20 MAXIMUMPC | MAR 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
XP Tips
You’re sticking with Windows XP, and who can blame you? But it’s still possible to teach this trusty ol’ OS
some new tricksNO DUPLICATES FOR YOU!Uncover ‘No to All’ Option
Whenever you copy multiple fi les from one location to another, Windows prompts you with an
overwrite request if duplicate entries already exist. Selecting “Yes to All” can go a long way in
preventing carpal tunnel, but where’s the “No to All” button? It doesn’t exist, but you can force
Windows to act as though it does by holding down the Shift key the fi rst time you press No.Make It Personal
Brand your PC with a custom logo
O
EM vendors often dress up the System
Properties screen with a custom logo
and support information, giving prebuilt
PCs an air of professionalism. Well guess
what? You can add the same personal touch to
your own machine in just a few easy steps.
Open up any photo-editing program and
create a 180x114-pixel image. Save the image
as a bitmap and name it oemlogo.bmp, then
place it in C:\Windows\System32. Next, create
a Notepad fi le in the same folder and save it as
oeminfo.ini. OEM resellers use this fi le to enter
customer-support information, but you can
write whatever you wish as long as you use
the following format:[General]
Manufacturer=Maximum PC
Model=Dream Machine[Support Information]
line1=For even more great
tips visit
line2=www.maximumpc.comIf you need more space, just create
a new line.ICON DO IT!Give Your Hard Drive a New Icon
Grab IconsExtract (free, http://tinyurl.
com/2p7c7x ) to extract existing icons
from your system. When you fi nd one
you like, save it to the root of the drive
you want to change (for example, C:\
Cool_Icon.ico). Next, create a new fi le
with Notepad and edit line one to read
[autorun] and on line two write
icon=Cool_Icon.ico. Save and
name the fi le autorun.ini and reboot.GO FOR A SCROLLAlter the Scroll Bar’s Dimensions
A wider scroll bar can make naviga-
tion an easier affair on a touch-screen
panel, and power users can ben-
efi t from the additional real estate
afforded by narrowing the scroll bar.
Whatever your objective, open Display
Properties in the Control Panel, click
the Appearance tab, click Advanced,
select Scrollbar from the Items menu,
and go hog wild!GROOVE WITH GOOGLEInstall Google Desktop, then Hack It!
Google Desktop (free, http://desktop.google.com ) pounces all over Windows’s built-in
search, but to truly kick your search groove into high gear, you need to tweak a couple
of settings. Under the Options menu, make sure HTTPS is unchecked to prevent Google
from indexing sensitive information. Then click “Add drive or folder to search” and add
any networked PCs so you can search for fi les across your network without ever leaving
your chair. Finally, install the TweakGDS plugin (free, http://tinyurl.com/2nwxb9 ), which will
let you designate a different folder or hard drive to store Google’s indexing information.WINDOWS TIPSWINDOWS TIPSWINDOWS TIPSWINDOWS TIPS