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Windows XP comes with an instant messaging program called Windows Messenger but there are much better freeware chat clients available. If you decide to uninstall it however, you’ll discover it isn’t listed in Add/Remove programs.  So how can you uninstall it?

To permanently remove Windows Explorer from your computer you need to execute rundll32.exe with some options by going start->run and type

“RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove” (without the quotes)

This tutorial explains how to slipstream service pack 3 into a windows installation CD, including screen shots of each step. You can use programs like nLite and Autostreamer to do it for you, but if you’re like me you find it much more satisfying to get your hands dirty and do it yourself. Some might even say it’s how real men slipstream :) [click images to enlarge]

What you need:
A windows XP CD of any flavor.
XP service pack 3 which can be downloaded HERE. Rename the file xpsp3.exe.
IsoBuster which can be downloaded for free HERE.
Nero which isn’t free, but has a trial version HERE.

1. Create a folder called “sp3″ in the root of your hard drive (i.e. C:\sp3) and copy xpsp3.exe to this folder.

2. Create a folder called “xpcd” inside “sp3″ (i.e. C:\sp3\xpcd) and copy your entire XP CD to this folder.

3. Open a command prompt by going start -> run and typing “cmd” in the open window and click OK. Extract the service pack 3 files with this command:
C:\sp3\xpsp3.exe -u -x:c:\sp3\files

4. Integrate sp3 files into your windows cd files by typing this command:
C:\sp3\files\i386\update\update.exe -s:c:\sp3\xpcd

5. With your XP cd in the cd drive, fire up IsoBUster (download here) and select Bootable Disc from the left pane, then right-click the Microsoft Corporation.img file in the right pane and select Extract Microsoft Corporation.img and save the file in C:\sp3.

If you can’t be bothered with this step you can download Microsoft Corporation.img here.

6. Now all you need to do is burn the disc. Fire up Nero 5.5 or higher and choose CD-ROM(boot) from the New Compilation menu. Select the boot tab and then browse to the ‘Microsoft Corporation.img’ you saved at C:\sp3. Select “No Emulation” and change “Number of loaded sectors” to 4.

7. Select the ISO tab and make sure the file name length is set to “Max. of 31 chars (Level 2)”. Also make sure the check box next to “Do not add the ‘;1′ ISO file version extension” is checked then click the “New” button.

8. Now drag all the files in c:\sp3\xpcd from the file browser to the left pane, burn the disc and you’re done!

If you found this article helpful (or found an error) please leave a comment.
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This tutorial explains how to view hidden files like .htaccess with the free open source FTP client FileZilla. These instructions are for version 2 and version 3 of the software.

Filezilla Version 2
To view hidden files in FileZilla 2 you need to digg into the settings. Select “Edit -> Settings -> Interface settings -> Remote file list” then near the bottom of the window select the check box “Always show hidden files” as shown below…

FileZilla Version 3
To view hidden files with FileZilla 3 it is simply a matter of selecting “Server” in the main menu then selecting “Force showing hidden files”…

When you do this you will receive a warning but it is nothing to worry about. Read the warning, click OK and hidden files like .htaccess will now be visible when you connect to your server.

A keylogger records keystrokes which is an obvious security threat to sensitive information like your banking password. Some Keyloggers can be very hard to detect as they dont appear as a process and aren’t detected by anti-virus software. Keyloggers work by recording every single keystroke that is entered via keyboard, so a person with access to the keylogger can see those keystrokes including any passwords that were typed. Obviously you don’t want this to happen because it could result in the draining of your bank account.

The goal of this article is to help avoid this happening to you and luckily there are a few simple methods that can be used to defeat a keylogger. Knowing at least one of these methods is critical if you are using a public computer, such as those found at an internet cafe’s which have an extremely high risk of infection with a keylogger of some kind.

Types of Keyloggers?

Keyloggers come in both hardware and software types. A software keylogger can be installed in different ways such as via an infected email message or when installing software, especially software downloaded from the internet. Hardware keyloggers require physical access to the computer and come in both USB or PS2 versions, which look something like this…
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This tutorial explains how to change your windows xp product key / xp serial / xp license without using software or reinstalling. To do this you need to edit the registry to deactivate windows, then run msoobe.exe to enter your new product key.

You can download software to help you do this, but that’s for girls. Real men do it this way…

1. Run regedit and drill down to:

HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents.

Select WPAEvents then on the right double click “OOBETimer” and change at least one digit of this value to deactivate windows.

2. Choose run from start menu and type this command in the run box:
%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a to get the Activate Windows wizard, select “Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to activate Windows”, click next.

3. In the next screen click the “Change Product Key” button.

4. Now enter your new product key, click the update button, close the wizard and reboot. Please note the XP product key FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8 in the image below will not work. This is the “corporate” key used by pirated versions of windows and has now been blacklisted by Microsoft.

5. When your computer restarts,  enter the command in step 2 to verify windows is activated and you should see “windows is already activated”.

Changing your xp key is perfectly legal if you have a valid key. You can even automate the process with a visual basic script which you can find on Microsoft’s website.

Update: If you click the link to Microsoft above you will now find the following message:

Warning The steps in the article are effective only on Volume License media. If you try these steps on OEM media or on retail media, you will not change the product key.

But unless something has changed this just isn’t true. I have used the visual basic script they provide to change both OEM and retail media keys and it worked just fine.

I know this sounds bizzare so hear me out before you get your knickers in a knot. I wanted to add a link to the blog from the main page at www.intreipd.com.au, so I changed the name of an existing flash button and gave it an appropriate name. When I uploaded the new page and button then loaded it in my browser neither the new button or the old button appeard. I sort of expected this because I have encountered it in the past when changing flash buttons, and I have no idea why.

So I cleared my Firefox 2 cache and reloaded the page, no change. I then fired up both IE and Opera but still the new button did not appear. I went back checked everything, no spelling mistakes in the code and all the needed files were indeed on the server. Loaded the page on my laptop, still no dice. So I’m getting a little frustrated about now wondering why it was happening and whether or not users could see the button because it looked stupid with just a gap where there should be a button. I was sure it was some sort of weird caching problem so I came up with the idea of doing a clean browser install. The only other browser I had on my drive was Firefox 1.5 so I installed that and lo and behold, the button works.

So it was indeed a cache problem. I still don’t know what or why but I am finally getting to the point of this post, I like Firefox 1.5. Not because it loaded the flash button properly, that would have happened with any clean browser install. No, I like 1.5 because it is loading pages faster than 2.0, and also because there is just one close tab button, so I can just click on one spot to close multiple windows. Just a few taps of the button and all the tabs I don’t want are gone. Nice. Now that I think back to pre 2.0 days I can remember thinking this was one (of many) reasons why Firefox was better than safari which had a close button on every tab.

Now I’m sure someone will tell me about better security or better features of Firefox 2 but I’ m not too interested in that, all I want to do is load pages as quickly as possible and use it as quickly as possible and on those fronts I have to say 1.5 has 2.0 beat. You might also say that 2.0 is infact faster than 1.5 but thats not my experience. So it has me a little worried about the impending Firefox 3.0 release, I haven’t used the beta so I Just hope it lives up to the hype because despite my criticism, I do love firefox.