Removing Unnecessary Programs from Starting Automatically

Many programs add portions of themselves starting automatically on every login.
This can be either in the Startup Folder or the Registry.

One easy way to tell is by looking at how many icons are in your system tray. If you have a large number, perhaps unnecessary resources are being allocated them as well as increasing your boot time.

Typical examples are Microsoft Office, Office FindFast, Real Player, ATI Video setting etc.

You can remove them in one of three main ways:

In the Start / Programs / Startup Folder

In the Registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Run

If you have Win98, WinME or Windows2000 you can use MSCONFIG to easily remove programs. This is my preference since it allows you to toggle them back on again in case you make a mistake

Change the Registered Owner and Organization (All Windows)

If you entered the wrong registration information when you installed Windows you can change it and other miscellaneous settings such as ProductID and ProductName.

Open your registry and find the key below for your operating system.

Windows 95, 98 and Me:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion]

Windows NT, 2000 and XP:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion]

Modify the strings values of ‘RegisteredOwner’ and ‘RegisteredOrganization’ to equal the required owner and company names.

Settings:
Name: RegisteredOwner, RegisteredOrganization
Type: REG_SZ (String Value)

Added Non-Expanded Explorer when Right Clicking ..

Adding a second Explorer to the menu that pops up when right clicking on any folder or the Start Button.
This is handy to be able to open Explorer non-expanded and also for being able to open a second Explorer (non-expanded) while already in Explorer.

Open My Computer
Choose View-Options-File Types
Select the File Folder file type
Click Edit
For ACTION, type EXPLORER2
For APPLICATION USED, type C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,/select,C:\
Click OK and close all windows
Run REGEDIT
Expand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
Locate and expand DIRECTORY
Locate and expand SHELL
Locate and expand EXPLORER2
Select COMMAND
On the right window RIGHT CLICK on DEFAULT
Select MODIFY
Remove the space and %1 at the end of the line
Click OK and close REGEDIT
EXPLORER2 will show up and launch a non-expanded view of Explorer whenever you right-click on the START BUTTON or any folder, even if you are already in Explorer.

The whole procedure can be done in REGEDIT, but this may be safer for users not experienced with REGEDIT

Erase Your Data Trail

Start the Registry Editor by clicking Start, Run, and type “regedit” (without quotes).

Go to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
Session Manager\Memory Management

On the right, locate the ClearPageFileAtShutdown value.
Right-click the value, select modify, and change the data value of the registry key to 1.

If the ClearPageFileAtShutdown value doesn’t exist, add it. Right-click the right side of your specified key and add it as a DWORD value. Then change the data value to 1.

Restart for your changes to take effect.

Note: Your shutdown time may slightly increase.

Change the ports of WinVNC Server

Although Windows XP have remote desktop function, most people still like to use VNC to remote control their machine, however you may need to change the port to bypass the firewall of your office/school. Here’s the way to change the port settings.

– If you want to set port > 5900:
1. Run WinVNC (App Mode)
2. Right click and select “Properties” on the VNC tray icon
3. Check “Accept Socket Connections” but DO NOT check “Auto”
4. Calculate display number: if you want to set to port 6900, then your display number will be: 6900 – 5900 = 1000
5. Enter 1000 in the display number field
6. Done

– If you want to set port < 5900 (e.g. port 2000), this reqire a few more steps:
1. Run WinVNC (App Mode)
2. Right click and select “Properties” on the VNC tray icon
3. Tick “Accept Socket Connections” but DO NOT click “Auto”, enter “0” to the “Display Number” field.
4. Exit VNC server
5. Start -> Run -> regedit -> OK, Find “\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ORL\WinVNC3”
6. Find value of “PortNumber”
7. edit the value, change the DEC value of 5900 to the port number you want
8. restart VNC Server, Done!

When you connect to your machine by VNCViewer, type “your-ip:PortNumber” to connect (e.g. “192.168.10.51:2000”)

And the web port is the value of PortNumber – 100, so if PortNumber = 5900, http port = 5800, then you can access your desktop in a browser by “http://your-ip:PortNumber&#8221;, (e.g. “http://192.168.10.51:1900&#8221;)

Hope this can help