Friday, May 13, 2011

The Sun sets on XP as Microsoft phases it out despite interest

9:55 PM Unknown


Windows XP has been the iconic operating system since it debuted in October of 2001. By today's standards the computers made back then were little more than large calculators but perhaps I am exaggerating that point. Since that time Windows XP was installed on every single computer sold but now the sun is going to set on the operating system that was known as Windows XP.
Microsoft is intent on no longer making OEM versions of Windows XP, this means computer manufacturers will no longer be able to install XP on systems unless they have a very specific agreement with Microsoft or are just good buddies with them like Dell.
Dell will introduce systems under a Customized with XP slogan, there really isn't much more information on that but these systems won't be on offer until later this year. Other manufacturers will probably just offer Vista on all their systems since Dell is the only one to have strong objections to this so far. But, Dell also has some of the strongest ties with Microsoft so it makes sense THEY could get away with it.
This could also mean that you will no longer be able to pick up OEM copies of XP from online retailers like Newegg and others. It has not been speculated on what this means for full retail copies of XP, my guess is that its demise is not far behind.
APCMag is reporting that by early 2008 most of Microsoft's contracts with computer manufacturers will require them to install Vista only and they wont have a choice. Consumer demand for XP preinstalled on systems is still strong and given the compatibility and performance problems of Vista on SOME systems this move is probably a little premature on Microsoft's part. That isn't going to stop them.
I'm all for Vista, I think it is a nice step forward and believe it or not those backwards compatibility issues with programs is a security feature if older apps can't run that means older viruses or spyware can't run in some cases, I've also noticed lower infection rates across the board on Vista at least for the short few months it has been out.
What will keep most people away from Vista are the hardware requirements. Most consumers will have no choice but to buy a completely new system if they want the full Vista experience and that should include a dedicated graphics card, dual core processor and 1GB to 2GB of memory (laptop or desktop) when buying a computer with Vista.



Creating a Torrent file using uTorrent

9:55 PM Unknown

By now, you have surely heard of, and probably used, torrent files. While you may know how to use them for downloading distributed content, did you know that you can use uTorrent to create your own torrent file for sharing your content?
1. Open uTorrent.
2. Go to the menu, click File and select Create New Torrent.
3. Once the new window appears, go to the Select Source section and click either the Add file or Add directory button, depending on what your need is. Browse to the desired file or directory, select it, and click the Open button.
4. If you know your Tracker and Web Seed information, enter them in the Torrent Properties section.
5. Click the Create and save as button and browse to the location that you want the file saved to. Click the Save button.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Change XP Boot Screen

9:18 PM Unknown

Michael asks, Is there any way to get rid of "branding" on a computer? Where computer manufacture advertise there products when you start you computer.
Depending on which computer manufacturer made your computer, you might have a simple splash screen displayed as the BIOS loads or you might be inundated with advertising throughout the entire boot process. These are two separate image locations requiring editing in multiple places and some confidence in your computing skills, as the BIOS option can potentially damage your system if done incorrectly.
Changing the Windows Boot Screen
I'll start with the Windows boot screen, since that's fairly easy and doesn't necessarily require any direct modification of system files. There are several ways to approach changing the boot screen. One option is to eliminate it completely, opting to display a blank screen until Windows completes the boot process. To turn off the boot logo, Click Start > Run and type MSCONFIG in the run dialog box to launch the System Configuration Utility. On the BOOT.INI tab, check the box next to /NOGUIBOOT and click OK. The next time you reboot your computer, you'll see the BIOS screen and then nothing until Windows loads completely. The downside to this option is you won't get any feedback if your PC gets hung up somewhere in the boot process.
Image



To maintain a more visual boot process, while also eliminating any boot branding, you might simply want to replace the boot image. The easy way to do this is to download a freeware app from WinCustomize called BootSkin. The app automatically overrides the default Windows boot screen, replacing it with one of the many options in the WinCustomize BootSkin library. With some practice you can make your own custom BootSkin as well.
Image
Download BootSkin
If you want to get really geeky, a third option is to edit the operating system file where the boot screen information resides. You need to be careful in doing this or you can end up with a computer that won't boot. The first part of the process is to create or find an image you want to use. If your computer simply has the all black Windows XP boot screen, with the XP logo like the one pictured below, you don't need a very large image.
Image
Simply create a 215x147 .bmp file with 16 colors (NOT 16-bit) in any image editor and you've got a working replacement. If your computer manufacturer overrides this default screen with something else, you may need to get creative to eliminate all the branding. In general, using a black background looks more consistent, but you can use any of the 16 colors in your palette.
With your new image created, you need a freeware app called Resource Hacker to make some changes.
Before proceeding, locate ntoskrnl.exe in your Windows > system32 folder. Make a copy of the file called newntoskrnl.exe or something equally easy to remember and leave the copy in the system32 folder.
Make a second copy of the ntoskrnl.exe on your desktop (this is the one you will edit).
Open ntoskrnl.exe in Resource Hacker. Expand Bitmap > 5 and highlight the 1033 folder. Right-click the 1033 icon and choose Replace Resource.
Image
Click the Open file with new bitmap button and locate the image you created earlier. Click the Replace button. Save and exit Resource Hacker. You can optionally replace all elements of the boot screen by editing each portion of the Bitmap.
Image
Reboot into SafeMode and copy your newly created ntoskrnl.exe file into the Windows > system32 folder.
Note: If you are using Windows 2000, you can simply replace the image in the Bitmap > 1 > 1033 location with a 640x480 16 color Bitmap to modify the Win2k boot screen in a similar fashion.
Changing the BIOS Splash Screen
To eliminate the branded splash screen associated with your BIOS, you need to obtain the firmware update for your BIOS and edit the logo file that's part of the BIOS fileset before applying the update. Since every computer model and manufacturer uses a slightly different BIOS configuration, it's important to get the BIOS specific to your computer from the support section of the manufacturer's Website. In some cases, like my HP laptop, it's become virtually impossible to replace the logo because the BIOS flash process is contained in an .exe file that runs locally in Windows rather than from a separate disk.
Assuming your PC manufacturer has you create a floppy designed to flash the PC bios, you can fairly easily make a change to the logo displayed. In following the directions to create the BIOS boot disk, simply replace the included logo.bmp file in the BIOS update package with a logo.bmp file created by you. The key here is to use a 16 color (NOT 16-bit color) 640x480 BMP file. Copy your logo.bmp file onto the disk used for your BIOS update and run the bundled logo.bat file by double-clicking it. This converts the logo.bmp to a format ready for the BIOS update.
It's vital to keep all the files in the BIOS update named exactly as they were or your computer may not work after the update. Any changes made to BIOS update files should be done at your own risk and with extreme care.



Win XP: Restricting Logon Access

9:09 PM Unknown

If you work in a multiuser computing environment, and you have full (administrator level) access to your computer, you might want to restrict unauthorized access to your "sensitive" files under Windows 95/98.
One way is to disable the Cancel button in the Logon dialog box.
Just run Regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Network/Logon

Create the "Logon" subkey if it is not present on your machine: highlight the Network key -> right-click in the left hand Regedit pane -> select New -> Key -> name it "Logon" (no quotes) -> press Enter. Then add/modify a DWORD value and call it "MustBeValidated" (don't type the quotes). Double-click it, check the Decimal box and type 1 for value.
Now click the Start button -> Shut Down (Log off U

Win XP: How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent

9:05 PM Unknown

Go to control Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance area > Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop"



How to Accelerate Windows XP File Searches

8:26 PM Unknown

There is one of the most important features of Vista (or Windows 7) that put Windows XP to shame – File Searches.
With Vista, you can search your files faster, because Vista indexed your entire computer file and its characteristic into database (it traverse all the directories first while you’re doing other things). But with Windows XP, the file search tool traverse all the directory at the same time when you are looking for a specific file, and it did it each time you searching for the same file and this make the process slow.
Fortunately, there are many alternative exist to accelerate Windows XP file searches. Two of my recommendation is to use Copernic Desktop Search or Google Desktop. Both tools has capability to index your e-mail messages, documents, MP3 files, images, and other content for lightning-fast searches. Besides that, it also let you quick look inside found files without opening them. That’s what we can call a good search tool!



Renaming the Win XP Start Menu Button

8:11 PM Unknown


Are you bored of having the name “start”? If so now you can rename your start menu button to give the name of your choice.

BYPASSING WINDOWS FILE PROTECTION
1.Launch My Computer,click tools,folder options,then view
2.Select show all hidden files and folders option and uncheck the option hide
protected operating system files,unckeck hide extension for known file types
3.Open C:\windows\system32\restore,select the file filelist.xml,right click it go to properties and uncheck read-only
4.Open it(filelist.xml) with notepad
5.Add the line %systemroot%\explorer.exe as shown below

%systemroot%\explorer.exe
%windir%\system.ini
%windir%\tasks\desktop.ini
%windir%\win.ini
*:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
*:\CONFIG.MSI
*:\CONFIG.SYS
6.Save the file
7.Open C:\windows\system32\dllcache,you will find a backup copy of explorer.exe. Rename it to explorer.bak.
CHANGING THE NAME OF START BUTTON
1.Open Resource Hacker,open C:\windows\explorer.exe
2.Expand string,expand 37,click on 1033
3.On right side rename “start” to anything you want EG.”anything” and press compile script
4.Repeat the same procedure for string,38,1033
5.Save changes in file menu(if error occurs close explorer.exe and repeat sub-step 3 & 4
6.Press ctrl+alt+del in processes tab of task manager endtask explorer.exe
7.Again in new task open C:\windows\explorer.exe you will see that start menu is renamed
8.Close task manager and ENJOY!!!!

Friday, May 6, 2011

What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running?

9:43 PM Unknown

You are no doubt reading this article because you are wondering why on earth there are nearly a dozen processes running with the name svchost.exe. You can't kill them, and you don't remember starting them… so what are they?
So What Is It?
According to Microsoft: "svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries". Could we have that in english please?
Some time ago, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files. From a programming perspective this makes more sense for reusability… but the problem is that you can't launch a .dll file directly from Windows, it has to be loaded up from a running executable (.exe). Thus the svchost.exe process was born.
Why Are There So Many svchost.exes Running?
If you've ever taken a look at the Services section in control panel you might notice that there are a Lot of services required by Windows. If every single service ran under a single svchost.exe instance, a failure in one might bring down all of Windows… so they are separated out.
Those services are organized into logical groups, and then a single svchost.exe instance is created for each group. For instance, one svchost.exe instance runs the 3 services related to the firewall. Another svchost.exe instance might run all the services related to the user interface, and so on.
So What Can I Do About It?
You can trim down unneeded services by disabling or stopping the services that don't absolutely need to be running. Additionally, if you are noticing very heavy CPU usage on a single svchost.exe instance you can restart the services running under that instance.
The biggest problem is identifying what services are being run on a particular svchost.exe instance… we'll cover that below.
If you are curious what we're talking about, just open up Task Manager and check the "Show processes from all users" box:
Checking From the Command Line (Vista or XP Pro)
If you want to see what services are being hosted by a particular svchost.exe instance, you can use the tasklist command from the command prompt in order to see the list of services.
tasklist /SVC
The problem with using the command line method is that you don't necessarily know what these cryptic names refer to.
Checking in Task Manager in Vista
You can right-click on a particular svchost.exe process, and then choose the "Go to Service" option.
This will flip over to the Services tab, where the services running under that svchost.exe process will be selected:
The great thing about doing it this way is that you can see the real name under the Description column, so you can choose to disable the service if you don't want it running.
Using Process Explorer in Vista or XP
You can use the excellent Process Explorer utility from Microsoft/Sysinternals to see what services are running as a part of a svchost.exe process.
Hovering your mouse over one of the processes will show you a popup list of all the services:
Or you can double-click on a svchost.exe instance and select the Services tab, where you can choose to stop one of the services if you choose.
Disabling Services
Open up Services from the administrative tools section of Control Panel, or type services.msc into the start menu search or run box.
Find the service in the list that you'd like to disable, and either double-click on it or right-click and choose Properties.
Change the Startup Type to Disabled, and then click the Stop button to immediately stop it.
You could also use the command prompt to disable the service if you choose. In this command "trkwks" is the Service name from the above dialog, but if you go back to the tasklist command at the beginning of this article you'll notice you can find it there as well.
sc config trkwks start= disabled
Hopefully this helps somebody!



How To Change the Default View Source Editor for Internet Explorer

9:41 PM Unknown

If you hate using Notepad as the source editor for IE, you can change the default View Source Editor for Internet Explorer by following one of these methods.
You have three choices:
(A) Download software
View Source Editor
http://www.iconico.com/viewSourceEditor/
“Are you frustrated at Internet Explorer’s insistence on using Notepad when you click View Source? This little application let’s you use any text editor instead of Notepad. All you need to do it choose the program and you’re set.”
(B) Manual Registry Edit
Change default View Source editor in IE
http://dotnet.org.za/thea/archive/2004/11/25/7933.aspx
(C) Create a Registry File
1. Copy below and paste into Notepad.
———-copy inside only———-
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor\Editor Name]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe\”"
———-copy inside only———-
2. Modify the line @= to suite your choice.
   (Match the syntax or it won’t work!)
3. Save-as IE_View_Source_Editor.reg (or any name + .reg)
4. Double-click or right-click and merge into the Registry.

Windows XP: Hide 'User Accounts' from users

9:37 PM Unknown

Go to Start/Run, and type: GPEDIT.MSC
Open the path: User Config > Admin Templates > Control Panel
double click "Hide specified Control Panel applets"
put a dot in 'enabled', then click 'Show"
click Add button,
type "nusrmgt.cpl" into the add box



Windows XP: How to Rename the Recycle Bin

9:35 PM Unknown

To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, open Regedit and go to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want (don't type any quotes).

Windows 7: Can My Computer Run XP Mode?

9:30 PM Unknown

XP Mode is a Virtual PC based environment that can be installed and run on a compatible Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate machine. The feature provides users with a safety net for compatibility to run there applications, just in case the apps do not run on Windows 7. In order for XP Mode to run on a computer, the PC must meet a set of requirements.

Here are the requirements for XP Mode:
Windows 7 Ultimate, Enterprise, or Ultimate2GB of RAM (the more, the better)Intel Virtualization technology (Intel VT) or AMD virtualization (AMD-V)

While the first two criteria are relatively simple to check, you may be wondering if your processor meets the virtualization requirement. There are two tools available for download that will easily answer that question:

If you have an Intel processor, you will need to download and run the Intel Processor Identification Utility.

If you have an AMD processor, you will need to download and run the AMD-V Technology and Microsoft Hyper-V Compatibility Check.

You will need to run the utilities with elevated privilege, so right-click the executable and select Run as administrator.

Password Protect Folders in Windows XP

9:12 PM Unknown

Do you share a computer with other users and want some extra security on your folders? There are two ways to password protect a folder built into Windows XP (for other Windows flavors, there are some freeware/shareware programs out there).

#1 If you have a log in password for your account, this can be used to protect folders from other users. Your hard drive must be formatted using NTFS (which it probably is unless you're dual booting with another operating system). Here's what to do...

Right-click the folder that you want to make private and choose "Properties" (or Alt+Double-click). Go to the "Sharing" tab and check the "Make this folder private" box.


 
Click Apply . If you do not have a password on your account, a box will pop up asking if you want to assign a password. This must be done if you want to make the folder private, so click Yes . You will need to use your password to log on to your computer from then on.

Type in a password then confirm it. Click the "Create Password" button then close the Password window.

Click OK in the Properties dialog box.

Now anyone else logged on to your computer can't access that file without knowing your password.

#2 If the Folder is Zipped you can give it a unique password.

Just double-click the zipped folder. In the top menu select File then click "Add a Password".



 
Type a password into the Password box. Then again in the "Confirm Password" box.


 
Now, you are the only person who can access files in this folder. The folder can be opened allowing the files to be seen, but you are the only one who can access them.

Don't you feel more secure now?

Using xp-AntiSpy

8:57 PM Unknown

xp-AntiSpy is a neat little utility to automatically apply different settings to the operating system, which could also be done by hand, but at a higher expense of time.
It’s latest version 3.95 can be downloaded from here
xp-AntiSpy runs on the following operating systems:
  • Microsoft Windows XP Home/Professional
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
It displays various settings most of which are hidden in Windows.
Now, select Profiles>Suggested and the program will highlight all the important settings, then click ‘Apply Settings’ and restart Windows for the settings to take effect.
Well that part is over.
The next option is ‘Connection Limit’. This option can be used to increase the default connection limit in Windows which is 10.
The following was extracted from the xp-AntiSpy help file:
The connection limit was introduced by Microsoft with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP and Service Pack 1a for Windows 2003. It limits the connection requests at a time to 10. This should prevent malware from goin’ bezerk on your system and spreading its seed rapidly all around the network.
Some programs, for example file sharing software, sometimes reach the limit and therefore cannot perform as required without the limit.
Performance is not meant as bandwidth in this context.
You can check for yourself if your system reaches the limit. Take a look in the event viewer (hit start->run and enter Eventvwr.msc). When you click the System entry, take a look at the row named Event ID. If you see the number 4226 being displayed, then your system has reached the limit at that time.
To increase connection limit go to Special>Connection Limit which will bring up a dialog box with a message. Click ‘Yes,I got it’.
A second dialog box shows up displaying your current Connection Limit.
If the limit set on your computer is 10 then change it to 50 and click ‘Patch’.
Applying this tweak is very useful for file sharing softwares.
That’s it. I hope you found this tutorial useful. Please let me know by commenting



How to increase download speeds of uTorrent

8:54 PM Unknown

uTorrent was very slow for me until recently I applied a few tweaks. Here’s what I did.
Note: Some of the settings mentioned below are optimized for 256k connection. If you want to calculate the optimal settings for your connection, check at the end of this tutorial. But I suggest you to read the entire tutorial for guidance on other settings.

First go to Options>Preferences>Network

  1. Under ‘Port used for incomming connections’, enter any port number. It is best to use a port number above 10000. I use 45682.
  2. Randomize port each time uTorrent starts: UNCHECKED. I leave this unchecked because I have a router. If you do not have a router or a firewall, and want extra security,check this option.
  3. Enable UPnP port mapping (Windows Xp or later only): UNCHECKED. I leave this unchecked because I have experienced it slowing down speeds. It is not needed if you manually port forward.
  4. Add uTorrent to Windows Firewall exceptions (Windows XP SP2 or later only): UNCHECKED (do this only if you have windows firewall disabled)
  5. Global Maximum upload rate (kb/s): [0: unlimited]: 22 (for 256k connection)
  6. Protocol Encryption: ENABLED. I would recommend everyone to enable this. This can help increase speeds with many ISPs.
  7. Allow incoming Legacy Connections: CHECKED

Options>Preferences>Torrents

  1. Global Maximum Number of Connections: 130 (for 256k connection)This number should not be set too low or the number of connections made to your torrents will be limited. Setting it too high may cause too much bandwidth to be used and can cause slowdowns.
  2. Maximum Number of connected peers per torrent: 70 (for 256k connection)If you see that the peers connected to a specific torrent are exactly this number, or very close, increase this number to improve speeds.
  3. Number of upload slots per torrent: 3 (for 256k connection)This depends on how much you want to upload to other users. Do not set too low or it may affect download speeds.
  4. Use additional upload slots if upload speed <90%: CHECKED
  5. Maximum number of active torrents: 2 (for 256k connection)
  6. Maximum number of active downloads: 1 (for 256k connection)
  7. Enable DHT Network: Checked This is recommended to be checked to improve speeds. More people will be available for sharing if this is checked.
  8. Enable DHT for new torrents: CHECKED
  9. Enable Peer Exchange: CHECKED
  10. Enable scrapping: CHECKED
  11. Pre-allocate all files: CHECKED
  12. Append .!ut to incomplete files: UNCHECKED

Options>Preferences>Advanced

net.max_halfopen: 50
If you use Windows XP SP2, patch tcpip.sys with LvlLord’s Event ID 4226 Patcher to get better performance.
DO NOT CHANGE THIS OPTION unless you have Windows XP SP2 and have patched tcpip.sys.
You can also patch tcpip.sys with xp-Antispy.
If you have a firewall
  • Open up the options/preferences/settings for the firewall - usually your firewall will have an icon to click in the task bar
  • Look for the keywords “allow list” or “programs”
  • Add the application you want to give access to the INTERNET
  • Make sure to save your settings when you are done

If you have a router

  1. Go to start>run>type cmd, press enter>type ipconfig, press enter
  2. Remember both your ip address and your default gateway
  3. Type in your default gateway into your default browser, a password prompt may come up. The default user name and password are admin for my router
  4. Under ‘Applications’ fill out one line for each p2p client you use
  5. You need to use your ip address, the correct port range and set either tcp or udp
  6. You can find and change the ports in the actual p2p client’s settings, just make sure they are the same in the router
  7. Most p2p apps need both tcp and udp checked, if you are not sure check your p2p client’s FAQ
  8. Save your settings
:!: Check PortForward.com to forward ports for uTorrent.
Some of the settings I mentioned above are relative to my bandwidth.
How to calculate optimal settings for your connection
In order to apply the following tips you need to know your maximum upload and download speeds. You can test your bandwidth over here.

Maximum upload speed

If you use your Maximum upload speed, there won’t be not enough space left for the files you are downloading. So you have to cap your upload speed.
This is how I calculate my optimal upload speed…
upload speed * 80%

Maximum download speed

Setting your maximum download speed to unlimited will hurt your connection. So use this to calculate your optimal setting.
download speed * 90%

Maximum connected peers per torrent

upload speed * 1.3

Maximum upload slots

1 + (upload speed / 6)

Disable Windows Firewall

Windows Firewall hates P2P and so disable it and get yourself a decent firewall like Zone Alarm.
And last optimize your Internet connection with TCP Optimizer.
Know any other tricks to increase uTorrent’s download speed? Please share them here.

Windows 7: Customize How the Date is Displayed in the System Tray

8:36 PM Unknown



By default the Windows 7 task bar uses large icons, which makes for a bigger task bar. This easily allows not only the time to show in the system tray, but the date as well. You can customize how the date is displayed and what information it will show.

1. Go to the Control Panel.
2. Select Clock, Language, and Region.
3. Select Region and Language.
4. Click the Additional settings button.
5. Select the Date tab.
6. Go to the Date formats section. Use the Short date drop down to select the desired display. Click the Apply button to view the results.
If you don’t see what you want, you can add your own by placing your cursor on the drop down and typing.
You will need to keep these notations in mind:
d, dd are for displaying the date
ddd, dddd are for displaying the day of the week
M, MM, MMM, MMMM are for displaying the month
yy, yyyy are for displaying the year.
By using these notations and separators such as hyphens, commas, periods, etc. you can customize your date to display in a number of ways.
For example:
ddd MM/dd/yy
will make your date look like this:

Disable Avira Notifier

8:29 PM Unknown

I recently downloaded Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus as my primary antivirus program. I had been using version 8.2.
Avira has one drawback - A nagging notifier to upgrade to the premium version pops up every time you update the Avira database.
To disable this pesky notifier, simply follow these directions:
For XP and Vista Users:
1. Start-> Control Panel
2. Administrative tools-> Local security policy
3. Click on Software Restriction Policy-> Action (at the top)-> create new restriction policies
4. Right-click additional rules (on the right side)-> new path rule
5. Click Browse and navigate to C:\Program Files\(Avira)\AntiVir Desktop\ and double-click avnotify.exe
6. Set the security level to Disallowed-> apply-> OK
If you had Avira previously installed and have already disallowed this, you need to change the thread to match (which for me meant changing AntiVir Personal Classic to AntiVir Desktop).
It’s a beautiful thing my friends!
You can download Avira AntiVir Personal at <a href=”http://download.cnet.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html?part=dl-10322935&subj=dl&tag=button&cdlPid=11012914”>Download.com</a>. 



How to Enable, Adjust or Disable Transparency in Windows 7

8:24 PM Unknown

You must have noticed that the borders of windows in Windows 7 are transparent or translucent so that you can see what’s behind the window. You can enable or disable or adjust transparency according to your convenience.
WARNING
You will not have the Transparency option if you have a Basic and High Contrast Theme instead of a Aero Theme.
Aero Requirements to be Enabled in Windows 7:
NOTE: If Aero is not enabled, then Transparency will not work even when enabled.
  • 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
  • 1 GB of system memory
  • A graphics card with support for Direct X 9 graphics with at least 128 MB of memory.
  • The graphics card must support Pixel Shader 2.0 and the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM).
  • You must be have True Color (32 bit) set instead of High Color (16 bit).
  • The desktop composition and Animate controls and elements inside windows options enabled in Visual Effects.
  • Refresh or update your WEI score.
To enable or disable Transparency in Windows 7 follow these simple steps:
1) Right click on an empty area of the Desktop and choose Personalize option

 
2) In the Personalization window click the Window Color link at the bottom of the window


3) Now check the Enable transparency option to enable transparency
You can then slide the slider forward or backward to adjust the degree of transparency.
OR
Unchecked the Enable transparency option to disable transparency.


 4) Click on Save Changes button

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