TIPS TRICKS and other helpful stuff

Stuff I have found or been sent that might help solve problems, improve performance, enhance security etc...

The File Checksum Integrity Verifier (FCIV) utility can generate MD5 or SHA-1 hash values for files to compare the values against a known good value. FCIV can compare hash values to make sure that the files have not been changed.
With the FCIV utility, you can also compute hashes of all your critical files and save the values in an XML file database. If you suspect that your computer may have been compromised, and important files have been changed, you can run a verification of the file system files against the XML database to determine which files have been modified.
The FCIV utility runs on Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.
HERE

The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to calculate what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow things down. So, if you never use the Recent Documents History, it's a good idea to disable it. Here's how:

Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it once it is created.
Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.
Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the change to take effect.

When you start to shut down Windows XP, it has to quit, or "kill," any live applications or processes that are currently running. So close all applications first. However, some applications and processes are always running in the background. You can reduce the amount of time that Windows XP waits for those applications and processes to close before Windows XP kills them. Edit three different Registry settings to change this:

Open the Registry Editor.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Select WaitToKillAppTimeout and set the value to 1000.
Select the HungAppTimeout value and set it to 1000 as well.
Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. Set the WaitToKillAppTimeout and set the value to 1000. Select the HungAppTimeout \newline value and set it to 1000 as well.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control. Select the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value and set it to 1000.
Close the Registry Editor.

If you use an NVIDIA video card, there is a service that runs that seems to slow down boot time and, especially, shutdown time. The general consensus in the hardware community is that the service doesn't actually do anything, so you should disable it. Disabling the service should not affect the NVIDIA video card but it will help your computer shut down more quickly.
Follow these steps:

Open the Click Start menu, right-click My Computer, and select Manage.
In the Computer Management console that appears, expand Services and Applications and select Services to open the services window.
Locate and highlight the Nvidia Driver Helper service. Right-click it and select Properties.
Set the Startup Type drop-down box to Disabled.
Click OK and close the Computer Management console.

Q. How can I trigger an action to be performed when certain Windows 
events occur?

A. Solutions such as Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) have highly 
configurable options for performing actions that depend on Windows 
events. However, Windows XP and later provide a tool, 
eventtriggers.exe, which lets you schedule an action to be performed 
when certain events occur. The basic command syntax for creating a 
trigger is

eventtriggers /create /tr ""
/eid 
/l 
/t 
/tk 
/ru 
/rp 

To display a detailed list of the triggers you've created, run the 
command

eventtriggers /query /v

You can configure the query to create the output in a specific format. 
For example, to create a comma-separated value (CSV) format, add the 
argument

/fo csv

to the end of the previous command (/fo means format). Other format 
options include table and list. 
   If you need to troubleshoot a trigger action, you can view the log 
file at \%systemroot%\system32\wbem\logs\cmdtriggerconsumer.log. 
However, the log doesn't give much information. Typically, the best way 
to debug a trigger action is to try to run the trigger action manually. 
Remember that specifying credentials (i.e., the /ru and /rp arguments) 
to use might fix the problem because by default the action will run 
under the local system context.
   To remove all the triggers on your system, use this command:

eventtriggers /delete /tid *

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Q. How can I block users from accessing the Microsoft Web application 
service that determines unknown file extensions?

A. By default, if you try to open a file that has an unknown file 
extension, you'll be given the option of selecting a program with which 
to open the file or using the Microsoft Web service to help ascertain 
the required application to open the file type, as the figure at 
http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=72DC:597BA 
shows. To block the Web lookup of extensions, perform these steps:
   1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe).
   2. Go to the 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system registry subkey.
   3. From the Edit menu, select New, DWORD Value.
   4. Enter a value name of NoInternetOpenWith and press Enter.
   5. Double-click the new value and set it to 1. Click OK.
   6. Close the registry editor.

The change takes effect immediately, and the user now sees only the 
dialog box for choosing the application to use; the option to connect 
to the Web service is gone.

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You can uninstall many Windows components, from Solitaire to Networking Services, using the Add or Remove Programs applet from the Control Panel. Launch it and click the Add/Remove Windows Com-ponents button at left. MSN Messenger, however, is deliberately hidden, as are several other components. Here's how you tell Windows not to hide those components. In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Windows\Inf and make a copy of the file Sysoc.inf. When you double-click on Sysoc.inf, it will launch in Notepad. Press Ctrl-H and replace the string ,hide, with ,, and save the file. Now you'll find that all the hidden components appear in Add/ Remove Windows Components.

Restore the Show Desktop Icon

The Show Desktop icon isn't a normal shortcut. If you accidentally delete it, restore it like so: Launch Notepad and type these lines:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Save the file with the name "Show Desktop.scf", including the quotes, to the folder C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch, where username is replaced by your actual user account name.

NT Server/Workstation
Windows 95
Internet Explorer
Netscape
MS Office
Tips&Tricks