View previously open Folders after Shutdown or Logoff

If you need to access lot of folders on your home computer or on the network regularly then you can set them re-open automatically, when you will login, shutdown or restart your computer next time. There is no need to open regularly used folders manually, just configure the simple sitting, your computer will automatically reload all the previously opened windows.

By default windows XP disables this option to reload automatically all the previously opened windows, when you login on, shutdown or restart your computer.

Follow the given steps to configure your computer to reload previously opened folders automatically after shutdown

To edit this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

First click on Start button then go to Control Panel.

Open the “Appearance and Themes” option in control panel then click on Folder Options.

A small windows dialog box will appear with the title “Folder options”, click on View tab.

Under the Advanced setting section, scroll down to bottom and click the “Restore previous folder windows at logon” option and then click Ok button to save sitting.

Now when you log off, restart or shutdown, your computer will automatically open the previously opened folders from the same location as before.

Computer Description - Change

How to Change Your Computer Description in Windows 7

Computer Description in System
NOTE: This will be under the Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings section in System from the Control Panel. This is blank by default.

METHOD ONE:
Through System Properties

1. Open the Control Panel (All Items view), and double click on the System icon.

A) Go to step 3.

OR

2. Open the Start Menu, and right click on Computer (dark right side) and click on Properties.

3. Click on either the Change settings or Advanced system settings link. (See screenshot below)

4. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.

5. Type in a Computer description that you want for your computer, and click on OK. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You can leave this field blank if you do not want a computer description, or want to restore the default setting for this.

6. You will now noticed the Computer description displayed in System under the Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings section. (See screenshot below)

7. Close the System window when done.

METHOD TWO:
Through the Registry

1. Open the Start Menu, and type regedit in the search line ane press Enter.

2. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.

3. In regedit, expand the keys (folder) in the left pane to: (See screenshot below)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\LanmanServer\Parameters

4. In the right pane right click on srvcomment, and click on Modify. (See screenshot above)

5. Type in a Computer description that you want for your computer, and click on OK. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You can leave this field blank if you do not want a computer description, or want to restore the default setting for this.

6. Close regedit. (See screenshot below)

7. You will now noticed the Computer description displayed in System under the Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings section. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You can see step 1 or 2 in METHOD ONE for how to open System if needed.

That's it,
Shawn

What is Hardware?

Your PC (Personal Computer) is a system, consisting of many components. Some of those components, like Windows XP, and all your other programs, are software. The stuff you can actually see and touch, and would likely break if you threw it out a fifth-story window, is hardware.

Not everybody has exactly the same hardware. But those of you who have a desktop system, like the example shown in Figure 1, probably have most of the components shown in that same figure. Those of you with notebook computers probably have most of the same components. Only in your case the components are all integrated into a single book-sized portable unit.

The system unit is the actual computer; everything else is called a peripheraldevice. Your computer's system unit probably has at least one floppy disk drive, and one CD or DVD drive, into which you can insert floppy disks and CDs. There's another disk drive, called the hard disk inside the system unit, as shown in Figure 2. You can't remove that disk, or even see it. But it's there. And everything that's currently "in your computer" is actually stored on that hard disk. (We know this because there is no place else inside the computer where you can store information!).

The floppy drive and CD drive are often referred to as drives with removable media or removable drives for short, because you can remove whatever disk is currently in the drive, and replace it with another. Your computer's hard disk can store as much information as tens of thousands of floppy disks, so don't worry about running out of space on your hard disk any time soon. As a rule, you want to store everything you create or download on your hard disk. Use the floppy disks and CDs to send copies of files through the mail, or to make backup copies of important items.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

There's too much "stuff" on your computer's hard disk to use it all at the same time. During the average session sitting at the computer, you'll probably use only a small amount of all that's available. The stuff you're working with at any given moment is stored in random access memory (often abbreviated RAM, and often called simply "memory"). The advantage using RAM to store whatever you're working on at the moment is that RAM is very fast. Much faster than any disk. For you, "fast" translates to less time waiting and more time being productive.

So if RAM is so fast, why not put everything in it? Why have a hard disk at all? The answer to that lies in the fact that RAM is volatile. As soon as the computer is shut off, whether intentionally or by an accidental power outage, every thing in RAM disappears, just as quickly as a light bulb goes out when the plug is pulled. So you don't want to rely on RAM to hold everything. A disk, on the other hand, holds its information whether the power is on or off.

The Hard Disk

All of the information that's "in your computer", so to speak, is stored on your computer's hard disk. You never see that actual hard disk because it's sealed inside a special housing and needs to stay that way. Unlike RAM, which is volatile, the hard disk can hold information forever -- with or without electricity. Most modern hard disks have tens of billions of bytes of storage space on them. Which, in English, means that you can create, save, and download files for months or years without using up all the storage space it provides.

In the unlikely event that you do manage to fill up your hard disk, Windows will start showing a little message on the screen that reads "You are running low on disk space" well in advance of any problems. In fact, if that message appears, it won't until you're down to about 800 MB of free space. And 800 MB of empty space is equal to about 600 blank floppy disks. That's still plenty of room!

The Mouse

Obviously you know how to use your mouse, since you must have used it to get here. But let's take a look at the facts and buzzwords anyway. Your mouse probably has at least two buttons on it. The button on the left is called the primary mouse button, the button on the right is called the secondary mouse button or just the right mouse button. I'll just refer to them as the left and right mouse buttons. Many mice have a small wheel between the two mouse buttons, as illustrated in Figure 3.

The idea is to rest your hand comfortably on the mouse, with your index finger touching (but not pressing on) the left mouse button. Then, as you move the mouse, the mouse pointer (the little arrow on the screen) moves in the same direction. When moving the mouse, try to keep the buttons aimed toward the monitor -- don't "twist" the mouse as that just makes it all the harder to control the position of the mouse pointer.

If you find yourself reaching too far to get the mouse pointer where you want it to be on the screen, just pick up the mouse, move it to where it's comfortable to hold it, and place it back down on the mousepad or desk. The buzzwords that describe how you use the mouse are as follows:

• Point: To point to an item means to move the mouse pointer so that it's touching the item.

• Click: Point to the item, then tap (press and release) the left mouse button.

• Double-click: Point to the item, and tap the left mouse button twice in rapid succession - click-click as fast as you can.

• Right-click: Point to the item, then tap the mouse button on the right.

• Drag: Point to an item, then hold down the left mouse button as you move the mouse. To drop the item, release the left mouse button.

• Right-drag: Point to an item, then hold down the right mouse button as you move the mouse. To drop the item, release the right mouse button.

The Keyboard

Like the mouse, the keyboard is a means of interacting with your computer. You really only need to use the keyboard when you're typing text. Most of the keys on the keyboard are laid out like the keys on a typewriter. But there are some special keys like Esc (Escape), Ctrl (Control), and Alt (Alternate). There are also some keys across the top of the keyboard labeled F1, F2, F3, and so forth. Those are called thefunction keys, and the exact role they play depends on which program you happen to be using at the moment.

Most keyboards also have a numeric keypad with the keys laid out like the keys on a typical adding machine. If you're accustomed to using an adding machine, you might want to use the numeric keypad, rather than the numbers across the top of the keyboard, to type numbers. It doesn't really matter which keys you use. The numeric keypad is just there as a convenience to people who are accustomed to adding machines.

Figure 4

Most keyboards also contain a set of navigation keys. You can use the navigation keys to move around around through text on the screen. The navigation keys won't move the mouse pointer. Only the mouse moves the mouse pointer.

On smaller keyboards where space is limited, such as on a notebook computer, the navigation keys and numeric keypad might be one in the same. There will be a Num Lock key on the keypad. When the Num Lock key is "on", the numeric keypad keys type numbers. When the Num Lock key is "off", the navigation keys come into play. The Num Lock key acts as a toggle. Which is to say, when you tap it, it switches to the opposite state. For example, if Num Lock is on, tapping that key turns it off. If Num Lock is off, tapping that key turns Num Lock on.

Combination Keystrokes (Shortcut keys)

Those mysterious Ctrl and Alt keys are often used in combination with other keys to perform some task. We often refer to these combination keystrokes as shortcut keys, because they provide an alternative to using the mouse to select menu options in programs. Shortcut keys are always expressed as:

key1+key2

where the idea is to hold down key1, tap key2, then release key1. For example, to press Ctrl+Esc hold down the Ctrl key (usually with your pinkie), tap the Esc key, then release the Ctrl key. To press Alt+F you hold down the Alt key, tap the letter F, then release the Alt key.

Using Defragmentation

Regularly defragmenting the hard disk maintains optimum performance for read/write operations. Hard disks store
data in sectors and clusters,the latter being the smallest addressable unit. Clusters are of a fixed size, depending on
the file system (FAT, FAT32,NTFS, etc). A cluster can hold only one file, but a file mayspan over several clusters.
For FAT32 partitions, the cluster size is 4 KB. Thus, any file between 0 bytes to 4 KB will occupy one cluster.
Should its size increase beyond 4 KB, it will look for the next free cluster to fill up.
With frequently changing files such as documents, spreadsheets, images, etc, the fragments of the file may
not be on contiguous clusters.
Reading and writing to such files spread all over the partition is obviously slow.
Defragmenting brings pieces of the file together, so that they are accessed faster.
All versions of Windows are bundled with defragmenting tools. In Windows 2000 and XP, you
can run it from Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
OR
rightclick My Computer and click Manage. Look for Disk Defragmenter under Storage

By Cleaning Temporary Files

Regularly removing files that accumulate in the Temp folder can also show better performance—
these files are usually very small and unnecessarily fill up the hard
disk. This also causes high disk fragmentation and pushes important data towards the periphery of the
disk, where read/write operations are slower. Ideally, create a batch file that empties this folder and place it in the
Startup, so that it runs every time you boot to Windows.
You could do this from the autoexec.bat too, but this file runs while still in DOS mode, so disk access will be much
slower than when in Windows.
You should strip all file attributes before running the delete command, since hidden and system files will not
be deleted from the Command Prompt. Also, using the deltree command instead of
del will ensure that even folders are deleted. Thus, your batch file should contain the
following commands:
attrib -a -s -r -h c:\Windows\
Temp\*.* /s
Deltree/y C:\Windows\
Temp\*

By Changing The Theme

The default Windows XP
theme looks very pretty, but
hogs a lot of system resources
for the eye-candy effects such
as bevelled objects and transitions.
If looks are not important
to you, switch over to the
classic Windows look. To do
this, right-click an empty area
of the desktop and click Properties.
Under the Themes tab,
set Windows Classic as the
current theme and click OK.

By Turning Off Display Effects

Switching off transition and
animation effects can save a
lot of system resources. These
effects are not required to run
programs and cause an
unnecessary load on the
processor and RAM. Rightclick
on an empty area of the
desktop, click Properties and
switch to the Appearance tab.
Click Effects and clear all the
checkboxes.

Choose Performance

Windows XP has some very
good features to maximise
performance. Unfortunately,
the default settings are no
good. You can choose to have
it optimise itself for faster
computing. To change these
settings, click Start, rightclick
My Computer and click
Properties. Switch to the
Advanced tab and click the
Settings button under Performance.
By default, ‘Let Windows
choose what’s best for
my computer’ is selected.
Choose ‘Adjust for best performance’
instead, and you
will almost immediately
notice a boost in speed. This
is because all graphic effects
are turned off. You can
optionally choose each type
of effect that should be
enabled from here, but if it’s
power you are looking for,
leave them all off. Note that
the behaviour and appearance
of a lot of Windows such
as the Control Panel, will
become quite different. If you
prefer the helpful wizard-like
interfaces, you may want to
sacrifice a bit on performance
and enable the option to ‘Use
common tasks in folders’.

Boot Options

If you are not booting multiple

operating systems, you can

turn off the option permanently,

until it is required. If

there is another OS on your

system, say LINUX, you

can reduce the amount of time

the option to choose which

OS to load is displayed. Rightclick

My Computer, click Properties

> Advanced and click the

Settings button under Startup

and Recovery. Here, you can

choose which operating system

to boot by default. You

can uncheck the boxes to

show the boot options, or

select the number of seconds

for which the choices are displayed.

Five seconds is usually

more than enough.

You will notice recovery

settings in case of a system failure.

Alerts and debugging

information will not be very

helpful for most users, so you

can turn these options off too.

Reset Your BIOS Password

To enter the BIOS program, hit the "Delete" key before your computer boots up. If successful, you will be taken to a menu.

Sometimes, in order to prevent unauthorized access, the BIOS menu is password protected.(See the right hand side column in the above photo)When a password is set, the BIOS settings can only be accessed by authorized access.


Since the BIOS password is a part of BIOS setting, it is stored in memory by this battery.

To Reset the BIOS password-->

1.Switch off your PC.
2. Open your computer cabinet.
3. Locate the battery on motherboard and carefully remove it.(ALL BIOS SETTINGS ARE LOST)
4.Re-insert the battery.(ALL BIOS settings are reset)
5.Switch on the PC

Increase Speed Of Your PC

5 ways to speed up your PC, from Microsoft

By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Vista to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.

01 - Free up disk space

By freeing disk space, you can improve the performance of your computer. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk. The utility identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.

Use Disk Cleanup to:

• Remove temporary Internet files.

• Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).

• Empty the Recycle Bin.

• Remove Windows temporary files.

• Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.

• Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.

02 - To use Disk Cleanup

• Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.

• In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list.

• Choose the files that you want to delete.

• Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.

• When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.

After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better.

03 - Speed up access to data

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.

Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.

When to run Disk Defragmenter

In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals—monthly is optimal—there are other times you should run it too, such as when:

• You add a large number of files.

• Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.

• You install new programs or a new version of Windows.

04 - To use Disk Defragmenter:

• Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.

Click Analyze to start the Disk Defragmenter.

• In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.

Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.

• To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button. Note: In Windows Vista, there is no graphical user interface to demonstrate the progress—but your hard drive is still being defragmented.

After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.

• To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.

• To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.

• To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.

Detect and repair disk errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.

To run the Error Checking utility:

• Close all open files.

• Click Start, and then click My Computer.

• In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.

• In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.

• Click the Check Now button.

• In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.

• If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.

Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.

05 - Protect your computer against spyware

Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the Web sites you visit to usernames and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer's performance. To combat spyware, you might want to consider using Microsoft Windows Defender, which is included in Windows Vista, and is available as a free download for Microsoft XP SP2. Alternatively, there are other free anti-spyware software programs available.

Remove Your Autoplay For Drives in Windows

After formatting, your drive may show auto play with an error code"dllwi.exe"It can be removed by removing the auto play.
Remove the auto play for the drives except removable drives.

Start->Run-> (type) gpedit.msc (click ok) ->Computer Configuration->Administrative templates->System->Turn off auto play.
You can turn off updates in the same style.
Use Turn off Updates instead of Auto play.

Increase Virtual RAM - To Make Your System Faster

Follow the steps given below :-

1)Hold down the 'Windows' Key and Press the 'Pause/Break'button at the top right of your keyboard.Another way is Right-Clicking 'My Computer' and then Select 'Properties'.

2)Click on the 'Advanced' tab.

3)Under 'Performance', click 'Settings'

4)Then click the 'Advanced' tab on the button that pops up.

5)Under 'Virtual Memory' at the bottom, click 'Change'.

6)Click the 'Custom Size' button.

7)For the initial size (depending on your HD space),type in anywhere from 1000-1500 (although I use 4000), and for the Maximum size type in anywhere from 2000-2500 (although I use 6000).

8)Click 'Set', and then exit out of all of the windows.

9)Finally, Restart your computer.