Adding/Modifying OEM Information in Vista and 7

OEM(Original Equipment Manufacturer) Information is the meta data provided by the original manufacturer of your computer which may include the manufacturer’s name, model number, serial number, support website etc…   If you have seen an OEM logo in your System Properties window and want to modify it, this tutorial can be helpful for you. If you have a home assembled computer than you can add OEM information in your computer.

For Windows 7 and Vista
Open the Windows Registry Editor , alternatively you can type regedit in the RUN dialog box and hit enter.

Navigate to the subkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation,
here you can double click in each key and change its value.

For the OEMlogo you should have a bitmap picture( .bmp extension) of size 120px X 120px and 24 bit color depth.

After you are done you can view the System Properties dialog box by right clicking on My Computer and clicking on Properties.

How To: Create A Theme Pack In Windows 7

A lot has been written on the fancy look of Windows7 ever since it was unveiled at PDC 2008. 

Microsoft has done wonderful job by adding many new features that are not only cool and but also light on system resources, making Windows 7 faster than its predecessor Vista. 

There is an interesting feature in Windows 7, called theme pack, which was not the part of earlier versions of Windows. A theme pack contains following things:

1. Desktop Wallpaper

2. Screensaver

3. Sounds

4. Slideshows

5. Color of the theme

6. Mouse Pointers

7. Desktop icons

And you can install a theme pack on any Windows 7 machine without patching Windows system

files. That is, you need not to use any third party software to install a theme pack. Just double-click on the theme pack to install it. Sounds good, right?

One more sheer advantage is that you can install this pack on any Windows 7 running machine with simple double-click! 

How to create a theme pack?

Making a theme pack is basically a simple task when compared to theme, as you are not using any resource hacking programs and other utilities.

Procedure:

1. Right-click on Desktop, select Properties. Here you will see many default theme packs. In the same window, you will get all the options that are required to customize and create a theme pack in Windows 7.

2. Now you need to customize all the items that you want to change in your new theme pack.

3. Select Desktop Background option and select multiple wallpapers if you like to have slideshow feature in your new theme pack.

 Just input the wallpaper folder you want to use by hitting the browse button on the right and navigating to the folder. Also don’t forget to customize the slideshow time interval. To change this, click on “Change picture every” option at the bottom of the window.

4. Next, if you are interested in modifying sounds, just change the Windows sounds.

5. Though many of us don’t use screensaver, it’s good idea to have a nice screensaver in your favorite theme pack. Right-click on Desktop > Personalize > Screensaver and customize the screen saver according to your taste.

6. Finally, modify the color of the theme to suite the wallpaper of the theme pack. Just make sure that you select a color which looks good with all the wallpapers in the slideshow feature. To modify the color, Right-click on Desktop > Personalize > Window Color and customize the color so that it matches with the wallpaper/s that you have included in this theme pack.

Once you are done, just click the “Save theme” link and change the type to .themepack and click the save button.  

source : intoindows.com

How to create a System repair disc in Windows 7

There maybe certain times when your computer can be filled with viruses or your little brother may delete all the system files (knowing or unknowingly) or …yeah sometimes you test a batch file and deletes all your ‘.dll’ files from system32 directory (this has happened twice in my case ‘.)), 

in those times you need a system repair disc. Microsoft has introduced System Repair Option in Windows 7 incase the things that I mentioned earlier happen.

In Windows 7 creating a system repair disc is fairly easy. FYI i have included necessary steps to create a system repair disc in this tutorial. You also need a compatible CD/DVD burner and blank CD/DVD.

First put a blank CD/DVD in the CD/DVD burner in your system. I recommend you to put a CD-R instead of DVD-R because files in the recovery disc occupied only 164 MB in my 4.7 GB DVD-R.

Goto Start —>All Programs —>Maintenance —>Create a System repair disc

or if you don’t like to click so many times you may press “Winlogo + R” type “recdisc.exe” (w/o quotes) and hit enter.

In the following Window click on Create disc.

                                       Create System Repair Disc window

Auto Enter Product Key When Installing Microsoft Office XP, 2003 and 2007

First you will need to copy all the files in the Office installer disc to your hard drive. Then edit the setup.ini file which is at Files\Setup folder and create a new value PIDKEY=YOURPRODUCTKEYHERE at Options. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it. The below guide is for Microsoft Office 2003.

1. Copy all the files from your Microsoft Office CD.

2. Go to \Files\Setup, right click on the Setup.ini file, select Properties and uncheck Read-only.

3. Open Setup.ini, locate [Options] and right at the bottom of the options, type PIDKEY=ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY. Replace the ABCDE… with your genuine Office product key.

4. Save the setup.ini file and burn all the files to a new disc if you need to.

Now when you run Microsoft Office setup, you will still see the dialog window where it asks you to enter the product key but it has been magically auto inserted for you. No more memorizing the CD key, or any precious time typing it.

For Office XP, you won’t find the setup.ini file but instead, you should modify the setupstd.ini file. It’s also in Files\Setup folder.

For Office 2007, the file that you need to modify is different and the file structure is also not the same as Office XP or 2003. Look for a folder called Enterprise.WW or Standard.WW or Pro.WW in the Office 2007 installer. Edit the config.xml file, remove the comment out code for PIDKEY and enter the 25 digit Office 2007 CD Key WITHOUT dashes.






You can now install Office without entering any product key.

Change and customize Windows 7's Logon screen wallpaper

A Registry tweak

The process begins with a very minor Registry tweak. Even for those who would not normally feel comfortable editing the Registry, this one’s a piece of cake. To begin, click the Start button and type Regedit in the Search box. Then, select the appropriate result and press [Enter]. When you do, you’ll see the User Account Control, shown in Figure A, and will need to click the Yes button.
Note: Editing the Windows Registry file is not without its risks, so be sure you have a verified backup before making any changes.

Once the Registry Editor launches, locate and right-click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key and select the Find command. When you see the Find dialog box, type OEMBackground in the text box and make sure that only the Values check box is selected, as shown in Figure B.

Figure B

When the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background key opens, locate and double-click the OEMBackground value. When you see the Edit DWORD dialog box, change the value data from 0 to 1, as shown in Figure C. (If the OEMBackground value doesn’t exist in the Background key, you’ll need to pull down the Edit menu from that key and select New | DWORD (32-bit) Value).

How to Enable / Disable Hibernation in Windows XP/Vista/7

Hiberfil.sys and Windows Hibernate function

To understand why hiberfil.sys exists, we must look at the Windows Hibernate function. When you activate Hibernate, Windows takes a snapshot of your current session (all your running programs, open files, etc.) and writes that information to your hard drive. Hibernate was designed to speed up shutdowns and restarts and save power on laptops.

Hiberfil.sys, as the name suggests, is the file to which Windows saves the snap-shot data. Thus, the file is always equal in size to the total amount of available RAM on the computer.On a computer with plenty of free disk space, having such a large file just hanging around usually isn’t a problem. But if you’re running low on hard drive space and never use the Hibernate feature, hiberfil.sys is unnecessarily eating up valuable disk real estate.

Disabling Windows Hibernation

As I noted earlier, you can manually delete hiberfil.sys, but it will just come back. To permanently remove the file, you must disable the Windows Hibernate function. You can do this through either the Windows GUI or the command line.