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Start Windows Without Autostart Entries

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:12:04 +0000

Here is a quick tip that might come in handy in certain situations. Most users have at least some software programs in their system autostart. This means that these programs are started when the Windows operating system starts. The benefit is that these programs are loaded before any user interaction which is essential for security applications and handy for programs the user works with all the time.

Some users might want to skip loading these autostart programs from time to time to save some time to be able to work on the computer. The following solution works only when running Windows XP operating systems. Microsoft seems to have disabled the option in Windows Vista (and most likely kept it that way in Windows 7).

To start Windows XP without any startup programs press the [Shift] key while the computer system is booting. The key has to be pressed as soon as the Windows desktop background appears. This will prevent startup programs from being loaded automatically. It might take a few tries to get it to work.

How To Quickly Open Folders In Windows

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:58:21 +0000

Here is a quick tip on how to open specific system folders in the Microsoft operating systems Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. All you need to do is press [Windows R] and enter one command to open a specific folder. These so called shell commands will open various Windows folders but also applications and configuration tools that way. To open the Send To folder one would for example simply enter shell:sendto into the run box and hit enter. This opens the Send To menu with the option to modify its contents.

It might be easier to sometimes enter a specific command directly instead of the shell: substitute if a command for that specific function or folder exists. Make sure that there are no spaces in the command unless the name of the folder or app that should be opened contains one or multiple.

Here is a list of all possible shell: commands that should work in the mentioned operating systems:

AddNewProgramsFolder
Administrative Tools
AppData
AppUpdatesFolder
Cache
CD Burning
ChangeRemoveProgramsFolder
Common Administrative Tools
Common AppData
Common Desktop
Common Documents
Common Programs
Common Start Menu
Common Startup
Common Templates
CommonDownloads
CommonMusic
CommonPictures
CommonVideo
ConflictFolder
ConnectionsFolder
Contacts
ControlPanelFolder
Cookies
CredentialManager
CryptoKeys
CSCFolder
Default Gadgets
Desktop
Downloads
DpapiKeys
Favorites
Fonts
Gadgets
Games
GameTasks
History
InternetFolder
Links
Local AppData
LocalAppDataLow
LocalizedResourcesDir
MAPIFolder
My Music
My Pictures
My Video
MyComputerFolder
NetHood
NetworkPlacesFolder
OEM Links
Original Images
Personal
PhotoAlbums
Playlists
PrintersFolder
PrintHood
Profile
ProgramFiles
ProgramFilesCommon
ProgramFilesCommonX86
ProgramFilesX86
Programs
Public
PublicGameTasks
Quick Launch
Recent
RecycleBinFolder
ResourceDir
SampleMusic
SamplePictures
SamplePlaylists
SampleVideos
SavedGames
Searches
SendTo
Start Menu
Startup
SyncCenterFolder
SyncResultsFolder
SyncSetupFolder
System
SystemCertificates
SystemX86
Templates
TreePropertiesFolder
UserProfiles
UsersFilesFolder
Windows

Are there commands missing? Let us know.

Howto Remove the Restart your Computer now dialog box

Martin Brinkmann — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 05:36:36 +0000

You might have experienced the annoying dialog box if you ever updated your computer. This is the message that appears if you did:

Updating your computer is almost complete. You must restart your computer for the updates to take effect. Do you want to restart your computer now?

This message pop ups at the end and immediatly gets the focus, even if you are in a game or watching a fullscreen movie. You have the option to restart now or later. The first would result in an immediate reboot while the second would nag you again in 10 minutes. This will be annoying if you can´t reboot your computer at that time.

The dialog box can be configured in the following police:

Start / Run / gpedit.msc / Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update / Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations

You can disable this box at all or define a time period for the reboot later option. You could select every four hours for example or even more if you like. I decided to remove this box completly.

You could also set the following registry key to 1 to recieve the same effect:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\
WindowsUpdate\AU\NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers

Make Windows XP boot faster with Bootvis

Martin Brinkmann — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 12:48:21 +0000

Many of you might know the discountinued freeware microsoft bootvis, for those who do not. Bootvis analyses the boot process and measures the startup time from cold boot, hibernate and standby. After analysing the startup process it will optimise it so that boot times of one or more minutes are a thing of the past. It´s a great tool if you have a computer that is slowly booting into windows xp.
The design goals for Windows XP on a typical consumer PC are:

- Boot to a useable state in a total of 30 seconds
- Resume from Hibernate (S4) in a total of 20 seconds
- Resume from Standby (S3) in a total of 5 seconds