Installing the Windows 7 Theme

1. Download the Theme ZIP file.
2. Patch the “uxtheme.dll” file to allow 3rd party visual styles,Download and run the UXtheme Patcher from here:
   XP SP2 Users : Download
   XP SP3 Users : Download
3. Extract the ZIP File and you will find the following folders
   I.Balero – The vista like start button.
   II.Styler - Styler Toolbar” which can entirely changes the default Windows XP’s toolbar.Requires Styler to be installed first, It can be downloaded from here.
   III.Windows 7 Start Menu – Replaces the default XP start menu with a newer version.
   IV.Wallapaper.
4. Now open the Windows 7 M1 VS folder and double click on Windows 7 M1 VS.msstyles and apply the theme.

Under t hat menu, find Remove and prevent access to Shut Down command, double click on that to open a setting dialog box.

• Set it to enabled to disable the turn off option on your windows.
• Set it to disabled to enable the turn off option on your windows.

Setting for Log off option:

Follow the same procedure as above, but choose Remove Logoff on start menu in step 4.

Here is the explanation for Remove and prevent access to shut down command as provided by Microsoft:

Prevents users from shutting down or restarting Windows.

This setting removes the Shut Down option from the Start menu and disables the Shut Down button on the Windows Security dialog box, which appears when you press CTRL+ALT+DEL.

This setting prevents users from using the Windows user interface to shut down the system, although it does not prevent them from running programs that shut down Windows.

If you disable this setting or do not configure it, the Shut Down menu option appears, and the Shut Down button is enabled.

Note: It is a requirement for third-party applications with Windows 2000 or later certification to adhere to this setting.

And the below one for Remove logoff from start menu:

Removes the "Log Off " item from the Start menu and prevents users from restoring it.

If you enable this setting, the Log Off item does not appear in the Start menu. This setting also removes the Display Logoff item from Start Menu Options. As a result, users cannot restore the Log Off item to the Start Menu.

If you disable this setting or do not configure it, users can use the Display Logoff item to add and remove the Log Off item.

This setting affects the Start menu only. It does not affect the Log Off item on the Windows Security dialog box that appears when you press Ctrl+Alt+Del, and it does not prevent users from using other methods to log off.

Tip: To add or remove the Log Off item on a computer, click Start, click Settings, click Taskbar and Start Menu, click the Start Menu Options tab and, in the Start Menu Settings box, click Display Logoff.

See also: "Remove Logoff" in User Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon/Logoff.

Thanks Pavan Kumar]

1. Switch to detail view.

2. Hold down SHIFT key and change to “Medium Icons”.

3. Close the Explorer and re-open it again. There you’ll get your folder names and file names back.

Once you make sure Stylish is properly installed on Firefox, follow the steps below.

1. Open the following stylesheet in a browser tab.
   http://www.globexdesigns.com/gmail/gmail.css
2. Find the Stylish icon in Firefox on the far bottom-right side of the status bar.
   
3. Right click it and select Add File to Stylish.
4. In the description, write Gmail Black and leave all boxes checked.
5. Click Save

And you are done! This will give Gmail the ultimate Stylish Black look. For a preview see the screenshots below:

If you ever wish to revert to the boring default Gmail design, simply Right Click on Stylish icon and click Manage Styles, then delete the Gmail Black stylesheet.

[via sizlopedia]

Tutorials are well organized and apart from primary categories, the tutorials are divided further by relevant subcategories. For instance Photoshop category is sub-divided into:

Animation
Basics
Buttons
Color
Designing
Drawing
Photo Effects
Photo Retouch
Scripting
Text Effects
Textures
Web Graphics
Web Layouts

So as you can see above, it’s very easy to find exactly what you need. Additionally you can sort tutorials by date, user rating, and comments. But if you want to share your opinion and rate tutorials then you will have to register.

Tweak #1:
In the Filter bar type [network.http.pipelining]. Then, double-click on this line under Preference Name in order to change the value from false to true.

Tweak #2:
In the Filter bar type [network.http.pipelining.maxrequests]. Then, double-click on this line under Preference Name and change the value from 4 to a higher number anywhere from 10 to 30. I set mine to 30.

Tweak #3:
In the Filter bar type [network.http.proxy.pipelining]. Then, double-click on this line under Preference Name in order to change the value from false to true.

Tweak #4:
In the Filter bar type [network.dns.disableIPv6]. Then, double-click on this line under Preference Name in order to change the value from false to true.

Tweak #5:
In the Filter bar type [plugin.expose_full_path]. Then, double-click on this line under Preference Name in order to change the value from false to true.

Tweak #6:
In the Filter bar type [network.protocol-handler.external.ms-help]. Now, you are going to create a new Preference Name with an Integer Value. To do this, right-click on this line under Preference Name and select New, then Integer.

In the New Integer value box type in [nglayout.initialpaint.delay] and click OK. Then in the Enter Integer value box type [0] (that’s a zero) and click OK.

Tweak #7:
In the Filter bar again type [network.protocol-handler.external.ms-help]. Now, you are going to create another new Preference Name with an Integer Value. To do this, right-click on this line under Preference Name and select New, then Integer. In the New Integer value box type in [content.notify.backoffcount] and click OK. Then in the Enter Integer value box type [5] and click OK.

Tweak #8:
In the Filter bar again type [network.protocol-handler.external.ms-help]. Now, you are going to create another new Preference Name with an Integer Value. To do this, right-click on this line under Preference Name and select New, then Integer. In the New Integer value box type in [ui.submenuDelay] and click OK. Then in the Enter Integer value box type [0] (that’s a zero) and click OK.

Prepare Windows Vista

This tutorial assumes that Vista has been installed on a partition which takes up 100% of the hard drive, so we need to create some space. Boot off the Vista DVD. Hit Next from the start screen and then select “Install now”. (If Vista came preinstalled on your machine and you don't have a Vista install DVD, you can use the Gnome Partition Editor Gparted to do it. Our earlier tutorial on dual-booting XP and Vista if you've installed XP first describes how to use it.)

Install Vista

Don’t type in your product key and untick “Automatically activate Windows when I’m online”, then hit “Next”, and “No” when asked whether you want to enter the key.

Vista Product Key

When prompted to choose the edition of Vista you’re installing you can actually select any of them as we’re not doing a Vista install at this point. Also tick “I have selected the edition of Windows that I purchased” and hit “Next”.

Vista Version

Accept the license terms and hit “Next” again, then choose a Custom installation.

On the screen where you’re asked where you want to install Windows, you should see a single large partition marked Primary – this is where Vista is already installed.

Vista Partition

Press SHIFT + F10. This is a Windows PE 2.0 shortcut to open up a command window – very useful trick.

Command Tool

Type in DISKPART and press Enter. This opens the Microsoft DiskPart application. You need to select the active disk, so type in:

list disk

The primary disk is generally Disk 0, so type in:

select disk 0

DISKPART Disk

Now we need a list of volumes on this disk, so type in:

list volume

In this case Volume 0 is the one we want, so type in:

select volume 0

DISKPART Volume

Now type in:

shrink

DISKPART Shrink

DiskPart will go off and reclaim as much of the drive as it can – you should get at least 50% of the space back.

Now type

EXIT

and

EXIT (again)

to quit the command window and get back to the install screen. Click Refresh and the partition window will update – you should now see the original Primary partition plus a brand new partition.

New Partitions

This is where we will install Windows XP. Eject the DVD, restart the machine (just hit the reset button) and boot off the Windows XP CD.

Now, install Windows XP

When the Windows XP setup reaches the point where you’re prompted where it is to be installed, you’ll see that while XP can see the space we created earlier, it can also see the partition with Vista on it.

XP Partition

You should be able to see the space you reclaimed on the disk earlier which has become "unallocated space".

Create a second partition using the Windows XP installer screen above by selecting the free space on the drive and pressing "C" to create a partition (if prompted, choose NTFS as the file system.)

Irritatingly, XP assigns a drive letter to this partition (C:) which means that it will use the next available drive letter after all the other physical drives have been taken into account.

This means that the system drive of the XP installation won’t be C:.

From XP’s perspective this isn’t really a problem – it’s smart enough to figure out where everything should go – but some applications make assumptions about where they should install to, and can’t cope with a non-standard Windows configuration.

This was also the case with our tutorial on dualbooting Ubuntu and XP, where Ubuntu had been installed first. However in that scenario, even though the XP system drive had a non-standard drive letter, it couldn’t read the Linux partitions so there was no danger of the two systems overlapping. This is not the case with Vista/XP.

Nonetheless, install XP as normal – there’s no need to do anything differently.

IMPORTANT NOTE – after the initial file copy, Windows XP reboots and loads up the GUI-based component of the install. You may get the following error: “A disk read error occurred – press Ctrl-Alt-Del to continue”. This is caused by a corrupt bootloader – click here to see how to fix this problem.

When the system reboots it won’t bring up a boot menu. Although XP recognises the Vista partition it doesn’t recognise Vista itself.

The Windows XP bootloader gets installed to the MBR and Vista can no longer boot.

When XP loads, open up Windows Explorer and you’ll see something interesting – a C: and (in this case) an E: drive.

The C: drive contains Windows Vista, and as Windows XP can read NTFS partitions, it can browse and modify Vista’s file structure.

More importantly, applications which have installation paths hard-coded into their install scripts rather than using Windows system parameter variables could easily dump files into C: when they should be installing to E:. This isn’t such a great situation.

Two Drives

Restoring Vista and dual booting

Because you can’t use the Windows XP bootloader to boot Vista, we have to reinstate Vista’s bootloader to the MBR and configure it to manage both operating systems.

Compared with scenarios involving Ubuntu where you have to reinstall the GRUB bootloader, getting Vista up and operational again is very easy.

Boot from the Vista DVD and on the screen where you’re prompted to “Install now”, select “Repair your computer”.

Repair Vista

The next screen searches for local Vista installations – there should only be one, so click Next.

Choose Vista

This loads the System Recovery Options screen. Select the first option – Startup Repair. This looks for problems which would prevent Vista from loading (like a missing bootloader) and automatically fixes them.

Startup Repair

If you click on “Click here for diagnostic and repair details” and scroll to the bottom of the list, it shows that the problem detected and repaired was a corrupt boot sector (according to Vista, anyway).

Repair Diagnostics

Click Close and then Finish, and the system will restart and boot into Vista.

Now we need to enable dualbooting with XP, and EasyBCD is the best application to achieve this.

Download and install EasyBCD.

Launch the app and go to Add/Remove Entries.

Under “Add an Entry” and under the Windows tab and select in the Version drop-down list “Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3”.

Change the Drive to E:\ and the name to “Windows XP”, then click “Add Entry” and “Save”.

Vista & XP - EasyBCD

Reboot the system and you’ll have two entries in the Vista bootloader, and can boot into either operating system.

Vista Bootloader

Removing Windows XP

If you eventually decide that dualbooting XP as the second OS isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, it’s pretty easy to undo the changes made.

Use EasyBCD to remove the Windows XP boot entry, and then go into Computer Management (right-click on Computer, Manage) and go to Disk Management.

Right-click E: drive (the Windows XP partition) and select Delete Volume.

Right-click the newly-created partition and select Delete Partition.

Then right-click the C: drive (the Vista system partition) and click Extend Volume – this opens up the Extend Volume Wizard.

Extend Volume Wizard

The wizard gives you a readout on how much space is actually available to extend the partition – enter in how much you want to use and press Next. Vista will extend the system partition to reclaim the disk and Windows is well and truly gone.

Fixing the corrupt bootloader

If the Windows XP bootload corrupts during the install, performing a reinstall won’t fix it, nor will going into the XP Recovery Mode and attempting to repair the MBR.

Luckily, the install was up to the stage where all you need to do is be able to boot from the Windows XP partition, and the install will pick up from where it left off.

To achieve this, follow the procedure outlined above to restore the Vista bootloader (under "Restoring Vista and Dualbooting").

This allows the system to boot into Vista, and then you can use EasyBCD to create an XP boot entry and boot into that to continue on with XP's installation. (For details on using EasyBCD, also see the section "Restoring Vista and Dualbooting".)