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[Windows] Avoid Reactivating Windows XP

There will be a time where you will need to re-install a fresh copy of Windows. It’s not if, it’s when– it’s bound to happen. You may have some bad registry records, or a nasty piece of malware– maybe you just want faster performance. Whatever the reason, you will still need to activate it again after installation.

This guide is not a helping you pirate Windows– it is for owners of a legal license, who do not want to go through the hassle of activating again through Microsoft.

The first time you activated XP it created a file called “wpa.dbl” that is stored in the WINDOWS\system32 folder. By creating a backup of this file on disk, you can simply put it back into the folder after reinstalling XP and avoid the whole re-activation hassle.

Here’s how:
1- Go to My Computer then select your Hard Drive (usually drive C). Go to the WINDOWS\system32 folder and scroll way down until you find the wpa.dbl file.

2- Right-click and copy the file, and paste it to a flash drive, or another form of backup storage.

3- Now, when you reinstall Windows XP you’ll come to the activation screen—decline to activate and let the install finish.

4- Restart your computer in Safe Mode (keep hitting F8 at start-up then when the Advanced Boot Options menu appears arrow down to Safe Mode).

5- Find your way back to the WINDOWS\system32 folder. It’s a good idea to rename the wpa.dbl file you’re replacing just in case you run into problems, so call it something like “wpa.nothing”.

6- Get the backup disk and copy the old wpa.dbl file back to the WINDOWS\system32 folder and reboot.

There you go—XP is up and running again.

P.S. Your wpa.dbl file might NOT work on another computer.

Add comment August 13th, 2009

[iPhone] iPhone OS 3.0.1 is Jailbreakable from the getgo

You may have heard that Apple quickly released a patch for the iPhone SMS security hole last week. The update does break your jailbreak. However, you don’t have to wait for the Dev-team to cook up a new version of redsn0w for this one.

iPhone update 3.0.1 is already hackable using the current version of redsn0w.

Just update the phone to 3.0.1 > plug it into your computer > launch redsn0w, and when it asks for the .IPSW file– browse for your old 3.0 .IPSW and you’re good to go.

You can follow my guide on jailbreaking 3.0 here.

I have done this on my 3G S, and have been very successful.

Add comment August 3rd, 2009

[Firefox] Some Handy Firefox Config Tweaks

What’s great about Firefox is the scalability under the hood. Hidden from the causal user is a world of tweaks you can toggle, and allow Firefox to soar.

Here are some of my favs:

To get the Firefox 3 configuration file type “about:config” at address bar.

1) Disable Extension Compatibility Checks

extensions.checkCompatibility = False
extensions.checkUpdateSecurity = False

2) Location Bar (Set number Auto Complete URL at Address Bar)

This is a good hack to trim down that huge auto-complete list on your URL bar. By default it displays maximum 12 URL

browser.urlbar.maxRichResults = #

Enter Number at # (3,10,12 etc)

3) Stop Displaying Website Icon (Favicon) in Address bar & On Tab

browser.chrome.site_icons = False

4) Disable Prefetch (Helpful for frequent Google searcher, low-speed internet connection or low RAM)

network.prefetch-next = False

5) Extend Spell check to forms

layout.spellcheckDefault = 2
Change Value from 1 to 2

6) Disable Blinking Text

browser.blink_allowed = False

7) Speed Tweaks

network.http.pipelining false to true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests 30 to 8
network.http.max-connections 30 to 96
network.http.max-connections-per-server 15 to 32
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server 6 to 8
network.http.pipelining.ssl false to true
network.http.proxy.pipelining false to true

8 ) Disable Annoying Browser Behavior

dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar
dom.disable_window_move_resize
dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar
dom.disable_window_open_feature.toolbar

Set all of above to value False

9) Remove Tab Close Button from all Tab and set A single Close Button at Right

browser.tabs.closeButtons = 3

Single Close Button to control all Firefox Opened Tabs. (value should be 3 and not 2 Thanks Andreas )

10) Disabler Browser Toolbar Tip

browser.chrome.toolbar_tips = False

11) Show More Tabs on Single Firefox Window before Scrolling

browser.tabs.tabMinWidth = 75

Setting lesser value with reduce Tab width

12) Past Copy Content with Middlemouse Click

middlemouse.paste = True

13) Scroll webpage in One Go

mousewheel.withaltkey.action=1

14) Disable Delay Time While Installing Firefox Add-on

security.dialog_enable_delay = 0

(Zero is number of seconds Firefox should wait while installing Add-on)

15) Increase History Undo Close Tab Limit ( Recently Closed Tabs )

browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo=15

By default you can undo 10 recently closed tabs inorder to increase your history closed tabs. Change number 13 to as per your choice.

16) Open Firefox Default Search Bar Result in New Tab

browser.search.openintab=True

17) Right Click View Source in Your Favorite Editor

view_source.editor.external=True
view_source.editor.path= Path of Editor

(e.g. path C:\Program Files\npp.4.8.2.bin\notepad++.exe)

18) Enable/Disable Single Click to Select Whole URL in Address bar

To Enable Single Click Select URL of address bar use the below about:config Tweak

browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll = True

To disable Single Click Select

browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll = False

19) Emule/ed2k link association (Linux users)

network.protocol-handler.app.ed2k= /usr/bin/ed2k
network.protocol-handler.external.ed2k = true

20) Fast Scrolling Across Tabs

toolkit.scrollbox.scrollIncrement =75

( 75 is number of pixels to scroll at a time when scrolling the tab strip’s scrollbox. (Default: 20)

21) Auto Complete URL while You type at address Bar

browser.urlbar.autoFill=True

Add comment July 31st, 2009

[Windows] Disable and Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

So you decided to download a pirated copy of Windows XP, and accidently downloaded the Windows Updates- only to witness the below image. You can either buy a valid Windows License, or use my method to remove this naggy Window. You rather use my method? Of course, here’s what you need to do:

1. Lauch Windows Task Manager.
2. End wgatray.exe process in Task Manager.
3. Restart Windows XP in Safe Mode.
4. Delete WgaTray.exe from c:\Windows\System32.
5. Delete WgaTray.exe from c:\Windows\System32\dllcache.
6. Lauch Regedit (Start > Run > “regedit”.
7. Browse to the following location:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
   Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify
8. Delete the folder ‘WgaLogon’ and all its contents
9. Reboot Windows XP.

Moving forward, check what’s in the Windows Update before installing. If you see “WGA Notifications”, uncheck it. You can also buy a legit copy, cheap ass.

1 comment July 28th, 2009

[Windows] 10 Registry Hacks that make Vista less Sucky

We all know to stay clear of Vista– it is a failure, which constantly breaks itself with its own updates and fixes. There are however, small registry tweaks you can make to improve usability until Windows 7 hits the shelves– here they are:

1: Disable AutoPlay

I always find it a bit annoying to insert a CD and have Windows open Internet Explorer and display a bunch of information I don’t care about. I would rather just be able to navigate through the disc’s file system and go directly to what I need. Fortunately, it’s easy to create a registry setting that disables AutoPlay:

1. Navigate through the Registry Editor to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
2. Create a DWORD named NoDriveTypeAutoRun.
3. Set the value to 000000FF.

2: Increase the maximum number of simultaneous downloads

As a technical writer, I’m constantly downloading files. Sometimes I need to download a lot of files, and Windows’ limit on the number of files that can be downloaded simultaneously gets in the way. If you’re in the same boat, you can tweak the registry so that Windows will let you download 10 files at a time:

1. Navigate through the Registry Editor to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings.
2. Create a new DWORD named MaxConnectionsPerServer and assign it a value of 0000000a.
3. Create a new DWORD named MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server and assign it a value of 0000000a.

3: Change the name of the registered user

When you install Windows, you’re prompted to enter a username and a company name. But since it’s fairly common for companies to merge, you may want to change the name of the company Windows is registered to by using this hack:

1. Navigate through the Registry Editor to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion.
2. Change the values that are assigned to the RegisteredOwner and RegisteredOrganization keys to reflect the new ownership information.

4: Prevent the Recycle Bin from being deleted

If you’ve ever right-clicked on the Windows Recycle Bin, you know there’s a Delete option, which can be used to get rid of it. If you want to prevent the Recycle Bin from accidental deletion, follow these steps:

1. Navigate through the Registry Editor to HKCR\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}.
2. Create a new registry key called Shell.
3. Create a new registry key named Delete and put it beneath the Shell key. The path should look like this: HKCR\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\Shell\Delete.
4. Modify the Default key and assign it a value of Recycle Bin.

5: Eliminate cached logons

Windows is designed to allow users to log on using cached logins if no domain controller is available to authenticate the request. If you want to make sure that a login request is always authenticated by a domain controller, you could change the number of cached logons that are allowed from 10 to 0 (or you could increase the number of cached logins allowed to 50). To do so, follow these steps:

1. Navigate through the Registry Editor to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\winlogon.
2. Create a new REG_SZ setting named CachedLogonsCount.
3. Assign this new setting a value that reflects how many concurrent cached logins you want to allow.

6: Encrypt and decrypt from a shortcut menu

Normally, when you want to encrypt or decrypt a file in XP Pro or Vista, you just right-click on the file or folder and choose the Properties command from the shortcut menu. When the properties sheet appears, click the Advanced button on the General tab and then use either the Encrypt or the Decrypt option.

If all that seems like a lot of work, you can add those options to the shortcut menu you see when you right-click on a file:

1. Navigate through the Registry Editor to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
2. Create a new DWORD called EncryptionContextMenu and assign it a value of 1.

7: Delay Windows Activation

Typically, when an organization deploys Vista, it will create a master image, run SYSPREP, and deploy the image. The problem is that it might be a while between the time that SYSPREP is run and when Vista is actually deployed.

Microsoft will allow you to extend the activation period by 30 days, but you can do that only three times. You can, however, use a registry hack to get around this limitation:

1. Navigate through the registry to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SL.
2. Change the value associated with the SkipRearm key to 1.
3. Open a Command Prompt window and enter the following command: slmgr -rearm.

8: Relocate your offline files

When you use Vista’s Offline Files feature, the offline file cache is automatically placed on your C: drive. But my laptop has two hard drives in it, and I wanted to configure Vista to place my offline files onto my secondary hard drive. I accomplished the task by following these steps:

1. Open the Control Panel and click on the Network And Internet link, followed by the Offline Files link. Windows will display the Offline Files properties sheet.
2. Disable offline files if they are currently enabled.
3. Click OK and reboot the machine.
4. When the computer reboots, open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC.
5. Create a new string value named Parameters.
6. Assign this value to the Parameters key:

\??\e:\csc

where e: is the drive letter you want to use.

1. Exit the Registry Editor and reboot the computer.
2. When the machine reboots, enable offline files.
3. Reboot the computer one last time. Now, you can start making folders available offline.

9: Disable User Account Control

One of the things about Vista that seems to irritate a lot of people is the User Account Control feature. In essence, an administrator is treated as a standard user. Administrators who attempt to perform an administrative action receive a prompt asking whether they initiated the action. I think that this prompt is a valuable safeguard against malware, but since a lot of people don’t like it, here’s how to use the registry editor to suppress the prompt:

1. Navigate through the registry editor to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System.
2. Change the value of the ConcentPromptBehaviorAdmin key to 00000000.

10: Don’t display the last user who logged in

Windows Vista is designed so that when you press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to log in, it will display the name of the user who logged in most recently. This can be a bit of a problem if multiple users share a common PC. They may forget to check to see who was logged in previously and key in their own password in association with another user’s login name. If they try this enough times, they could lock the other user out. You can get around this problem by using a simple registry tweak to tell Windows not to display the name of the user who was logged in previously:

1. Navigate through the Registry Editor to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System.
2. Set the DontDisplayLastName key to a value of 1.

And that’s all I got for now- please share your tips in the comments section below!

1 comment July 28th, 2009

[iPhone] How to Sync your iPhone on Two Computers

If you’re like me, you’d love to be able to sync your iPhone both at work and home. But, with the current iTunes setup, this is not possible. It’s one or the other– but there’s a way. Learn how you can setup your iPhone to sync on two different computers without losing all your settings.

**IMPORTANT: This method is for syncing music and media on one PC and your calendar, contacts etc on another.**

1. Step 1

   First you need to have your iPhone already synced with one of your computers. This will be Computer A for the rest of this article.

2. Step 2

   Now on Computer A, you will want to find the “iTunes Music Library.xml” file. For MAC users this file is found at “/Users/[your username]/Music” for Windows XP and older it may be found at “\Documents and Settings\[your username]\My Documents\My Music\” and for Vista users it will be found at “\Users\[your username]\Music\” Open it with notepad or some basic word processor.

3. Step 3

   Once you have opened this file in a word processor, look for the tag “string” after “Library Persistent ID,” in between those tags is an alpha numeric code you need, it should be 16 characters long. Take this code and copy it somewhere or write it down so that you can use it again later on the other computer.

4. Step 4

   Now go to Computer B, the one you would like to sync your iPhone with as well, and make sure iTunes is closed.

5. Step 5

   Now locate the “iTunes Music Library.xml” file on Computer B as well. Refer to step 2 for assistance with this. Once you find the file, create a backup of it, one easy way to do this is to copy and paste it in the same folder. The computer will create a copy of the file with a slightly different name.

6. Step 6

   Now open this document with a word processor and repeat Step 3 by locating the code and copying it to a safe location as you will need it for step 8. Now replace the code with the one you copied from Computer A in Step 3. Go to File>Save then close the document.

7. Step 7

   Install a hex editor if you don’t have one already, I recommend Tiny Hexer, which there is a link for at the bottom of this article.

8. Step 8

   Locate the file “iTunes Music Library.itl” with your hex editor. Once this is open, go to Edit>Find and Replace. In the find field, enter the code from COMPUTER B, you should have copied this code somewhere during Step 6. Hit FIND and it should come up with 1 result, now hit the REPLACE button and enter the code from COMPUTER A that you got in Step 3 then hit REPLACE again. Now go to File Save and close.

9. Step 9

   You are now down. It is best to setup each PC to sync something different, this setup is perfect for syncing music from one PC such as your home one and Email, calendar, contacts etc from your work PC. If you try to sync up music from both PCs then the music library must be the same on both PCs or your library on your iPhone will get changed every time you sync.

Add comment July 28th, 2009

[XBOX] XBOX 360 Laptop Mod

Another amazing creation from Ben Heck has been unveiled that makes additional modification for a beautiful portable Xbox 360 laptop that has all the bells and whistles and looks just amazing.

Ben Heck is known for beautiful  mods such as the PS3 Laptop Mod or the Commodore 64 Laptop Mod. He knows what he’s doing, and is awesome at it.

This portable XBOX 360 includes:

Built-in Ethernet port

• Built-in WiFi adapter
• Digital pushbutton volume control rather than a clunky knob
• Flush-mount DVD door and side panels (such as the memory card slots)
• IR sensor for the remote control
• Two user USB ports
• More air holes! and…
• Jasper motherboard

Add comment July 27th, 2009

[Windows] Install Windows Updates Manually

If you have a Windows Update that you just can’t install, this post is for you. If you have a pirated copy of Windows, and can’t download updates, this post is also for you (yet I don’t condone it!). Using the following method, you can install all the updates, manually. Read on:

Windows Update Downloader can manually download any update for Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, Office 2003, and even Exchange 2003. It’s also great to use in conjunction with a Windows Vista Unattended Installation CD and Windows XP Unattended Installation CD so the updates are installed with the OS. Just follow these steps to get started.

Step 1: Download Windows Update Downloader and install it.

Step 2: Download the Update List for the product you wish to download updates for and double click it to automatically import it.

Step 3: Open Windows Update Downloader and select the updates you wish to download. You can change the location in which the updates are downloaded by clicking “Change” next to Download Folder. Click the “Show Options” button and select “Product as subfolder” to separate the downloaded updates into subfolders based on the product name. This makes them much easier to sort through if you are downloading updates for multiple products.

Step 4: Click “Download” to start downloading updates.

Step 5: Once the updates have finished, you can navigate to your download folder to retrieve your updates.

You are now ready to install the updates with a simple double click. If you have any experience with downloading Windows Updates manually, please feel free to share.
[Thanks EmergingTechs]

Add comment July 27th, 2009