Wednesday, 4 February 2009

How to Create an invisible account in Windows XP

To hide an account on a computer,

Go to the registry key:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\W indowsNT\CurrentVersion\W inlogon\SpecialAccounts\U serList
Create a new DWORD, setting its name to the name of the account you wish to hide. Then set its value to 0 to hide it. However, this account isn't completely hidden because it is visible to administrators in Local User and Groups and also the profile is visible in the Documents and Settings.

When you are at the welcome screen, and you want to login to this account, then press Ctrl+Alt+Delete twice and it will display the log-on promt style similar to Windows 2000, then type the username, and the password and hit enter.

remove shared documents folder from My Computer

Some don't like my shared documents folder option. If you are one of that, here is a trick to remove it.Open registry editor by going to START-RUN and entering regedit.
Once in registry, navigate to key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders
You must see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you delete this key, you have effectively removed the my shared documents folder

Running IE in fullscren

Running IE in fullscren is nicer and you will see more of the websites you visit. Browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Find the key called FullScreen and under Data you simply write yes and save.
Restart IE and see the difference

How to remove the shortcut arrow from the desktop.

Open Regedit and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Shell Icons
Backup the key. More information.
In the right-pane, create a new String value named "29"
Double-click 29 and set its data to:

C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll,50 (an empty icon)
Close Registry Editor.

Now,

Right-click Desktop, choose Properties
Click the Appearance Tab.

Click Advanced button.

Choose Icon from the drop-down list

Set it's size to 31 and press OK, OK.

The changes will be applied now. Repeat the above steps and then set the Icon size back to 32 (defaults). The above steps are required to force Windows to redraw the icons