that shortcut and then choose Properties. Then under Shortcut tab, click Change Icon.. button and then choose better icon.

You also can make a shortcut to cancel your shutdown, here how:

Follow step 1, but this time type ‘ shutdown –a’, the next steps just same steps.

Important:

To do this you have to have in your machine the file shutdown.exe placed on c:\windows\system32\ or the program don't work, you have also to be administrator

Enjoy ....

Restricting a users Logon hours.

If you have a network system then you can restrict a users logon hours with ‘net user’ command. Pay attention to these examples, and you will know how to use it :

1. net user john /time:M-F,08:00-17:00
2. net user larry /time:M-F,8am-5pm
3. net user angel /time:M,4am-5pm;T,1pm-3pm;W-F,8:00-17:00
4. net user mike /time:all (this one means this user can always log on)

Note:You can only restrict when a user can log on to the system. On a stand alone computer, there is no way, currently, to force a user to log off when their hours expire.

Enjoy ....

Create log off message window.

You always forget to do something when you log off from your computer, or maybe you want to give a message to everyone who log off from the computer, then this one you got to learn bloggers. This will create a custom window with message, everytime you log off from your computer. Backup your registry before you do this (for safety purpose). Steps:

1. Click Start > Run, type “regedit” click Ok button. Registry Editor window will popup.
2. Find this path from left side of Registry Editor window: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. Double click LegalNoticeCaption from right side Registry Editor window. This will popup Edit String window. Type in Value data any name that you want to be your message window title. Click Ok button.
4. Double click LegalNoticeText from right side Registry Editor window. This will popup Edit String window. Type in Value data any message, this message will show up on your message window. Click Ok button. Close your Registry Editor window.
5. Log off from your computer.

Enjoy ...

Rename your recycle bin.

Backup your registry, if you want to do this, because you’re going to change some of your registry value. So if something wrong happened you can undo this by restore your registry. If you don’t know how to backup your registry, then try to search my blog with blog search engine (look at the top, you can’t miss it). Follow these steps to make your Windows XP’s recycle bin looks different:

1. Click Start > Run and then type “regedit”. This will open Registry Editor window.
2. Find this path (from the left side Registry Editor window): HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08 -00AA002F954E}
3. Double click on (Default), on the right side Registry Editor window. This will open Edit String window, and then type in your new name for your recycle bin in the Value data, then click Ok button.
4. Double click on LocalizedString, on the right side Registry Editor window.This will open Edit String window, and then type in your new name for your recycle bin in the Value data (make sure you type same name that you typed in No.3), then click Ok button, close your Registry Editor window.
5. Point your mouse pointer in empty area of your Desktop, right click and choose Refresh, you should see your new recycle bin now.

Enjoy your new recycle bin ....