Category Archives: Windows

Running a command, applying changes and other Windows Techniques

By Ajith | Published: January 30, 2011

Running a command using the RUN dialog box.

1 of 1 in series Handy Windows Administration Techniques

Some cool and handy techniques to open programs and run commands using your keyboard. How to apply system settings without restarting ? Different admin techniques.

Posted in Windows | Tagged Admin, Command Prompt/Shell, Tool | Leave a comment

First step to a cleaner and faster Windows – understand the Registry

By Ajith | Published: November 25, 2010

To keep your windows installation fast and clean, you need to know what the registry is. This article deals with the Windows registry, how registry cleaners work and how you can easily understand the various settings of the registry.

Posted in Windows | Tagged Registry, Tutorial | 3 Comments

How to disable access to Drives using Disk Management

By Ajith | Published: September 30, 2009

You have learned to disable access to drives using registry. But this technique had some limitations. Here is a better method so that no program, or your friends will be able to even know such a drive exists. You still can easily access the drive as and when needed.

Also posted in Featured | Tagged Admin, disk, Tool | 1 Comment

How to Disable Autoplay/Autorun

By Ajith | Published: February 24, 2009

How to Disable running of programs automatically when you insert a CD or USB drive. This can actually prevent many viruses from entering your system. Use this along with the address bar pull down menu while accessing a pen drive.

Posted in Windows | Tagged Tips, Tutorial, Virus | 4 Comments

What are the hidden files and folders

By Ajith | Published: September 4, 2008

There are many system files hidden from our view in Windows. These are some of them. System Volume Information, MSOCache, Recycler, NTDETECT.com, pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, ntldr, AUTOEXEC.COM etc. The uses of these files are explained.

Posted in Windows | Tagged Admin, File, Permissions, Tutorial | 1 Comment

Get access to all folders in Windows like Linux

By Ajith | Published: September 3, 2008

On the last article we have discussed about seeing all the files that are part of Windows. Now lets see whether we can directly access these folders. As it turns out Windows by default will not grant you permission to the folder System Volume Information. Thats because the folder contains important System Restore Point informations. [...]

Posted in Windows | Tagged Admin, Customize, File, Security, Windows | Leave a comment

View system files (super hidden) in Explorer

By Ajith | Published: August 26, 2008

This is the first among a series of posts on administering Windows . It starts with how to see the files and folders that were hidden by Windows for some reason. The series is actually inspired from the one done by Samanathon on Starting your Day with a fresh Computer. He did a good job [...]

Posted in Windows | Tagged Admin, Customize, File, Registry | 2 Comments

Change the default Drive Icons in Windows XP

By Ajith | Published: July 8, 2008

You can change the default drive icons available in My Computer under Windows XP through the registry. Although it is done via registry the task is pretty simple and straight forward. (You can also use the Autorun method – please read that article if you prefer to do so) Open registry editor ( WIN+R » [...]

Posted in Windows | Tagged Customize, Icon, Registry, Visual | 2 Comments

How to view all drives, Disk Management under Windows

By Ajith | Published: June 24, 2008

The Disk Management object under Microsoft Management console can be used to Change Drive letter association, find unrecognized partitions or Mount a logical drive into a folder as in Linux. If you want to prevent access to a drive, read 2nd tip in “Points to note” given after this post or read how to Prevent [...]

Posted in Windows | Tagged Admin, Customize, Tutorial | 2 Comments

Microsoft Management Console – make administrative tasks easy

By Ajith | Published: May 31, 2008

This is the start of a series of posts that will guide you through using Microsoft Management Console to manage your system. In this post most of the text has been excerpted from the MMC help file. The MMC allows you to control and manage the many available options from an easy to use interface. [...]