This tweak Customize the Title of the Internet Explorer.
1. Click Start > Run > Type gpedit.msc
2. Click User Configuration > Windows Setting > Internet Explorer Maintenance > Browser User Interface
3. Double click on Browser Title
4. Click on Customize Title Bars
5. type in whatever you want
6. Click OK
Well here's the trick which you can use to prove that Windows XP is not at all secure as multi-user operating system. Hacking the system registry from any account having access to system registry puts you in to the administrator account.
Here is the registry trick:-
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"AutoAdminLogon"="1"
When a user shuts down Windows XP, first the system has to kill all services currently running. Every once in a while the service does not shut down instantly and windows gives it a change to shut down on its own before it kills it.
This amount of time that windows waits is stored in the system registry.
If you modify this setting, then windows will kill the service earlier. To modify the setting, follow the directions below:
Goto run and type Regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
Click on the "Control" Folder.
Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
Right click on it and select Modify.
Set it a value lower than 2000 (Mine is set to 400).
I am going to introduce a tutorial which has been written by Mr. Zaman Bakshi. He is a moderator of C/C++ Community in Orkut. The community has around 1,40,000 Members.
What follows is a tutorial for an introduction to C and C++ languages. I have especially tweaked it for this community considering the questions some newbies have here. We will first clear fundamental questions like what are computer languages and why do we need them. Also we would get a grasp on the basic workings of a computer system in relation to computer languages. After that we would get a good grasp on the type system and data structures. Once, this is done we would look at the two languages one by one. C and C++ are separate computer languages and one who tries to find a common ground between the two usually flummoxes himself / herself. It is advisable to not mix them together.
A computer system consists of hardware interacting with each other. The most important part, arguably, is the processor. Processor schedules the information between these hardware components (system). Processor manufacturers give us choices to ‘program’ it. Stated in other words, they allow us to interact with it, by giving it instructions.
Processor helps us, in turn, to operate various other hardware-controllers. For example, it helps us to send information for our system to a system situated around the globe using network controller. The Internet you are using to read this text is one such example. Naturally, there should be some standards that need to be followed to communicate with the processor and various controllers. Or else, there will be chaos as each controller or a processor-make will have different instructions. And there could be millions of these hardware.
Processor typically ‘knows’ the type of hardware components it can interact to. One of them is the computer memory (RAM). We program computer memory by placing series (string) of 1’s and 0’s. This permutation of bits (a bit is either 1 or 0), is a command or an instruction for the processor. Hence, we can interact with the processor by placing these permutations at known locations (addresses) within the memory. Actually, 1 and 0 in reality represent high and low value of voltage at a specific location. We say, a processor understands only 1’s and 0’s, or, binary (two) number system.
A computer memory (called main memory) can be thought of as a stack of fixed sized boxes. There are fixed number of boxes present in a memory. Each location of a box is called its address. We can store a fixed number of bits in each box (typically 8). Naturally, for a processor to understand a command the manufacturer decides the format of these commands. A command (or an instruction) is typically a combination of a code and data. Code instructs the processor what to do with the data. For example, addition of 2 to 3 could be achieved by instructing the processor to execute the code specified for addition and the data would be composed of 2 and 3.
Data come in various sizes and formats, and so do the operation codes. Naturally, the manufacturer decides to characterize data (we can consider operation codes to be data too). So, typically, we come across data types, ie, types of data. Eight bits can be considered as a byte (or a char); 2 (or 4 or more) bytes may be considered constituting a ‘word’ (sometimes called an int); similarly there are data types of greater length.
Considering only the sizes is not sufficient. We need to decide, for example, how to differentiate negative and positive integers (int).
Going back to the history of mathematics, the concept of integers came much later. We first used whole numbers, numbers that exists in nature. These are 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on. We consider 0 to denote non-existence of an entity. If we remove (subtract) 3 apples for a collection of 3, we get none (0 apples). But, what if we want to have our 4 apples back from a person who has borrowed them from us, and what if he has only three. Subtracting 4 from 3 results in a borrow of 1 apple (remaining to be procured). Mathematicians termed it -1. Thus came the concept of integers, ….-4, -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3, +4, +5, … .
Say we intend to store whole numbers and we know that we represent a number using a series of bits (20 is actually, 10100), with 0 < 1. And if we have at the maximum of 16 bits available to us, we can store 1111111111111111 as the maximum value, which comes to 65535. (Note: this conversion is left as an exercise.) But what if we need to store integers? We will need to store within the data the information stating if a number is positive or negative. Standards decide to store the leftmost bit as a sign, 0 for + and 1 for -. So, if we have at the maximum of 16 bits, one bit will be reserved for sign and the remaining 15 will be used for value. Thus, we could have at the maximum value of 0 111111111111111, i.e. +32767. What should be least possible value? Guess!
Let’s go back to history of mathematics again. We decide to cut an apple into two pieces (division). After cutting that apple, what should each piece represent? One apple? We called it ½ or 0.5 part of an apple. Thus real numbers (float) we born, of the format sign-number-dot-number.
How should be represent real numbers? Standards choose scientific method to represent numbers, e.g., 256.6 is represented as 2.566 x 10^2 (10 to the power 2). How should we represent it in binary format? We could do it using three divisions of our string of bits (that will represent the number), one bit for + or -, some bits to be reserved to represent 2566, and some to represent 2 (the power). In addition we could consider that the system always has a decimal after first number and that the power is always to 10. But, there is a limitation of this system, we can’t represent some values. So, they may be represented as next-higher or previous-lower value (a value that could be represented). Thus, floating point numbers should be considered to be approximate. Typically, real numbers are given more bits than are allocated for integers for representation.
We have thus far considered only numbers. What if we wanted to represent words from English language? English has an alphabet, from A (or a) to Z (or z). In addition we use comma, exclamation mark, question mark etc to form sentences. How should we represent these? ASCII describes the format of character (char) data types considering English alphabet as primary source of language. ‘Unicode’ format could be used to describe an alphabet much greater than described by ASCII, and hence can be used with other languages like Arabic, Chinese, etc.
ASCII allocates one byte to a value, and each value represents a character. This character can be ‘, 1, 2, a, A, b, B, !, ~, *, -, _ etc. Since, one byte (8 bits) are used for representation, the maximum number of values we can have are 11111111, i.e. 255. But, ASCII uses only seven of these bits []. So, we actually end up having 1111111, ie 127 characters in the ASCII set. I know! That is why Unicode is in demand.
Whenever a processor checks a string of bits it divides it into operation code and data. Considering the type of data it knows what operation the user wants it to perform.
2. PROGRAM
A series (set) of instructions to the processor is called as a computer program. A program typically consists of space (reserved locations in memory) that is used to store intermediate data for operations, instructions for the processor, and a logic that defines what the program does. The logic is nothing but the usage of operation codes and data in different permutations. Why do we need to store intermediate data? Because we have always needed some store to perform operations. If I ask you to add 2 to 3, you will either use a paper to write 2, 3, +, and perform calculation, or, would use your brain as a store to perform this calculation on-the-fly. But you will need a store. Storing all these instructions and allocating space for intermediate data is called writing a program.
2.1. WHAT CONSTITUTES A STORE?
Naturally, part of memory that we need to store our data (for various data types and hence for various length of data) constitutes a store. In addition, a processor too has its very own storage. This storage is in collection of boxes called registers. Registers too come in different sizes and store different format of data. We can use these registers to store our data as well. But, to do this we need to write an instruction with specific operation codes and data to store, in the memory.
What if we decide to make a program and use it again and again? Within these periods we may want to go home and come back to our college, we may also encounter a power failure! (Main) memory and the processor loose all stored instructions when the system is switched off (or restarted). Darn! We would need to write the program again. Can’t we have an alternative? We do! It’s called a secondary memory. A secondary memory (hard disk) helps us to store our programs (and if we want, only data) on it, and a power failure (or turning off the computer system) doesn’t erase our program. Do I hear, eureka?! Not quite yet. Processor is stubborn; it still needs to read the instructions from main memory. This is partly due to the fact that main memory usage (access) is much faster than secondary memory usage (access). It is our responsibility to feed instructions in main memory so as to ask processor to contact the hard-disk controller to fetch our program from the hard-disk into the main memory (from where the processor will start to read our program).
3. OPERATING SYSTEM
From above discussions it is obvious that we would be writing instructions (source code) for same sets of operations again and again, for example, to fetch a program from secondary memory; to interact with other hardware, e.g., printer and thousands of other components; to ask processor to perform various operations like addition, subtraction, etc; to specify the location of intermediate program data; to interact with other systems around the globe. We could write a set of programs that help us do all these. These sets of programs are a program in turn, and constitute an operating system. Considering the domain of this set, we could know that this program is enormous. Hence, although making this program itself is a daunting task, this considerably simplifies our work and reduces time drastically. Time is money in business and hence this set of programs is of utmost importance. This set of program is called an Operating System. Now, as all this boiler plate instruction set is made once, we could concentrate on the main part (logic) of our program. Microsoft Windows, Linux are examples of operating systems. If you want you may write (make) one, but, chances are that you may not need to write one ever in your life and use existing operating systems.
We have not yet discussed few more aspects of an operating system. The first one is multiprogramming, the ability to ask a processor to execute multiple instructions (each of different program) concurrently. A processor can execute instructions one-at-a-time, so, how can it execute multiple instructions at a time? It can’t. But as processor executes an instruction in very short span of time, we can execute an instruction from first program, then an instruction from second program, and then an instruction of another and so on. Then we come back again to the first program and execute the next instruction in the list, and similarly execute next instructions for the rest of all the programs, one by one.
We continue this until we have completed last instruction from each of the programs. In this way we can make a user believe that the programs are running concurrently. Contrast the notion of multiprogramming from serial (batch) programming, where, we would have executed all the instructions from one program and then would have started to execute the first instruction from second program. Hence, some programs would have needed to wait for others to finish. Moreover, processes like printing don’t involve processor interaction after processor has fed the data to the printer controller. So, the program would have to wait for printer to finish its job, and so would have other important programs. This is where multiprogramming comes to the rescue. After the data is fed to the printer controller, processor can switch to other program to execute its instruction, and hence, other programs may not starve.
Operating system also helps one program not write an instruction that could use other program’s data. But operating system allows two programs to interact in a controlled manner (controlled by the operating system itself) and share data via various mechanisms.
4. COMPILERS
Like we outsourced our boiler plate program instructions (code) into an operating system (to interact with hardware), we could also outsource a set of instructions that interacts with the operating system into a program called a compiler. We will leave what this set of instructions constitutes for further sections. The purpose of a compiler will be clearer as we divulge into details.
There is a property of a compiler that makes it a daunting task to write a compiler. We interact with a compiler by writing instructions in a language similar to a natural language (like English). Thus, a compiler understands a simple language and produces the program (that we want should interact with an operating system) in an arcane binary number format.
5. COMPUTER LANGUAGE
All languages like English have their very own alphabet and grammar. We use this alphabet to make words having meaning, and in turn, make sentences. We can’t permute these words in any way we like to make a meaningful sentence. We need to use grammar and logic to form sentences that others would understand.
Zaman eating loves apple.
This is a sentence with no meaning. Each of these words are meaningful though. The correct sentence would be
Zaman loves eating apples.
Similarly,
Zaman love eating apples.
is meaningless. Love should have been loves. This is a result of improper grammar usage. Grammar is nothing but a set of rules to be followed to make words and sentences that others will understand.
A computer language is similar. It has a set of words (called tokens) and a grammar. We use computer language to write programs that compilers understand.
6. PATTERNS WITHIN COMPUTER PROGRAMS
What constitutes program logic? The answer lays in the various patterns that we often follow. We shall consider many examples that would help us identify these patterns. We will execute each instruction from top to bottom. That is topmost instruction will be the first one to be executed.
Example 6.1
You will be given a sample of edible items. Write an algorithm (a procedure, a program) to find if an item can be a sweet dish. Remember, you don’t know at start the number of items in the sample.
Start algorithm.
while there is an item on the plate execute statements within brackets
{
pic up an item.
eat it.
if the item was sweet execute next statement
mark it as a sweet dish.
}
End algorithm.
Note a few aspects of the above code. We have a period (.) after each sentence, but not with the ones start with while and if. Also there are two conditional sentences (statements) in the algorithms. The first one starts with a while, and the next starts with an if. These conditions are basically patterns that frequently arise within computer programs. The first one is called a while statement. It has the following form.
while condition do
steps to be done.
next instruction
…
…
We check the condition, if it is true, i.e., is satisfied, we execute the steps. But if the condition is not satisfied, is false, we don’t execute the mentioned steps of while statement and go back to the next instruction in the program. After executing the steps in the while loop we come back to check the condition again. Since we eventually keep looping within while statement as long as the specified condition is satisfied, this pattern is also called a ‘while loop’.
Each time we check the condition, we assume that we have taken an iteration.
The next conditional sentence starts with an if. This is called an if conditional statement. This is similar to while statement, but we check the condition only once. That is, after checking the condition and executing the steps (if condition is true), we don’t come back to the if statement to check the condition again. Instead, we directly proceed to the next instruction of the program. Format for an if statement is as follows:
if condition do
steps to be done.
next instruction
…
…
There is one more pattern in the above algorithm. This pattern specifies the way we decide to start and to end a statement. In the above algorithm, we used a period to separate simple sentences, and we used a pair of braces ({ }) to show the start and finish of if and while statements.
Another pattern which can go unnoticed is the simple statement. Simple statements like ‘pic up an item’, or ‘eat it’ are simply called statements. As stated earlier, we have decided to use a period between two separate statements.
Example 6.2
You will be given a sample of five edible items. Write an algorithm (a procedure, a program) to find if an item can be a sweet dish.
Start algorithm.
for five times execute statements within brackets
{
pic up an item.
eat it.
if the item was sweet execute next statement
mark it as a sweet dish.
}
End algorithm.
This time we knew that there are only five items. So we looped only five times. The statement used is called a ‘for statement’. It is used to loop a specific number of times, the number we know at the start. It has the following format:
for number of times do
steps to be done.
next instruction
…
…
Here, ‘steps to be done’ are executed ‘number of times’ specified. number of times, can thus be considered as a condition that specifies number of iterations of the loop. As we will see later this condition can also be complex sometimes.
Also note that we can use the algorithm of example 6.1, for our current example. This leads us to a property of for and while iterative statements. We can convert a for statement into a while statement. (And vice-versa if the number of iterations are known).
Example 6.3
You have been given an urn full of balls of three different colours, say red, blue, and green. You have to segregate these balls according to their colours. You have been given three additional urns R, B, G. Write an algorithm for it.
In computing, C is a general-purpose, cross-platform, block structured, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system. Although C was designed for implementing system software, it is also widely used for developing application software. It is widely used on a great many different software platforms and computer architectures, and several popular compilers exist. C has greatly influenced many other popular programming languages, most notably C++, which originally began as an extension to C.
Do you have a favorite program that you frequently use? Elevate its priority on the Start menu by putting it at the top of the list. This ensures that the program will remain on the Start menu and cannot be bumped by other programs, even if you use the others more frequently. Right-click the link to your favorite program on the Start menu and select Pin to Start Menu. Your program will be moved permanently to the top part of the list, just below your browser and e-mail programs.
Does the new Windows XP Start menu take up too much space on your desktop? You can easily change the look back to the Windows Classic Start menu by following these steps:
In regedit navigate to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft Internet Explorer/ Main
change the value of the string "Window Title" to whatever you want on the title bar of Internet Explorer - to have no title except the title of the web pages you are browsing do not enter anything for a value.
It's shockingly easy to create your own icons in Windows XP. Let's do it: Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Paint. On the Image menu, click Attributes. Type 32 for both the Width and Height of the document, and make sure that Pixels is selected under Units. Click OK to create a new 32x32-pixel document: the size of an icon.
Now add type, color, or do whatever you'd like to your image. I like to shrink photos (headshots work best) to 32x32 and simply paste them into my Paint document. When you're finished, open the File menu and click Save As. Use the dialog box to choose where you want to save your file, then give it a name followed by ".ico" (without the quotes), and click Save. (The extension ".ico" tells Windows that it's an icon file.) You just created an icon! Now you can change any shortcut or folder to your own icon—just browse to it on your hard drive.
Organize your files by grouping them. Try this: Open a folder containing several different subfolders and file types. Right-click any empty space on the window's contents pane, click Arrange Icons By, and then click Show in Groups. To arrange the window's contents, right-click again in any empty space on the window's contents pane, point to Arrange Icons By, and click Name, Size, Type, or Modified.
You can display any two windows side by side on the desktop by first clicking a window's button on the Taskbar. Next, press and hold the Ctrl key and right-click the second window that you want to open, then click Tile Vertically. This works great when you want to view two Microsoft Word or Microsoft Internet Explorer windows at the same time.
You can also use Tile Horizontally and Cascade Windows Option.
You know what would make a great toolbar? One where you could put your favorite applications and documents so that you could open them from any window at any time. Guess what? You can and here's how: click Start, then My Computer. Now right-click the toolbar and then click Links. You now have the Links toolbar on your windows, just like in Internet Explorer. Note: Make sure that Lock the Toolbars is not checked. Click on it to deselect it if it is.
The really cool thing about the Links toolbar is that it's completely customizable. Try this: Navigate to your favorite application and drag and drop its icon to the Links toolbar. You just created a shortcut. Do this again and again for as many applications as you want to appear on the toolbar.
When you need a really big window, don't just maximize it: go full screen! To view a window full screen, hold down the Ctrl key and double-click the window's title bar—or when the window is active, press the F11 key at the top of your keyboard—to get the biggest window possible.
Accessibility Controls : access.cpl
Add Hardware Wizard : hdwwiz.cpl
Add/Remove Programs : appwiz.cpl
Administrative Tools : certmgr.msc
Character Map : charmap
Check Disk Utility : chkdsk
Clipboard Viewer : clipbrd
Command Prompt : cmd
Component Services : dcomcnfg
Computer Management : compmgmt.msc
Date and Time Properties : timedate.cpl
DDE Shares : ddeshare
Device Manager : devmgmt.msc
Direct X Control Panel (If Installed) : directx.cpl
Direct X Troubleshooter : dxdiag
Disk Cleanup Utility : cleanmgr
Disk Defragment : dfrg.msc
Disk Management : diskmgmt.msc
Disk Partition Manager : diskpart
Display Properties : control desktop
Display Properties : desk.cpl
Display Properties (w/Appearance Tab Preselected) : control color
Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility : drwtsn32
Driver Verifier Utility : verifier
Event Viewer : eventvwr.msc
File Signature Verification Tool : sigverif
Findfast : findfast.cpl
Folders Properties : control folders
Fonts : control fonts
Fonts Folder : fonts
Free Cell Card Game : freecell
Game Controllers : joy.cpl
Group Policy Editor (XP Prof) : gpedit.msc
Hearts Card Game : mshearts
Iexpress Wizard : iexpress
Indexing Service : ciadv.msc
Internet Properties : inetcpl.cpl
IP Configuration (Display Connection Configuration) : ipconfig /all
IP Configuration (Display DNS Cache Contents) : ipconfig /displaydns
IP Configuration (Delete DNS Cache Contents) : ipconfig /flushdns
IP Configuration (Release All Connections) : ipconfig /release
IP Configuration (Renew All Connections) : ipconfig /renew
IP Configuration (Refreshes DHCP & Re-Registers DNS) : ipconfig /registerdns
IP Configuration (Display DHCP Class ID) : ipconfig /showclassid
IP Configuration (Modifies DHCP Class ID) : ipconfig /setclassid
Java Control Panel (If Installed) : javaws
Keyboard Properties : control keyboard