SU and ROOT - The difference

There have been questions , what is the difference between su and root . . well, the difference is minimal but still very important.

As you login as root right from booting the system, all the privileges are set to root, what makes your system more vulnerable to your own mistakes and those wishing to enter your system.
As you login as normal user, the privileges are limited, thus its safer. To be able to do administrative tasks you can temporally login as root using su in a console/terminal, that way the root privileges are limited to the actions you do in the console ( and the applications you start from the console ). So the rest of the system is still in normal user mode, and this makes it safer.
We do use the same password for su and root, but once you are logged in as normal user, typing root in console/terminal will only give you bash: root: command not found.

Turning Off System Beeps

Although this tip is not recommended very much as having the warning beep etc can help you find out when problems happen, some people do get annoyed by it - We have a simple registry editing way of turning them off.

* Load Regedit.
* Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound
* On the left hand side of the screen find Beep on the list.
* Right click on it and select Modify
* Change the value equal to no
* Reboot your computer
* The beeps will then vanish - if you wish them to return change the equal value back to yes.

Disabling The Windows XP Boot Logo

Incase you didn't already know, It is possible to disable the Windows XP boot-up splash screen, although this only speeds up the boot process very slightly so there isn't a real need to use this tweak.

1. Edit boot.ini
2. Add " /noguiboot" right after "/fastdetect".

Once you reboot, the splash screen will be gone. It can be re-enabled by removing the new switch.

Reading and Understanding The Events Log

For those of you that don't know. The event viewer in Windows XP maintains logs
about program, security, and system events on your computer.
You can use Event Viewer to view and manage the event logs, gather information
about hardware and software problems, and monitor Windows security events.

* To open Event Viewer, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Event Viewer.
* For information about using Event Viewer, in Event Viewer, on the Action menu, click Help.

Make Use Of Your Windows Key

The Windows logo key, located in the bottom row of most computer keyboards is a little-used treasure. Don't ignore it. It is the shortcut anchor for the following commands:

Windows: Display the Start menu
Windows + D: Minimize or restore all windows
Windows + E: Display Windows Explorer
Windows + F: Display Search for files
Windows + Ctrl + F: Display Search for computer
Windows + F1: Display Help and Support Center
Windows + R: Display Run dialog box
Windows + break: Display System Properties dialog box
Windows + shift + M: Undo minimize all windows
Windows + L: Lock the workstation
Windows + U: Open Utility Manager
Windows + Q: Quick switching of users (Powertoys only)
Windows + Q: Hold Windows Key, then tap Q to scroll thru the different users on your PC

Shutdown Windows XP Faster

When you shut down Windows XP, the OS tries its best to make sure that all services (
they help run things like graphics, printers etc) are shut down. But there are times when they don't close, thus Windows XP tries to give it the chance to shut down itself. This amount of time that windows waits for the service to close is stored in the system registry. If you modify this setting, then windows will shut down the service earlier. To modify the setting, follow the directions below:

* Start 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 to a value lower than 20000, say 10000 as a test.