Manually crash Windows XP

Manually Crash Windows XP (Source: The Straight Dope)

Windows-XP has a “feature” (???) with which it is possible to manually crash a system by simply holding the right CTRL key and pressing the “Scroll Lock” key twice. This feature can be turned on by the following steps:

1. Start regedit. 2. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters
3. Create a new DWORD value and name it CrashOnCtrlScroll
4. Right-click on this newly created value and click on Modify
5. Enter 1 in the Value data field and click on OK.
6. Close regedit and reboot your system.
7. Now you can blue screen (crash) your system by holding the right CTRL key and pressing “Scroll Lock” twice.

Note:

Your system may reboot or show a blue screen whenever this crash is initiated. If your system reboots after initiating the crash, and you want to see the blue screen, follow these steps:

1. Go to Control Panel > System
2. Click on the Advanced tab
3. Under Startup and Recovery, click the Settings button.
4. Under System failure, uncheck the option Automatically restart.

Happy crashing…!!

Source: The Straight Dope

 

Google Talk Tips & Tricks

Some people say Google Talk is nice because of its minimalistic design, but they don’t want to use an Instant Messenger that doesn’t have smileys and font customization. Here are some tips that will make your work with Google Talk better.

Keyboard shortcuts

* CTRL + Mousewheel up/down: Change the font size in a conversation window.
* CTRL + E: Center text
* CTRL + R: Right justify text
* CTRL + L or CTRL+J: Left justify text
* F9: Open Gmail to send an email to the person you talk to
* F11: Start a call
* F12: Stop the current call
* ESC: Close the current window

Conversation

* Some smileys are converted by Google Talk: :-O B-) :’( :O
* To write bold text, type *your gtalk message*
* To write italic text, type _your gtalk message_

Startup parameters (go to Start/Run and type “c:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe” /one_parameter_from_the_list_below)

* /nomutex: allows you to open more than one instance of Google Talk.
* /register: write Google Talk settings in the registry.
* /checkupdate: check for new version.
* /factoryreset: revert to default settings.
* /mailto email@gmail.com: send an email with Gmail.
* /diag: start Google Talk in diagnostic mode.

 

Remove Virus in XP that Blocks Access to Orkut

There is a certain virus that prevents XP users from opening http://www.orkut.com from any of the available browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera etc).

For many Orkut addicts, it is nearly impossible to live without Orkutting.

So here we have the solution for your problem.

Follow the steps exactly as written here and in the same sequence.

Procedure:

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL. Open the Task Manager and go to Processes.
2. Look for svchost.exe under the image name. Find the ones that have your username under the Username tab.
3. Press DEL to kill these processes. Click Yes to ignore the warning.
4. Repeat for more svchost.exe files with your username and repeat. Be careful not to kill svchost.exe with system, local service or network service.
5. Now go to My Computer.
6. In the address bar, type “C:\heap41a” and press Enter. Delete all the files in here.
7. Now go to Start. Click Run and type “Regedit“.
8. In the menu bar click Edit and then click Find.
9. Type “heap41a” and press Enter.
10. The display will show you the following:
    “[winlogon] C:\heap41a\svchost.exe C:\heap(some number)\std.txt”
11. Press DELand click Yes to ignore the warning.
12. Close the Registry Editor.

BANG! The virus would be gone!

Note: Please format all your pen drives because the virus might be hidden in there in a microsoft.exe autorun.inf file, which you might not be able to find. This would mean you should repeat the whole procedure above. (After the pendrive is formatted.)

Now you should be able to access Orkut without much trouble!

 

Remove Virus in XP that Disables “Show Hidden Files”

There is a certain virus that prevents XP users from viewing the hidden files.

The virus meddles with the ’Show hidden files and folders’ option in the Folder Options and the option keeps bouncing back to ‘Do not show hidden files and folders’, despite repeated trials.

Here is how you can set this problem right:

Navigate to the windows registry:
Go to Start menu
Click Run
Type regedit in the text box and then click Enter.

When the Registry Editor opens, perform the following steps:

Go to the following registry key:

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and then open Software.Under this navigate to: Microsoft -> Windows ->  Current Version -> Explorer Then go to Advanced -> Folder -> Hidden -> SHOWALL
Delete the value CheckedValue.
(Its type should be REG_SZ and data should be 2 or 0.)

Create a new DWORD value called CheckedValue (same as above, except that the type is REG_DWORD).

Modify the value data to 1 (0×00000001).This should enable you to select the ‘Show hidden files and folders’ option without much problem.Do drop in comments if there are further queries and we shall try to find answers.