<P>We want to add only the Rename option to the right click context menu of the

Recycle Bin, so change the value of attributes to: 50 01 00 20. Press F5 to

refresh and then after rebooting you will find that when you right click on the

Recycle Bin a RENAME option pops up too.</P>

<P>To reset the default Windows options change the value of Attributes back to

</P>

<P>40 01 00 20 </P>

<P>The Registry File which one can create for the above process would be

something like the below:</P>

<P>REGEDIT4</P>

<P>[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\Shell-Folder]</P>

<P>"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20</P>

<P>To access say the Modem Properties in the Control Panel Folder, the normal

procedure is: Click on Start, Click on Settings&gt; Control Panel and then wait

for the Control Panel window to pop up and then ultimately click on the Modems

icon.</P>

<P>Wouldn't it be lovely if you could shorten the process to: Click on Start&gt;

Control Panel&gt;Modems. Yes you can add the Control Panel and also all other

Special System Folders directly to the first level Start Menu. Firstly collect

the CLSID value of the folder you want to add to the start menu. I want to add

Control Panel hence the CLSID value is: 21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D</P>

<P>Now right click on the Start Button and select Open. Now create a new folder

and name it: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}</P>

<P>NOTE: Do not forget the period after the 'l' in Panel. Similarly all system

folders can be added to the Start Menu.(accept My Briefcase, I think)</P><B>

<P>Deleting System Options from the Start menu</P></B>

<P>You can actually remove the Find and Run options from the start menu by

performing a simple registry hack. Again like always Launch the registry editor

and scroll down to the below key:</P>

<P>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer</P>

<P>Right-click on the right pane and select New, DWORD Value. Name it NoFind.(To

remove the RUN option name it NoRun). Double-click the newly create DWORD to

edit it's value and enter 1 as its value. This will disable the FIND option of

the Start Menu and will also disable the default Shortcut key(F3 for Find.)</P>

<P>To restore the Run or find command modify the value of the DWORD to 0 or

simply Delete the DWORD value.</P><B>

<P>Fed Up of the boring Old Yellow Folder Icons?[Drive Icons Included]</P></B>

<P>NOTE: This trick hasn't been tried on Win98.</P>

<P>You can easily change the boring yellow folder icons to your own personalized

icons. Simply create a text file and copy the following lines into it:</P>

<P>[.ShellClassInfo]</P>

<P>ICONFILE=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension</P>

<P>Save this text file by the name, desktop.ini in the folder, whose icon you

want to change. Now to prevent this file from getting deleted change it's

attributes to Hidden and Read Only by using the ATTRIB command.</P>

<P>To change the icon of a drive, create a text file containing the following

lines:</P>

<P>[Autorun]</P>

<P>ICON=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension</P>

<P>Save this file in the root of the drive whose icon you want to change and

name it autorun.inf For Example, if you want to change the icon of a floppy,

SAVE THE icon in a:\icon_name.ico One can also create a kewl icon for the Hard

Disk and create a text file [autorun.inf] and store it in "c:\".</P><B>

<P>&nbsp;Securing NT</P></B>

<P>By default, NT 4.0 displays the last person who logged onto the system. This

can be considered to be a security threat, especially in the case of those who

choose their password to be same as their Username. To disable this bug which

actually is a feature, go to the following key in the registry editor:</P>

<P>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon</P>

<P>Click and select the ReportBookOK item and create a new string value called

DontDisplayLastUserName. Modify it and set it's value to 1.</P>

<P>As a system administrator, you can ensure that the passwords chosen by the

users are not too lame or too easy to guess. NT has this lovely utility called

the User Manager which allows the administrator to set the age limit of the

password which forces the users to change the password after a certain number of

days. You can also set the minimum length of passwords and prevent users to use

passwords which already have been used earlier and also enable account lockouts

which will deactivate an account after a specified number of failed login

attempts.</P>

<P>When you log on to Win NT, you should disable Password Caching, this ensures

Single NT Domain login and also prevents secondary Windows Logon screen.</P>

<P>Simply copy the following lines to a plain text ASCII editor like: Notepad

and save it with an extension, .reg </P>

<P>----------------DISABLE.reg-----------------</P>

<P>REGEDIT4</P>

<P>[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]</P>

<P>"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000001</P>

<P>----------------DISABLE.reg-----------------</P>

<P>To Enable Password Caching use the following .reg file:</P>

<P>--------------Enable.reg-----------------</P>

<P>REGEDIT4</P>

<P>[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]</P>

<P>"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000000</P>

<P>--------------Enable.reg-----------------</P>

<P>&nbsp;</P><B>

<P>Cleaning Recent Docs Menu and the RUN MRU</P></B>

<P>The Recent Docs menu can be easily disabled by editing the Registry. To do

this go to the following Key:</P>

<P>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

</P>

<P>Now in the right pane, create a new DWORD value by the name: NoRecentDocsMenu

and set it's value to 1. Restart Explorer to save the changes.</P>

<P>You can also clear the RUN MRU history. All the listings are stored in the

key:</P>

<P>HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU</P>

<P>You can delete individual listings or the entire listing. To delete History

of Find listings go to:</P>

<P>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Doc Find

Spec MRU</P>

<P>and delete.</P><B>

<P>Customizing the Right Click Context Menu of the Start Menu</P></B>

<P>When you right click on the start menu, only 3 options pop up: Open, Explore,

and Find. You can add your own programs to this pop up menu( which comes up when

we right click on it.) Open Regedit and go to the following registry key:</P>

<P>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell </P>

<P>Right click on the shell and create a new Sub Key (You can create a new

SubKey by right clicking on the Shell Key and selecting New &gt; Key.). Type in

the name of the application you want to add to the start menu. I want to add

Notepad to the Start Menu and hence I name this new sub key, Notepad. Now right

click on the new registry key that you just created and create yet another new

key named Command. Enter the full path of the application, in this case Notepad

in the default value of Command in the right </P>

<P>pane. So I Modify the value of the default string value and enter the full

pathname of Notepad: </P>

<P>c:\wndows\notepad.exe.</P>

<P>Now press F5 to refresh. Now if you right click on the Start Button you will

find a new addition to the Pop Up Menu called Notepad. Clicking on it will

launch Notepad.</P>

<P>We can not only add but also remove the existing options in this pop up

box.</P>

<P>To delete the Find option, go to the following registry key:</P>

<P>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\Find </P>

<P>Delete Find. DO NOT delete Open else you will not be able to open any folders

in the Start Menu like Programs, Accessories etc.&nbsp;&nbsp;</P><B>

<P>BMP Thumbnail As Icon</P></B>

<P>You can actually change the default BMP icon to a thumbnail version of the

actual BMP file. To do this simply go to HKCU\Paint.Picture\Default. In the

right pane change the value of default to %1. Please note however that this will

slow down the display rate in explorer if there are too many BMP thumbnails to

display. You can use other icons too, simply enter the pathname.To restore back

to the normal change the vale of default back to:

C:\Progra~1\Access~1\MSPAINT.EXE,1. </P><B>

<P>Customizing The Shortcut Arrow</P></B>

<P>All shortcuts have a tiny black arrow attached to it's icon to distinguish

from normal files. This arrow can sometimes be pretty annoying and as a Hacker

should know how to change each and everything, here goes another trick. Launch

the Registry Editor and go to: </P>

<P>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell

Icons. </P>

<P>Now, on the right pane is a list of icons ( we found out that on some

systems, Windows 98 especially, the right pane is blank. Don't worry, just add

the value as required ). Find the value 29. If it isn't there, just add it. The

value of this string should be C:\Windows\system\shell32.dll, 29 ( which means

the 30th icon in shell32.dll - the first one begins with 0 ). Now, we need blank

icon to do this. Just create one with white as the whole icon. Go here to learn

how to create an icon. Once done just change the value to C:\xxx.ico, 0 where

"xxx" is the full path of the icon file and "0" is the icon in it.</P>

<P>Now for some fun. If the blank icon is a bit boring, change it again. You

will find that under shell32.dll there is a gear icon, a shared folder ( the

hand ) and much more. Experiment for yourself!</P>

<P>Use Perl to Get List or Services Running on your NT box</P>

<P>Use the following Perl Script to get a list of Services running on your NT

system</P>

<P>--------------script.pl-----------------</P>

<P>#!c:\per\bin\perl.exe</P>

<P>use Win32::Service;</P>

<P>my ($key, %service, %status, $part);</P>

<P>Win32::Service::GetServices(' ',\%services);</P>

<P>foreach $key (sort keys %services) {</P>

<P>print "Print Name\t: $key, $services{$key}\n";</P>

<P>Win32::Service::GetStatus( ' ',$services{$key};</P>

<P>\%status);</P>

<P>foreach $part (keys %status) {</P>

<P>print "\t$part : $status{$part}\n" if($part eq "CurrentState");</P>

<P>}</P>

<P>}</P>

<P>-------------script.pl-------------------</P><B>

<P>Internet Explorer Tricks and Tips</P>

<P>Resizable Full Screen Toolbar</P></B>

<P>The Full Screen option increases the viewable area and makes surfing more

enjoyable but sometimes we need the Toolbar but also need to have extra viewing

area. Now this hack teaches you how to change the size of the Internet Explorer

toolbar. This registry hack is a bit complicated as it involves Binary values,

so to make it simple, I have included the following registry file which will

enable the resizable option of the Internet Explorer toolbar which was present

in the beta version of IE.</P>

<P>REGEDIT4</P>

<P>[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]</P>

<P>"Theater"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,18,00,00,00,1b,00,00,00,5c,\</P>

<P>00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00,05,00,00,00,22,00,00,00,26,00,\</P>

<P>00,00,02,00,00,00,21,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,\</P>

<P>00,03,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,00,00,00,00</P>

<P>*******************</P>

<P>HACKING TRUTH: Internet Explorer 5 displays the friendly version of HTTP

errors like NOT FOUND etc . They are aimed at making things easier for newbies.

If you would rather prefer to see the proper error pages for the web server

you're using, go to Tools, Internet Options and select the Advanced tab. Then

scroll down and uncheck the Show friendly http errors box.</P>

<P>*******************</P><B>

<P>Making the Internet Explorer &amp; the Explorer Toolbars Fancy</P></B>

<P>The Internet Explorer toolbar looks pretty simple. Want to make it fancy and

kewl? Why not add a background image to it. To do this kewl hack launch the

Windows Registry Editor and go to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\Toolbar\. </P>

<P>Now in the right pane create a new String Value and name it BackBitmap and

modify it's value to the path of the Bitmap you want to dress it up with by

rightclicking on it and choosing Modify.&nbsp;When you reboot the Internet

Explorer and the Windows Explorer toolbars will have a new look.</P><B>

<P>Change Internet Explorer's Caption</P></B>

<P>Don't like the caption of Internet Explorer caption? Want to change it? Open

the registry editor and go to </P>

<P>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main. </P>

<P>In the right pane create a new String Value names Window Title (Note the

space between Window and Title). Right click on this newly created String Value

and select Modify. Type in the new caption you want to be displayed. Restart for

the settings to take place.&nbsp;</P>

<P>Now let's move on to some <B>Outlook Express</B> Tricks.&nbsp;</P><B>

<P>Colorful Background</P></B>

<P>Don't like the boring background colors of Outlook Express? To change it

launch the Windows Registry Editor and scroll down to the </P>

<P>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Mail And News key. </P>

<P>On the left pane, click on ColorCycle or select Edit and Modify in the menu.

Now change the value to 1. Close and restart. Now, launch Outlook Express and