Follow these steps to add a Safe Mode option to the Boot menu. When you're experiencing a problem with Windows XP, you may need to boot the system into Safe Mode more than once. However, doing so can be a tiresome process. When the Boot menu appears, you must press [F8], and then you must select Safe Mode from yet another menu. Wouldn't it be nice if Safe Mode were available from the Boot menu? In fact, it's relatively easy to add a Safe Mode option to the Boot menu. Here's how. 1. Press [Windows][Break] to open the System Properties dialog box. 2. On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button in the Startup And Recovery section. 3. In the System Startup section, click the Edit button. 4. When the Boot.ini file opens in Notepad, locate the line that ends with the /fastdetect switch. 5. Highlight and copy that line and paste it in the line below. 6. Change the section on the line that reads WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" to WINDOWS="Safe Mode." 7. Add the following to the end of the line: /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog
All, Windows, users would probably be familiar with the infamous ‘pwl’ files or the files where the Windows login passwords are stored. Well, this manual is aimed at, simplifying how the authentication works when you type in your User name And password, what exactly .pwl files contain, where exactly they come into the picture and a whole lot of related things.
The *.pwl files are basically files in which the Windows Login Passwords are stored in. These files can be found in the \Windows directory by the name of the User, whose password it contains. For Example, if your Windows login Username is ankit, then the corresponding password would be stored in c:\windows\ankit.pwl Get it? These .pwl files are readable in any text editor like Notepad, but they are definitely not understandable. A typical example, of the contents of a .pwl file is as follows:
p u.ÐX+|rÐq"±/2³ Êå¡hCJ‚D × `ÍY¥!íx}(qW¤ãƱ #include
typedef struct tagPASSWORD_CACHE_ENTRY { WORD cbEntry; // size of this entry, in bytes WORD cbResource; // size of resource name, in bytes WORD cbPassword; // size of password, in bytes BYTE iEntry; // entry index BYTE nType; // type of entry BYTE abResource[1]; // start of resource name // password immediately follows resource name } PASSWORD_CACHE_ENTRY;
void main() { buf = new char[1024]; ob1 = new char[1024]; puts("There is no security in this crazy world!\n" "Win95 PWL viewer v1.01 (c) 1997, 98 Vitas Ramanchauskas\n" "************\n" "!DISCLAIMER!\n" "!This program intended to be used for legal purpose only!\n" "************\n\n" "This program shows cached passwords using standard (but undocumented)\n" "Windows API on local machine for current user (user must be logged in).\n" "You may invoke pwlview in this way: pwlview >> textfile.txt\n" "to save passwords in file (don't forget to press enter twice)\n" "Press Enter to begin...\n"); getchar();
HINSTANCE hi = LoadLibrary("mpr.dll"); if(!hi) { puts("Couldn't load mpr.dll. This program is for Windows 95 only"); return; } WORD (__stdcall *enp)(LPSTR, WORD, BYTE, void*, DWORD) = (WORD (__stdcall *)(LPSTR, WORD, BYTE, void*, DWORD))GetProcAddress(hi, "WNetEnumCachedPasswords"); if(!enp) { puts("Couldn't import function. This program is for Windows 95 only"); return; } (*enp)(0,0, 0xff, pce, 0); if(!cnt) puts("No passwords found.\n" "Probably password caching was not used or user is not logged in."); FreeLibrary(hi); puts("\nPress Enter to quit"); getchar(); }
To completely block a website on your computer: <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]-->
Go to this location.. "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc" There you'll find a file by the name "hosts". Open this file using notepad. <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]-->
The last line of this file will look like this. "127.0.0.1 localhost"
Now below this line add this.. "127.0.0.1 xxxxxxxx" (Where xxxxxxxx is the website that you want to block on your computer.)
Now save the file. If having difficulty in saving the file change the properties of the file. Its default might be set as "Read-Only"
Now create a new string Value in the right pane named LegalNoticeCaption and enter the value that you want to see in the Menu Bar. Now create yet another new string value and name it: LegalNoticeText. Modify it and insert the message you want to display each time Windows boots. This can be effectively used to display the company's private policy each time the user logs on to his NT box. It's .reg file would be:
Windows 95 had these tips of the day which appeared on a system running a newly installed Windows OS. These tips of the day are stored in the Windows Registry and consume 5K of space. For those of you who are really concerned about how much free space your hard disk has, I have the perfect trick.