Lagnajeet

Customise your Windows XP for free.
Many of us would like to customise the appearance of their system but they do not know how to do it.Some use Style XP but it's not free.Here I will tell you how to do it without using any paid software.
1.First download the uxtheme file patcher from
www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=140707
Run it and follow the instructions.This patches your uxtheme.dll file so that you can use .msstyles visual styles without any resources.You can download
visual styles from the net for free from www.belchfire.net
2.Next download Logon Loader from
logonloader.danielmilner.com/download.php

This changes your login screen.You can download some great login screens from www.belchfire.net

3.This will have completely changed your system appearance.Next come the simple steps.Download some wallpapers of your choice from any site.
4.Change some of the common icons with Registry edits.Proceed as follows.
---Start Regedit---Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ Shell Icons---The default icons are numbered in the right panel from 0-40---Double click on the number of the particular icon you want to change. See the chart below.---Enter the name of the icon file you want to use followed by the number of the icon in that file.---Note: The numbering starts with zero.If you use a single .ICO file, it should be followed by a 0.e.g. - filename.dll,4 - This would actually be the 5th icon since it starts with 0.Make sure you delete the hidden file C:\WINDOWS\SHELLICONCACHE
Below is a reference for the icons I've been able to figure out:
0 - Default Icon1 - Default Document2 - Application3 - Closed Folder4 - Open Folder5 - 5 1/4 Drive6 - 3 1/4 Drive7 - Removable Drive8 - Hard Drive9 - Network Folder10 - Network Offline11 - CD12 - RAM Drive13 - Entire Nertwork15 - My Computer16 - Printer17 - Network Neighborhood18 - Network Workgroup19-27 are the Start Menu icons19 - Programs20 - Desktop21 - Settings22 - Find23 - Help24 - Run25 - Suspend27 - Shutdown
28 - Share29 - Shortcut31 - Recycle Bin (Empty)32 - Recycle Bin (Full)33 - Folder, Dial-Up Networking34 - Desktop36 - Program Group40 - Audio Card
In addition, you can change:My Computer - HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}Network Neighborhood - HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ CLSID\{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}InBox - HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ CLSID\{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}Recycle Bin - HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
5.Next comes customising your mouse pointers.Go and download CursorXP from www.cursorxp.com .This will completely change your mouse pointer scheme.
6.Next download YzToolbar from www.windowsstartup.com/wso/detail.php?id=4674 .This will change the toolbar appearance which appears on top of every Window.
7.Want to add a cool Mac Like dock to your XP.Go download MobyDock from www.mobydock.com/.



This finishes my tutorial.If you have any extra steps feel free to comment.I will add them with your name to my blog.

How to create a Multiboot CD using EasyBoot

Before I continue please let me tell you please neither laugh am me if you knew if before(and also for my bad english LOL),there may be people who still don't know, nor blame me for any damage that is (if)caused by this procedure.(The disclaimer HUH).OK too much of nonsense talk now let's start.

Ok guys have you ever seen a cd that shows a boot menu so that you can choose from a list of available bootable items.Confused have a look below.



Liked it??!(if no don't read LOL).OK here are the tools we will be needing to create such a thing.

1. Easy Boot (Crack)

2. UltraISO (Crack)

3. Norton Boot Disk

Link1. http://www.geocities.com/jitun2/pm8.zip

Link2. http://jitun2.tripod.com/pm8.zip
if clicking on the links didn't download the file then copy paste the link in the address bar of your browser.That should work.

However putting Norton Partition Magic 8 is purely optional

Now here are the steps.

1.Install EasyBoot(and the crack if u don't want the "Created By EasyBoot 5.0. . . etc" appear on your tedious output).At the first run you will get a screen like below


But continuing ahead i suggest you to read the "Userguide" section of the easyboot help.

2.Now create a logo picture for your bootable.This picture will bw shown as a splash screen before the boot menu appears.(But befor that close easyboot.)Make a 256 color bitmap image(bmp) this is the only supported image format.Now design a background image for the boot menu Also make it 256 color bitmap image.Now navigate to the easybot program files directory here you will find a directory named "disk1" opening it yopu will find another directory named "ezboot".Now open this directory and put the image files in this directory.for convenience i named the logo file as "logo.bmp" and the background image file as "BACK.bmp".There will be two file with these names these are the default logo and backgroung file provided along with the software.Now opening easyboot will show you something like this


Now if you click the "Make ISO" button then it wil make a bootable CD image that will show you this boot screen if the system boots from that disk.

3.In this step we will discuss how to put norton partition magic in this bootable CD.ok download the norton partition magic 8 bootable image from the links provided above.It is a 2.87MB of bootable sector wise boot image of Norton Partition magic CD.Now open it using UltraISO after extracting it from the ZIP file.Now click Bootable->Save boot file.

Now for ease of working navigate to the "..\EasyBoot\disk1\ezboot" directory and save it.For convenience i have given it name "pm.bif".This will save the boot information present in the Partition Magic Bootable disc image into a .bif file.

4.Now in Easyboot create another menu for Norton Partition Magic(read the help file provided with the sw to know how to create menu.But if you don't want to read it just remember R-Click on an existing menu when it is in focus or selected in the preview window will create a neew menu,L-click will let you pick it up so that you can drag it anywhere in the screen,L-click again will put it at that position and allow you to resize it.R-Clicl again will release the mouse.).Now clcil on the menu tab and write "run pm.bif" in the "Command" field.Have a look below.



5.Now under the file tab click "Save" then "Make ISO" give proper path(i.e. the path where you want your ISO bootable cd image to be saved by default it is "C:\EasyBoot\iso").Look Image below.



6. This is the final step in this step we will create the final multiboot working disk image.In this case i have saved the bootable disk image as "Test.iso" in "I:\Temp" directory(whatever who cares).Open the file "Test.ISO" in UltraISO.Now if you have two optical drives then you can create the final CD image faster.However we will assume that you have only one(everybody is not lucky enough like me he he LOL).Put Windows XP CD in your CD/DVD drive.Now select all and drag and drop it into the UltraISO window(that has the "Test.ISO" file opened in it).It will start adding the files from the cd to the CD Image you are creating.



After it finishes adding the files.Click save or File->Save(or CTRL+S).it will start saving the disc image and show you a dialog with progress bar elapsed tme remaining time etc likr shown below.



Now take out the Windows XP CD and put the Windows 98 CD.Now add only the directory named "win98" to the current compilation and click again.Your final compilation will look like below.



7.Well now you are done.You have a multiboot disk image.If you wish you can try it using the Microsoft Virtual PC or VMware Workstation.Now get a good quality blank 700MB CD and burn the image onto it.(For burning the CD image open it using Nero Burning Rom and burn it from there.You can also use UlrtaISO to burn the image to a CD But I think Nero is better.)Restart Your computer with this CD in your CD rom Drive.The PC will boot from it.Loking nice.Bye.