25 Windows Hidden Tools You Seldom Use

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Are you a Windows XP User ? How many utilities do you know that is built-
in Windows XP ? Notepad, Wordpad, Character Map, Calculator, Microsoft Paint, these
are the few utilities that I usually use.But out of blue,Windows Xp is a fully loaded
package which has a lot of apparently hidden utilities which are seldom accessed by a
basic or normal computer users ; and trust me,they still pack a lot of punch.

To run any of these apps go to Start > Run and type the executable name (i.e. charmap)
and press Enter.

Character Map (charmap.exe) - Very useful for finding unusual characters.

Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) – The usual Disc cleanup.

Clipboard Viewer (clipbrd.exe) - Views contents of Windows clipboard.

Dr Watson (drwtsn32.exe) - Troubleshooting tool,runs when windows crashes.

DirectX diagnosis (dxdiag.exe) - Diagnose & test DirectX, video & sound cards.

Private character editor (eudcedit.exe) - Allows creation or modification of characters.

IExpress Wizard (iexpress.exe) - Create self-extracting / self-installing package.

Microsoft Synchronization Manager (mobsync.exe) - Appears to allow synchronization

of files on the network for when working offline. Apparently undocumented.

Windows Media Player 5.1(mplay32.exe) - Retro version of Media Player, very basic.

ODBC Data Source Administrator (odbcad32.exe) – Database connection utility for

support with external servers,create ODBC data sources,to administer remote databases
or for supporting the ODBC database utility in Visual basic language.

Object Packager (packager.exe) - To do with packaging objects for insertion in files,

appears to have comprehensive help files.

System Monitor (perfmon.exe) - Very useful, highly configurable tool, tells you
everything you ever wanted to know about any aspect of PC performance, for budding
uber-geeks only.

Program Manager (progman.exe) - Legacy Windows 3.x desktop shell.

Remote Access phone book (rasphone.exe) - Documentation is virtually non-existent.

Registry Editor (regedt32.exe or regedit.exe) – For making custom changes or hacking
the Windows Registry.

Network shared folder wizard (shrpubw.exe) - Creates shared folders on network.

File signature verification tool (sigverif.exe) - This tool will search the operating system
and identify any unsigned device drivers installed on the system. It will also verify all
signed device drivers.

Volume Control (sndvol32.exe) - I've included this for those people that lose it from the
System Notification area.

System Configuration Editor (sysedit.exe) - Modify System.ini & Win.ini just like in
Win98! .

Syskey (syskey.exe) - Secures XP Account database, use with care, it's virtually
undocumented but it appears to encrypt all passwords, I'm not sure of the full
implications.

Microsoft Telnet Client (telnet.exe) – Built in telnet client which can be used to connect
to servers to sent emails or to hack :) This is disabled in in vista but you can re-enable it
by going to

Control panel –> Programs and Features –> Click "Turn Windows features on or off"
on left –> Scroll down and check "Telnet Client.

Driver Verifier Manager (verifier.exe) - Seems to be a utility for monitoring the actions
of drivers, might be useful for people having driver problems. Undocumented.

Windows for Workgroups Chat (winchat.exe) - Appears to be an old NT utility to allow

chat sessions over a LAN, help files available.

System configuration (msconfig.exe) - Can use to control startup programs,make changes

to startup of XP.

Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) - Used to manage group policies, and permissions.Its
an Administrator only tool.

I hope it was informative.I would like to hear your comments on the above topic.
Cheers and keep learning.