In a previous post I talked about using Windows’ “Safely Remove Hardware” dialog to avoid losing data from USB drives. Having done some more research, I’ve found a way to create a shortcut to this dialog.
Category: Hack
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Changing the Windows Product Key
A while back I was unfortunate enough to run across a pirated copy of Windows on one of my computers. Naturally, I had a legal Product Key, but how to change the Product Key so that you’re not bugged by the Windows Genuine Advantage utility?
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Deactivating Automatic Reboot after Windows Update
Have you ever returned to your computer only to find it having restarted, and all of your data gone? For a myriad of reasons, I keep my computers running continuously for a long time at a time. This makes this insistence on a reboot not only annoying, but in its extremes, it can actually make me lose work. To prevent this, I have disabled the auto-reboot, and I am no longer annoyed with repeated requests for reboots.
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Firefox: Disabling the Extension Install Delay
In a previous blogpost I wrote about my favorite Firefox extensions. One thing that annoys me though, is that whenever I try to install an extension, Firefox shows a dialog box, and grays out the “install” button for three seconds, like this:
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Changing the Program Files Folder
Why would one want to change the default Program Files folder? I like to compartmentalize my disks so that should something go wrong, I can still recover data after a reinstallation. Part of preparing this is the fact that all of my computers’ main hard drives (HDD) are partitioned into a minimum of two partitions, a 5GB one for the system, and only the system, and the rest for everything else.
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Changing the OEM-info
The OEMINFO.ini-file is a file that stores support information about your computer, which usually ships with computers delivered with a preinstalled operating system. It can contain virtually anything, but usually it contains the name of the manufacturer, the address to their website, and similar information.
The following hack allows you to change the information contained in the file, as well as the logo set by the manufacturer.
Here’s how to do it:
Open %root%\WINDOWS\system32, find the file OEMINFO.ini, and open it in notepad.
It will look something like this:
[general] Manufacturer=%Name of manufacturer% Model=%Model of computer%
[Support Information] Line1=Web: %URL to manufacturers website% Line2=Email: %Email address of manufacturer% Line3=Phone: %Phonenumber of manufacturer%
Edit this file at will.
The file I edited, looks like this:
[general]
Manufacturer=A. R. Rødner Tech ENK
Model=WiseDesk 2.2
[Support Information]
Line1=Web: https://www.razumny.no
Line2=Email: **********@******.**
Line3=Phone: +**-********
Line4=If in need of software support, refer to software manufacturers
Line5=website.
Line6=If in need of hardware support, refer to hardware manufacturers
Line7=website.
Line8=If all else fails, consult the forum at http:\\www.itpro.no
If you want to change the image that goes with the OEMINFO, you need to make a .bmp-file called oemlogo.bmp, which is to be no larger than 100 by 102 pixels (you may make it as large as you want, but make it much larger than 100 by 102 pixels, and not all of the image will be shown.
Here’s what mine looked like:
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Branding Internet Explorer
Like me, you’ve probably been using the internet for a while, and may have noticed that sometimes Internet Explorer has a “provided by”-tag, looking something like this: