Schtasks is a command line tool that replaces the infamous AT command for scheduling tasks to run on local and remote computers. You dont have to logout a user to run administrator installations. Shift+right-click the setup file, then select Run As and enter an admin username and password.

One of the best collections of digital art I have ever seen is at http://www.depthcore.com/ Which ones are your favorites?

Rainys has some nice apps at http://vapaa.dc.inet.fi/~rainy/index.php including a skinnable desktop calendar and a performance meter. SysMetrix is a cool skinnable clock and metering app from Xymantix at http://www.xymantix.com/ Another cool addition to your desktop is Desktop Sidebar from http://www.desktopsidebar.com/ Samurize lets you create your own cool desktop tools at http://www.samurize.com/modules/news/

Rather than modifying your Windows interface, you can completely replace it. Litestep is one of the more popular Windows shell replacements from http://www.litestep.net/ You have to register at the site to access it. Talisman Desktop is available from http://www.lighttek.com/ And Aston Shel is from http://www.astonshell.com/

PatchXP patches Windows to let you use non-Microsoft themes http://www.belchfire.net/article205.html tgtsoft sells Style XP http://www.tgtsoft.com/ An easy tutorial on modifying your boot and login screens is at http://www.extrememhz.com/winxpcust-p2.shtml Some cool themes available from http://www.lightstar1.com/ complete with FAQs on how to install them.

Wincustomize has a huge collection of skins for WindowsBlinds, WindowsFX and DesktopX, as well as skins for specific applications like WinAmp and CoolPlayer. http://www.wincustomize.com/ ObjectBar from Stardock is a commercial app containing a number of tools for completely customizing your Windows. It contains apps like DesktopX which lets you download or create your own desktop [...]

Annoyances.org has a list of simple modifications you can make to Windows yourself at http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/category02 An easy one to avoid unsightly gray rectangles around the titles of your desktop icons is to open System Properties in Control Panel, choose the Advanced tab, and click Settings in the Performance section. Turn on the Use drop shadows [...]

The basic Windows XP installation looks a lot nicer (or worse, depending on your point of view) than earlier Windows versions. But you aren’t limited to the basic themes that come out of the box. You can modify the styles yourself, or download applications that let you install themes that others have created.

Tips and spoilers for Dark Age of Camelots ToA Master Levels are available at http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/

TqcRunas from http://www.quimeras.com/ can be set up to let users run applications with administrator rights. The admin password can be encrypted for security.

An excellent set of batch files for removing all the fluff that comes with Windows XP at http://jdeboeck.msfnhosting.com/ [Edit: this site is no longer available - but the forum thread is still available at msfn.org] Use one of the methods on msfn for making an unattended installation CD and you’ll have a quick install and [...]

Click Start, click the Run command and type REGEDIT in the open text box. Click OK. This opens the Registry Editor. All the usual precautions for editing the Registry apply. Browse to the following location in the left pane of the Registry Editor: HKEY CURRENT USER\Control Panel\Keyboard In the right pane, right click on InitialKeyboardIndicators [...]

Add /sos to the line that boots your OS in boot.ini [boot loader] timeout=5 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect /sos

To remove MS Messenger run the following command: RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

If you are a Windows network administrator I recommend that you set the WSH options to run scripts at the command prompt by default. The default WSH script host is Wscript.exe, which runs scripts in the GUI — this means that all input and output takes place in popup message boxes, which require user intervention [...]

To take full advantage of the power of scripting, your workstation should be running the most current releases of VBScript, WSH, WMI and ADSI available for your version of Windows. Check that you have the latest versions at Microsofts Tales from the Script

When you open My Computer, by default XP will search for network files and printers. This slows down the display of the icons while the search takes place, especially on a slow machine. You can speed this up by telling XP not to perform this search. Here’s how: Click Start | My Computer. Click Tools [...]

The insertion point is the blinking vertical line that shows you where to type in an application. You can change the speed of the blinking and the thickness of the line. Click Start | Control Panel | Accessibility Options. Click the Display tab. Under Cursor Options, you’ll see two sliders that can be used to [...]

My head hurts. Musta been all the beer last night. Hirame is in Tokyo for a week so we went out with her last night. It was fun, the bits I remember anyway.

h2. heading p. paragraph inserted here I hope bq.:www.dmortell.com This is a blockquote but how long does it go on for? fn20. this is footnote 20 # item 1 # item2 * list1 * list2 _emp_ __ital__ *strong* **bold** ??cite?? -deleted- +inserted+ ^super^ ~sub~ @code@ %(bob)span% ==no textile conversion h3. I hope == “link(description)”:http://www.dmortell.com !images/bullet.gif(alt [...]

Office 2000: Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE). Expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Office\ 9.0\ Common\ General. If any of these branches aren’t there, just create them – one by one – by selecting New and then Key from the Edit menu. Once you’ve highlighted the General key, select New and then DWORD Value [...]

Right-click the menu bar or toolbar, and select Customize. Right-click the ‘Type a question for help’ box, and turn off the Show Ask a Question box option. Click Close. You’ll have to do this in each application to get rid of them all.

In your root directory: Anything with the extensions *.TXT, *.PRV, *.LOG, *.OLD, and *.—. If you don’t plan on uninstalling Windows, you can delete WIN95UNDO.DAT (Windows 98 only). In your Windows directory: Anything with the extensions *.LOG, *.OLD, *.- – -, *.BAK, and *.000, *.001 (and so on…) Any files with the following dates can [...]

To get rid of a particular Help Contents screen, which are usually useless anyway, just delete the .CNT file from the application directory. For example, to remove the contents page assocated with WINWORD.HLP, for example, just delete WINWORD.CNT from the same folder.

Solution #1: The next time it appears, click Cancel, and then select the Don’t show the Internet Connection Wizard next time option. Note that disabling the wizard won’t remove the files from your hard disk (see Solution #2), which means it’s still taking up hard disk space. Solution #2: Delete the entire Connection Wizard folder [...]