Cleaning Your Harddisk

Hard disks keep getting bigger and bigger, but somehow we still run out of space. MP3s and other media files are immensely popular–and simply immense. Programs are bigger, and data files are bigger. Windows Explorer isn't much help. It will tell you the size of all selected files in a folder, but nothing about the files in that folder's subfolders.

Enter DiskPie2 a utility to identify the biggest consumers of disk space. Pie charts let you see at a glance which folders and file types are taking up the most space. The charts are highly customizable, and can be printed.

An Explorer view lets you navigate to the folder you want to chart, and as a bonus displays the number of bytes in and below the selected folder. DiskPie2 also can display and print a report of the largest files in the selected folder. Armed with the information that DiskPie provides, you can decide how best to allocate the space on your disk.

TreeSize: Every hard disk is too small if you just wait long enough. TreeSize tells you where precious space has gone to. TreeSize can be started from the context menu of a folder or drive and shows you the size of this folder, including its subfolders. You can expand this folder in Explorer-like style and you will see the size of every subfolder. Scanning is done in a thread, so you can already see results while TreeSize is working. The space, which is wasted by the file system can be displayed and the results can be printed in a report. TreeSize is Mailware for Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP.

Welcome Screen - Colors

Select theme and color scheme for welcome screenWith this tweak you will be able to modify which color selection of the default theme is shown when the computer start up screen is displayed. Currently since there is only one theme you can only change the color scheme for the theme but in the future when more themes are available for XP you will be able to change which theme is used in the same place in the windows registry.

Go to Start/Run/Regedit and navigate to this key:Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ThemeManager Locate the key NormalColor Right Click on it and select modify. Change where it says "NormalColor" to "Metallic" Click Ok, and exit regedit Restart

Note: To go back to the old color scheme durring startup just change "Metallic" back to "NormalColor" Once more themes are released you will be able to modify the DllName key to select different themes.

Welcome Screen Old Style

Change the Login Window to W2K Style - This setting controls which type of logon screen is shown, either the classic Windows NT/2000 format or the Windows XP welcome screen.

Start/Run/Regedit

Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]Value Name: LogonTypeData Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)Value Data: (0 = Classic Mode, 1 = Welcome Screen)

Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called 'LogonType' and edit the value according to the settings below. Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.

Note: Using the classic logon method will also disable the use of fast user switching, where applications remain active in other users sessions.

Wallpaper (Folder) Background

Background for folders: To create a template folder with a background image, create a new folder and customize it to create a hidden desktop.ini file inside. Edit the desktop.ini in the folder and add two lines:

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]IconArea_Image=Background.bmp

Then create a hidden image file in the folder and name it "Background.bmp". This image can be .bmp, .jpg, or .gif, but you will need to edit the image file extension in your desktop.ini file to match the image file name.

Name and Company - For Microsoft Applications

When you install a new application, using MS Setup, a default Name and Company are shown, these values can be changed when the details have changed or are incorrect.

Start/Run/RegeditHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MS Setup (ACME)\User Info

Value Name: DefName, DefCompanyData Type: REG_SZ (String Value)

Modify the two values named 'DefName' and 'DefCompany', and change the values to your current Name and Company respectively. The next time you install a program these new values will be used as the defaults instead. Note: This will not affect the registered names of existing applications, it only affects new installations.

Remove Recent Documents from the Start Menu

This setting can be used to remove the recent Documents folder from the Start Menu. Open your registry (Start/Run/Regedit) and find the key below.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

Value Name: NoRecentDocsMenuData Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)Value Data: (0 = display, 1 = remove)

Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called 'NoRecentDocsMenu' set the value to equal '1' to enable the restriction. Exit your registry, you may need to restart for the changes to take effect.

Remove My Documents Folder From Desktop

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}\ShellFolder

Value Name: AttributesData Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)Value Data: (0xf0500174 = Hidden, 0xf0400174 = Default)

Modify the value called "Attributes" and set it to either "0xf0500174" to hide or "0xf0400174" to display My Documents. Click on a blank area of desktop and press F5 to refresh for the change to take effect. Note: This tweak can also by used on a system wide basis by entering the same values under the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE] hive.