How can I enable theme support in Windows Server 2003?

Windows Server 2003 has the theme support services disabled by default.

To enable themes on Windows Server 2003 follow the next steps:

1. Go to the Services applet in Administrative Tools (or click Start, then Run, and type "services.msc" (without quotes) and click
   OK).
2. Find the "Themes" service, right-click and select Properties, select "Automatic" instead of "Disabled" in the startup type box.
3. Click Apply.
4. Right-click the Themes service and select Start.
   

You can also modify start state and start it from a Command Prompt console by using the following command:
sc config Themes start= auto
sc start Themes (or net start Theme)

For now you only have Luna Blue, Silver and Olive Green to choose from.

1. Go to Control Panel, select Display and then go to the Appearance tab.
2. In the "Windows and Buttons" drop-down list select "Windows XP Style". Click Ok.
3. Now you can choose the color scheme.

How To: Burn a CD using Windows XP

You can burn a CD using Windows XP. No special CD-burning software required. All it needs is a CD-R or CD-RW disk, a machine running Windows XP and a CD-RW disk drive.

Step 1
Insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW disk into the CD-RW drive. A pop-up dialog box should appear after Windows loads the CD. (No pop-up dialog box? Open "My Computer" from your desktop and double-click on your CD-RW drive icon.)

Step 2
Double-click the option, "Open writable CD folder using Windows Explorer." You will see the files that are currently on the CD in your CD-RW drive. If you inserted a blank CD, you will see nothing.

Step 3
Click on the "Start" menu, and then "My Computer." (No "My Computer" on your start menu? It is likely you have the Windows Classic Start Menu enabled, and you will have to double-click "My Computer" on the desktop instead.) Navigate to the files that you wish to burn onto the CD.

Step 4
Single-click on the first file you wish to burn. Hold down the "Control" key and continue to single-click on other desired files until you have selected them all. Let go of the "Control" key. All your files should remain selected and appear blue. Right-click on any file and choose "Copy."

Step 5
Go back to the open window that displays the contents of your CD drive. Right-click in the white space and choose "Paste." The pasted icons will appear washed out, and they will have little black arrows on them indicating your next step.

Step 6
Choose "Write these files to CD" on the left-hand menu bar under "CD Writing Tasks." A wizard will start. First, name your CD. You can use up to 16 characters. After typing a name, click "Next." This will start the burning process. When the CD is finished burning, the CD will eject itself.

Step 7
Follow the remaining wizard prompts. It will ask if you want to burn the same files to another CD. If so, click "Yes, write these files to another CD." If not, click "Finish." You're done.

Tips & Warnings
Make sure to test your newly burned CD—try to open a few files to ensure that the process was done correctly.

Windows: How to Use Windows Notepad as a Professional Diary

Use the following VERY easy steps to use Windows Notepad as your own diary, complete with a stamped date & time!

Step 0
First, open a new, blank Notepad file.

Step 1
Second, write .LOG as the first line of the file, and press ENTER. Save the Notepad file and then close it. Note: You must type .LOG in capital letters!

Step 2
Now relaunch the file. Notice how each time you open it, a new time/date entry is neatly placed on the body of the file. Each entry will appear below the previous one. Now you can take your notes more conveniently and organized. Hows trick?

Note: the word .LOG must be in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Windows: Why does the Recycle Bin have different file system names on FAT and NTFS?

On FAT drives, the directory that stores files in the Recycle Bin is called C:\RECYCLED , but on NTFS drives, its name is C:\RECYCLER. Why the names change?

The FAT and NTFS Recycle Bins have different internal structure because NTFS has this thing called "security" and FAT doesn't. All recycled files on FAT drives are dumped into a single C:\RECYCLED directory, whereas recycled files on NTFS drives are separated based on the user's SID into directories named C:\RECYCLER\S-.... (It has nothing to do with whether you are running English or Swedish Windows).

Suppose the same directory name were used for both file systems, say, C:\RECYCLED. Since it is possible to upgrade a FAT drive to an NTFS drive with the CONVERT utility, this means that a FAT drive converted to NTFS would have a FAT-style Recycle Bin after the conversion. But since the names are the same, the Recycle Bin says, "Hey, look, here's a C:\RECYCLED directory. That must be my NTFS Recycle Bin!" except that it isn't. It's a FAT Recycle Bin left over from the conversion.

Giving the NTFS Recycle Bin a different name means that the Recycle Bin shell folder won't get confused by the "wrong" type of recycle bin directory structure on an NTFS volume.

Yes, the problem could have been solved some other way. For example, there could have been code to inspect the Recycle Bin directory to determine what format it is and ignore it if it didn't match the actual file system. (Or, if you're feeling really ambitious, somehow convert from one format to the other.) But that would be over-engineering. You have to write and test the detection (and possibly conversion) code, there's the risk of a false-positive, the code runs at every boot, and it needs to be maintained whenever either the FAT or NTFS recycle bin format changes. All for a scenario that happens at most once per drive.

Microsoft: Microsoft Version Number

A Microsoft Version Number is the number that identifies the specific release and revision of Microsoft software products. If you are running Microsoft's Internet Explorer you can view this number by selecting "Help" and "About" from the menu. This version number is composed of 4 parts separated by periods and may include alpha characters. The first number is the primary version number, the second number is the secondary version number, the third number is the build number, and the fourth number is a complex number that includes the Service pack release, International Client pack and hotfix numbers.

Primary and Secondary Version Number
As Microsoft develops a software product new functions or features are added, major new features may be indicated with a new primary version number, minor functions or features will increment the secondary version number.
For example: Suppose I am currently running Internet Explorer version 5.50.4807.2300. The primary and secondary version is 5.50. The build number is 4807 and 2300 identifies service pack 2 and hotfix 300.

Build Number
Higher version and build numbers are always later and will not be overwritten with earlier version and build numbers during a Service Pack installation or upgrade.

You can also identify service pack, international client pack, and hotfix numbers from the fourth element of the version number, as described below.

Service Pack
The leftmost digit, .x000, is the service pack release number (for example, 2.00.1239.2000 denotes Service Pack 2). By default service pack 2 will contain all of service pack 1. Microsoft documents all components of each service pack on their website http://support.microsoft.com

International Client Packs
The ICP version number is represented by the second digit, which can range from 4 to 9 (.0400, .0500, .0600, .0700, .0800, .0900). Microsoft supports the following languages with International Client Packs: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

Hotfixes
The last three digits are the hotfix version number (which can range from .x001 to .x399). Hotfixes are accumulated and may be included in the next service pack.

note: A service pack version will overwrite the ICP version until the new service pack ICP build is released.

N.B. Your version number may vary depending on IE version, service pack, hotfix and release number.

Registry: Change the Position of the Desktop Wallpaper (Windows 9x and NT)

Unfortunately Windows only gives you the limited options of center or tile for the placement of the desktop wallpaper. With this setting you can move the image anyway on your desktop.
Open your registry and find the key below.

Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
Value Name: Wallpaperoriginx, Wallpaperoriginy
Data Type: REG_SZ
Data: Distance in Pixels

Create two new string values of 'Wallpaperoriginx' and 'Wallpaperoriginy'. If the values already exist then you simply modify them.
Set the value of 'Wallpaperoriginx' to equal the horizontal offset, and set the value of 'Wallpaperoriginy' to equal the vertical offset. Then either restart Windows, or change your background image through the Control Panel.

Note: The image is offset from the center of your desktop, so you can use positive and negative values.

Windows: Can you create these folders?

Hey guys out there,

can you create folder named CON on your system?

Well, have a try.... best of luck!

well, i don't think you can....

I don't know the exact reason, but you simply cannot create any folder with name CON.
Nor you can rename any existing folder to this name.
There are several such names, which you cannot use!
The list includes:

LPT1 to LPT9,

prn, nul,AUX,

COM1 to COM9

...and many other unknowns...

Even if you change the case of the letters, you simply cannot create them!