Follow these steps to run Scandisk with Windows XP.

1. Double-click My Computer.
2. Right-click your C: drive and click Properties.
3. Click the tab labeled Tools.
4. Click the button labeled Check Now.
5. Select Automatically fix file system errors.
6. Click Start.
7. You must restart the computer for Scandisk to check the hard disk. Click
Yes, and then click OK to close the Local Disk (C:) Properties dialog box.
8. Close the My Computer window.
9. Restart your computer by clicking on the Start button, clicking Turn Off
Computer, and clicking Restart.

Reading the Scandisk Report

Windows 98/ME users will be greeted with an informative report containing the
results of Scandisk. Figure 1-2 shows an example of the Scandisk results.
Windows XP users will need to pull this information up manually, as follows:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Administrative Tools.
3. Double-click Event Viewer, and then double-click Application.
4. Under the heading Source, double-clickWinlogon,

If you see more than one instance of ‘Winlogon’ listed, determine which is

The only items we’re interested in here are the total disk space, the space available,
and whether or not there are any bad sectors. Windows assumes there are no bad
sectors, unless it is specifically told to look for them (using the Thorough option
described above). If bad sectors have been found in the past, it will remember
and report them whenever Scandisk runs in the future. Typically, bad sectors are
permanent and cannot be repaired. Windows XP Scandisk results may not make
any mention of bad sectors if none exist.

If Scandisk finds bad sectors, that’s an early indication of a failing hard disk.
Although there is no certainty your hard disk will fail any time soon, bad sectors
represent physical errors on the disk, and they will undoubtedly get worse as time
goes by. Any data that happens to reside on a bad sector will be lost. Making a
backup copy of your important data is highly recommended! Don’t worry;

Tired of seeing the same old Windows Vista logo every time you start Windows Vista? Here’s how you can replace it with any one you want—for free. Start Windows Vista. Stare at the same boring boot screen you’ve seen approximately 6986,56 times.Ho-hum. Another day of computing. It doesn’t need to be that way. You can create your own boot screen for Windows Vista, or use a graphic you find online. And it’s easy to do.

First you’ll need to create or fi nd a graphic for your new boot screen. You’ll need two versions of thegraphic, one 1024 x 768 pixels, and one 800 x 600 pixels. They must be in 24-bit .bmp format. If you can’t create them yourself, use Google’s image search (go to Google, then click the Images link and do your search). In your search results, under each image, you’ll see the dimensions of the graphic, so you’ll be able to know ahead of time whether it’s the right size (. Note that if you come across a graphic in .jpg format, you can still use it, because you can have Internet Explorer save it as a .bmp. You can save time by fi nding just one fi le, a 1024 x 768 pixel image. You can then use your graphics software to make a copy of the fi le as an 800 x 600 pixel fi le, so that you’ll have two fi les, one 1024 x 768, and the
other 800 x 600 . A great tool for doing this is the free IrfanView (www.irfanview.com). When you open a fi le
in IrfanView, select Image?Resize/Resample, click 800 x 600 pixels on the right side of the screen, and click
OK. Then save the fi le with a new name, making sure not to overwrite your original fi le.
In Internet Explorer, right-click the image you want to use, select Save Picture As, and in the Save As
Type drop-down, select .bmp. Then save the fi le.
After you have both fi les, download, install, and run the free Vista Boot Logo Generator (www.
computa.co.uk/staff/dan/?p=18). Click each of the “Browse for image” buttons and select your two
graphics. You’ll see a screen like the one shown in Figure 1-2. Select File?Save Boot Screen As and save the fi le to any location on your hard disk. over. The program does not save the fi les as graphics,
and instead will save them both as a single fi le, winload.exe.mui.
Now that the fi le is saved, copy it to C:\Windows\System32\en-US. There will already be a fi le in that
folder named winload.exe.mui, so make sure that you back up the original and replace it with this
new one.
Windows Vista may not allow you to overwrite the winload.exe.mui, fi le. If that’s the case, follow the directions
in “Troubleshooting,” later in this hack.
Now run the MSCONFIG utility: type MSCONFIG in the Search box or at the command prompt and
press Enter. Click the Boot tab, select “No GUI boot,” and click OK, as shown in Figure 1-3. You’ll be
asked to restart Windows. Click Restart, and you’ll see your new boot screen in living, full-color glory.
Whenever you run MSCONFIG to make a system change, it confi gures itself to run automatically on the next
reboot. Because MSCONFIG requires administrative privileges, it can’t start automatically, and you’ll get a
notifi cation that “Windows has blocked some startup programs.” Click the blocked startup program icon
in the notifi cation area, choose the System Confi guration Utility, and let it run. You’ll get a dialog window
explaining that you’ve made changes to your startup confi guration (and you can also tell MSCONFIG to stop
showing this message at startup).
Troubleshooting
When you try to copy winload.exe.mui to C:\Windows\System32\en-US, you might get a
permissions error of some sort, preventing you from copying the fi le. And even if you don’t get
an error, when you restart Windows, you might not see your boot screen. If either of those things
happens to you, follow this advice. It will solve the permissions problem.
First, run the command prompt as an administrator, by typing cmd at the Search box, and pressing
Ctrl-Shift-Enter. Then type the following at the command prompt, and press Enter:
takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui
You’ll get a message that you now have ownership of C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.
mui. Next, type the following at the command prompt (where yourname is your username), and press
Enter:
cacls C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui /G yourname:F

You’ll be asked whether you want to proceed. Press the Y key and then press Enter. You’ll get this:
processed file: C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui
You can now go ahead and copy winload.exe.mui to C:\Windows\System32\en-US, and then
proceed with the rest of the hack.

Another time-saving technique is to create a desktop shortcut to your favorite
screensaver.That way, if you need to step away from your computer, you can use
the shortcut to launch the screensaver immediately. Follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button in the lower-left corner of Windows.

2. Select Search.

3. The Windows Search Companion opens. If the Search Companion is
in standard mode, click the words in the left window pane that say All
files and folders. If your Search Companion is in advanced mode, proceed
to the next step.

4. In the All or Part of the File Name box, type *.scr

5. In the Look In drop-down menu, select Local Hard Drives.

6. Click the Search button.
The Search Companion looks for screensavers in all of the folders on
your computer. Depending on the speed of your computer, this
process could take a few minutes. When the search is complete, a vertical
list of your screensavers appears.

7. Decide which screensaver will receive a shortcut. If you are unsure,
view a sample of each one by right-clicking it and selecting Test (but
hold your mouse still, because any movement will prevent the screensaver
from playing).

8. Once you have selected a screensaver, right-click it and select Create
Shortcut.

9. A message will alert you that “Windows Cannot Create a Shortcut
Here. Do You Want the Shortcut to Be Placed on the Desktop
Instead?” Click the Yes button.

10. Close the Search Companion by clicking the X button in the upperright
corner.

11. Go to your desktop and find the screensaver shortcut. From now on,
you can quickly launch the screensaver by double-clicking its shortcut.

12. If you want to use your keyboard to start the screensaver, right-click
the new shortcut and select Properties.

13. A window opens. In the center of it is a box labeled Shortcut Key,
next to which is the word None. Click this word, then type a letter (it
can be any letter you choose). The word None disappears, and in its
place appears Ctrl + Alt + your letter (see Figure 8-7). In this example,
the letter S was used, so the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + S appears.

14. Click the Apply button.

15. Click the OK button.

16. From now on, you can activate the screensaver from your keyboard by
simultaneously pressing the Ctrl, Alt, and your letter keys.

If you use the Administrator account statement only when you ask to execute
administrator tasks, enable the Administrator account on the Welcome
screen.
Another way to enhance the bootup action is to enable the Administrator
account on the Welcome screen. Enabling the Administrator account allows
you to log on as an administrator when you need to, and to log on as a
standard user or as a guest account when desirable.
Before enabling the Administrator account on the Welcome screen, you
must meet certain criteria:

? You must be part of a workgroup, not a domain.
? You must be using the Welcome screen.
? You must not be using Fast User Switching.

First, verify that the Welcome screen is enabled and that Fast User
Switching is disabled by going to Start | Control Panel | User Accounts.

In User Accounts:

1. Check Use The Welcome Screen. (If you don’t see this option, you
don’t meet the criteria in the preceding bulleted list.)

2. Uncheck Use Fast User Switching.
Next, download, install, and configure TweakUI. TweakUI is a free
PowerToy that lets you do almost anything to your user interface, and
quite easily. One of the things you can do with TweakUI is show the
Administrator account on the Welcome screen. Here’s how:

1. Download TweakUI from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/
downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx.
2. Open the program by clicking Start | All Programs | PowerToys For
Windows XP | TweakUI For Windows XP.
3. Click Logon, and check Show “Administrator” On Welcome Screen,