Information and image in System properties

I want to thank this very useful site for teaching me a lots of TWEAKING TIPS. So, as a gesture of my appreciation I want to share this simple tweak I learned. Please run notepad and paste this text: 

[General]
Manufacturer="You can display useful information here"
Model="You can display useful information here"

[Support Information]
Line1="You can display useful information here"
Line2="You can display useful information here"
Line3="You can display useful information here"
Line4="You can display useful information here"
Line5="You can display useful information here"
Line6="You can display useful information here"
Line7="You can display useful information here"
Line8="You can display useful information here"
Line9="You can display useful information here"
Line10="You can display useful information here"

Save it as oeminfo.ini in C:\WINDOWS\System 32. You can also create a bitmap file and name it as oemlogo.bmp, save it in C:\WINDOWS\System 32. Now, try to hold down Win key while pressing Pause/break. You'll notice that the text and image you created will appear in your System properties.

Load control Panel

Open Regedit and go to:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\]

Add a key named Don't Load 

Next add String values within the "don't load" Key. You will use one String value for each control panel applet you want removed. For example, if I want to remove the System applet I will make a string value with the name sysdm.cpl and no value set and the System applet will no longer be available under the Control Panel. 

To restore a full control Panel to default just delete the "don't load" key.

Here are the Windows XP Pro Control Panel applets:

Accessibility Options = access.cpl

Add Hardware Wizard = hdwwiz.cpl

Add or remove programs = appwiz.cpl

Display Properties = desk.cpl

Game Controllers = joy.cpl

Internet Properties = Inetcpl.cpl

Mouse Properties = main.cpl

Network Connections = ncpa.cpl

ODBC Administrator = odbccp32.cpl

Phone and modem Options = telephon.cpl

Power Options = powercfg.cpl

Region and Language Options = intl.cpl

Sound and Audio Devices = mmsys.cpl

Speech Properties = sapi.cpl

System Properties = sysdm.cpl

Time and Date Properties = timedate.cpl

User Accounts = nusrmgr.cpl

Add program in “send to”

Easiest way to configure the "Send to" feature is to create a shortcut to the SendTo folder

C:\Documents and Settings\username\SendTo\  

[it is hidden]

where X is your drive letter and username is your username and then paste that shortcut into the SendTo folder.Any program you want to assign to the sendto folder, you then just right click on the program's shortcut and choose Send To->Send To.

Create a shortcut to switch users

Fast user switching has been a very useful feature of Windows for multi-user computers. Dating back to Windows XP, fast user switching allows multiple users to be logged into a computer at once. This is very useful if a user is in the middle of work but another needs to use the computer shortly. Fast user switching will allow the other user to log in while still retaining the other users session. Once the other user is finished the session can be switched back to the original user. 

1.  Creating a shortcut to switch the active user is as easy as creating a shortcut to c:\windows\system32\tsdiscon.exe

2.  Right click where you want the shortcut to be created and select New and then Shortcut.

3.   Copy and paste “c:\windows\system32\tsdiscon.exe” into the location box and hit Next.

4.    Give it a name and hit Finish.

RoboCopy

RoboCopy or Robust File Copy for Windows is an enhanced file copy that far surpasses what you can do from either the Explorer or XCOPY It is a very robust command line driven program with a huge amount of switches and options. In addition to standard switches like /S for subdirectories.

1.    /PURGE :: delete dest files/dirs that no longer exist in source

2.    /MOV :: MOVe files (delete from source after copying)

3.    /MON:n ::Monitor source; run again when more than n changes seen. 

4.    /MOT:m :: MOnitor source; run again in m minutes Time, if changed

5.    /MAX:n :: MAXimum file size - exclude files bigger than n bytes.

6.    /MAXAGE:n :: MAXimum file AGE - exclude files older than n days/date

7.    /R:n :: number of Retries on failed copies: default 1 million

            8.  /TBD :: wait for sharenames To Be Defined (retry error 67)

Make the backup smaller

I use ghost to backup my windows partition.

To make the backup smaller you can remove the hiberfil.sys (for hibernating) and pagefile.sys (extra ram) from your partition before you make the ghost.   The hiberfil is the same size as the amount of RAM you have, and the pagefile is mostly  about 400Mb.

Boot in DOS (the old operating system), herefore you'll need an old WINDOWS98 bootdisk with attrib on it. Run the following commands:

attrib -s -h hiberfil.sys

erase hiberfil.sys

attrib -s -h pagefile.sys

erase pagefile.sys

This will make a huge difference.