WinExtra » Tech Tips

Group Policy Editor in XP Home? A Tweakers Dream

Bill Vincent — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:11:07 +0000

I often run across blog entries for a particular tip, trick or tweak for "Windows XP" that invariably starts with "…open Group Policy Editor..". Then, in true Digg-esque fashion, 15 comments not-so-politely inform the author that GPE is only present in XP Pro, so this tweak is useless for XP Home users.

Or is it?

GPE is one of the features in Home that was stripped in the (failed, in my opinion) attempt to make it more friendly for the home user, but it has a wide variety of practical uses for any power-user. GPE itself consists of only about 8 files, mostly DLL’s, as well as a small folder tree, therefore, if one were to determine the identity of these files and re-create the tree, you should be able to use GPE in XP Home, right?

Found in the forums at PCPitstop, a forum mod by the name of stormy13 offers up just that in the form of a 934k zip file.

It required a few minutes of work to extract the contents to the proper locations and register the new DLL files, but detailed instructions are included.

Fair warning: Although I scanned the file thoroughly, as always, beware of such things when downloading, and scan them yourself. Also, I cannot be assured how long the link (see below) will be active. It was posted quite some time ago, so it will likely be around a bit longer.

Link to download here.

Link to original forum thread here.

MS support info on uses for Group Policy Editor here.

Happy tweaking!!

Conversation Tags: tweaks, Group Policy Editor, Windows XP, XP Home

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Slipstreaming Vista SP1

Steven Hodson — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:09:00 +0000

For those that are fans of creating slipstreamed install disks this is from the WinExtra Community Forums courtesy of Pierre (thanks )

Is not supported by MS, but there’s a (complicated) way to do it all the same, if you don’t have access to an SP1 integrated image from MSDN downloads: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/02/15/how-to-integrate-and-slipstream-sp1-into-windows-vista-rtm/
If you don’t have an available partition to do the install, don’t worry: you can use a virtual machine instead. You will need the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) for Vista SP1 and Server 2008 and (possibly) Virtual PC 2007. Do not use the older WAIK (for pre-SP1 Vista).

Conversation Tags: Vista, Service Packs, slipstreaming

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FTF: for the really geeky a discussion on multi meters

Steven Hodson — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:06:11 +0000

One of the enjoyable things about the WinExtra forums which most of the folks having been members for many years is the humor that can go along with a conversation thread of just about any item.

The discussions around the simple matter of buying a replacement multi meter is no exception. The original question was posted by Mike (aka moosepucky):

The multi meter that I bought as a teen back in the 60’s has finally died on me and I need to get a replacement. I am sure that things have changed over the past 45 years so I thought I would ask everyone here what they would get if they needed to replace their DMM.
I don’t need the most heavy duty, does everything, fancy shmancy DMM on the market. Even an older used model would be fine for the little that I will be using it.
I will be using it for very basic things such as continuity testing, ac/dc voltage, dc amperage, current draw and such like that.

Even though the general consensus was to get a Fluke the typical humor and comradery that is found in the forums was well evident.

Original Thread - My Multi meter died - need a new one :: Mike
Note: you will need to registry to be able to post - but registration is free.

Listening to: Diane Arkenstone - The Best of - The Secret Garden

Conversation Tags: WinExtra, Forums, multi meters, hardware

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FTF: Setting up a folder as a drive

Steven Hodson — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:48:19 +0000

The original question was asked by Ron was:

I know that on a local network it is possible to setup a folder
on one computer to show up as a network drive on another computer.
I was wondering if it’s possible to do something similar on a single computer ?

The accepted reply came from Pierre:

Try the subst command which works in XP and Vista and to have it persist on reboot put the command in a .CMD file and then put a link to that file in your Startup folder

Members in the thread: Ron, Pierre
Original thread link here

Conversation Tags: computer, folders, drives, Windows, XP, Vista

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A quick Vista tip

Steven Hodson — Thu, 31 May 2007 07:13:55 +0000

I’m sure that this has appeared elsewhere in some tip file put I thought it was kind of fun and worth mentioning just incase you didn’t know about it.

In Vista one of the nice graphical features is the smooth good looking icons that the operating system sports but sometimes those 32×32 or 48×48 sizes are just tooo small. To adjust the size of the desktop icons just click anywhere on the desktop to make sure it’s active and then with the Ctrl button pressed down rotate your mouse scrollwheel. There before youre eyes the desktop icons will resize to your heart’s content.

As an added bonus the same tip will work in Explorer.

Conversation Tags: Windows, Vista, desktop icons

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Vista Explorer Tip

Steven Hodson — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 04:13:30 +0000

With your cursor over the Explorer list window Ctrl+Mousewheel will cycle through the different item display views.

Technorati Tags: Vista, Explorer, tips

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a good Vista learning tool

Steven Hodson — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 17:43:13 +0000

With Vista we are getting a new set of virtual folders and trying to figure them out and where they actually link to can be a bit of a brain twister. To help learning about the new folders Kenny Kerr has put together a little app.

Are you finding all the “special folders” in Windows Vista a bit overwhelming? Which are real folders and which are virtualized? Which are profile-specific and which are common to all users? Which are rooted and which are relative? I did too at first.

Previous versions of Windows included the concept of “special folders”. Each version of Windows published more of these special folders in terms of constant special item identifier list values, or CSIDLs for short. Functions are provided for getting and setting the folder given a CSIDL value. Managed code can access the subset of these known at the time that a particular version of the .NET Framework was written through the Environment.SpecialFolder enumeration.

Full Post and Download

Technorati Tags: Vista, Special Folders

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Bott’s 10 Vista Tweaks

Steven Hodson — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 21:08:50 +0000

This list from ZDNet’s Ed Bott is probably one of many lists that will start being compiled for Vista tweaks; but from glancing through this list they look to be some good solid tweaks.

Full list of tweaks

Technorati Tags: Vista. tweaks, tips, Top 10

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