PC Tricks

Disable Auto Run of USB to avoid virus :

Nowwadays, there is a new problem that is cropping up in almost all schools,colleges, hostels etc. where the malicious Autorun Virus is Creating Havoc by spreading to Laptops and PC through USB Drives etc.
How to Stop the Autorun PC Virus Infection ?
The free 'Panda USB Vaccine' allows users to vaccinate their PCs in order to disable Autorun completely so that no program from any USB/CD/DVD drive (regardless of whether they have been previously vaccinated or not) can auto-execute. This is a really helpful feature as there is no user friendly and easy way of completely disabling Autorun on a Windows PC.
Panda USB Vaccine is a 100% free utility. Its tested under Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1-SP3, and Windows Vista SP0 and SP1.

Shortcut keys of Windows Media Player :
Shortcut keys Action
1. Video Playback
ALT+1 Adjust zoom to 50 percent
ALT+2 Adjust zoom to 100 percent
ALT+3 Adjust zoom to 200 percent
ALT+ENTER Display the video in full mode

2. Accessing the
ALT+F Go to media player File Menu
ALT+T Go to media player Tools Menu
ALT+V Go to media player View Menu
ALT+P Go to media player Play Menu
ALT+F4 Use to close media player



CTRL+1 Display media player in full mode
CTRL+2 Display media player in skin mode

4. Player controls
ENTER or SPACEBAR Use to play an item
CTRL+B Use to play the previous item in media player
CTRL+F Use to play the next item in media player
CTRL+E Use to Eject CD or DVD from CD or DVD drive
CTRL+P Use to Play or Pause the item in media player
CTRL+T Use to Repeat the items in media player
CTRL+SHIFT+B Use to Rewind a file in media player
CTRL+SHIFT+F Use to Fast Forward a file in media player
CTRL+SHIFT+S Use to play items slower than a normal speed
CTRL+SHIFT+ G Use to play items faster than a normal speed
CTRL+SHIFT+ N Use to play items at normal speed in media player
F8 Use to mute the volume in media player
F9 Use to decrease the volume in media player
F10 Use to increase the volume in media player
Initially, you�ll have to look up for some of these shortcuts but once you get well versed with them, you�ll be a lot quicker at controlling the Media Player.

Increase hard disk speed in windows :
f you like to increase/optimize your Hard Disk I/O - read/write speed without buying expensive software utilities to do that job or changing the HD, just follow next steps. With doing these steps you will increase Hard disk speed (depends of manufacture and specification, but its worth to try). The most speed improvement is visible with IDE drives; however there are reports that this tweak also does good for SCSI disks.
In any case, it won't harm your system, so try it yourself and let me know what you find!
Steps:
1. Run SYSEDIT.EXE from the start & then Run command.
2. Expand the system.ini file window.
3. Scroll down almost to the end of the file untill you find a line called [386enh].
4. Press Enter to make one blank line, and in that line type
5. Irq14=4096 (note: This line IS CASE SENSITIVE)
6. Click on the File menu, then choose Save.
7. Close SYSEDIT and reboot your computer.
8. Restart windows!
The speed improvement will be noticed just after the system reboots, any system info. software can be used to check the improvement.

Disable Windows xp logo during system boot :
It is possible to disable the XP splash screen, which will slightly speed up the overall boot process.
Be aware that removing the splash screen will also cause you not to see any boot-up messages that might come up (chkdsk, convert � ),
but if your system runs without any problems then it should not matter.
Edit boot.ini
Add � /noguiboot� right after �/fastdetect�.
Upon restarting, the splash screen will be gone. It can be re-enabled by removing the new switch

Shut down windows xp at fastest speed:
You can make your shut down process a bit faster by the following tweak. Steps: (Download the registry file in your PC.)
1. This step is very important.
Export (right click > Export) the following keys and save it to a safer place.
HKEY CURRENT USER\Control Panel\Desktop
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

2. Open Notepad, copy and paste the following to the Notepad.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoEndTasks"="1"
"HungAppTimeout"="1000"
"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="2000"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="2000"

3. Save the file and close Notepad.

4. Change extension of the file from .txt (text file) to .reg (registry file).

5. Double click open this file and click Yes and the OK .