Windows 2000 Tweaks

< Windows 2000 Tips & Tweaking Guide created by Michael and reprinted with permission >
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Increase IE5 Browsing Speed

Internet Explorer Button Tweakage

Personalizing Internet and Windows Explorer

Modify Internet Explorer Name

Disabling or Enabling the AutoComplete or Inline AutoComplete Feature

Add more programs to the Edit button

Adding a Favorite quickly

Command line switches for Internet Explorer

Disabling the friendly http error messages

Disable Internet Explorer Password Caching

Ad and Spam Blocking for Neophytes

Increase IE5 Browsing Speed
This tweak allows more simultaneous connections from your browser.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]

"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:00000020

"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:00000020

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]

"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:00000020

"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:00000020

Internet Explorer Button Tweakage
The following hacks will work on Internet Explorer versions 4.0 and up. They may work on

earlier versions, in fact they should, but we have not tested them on those relics. To give

you a little incite into how my mind works, I feel I should mention I used to use Netscape

Communicator alone. I never used IE unless I was absolutely had to. After using these hacks

I have never looked back. The fact that Netscape 6 is riddled with bugs is also a bit of a

deterrent. The first registry hack we will discuss has to do with adding a couple of useful buttons to

the Internet Explorer toolbar. For demonstration purposes I chose to use some catchy titles

for the buttons so you would have little difficulty spotting them. No rush of e-mails

warranted as this is only an example. Before we get into what you need to do lets first

explain why you should consider adding these buttons. From personal experience I have found

that I download quite a lot from the net and that being able to access that download folder

is very useful. What's more it is nice being able to jump right to the contents of that

folder by simply clicking on a button on the IE toolbar. In my example that shortcut is

labeled as "Files". The second button I added I decided to set to a particular search engine. Of course you

could set these buttons as shortcuts to any number of files or locations. Now I know you are

probably asking why I didn't just put them on the links bar. Well to be honest if you are

anything like me your links bar is already filled. Plus the way the icons change on mouseovers

is pretty cool hehe. First thing you need to do is set a directory where you are going to be storing the icons

for these buttons. I often try to put such a directory on a secondary drive like D:, so that

if I am dual booting I can use the same files for both OS's. For this guide I used

D:\ietweaks . In the registry file below you will see this line:

ButtonText"="FILES"

This line tells IE what name to display for the button. The very next line:

"Icon"="d:\\ietweaks\\WWW2F.ICO" "HotIcon"="d:\\ietweaks\\WORDS.ICO"

Tells IE where to find the icon to use for the Off Icon for "Files" , the icon for On, and

finally the last line:

"Exec"="D:\\Downloads"

Tells IE what file to execute.

Just cut and paste this into notepad and save as all files, then name it to tweaks.reg.

Start Copying below here:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions\CmdMapping] "{c95fe080-

8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a}"=dword:00002000 "NextId"=dword:00002005 "{CD67F990-D8E9-11d2-

98FE-00C0F0318AFE}"=dword:00002001 "{AE9D2020-7B41-11D3-9C47-00A0CC2121D1}"=dword:00002002

"{34FCAF00-7B33-11D3-9C47-00A0CC2121D1}"=dword:00002003 "{FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-

00C04F795683}"=dword:00002004

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions\{AE9D2020-7B41-11D3-9C47-

00A0CC2121D1}]

"Default Visible"="Yes"

"ButtonText"="FILES"

"CLSID"="{1FBA04EE-3024-11d2-8F1F-0000F87ABD16}"

"Icon"="d:\\ietweaks\\WWW2F.ICO"

"HotIcon"="d:\\ietweaks\\WORDS.ICO"

"Exec"="D:\\Downloads"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions\{34FCAF00-7B33-11D3-

9C47-00A0CC2121D1}] "Default Visible"="Yes" "ButtonText"="WareZ" "CLSID"="{1FBA04EE-3024-

11d2-8F1F-0000F87ABD16}" "Icon"="d:\\ietweaks\\Warez_n.ico"

"HotIcon"="d:\\ietweaks\\Warez_off2.ico" "Exec"="http://www.astalavista.com/en/"

Stop Copying here:

Once you have saved the .reg file, double click it and answer yes to the prompt. As you can

see from the picture above, just one click and your downloads folder is popped open,

straight from you’re IE toolbar. I should also mention that before the new short-cuts appear

you have to right click on the toolbar and select customize. Then you have to add the two

new short-cuts from the left panel to the right panel.

Personalizing Internet and Windows Explorer
The second portion of this guide deals with tweaking Windows appearance and icons. The first

thing we will seek to change is that plain old toolbar. Let’s give it a little personality.

Once again, all the images and icons used were placed in the ietweaks directory I created in

the last section.

A quick look at the new stylish Explorer toolbar

Of course you can select any windows bitmap file, but just make sure it doesn't look

disproportional. I have found that a program called Windows Blinds has some pretty cool .bmp

files to play with. A close-up look at the spinning flaming E logo

Before you go hacking the registry, you should know that this effects the appearance of all

of your windows, not just Internet Explorer. So you have been warned.

Start Copying below here:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]

""BackBitmap"="d:\\ietweaks\\WBTITLE.BMP"

"BrandBitmap"="d:\\ietweaks\\lgburn.bmp"

"SmBrandBitmap"="d:\\ietweaks\\smburn.bmp"

Stop Copying here:

Don't forget to save the notepad file as anymane.reg . Then just double click and BAM! there

ya go. For your convenience I have supplied a zip file that contains all my settings for

both the button short cuts and the new look Windows. just remember to adjust the registry

files so it points to the proper directory. Feel free to use it as a template. Anyway, here

it is all zipped up for ya. ietweaks Now lets checkout a couple quick tips to have some

fun with your icons while making certain files POP.

Optimizing the Toolbar Shortcut Feature

The Windows family of operating systems comes with the well know toolbar feature. The

toolbar allows quick access to open applications that have been minimized etc. In the more

recent versions of the OS we see that Microsoft has added to its functionality. Bill Gates

decided to be so kind as to add a quick launch feature to the toolbar along with and address

bar. Now both of these additions may be useful to some others need a slightly more powerful

toolbar. In fact making toolbar more useful is quite easy. The question is how and what do

we do to open up our productivity bottleneck. Well for starters why not create shortcuts to

you're favorite apps? Nah, we can just put them on the desktop, right? Well you could but when

working with several open applications, having shortcuts on the toolbar saves you the step

of having to return to the desktop to click on the application you need.

Ok so it is decided that there is a definite benefit to having shortcuts to apps on your

toolbar. What about being able to have sliding menus, similar to the start menu, right on

your toolbar but containing only frequently used programs or even as a means to explore your

"My Computer" feature? Did I lose ya? Well hang in there it is really a simple task. The

image below is the finished product of my ramblings, so you can get an idea of where we are

going with this. In the picture above we see five titles with >> to their right. These titles and arrows are

shortcuts to directories apps etc. The "HUD" title represents a shortcut to "My Computer".

By just clicking on the arrows the sliding menu springs into action. Also sub-directories

slide out as they do on the start menu. You will be amazed at how quickly you become accustomed to this quick access exploring or

your drives. And you won't have to go through the Windows Explorer interface to do it. It is

more convenient and offers you the efficiency of not having to minimize open windows to find

or launch a file or app. Also no ten click tree climbing or descending as the slide out

menu's make everything a lot faster. So how do YOU set this up? Easy!

Step 1: Right click on the toolbar and select "New Toolbar.."

Step 2: Select the "My Computer" icon. Then click "ok".

Step 3: Left click on the address bars solid vertical white line and drag it to the left

until the >>> signs appear next to the "My Computer" title.

Now that you see how easy it is to create the "start menu" access right from your toolbar,

let's take it a step further. Being a student and a web journalist, I find myself constantly

switching between tons of applications. For any one task there are often three to four

applications that I need to use to finish. A perfect example is writing reviews or reports

that include pictures and or spreadsheets etc. Well once again we don't want to have to use

that nasty minimize feature lets just use the toolbar to launch that app. A good rule of

thumb to follow is to keep your files and apps well organized. For example I have compiled

shortcuts for all of the utilities that I use for programming, web content creation etc into

a folder titled "DEV" for development, within the C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs directory.

Now check this out, and follow the easy steps listed above. The only difference is that you

select the folder with the shortcuts in it, instead of the "My Computer" icon.

Step 4: Place all the application shortcuts under various category directories such as: DEV

(developement apps), Tools (Notepad, Calculator etc), SYS (System utility shortcuts), Tests

(benchmark program shortcuts) within the C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs directory.

Step 5: Select the folder title that you want a sliding menu to appear on the toolbar for. In

this case I have selected the DEV folder. Which has the path of C:\WINDOWS\Start

Menu\Programs\DEV . Go ahead and add all the menus you like by following these easy steps. The end result is

pictured below. Of course these are strictly personal preferences.

A pretty useful little trick of the trade I would say. Once you get used to the layout I am

certain you will grow to love this look and feel. Also it is just yet another way of

optimizing the time you spend computing. Now for work task and such this tip will increase

your productivity but what about adding a little something to your browsing experience?

Modify Internet Explorer Name
open the registry editor.

Go to the following root:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]

Here create a new string value named "Window Title" and value data type in whatever u want.

Turn off Spinning Globe in IExplorer and Shell

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser]

"ITBarLayout"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,1a,00,00,00,10,00,00,00,\

17,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,6a,00,00,00,26,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,e0,\

01,00,00,02,00,00,00,29,00,00,00,44,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,33,00,\

00,00,03,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,42,00,00,00

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\ShellBrowser]

"ITBarLayout"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,1a,00,00,00,10,00,00,00,\

17,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,6a,00,00,00,26,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,56,\

00,00,00,02,00,00,00,29,00,00,00,57,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,a8,00,00,00,00,00,\

00,00,04,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,55,01,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\Explorer]

"ITBarLayout"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,1a,00,00,00,13,00,00,00,\

33,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,6a,00,00,00,26,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e1,00,00,00,df,\

01,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,bd,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,20,00,00,00,8d,01,\

00,00,03,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,b8,00,00,00

Disabling or Enabling the AutoComplete or Inline AutoComplete Feature
SUMMARY

This article describes how to disable the AutoComplete feature or enable the Inline AutoComplete feature.

MORE INFORMATION

Windows Explorer and the Run box both have AutoComplete capabilities, as in Microsoft Internet Explorer. There are actually two forms of AutoComplete. The first is an automatic suggestion, where you get a drop-down list of sites with the same letters you have typed. The second is where the line you are typing is automatically completed if you have typed the same letters before. This is the Inline AutoComplete feature. The first feature is turned on by default, but Inline AutoComplete is not.

To disable the AutoComplete feature in the Address box in Windows Explorer, and the Address box in Internet Explorer:

Click Start, point to Settings, point to Control Panel, and then click Internet Options.

Click the Content tab, click AutoComplete, and then click to clear the Web addresses check box.

Click OK, and then click OK.

The history of most recently used commands from the Run command on the Start menu are stored in the following registry location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU

To enable the Inline AutoComplete feature:

Click Start, point to Settings, point to Control Panel, and then click Internet Options.

Click the Advanced tab, and then click to select the Use inline AutoComplete check box.

Click OK.

Add more programs to the Edit button
In Internet Explorer 5 & 6, there is a handy Edit button on the toolbar which you can either press to edit the current web page in IE5's default HTML editor, or you can select an alternative editor from a list by pressing the arrow to the right of the button.

To add another HTML editor to the selection, start Regedit (Start, Run..., regedit) and browse to the following key (remember to backup your registry first): HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList

Goto the Edit menu and choose New... then Key. Give it a meaningful name, such as "My Favorite HTML Editor", then open your new key.

You now need to repeat the above process for creating a new key 3 times. Inside your newly created key, create one called "shell". Inside that, create one called "edit", inside of which you should finally create one callled "command".

Inside the command key there will be a "Default" value. Double-click it. Here you need to paste in the full path to the HTML Editor program you're trying to add, such as "e:\Microsoft FrontPage 98\bin\fpeditor.exe"%1. Make sure you've surrounded it with double-quotes and added a %1 at the end, press OK and quit Regedit.

Adding a Favorite quickly
For keyboard fans, Ctrl+D is the fastest way to add the current page to your Favorites folder.

This bypasses the normal Add to Favorites dialog box and places a shortcut in your main favorites folder with

the title of the current page as the name.

Command line switches for Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer recognizes a set of command-line switches. To use these switches, click Start, Run... and type iexplore.exe followed by a space and one of these:

-channelband IE as a Desktop Toolbar, displaying the Channels Directory of the currently logged on user. This option only applies when

Active Desktop is off. IE4 only.

-e Launch IE in Explorer mode (standard two pane view, My Computer on left, Content on right).

-new Start up IE in a separate process.

-nohome Open IE and don't open any web page at all.

-slf Launch IE and connect to default home page. Loads the default home page from the cache.

-k Launch IE in Kiosk mode.

Disabling the friendly http error messages
Internet Explorer 5 recognises http error messages (such as "Error 404: Page not found" etc.) and displays a friendly version in the browser. If you would prefer to see the proper error pages for the particular web server you're using, go to Tools, Internet Options... and select the Advanced tab. Un-check the Show friendly HTTP error messages box.

Disable Internet Explorer Password Caching
To disable the ability of IE 4.0 - IE 6 to cache password credentials, use Regedt32 to navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

On the Edit menu, Add Value name DisablePasswordCaching as a REG_DWORD data type. In the DWORD Editor, set the data value to 1.

Ad and Spam Blocking for Neophytes
Content

What is Ad Killing?

Why would I want to kill commercial ads on the Internet?

What do I have to lose?

Get To Work

What do I need in order to do some ad killing?

Killing Banner Ads

Killing Banner Ads from Free ISPs

Killing Popups

Killing Spam

Newbies Corner

What is the /etc/hosts or the c:\windows\hosts File?

What is DNS Lookup / Reverse DNS Lookup?

What are Popups?

What is a Bandwidth?

Appendix A: junkbusters.com

Appendix B: more ad blocking

Bibliography

What is Ad Killing?

If you've been using the Internet for some time, you should be aware of those annoying commercials Popups(3), commercial banner ads, unsolicited commercial mail (spam) etc'. There are simple and difficult ways to kill those, according to the sophistication level of the advertiser.

Okay, so popups are annoying, but why would I want to kill regular banner ads which just appear within a page? Well, you have to download those things, right? Some ads could be 3Ks big, some could be 20Ks big. The point is - they chew up bandwidth.

Okay, so a banner ad could be 7Ks big... so what? Well, suppose your computer is a part of a Local Area Network (LAN, a bunch of computers who are located very near to each other (same room, same building etc') and are connected to each other so they can exchange files throught the fast network cable, share resources etc'). The LAN has one connection to the Internet which is enough for 10 people (say, 100Ks per second, so each user gets about 10Ks per second). Now, imagine that 5 of the 10 people are browsing the web, and each one is downloading a 7Ks big banner ad. That means you lose 35Ks per second. Now what if those people won't have to download those ads? And what if the problem would be on a bit larger scale... like a 10Ks banner, or a bigger network, or more users downloading ads etc'. See my point?

Now, I myself do not recommend killing banner ads, because some might turn out to be useful (for example: an ad about a store that sells a new A-class state-of-the-art computer for a very cheap price with no catches). Popups, on the other hand, are annoying and in my experience they never yield any useful pieces of information, so I recommend killing those. But it's still worth knowing (if you're a sysadmin and you don't want any stupid ads to chew up your bandwidth(4))

Get To Work

Killing Banner Ad's

First make a list of computers that host banner ads programs. Suppose you decide that www.foobar.com is an ad haven. Next thing you add this line to the hosts(1) file:

127.0.0.1 www.foobar.com

Now, whenever any Internet application will try to access something from www.ads-r-us.com it will try the equivelant on 127.0.0.1. For example: http://www.ads-r-us.com/stupid-banner-ad.gif = http://127.0.0.1/stupid-banner-ad.gif.

Whether you have a picture called stupid-banner-ad.gif on your computer, it will not chew up any bandwidth because 127.0.0.1 means self (as in me, as in my own computer. For example: try to hack 127.0.0.1 and you'll realize that this host is suspiciously similar to your own computer... hmm... maybe they hacked your computer and downloaded everything... lol).

There is a way to work around this, though. If you put the advertiser's IP address instead of his hostname in the part of the html code on your website that tells the browser to download the ad, it will go directly to that IP (for example: if www.ads-r-us.com's IP is 123.7.14.139 then putting 123.7.14.139/stupid-banner-ad.gif instead of www.ads-r-us.com/stupid-banner-ad.gif will work around our trick). If you know of any better tricks please let me know at barakirs@netvision.net.il.

Killing Banner Ads from Free ISPs

There are some Internet Service Providers that give you free surfing (phone bills not included in most cases) in exchange for you using a stupid program that displays banner ads on the corner of your screen while you surf. These ads are not only annoying, but they also chew up your bandwidth(4). If you want to completely remove those things you need to find some sort of a crack for it. I'm not going to tell you how to crack every free ISP in the world, but I am going to tell you how to block those ads.

First, go find a good firewall (try http://www.theargon.com, they have some). Then, run it and wait for a new banner ad to come from your ISP. Then the firewall will warn you about the incoming connection. You can either tell your computer to ignore these things manually, or configure a rules file for your firewall that will do so (consult your firewall's help files).

Killing Popups

There are programs that do this for you. They look for some special text in the title bar of the popup (for example: killing all popups with the text "Welcome to a Geocities Member Page" in their title will kill those annoying Geocities popups) or kill the popup by the size of the window (or both). Although I've been searching for a good one for a long time now, I still havn't found one that is good enough. Surf In Peace is pretty good, though. Go to www.download.com, www.cnet.com or www.zdnet.com for more information and programs.

Killing Spam

Yes, spam. Unsolicited commercial mail. Again, to kill those, you need programs called Spam Filters. Go to www.tucows.com and find the Anti-Spam category. There you will find lots of Spam Killing programs.

Basically, what spam filters do is to decide if an incoming message is spam or not by it's subect line and the body of the message. If they do find spam, they will delete it immedietly.

If those won't work, call your ISP and tell them to block all incoming mail from the spammers' Email addresses.

Note: some ISPs have began implementing gigantic and ultra advanced spam filters on their mail servers. These are supposed to stop 90%-95% of incoming spam. These ISPs include Earthlink, Netscape and Usa.net.

Oh, btw, here's an interesting piece of information. A research called "Who Spams You" has been conducted lately. Here are the results:

First place: "get rich quick" scams.

Second place: adult websites.

Third place: website promos.

Fourth place: other.

Fifth place: software promos.

Newbies Corner

1. What is the /etc/hosts or the c:\windows\hosts File? - most OSs (OS=Operating System) I know have a hosts file. UNIX usually stores it at /etc/hosts, Windows stores it at c:\windows\hosts and Windows NT stores it at c:\WinNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (thanks to Teolicy for the WinNT tip). The hosts file is used instead of wasting time to do a DNS Lookup(2). I mean, why waste time on DNS Lookup when you already know the IP but you just don't feel like typing it down and you'd rather remember the hostname.

The hosts file should look like this:

# This is a comment line.

# Anything beginning with # will be disregarded by your computer.

# You don't have to put comment lines if you don't want to, but they make reading easier.

IP-address hostname

For example: on most hosts files you will see this line:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Anything directed to 127.0.0.1 is directed to self, meaning to your own computer.

This hosts file entry allows you to type localhost instead of 127.0.0.1 in browser windows or any other network application.

Note: some OSs do DNS Lookup first, and then, if DNS Lookup fails they go for the hosts file, but you can always reconfigure that somewhere (take MacOS for example: all you have to do is to put the line set use_hosts_first=1 somewhere in the config.sys file).

2. What is DNS Lookup / Reverse DNS Lookup? - the command nslookup hostname (Unix only. For a Windows version see http://www.samspade.org) gives you the IP address of that hostname.

How does it work?

Every computer which is connected to the Internet is assigned with an IP address, whether it accepts connections or not. If you want to connect to that certain computer, you have to know it's IP address, whether you like it or not. But what if you're senile and you don't feel like remembering IP addresses? This is what hostnames are for. Hostnames are simple names for IP addresses in the human language. For example: if you wanna surf over to Yahoo and you don't remember their IP address or you don't feel like finding it out, you can go to www.yahoo.com instead. www.yahoo.com is an alias to Yahoo's IP.

Now, this is what DNS is for. DNS stands for a Domain Name Server. These servers store those aliases and their IPs.

A DNS Lookup means to find the IP of a given hostname. A reverse DNS Lookup is to do the exact opposite (IP==>hostname).

For more info, type man nslookup on Unix for nslookup's manual page or go to Sam Spade's library (see http://www.samspade.org).

Nslookup is a wonderful probing tool, and in fact it's one of the best ways to find out information about a certain host, so go and learn it.

3. Popup - another browser window that "pops up" by itself. Try going to any Geocities homepage and you'll see a good example of a popup window, because Geocities insert these things in every homepage hosted by them (except GeoPlus members, but they pay for that... :( ).

4. Bandwidth - the total speed a certain connection can achieve. Chewing up bandwidth means wasting some of the bandwidth, hence making surfing slower.

Appendix A: junkbusters.com

Here's an Email I got from someone called James Slater:

Hi there, I just read your tutorial, and thought you might like to make some mention of 'The Internet Junkbuster' (http://www.junkbusters.com/). It's a proxy server that you can install on your Win9x/Un*x system that can be configured to block unwanted cookies, adverts etc. depending on a set of rules. You might think it's a bit out of the scope of the tutorial, but I thought I'd suggest it.

Well, there you have it. Junkbusters.com. C'mon, go give it a whirl!

Appendix B: blocking ads

I was told by a friend who wishes to stay anonymous that you can use the following command:

route add -host [spam server] reject

(replace 'spam server' with the IP or hostname of the server that has these banners on it. For example: if the banners come from banners-r-us.com, replace 'spam server' with banners-r-us.com)

This command orders the Linux kernel (no, it won't work on Windows. That's one of the things I hate about Windows - it's not sophisticated enough for me... lol) reject anything coming from this IP.

This does the same as that thing I did with /etc/hosts, but... I dunno, it's a little nicer... ;-)

Bibliography

Sam Spade's library http://www.samspade.org/

- Courtesy R a v e N

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