Category Archives: Microsoft

Change IE Start Page

System administrators will almost always set the default home page for the browser to the corporate website or intranet when building a machine. This is just a small registry hack that will set the home page for IE6 or IE7. You could probably use this in a logon script to set to home page on all users when… Read More »

Allow IE More Download Threads

Have you ever tried to download more than 2 files from the same website and noticed the third download doesn”t start until one of the prior two are done? The reason for this is that the HTTP 1.1 spec says that only two connections may be allowed at a time, so your browser adheres to that limit. We… Read More »

Run Control Panel Applets from a Command Prompt

This handy little chart shows you which commands to issue at the command prompt to start control panel applets. Very handy for keyboard commandos. Applet Name Filename Accessibility Controls access.cpl Add/Remove Programs control appwiz.cpl Add Hardware Wizard hdwwiz.cpl Automatic Updates wuaucpl.cpl Date/Time Properties control timedate.cpl Display Properties control desk.cpl or control desktop Display Properties “Appearance Tab Preselected” control… Read More »

How To Add A URL Address Bar To The Taskbar

You can add an Internet URL address bar to your Windows XP taskbar. Doing so will let you type in URLs and launch Web pages without first launching a browser. It will also let you launch some native Windows XP applications in much the same way as you would via the Run menu (so you could type in… Read More »

Maximum Size of DFS Namespace

An Active Directory (AD)-integrated Dfs namespace has a maximum size of 5MB, which is space enough for approximately 5000 links. A standalone Dfs namespace has a supported limit of 50,000 links.

DNS Log Reports Event ID 4515

If you receive event ID 4515 and also have difficulty changing the Active Directory (AD) replication scope from all domain controllers (DCs) to just DCs that host the DNS service, perform these steps to resolve the problem:

How to Find an App’s Registry Settings

Applications usually scatter their configuration settings all over the Windows registry when they are installed, but in general there are two places you can find these settings in case you want to modify them or troubleshoot something. Specifically, per-user application settings are usually found in the following key or something like it:

Enable/Disable System Restore

Windows XP has a feature System Restore which allows users to restore Windows settings and configurations to an earlier point in time (called Restore Points). An administrator can turn off the System Restore feature. This tip gives you the registry hack to disable user access to the System Restore menu option in the Start menu and Control Panel.… Read More »