Hacking I Internet I Windows

When a user shuts down Windows XP, first the system has to kill all services currently running. Every once in a while the service does not shut down instantly and windows give it a change to shut down on its own before it kills it. This amount of time that windows wait is stored in the system registry. If you modify this setting, then windows will kill the service earlier. To modify the setting, follow the directions below:

Click on Start, and then goto run, type REGEDIT

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
Click on the "Control" Folder.
Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
Right click on it and select Modify. Set it a value lower than 4000

Improve Shutdown. Lets not save your active session's settings on exit
If you Don't care which windows app was located where when you are shutting down the system, this tip may in fact help improve the shutdown time a bit (a bit not too much)..Simply inform windows not to save the settings at exit time. To do this , open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] . In this look for value of "NoSaveSettings". If available, do one of the following:
If you want to enable no save on exit, set its value to 1 else to save on exit. set it back to 0

You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password.
Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

Windows XP SP2 Tweaks
Disable the SP antivirus and firewall functions

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center]
"AntiVirusDisableNotify"=dword :00000001
"FirewallDisableNotify"=dword:00000001
; don't monitor firewall and antivirus
"AntiVirusOverride"=dword:00000001
"FirewallOverride"=dword:00000001

Turn off Auto Updates
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update]
"AUOptions"=dword:00000001
disable Auto Update
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\Security Center]
"UpdatesDisableNotify"=dword:00000001

Turn off the SP2 firewall
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFire wall\DomainProfile]
"EnableFirewall"=dword:00000000

turn off firewall policy for domain profile
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFire wall\StandardProfile]
"EnableFirewall"=dword:00000000

Disable unnecessary Services
Caution:
Exercise caution when stopping services. If you do not know what a service does or are unsure of the ramifications of stopping the service, leave it alone. Some services are critical to Windows XP's operations, so make sure you understand what the service is before you disable it.
Open Control Panel/Administrative ToolsServices or else select Start/Run, type services.msc , and click OK. Either way, you see the Services console.
Notice that on the General tab, you see a Startup Type drop-down menu. If you want to change an automatic service to manual, select Manual here and click OK. As a general rule, don't disable a service unless you are sure you will never use it. However, manual configuration allows the service to be started when you find it necessary, thus speeding up your boot time. However, before you change a service to manual, look at the Dependencies tab. This tab shows you which other services depend upon the service you are considering changing.

Tip:
The Indexing service and the System Restore service take up a lot of disk space and system resources across the board. You can live without the Indexing service but I suggest that you keep using System Restore. It works great when you are in a bind and this is one case where the loss of speed may not be worth the ramifications of not using System Restore.

While disabling services, check and make sure that IIS (internet information server) is not installed and running if you do not want to run a web server, ftp, or mail server. If you find it, you can uninstall from the control panel. If you only want to run one of the 3 services it provides, disable the other 2 (the 3 should be HTTP server, FTP server, & SMTP server).

Deleting System Softwares:
XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.