Untold
Windows Tips and Secrets
By
Ankit Fadia
****************
Important
Note: Before you read on, you need to keep one thing in mind. Whenever you
make changes to the Windows Registry you need to Refresh it before the changes
take place. Simply press F5 to refresh the registry and enable the changes.
If this does not work Restart your system
****************
Exiting
Windows the Cool and Quick Way
Normally
it takes a hell lot of time just Shutting down Windows, you have to move your
mouse to the Start Button, click on it, move it again over Shut Down, click,
then move it over the necessary option and click, then move the cursor over
the OK button and once again (you guessed it) click.This whole process can
be shortened by creating shortcuts on the Desktop which will shut down Windows
at the click of a button. Start by creating a new shortcut( right click and
select New> Shortcut). Then in the command line box, type (without the
quotes.)
'C:\windows\rundll.exe
user.exe,exitwindowsexec'
This
Shortcut on clicking will restart Windows immediately without any Warning.
To create a Shortcut to Restarting Windows, type the following in the Command
Line box:
'c:\windows\rundll.exe
user.exe,exitwindows'
This
Shortcut on clicking will shut down Windows immediately without any Warning.
Ban
Shutdowns : A trick to Play on Lamers
This
is a neat trick you can play on that lamer that has a huge ego, in this section
I teach you, how to disable the Shut Down option in the Shut Down Dialog Box.
This trick involves editing the registry, so please make backups. Launch regedit.exe
and go to :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
In
the right pane look for the NoClose Key. If it is not already there then create
it by right clicking in the right pane and selecting New > String Value.(Name
it NoCloseKey ) Now once you see the NoCloseKey in the right pane, right click
on it and select Modify. Then Type 1 in the Value Data Box.
Doing
the above on a Win98 system disables the Shut Down option in the Shut Down
Dialog Box. But on a Win95 machine if the value of NoCloseKey is set to 1
then click on the Start > Shut Down button displays the following error
message:
This
operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer.
Please contact your system administrator.
You
can enable the shut down option by changing the value of NoCloseKey to 0 or
simply deleting the particular entry i.e. deleting NoCloseKey.
Instead
of performing the above difficult to remember process, simply save the following
with an extension of .reg and add it's contents to the registry by double
clicking on it.
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoClose"="1"
Disabling
Display of Drives in My Computer
This
is yet another trick you can play on your geek friend. To disable the display
of local or networked drives when you click My Computer go to :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Now
in the right pane create a new DWORD item and name it NoDrives. Now modify
it's value and set it to 3FFFFFF (Hexadecimal) Now press F5 to refresh. When
you click on My Computer, no drives will be shown. To enable display of drives
in My Computer, simply delete this DWORD item. It's .reg file is as follows:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDrives"=dword:03ffffff
Take
Over the Screen Saver
To
activate and deactivate the screen saver whenever you want, goto the following
registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ScreenSavers
Now
add a new string value and name it Mouse Corners. Edit this new value to -Y-N.
Press F5 to refresh the registry. Voila! Now you can activate your screensaver
by simply placing the mouse cursor at the top right corner of the screen and
if you take the mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen, the screensaver
will deactivate.
Pop
a banner each time Windows Boots
To
pop a banner which can contain any message you want to display just before
a user is going to log on, go to the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinLogon
Now
create a new string Value in the right pane named LegalNoticeCaption and enter
the value that you want to see in the Menu Bar. Now create yet another new
string value and name it: LegalNoticeText. Modify it and insert the message
you want to display each time Windows boots. This can be effectively used
to display the company's private policy each time the user logs on to his
NT box. It's .reg file would be:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"LegalNoticeCaption"="Caption
here."
Delete
the Tips of the Day to save 5KB
Windows
95 had these tips of the day which appeared on a system running a newly installed
Windows OS. These tips of the day are stored in the Windows Registry and consume
5K of space. For those of you who are really concerned about how much free
space your hard disk has, I have the perfect trick.
To
save 5K go to the following key in Regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Tips
Now
simply delete these tricks by selecting and pressing the DEL key.
Change
the Default Locations
To
change the default drive or path where Windows will look for it's installation
files, go to the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath
Now
you can edit as you wish.
Secure
your Desktop Icons and Settings
You
can save your desktop settings and secure it from your nerdy friend by playing
with the registry. Simply launch the Registry Editor go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
In
the right pane create a new DWORD Value named NoSaveSettings and modify it's
value to 1. Refresh and restart for the settings to get saved.
CLSID
Folders Explained
Don't
you just hate those stubborn stupid icons that refuse to leave the desktop,
like the Network Neighborhood icon. I am sure you want to know how you can
delete them. You may say, that is really simple, simply right click on the
concerned icon and select Delete. Well not exactly, you see when you right
click on these special folders( see entire list below)neither the rename nor
the delete option does not appear. To delete these folders, there are two
methods, the first one is using the System Policy Editor(Poledit in the Windows
installation CD)and the second is using the Registry.
Before
we go on, you need to understand what CLSID values are. These folders, like
the Control Panel, Inbox, The Microsoft Network, Dial Up Networking etc are
system folders. Each system folder has a unique CLSID key or the Class ID
which is a 16-byte value which identifies an individual object that points
to a corresponding key in the registry.
To
delete these system Folders from the desktop simply go to the following registry
key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\Namespace{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
To
delete an icon simply delete the 16 byte CLSID value within "NameSpace". The
following are the CLSID values of the most commonly used icons:
My
Briefcase:{85BBD920-42AO-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}
Desktop:
{00021400-0000-0000-C000-0000000000046}
Control
Panel:{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Dial-Up-Networking:{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD01CCC48}
Fonts:
{BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-08000948534}
Inbox
:{00020D76-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
My
Computer :{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
Network
Neighborhood:{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-O8002B30309D}
Printers
:{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-O8002B30309D}
Recycle
Bin :{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
The
Microsoft Network:{00028B00-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
History:
{FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}
Winzip
:{E0D79300-84BE-11CE-9641-444553540000}
For
example, to delete the Recycle Bin, first note down it's CLSID value, which
is: 645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E. Now go to the Namespace key in the
registry and delete the corresponding key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
Similarly
to delete the History folder, delete the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{FBF23B42-E3F0-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8}
Sometimes,
you may need to play a trick on your brother or friend, well this one teaches
you how to hide all icons from the Desktop. Go to the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
In
the right pane create a new DWORD value by the name: NoDesktop and set its
value to: 1. Reboot and you will find no icons on the desktop.
Till
now you simply learnt how to delete the special system folders by deleting
a registry key, but the hack would have been better if there was a way of
adding the DELETE and RENAME option to the right click context menus of these
special folders. You can actually change the right click context menu of any
system folder and add any of the following options: RENAME, DELETE, CUT, COPY,
PASTE and lots more.
This
hack too requires you to know the CLSID value of the system folder whose menu
you want to customize. In this section, I have taken up Recycle Bin as the
folder whose context menu I am going to edit.
Firstly
launch the registry editor and open the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder.
In
Case you want to edit some other folder like say the FONTS folder, then you
will open the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{CLSID
VALUE HERE}\ShellFolder.
In
the right pane there will be a DWORD value names attributes. Now consider
the following options:
50
01 00 20
60
01 00 20
3.
To add both the Rename & Delete options to the menu, change the value
of Attributes to 70,01,00,20
4.
Add Copy to the menu, change Attributes to 41 01 00 20
5.
Add Cut to the menu, change Attributes to 42 01 00 20
6.
Add Copy & Cut to the menu, change Attributes to 43 01 00 20
7.
Add Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 44 01 00 20
8.
Add Copy & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 45 01 00 20
9.
Add Cut & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 46 01 00 20
10.Add
all Cut, Copy & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 47 01 00 20
We
want to add only the Rename option to the right click context menu of the
Recycle Bin, so change the value of attributes to: 50 01 00 20. Press F5 to
refresh and then after rebooting you will find that when you right click on
the Recycle Bin a RENAME option pops up too.
To
reset the default Windows options change the value of Attributes back to
40
01 00 20
The
Registry File which one can create for the above process would be something
like the below:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\Shell-Folder]
"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20
To
access say the Modem Properties in the Control Panel Folder, the normal procedure
is: Click on Start, Click on Settings> Control Panel and then wait for
the Control Panel window to pop up and then ultimately click on the Modems
icon.
Wouldn't
it be lovely if you could shorten the process to: Click on Start> Control
Panel>Modems. Yes you can add the Control Panel and also all other Special
System Folders directly to the first level Start Menu. Firstly collect the
CLSID value of the folder you want to add to the start menu. I want to add
Control Panel hence the CLSID value is: 21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D
Now
right click on the Start Button and select Open. Now create a new folder and
name it: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
NOTE:
Do not forget the period after the 'l' in Panel. Similarly all system folders
can be added to the Start Menu.(accept My Briefcase, I think)
Deleting
System Options from the Start menu
You
can actually remove the Find and Run options from the start menu by performing
a simple registry hack. Again like always Launch the registry editor and scroll
down to the below key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Right-click
on the right pane and select New, DWORD Value. Name it NoFind.(To remove the
RUN option name it NoRun). Double-click the newly create DWORD to edit it's
value and enter 1 as its value. This will disable the FIND option of the Start
Menu and will also disable the default Shortcut key(F3 for Find.)
To
restore the Run or find command modify the value of the DWORD to 0 or simply
Delete the DWORD value.
Fed
Up of the boring Old Yellow Folder Icons?[Drive Icons Included]
NOTE:
This trick hasn't been tried on Win98.
You
can easily change the boring yellow folder icons to your own personalized
icons. Simply create a text file and copy the following lines into it:
[.ShellClassInfo]
ICONFILE=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension
Save
this text file by the name, desktop.ini in the folder, whose icon you want
to change. Now to prevent this file from getting deleted change it's attributes
to Hidden and Read Only by using the ATTRIB command.
To
change the icon of a drive, create a text file containing the following lines:
[Autorun]
ICON=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension
Save
this file in the root of the drive whose icon you want to change and name
it autorun.inf For Example, if you want to change the icon of a floppy, SAVE
THE icon in a:\icon_name.ico One can also create a kewl icon for the Hard
Disk and create a text file [autorun.inf] and store it in "c:\".
Securing
NT
By
default, NT 4.0 displays the last person who logged onto the system. This
can be considered to be a security threat, especially in the case of those
who choose their password to be same as their Username. To disable this bug
which actually is a feature, go to the following key in the registry editor:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Click
and select the ReportBookOK item and create a new string value called DontDisplayLastUserName.
Modify it and set it's value to 1.
As
a system administrator, you can ensure that the passwords chosen by the users
are not too lame or too easy to guess. NT has this lovely utility called the
User Manager which allows the administrator to set the age limit of the password
which forces the users to change the password after a certain number of days.
You can also set the minimum length of passwords and prevent users to use
passwords which already have been used earlier and also enable account lockouts
which will deactivate an account after a specified number of failed login
attempts.
When
you log on to Win NT, you should disable Password Caching, this ensures Single
NT Domain login and also prevents secondary Windows Logon screen.
Simply
copy the following lines to a plain text ASCII editor like: Notepad and save
it with an extension, .reg
----------------DISABLE.reg-----------------
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]
"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000001
----------------DISABLE.reg-----------------
To
Enable Password Caching use the following .reg file:
--------------Enable.reg-----------------
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]
"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000000
--------------Enable.reg-----------------
Cleaning
Recent Docs Menu and the RUN MRU
The
Recent Docs menu can be easily disabled by editing the Registry. To do this
go to the following Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Now
in the right pane, create a new DWORD value by the name: NoRecentDocsMenu
and set it's value to 1. Restart Explorer to save the changes.
You
can also clear the RUN MRU history. All the listings are stored in the key:
HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU
You
can delete individual listings or the entire listing. To delete History of
Find listings go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Doc
Find Spec MRU
and
delete.
Customizing
the Right Click Context Menu of the Start Menu
When
you right click on the start menu, only 3 options pop up: Open, Explore, and
Find. You can add your own programs to this pop up menu( which comes up when
we right click on it.) Open Regedit and go to the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell
Right
click on the shell and create a new Sub Key (You can create a new SubKey by
right clicking on the Shell Key and selecting New > Key.). Type in the
name of the application you want to add to the start menu. I want to add Notepad
to the Start Menu and hence I name this new sub key, Notepad. Now right click
on the new registry key that you just created and create yet another new key
named Command. Enter the full path of the application, in this case Notepad
in the default value of Command in the right
pane.
So I Modify the value of the default string value and enter the full pathname
of Notepad:
c:\wndows\notepad.exe.
Now
press F5 to refresh. Now if you right click on the Start Button you will find
a new addition to the Pop Up Menu called Notepad. Clicking on it will launch
Notepad.
We
can not only add but also remove the existing options in this pop up box.
To
delete the Find option, go to the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\Find
Delete
Find. DO NOT delete Open else you will not be able to open any folders in
the Start Menu like Programs, Accessories etc.
BMP
Thumbnail As Icon
You
can actually change the default BMP icon to a thumbnail version of the actual
BMP file. To do this simply go to HKCU\Paint.Picture\Default. In the right
pane change the value of default to %1. Please note however that this will
slow down the display rate in explorer if there are too many BMP thumbnails
to display. You can use other icons too, simply enter the pathname.To restore
back to the normal change the vale of default back to: C:\Progra~1\Access~1\MSPAINT.EXE,1.
Customizing
The Shortcut Arrow
All
shortcuts have a tiny black arrow attached to it's icon to distinguish from
normal files. This arrow can sometimes be pretty annoying and as a Hacker
should know how to change each and everything, here goes another trick. Launch
the Registry Editor and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell
Icons.
Now,
on the right pane is a list of icons ( we found out that on some systems,
Windows 98 especially, the right pane is blank. Don't worry, just add the
value as required ). Find the value 29. If it isn't there, just add it. The
value of this string should be C:\Windows\system\shell32.dll, 29 ( which means
the 30th icon in shell32.dll - the first one begins with 0 ). Now, we need
blank icon to do this. Just create one with white as the whole icon. Go here
to learn how to create an icon. Once done just change the value to C:\xxx.ico,
0 where "xxx" is the full path of the icon file and "0" is the icon in it.
Now
for some fun. If the blank icon is a bit boring, change it again. You will
find that under shell32.dll there is a gear icon, a shared folder ( the hand
) and much more. Experiment for yourself!
Use
Perl to Get List or Services Running on your NT box
Use
the following Perl Script to get a list of Services running on your NT system
--------------script.pl-----------------
#!c:\per\bin\perl.exe
use
Win32::Service;
my
($key, %service, %status, $part);
Win32::Service::GetServices('
',\%services);
foreach
$key (sort keys %services) {
print
"Print Name\t: $key, $services{$key}\n";
Win32::Service::GetStatus(
' ',$services{$key};
\%status);
foreach
$part (keys %status) {
print
"\t$part : $status{$part}\n" if($part eq "CurrentState");
}
}
-------------script.pl-------------------
Internet
Explorer Tricks and Tips
Resizable
Full Screen Toolbar
The
Full Screen option increases the viewable area and makes surfing more enjoyable
but sometimes we need the Toolbar but also need to have extra viewing area.
Now this hack teaches you how to change the size of the Internet Explorer
toolbar. This registry hack is a bit complicated as it involves Binary values,
so to make it simple, I have included the following registry file which will
enable the resizable option of the Internet Explorer toolbar which was present
in the beta version of IE.
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Toolbar]
"Theater"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,18,00,00,00,1b,00,00,00,5c,\
00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00,05,00,00,00,22,00,00,00,26,00,\
00,00,02,00,00,00,21,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,\
00,03,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
*******************
HACKING
TRUTH: Internet Explorer 5 displays the friendly version of HTTP errors like
NOT FOUND etc . They are aimed at making things easier for newbies. If you
would rather prefer to see the proper error pages for the web server you're
using, go to Tools, Internet Options and select the Advanced tab. Then scroll
down and uncheck the Show friendly http errors box.
*******************
Making
the Internet Explorer & the Explorer Toolbars Fancy
The
Internet Explorer toolbar looks pretty simple. Want to make it fancy and kewl?
Why not add a background image to it. To do this kewl hack launch the Windows
Registry Editor and go to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Internet Explorer\Toolbar\.
Now
in the right pane create a new String Value and name it BackBitmap and modify
it's value to the path of the Bitmap you want to dress it up with by rightclicking
on it and choosing Modify. When you reboot the Internet Explorer and
the Windows Explorer toolbars will have a new look.
Change
Internet Explorer's Caption
Don't
like the caption of Internet Explorer caption? Want to change it? Open the
registry editor and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Main.
In
the right pane create a new String Value names Window Title (Note the space
between Window and Title). Right click on this newly created String Value
and select Modify. Type in the new caption you want to be displayed. Restart
for the settings to take place.
Now
let's move on to some Outlook Express Tricks.
Colorful
Background
Don't
like the boring background colors of Outlook Express? To change it launch
the Windows Registry Editor and scroll down to the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Mail And News key.
On
the left pane, click on ColorCycle or select Edit and Modify in the menu.
Now change the value to 1. Close and restart. Now, launch Outlook Express
and whenever you open up a New Message, hold down ctrl-shift and tap the z
key to scroll to change the background color. Repeat the keystroke to cycle
through the colors.
Internet
Explorer 5 Hidden Features
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 has several hidden features which can be controlled
using the Windows Registry. Open your registry and scroll down to the following
key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Restrictions
Create
a new DWORD value named x(See complete list of values of x below) and modify
it's value to 1 to enable it and to 0 to disable it.
NoBrowserClose
: Disable the option of closing Internet Explorer.
NoBrowserContextMenu
: Disable right-click context menu.
NoBrowserOptions
: Disable the Tools / Internet Options menu.
NoBrowserSaveAs
: Disable the ability to Save As.
NoFavorites
: Disable the Favorites.
NoFileNew
: Disable the File / New command.
NoFileOpen
: Disable the File / Open command.
NoFindFiles
: Disable the Find Files command.
NoSelectDownloadDir
: Disable the option of selecting a download directory.
NoTheaterMode
: Disable the Full Screen view option.
Hacking
Secrets
Almost
all system administrators make certain changes and make the system restricted.
System Administrators can hide the RUN option, the FIND command, the entire
Control Panel, drives in My Computer like D: A: etc. They can even restrict
activities of a hacker my disabling or hiding, even the tiniest options or
tools.
Most
commonly these restrictions are imposed locally and are controlled by the
Windows Registry. But sometimes the smart system administrators control the
activities of the hacker by imposing restrictions remotely through the main
server.
Poledit
or Policy Editor is a small kewl tool which is being commonly used by system
administrators to alter the settings of a system. This utility is not installed
by default by Windows. You need to install in manually from the Windows 98
Installation Kit from the Resource Kit folder. user.dat file that we saw earlier.
The
Policy Editor tool imposes restrictions on the user's system by editing the
user.dat file which in turn means that it edits the Windows Registry to change
the settings. It can be used to control or restrict access to each and every
folder and option you could ever think of. It has the power to even restrict
access to individual folders, files, the Control Panel, MS DOS, the drives
available etc. Sometimes this software does make life really hard for a Hacker.
So how can we remove the restrictions imposed by the Policy Editor? Well read
ahead to learn more.
You
see the Policy Editor is not the only way to restrict a user's activities.
As we already know that the Policy Editor edits the Windows Registry(user.dat)
file to impose such restrictions. So this in turn would mean that we can directly
make changes to the Windows Registry using a .reg file or directly to remove
or add restrictions.
Launch
Regedit and go to the following Registry Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Policies
Under
this key, there will definitely be a key named explorer. Now under this explorer
key we can create new DWORD values and modify it's value to 1 in order to
impose the restriction. If you want to remove the Restriction, then you can
simply delete the respective DWORD values or instead change their values to
0. The following is a list of DWORD values that can be created under the Explorer
Key-:
NoDeletePrinter:
Disables Deletion of already installed Printers
NoAddPrinter:
Disables Addition of new Printers
NoRun
: Disables or hides the Run Command
NoSetFolders:
Removes Folders from the Settings option on Start Menu (Control Panel, Printers,
Taskbar)
NoSetTaskbar:
Removes Taskbar system folder from the Settings option on Start Menu
NoFind:
Removes the Find Tool (Start >Find)
NoDrives:
Hides and does not display any Drives in My Computer
NoNetHood:
Hides or removes the Network Neighborhood icon from the desktop
NoDesktop:
Hides all items including, file, folders and system folders from the Desktop
NoClose:
Disables Shutdown and prevents the user from normally shutting down Windows.
NoSaveSettings:
Means to say, 'Don't save settings on exit'
DisableRegistryTools:
Disable Registry Editing Tools (If you disable this option, the Windows Registry
Editor(regedit.exe) too
will
not work.)
NoRecentDocsHistory:
Removes Recent Document system folder from the Start Menu (IE 4 and above)
ClearRecentDocsOnExit:
Clears the Recent Documents system folder on Exit.
Nolnternetlcon:
Removes the Internet (system folder) icon from the Desktop
Under
the same key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Policies
you can create new subkeys other than the already existing Explorer key. Now
create a new key and name it System. Under this new key, system we can create
the following new DWORD values(1 for enabling the particular option and 0
for disabling the particular option):
NODispCPL:
Hides Control Panel
NoDispBackgroundPage:
Hides Background page.
NoDispScrsavPage:
Hides Screen Saver Page
NoDispAppearancePage:
Hides Appearance Page
NoDispSettingsPage:
Hides Settings Page
NoSecCPL:
Disables Password Control Panel
NoPwdPage:
Hides Password Change Page
NoAdminPaqe:
Hides Remote Administration Page
NoProfilePage:
Hides User Profiles Page
NoDevMgrPage:
Hides Device Manager Page
NoConfigPage:
Hides Hardware Profiles Page
NoFileSysPage:
Hides File System Button
NoVirtMemPage:
Hides Virtual Memory Button
Similarly,
if we create a new subkey named Network, we can add the following DWORD values
under it(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular
option):
NoNetSetupSecurityPage:
Hides Network Security Page
NoNelSetup:
Hides or disables the Network option in the Control Panel
NoNetSetupIDPage:
Hides the Identification Page
NoNetSetupSecurityPage:
Hides the Access Control Page
NoFileSharingControl:
Disables File Sharing Controls
NoPrintSharing:
Disables Print Sharing Controls
Similarly,
if we create a new subkey named WinOldApp, we can add the following DWORD
values under it(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the
particular option):
Disabled:
Disable MS-DOS Prompt
NoRealMode:
Disable Single-Mode MS-DOS.
So
you see if you have access to the Windows Registry, then you can easily create
new DWORD values and set heir value to 1 for enabling the particular option
and 0 for disabling the particular option. But Sometimes, access to the Windows
Registry is blocked. So what do you do? Go to the Windows Directory and delete
either user.dat or system.dat (These 2 files constitute the Windows Registry.)
and reboot. As soon as Windows logs in, it will display a Warning Message
informing you about an error in the Windows Registry. Simply ignore this Warning
Message and Press CTRL+DEL+ALT to get out of this warning message.(Do not
press OK) You will find that all restrictions have been removed.
The
most kind of restriction found quite commonly is the Specific Folder Restriction,
in which users are not allowed access to specific folders, the most common
being the Windows folder, or sometimes even access to My Computer is blocked.
In effect, you simply cannot seem to access the important kewl files which
are needed by you to do remove restrictions. What do you? Well use the RUN
command. (START >RUN). But unfortunately a system administrator who is
intelligent enough to block access to specific folder, would definitely have
blocked access to the RUN command. Again we are stuck.
Windows
is supposed to be the most User Friendly Operating System on earth. (At least
Microsoft Says so.)
It
gives the User an option to do the same thing in various ways. You see the
RUN command is only the most convenient option of launching applications,
but not the only way. In Windows you can create shortcuts to almost anything
from a file, folder to a Web URL. So say your system administrator has blocked
access to the c:\windows\system folder and you need to access it. What do
you do? Simply create a Shortcut to it. To do this right click anywhere on
the desktop and select New > Shortcut. A new window titled Create Shortcut
pops up. Type in the path of the restricted folder you wish to access, in
this case c:\windows\system. Click Next, Enter the friendly name of the Shortcut
and then click Finish. Now you can access the restricted folder by simply
double clicking on the shortcut icon. Well that shows how protected and secure
*ahem Windows *ahem is.
****************
HACKING
TRUTH: Sometimes when you try to delete a file or a folder, Windows displays
an error message saying that the file is protected. This simply means that
the file is write protected, or in other words the R option is +. Get it?
Anyway, you can stop Windows from displaying this error message and straightaway
delete this file by changing its attributes to Non Read Only. This can be
done by Right Clicking on the file, selecting Properties and then
unselecting
the Read Only Option.
***************
There
is yet another way of accessing restricted folders. Use see, DOS has a lovely
command known as START. Its general syntax is:
START
application_path
It
does do what it seems to do, start applications. So in you have access to
DOS then you can type in the START command to get access to the restricted
folder. Now mostly access to DOS too would be blocked. So again you can use
the shortcut trick to launch, c:\command.com or c:\windows\command.com. (Command.com
is the file which launches MS DOS).
Accessing
Restricted Drives.
The
problem with most system administrators is that they think that the users
or Hackers too are stupid. Almost all system administrators use the Registry
Trick (Explained Earlier) to hide all drives in My Computer. So in order to
unhide or display all drives, simply delete that particular key.(Refer to
beginning of Untold Secrets Section.)
Some
systems have the floppy disk disabled through the BIOS. On those systems if
the BIOS is protected, you may need to crack the BIOS password. (For that
Refer to the Windows Hacking Chapter). Sometimes making drives readable (Removing
R +) and then creating Shortcuts to them also helps us to get access to them.
Further
Changing your Operating System's Looks by editing .htt files
If
you have installed Windows Desktop Update and have the view as Web Page option
enabled, you can customise the way the folder looks by selecting View >
Customise this folder. Here you can change the background and other things
about that particular folder. Well that is pretty lame, right? We hackers
already know things as lame as that. Read on for some kewl stuff.
Well,
you could also change the default that is stored in a Hidden HTML Template
file (I think so..) which is nothing but a HTML document with a .htt extension.
This .htt file is found at: %systemroot%\web\folder.htt.
The
%systemroot% stands for the drive in which Windows is Installed, which is
normally C:
You
can edit these .htt files almost just like you edit normal .HTM or .HTML files.
Simply open them in an ASCII editor like Notepad. The following is a list
of .htt files on your system which control various folders and which can be
edited to customise the way various folders look.
controlp.htt
Control Panel
printers.htt
Printers
mycomp.htt
My Computer
safemode.htt
Safe Mode
All
these files are found in the web folder in %systemfolder%. The folder.htt
file has a line:
'Here's
a good place to add a few lines of your own"
which
is the place where you can add your own A HREF links. These links would then
appear in the folder whose folder.htt file you edited. All this might sound
really easy and simple, but you see these .htt files do not contain normal
HTML code, instead they contain a mixture of HTML and web bots. Hence they
can be difficult for newbies to understand.
Well
that's it for now, more tricks later, till then goodbye.
Ankit Fadia