This is my Windows NT Tips Page, I hope you find this site informative and just maybe you might
Find one or two tips here.
RESTRICTING SAVE SETTINGS OPTIONS
You can prevent users from altering your NT system settings that
affect the position of your icons and open windows, and the size and
position of your taskbar. To set these restrictions, you'll need to
edit the following key using NT's Registry Editor:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
For the NoSaveSettings value, you can set a value of 1 (the default is
0), preventing changes to the positions of icons and open windows, and
the size and position of the taskbar from being saved.
SLIMMING DOWN THE LOG-ON PROCESS
You can prevent your Windows 95 and 98 systems from requiring you to
enter a separate Windows password when you log on to an NT domain,
thereby saving time and keystrokes. To do this, you'll use the Windows
Registry Editor, Regedit. Once you launch Regedit, locate the
following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network
Next, from the Edit menu, select New, then value DWORD, and enter the
name
DisablePwdCaching
Set the value to 1, then save and close Regedit. The next time you
boot the system, you'll no longer have to enter a local password; just
enter the domain name. Also, the next time you access the Password
control panel applet, the Change Windows Password button under Windows
Password will be grayed out.
SPEED UP YOUR SERVER DESKTOP
If you're running Windows NT Server 4.0 as your desktop operating
system, you can adjust a setting that will drastically speed up the
system, making it nearly as responsive for desktop use as Windows NT
Workstation. To make the change, go to Control Panel, double-click the
Network icon, and select the Services tab. Highlight "Server" and
click the Properties button. By default, NT Server sets the
Optimization setting to Maximize Throughput for File Sharing. Instead,
select Minimize Memory Used. This will reallocate memory to make your
NT Server desktop more responsive.
RESTRICTING NETWORK NEIGHBORHOOD VIEWS
You can prevent Network Neighborhood from displaying computers in your
local workgroup or domain with a simple registry change. You can still
access these computers; they just don't show up in the Network
Neighborhood listing. To make this change, you'll use the NT Registry
Editor to modify the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows:
For the value NoWorkgroupContents, set the value to 1. Save your changes and restart your system.
PRINT FOLDERS IN ONE FELL SWOOP
We received the following question from TipWorld subscriber Jolene M.:
"How can I print a directory of files in a particular folder? Right
now I have to open a DOS window, issue a command to redirect the
directory to a file (DIR > FILENAME), and open Notepad. Then I have to
open FILENAME inside Notepad before I can finally print the folder
contents. Surely there is an easier way."
You have the right idea, Jolene. Here's a batch file you can use to
automate the job. To generate the batch file, run Notepad and type in
the following exactly as shown--you must include the quotation marks.
dir %1 /p/a/o> "%temp%\PrintList"
Notepad /p "%temp%\PrintList"
Then choose File, Save As and name the file PrintIt.bat. Save the file
in a folder of your choice.
Now that you have the batch file ready, you need to tell Windows NT to
use it for folder printing. Open My Computer and choose View, Options.
When the Options dialog box opens, click the File Types tab. Locate
and select File Folder. With File Folder selected, click Edit to open
the Edit File Type dialog box, then click New. In the Action entry
box, type
Print Files,
and then press Tab to get to the "Application used to perform action"
entry box. Enter
c:\PrintIt.bat
where c:\ is the location of your new file. If you used some other
folder, enter it in the path here. Click OK; back in the Edit File
Type dialog box, click OK again. This gets you back to the Options
dialog box. Click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.
Now, run Windows NT Explorer and right-click a folder. When the menu
opens, you'll see that your new choice--Print Files--has been added to
it. Select Print Files and you'll get a printout of the files in the
selected folder.
GETTING RID OF UNNECESSARY DUAL BOOT
Let's say you have a computer that has been running Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 95. You decide that you
no longer need Windows NT Workstation 4.0 on that particular computer, so you trash it. The problem is,
your computer still tries to do the dual boot thing.
To get rid of the dual boot menu on startup, boot the computer using your Windows 95 Startup disk. After the computer starts type
sys c:
at the A: prompt. When the command finishes its work, you'll get a System Transferred message.
Remove the Startup disk and press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to restart the computer. This time,
it will boot directly into Windows 95.
BOOT FROM FLOPPY
Is there's a way to make a NT boot floppy.
There is. The reason for having a boot floppy is that there are times
when Windows NT won't start, For example,
suppose Ntdetect.com is bad. And you know that's what is
wrong because when you try to boot the computer, you get an error
message telling you that the system can't find, or load, Ntdetect.
When something like this happens, you can go through the usual
procedures to restore the system. However, since you already know
what's wrong, you could get your system back up again more quickly if
you use a boot floppy.
Make your boot floppy before any files go bad--there's no point in
trying to make a boot floppy with potentially bad files. To create
your boot floppy, insert a blank formatted floppy disk into Drive A.
Now open Windows NT Explorer and click the root folder (usually C:\).
Copy the following files to the floppy disk:
Boot.ini
Ntdetect.com
Bootsect.dos (for dual startup installations)
NTLDR
Ntbootdd.sys (if it's in the root folder, copy it)
If you don't see these files in your root folder, choose View, Options
in Windows NT Explorer. Select the radio button labeled Show All
Files. Now click Apply and then OK. Now you should see the files. If
you don't, press F5 and look again.
Using the boot floppy, you can boot into your damaged system and make
the appropriate repairs.
THE PRINTS OF DOS
Is there a way to print the file without leaving the
Command Prompt?"
There are actually several ways to print a text file while working at
the Command Prompt. Assuming the file you want to print is in your
current folder, you can type
print TextFile.txt
and press Enter.
You must use the extension. If you'd like to edit the
file before you print it, type
edit TextFile.txt
and press Enter. This opens MS-DOS Edit. Edit the file and then press
Alt, F, P to print it. If you'd prefer to use Notepad, you can do this
from the Command Prompt as well. Just type
Notepad TextFile.txt
and press Enter. Notepad opens with TextFile.txt loaded. You can even
use Notepad to print without going through the edit stage. Type
Notepad /p TextFile.txt
and press Enter. Notepad will open with the file loaded and print the
file with no further input from you.
ADDING PROCESSORS TO YOUR NT SYSTEM
.
In some cases, if you install Windows NT on a single-processor system,
then add additional processors at a later time, Windows NT may fail to recognize the additional processor.
to recognize the additional processors without the need to reinstall.
PROTECTING YOURSELF FROM STRAY REG FILES
From time to time, we provide REG files in these tips, and you often
find REG files with programs. The problem is, once you double-click a REG file, its contents get placed
into the Registry. Sure, you get a dialog box that tells you the file has been entered into the Registry,
but it tells you it has--it doesn't ask if that's what you want. Here's a way you can make sure that REG file contents don't
accidentally get loaded into your Registry.
To prevent REG files from changing the Registry on a double-click, open My Computer and choose View, Options. When the Options dialog box
opens, click the File Types tab and then scroll to Registration Entries and select it. Now, click Edit. In the Actions list, select
Edit and click Set Default. Now click Close and back in the Options dialog box, click Close again.
>From now on, when you double-click a REG file, it will open in Notepad. When you want to use the file to modify your Registry,
right-click its icon and choose Merge.
REPLACE THE NEIGHBORHOOD
If you del the Network Neighborhood icon from your desktop. What if you decide you
want it back? As with all other REG files, you can easily reverse the
actions of Net.reg. All you have to do is create a new REG file that
resets the key.
Here's the original REG file:
1 REGEDIT4
2
3[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
4"NoNetHood"=dword:1
If you set dword to 0 (zero), the Network Neighborhood icon will
reappear. Modify the existing REG file as shown here. As before, the
line numbers are there to help you see what goes on separate lines-do
not enter the line numbers.
1 REGEDIT4
2
3[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
4"NoNetHood"=dword:0
Choose File, Save As and name the file NetOn.reg. Save the file and
then double-click its icon to merge it with the Registry. Restart the
computer; the Network Neighborhood icon will appear on your desktop,
ready for action.
QUICK FIND FILE SHORTCUT
If you're running Windows NT 4.0 on your system, you may be interested
in this quick shortcut to the Find Folder or Files feature. Normally,
to access this feature, you would launch Explorer then choose Tools,
Find, Files and Folders. With NT 4.0, you can simply click a blank
area of your desktop, then press F3. Much easier!
MAKING POWER DOWN AUTOMATIC AT SHUTDOWN
On newer systems based on the ATX motherboard standard, the system
will automatically power down when Windows 95 shuts down. The system
displays the "It is now safe to turn off your computer" screen, then
sends a software signal that powers off the computer. You can set
Windows NT 4.0 to do this as well, since it's not set to do so by
default. To enable this feature, launch the NT Registry Editor and
locate the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows
NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon
Now, set the PowerDownAfterShutdown value to 1 and save your changes.
The next time you shut down, your system will too!
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