Its been a while since i made a windows post and today i jotted down all the windows xp tricks so that i could finally make a list out of them and finally, here we are with the top 6 tricks. These tricks are not old, out-dated and nor are they unsafe in anyway (some of them require for registry edditing.. which can only be dangerous if you edit the WRONG value.. so please read through carefully and you’ll be fine) .. they use default windows xp settings.. settings most peopledon’t know about.. and they’re also very usefull.. with all of that said.. lets begin shall we? *rubs hand together* =D

1. Shutdown Pcs on your network (from your own pc):

This trick is loads of fun if you’re on a university/school network.. ever wanted to shut your mates pc down.. or your brother’s (in my case.. me and my brother are on LAN at home =P).. now you can do it in 3 quick and easy steps:
1. Click Start, Open Run.
2. Type shutdown -i” and press OK.
3. Customize =P, you can change options such as.. wether you want it to be shutdown/restarted etc or logged off for that matter.. you can add a nice creative message to the shutdown prompt and you’ll need to add the name of the pc you want to shutdown.. for e.g. if you’re on LAN with someone at home you can go to My Network Places and you’ll see “Shared documents on other pc” where other pc refers to the other pc on lan.. and you can ask a technition at school for the name of the pc.. (pcs are usually marked in school and are named in pattern such as MyUniversity1, MyUniversity2 etc.)

I’ve posted the screenshot of what the victim will expierience under the next Trick as it applies to this trick aswell as the next.
2. Abort, System Failure, Automatic Shutdown:

Ever seen that error? I’m sure you have.. and its pretty annoying.. usually its caused by a trick (like the virus trick i posted earlier) or a windows error (like a windows process thats needed has been killed) and its also caused by viruses.. and lastly its caused by someone on your network shutting it down as shown in trick number one, anyway if you do see that prompt you can easily kill it by:

Click Start, Open Run > Type “shutdown -a” > Click Ok and you’re done.. it should cancel the system shutdown!

3. Remove/Rename Recycle Bin:

Ever wanted to trick someone you just hate? You can do a couple of things =P one of them is removing/renaming their recycle bin to confuse them.. For this particular trick, we need to edit registry values so you need to be a extra carefull:

First We Rename The Recycle Bin:

1. Click Start, Open Run and type “Regedit”, Press Enter
2. Expand the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT > CLSID > {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} (i know the last value is a bit complicated but .. there are only 2 values that begin with “645″, only one of them starts with “645FF” so look for that one)
3. Select the {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} value (don’t expand it.. just select it) and you’ll see a value called (default) on the right hand menu.. right click it and click modify.
4. Change the “Value Data” to whatever you want to name the Recycle Bin and close the registry editor.. you’re done.. restart your pc and your recycle bin will now be called whatever you want it to be called =P

Now We’re going to Delete the Recycle Bin (this is for someone you REALLY hate =P):

1. Click start, open run and type in “regedit” to open up the registry editor again.
2. Expand navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > explorer > Desktop > NameSpace
3.  Select the NameSpace option and in the right pane you’ll see a value called “Recycle Bin”, rightclick it and select delete, click OK and close the registry editor.. and you’re done goodbye recycle bin!

4. Change the Icon of you drives:

Okay in this trick we’re going to do quiet a bit of registry editting so you need to be carefull and theres no need to be scared it works (and its safe.. lol):

1. First of all you need to have the icon you wish to apply to your drive.. save it on your hardisk anywhere.. for example “C:\MyIcons\icon.ico”
2. Click start, open run and type in “regedit” to open the registry editor.
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer
4. Now comes the tricky part.. after expanding the “Explorer” option, right click anywhere (under it) and click New > Key, name the new key to “DriveIcons”.
5. Under DriveIcons create a new Key, name it the name of the disk whose icon you want changed for example you want to change drive C’s icon so name this key “C”
6. Under C, create another key named “DefaultIcon”, once made select this key and on the righthand side pane you’ll see a value called default.. right click it > modify and change the value to where you stored your icon (case in point change it to: “C:\MyIcons\icon.ico”.
7. Close the registry editor and you’re done.. you can similarly change icons for other drives by adding their names as keys and changing their values in the same way. One last note you can change your icons back to normal by deleting the keys.

Here is my C:\ Drive’s new icon =P Look closely and its the same icon as my blog’s favicon:

5. Remove Windows Xp Default Messenger:

You need your windows xp cd handy for this trick.. Basically its simple.. all you need to do is remove windows messenger from your add/remove windows components right? But.. thats not it.. theres a slight twist.. you see windows hides certain components from you, not to worry thought if its on your pc, we’ll find it:

1. Open your Windows Root directory (for most users its C:\Windows), open the INF folder (its usally hidden so you have type in the entire thing in your address bar, for example; “C:\Windows\INF”)
2. Find a file named sysoc.inf, (be careful and find the correct file otherwise there’ll be problems for both you and me =P)..
3. Make a backup copy of the file and open it, you’ll see alot of random text.. don’t worry it scared me too =D, okay since the find feature doesn’t work so well here.. you’ll have to find the line we need manually.. click on the first line of the page (the empty line above [version]) and hit the down key 19 times.. you’ll end up at the line that says “msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7″
4. Delete “hide” from that line so it should look like: “msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7″.
5. Save the file and close it, click start and open Control Panel.
6. Open Add/Remove Programs and on the lefthand side.. click the Add/Remove Windows Components tab.
7. Once the wizard is complete.. uncheck windows messenger and click okay.. the wizard will run and you’ll need your windows xp cd here.. once its done.. take out the cd.. close everything and you’re done.. bye bye annoying windows messenger.. cya in hell!

And that Wraps it up for my Collection of Tricks.. and due to a special request i’ve added two more Bonus tips for my readers:

1. Disable Autorun for windows xp
2. Hide your Hardisk Parititions

Special Thanks to Gravity from GravityBlue for the Bonus Tricks, Happy Tweaking and Goodnight!