Tray Icons Be Gone
Do you need to hide a program running in the background that shows in your System Tray? Try this reg hack to hide all tray icons. It?s not anything like the Windows XP tray icon hider, this one shows no trace of any icons. It would look like someone closed all background programs.
1) Click on START>RUN and type "regedit" (without the quotes).
Navigate to the following key;
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer
2) Add a "REG_DWORD" entry entitled "NoTrayItemsDisplay". Open it up and assign the Hex value of 1 to hide the Icons. The value of 0 is normal (default), showing the icons.
3) Close "regedit" and reboot computer and the icons should not be there anymore. Control Alt and Delete will bring up Windows Task Manager and items can be displayed and closed (if need be) from in there instead.
I found this hack to be very useful when covertly using telephone recording software. Now the girlfriend can be engaged in her game of SIMS? while talking on the phone and being recorded and she has no idea. lol
Use active desktop to save memory used by wallpapers
When you choose a wallpaper using the standard method (selecting a background on the desktop tab, in the properties window), Windows converts this image to a huge .bmp file (even if you selected a .jpg). Then instead of having a nice 220K wallpaper, you get a 3,15MB wallpaper. To get rid of this, try using active desktop's web capabilities, like this:
1. Right click on your desktop and select "properties", then select the "desktop" tab.
2. Click on "Customize Desktop".
3. Select the "Web" tab and click on "New..."
4. Browse for your favorite image and click OK when you are done.
5. Make sure "Lock desktop items" is uncheck.
6. Click OK, and OK again.
7. Now your image is like another window. Drag it to where you want and then right clik over it.
8. Select "arrange icons by" and the check "Lock Web Items on Desktop".
9. That's it. Now you have a "low memory usage wallpaper".
With this you can make interesting things, like using various small wallpapers, or even animated ones!! (you can select an animated .gif too!!). Simply select various images, and when you click OK, drag all them to its right location, and lock the content again.
PS: If you want to check the huge wallpaper windows makes, select a wallpaper the standard way, then browse to "C
ocuments and SettingsUSER PROFILELocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoft" (where USER PROFILE, is the profile you're using, i.e. Administrator). There should be a file called Wallpaper.bmp, open it and you'll see your cureent wallpaper.
Show CPU Meter in system tray at all times
How to show the built in CPU meter which is part of the Windows Task Manager every time you boot or switch users.
1. Do a search for taskmgr.exe
2. Right click and select Send To - Desktop (Create Shortcut)
3. On the taskmgr shortcut that is on the desktop right click and select Properties - Change the Run Command to - minimized.
4. Rename the shortcut to "Task Manager" or "CPU Meter" and right click and cut the Shortcut.
5. Paste the shortcut into the startup folder by right click on the start menu - Select All Users - Programmes - StartUp.
You should see the Meter in the system tray. If not then:
6. In the Windows Task Manager window select Options - and tick "Minimize On Use" and "Hide When Minimized".
7. Then minimize the Task Manager