Category: Hack

  • Creating a shortcut and hotkey to Windows’ "Safely Remove Hardware" dialog

    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. The shortcut is simple to create, and uses a RunDll32.exe command that looks like this: RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll  …

  • 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? The whole process is pretty simple, as Microsoft has made…

  • 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…

  • 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: Naturally, this is annoying, but easily remedied. To do this, you need to…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • 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: Well, I wondered how they did this, and found out. This is how to brand your Internet Explorer, in three simple steps.: First, open the “run”-dialog box from…