How To Decrease your application startup time

By default, Microsoft includes the /prefetch:1 switch to speed up it's Windows Media Player application start time. This switch can be used for other Windows applications and also many third party programs.

Example #1

You have AOL 8.0 installed on the computer. Complete the steps outlined bewlo to add the /prefetch:1 switch to AOL's Target path.

1. Right click on the AOL shortcut and select properties from the menu.
2. In the Target: Field add the /prefetch:1 switch to the very end of the path, like this: "C:\Program Files\America Online 8.0\aol.exe" /prefetch:1 and then click ok.

Now start AOL. It would load at least 50 times faster than ever before.

Example #2

1. Go to the Start button/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools
2. Right click on System Restore and select properties from the menu that appears. Add the /prefetch:1 to the Target Path entry so it looks like this %ystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe /prefetch:1 and click ok.

Now System Restore will start immediately when executed.

Note: This switch will only work with some programs. Others will return a message saying the program in the target box is invalid. Just remove the switch

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How to reinstall Internet Explorer 6

Microsoft Windows XP won't allow you to uninstall Internet Explorer. How can you fix the browser or even reinstall the program if it becomes corrupt?

If you don't yet have the very latest Internet Explorer, you can fix many problems by visiting

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

and updating to the latest version. If you're already up to date, however, the site won't let you reinstall the program. You need to fool the system into thinking you don't have the latest version.

Launch REGEDIT from the Start menu's Run dialog and navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383}. In the right-hand pane, double-click on the DWORD value IsInstalled and change it from 1 to 0 (no matter whether you choose Decimal or Hexadecimal). Close REGEDIT and go to the Windows update site again. Now it should let you "update" IE and, with luck, fix the problems.

By the way, you can do the same thing if you need to repair Outlook Express, but at the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015C}.

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How to Recover a Corrupted System File

If an essential Windows file gets whacked by a virus or otherwise corrupted, restore it from the Windows CD. Search the CD for the filename, replacing the last character with an underscore; for example, Notepad.ex_. If it's found, open a command prompt and enter the command EXPAND, followed by the full pathname of the file and of the desired destination: EXPAND D:\SETUP\NOTEPAD.EX_ C:\Windows\NOTEPAD.EXE. If either pathname contains any spaces, surround it with double quotes.

If the file isn't found, search on the unmodified filename. It will probably be inside a CAB file, which Win XP treats as a folder. Simply right-drag and copy the file to the desired location. In other Windows platforms, search for a file matching *.cab that contains the filename. When the search is done, open a command prompt and enter EXTRACT /L followed by the desired location, the full pathname of the CAB file, and the desired filename; for example: EXTRACT /L C:\Windows D:\I386\Driver.cab Notepad.exe. Again, if the destination or CAB file pathname contains spaces, surround it with double quotes.

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How can I uninstall Windows XP and return to my old Windows 98?

If you've upgraded to XP from Windows Me or Windows 98, go to the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel applet and click Uninstall Windows XP.

If you want, you can also uninstall XP from the command prompt by performing the following steps:

- Start the computer in Safe Mode with Command Prompt support (press F8 on start up).
- Navigate to %systemroot%\system32.
- Type osuninst.exe and press Enter.
- Follow the onscreen instructions.

If XP was installed as a dual-boot system along with Win98 or W2K then you can simply format the partition on which it is installed. That is one of the reasons I always recommend to install separate operating systems on separate partitions!

Note: Windows XP Professional provides an uninstall tool when upgrading from Windows 98 on a drive formatted as FAT or FAT32. Therefore, when upgrading this type of drive, you will not have the option to upgrade to NTFS, as this would negate the uninstall option. However, you can convert the drive to NTFS after installation if you choose.

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Burn a BIN without a CUE using NERO

You've downloaded a *.BIN file, but there was no *.CUE file associated and you still want to burn the *.BIN file using Nero

Your options are:
1) Create yourself a *.CUE
2) Convert the *.BIN to an *.ISO
3) OR use Nero to burn without the *.CUE file!!!

Yes, that's possible... just follow these steps and you will be sorted. No need for *.CUE files anymore
Ok, here we go...

1) Start Nero
2) File -> Burn Image
3) Browse to the *.BIN file that you want to burn and open it
4) A window saying "Foreign Image Settings" will open
5) Check the settings. They should be as followed:

* Type of image: leave it to Data Mode 1
* Select the Raw Data check box
Note ->> The block size will change automatically from 2048 to 2352
* Leave Image Header and Image Trailer unchanged and set to 0
* Leave "Scrambled" and "Swapped" check boxes unchecked

6) Click on burn!
7) Enjoy

This tut was for Nero 5.x.x.x, I was told that "Burn Image" is under "recorder" in Nero 6. The rest of the steps should be the same...

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How to Install and run Windows CE on your USB Stick

Portable Windows CE is a 'launcher' for the Windows CE device emulator that can run an emulator-based image from a USB keychain.

Download the Windows CE 5.0 Device Emulator.
Code: http://www.Mcft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=A120E012-CA31-4BE9-A3BF-B9BF4F64CE72&displaylang=en

Change "Mcft" in link to what it is supposed to be icon_wink.gif

Extract the emulator to a folder on your hard drive by running "setup /a". The installer will prompt you to specify a directory to extract to . For example: D:\PortableCE

Download this launcher script:
Code:
http://www.furrygoat.com/Software/launchce.cmd.txt

Copy the following launcher script to the directory you extracted the setup to. You'll need to rename the file from launchce.cmd.txt to launchce.cmd
Once you have that set up, just copy the entire D:\PortableCE folder over to your USB keychain.

To launch the emulator, just plug in your USB keychain, navigate to the PortableCE folder, and run launchce.cmd. You should (hopefully) have the emulator fire up.

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