Hide Drives and Partitions

Hide Drives and Partitions

Do you have data on a partition or hard drive that you don't want tampered with or easily accessible to other users? Well, you can hide any drive/partition in Windows XP, NT, and 2000. That means that they won't show up in Explorer or My Computer.

If you want access to that drive from your user account you should create a desktop shortcut before proceeding. Once hidden, you can still access by typing the drive letter and a colon in Start/Run—for example, "D:" will bring up a folder of the contents on your D drive.

The easiest way with Win XP is to use the TweakUI power toy from Mcft. Go to Start/Run and type in "tweakui" (without the quotes).

Go to My Computer/Drives and uncheck the drive/partition(s) you want hidden. Click "Apply" or "OK" when finished.

If you have XP but not Tweak UI you can download it here...
http://www.Mcft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

For Win NT, 2000, and XP you can use the following Registry edit:

*Be sure to back up the Registry before proceeding
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/401

Open the Registry Editor by going to Start/Run and typing in "regedit" (without the quotes). Find your way to...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

Click on "Explorer".

Double-click the "NoDrives" key in the right column. If you don't find a "NoDrives" registry key, just right-click in the right pane and choose "New/DWORD Value" then name the key "NoDrives".

You'll see a value like "0000 00 00 00 00". This is where the fun starts. The four sets of double zeros (after the "0000") are where you'll enter the values for the drive/partitions. Now, stay with me on this—it's not as complicated as it sounds:

The first column is for drives A-H, the second for I-P, the third for Q-X, and the fourth for Y-Z.

The values for each drive are as follows:

1 - A I Q Y
2 - B J R Z
4 - C K S
8 - D L T
16 - E M U
32 - F N V
64 - G O W
80 - H P X

So, let's say you want to hide drive D. In the first column you would put "08". For drive K you would put "04" in the second column.

But what if you want to hide more than one drive in a column? Simply add the values together: D+E = 8+16 = 24. So in the first column you would put "24".

Still baffled? If you have XP then go get TweakUI and save yourself the math.

Whichever method you use, you can rest easy knowing that the files on that drive or partition are less accessible to other users.

Hex, How to turn binary or decimal to hex

First go to http://www.shareordie.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3269 to learn binary.

OK, 1,453,752 is 101100010111010111000 is binary, now we turn it into a Hex number.

First Hex numbers goes like this:
1=1
2=2
.
.
9=9
10=A
11=B
12=C
13=D
14=E
15=F

Now you need to take the first octet (the far right 4) and place it under this little grid:

8 4 2 1
--------
1 0 0 0 = 8

See the 1 under the 8 column?
That is what you add.

So the next octet is 1011, put it under the grid:

8 4 2 1
--------
1 0 0 0 = 8
1 0 1 1 = B

See 8+2+1=11, so you can't just say 11 you have to put it in a Hex number, which is B.
So the full Hex number of 1,453,752 is:

8 4 2 1
--------
1 0 0 0 = 8
1 0 1 1 = B
1 1 1 0 = E
0 0 1 0 = 2
0 1 1 0 = 6
0 0 0 1 = 1 <-- Just add zero if it isn't a full octet

162EB8

So if you want to turn a number in to the shorter version of Hex, just turn it into binary, then use this grid and you'll do fine



P.S. Thanks Korrupt for the number to work with

Have Notepad In Send To

Have Notepad In Send To



Many apply a registry tweak to have notepad as an option for unknown file types. We frequently see such files which are actually just text, but named with some odd file-extension. And then, some suspicious files which we want to make sure what the contents are. Well, in such cases where the registry tweak is applied, the downside happens to be that even some known files get associated with notepad - but no, all we want is to be able to open a file with notepad - the association part in such cases is unwanted interference. Also, notepad becomes a permanent fixture on the right-click menu - which is again an annoyance.

So what we do, is to have notepad as an option in the Send-To options, of the right-click menu in explorer. It fulfils the purpose to perfection (atleast, in my case). Here's what we do:

1. right-click desktop, choose "New >> Shortcut"
2. Type the location of the item - "notepad" - (that's all, no need to give path)
3. Next >> type name for shortcut - "Edit with Notepad"
4. Click finish
5. Now right-click this shortcut on the desktop, and choose properties.
6. Confirm that the "target" and "start in" fields are using variables - "%windir%\system32\notepad.exe" - (absolute paths will be problematic if you use this .LNK on machines other than your own)
7. Now, browse to "%UserProfile%\SendTo" in explorer (which means "C:\Documents and Settings\User_Name\SendTo\" folder)
8. And copy the "Edit with Notepad.lnk" file which you already created, to that folder.
9. So now, you can right-click on ANY file-type, and be offered an option to open with notepad, from the SendTo sub-menu.

So now, you just right-click on an .nfo or .eml or .diz file (which are associated with other programs, and are sometimes just plain-text files), and choose "Send To >> Edit with Notepad" and it will open in notepad!
No more botheration of applying registry tweaks for something as simple as this.