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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/CurrentVersion/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/CurrentVersion/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:
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