With a simple registry change, you can limit
new printer/driver installations to Administrators and Print
Operators (and Power Users, on NT Workstation). This is
another way to "lock down" your NT machines and
prevent unauthorized changes.
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentcontrolSet\Control\Print\Providers\LanMan
Print Services\Servers
Name: AddPrintDrivers
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
As always, use caution (and make backups)
before editing the registry.
<Top>
Windows NT provides a way to display a message
before allowing a user to enter a logon name and password.
After pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL, a message can appear, requiring the
user to click OK to continue. Many companies use this to
display a legal notice warning that only authorized users should
proceed. Without such a notice, it can be argued in court
that an intruder was invited to try to login, since the machine
displayed instructions for doing so. Other companies use
this to display important messages regarding system
availability, contact phone numbers, etc. There are two
changes in the registry to implement this message:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current
Version\Winlogon
Name: LegalNoticeCaption
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: <enter text to display in title
bar>
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current
Version\Winlogon
Name: LegalNoticeText
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: <enter text to display in dialogue
box>
<Top>
By default, Windows NT 4.0 will display the
username of the last user to logon to the system in the logon
dialog box when starting. For security reasons (now
"hackers" only need to guess the password, since they
have the username), you may wish to change this so that the
username field is empty when NT starts.
The change is in the following location in the
registry:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current
Version\Winlogon
Name: DontDisplayLastUserName
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: 1
You may need to add the value, if it isn't
there.
<Top>
When adding Windows NT components, and the
installation files are needed, NT will prompt you to insert the
Installation CD. If you have copied the installation files
to your local drive, or have them available on a network, you
can change the location that NT will look for these files, so
that installation will continue automatically. All it
takes is a couple Registry changes, and a restart:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
Name: SourcePath
Data Type: Reg_Binary (Hex)
Value: path (to i386 folder)
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Setup
Name: SourcePath
Data Type: Reg_Binary (Hex)
Value: path (drive)
As always, please use caution and frequent
backups before editing the Registry.
<Top>
You can easily change the size of the
scrollbars on the bottom and sides of windows in Windows NT.
Simply right-click the desktop, choose "Properties,"
and click the "Appearance" tab. In the
"Item" drop-down box, choose "Scrollbar."
To the right of that is the "Size" spin box that
controls the size of the scrollbars.
The default size is 16, and the minimum size
is 8, and the maximum is 100. I like mine smaller, to give
me just a little more useable window space, but many people like
to increase their size to make them easier to use.
Experiment and find a setting that works for you.
<Top>
When NT shuts down, it leaves the pagefile
intact on the hard drive. Some programs may store
sensitive information in clear text format in memory (which in
turn may be paged out to disk). You may wish to empty this
file for security reasons, or to help speed a boot time defrag,
or because you dual boot, and you don't want to share the file,
or just as part of troubleshooting a problem. Making the
following registry change (or create the following entry) will
clear your page file when rebooting.
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Memory Management
Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
As always, use caution and frequent backups
when editing the registry.
<Top>
Perhaps they made it too stable? There is a
registry entry that you can use to force a blue stop screen on
Windows 2000 (hopefully this is because you won't ever see one
otherwise). First, backup your registry, then make the following
change:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters
Name: CrashOnCtrlScroll
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1 (0 or nothing will disable the
feature)
After a restart, holding down the right-side
CTRL key and pressing the Scroll lock key twice will generate
the Blue Screen of Death.
<Top>
If you are planning on either:
1. Re-installing Windows 2000 on a regular
basis or
2. Shipping a lot of machines with Windows 2000 Installed
You can use a simple utility provided on the
Windows 2000 CD, called 'SETUPMGR.EXE' this will allow you to
create an 'answer file' which will mean that each and every one
of your Windows 2000 installations are identical and do not
require any user interaction during the install process.
Once you have created this answer file, simply
copy it to a blank floppy disk - start the W2k installation by
booting off the CD - leave the floppy disk in the drive, and
when the W2k installation reaches a certain point - it will read
the Floppy disk, pick up the answer file and You won't have to
touch the keyboard for the rest of the install process.
<Top>
Ignoring the obvious question (why?) - you can
cheat at draw three Solitaire, flipping only one card at a time
rather than three. Simply hold Ctrl-Alt-Shift as you click
the deck.
<Top>
Many of you are familiar with the game
FreeCell, included free with the NT/2000 operating system.
It's much more difficult than solitaire, and it keeps a record
of wins and losses, which can be both revealing and
embarrassing. Keep your pride intact with the following
cheat:
During the game, pressing Ctrl-Shift-F10 will
bring up a box entitled "User-Friendly User Interface"
and three buttons to choose from to automatically win or lose
the game, or cancel (to go back to playing the game).
After taking the win (or lose) option, moving any card will end
the game, with the requested results.
<Top> |