Problem or Issue

Resolution

Quake 3 Quake III Display Problems

GeForce4 Ti 4200

Windows 2000 and Windows XP

Screen is too dark.

Resolved:

/seta r_overbrightbits 0

/seta r_intensity 2.2

/vid_restart then go to setup/display

WarCraft III WarCraft 3 Display Problems

GeForce4 Ti 4200

Windows 2000 and Windows XP

The monitor goes to sleep but you can hear the sound.

Resolved:

It's a refresh rate issue.  Monitor can't handle it for some reason.  I had to go to regedit and change the "Video" key for WarCraft III to show resolutions of 800x600 at 60 mhz.  Also, I downloaded a program from Blizzard that tests the video.

Quake – How to display or show the FPS (frames per second)

"/cg_drawfps 1" this will display FPS, "/cg_drawfps 2" uses a different method to calculate FPS.

To get rid of FPS use "/cg_drawfps 0"

Quake 3 – More Settings

/com_maxfps 125

/seta r_displayrefreshrate

/seta r_swapinterval 1  (default 0)

Uninstall Nvidia Drivers

Cleaning Out Old Drivers and Installing New Drivers

Start out by checking the video card manufacturer's web site for driver updates (e.g. Creative Labs). You can find the URL of your manufacturer's web site in the manual.

If the latest drivers are more than a couple of months old, we strongly recommend that you download the latest Nvidia reference drivers here, instead. We always recommend reference drivers because the core is usually the newest the best. However, sometimes manufacturers do put forth an extra effort to post new drivers and include special utilities. Also note that you may need the manufacturer's drivers to support extra features of your video card like TV-output.

The process that we recommend following to clean out old drivers is a long and somewhat complicated one, but it's worth it. When installing your drivers, it is best to do a proper install, which involves switching to a standard display type, purging your system of any old drivers, and installing the new drivers. Read and follow the steps carefully.

Step One
Right click your desktop
Choose Properties
Choose Settings
Choose Advanced
Choose Adapter
Click Change
Here you'll be presented with a couple of options. Choose to display a list of drivers. In the left pane, scroll all the way to the top and choose (Standard display types). Then, in the right pane, choose Standard PCI Graphics Adapter (VGA). Follow the prompts, and reboot.

Step Two

The second step before installing the new drivers is making certain that there's no driver "residue" left behind from previous driver installs. If you're upgrading from a previous set of Nvidia reference drivers, do the following:
Click the Start button and select Find, and then Files and Folders...
Make sure the Find applet is set to search your C:\ drive and do a search for "nv*.*" - without the quotes
Look for any files found in the C:\Windows\System and C:\Windows\Inf and C:\Windows\Help
Select these files and delete them (do NOT empty them from the Recycle Bin until you know your upgrade has been a success)
Exit the Find applet
Click the Start button and select Run
In the Run box, type regedit; this will open the Windows Registry Editor
In the left-hand pane, navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\NVIDIA Corporation
Right-click on the Nvidia Corporation key in the left-pane, select Delete, and click Yes to confirm the deletion
Exit Regedit and hit the F5 key to refresh the registry
If you're upgrading to Nvidia reference drivers from a manufacturer's proprietary drivers, you have two options. The first option is using an uninstall utility that may or may not have come with your video card. If there is such a utility, you'll find it in the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. There may also be such a utility on the drivers CD that came with the card. If you have an uninstall applet, use it. If not, you'll have to take a different approach to "uninstalling" the old drivers. This is where System Info comes in. It's a handy little applet in Windows that displays information about installed components, drivers, resources, etc.. To use it, do the following:
Click the Start button and select Run
In the Run box, type msinfo32
Once System Information opens, click on Components and then Display (in the left-hand pane)
In the right-hand pane, System Info will display a list of information about the display drivers that are CURRENTLY INSTALLED. Each file has a Company Name entry, which you need to pay attention to. If a file's Company Name is either Intel Corporation or Microsoft Corporation, forget that you ever saw it. As for the rest of the files listed, write down the name of each one. Do a Find for these files as outlined in step two (above), deleting each file as you go.

Next, from the System Information utility, select System Configuration Utility from the Tools menu, and select the Startup tab. Look through the list for anything related to your old drivers. For example, when removing Creative Labs' drivers, you may find something that refers to a "Blaster Control," such as bcontrol.exe or blasterc.exe. Uncheck these items, and close the utilities. (If you're prompted to restart, it is recommended that you do so.)

Step Three

Now to install the new drivers.... Make sure you have extracted the .zip containing the driver files to an easy-to-find location. Once you've done so:

(The following pertains only to Nvidia reference drivers, and may not work properly with non-Nvidia drivers.)
Right-click the desktop and select Properties
Click the Settings tab, and click the Advanced button
Click the Adapter tab, and click the Change button
Click Next, in the update Device Driver Wizard
Select the radio button for Display a list of all the drivers in a specific location...
Click the Next button and click the Have Disk button
In the Install From Disk box, click the Browse button, and point Windows to where you extracted the new driver files
Click Okay, then Okay again, and in the Select Device window, select GeForce 256.
Click Okay, and then click Next
Let Windows install the new drivers, and click Finish
Click Okay, Apply, and Okay
When prompted to restart your computer, do so

How to have Windows XP Scan OS files

Run command:  sfc /scannow

How to get to the Group Policy Edit

I used this to add a bat file that kills the files in the prefetch folder at shut-down.

Prefetchkill.bat:

del c:\idiotwin\prefetch\*.* /q

gpedit.msc

How to Turn Off the Processing of HTML Scripts That Are Contained in Windows Media Files

Click Here

KB 320944

Icon Cache

(saved as .vbs)

Option Explicit

Set WSHShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

Dim WSHShell, n, p, itemtype, mybox

p = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Max Cached Icons"

itemtype = "REG_SZ"

n = "12000"

WSHShell.RegWrite p, n, itemtype

MyBox = MsgBox("You must Log Off/Log On for the changes to take effect.", 48,"Done")

DVD/CD Registry Locations

Sometimes, I gotta go here to clear the shit so the stupid ass thing will work.

Value:

{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Unreal Tournament (UT) 2003

Adrenalin and Special Moves

Special Moves

You can get Adrenalin by picking up the red and white pills scattered throughout the levels, or by achieving kills. Once your Adrenalin reaches 100, you will be allowed to perform one of the following special moves, the effects of which will only last for a while:

Speed - forward, forward, forward, forward
Regen - back, back, back, back
Invisibility - right, right, left, left
Berserk - forward, forward, back, back

Special Moves

These can be performed at any time, but require a fair bit of practice and skill to master. Remember, you need to activate the Dodge setting to use the dodge moves.

Double Jump - Jump and then press jump again in the arc of the jump.
Dodge - Tap Left, right, forward or back twice.
Dodge Jump - Perform a dodge, and jump just before you lose your air.
Wall Jump – Run alongside a wall, dodge (double tap) into it and as you're about to hit it, quickly dodge away from it.
Goo Jump - Shoot some goo from the Biorifle, get a shield up using the shield gun, jump just when goo explodes (You can also use the shield gun to bounce energy weapons, break your fall and of course block normal weapons.)
Lift Jump - Jump while on a lift to get an extra boost.
Death from Above – If you jump from a great height and land on someone you'll cause them damage.

Folder View Cache

By default, Windows Explorer will remember your view settings for 400 views. After that it's "catch as catch can". To reset and change the memory to 1000 views, do this:

1)Delete the following two keys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\BagMRU and

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags

2) Then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
and add a DWORD called
BagMRU Size
and give it a value of
000003e8

Then go to :-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam
make a DWORD called
BagMRU Size
and give it a value of
000003e8

Change the Background Appearance of Internet Explorer

On XP Pro:

1. Click Start | Run
2. Type gpedit.msc in the Run box. This opens the Local Group Policy editor.
3. In the left pane, under User Configuration, click to expand Windows Settings, then click to expand Internet Explorer Maintenance.
4. Click Browser User Interface.
5. In the right pane, double click Browser Toolbar Customization.
6. In the dialog box, click the Customize toolbar background bitmap option button.
7. Click the Browse button and navigate to the bmp file you want to use as your background. Select it and click Open.
8. Click OK.

DIR Command

How to make file names appear on the left when you use the DIR command

In earlier versions of Windows, when you typed the DIR command at the command prompt, file names appeared in the leftmost column. With Windows XP, by default they appear instead in the rightmost column. If you want to change things back to "the way they were," do this:

1. Right click My Computer and select Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Environment Variables button.
4. Click the New button.
5. Type the following information in the Variable name field: dircmd
6. Type the following information in the Variable value field: /-n

Internet Explorer Default Print Page Setup

Header:  &w&bPage &p of &P

Footer:  &w&bPage &p of &P

How to Speed up XP Startup

1. Click Start | Run and type regedit to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to
   HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
3. In the right pane, right click EnablePrefetcher and select Modify.
4. Under Value data, change the value from 3 (the default) to 5.
5. Reboot and watch XP fly.

How to Increase or Decrease the Shutdown Time for Services

1. Click Start | Run and type regedit to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the following key: HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
3. Double click the following entry (or create it as a REG_SZ [string value] if necessary): WaitToKillServiceTimeout.
4. Set the data value as desired in milliseconds. The default is 20,000.
5. Close the Registry Editor and reboot the computer to apply the change.

How to Add More Options to the "Send to" Menu

1. Right click Start and click Explore to open Windows Explorer.
2. Navigate to the drive on which XP is installed (where the WINDOWS folder is located) and expand the Documents and Settings folder.
3. Expand the folder for your XP account name.
4. Expand the Send to folder (this is a hidden folder, so you might need to modify your Explorer options settings to show hidden files and folders first).
5. In Explorer, right click the folder or drive you want to add and drag it into the Send to folder. Select Create shortcut here.

How To Have Buttons, Text Boxes, Progress Bars, etc. Like Windows XP

1.       Create a file called AppName.exe.manifest and place it in the same folder as the .exe.  (AppName is the name of the .exe)   The manifest file should contain the below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
<assemblyIdentity
     version="1.0.0.0"
     processorArchitecture="X86"
     name="Company.ProductName.ProjectName"
     type="win32"
/>
<description></description>
<dependency>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity
     type="win32"
     name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
     version="6.0.0.0"
     processorArchitecture="X86"
     publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
     language="*"
/>
</dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
</assembly>

2.       You may need to make sure the “version” and “name” values matches your .exe.

3.       Place the below code in the Form Declarations.  Place the InitCommonContros in the Form_Initialize event:

Private Declare Function InitCommonControls Lib "Comctl32.dll" () As Long

Private Sub Form_Initialize()
     InitCommonControls
End Sub

How Set Windows Explorer so it’ll start in C:\

Below is the shortcut:

C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe /n,/e,C:\

Changing Timing for Windows Picture and Fax Viewer Slideshow

Increase SlideShow Timeout to 10 Seconds (Row 81)

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

The value of the number is represented in milliseconds between image

changes:

1000 = 1 second, 5000 = 5 seconds, 10000=10 seconds, etc.  To modify my

script change the time accordingly.

In order to change the slideshow timing, open regedit and go to the

following key.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current

Version\Explorer\ShellImageView]

Create a DWORD named "Timeout", with the value the number of millseconds

between image changes (1000 (Dec) = 1 second, 5000 = 5 seconds)

Note that the time of actually changing the image is not included, so 1000 =

1 second + time to decode the image.

Below is the actual Code in .vbs:

'Special thanks to Michael McDonald

Option Explicit

Set ws = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

On Error Resume Next

Dim ws, n, cn, p, itemtype, t

p="HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellImageView\"

p = p & "Timeout"

itemtype = "REG_DWORD"

n = ws.RegRead(p)

If Err.number <> 0 Then

  n = 10

Else

  n = left(n, len(n) - 3)

End If

t = "Change Slideshow Photo Display Time"

cn = InputBox("Enter length of time in seconds and click Ok. For the change to take effect in a particular folder, you must close the folder and then re-open it.", t, n)

If cn <> "" Then

  cn = cn & "000"

  ws.RegWrite p, cn, itemtype

End If

How to run SCHEDULED TASKS without a password

If you're using XP Pro, you'll need to edit the Local Security Policy. Here's how:

1. Click Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Local Security Policy.
2. In the Local Security Policy console, expand Local Policies and click Security Options.
3. In the right pane, double click the entry that says Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only.
4. By default, this policy is enabled. Click Disabled to disable it.
5. Click OK, and close the Local Security Policy console.

If you're using XP Home, the easiest way to make this change is to download the VBScript file from Kelly's Korner. See line 67 at:
http://www.winxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=031111HT-Run_Tasks

Can I Add "Safe Mode" to the Regular Boot Menu?

1. Open the System Properties dialog box. You can do this from Control Panel (click System) or by pressing the Windows key + the Break key.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery.
4. Click the Edit button under System Startup. This opens the boot.ini file in Notepad.
5. One line should end with "/fastdetect" (NOT "/fastdetect /sos"). Copy that line.
6. Paste the line you just copied below the original line. Change "WINDOWS=Microsoft XP Professional" to "WINDOWS="Safe Mode" and add the following text to the end of the line: /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog
7. Save the file and click OK to exit the dialog boxes. Note: If you named the Windows XP installation folder something other than WINDOWS when you installed XP, that name will appear instead of WINDOWS in step 6.

How to Tweak the Registry to Improve XP Performance

You should have at least 256MB of RAM before you make these changes.

Open your favorite registry editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

1. DisablePagingExecutive - Double click it and in the decimal value field, put a 1. This will allow XP to keep data in memory instead of paging sections of RAM to the hard drive.
2. LargeSystemCache - Double click it and change the decimal value to 1. This will allow the XP Kernel to Run in memory.
3. Create a new DWORD value and name it IOPageLockLimit - Double click it and set the value in hex to 4000 if you have 128MB of RAM, 10000 if you have 256MB or 40000 if you have more than 512MB of RAM.

Reboot and you should notice that your system runs faster.

Another Trick for Speeding up Downloads

1. Log on as Administrator.
2. Click Start | Run and type gpedit.msc to open the Group Policy Editor.
3. In the left pane, under Computer Configuration, click Administrative Templates, then Network, then QoS Packet Scheduler.
4. In the right pane, double click "Limit reservable bandwidth."
5. On the Setting tab, select Enabled and set the bandwidth limit to 0%.
6. Click OK and reboot the computer.

Note that this only works with XP Pro, not with XP Home.

How to Add an Option to Print the Contents of a Folder

Would you like to be able to right click any folder in Explorer and print its contents? You can add this option to the context menu by following these steps:

1. First, you need to create a batch file called Printdir.bat. Open Notepad or another text editor and type (or cut and paste) this text:
   @echo off
dir %1 /-p /o:gn > "%temp%\Listing"
start /w notepad /p "%temp%\Listing"
del "%temp%\Listing"
exit
2. Now, in the Save As dialog box, type "%windir%\Printdir.bat" (without the quotation marks) and click the Save button.
3. Click Start, Control Panel, Folder Options.
4. Click the File Types tab, and then click File Folder.
5. Click the Advanced button.
6. Click the New button.
7. In the Action box, type "Print Directory Listing" (without the quotation marks).
8. In the Application used to perform action box, type "Printdir.bat" (without the quotation marks).
9. Click OK in all three dialog boxes to close the dialog boxes.
10. You're not quite finished yet! Now you need to edit the Registry, so open your favorite Registry Editor.
11. Navigate to HKEY CLASSES ROOT\Directory\shell.
12. Click the Edit menu and select Modify.
13. In the File Data box, type "none" (without the quotation marks).
14. Click OK and close the Registry Editor.

Now when you right click a folder, you'll see the option to Print Directory Listing. Selecting it will print the contents of the folder.

How to Manually Add Lyrics to your Digital Music Files

With Windows Media Player (WMP) 10, you can manually add song lyrics to your MP3 music files so that they appear when the song is playing. Neat! Here's how it's done:

1. Find the lyrics using the Internet. Beware some of these sites however. Many have spyware, so always say "No" if one asks you to download something.
2. Navigate to the lyrics for the song you want.
3. Highlight the text of the lyrics and copy (CTRL+C or Edit > Copy).
4. Open WMP, go to the Library and right click the title of the song to which you want to add the lyrics.
5. Click Advanced Tag Editor.
6. Click the Lyrics tab.
7. Select your Language (for example, English) in the drop-down box.
8. Paste the lyrics in the Text box.

Now configure WMP to display the lyrics when the song is played:

1. Click Play and select Captions and Subtitles.
2. Click On if Available.

When you play the song, the lyrics will be shown at the bottom of the page.

How to Disable/Enable CD/DVD Auto-Insert Notification

To turn off actual auto-insert notification and not just auto-play, it

is the same as in Windows 2000. Run regedit and find your way to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom.

Change the value for the AutoRun entry to zero (0) and reboot. This

will stop the auto-insert notification.

How to Create a Boot Disk

Sometimes the boot files that are needed to start XP can become corrupted, and then you can't boot the operating system. You could do a repair from your XP installation CD, or even reinstall the OS, but that might not be necessary if you've created a startup boot disk. Here's how:

1. Put a blank floppy that was formatted in XP into your floppy drive.
2. Right click Start and click Explore to open Windows Explorer.
3. If you haven't done so previously, in Explorer click Tools | Folder Options and click the View tab, then under Advanced Settings scroll down and uncheck the box labeled Hide protected operating system files (recommended). Click OK.
4. Navigate to the root folder of your system partition (this is usually c:).
5. In the root folder, find the following files: boot.ini, NTLDR and Ntdetect.com. Copy these files to the floppy disk. If you have files in the root folder called Ntbootdd.sys or Bootsect.dos, copy these to the floppy as well.

Now you can use the startup disk to boot Windows if one or more of these files is ever damaged or accidentally deleted.

Variables

User:

• Temp=%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp
• TMP=%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp

System:

• TEMP=%SystemRoot%\TEMP
• TMP=%SystemRoot%\TEMP
•  

How to Back up your Product Activation Files

Before you wipe out the current installation, backup your product activation files and then you can restore them to the new installation. Here's how:

Right click Start and click Explore.

1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to \WINDOWS\System32\ (usually on the c: drive but may be on a different drive depending on where you installed XP).
2. Copy the following files to a floppy, CD or second hard disk: wpa.dbl, wpa.bak.

To restore the files, start the computer in Safe Mode and copy them to the same directory (\WINDOWS\System32).

How To Change Thumbnail Size

Or go to Start/Run/Regedit:  Change the size of Thumnail View

Current user only:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer

All users:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer

Add a new DWORD value called ThumbnailSize and give it a hexidecimal value
that is between 32 and 256, inclusive (that is, the lowest possible value is
32 and the highest is 256): A value of 32 will give you the smallest
possible thumbnails, and 256 will give you the biggest.

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q223188/

Change the System/Boot Drive Letter

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

1.          Make a full system backup of the computer and system state.  
2.          Log on as an Administrator.           
3.          Start Regedt32.exe.         
4.          Go to the following registry key:
            HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
5.          Click MountedDevices.      
6.          On the Security menu, click Permissions.      
7.          Verify that Administrators have full control. Change this back when you are             finished with these steps. 
8.          Quit Regedt32.exe, and then start Regedit.exe.         
9.          Locate the following registry key:
            HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
10.        Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:".           
11.        Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename.

Note You must use Regedit instead of Regedt32 to rename this registry key.        
12.        Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z:".

This frees up drive letter C.           
13.        Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D:".        
14.        Right-click \DosDevices\D:, and then click Rename.    
15.        Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C:".          
16.        Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and then name it back to             "\DosDevices\D:".
17.        Quit Regedit, and then start Regedt32.        
18.        Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators (this             should probably be Read Only).       
19.        Restart the computer.

Prefetching

As with most Windows XP-related things, you can change the way that Prefetch behaves by making a change in the registry. For low-memory systems, you can even completely disable the feature, which ensures that every last byte of RAM goes toward running current programs, not the ones XP guesses you'll need next.

To change the registry settings for prefetching, start the Registry Editor by selecting Run from the Start menu, typing regedit in the Open text box, and clicking OK. When the Registry Editor window opens, navigate through the left pane until you get to this hive:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

In the right pane, look for the key named EnablePrefetcher. The value of this key represents how prefetch works on your system. Values you can choose from include:

0—Disable
1—Application Launch Prefetch
2—Boot Prefetch
3—Prefetch everything

How to Minimize Outlook to System Tray

Add/Update to Registry:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Preferences]

"MinToTray"=dword:00000001