The search option in the Windows XP start menu for instance will still use the basic Windows search functionality instead of that of the newly installed search tool. Enter Reroute XP Search, a lightweight software program that offers the functionality to change the default Windows XP search tool to another tool of the user’s choosing.

All the portable program does is to change the link in the Windows XP start menu so that it points to the third party search software instead of the default Windows XP search tool. It will not change the search functionality of the classic XP start menu.

All it takes to change the link is to run the Reroute XP Search application to browse for another search tool on the computer system. A click on the Apply button will change the link to the selected search tool (it apparently is also possible to select any software, even those that are not search related).

The program comes with a Restore Default button in case the settings need to be reverted again at a later time. Most users who have installed third party search programs are probably using hotkeys instead to open the search interfaces. It can still make sense to change the link in the start menu as well as there are definitely users out there who do not use hotkeys at all. Reroute XP Search is available at the developer’s website. via Technix.

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A simple Registry tweak can remove these folders from the My Computer display. The system folders remain on the computer system and are not modified in any way by the following procedure. Only their links that are automatically added in My Computer is removed.

To remove the Shared Documents and user document folders from My Computer do the following:

Press the keyboard shortcut [Windows R] to open the run dialog box. Enter regedit and hit enter to open the Windows Registry editor. Now locate for the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\DelegateFolders\{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}

This can be done by manually navigating in the Registry or searching for part of the key. Please check the complete key as it might appear several times in the Registry. Deleting that Registry key will remove the Shared Documents and user documents folder from My Computer. It is recommended to create a backup of the Registry key before deleting it. This can be done my selecting the key in the Registry editor and opening the Export option under the File header menu.

The changes are immediately visible although a refresh might be needed if the My Computer folder was open during the procedure. The changes can be undone by double-clicking on the Registry backup file that was created in the process. Another option is to simply created the Registry key manually using the information above.

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Carroll is a small software program that offers a solution to this problem. The software is installed for all users allowing each to set their own screen resolution in the operating system. The computer program will display a list of available screen resolutions to the user upon startup. Selecting a screen resolution and clicking on the link “Change screen resolution and restore with every logon” will assign that screen resolution to the user. This will also be the screen resolution of all other users unless they specify a different screen resolution in the program.

This can be easily done as Carroll is installed for all users. Carroll needs to be autostarted with Windows if a custom screen resolution has been specified by a user. It will basically switch to the custom screen resolution upon startup.

Carroll is a small Windows software program that is available at the developer’s website.

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The crack turns the Windows 7 RTM into a fully activated Windows 7 operating system that is passing all Microsoft genuine advantage checks with flying colors. Softpedia reports that the leaked Windows 7 key came from OEM manufacturers Lenovo and was first spread on a Chinese forum. The OEM activation crack makes it possible to turn both Windows 7 Ultimate versions, that is 32-bit and 64-bit, into a fully activated Windows 7 operating system.

The bypass designed for Windows 7 RTM involves abusing OEM activation 2.1, and in this regard the circumventing process is nothing more than an OEM hack. Via OEM activation 2.1, namely SLP 2.1, Microsoft allows OEMs to pre-activate Windows 7 for distribution preinstalled on new computers. In this context, the activation bypass process leading to the hacked Windows 7 RTM needs to be based on a BIOS (SLIC) hack first of all.

It seems therefor that Windows 7 is simply following in the footsteps of previously released and cracked Microsoft operating systems like Windows XP or Windows Vista.

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A fix for the issue is to edit the path in the Windows Registry so that it points again at the right location. The following has only been tested in Windows XP. Windows Vista (and Windows 7) users are encouraged to let us know if it is also working in their operating system.

Press [CTRL R], type [regedit] and hit [enter]. Now navigate to the Windows Registry path

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

and look for the key [SourcePath]. If the key is listed there check the drive letter and path that is listed as the value. If the key is not there you can simply create it by right-clicking and selecting New > String. The value needs to be the full path to the i386 folder of the Windows installation. This can be on a local hard drive, network drive or removable drive.

Another solution is the portable Setup Source computer program. It can be used to quickly change the setup source of Windows XP and the Windows XP service pack 3. The user only needs to enter the drive letters and path that points to the setup source. A click on the Go button will save the settings to the Registry.

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The security vulnerability affects only Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems. Computer systems running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 or Windows 7 are not affected because “the ability to pass data to this control within Internet Explorer” is restricted in these operating systems.

A successful attack will give the attacker the same user rights as the currently logged in user. Microsoft has issued a workaround for the Internet Explorer vulnerability that can be applied manually or using Microsoft Fix It.

The fastest way to patch the security vulnerability is to use the Microsoft Fix It script that will perform all the actions of the workaround automatically. The fix will basically remove support for the ActiveX Control in Internet Explorer. This should not have any impact on the web browser’s functionality according to Microsoft.

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Probably one of the most comfortable ways of allowing users to set their own default mail client in Windows XP is the free and portable software program DefaultMail.

DefaultMail will automatically recognize the installed email clients and display them in a list. It is then up to the user to select on of these email clients and set it as the default email client. This change will only affect the currently logged in user and no one else.

There is no way of adding new email clients to the list of recognized clients which could be problematic if portable email clients are used by the user. It is also not possible to add online email services such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail to the program. The software can also be used to undo previous changes. DefaultMail (via JK Web) is a portable software for the Windows XP operating system.

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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.

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The following paragraphs list five reasons why Windows XP users might want to make the switch to Windows 7. To be perfectly clear: It is without doubt possible to use Windows XP as the main operating system in the coming five or ten years. A friend of mine was still running Windows 98 when Windows Vista came out. The main question however is if the majority will make the switch. Will Microsoft’s new operating system Windows 7 convince users to make the switch?

1. Security

The introduction of UAC and several other security components in Windows Vista was probably one of the most annoying experiences for users who switched from XP to Vista. While it did increase the security of the computer system it annoyed users to now end to see UAC prompts all the time. Windows 7 will still use UAC but with a reduced number of user prompts. A convincing reason why UAC is good are the monthly security patches and classifications that Microsoft releases. Many vulnerabilities are classified as critical for Windows XP systems but only as important on Vista systems.

It is quite possible to pimp Windows XP with third party applications to reach the same, or even a better level of security, than Windows 7 will provide out of the box but installing those solutions is usually left to computer geeks and those with the know how to do so. The average user installs a security software and that’s usually it. Microsoft will supply Windows XP users with security patches until 2014 with a likely scenario that support gets extended a few years after that.

2. Hardware Compatibility

There are not many differences in hardware support between Windows XP and Windows Vista. The only notable difference that might affect users in the future is the support of Direct X 10 in Windows Vista while Windows XP users have only access to Direct X 9. While this is not a huge problem at the time being thanks to both game developers and hardware manufacturers it could become a issue in the coming years.

Direct X 10 compatible hardware was scarce when Direct X 10 came out. Even scarcer were the games that supported the new standard. This was largely because game developers did not want to spend resources in both Direct X 9 and 10 development and because video cards that were able to deliver good framerates were practically not available. Windows 7 will ship with Direct X 11 which again will not be available for Windows XP users. It is likely that the release of Windows 7 will see a critical mass shifting to Direct X 10 and 11 compatible gaming which might leave Windows XP gamers behind. They probably can play the games but will face a different game experience.

Other new hardware standards and devices might not work with Windows XP in the future. Hardware developers will eventually stop producing drivers for Windows XP. While this surely will not happen in the next two years it is likely that this is going to happen eventually.

3. Design

Many users don’t like the default themes and designs of Windows XP. Microsoft did not exactly deliver a great variety of themes and customizability options in Windows XP. A handful of official themes deliver over the period of years is nothing that they should brag about. The users once again created a thriving scene of theme developers and operating system modifiers. This again was something for the hardcore users who knew how to patch system files to use different themes and such.

Windows 7 will come with a never seen before customizability. It will ship with regional themes, dozens of wallpapers, sound schemes and other interface elements. Users can create their own themes easily and even save the themes to share it with friends and the global community.

The Windows 7 design looks more eye pleasing and 21st century like than that of Windows XP. At least for most users who are asked the question.

4. Speed and Performance

Windows 7 will beat Windows XP performance wise. It will boot faster, use less system resources like cpu and computer memory while running and add better performance for SSD devices which will become a huge part of the storage device market in the coming years. It beats Windows XP (and Windows Vista if that matters) fair and square in all performance related benchmarks.

5. New And Overhauled Features

Windows 7 adds several new features to the table. Some are not really aimed at a mass market like the multi-touch support, biometric devices or handwriting recognition. Several key elements have been overhauled, most notably probably the Windows taskbar which integrates many interesting new features. Many of the features that have been added make Windows 7 more attractive. Think of included system codecs to play divx movies or DVDs without the need for third party applications.

The Verdict:

It is likely that the majority of Windows XP users will make the switch from their operating systems in the first two years after the release of Windows 7. It is without doubt possible to run Windows XP for the next five years without major problems but it will mean making sacrifices in the end when hardware and software support exclude the operating system more frequently. One thing seems to be clear at this point: Windows 7 will not be another Windows Vista. It already receives more praise from beta and release candidate testers and feels much like the operating system that Windows Vista should have been.

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However, my new laptop has Vista, of which I downloaded a copy, installed it, and found that my key doesn’t work. While the label on my old laptop just says Windows XP, this one says Windows Vista Home Premium OEMact, so I guess this is the problem. The first question here is, does any of you know how to legally get a working version of Vista which is not full of unneeded things?

The second questions is, do you guys use the OS installs provided by the laptop maker? I find that there is a lot of ‘everythingware” in these systems from tiny vendor specific utilities, to large pre-installed vendor stuff, trial apps like virus scanners, Office products, and just boatloads of stuff I will never-ever need. For basic users, or for people who just don’t care this may be ok, what do you think, do you use your pre-installed OS?

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This can be done manually. If you have installed a lot of Windows operating systems you know the process in and out. If you are a new inexperienced user you might want to use a software for that task. A good and reliable program for that task that is compatible with both Windows 2000 and Windows XP is Configure NT.

Configure NT is a a batch script that can be used to secure Windows services easily. It comes with several switches depending on the configuration of the current operating system. The program will prompt for user input after installation, the available choices are:

• (1) LAN This switch tries closing all open Ports. Some services (”automatic updates”, “scheduler”) and SMB will remain unchanged. Use this option if you still need network drives or -printer.
• (2) Standard Other than (1), SMB will be deactivated. On W2K-systems all ports are being closed. On WinXP you must disable the scheduler to close all ports. Some services (”automatic updates”, “scheduler”) will remain unchanged.
• (3) ALL Does make all changes as recommended on www.ntsvcfg.de. So all services + SMB are being disabled. (this option is recommended to “harden” your workstation)
• (4) Restore Restore the last changes made. A warning message might appear during writing to the registry. Please ignore this message by clicking OK.

Option 1 is probably the option that most users should start with to secure their Windows Services. The website contains additional information and a checklist to verify that the system has been secured. Advanced users will probably still use the manual approach as they have more control over the Windows Services configuration.

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Default Browser is a small software program that has been designed for Windows XP users who prefer to have more choice when selecting the default internet browser. The software application basically allows each user of the Windows XP operating system to select a personal default internet browser

The application will displayed a list of supported web browsers after start and also display the current default internet browser of the computer system. Supported are a wide range of internet browsers including Firefox, Firefox portable, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari and several additional web browsers. There is even an option to select a internet browser by browsing the computer’s hard drive and selecting an executable manually.

The portable application has to be executed by every user of the Windows XP operating system wanting to select a different internet browser than the system’s default.

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Start by opening the Windows Registry with [windows R], typing [regedit] and hitting [enter]. Search for the key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}

Double-click on the Default entry in the right window and replace the value with a name of your own. If you want to link to a downloads directory name it downloads.

Create a new key by right-clicking and selecting New > Key from the menu. Name the key DefaultIcon. Double-click on Default again and enter a path to an icon on the computer system. You can for instance use shell icons. To use the generic folder icon you give the key the following value:

%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll,-4

Click here for a full list of possible values.

Open the subkey Instance\InitPropertyBag. Right-click and select New > String from the menu and name it command. Give the string the same name that you have chosen in the first step. We will name it downloads so that it matches the name that we have selected.

Create two additional strings by right-clicking and selecting New > String. Name the strings param1 and param2. Double-click param1 and give it the value explorer.exe. Double-click param2 and enter a path on the computer system, e.g. c:\downloads\.

Navigate to the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Create or edit the DWORD entry Start_ShowOEMLink. Double-click it afterwards and give it the value 1.

Now restart the computer, log off or kill and restart the explorer.exe process. The new entry in the Windows Start Menu should appear.

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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.

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The second interesting news story is that Microsoft decided to reduce the editions that Windows 7 will ship in when compared to Windows Vista. The so called edition chaos was one of the major reasons for confusion for prospective Windows Vista customers.

Windows 7 will basically be distributed as Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate. There are other versions but those are designed for different markets. Windows 7 Home Premium will be the equivalent of the Windows Vista Home Premium featuring a solid set of features. Windows 7 Professional will be the successor of Windows Vista Business which includes all features of Windows 7 Home Premium plus some business features like group policy based management tools, Remote Desktop host capabilities or network-based backup features.

Windows 7 Ultimate will include all features of Windows 7 Professional plus all supported language packs (something that the other editions miss and users have to pay for), BitLocker whole-drive encryption and capabilities to boot from vhd.

It basically comes down to three Windows 7 editions. It should also be noted that there are no talks yet about Windows 7 Ultimate extras, something that did not work as intended in Windows Vista as well as several users felt cheated by the lack of and quality of the extras.

Most of these information have been taken from our own Windows 7 blog which covers all the latest news about the upcoming operating system. A well visited Windows 7 Forum is available on the same site.

Do you think that those two strategic decisions by Microsoft are good ones? Will they convince Windows XP users to switch to Windows 7?

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The main advantages of exFAT in comparison to FAT32 are the removal of the 4 GB file size limit and support for hard drives with large capacities (recommended maximum sizes for both are 512 TB). The exFAT file system driver will add the option to format removable media with the exFAT file system to take advantage of it. The file system is using a smaller disk space overhead than the NTFS file system. Users reported a disk space overhead of only 96 Kilobytes on a 4 Gigabyte flash drive after formattting it with the exFAT file system. The NTFS file system used more than 47 Megabytes of space for overhead.

Interested users can download the exFAT file system driver update directly from Microsoft to add exFAT file system support to their operating system.

The exFAT file system driver incorporates the following advanced structures to improve performance:

* A cluster bitmap for fast allocation
* A per-file contiguous bit for fast file access
* Better contiguous on-disk layout (useful for recording movies)
* Support for Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) time stamps

The exFAT file system driver is designed for extensibility to enable the file system to keep pace with innovations in storage and changes in usage and to enable OEMs and ISVs to add extensions seamlessly. Specifically, exFAT adds the following features:

* Adds template-based metadata structures to enable custom extensions
* Enables implementations to persist these extensions without having to know their format

The exFAT file system driver adds increased compatibility with flash media. This includes the following capabilities:

* Alignment of file system metadata on optimal write boundaries of the device
* Alignment of the cluster heap on optimal write boundaries of the device

The prerequisites for the update are an installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3.

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Before I get started I want to issue a warning. I have never had a problem using GParted Live CD, but that doesn’t mean the system is immune to problems. Problems can happen. To that end make sure you back up your XP data and even create a restore CD. This way, just in case GParted Live wreaks havoc on your data, you can restore it easily.

With that warning out of the way, let’s take a look at how GParted Live works. The screen shots you are about to see are from a VMWare installation on a Linux installation. I created a Fat32 partition in order to show you how simple GParted Live is to use.

Step One

The first thing you need to do is to defragment your XP drive. This will make sure your data is where it needs to be as well as keeping your data from the end of your drive. Once your drive is fully defragmented you are ready for step two. Of course, before step two you will need to download and burn the iso image onto CD to use.

Step Two

Put the GParted Live CD into your cd drive and reboot your machine. Getting GParted Live is simple to start. You will be asked a few questions about your keyboard, your language, and your graphics. As for the graphics, the default entry should work fine.

Once you are booted into GParted Live you will find yourself in what might be a familiar desktop. GParted Live is based on Fluxbox and is even more minimal than the standard Fluxbox.

Full sized Fat32 partition

Step Three

Select the partition you want to resize and click the “Resize/Move” button. When you click that a new window will appear asking how much you want the partition to be resized.

Set the amount to resize

You want to make sure that you are resized the space FOLLOWING the XP partition. Once you have entered the amount you want to resize the space FOLLOWING the parition hit enter and then click the Resize/Move button.

Step Four

The next step is to click the Apply button. Once you click this button the resizing will take place. Depending upon the size you have chosen to free up, this process might take some time.

Click Apply

Once the resizing has taken place you will notice the partition names will change.

A Resized partition

That’s it. click the Exit button (the red square at the top left) to shutdown GParted Live. Take the GParted Live CD out of the CD drive and let your machine reboot. Make sure XP will boot properly before you continue. Once you are sure XP will boot properly, reboot with your Linux distribution CD in the drive and install Linux.

You can follow my Illustrated Guide to Installing Ubuntu Linux for a simple Linux install how to. Another article to read, that will get you up to speed on dual booting, is my How To Dual Boot Windows Vista and Linux.

Final Thoughts

Dual booting XP and Linux doesn’t have to be difficult. Using GParted Live CD will make this task far simpler than you thought it could be. But do remember, BACK UP THAT DATA!

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One interesting aspect of winsat.exe is that it can also be launched under Windows XP. It provides the same functionality on that operating system with the exception of the Windows Experience Engine. What you basically get is a benchmarking tool for your computer system developed by Microsoft.

The tool has to be acquired before it becomes available in Windows XP. The easiest way to do that is to download the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0 and extract the installation package with the Universal Extractor or a similar tool that is capable of that. The other possibility would be to install the Upgrade Advisor and look into the program directory afterwards.

Winsat.exe can then be launched from the command line. The basic parameter that is providing details about arguments is winsat -?. The main assessments are cpu, disk, mem, dwm, d3d, media and mfmedia which somethings require additional switches.

The switches are not outlined in the help documentation. They are however available at the Technet Library page.

The winsat mem command supports 14 switches. Here are a few examples of what you can do with the Windows System Assessment Tool:

The following example assesses CPU performance using 256-bit AES cryptographic algorithms:

winsat cpu -encryption

Measuring read speed of a local drive:

winsat disk -read -ran -drive c

How can this benchmark aid the user? It could for instance help to determine the best location for a cache by comparing the write and read speed of all hard drives and external drives. It can also be used to measure the speed of old or new computer memory.

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A third party alternative for Windows XP to Windows Dreamscene is XP Scene. It is an elegant solution that can turn videos into desktop backgrounds in three simple steps. It does so by creating a html file with an embedded Windows Media Player control that can be used as the background in Windows XP.

XP Scene is a portable application that can be run from any location. It displays all three steps of the process in the main interface.

• Step 1: Select the video that should be used as the desktop background. Supported are avi, mpg and wmv videos. The resize mode can also be changed from “keep input aspect ratio” to “stretch video to display size” in this step.
• Step 2: Selecting the output folder where the html file and video will be saved in.
• Step 3: Starting the conversion

Once the files have been created it is a matter of selecting the HTML file as the background wallpaper. This is done in Display Properties > Desktop > Background. The user has to browse to the location where the html file has been saved to and pick it from there.

The process itself demands quite a bit of computer memory and cpu. It can also be quite the distraction most of the time. The right-click menu to change the background again is not working because of the html file that is using all of the space on the desktop.

The only way to change the desktop background back is to go into the Windows Control Panel and select the Display configuration from there.

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The first one is the easiest to accomplish but its results are unfortunately only temporary. Start by moving a folder from the Windows Start Menu to the top of the desktop. If you do it right a new bar should appear on the top of the computer screen.

Right-click that bar and select Toolbars > Address which should add the entry Address at the right side of the bar. You can now access the address functionality there permanently or move the Address Bar back to the Windows Taskbar.

The problem here is that a reboot or log off will remove the address bar again. The advantage of this method is that it does not require the manipulation of system files.

The second option is to replace the browseui.dll file which handles the interface with a previous version that still included the Address Bar. This requires access to the Service Pack 2 version of browseui.dll.

The file is a system protected file which means that you need to replace it the following way:

• Reboot the computer
• Press F8 during boot process to load the advanced boot menu
• Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt
• type xcopy C:\browseui.dll C:\Windows\System32\ with c:\browseui.dll being the location of the SP2 version of browseui.dll

The Address entry should be visible again after rebooting the computer. The change is permanent with this method. There is however no guarantee that other features or functions that have been implemented in SP3 in the file continue to work after applying the change.

The third and probably best option is to install a third party address bar which does not tamper with system files. MuvEnum Address Bar provides access to a new address bar that makes use of an increased functionality such as multiple Internet search engines or access to history and bookmarks of multiple web browsers while retaining all the original features of the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Address Bar.

It can be selected as a Toolbar by right-clicking on the Windows Task Bar, moving to Toolbars and selecting MuvEnum Address Bar from the menu.

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