Windows Task Bar and Desktop Not Appearing Beceause of an Infection

Have you ever had an infection on your computer that stops Windows from fully loading? You get the past the Windows splash screen and all you see is either your fake program which will only let you click the “buy now” button, or if you have somehow been able to block of remove the infection, you just see your Windows background and mouse cursor. In both cases there is no Windows task bar so you can’t do anything in Windows.

Your infection is messing with Windows explorer which is what you need in order to navigate around your computer. You can easily get it running again by holding down the Windows key and pressing R. When the run command appears type explorer.exe and click OK.

This doesn’t solve the problem that explorer isn’t launching when you start your computer so you are going to have to go into the registry. Hold down the Windows key and press R. When the run command appears type regedit and click OK.

Now navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon\Shell. You want shell to say explorer.exe so double click shell, type in explorer.exe and click OK. If the shell entry is not there, right click in right hand panel and click New > String Value. Call it shell. Double click shell, type in explorer.exe and click OK

While you are in the registry go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Run. Everything in here is designed to run before explorer.exe is loaded so look for anything with the name of your rogue program in it, select it and press delete.

Restart your computer and now you can now start removing the infection.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Switch Your Default Mail Client from Outlook

Your Windows-based PC probably launches Microsoft’s Outlook mail as a default, whenever you clicky click a link for email online.

But you don’t dig Outlook.

Let’s edit your registry and change your default mail app to whatever the hell you like better.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

Control Your Network Connections

You can use this registry tweak to control access to your system’s networks, including remote access servers (RAN), local area networks (LAN), and other network connections.

Let’s get your PC more secure and control your network connections.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

Stop Windows Rebooting After Updates

Are you sick of your computer rebooting after you have installed Windows updates? Here’s a useful registry tweak to prevent this from happening.

Click Start > Run > Type: regedit > Ok

Find the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

Right click on the right hand panel and select New > Dword. Call it NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers, double click it and make the value 1.

Exit regedit and Windows won’t automatically reboot after an update anymore.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Disable Balloon Popups in Windows XP

Are you sick of those annoying balloons that pop on your task bar?

Well get over it.

If you can’t, then follow these instructions to disable Balloons in Windows XP.

Click Start > Run > Type: regedit

Find the following keys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Right click on the right hand panel and select New > Dword. Call it EnableBalloonTips, double click it and make the value 0.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Right click on the right hand panel and select New > Dword. Call it ShowInfoTip, double click it and make the value 0.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Right click on the right hand panel and select New > Dword. Call it FolderContentsInfoTip, double click it and make the value 0.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Right click on the right hand panel and select New > Dword. Call it StartButtonBalloonTip , double click it and make the value 0.

Exit regedit and enjoy your balloon free computer.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Instead of Opening Folder in Windows, Windows Search Opens

I battled a nasty infection on a clients a computer yesterday. One of problems it caused was whenever I went to open a folder, search was launched instead. After some digging, I found the solution.

1. Click Start > Run >, type “regedit“, and press Enter
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell
3. On the right-hand side, double-click “default” and change the value to “none“.
4. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell
5. On the right-hand side, double-click “default“, and change the value to “none“.

Folders should be opening normally now.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Broadband Registry Tweak

Spyware Techie has written an article on some registry settings you can adjust to can make your broadband faster.

Many computer users have faced the issue of slow network performance or slow internet connection speeds. What if you were able to speed up your connection without paying for additional internet provider services? What if you are able to speed up your current internet connection through a few registry tweaking steps? Well, today is your lucky day because we will demonstrate one way of speeding up your internet connection through a simple registry tweak.

I actually didn’t find this article useful because, um, well, I’m still on dialup.

For the rest of the article, read How To Speed Up Your Broadband Cable Modem or DSL Connection

Popularity: 2% [?]

De-Frag Your PC and Tweak Your PC for Speed

De-fragging your computer is another way to tweak PC for speed, without touching your registry.

De-fragging — short for “de-fragmenting” — your PC is a quick PC tweak that’ll clean up your hard drive. With all that porn business software you install and remove on your PC, your hard drive is being constantly rewritten. And when you install large files onto your hard drive, sometimes your system will fit little pieces of the file into spaces left by smaller files you’ve erased over time.

As you can imagine, your hard drive gets sloppier than your grandma’s attic.

So de-fragging your hard drive will put all these scattered pieces of your programs — all these fragments, right? — together again. Which will speed up your PC.

Want me to show you how to do this?
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Popularity: 2% [?]

Change Your Virtual Memory and Tweak Your PC for Free

I can make your PC faster than me on a Saturday night.

For free.

Your computer uses RAM, physical memory, when it’s running. And when you’re doing tons of things on your PC and your RAM gets jammed — think of it like a highway during commuter’s traffic — your PC starts using Virtual Memory to ease the flow of data. Virtual memory is stored on a “Swap” file, which your system automatically makes smaller or bigger depending on its needs.

If you want to speed up your computer while you’re multitasking — you know, too much YouPorn.com reading The Guardian while editing porn family photos — you can always buy more RAM.

Or you could save your cash, and change your PC’s Virtual Memory settings for free.
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Popularity: 2% [?]

Clear Temporary Files When You Quit Internet Explorer

Maybe you already know that your Internet Explorer’s cache temporarily stores files from websites you visit — like images and graphics — so that sites load faster and you can surf the web more quickly. Which is very thoughtful of IE, but storing all these files can slow down your computer, and also leave a trail of the sites you’ve been visiting.

Instead of having to remember to clear your cache to delete temporary files IE saves, you can tweak your registry so that every time you quit IE, the browser automatically clears the cache.

Getting rid of evidence you went to YouPorn.com, and speeding up your PC?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know–

You love me.
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Popularity: 2% [?]