Untold Windows Tips and Secrets

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Untold Windows Tips and Secrets 

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Windows Tips

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Welcome to another Hacking Truths Manual. 

This time I have a collection of Tips and 

Tricks which no body normally knows, the 

secrets which Microsoft is afraid to tell 

the people, the information which you 

will seldom find all gathered up and 

arranged in a single file. To fully reap 

this Manual you need to have a basic 

understanding of the Windows Registry, as 

almost all the Tricks and Tips involve 

this file. 

****************

Important Note: Before you read on, you 

need to keep one thing in mind. Whenever 

you make changes to the Windows Registry 

you need to Refresh it before the changes 

take place. Simply press F5 to refresh 

the registry and enable the changes. If 

this does not work Restart your system

****************

Exiting Windows the Cool and Quick Way

Normally it takes a hell lot of time just 

Shutting down Windows, you have to move 

your mouse to the Start Button, click on 

it, move it again over Shut Down, click, 

then move it over the necessary option 

and click, then move the cursor over the 

OK button and once again (you guessed it) 

click.This whole process can be shortened 

by creating shortcuts on the Desktop 

which will shut down Windows at the click 

of a button. Start by creating a new 

shortcut( right click and select New> 

Shortcut). Then in the command line box, 

type (without the quotes.)

'C:\windows\rundll.exe 

user.exe,exitwindowsexec'

This Shortcut on clicking will restart 

Windows immediately without any Warning. 

To create a Shortcut to Restarting 

Windows, type the following in the 

Command Line box:

'c:\windows\rundll.exe 

user.exe,exitwindows'

This Shortcut on clicking will shut down 

Windows immediately without any Warning. 

Ban Shutdowns : A trick to Play on Lamers

This is a neat trick you can play on that 

lamer that has a huge ego, in this 

section I teach you, how to disable the 

Shut Down option in the Shut Down Dialog 

Box. This trick involves editing the 

registry, so please make backups. Launch 

regedit.exe and go to :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

In the right pane look for the NoClose 

Key. If it is not already there then 

create it by right clicking in the right 

pane and selecting New > String Value.

(Name it NoCloseKey ) Now once you see 

the NoCloseKey in the right pane, right 

click on it and select Modify. Then Type 

1 in the Value Data Box.

Doing the above on a Win98 system 

disables the Shut Down option in the Shut 

Down Dialog Box. But on a Win95 machine 

if the value of NoCloseKey is set to 1 

then click on the Start > Shut Down 

button displays the following error 

message:

This operation has been cancelled due to 

restrictions in effect on this computer. 

Please contact your system administrator.

You can enable the shut down option by 

changing the value of NoCloseKey to 0 or 

simply deleting the particular entry i.e. 

deleting NoCloseKey.

Instead of performing the above difficult 

to remember process, simply save the 

following with an extension of .reg and 

add it's contents to the registry by 

double clicking on it.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

\Explorer]

"NoClose"="1"

Disabling Display of Drives in My 

Computer

This is yet another trick you can play on 

your geek friend. To disable the display 

of local or networked drives when you 

click My Computer go to :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Now in the right pane create a new DWORD 

item and name it NoDrives. Now modify 

it's value and set it to 3FFFFFF 

(Hexadecimal) Now press F5 to refresh. 

When you click on My Computer, no drives 

will be shown. To enable display of 

drives in My Computer, simply delete this 

DWORD item. It's .reg file is as follows:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

\Explorer]

"NoDrives"=dword:03ffffff

Take Over the Screen Saver

To activate and deactivate the screen 

saver whenever you want, goto the 

following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\ScreenSavers

Now add a new string value and name it 

Mouse Corners. Edit this new value to -

Y-N. Press F5 to refresh the registry. 

Voila! Now you can activate your 

screensaver by simply placing the mouse 

cursor at the top right corner of the 

screen and if you take the mouse to the 

bottom left corner of the screen, the 

screensaver will deactivate. 

Pop a banner each time Windows Boots

To pop a banner which can contain any 

message you want to display just before a 

user is going to log on, go to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinLogon

Now create a new string Value in the 

right pane named LegalNoticeCaption and 

enter the value that you want to see in 

the Menu Bar. Now create yet another new 

string value and name it: 

LegalNoticeText. Modify it and insert the 

message you want to display each time 

Windows boots. This can be effectively 

used to display the company's private 

policy each time the user logs on to his 

NT box. It's .reg file would be:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"LegalNoticeCaption"="Caption here."

Delete the Tips of the Day to save 5KB

Windows 95 had these tips of the day 

which appeared on a system running a 

newly installed Windows OS. These tips of 

the day are stored in the Windows 

Registry and consume 5K of space. For 

those of you who are really concerned 

about how much free space your hard disk 

has, I have the perfect trick.

To save 5K go to the following key in 

Regedit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Tips

Now simply delete these tricks by 

selecting and pressing the DEL key.

Change the Default Locations

To change the default drive or path where 

Windows will look for it's installation 

files, go to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath

Now you can edit as you wish.

Secure your Desktop Icons and Settings

You can save your desktop settings and 

secure it from your nerdy friend by 

playing with the registry. Simply launch 

the Registry Editor go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

In the right pane create a new DWORD 

Value named NoSaveSettings and modify 

it's value to 1. Refresh and restart for 

the settings to get saved.

CLSID Folders Explained

Don't you just hate those stubborn stupid 

icons that refuse to leave the desktop, 

like the Network Neighborhood icon. I am 

sure you want to know how you can delete 

them. You may say, that is really simple, 

simply right click on the concerned icon 

and select Delete. Well not exactly, you 

see when you right click on these special 

folders( see entire list below)neither 

the rename nor the delete option does not 

appear. To delete these folders, there 

are two methods, the first one is using 

the System Policy Editor(Poledit in the 

Windows installation CD)and the second is 

using the Registry.

Before we go on, you need to understand 

what CLSID values are. These folders, 

like the Control Panel, Inbox, The 

Microsoft Network, Dial Up Networking etc 

are system folders. Each system folder 

has a unique CLSID key or the Class ID 

which is a 16-byte value which identifies 

an individual object that points to a 

corresponding key in the registry.

To delete these system Folders from the 

desktop simply go to the following 

registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop

\Namespace{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-

xxxxxxxxxxxx}

To delete an icon simply delete the 16 

byte CLSID value within "NameSpace". The 

following are the CLSID values of the 

most commonly used icons:

My Briefcase:{85BBD920-42AO-1069-A2E4-

08002B30309D}

Desktop: {00021400-0000-0000-C000-

0000000000046}

Control Panel:{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-

08002B30309D}

Dial-Up-Networking:{992CFFA0-F557-101A-

88EC-00DD01CCC48}

Fonts: {BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-

08000948534}

Inbox :{00020D76-0000-0000-C000-

000000000046}

My Computer :{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-

08002B30309D}

Network Neighborhood:{208D2C60-3AEA-1069

-A2D7-O8002B30309D}

Printers :{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-

O8002B30309D}

Recycle Bin :{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-

00AA002F954E}

The Microsoft Network:{00028B00-0000-

0000-C000-000000000046}

History: {FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-

444553540000}

Winzip :{E0D79300-84BE-11CE-9641-

444553540000}

For example, to delete the Recycle Bin, 

first note down it's CLSID value, which 

is: 645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E. 

Now go to the Namespace key in the 

registry and delete the corresponding 

key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop

\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-

00AA002F954E}

Similarly to delete the History folder, 

delete the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop

\NameSpace\{FBF23B42-E3F0-101B-8488-

00AA003E56F8}

Sometimes, you may need to play a trick 

on your brother or friend, well this one 

teaches you how to hide all icons from 

the Desktop. Go to the following registry 

key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

In the right pane create a new DWORD 

value by the name: NoDesktop and set its 

value to: 1. Reboot and you will find no 

icons on the desktop.

Till now you simply learnt how to delete 

the special system folders by deleting a 

registry key, but the hack would have 

been better if there was a way of adding 

the DELETE and RENAME option to the right 

click context menus of these special 

folders. You can actually change the 

right click context menu of any system 

folder and add any of the following 

options: RENAME, DELETE, CUT, COPY, PASTE 

and lots more.

This hack too requires you to know the 

CLSID value of the system folder whose 

menu you want to customize. In this 

section, I have taken up Recycle Bin as 

the folder whose context menu I am going 

to edit.

Firstly launch the registry editor and 

open the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-

101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder.

In Case you want to edit some other 

folder like say the FONTS folder, then 

you will open the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{CLSID VALUE 

HERE}\ShellFolder.

In the right pane there will be a DWORD 

value names attributes. Now consider the 

following options:

To add the Rename option to the menu, 

change the value of Attributes to 

50 01 00 20 

To add the Delete option to the menu, 

change the value of Attributes to 

60 01 00 20 

3. To add both the Rename & Delete 

options to the menu, change the value of 

Attributes to 70,01,00,20 

4. Add Copy to the menu, change 

Attributes to 41 01 00 20 

5. Add Cut to the menu, change Attributes 

to 42 01 00 20 

6. Add Copy & Cut to the menu, change 

Attributes to 43 01 00 20 

7. Add Paste to the menu, change 

Attributes to 44 01 00 20 

8. Add Copy & Paste to the menu, change 

Attributes to 45 01 00 20 

9. Add Cut & Paste to the menu, change 

Attributes to 46 01 00 20 

10.Add all Cut, Copy & Paste to the menu, 

change Attributes to 47 01 00 20 

We want to add only the Rename option to 

the right click context menu of the 

Recycle Bin, so change the value of 

attributes to: 50 01 00 20. Press F5 to 

refresh and then after rebooting you will 

find that when you right click on the 

Recycle Bin a RENAME option pops up too.

To reset the default Windows options 

change the value of Attributes back to 

40 01 00 20 

The Registry File which one can create 

for the above process would be something 

like the below:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-

101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\Shell-Folder]

"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20

To access say the Modem Properties in the 

Control Panel Folder, the normal 

procedure is: Click on Start, Click on 

Settings> Control Panel and then wait for 

the Control Panel window to pop up and 

then ultimately click on the Modems icon.

Wouldn't it be lovely if you could 

shorten the process to: Click on Start> 

Control Panel>Modems. Yes you can add the 

Control Panel and also all other Special 

System Folders directly to the first 

level Start Menu. Firstly collect the 

CLSID value of the folder you want to add 

to the start menu. I want to add Control 

Panel hence the CLSID value is: 21EC2020

-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D

Now right click on the Start Button and 

select Open. Now create a new folder and 

name it: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-

1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

NOTE: Do not forget the period after the 

'l' in Panel. Similarly all system 

folders can be added to the Start Menu.

(accept My Briefcase, I think)

Deleting System Options from the Start 

menu

You can actually remove the Find and Run 

options from the start menu by performing 

a simple registry hack. Again like always 

Launch the registry editor and scroll 

down to the below key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Right-click on the right pane and select 

New, DWORD Value. Name it NoFind.(To 

remove the RUN option name it NoRun). 

Double-click the newly create DWORD to 

edit it's value and enter 1 as its value. 

This will disable the FIND option of the 

Start Menu and will also disable the 

default Shortcut key(F3 for Find.)

To restore the Run or find command modify 

the value of the DWORD to 0 or simply 

Delete the DWORD value.

Fed Up of the boring Old Yellow Folder 

Icons?[Drive Icons Included]

NOTE: This trick hasn't been tried on 

Win98.

You can easily change the boring yellow 

folder icons to your own personalized 

icons. Simply create a text file and copy 

the following lines into it:

[.ShellClassInfo]

ICONFILE=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension

Save this text file by the name, 

desktop.ini in the folder, whose icon you 

want to change. Now to prevent this file 

from getting deleted change it's 

attributes to Hidden and Read Only by 

using the ATTRIB command.

To change the icon of a drive, create a 

text file containing the following lines:

[Autorun]

ICON=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension

Save this file in the root of the drive 

whose icon you want to change and name it 

autorun.inf For Example, if you want to 

change the icon of a floppy, SAVE THE 

icon in a:\icon_name.ico One can also 

create a kewl icon for the Hard Disk and 

create a text file [autorun.inf] and 

store it in "c:\".

 Securing NT

By default, NT 4.0 displays the last 

person who logged onto the system. This 

can be considered to be a security 

threat, especially in the case of those 

who choose their password to be same as 

their Username. To disable this bug which 

actually is a feature, go to the 

following key in the registry editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft

\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Click and select the ReportBookOK item 

and create a new string value called 

DontDisplayLastUserName. Modify it and 

set it's value to 1.

As a system administrator, you can ensure 

that the passwords chosen by the users 

are not too lame or too easy to guess. NT 

has this lovely utility called the User 

Manager which allows the administrator to 

set the age limit of the password which 

forces the users to change the password 

after a certain number of days. You can 

also set the minimum length of passwords 

and prevent users to use passwords which 

already have been used earlier and also 

enable account lockouts which will 

deactivate an account after a specified 

number of failed login attempts.

When you log on to Win NT, you should 

disable Password Caching, this ensures 

Single NT Domain login and also prevents 

secondary Windows Logon screen.

Simply copy the following lines to a 

plain text ASCII editor like: Notepad and 

save it with an extension, .reg 

----------------

DISABLE.reg-----------------

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]

"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000001

----------------

DISABLE.reg-----------------

To Enable Password Caching use the 

following .reg file:

--------------Enable.reg-----------------

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]

"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000000

--------------Enable.reg-----------------

Cleaning Recent Docs Menu and the RUN MRU

The Recent Docs menu can be easily 

disabled by editing the Registry. To do 

this go to the following Key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer 

Now in the right pane, create a new DWORD 

value by the name: NoRecentDocsMenu and 

set it's value to 1. Restart Explorer to 

save the changes.

You can also clear the RUN MRU history. 

All the listings are stored in the key:

HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU

You can delete individual listings or the 

entire listing. To delete History of Find 

listings go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Doc Find 

Spec MRU

and delete.

Customizing the Right Click Context Menu 

of the Start Menu

When you right click on the start menu, 

only 3 options pop up: Open, Explore, and 

Find. You can add your own programs to 

this pop up menu( which comes up when we 

right click on it.) Open Regedit and go 

to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell 

Right click on the shell and create a new 

Sub Key (You can create a new SubKey by 

right clicking on the Shell Key and 

selecting New > Key.). Type in the name 

of the application you want to add to the 

start menu. I want to add Notepad to the 

Start Menu and hence I name this new sub 

key, Notepad. Now right click on the new 

registry key that you just created and 

create yet another new key named Command. 

Enter the full path of the application, 

in this case Notepad in the default value 

of Command in the right 

pane. So I Modify the value of the 

default string value and enter the full 

pathname of Notepad: 

c:\wndows\notepad.exe.

Now press F5 to refresh. Now if you right 

click on the Start Button you will find a 

new addition to the Pop Up Menu called 

Notepad. Clicking on it will launch 

Notepad.

We can not only add but also remove the 

existing options in this pop up box.

To delete the Find option, go to the 

following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\Find 

Delete Find. DO NOT delete Open else you 

will not be able to open any folders in 

the Start Menu like Programs, Accessories 

etc.  

BMP Thumbnail As Icon

You can actually change the default BMP 

icon to a thumbnail version of the actual 

BMP file. To do this simply go to HKCU

\Paint.Picture\Default. In the right pane 

change the value of default to %1. Please 

note however that this will slow down the 

display rate in explorer if there are too 

many BMP thumbnails to display. You can 

use other icons too, simply enter the 

pathname.To restore back to the normal 

change the vale of default back to: C:

\Progra~1\Access~1\MSPAINT.EXE,1. 

Customizing The Shortcut Arrow

All shortcuts have a tiny black arrow 

attached to it's icon to distinguish from 

normal files. This arrow can sometimes be 

pretty annoying and as a Hacker should 

know how to change each and everything, 

here goes another trick. Launch the 

Registry Editor and go to: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft

\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell 

Icons. 

Now, on the right pane is a list of icons 

( we found out that on some systems, 

Windows 98 especially, the right pane is 

blank. Don't worry, just add the value as 

required ). Find the value 29. If it 

isn't there, just add it. The value of 

this string should be C:\Windows\system

\shell32.dll, 29 ( which means the 30th 

icon in shell32.dll - the first one 

begins with 0 ). Now, we need blank icon 

to do this. Just create one with white as 

the whole icon. Go here to learn how to 

create an icon. Once done just change the 

value to C:\xxx.ico, 0 where "xxx" is the 

full path of the icon file and "0" is the 

icon in it.

Now for some fun. If the blank icon is a 

bit boring, change it again. You will 

find that under shell32.dll there is a 

gear icon, a shared folder ( the hand ) 

and much more. Experiment for yourself!

Use Perl to Get List or Services Running 

on your NT box

Use the following Perl Script to get a 

list of Services running on your NT 

system

--------------script.pl-----------------

#!c:\per\bin\perl.exe

use Win32::Service;

my ($key, %service, %status, $part);

Win32::Service::GetServices(' ',\

%services);

foreach $key (sort keys %services) {

print "Print Name\t: $key, $services

{$key}\n";

Win32::Service::GetStatus( ' ',$services

{$key};

\%status);

foreach $part (keys %status) {

print "\t$part : $status{$part}\n" if

($part eq "CurrentState");

}

}

-------------script.pl-------------------

Internet Explorer Tricks and Tips

Resizable Full Screen Toolbar

The Full Screen option increases the 

viewable area and makes surfing more 

enjoyable but sometimes we need the 

Toolbar but also need to have extra 

viewing area. Now this hack teaches you 

how to change the size of the Internet 

Explorer toolbar. This registry hack is a 

bit complicated as it involves Binary 

values, so to make it simple, I have 

included the following registry file 

which will enable the resizable option of 

the Internet Explorer toolbar which was 

present in the beta version of IE.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]

"Theater"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,

00,00,00,18,00,00,00,1b,00,00,00,5c,\

00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,a0,0f,00

,00,05,00,00,00,22,00,00,00,26,00,\

00,00,02,00,00,00,21,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00

,04,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,\

00,03,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

*******************

HACKING TRUTH: Internet Explorer 5 

displays the friendly version of HTTP 

errors like NOT FOUND etc . They are 

aimed at making things easier for 

newbies. If you would rather prefer to 

see the proper error pages for the web 

server you're using, go to Tools, 

Internet Options and select the Advanced 

tab. Then scroll down and uncheck the 

Show friendly http errors box.

*******************

Making the Internet Explorer & the 

Explorer Toolbars Fancy

The Internet Explorer toolbar looks 

pretty simple. Want to make it fancy and 

kewl? Why not add a background image to 

it. To do this kewl hack launch the 

Windows Registry Editor and go to the 

following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER

\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Internet Explorer

\Toolbar\. 

Now in the right pane create a new String 

Value and name it BackBitmap and modify 

it's value to the path of the Bitmap you 

want to dress it up with by rightclicking 

on it and choosing Modify. When you 

reboot the Internet Explorer and the 

Windows Explorer toolbars will have a new 

look.

Change Internet Explorer's Caption

Don't like the caption of Internet 

Explorer caption? Want to change it? Open 

the registry editor and go to 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft

\Internet Explorer\Main. 

In the right pane create a new String 

Value names Window Title (Note the space 

between Window and Title). Right click on 

this newly created String Value and 

select Modify. Type in the new caption 

you want to be displayed. Restart for the 

settings to take place. 

Now let's move on to some Outlook Express 

Tricks. 

Colorful Background

Don't like the boring background colors 

of Outlook Express? To change it launch 

the Windows Registry Editor and scroll 

down to the 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

\Internet Mail And News key. 

On the left pane, click on ColorCycle or 

select Edit and Modify in the menu. Now 

change the value to 1. Close and restart. 

Now, launch Outlook Express and whenever 

you open up a New Message, hold down 

ctrl-shift and tap the z key to scroll to 

change the background color. Repeat the 

keystroke to cycle through the colors.

Internet Explorer 5 Hidden Features

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 has several 

hidden features which can be controlled 

using the Windows Registry. Open your 

registry and scroll down to the following 

key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies

\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions

Create a new DWORD value named x(See 

complete list of values of x below) and 

modify it's value to 1 to enable it and 

to 0 to disable it.

NoBrowserClose : Disable the option of 

closing Internet Explorer. 

NoBrowserContextMenu : Disable right-

click context menu. 

NoBrowserOptions : Disable the Tools / 

Internet Options menu. 

NoBrowserSaveAs : Disable the ability to 

Save As. 

NoFavorites : Disable the Favorites. 

NoFileNew : Disable the File / New 

command. 

NoFileOpen : Disable the File / Open 

command. 

NoFindFiles : Disable the Find Files 

command. 

NoSelectDownloadDir : Disable the option 

of selecting a download directory. 

NoTheaterMode : Disable the Full Screen 

view option. 

Hacking Secrets

Almost all system administrators make 

certain changes and make the system 

restricted. System Administrators can 

hide the RUN option, the FIND command, 

the entire Control Panel, drives in My 

Computer like D: A: etc. They can even 

restrict activities of a hacker my 

disabling or hiding, even the tiniest 

options or tools. 

Most commonly these restrictions are 

imposed locally and are controlled by the 

Windows Registry. But sometimes the smart 

system administrators control the 

activities of the hacker by imposing 

restrictions remotely through the main 

server.

Poledit or Policy Editor is a small kewl 

tool which is being commonly used by 

system administrators to alter the 

settings of a system. This utility is not 

installed by default by Windows. You need 

to install in manually from the Windows 

98 Installation Kit from the Resource Kit 

folder. user.dat file that we saw 

earlier. 

The Policy Editor tool imposes 

restrictions on the user's system by 

editing the user.dat file which in turn 

means that it edits the Windows Registry 

to change the settings. It can be used to 

control or restrict access to each and 

every folder and option you could ever 

think of. It has the power to even 

restrict access to individual folders, 

files, the Control Panel, MS DOS, the 

drives available etc. Sometimes this 

software does make life really hard for a 

Hacker. So how can we remove the 

restrictions imposed by the Policy 

Editor? Well read ahead to learn more.

You see the Policy Editor is not the only 

way to restrict a user's activities. As 

we already know that the Policy Editor 

edits the Windows Registry(user.dat) file 

to impose such restrictions. So this in 

turn would mean that we can directly make 

changes to the Windows Registry using a 

.reg file or directly to remove or add 

restrictions.

Launch Regedit and go to the following 

Registry Key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Curr

entVersion/Policies

Under this key, there will definitely be 

a key named explorer. Now under this 

explorer key we can create new DWORD 

values and modify it's value to 1 in 

order to impose the restriction. If you 

want to remove the Restriction, then you 

can simply delete the respective DWORD 

values or instead change their values to 

0. The following is a list of DWORD 

values that can be created under the 

Explorer Key-:

NoDeletePrinter: Disables Deletion of 

already installed Printers

NoAddPrinter: Disables Addition of new 

Printers

NoRun : Disables or hides the Run Command

NoSetFolders: Removes Folders from the 

Settings option on Start Menu (Control 

Panel, Printers, Taskbar)

NoSetTaskbar: Removes Taskbar system 

folder from the Settings option on Start 

Menu

NoFind: Removes the Find Tool (Start 

>Find)

NoDrives: Hides and does not display any 

Drives in My Computer

NoNetHood: Hides or removes the Network 

Neighborhood icon from the desktop

NoDesktop: Hides all items including, 

file, folders and system folders from the 

Desktop

NoClose: Disables Shutdown and prevents 

the user from normally shutting down 

Windows.

NoSaveSettings: Means to say, 'Don't save 

settings on exit'

DisableRegistryTools: Disable Registry 

Editing Tools (If you disable this 

option, the Windows Registry Editor

(regedit.exe) too 

will not work.)

NoRecentDocsHistory: Removes Recent 

Document system folder from the Start 

Menu (IE 4 and above)

ClearRecentDocsOnExit: Clears the Recent 

Documents system folder on Exit.

Nolnternetlcon: Removes the Internet 

(system folder) icon from the Desktop

Under the same key: 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Curr

entVersion/Policies you can create new 

subkeys other than the already existing 

Explorer key. Now create a new key and 

name it System. Under this new key, 

system we can create the following new 

DWORD values(1 for enabling the 

particular option and 0 for disabling the 

particular option):

NODispCPL: Hides Control Panel

NoDispBackgroundPage: Hides Background 

page.

NoDispScrsavPage: Hides Screen Saver Page

NoDispAppearancePage: Hides Appearance 

Page

NoDispSettingsPage: Hides Settings Page

NoSecCPL: Disables Password Control Panel

NoPwdPage: Hides Password Change Page

NoAdminPaqe: Hides Remote Administration 

Page

NoProfilePage: Hides User Profiles Page

NoDevMgrPage: Hides Device Manager Page

NoConfigPage: Hides Hardware Profiles 

Page

NoFileSysPage: Hides File System Button

NoVirtMemPage: Hides Virtual Memory 

Button

Similarly, if we create a new subkey 

named Network, we can add the following 

DWORD values under it(1 for enabling the 

particular option and 0 for disabling the 

particular option):

NoNetSetupSecurityPage: Hides Network 

Security Page

NoNelSetup: Hides or disables the Network 

option in the Control Panel

NoNetSetupIDPage: Hides the 

Identification Page

NoNetSetupSecurityPage: Hides the Access 

Control Page

NoFileSharingControl: Disables File 

Sharing Controls

NoPrintSharing: Disables Print Sharing 

Controls

Similarly, if we create a new subkey 

named WinOldApp, we can add the following 

DWORD values under it(1 for enabling the 

particular option and 0 for disabling the 

particular option):

Disabled: Disable MS-DOS Prompt

NoRealMode: Disable Single-Mode MS-DOS.

So you see if you have access to the 

Windows Registry, then you can easily 

create new DWORD values and set heir 

value to 1 for enabling the particular 

option and 0 for disabling the particular 

option. But Sometimes, access to the 

Windows Registry is blocked. So what do 

you do? Go to the Windows Directory and 

delete either user.dat or system.dat 

(These 2 files constitute the Windows 

Registry.) and reboot. As soon as Windows 

logs in, it will display a Warning 

Message informing you about an error in 

the Windows Registry. Simply ignore this 

Warning Message and Press CTRL+DEL+ALT to 

get out of this warning message.(Do not 

press OK) You will find that all 

restrictions have been removed.

The most kind of restriction found quite 

commonly is the Specific Folder 

Restriction, in which users are not 

allowed access to specific folders, the 

most common being the Windows folder, or 

sometimes even access to My Computer is 

blocked. In effect, you simply cannot 

seem to access the important kewl files 

which are needed by you to do remove 

restrictions. What do you? Well use the 

RUN command. (START >RUN). But 

unfortunately a system administrator who 

is intelligent enough to block access to 

specific folder, would definitely have 

blocked access to the RUN command. Again 

we are stuck.

Windows is supposed to be the most User 

Friendly Operating System on earth. (At 

least Microsoft Says so.)

It gives the User an option to do the 

same thing in various ways. You see the 

RUN command is only the most convenient 

option of launching applications, but not 

the only way. In Windows you can create 

shortcuts to almost anything from a file, 

folder to a Web URL. So say your system 

administrator has blocked access to the 

c:\windows\system folder and you need to 

access it. What do you do? Simply create 

a Shortcut to it. To do this right click 

anywhere on the desktop and select New > 

Shortcut. A new window titled Create 

Shortcut pops up. Type in the path of the 

restricted folder you wish to access, in 

this case c:\windows\system. Click Next, 

Enter the friendly name of the Shortcut 

and then click Finish. Now you can access 

the restricted folder by simply double 

clicking on the shortcut icon. Well that 

shows how protected and secure *ahem 

Windows *ahem is.

****************

HACKING TRUTH: Sometimes when you try to 

delete a file or a folder, Windows 

displays an error message saying that the 

file is protected. This simply means that 

the file is write protected, or in other 

words the R option is +. Get it? Anyway, 

you can stop Windows from displaying this 

error message and straightaway delete 

this file by changing its attributes to 

Non Read Only. This can be done by Right 

Clicking on the file, selecting 

Properties and then 

unselecting the Read Only Option.

***************

There is yet another way of accessing 

restricted folders. Use see, DOS has a 

lovely command known as START. Its 

general syntax is:

START application_path

It does do what it seems to do, start 

applications. So in you have access to 

DOS then you can type in the START 

command to get access to the restricted 

folder. Now mostly access to DOS too 

would be blocked. So again you can use 

the shortcut trick to launch, c:

\command.com or c:\windows\command.com. 

(Command.com is the file which launches 

MS DOS).

Accessing Restricted Drives.

The problem with most system 

administrators is that they think that 

the users or Hackers too are stupid. 

Almost all system administrators use the 

Registry Trick (Explained Earlier) to 

hide all drives in My Computer. So in 

order to unhide or display all drives, 

simply delete that particular key.(Refer 

to beginning of Untold Secrets Section.)

Some systems have the floppy disk 

disabled through the BIOS. On those 

systems if the BIOS is protected, you may 

need to crack the BIOS password. (For 

that Refer to the Windows Hacking 

Chapter). Sometimes making drives 

readable (Removing R +) and then creating 

Shortcuts to them also helps us to get 

access to them.

Further Changing your Operating System's 

Looks by editing .htt files

If you have installed Windows Desktop 

Update and have the view as Web Page 

option enabled, you can customise the way 

the folder looks by selecting View > 

Customise this folder. Here you can 

change the background and other things 

about that particular folder. Well that 

is pretty lame, right? We hackers already 

know things as lame as that. Read on for 

some kewl stuff.

Well, you could also change the default 

that is stored in a Hidden HTML Template 

file (I think so..) which is nothing but 

a HTML document with a .htt extension. 

This .htt file is found at: %systemroot%

\web\folder.htt.

The %systemroot% stands for the drive in 

which Windows is Installed, which is 

normally C:

You can edit these .htt files almost just 

like you edit normal .HTM or .HTML files. 

Simply open them in an ASCII editor like 

Notepad. The following is a list of .htt 

files on your system which control 

various folders and which can be edited 

to customise the way various folders 

look.

controlp.htt Control Panel

printers.htt Printers

mycomp.htt My Computer

safemode.htt Safe Mode

All these files are found in the web 

folder in %systemfolder%. The folder.htt 

file has a line:

'Here's a good place to add a few lines 

of your own"

which is the place where you can add your 

own A HREF links. These links would then 

appear in the folder whose folder.htt 

file you edited. All this might sound 

really easy and simple, but you see these 

.htt files do not contain normal HTML 

code, instead they contain a mixture of 

HTML and web bots. Hence they can be 

difficult for newbies to understand.

Well that's it for now, more tricks 

later, till then goodbye.