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Untold
Windows Tips and Secrets
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:
50
01 00 20
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
*******************
Note:
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:
START
application_path
It
does do what it seems to do, start applications. So in you have access to DOS
then you can type in the START command to get access to the restricted folder.
Now mostly access to DOS too would be blocked. So again you can use the shortcut
trick to launch, c:\command.com or c:\windows\command.com. (Command.com is the
file which launches MS DOS).
Accessing
Restricted Drives.
The
problem with most system administrators is that they think that the users or
Hackers too are stupid. Almost all system administrators use the Registry Trick
(Explained Earlier) to hide all drives in My Computer. So in order to unhide or
display all drives, simply delete that particular key.(Refer to beginning of
Untold Secrets Section.)
Some
systems have the floppy disk disabled through the BIOS. On those systems if the
BIOS is protected, you may need to crack the BIOS password. (For that Refer to
the Windows Hacking Chapter). Sometimes making drives readable (Removing R +)
and then creating Shortcuts to them also helps us to get access to
them.
Further
Changing your Operating System's Looks by editing .htt
files
If
you have installed Windows Desktop Update and have the view as Web Page option
enabled, you can customise the way the folder looks by selecting View >
Customise this folder. Here you can change the background and other things about
that particular folder. Well that is pretty lame, right? We hackers already know
things as lame as that. Read on for some kewl stuff.
Well,
you could also change the default that is stored in a Hidden HTML Template file
(I think so..) which is nothing but a HTML document with a .htt extension. This
.htt file is found at: %systemroot%\web\folder.htt.
The
%systemroot% stands for the drive in which Windows is Installed, which is
normally C:
You
can edit these .htt files almost just like you edit normal .HTM or .HTML files.
Simply open them in an ASCII editor like Notepad. The following is a list of
.htt files on your system which control various folders and which can be edited
to customise the way various folders look.
controlp.htt
Control Panel
printers.htt
Printers
mycomp.htt
My Computer
safemode.htt
Safe Mode
All
these files are found in the web folder in %systemfolder%. The folder.htt file
has a line:
'Here's
a good place to add a few lines of your own"
which
is the place where you can add your own A HREF links. These links would then
appear in the folder whose folder.htt file you edited. All this might sound
really easy and simple, but you see these .htt files do not contain normal HTML
code, instead they contain a mixture of HTML and web bots. Hence they can be
difficult for newbies to understand.