How to Access the Hidden Themes in Windows 7

Windows 7 includes additional themes set which are kept hidden from the themes dialog. The hidden international themes are stored in a super-hidden folder. Here is how to access the hidden wallpapers & themes set.

Open Windows Explorer and paste the following address:

%WinDir%\Globalization\MCT

Note that the folder MCT is hidden (system attributes) by default.

Under the MCT folder, the following folders (MCT-AU, MCT-CA, MCT-GB, MCT-US, MCT-ZA) exist:

These folders include themes for Australia, Canada, UK, US and South Africa. Under each folder there will be four folders, including a Theme folder. Open the Themefolder and double-click the .theme file to apply it.

The Globalization theme gets added to the Windows Themes list in the Personalizeapplet.

Faster and more powerful Internet searching then ever before

This tweak will have you searching the Internet faster and more powerfully then you ever have before.

1. Get TweakUI Powertoy for WindowsXP

2. Start -> Programs -> Powertoys for Windows XP -> TweakUI for Windows XP

3. Click the '+' next to 'Internet Explorer'

4. Hightlight 'Search'

5. In the right plane click on the 'Create' button.

6. For the Prefix, type in 'Google' or if you're REALLY lazy (like me) then just 'g'

7. for the URL, enter: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s&num=100

The 'hl' is language, the 'q' is the query, and the 'num' is the number of results per page. To search for multiple keywords at a time, use the format 'google monkey+cars' or just 'g monkey+cars' depending how you chose to set it up.

If you use another search engine, then you must have never tried Google.

Here are some reasons to help sway you: http://www.google.com/technology/whyuse.html

It has no graphics to load, no popups, no graphical ads, and codes your search terms in bold to prove the pages it lists have all you wanted.

And if that didn't work, try installing a BSD or *nix type OS, and finding solutions to cryptic error messages using any other search engine.

Sooner or later you'll realize Google is tops. Just give it a month's trial and see if you ever leave it ;)

On request for advanced users only. If you don't want to use TweakUi, use this registry file or make the according changes manually.

;--begin copy below-------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\g]
@="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s&num=100"
" "="+"
"#"="%23"
"&"="%26"
"?"="%3F"
"+"="%2B"
"="="%3D"

;--end copy---------------------------------------------------------

Copy and paste into notepad, save as "search.reg", right click - merge.

Disable IE's Macromedia Flash plug-in

The Flash player is necessary for many of those pop-up ads and graphics on the internet, particularly on many of Yahoo!'s webpages. To prevent these annoyances from appearing, do the following:

1. Ensure Internet Explorer is closed.

2. Determine your path to the flash plug-in (the plug-in will be a file whose name contains the word 'flash', and the extension .ocx) For most installations, it will be C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\swflash.ocx.

2. Unregister the plug-in by typing the following at the Start|Run prompt:

regsvr32 c:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\swflash.ocx /u


When you restart IE, most (if not all) of those pop-ups should cease to bother you.