How to block any installed application from lunching on your computer

This will help you to block any windows built-in applications or other third party programs from being executed on a target computer. If you want to restrict an application from running your family members and co-workers then AppLocker provides a simple solution to do so.

However this tip is very useful for you, if you are sharing your computer with others or you do not want that other persons run all installed applications. This trick will work in nearly all of the windows versions like windows 2000, XP, 2003 and 2008.

AppLocker provides us a complete solution to block any programs from being executed on a target computer. You can download this tool for any windows version using AppLocker link. Download it and run the easy setup.

After installation, double click on AppLocker icon on your desktop to start the Application Locker software. Now this application will display the list of computer software programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and many others

Here click on any application checkbox and then click on Save button to block any software. For example, if you want to block Internet Explorer then select the checkbox of internet explorer and now after saving the change click on Internet Explorer to start it. Here you will get following message:

Now here you can add other application other than the default lock application list, you can lock other programs by clicking the “Configure” button to open the configuration window. Type the caption you want displayed on the ‘Lock application list’. Then, type the programs executable file name and click the ‘Add’ button to add new applications.

How to disable the right click functionality on the desktop

This is very useful particularly for home users who want to protect their system default settings against unwanted changes that other users can make. For example changes in system desktop appearance, themes, and screen saver as well as other display settings. Using registry editor, you can disable the right click functionality on desktop to access the "Display Properties" dialog box and this will also prevent users to access windows explorer.

Follow the given steps to disable the right click functionality on desktop:

To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

Click Start button and type regedit.exe in Run option then press Enter for next.

Here locate the location to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Here in right side panel, right click to create a new DWORD value with the name NoViewContextMenu (it is case sensitive), then assign number 1 in value data box.

Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
But next time, if you want to enable right click functionality on desktop then simply change the value of data box or delete the NoViewContextMenu DWORD item.


source : www.computerfreetips.com

Unhide the Administrator

Few people are aware of Windows XP's cloaked administrator account (called, appropriately enough, "Administrator"). This account is invisible unless either your system has no other accounts or you are booting in Safe Mode. To remove Administrator's camouflage and add it to XP's Welcome screen, navigate to & select

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList in the Registry Editor,

and double-click the Administrator icon in the right pane. If you don't see this icon, right-click in the pane, choose New, DWORD Value, name it Administrator, and press Enter. Type 1 in the 'Value data' box, and press . From now on, when you open the User Accounts window via the Control Panel, you'll see the Administrator account. You can easily change its picture or give it a password. In addition, the next time you see the Welcome screen, your Administrator account will be visible, along with the entire computer's other user accounts.

Disabling the Boot Logo

You can remove the boot logo that appears when you start Windows XP. This little tweak probably shaves only a few seconds off your boot time but seconds count if you are serious about trying to get Windows XP up and running as quickly as possible.

The only negative is that if you remove the boot logo, you will also not see any boot messages, such as check disk. To remove the boot logo, follow these steps:

1. Select Start/Run, type msconfig, and click OK.

2. In the System Configuration Utility, click the BOOT.INI tab.

3. On the BOOT.INI tab, click the NOGUIBOOT check box option. Click OK.

Disabling Recent Documents History

The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to calculate what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow things down.

1. Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.

3. Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it

once it is created.

4. Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.

5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the

change to take effect.

How to setup free Yahoo POP3 email

The easiest way to setup free yahoo pop3 email is register yahoo ac with YMail.com domain. YMail come with free POP3 and email forwarding service. Yahoo mail offer YMail.com domain few months ago.

To setup free yahoo pop3 email, follow the steps below:-

• Go to YahooMail and click on “Sign Up”
• Fill in your personal info at Section 1 and while choosing Yahoo email in Section 2 please select “YMail.com” and you may finish the rest of the info and click “Create My Account”
• Once your account being created, login to YahooMail with your new email address as username and password just entered.
• Once logged in, click on “Options” at the top right and Select “POP & Forwarding” at the left navigation section
• If you see “Pardon our appearance during construction”, You may click on the link at the bottom, “Setup or edit POP & Forwarding”
• New window will appear, Now select “Web and POP access” and click “Save” button
• Click on the link “POP Settings” beside the “Web and POP access”, it’ll show you the information to configure your free yahoo pop3 email in Outlook Express or Thunderbird.
  You may refer to my previous tutorial on how to setup POP3 account in Outlook express
• Done, you just setup a free yahoo pop3 email.

source: www.techiecorner.com