BITDEFENDER ANTIVIRUS

• Protects your PC in real time from known viruses, spyware and other malware with hourly updates.
• Blocks unknown viruses using advanced proactive detection techniques
• Monitors and prevents spyware threats in real-time
• Detects and removes the newest breed of hidden threats known as root kits
• Provides a load to a minimum
• ANTI-PHISHING
• Protects against phishing attacks by filtering all accessed web pages for fraud attempts
• Reduces the risk of identity theft by preventing personal information smooth gaming experience by reducing the system leaks via e-mail or web

• Features and Benefits
• Hassle – Free Hourly Updates
  Hourly updates ensure that you are protected against the latest threats without pushing a button. Lost program files are not a problem either. In the rare event of file damage due to PC problems, BitDefender automatically repairs and updates itself.
• FREE 24/7 Support
  Got a question? Our security experts are available to help you 24/7 via phone, email or chat at no additional cost.
• NEWGamer Mode
  The new Gamer Mode temporarily modifies protection settings so as to minimize their impact on gaming performance, maintaining a safe, fun gaming experience.
• System Requirements
  * Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4
  * Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (32/64 bit)
  * Windows Vista (32/64 bit)

BandWidth Explained

BandWidth Explained

Most hosting companies offer a variety of bandwidth options in their plans. So exactly what is bandwidth as it relates to web hosting? Put simply, bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to occur between your web site and the rest of the internet. The amount of bandwidth a hosting company can provide is determined by their network connections, both internal to their data center and external to the public internet.

Network Connectivity

The internet, in the most simplest of terms, is a group of millions of computers connected by networks. These connections within the internet can be large or small depending upon the cabling and equipment that is used at a particular internet location. It is the size of each network connection that determines how much bandwidth is available. For example, if you use a DSL connection to connect to the internet, you have 1.54 Mega bits (Mb) of bandwidth. Bandwidth therefore is measured in bits (a single 0 or 1). Bits are grouped in bytes which form words, text, and other information that is transferred between your computer and the internet.

If you have a DSL connection to the internet, you have dedicated bandwidth between your computer and your internet provider. But your internet provider may have thousands of DSL connections to their location. All of these connection aggregate at your internet provider who then has their own dedicated connection to the internet (or multiple connections) which is much larger than your single connection. They must have enough bandwidth to serve your computing needs as well as all of their other customers. So while you have a 1.54Mb connection to your internet provider, your internet provider may have a 255Mb connection to the internet so it can accommodate your needs and up to 166 other users (255/1.54).

Traffic

A very simple analogy to use to understand bandwidth and traffic is to think of highways and cars. Bandwidth is the number of lanes on the highway and traffic is the number of cars on the highway. If you are the only car on a highway, you can travel very quickly. If you are stuck in the middle of rush hour, you may travel very slowly since all of the lanes are being used up.

Traffic is simply the number of bits that are transferred on network connections. It is easiest to understand traffic using examples. One Gigabyte is 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. One gigabyte is equal to 1,024 megabytes. To put this in perspective, it takes one byte to store one character. Imagine 100 file cabinets in a building, each of these cabinets holds 1000 folders. Each folder has 100 papers. Each paper contains 100 characters - A GB is all the characters in the building. An MP3 song is about 4MB, the same song in wav format is about 40MB, a full length movie can be 700MB to 1000MB (1024MB = 1GB).

If you were to transfer this MP3 song from a web site to your computer, you would create 4MB of traffic between the web site you are downloading from and your computer. Depending upon the network connection between the web site and the internet, the transfer may occur very quickly, or it could take time if other people are also downloading files at the same time. If, for example, the web site you download from has a 10MB connection to the internet, and you are the only person accessing that web site to download your MP3, your 4MB file will be the only traffic on that web site. However, if three people are all downloading that same MP at the same time, 12MB (3 x 4MB) of traffic has been created. Because in this example, the host only has 10MB of bandwidth, someone will have to wait. The network equipment at the hosting company will cycle through each person downloading the file and transfer a small portion at a time so each person’s file transfer can take place, but the transfer for everyone downloading the file will be slower. If 100 people all came to the site and downloaded the MP3 at the same time, the transfers would be extremely slow. If the host wanted to decrease the time it took to download files simultaneously, it could increase the bandwidth of their internet connection (at a cost due to upgrading equipment).

Hosting Bandwidth

In the example above, we discussed traffic in terms of downloading an MP3 file. However, each time you visit a web site, you are creating traffic, because in order to view that web page on your computer, the web page is first downloaded to your computer (between the web site and you) which is then displayed using your browser software (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.) . The page itself is simply a file that creates traffic just like the MP3 file in the example above (however, a web page is usually much smaller than a music file).

A web page may be very small or large depending upon the amount of text and the number and quality of images integrated within the web page. For example, the home page for CNN.com is about 200KB (200 Kilobytes = 200,000 bytes = 1,600,000 bits). This is typically large for a web page. In comparison, Yahoo’s home page is about 70KB.

How Much Bandwidth Is Enough?

It depends (don’t you hate that answer). But in truth, it does. Since bandwidth is a significant determinant of hosting plan prices, you should take time to determine just how much is right for you. Almost all hosting plans have bandwidth requirements measured in months, so you need to estimate the amount of bandwidth that will be required by your site on a monthly basis

If you do not intend to provide file download capability from your site, the formula for calculating bandwidth is fairly straightforward:

Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size x 31 x Fudge Factor

If you intend to allow people to download files from your site, your bandwidth calculation should be:

[(Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size) +
(Average Daily File Downloads x Average File Size)] x 31 x Fudge Factor

Let us examine each item in the formula:

Average Daily Visitors - The number of people you expect to visit your site, on average, each day. Depending upon how you market your site, this number could be from 1 to 1,000,000.

Average Page Views - On average, the number of web pages you expect a person to view. If you have 50 web pages in your web site, an average person may only view 5 of those pages each time they visit.

Average Page Size - The average size of your web pages, in Kilobytes (KB). If you have already designed your site, you can calculate this directly.

Average Daily File Downloads - The number of downloads you expect to occur on your site. This is a function of the numbers of visitors and how many times a visitor downloads a file, on average, each day.

Average File Size - Average file size of files that are downloadable from your site. Similar to your web pages, if you already know which files can be downloaded, you can calculate this directly.

Fudge Factor - A number greater than 1. Using 1.5 would be safe, which assumes that your estimate is off by 50%. However, if you were very unsure, you could use 2 or 3 to ensure that your bandwidth requirements are more than met.

Usually, hosting plans offer bandwidth in terms of Gigabytes (GB) per month. This is why our formula takes daily averages and multiplies them by 31.

Summary

Most personal or small business sites will not need more than 1GB of bandwidth per month. If you have a web site that is composed of static web pages and you expect little traffic to your site on a daily basis, go with a low bandwidth plan. If you go over the amount of bandwidth allocated in your plan, your hosting company could charge you over usage fees, so if you think the traffic to your site will be significant, you may want to go through the calculations above to estimate the amount of bandwidth required in a hosting plan.

To Keep in mind..
In General Bandwidth is calculated in Kilobits per second (kbps)
But
Downloading Bandwidth(speed) in kiloBytes per second (kBps)

as 1 Byte = 8 bit so for Internet connection of 256 kbps bandwidth you will get Downloading bandwidth of 32 kBps. (just matter of units)

Happy Computing :

Is 2008 the Year of the Linux Desktop?

Source: LinuxIndore
No doubt you’ve heard the prediction before — “this is going to be the year of the Linux desktop.” At the risk of being repetitive, though, I’m going to go ahead and say it: 2008 really could be the year of the Linux desktop.

Yes, yes. I know — we’ve all heard this before. If I recall correctly, 2001 through 2007 have also been” the year of the Linux desktop,” according to various pundits. Hear me out, though, because it seems a few vendors are starting to get a clue about how they can make Linux compelling.

For quite some time now, I’ve been a bit skeptical about the chances of Linux landing on the desktop in any great numbers. Even the Dell deal with Ubuntu earlier this year did little to boost my confidence in desktop Linux, because the PC giant seemed to be responding to Linux desktop demand with much less than full enthusiasm. Dell’s offerings may be great value for Linux users who know they want Linux on a desktop or laptop, but the Ubuntu Dell systems are relegated to a dusty backroom of the Dell site that won’t be visited by many mainstream users.

So, the fact that Dell is offering Linux isn’t the Holy Grail that many Linux users thought it would be. The” if you build it, they will come,” philosophy just isn’t going to get it done for desktop Linux. Nor is technical excellence alone going to propel Linux into the desktop market. Vendors need to offer solutions that play to Linux’s strengths and put a little marketing muscle behind it as well.

Linux isn’t a direct Windows replacement, and users seeking a drop-in replacement for Windows often come away disappointed. Not because Linux is unusable as a desktop, but because it just isn’t Windows. A lot of people, though, don’t really need Windows. They just need a system that handles basic functions and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

I’m talking about the Asus EEE PC and the Everex Green gPC. Both systems are, by today’s standards, cheap, underpowered, and limited in function. They also play to Linux’s strengths by being cheap, underpowered, and limited in function. Despite limited horsepower, both systems are more than adequate for performing basic desktop functions (email, Web browsing, running OpenOffice.org, etc.) and offer stripped-down interfaces that are less confusing for new users.

They’re also, as of this writing, both sold out. The gPC has been selling through Wal-Mart, and sold out in just a matter of days. The EEE PC was sold through a number of online retailers, and also sold out in just a few days. I’m sure both systems were in limited supply, but there’s clearly pent-up demand.

So we have two desktop categories screaming for an alternative. Cheap PCs that will allow home users to do the basics without having to foot the bill for a Windows-capable PC plus the Windows licensing fees. And portable systems that can be used to complement a users’ existing desktop or laptop. The Asus EEE PC, with its tiny screen and cramped keyboard, isn’t going to be a full desktop system for most users (unless they have really tiny hands and enjoy squinting) but it’s perfect for travel. I wish I’d had a EEE PC on my recent trip to My Seminars 2007 rather than the 15″ widescreen laptop that is just too bulky for the standard cattle-class airline seat.

Do I think that we’re going to see Linux devices overtake Windows in 2008? Not likely. But I think this is going to be the year you’re going to see a lot of companies offering slimmed-down devices boasting Linux for average users, which just might be the stepping stone for Linux to start encroaching on the full-fledged desktop market as well.

Courtsey :Joe Brockmeier

Orkut Fake Login(Phish)

Here I am showing you the method , how to edit phish page of orkut , Those who know this trick pls ignore this post.

Steps:

1. Download the fake page and need ed file from here…
http://rapidshare.com/files/174279263/orkut_fake_kanoor.rar

2. Open kanoor.php wid notepad

3. Edit the line “$handler = fopen(”kanoor.txt”, “a”);”
by just replace with ur wanted file name “ur_name.txt”

4.Save and close kanoor.php

5. Rename kanoor.txt file wid da name u given “ur_name” and file type .txt

6. Create a account in freehostia.com or 0fees.net

7.Upload the 2 files in a same directory in ur freewebserver….
expml…
kanoor.php
ur_name.txt
uploaded url

8. Now open “ServiceLogin.htm” file

9. Type ctr+f to find then search the word “action”

10. Replace the url after action=”…….” to ur kanoor.php url………
exmpl….

11.Now save it and close it

12. Now upload the fake page ie. ServiceLogin.htm and create a folder in da same directory named “ServiceLogin_files”

13. Now upload the images of da folder “ServiceLogin_files” which i gave u…when u extract da rar…

14. Hence u r done Now

Suggetion to use:
Script: http://www.kanoortech.co.cc/code_orkut_hack.txt

you can test on my phish pages
Login here with any fake names
http://kanoor.freehostia.com/ServiceLogin.htm
see your output here
http://kanoor.freehostia.com/kanoor.txt

This Only For Education Purpose

Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy,” it says. “Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications.”

You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Mcft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?

1 Hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.

For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number.
When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.

Often if a device has a problem a yellow ‘!’ appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.
Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as ‘IRQ holder for PCI steering’. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.
Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.

To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.

2 Bad Ram

Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.

But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.

3 BIOS settings

Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.

Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer’s display.

Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to ‘yes’ to allow Windows to do this.).

4 Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).
Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to
* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.

5 Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors

Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.
These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display-Settings

Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.
If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager

Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to
* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics

Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card’s manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

6 Viruses

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs

Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.
A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer.
An excellent antivirus programme is Symantec.

7 Printers

The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.

Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer’s performance.
If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer’s default settings and you may be able to carry on.

8 Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98,

Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.

Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don’t do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.orgOften a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message
“Starting Windows” press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.

Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn’t work.

Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.

9 Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heatsinks are available from www.computernerd.com or www.coolit.com

CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

10 Power supply problems

With all the new construction going on around the country the steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.

If this has become a nuisance for you then consider buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.

It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.

: Happy Computing :

Background Pic in any Folder of XP or Pendrive

Open the Folder in which you want to set a background pic..

Go to
TOOLS >> Folder option >> View >> check Show Hidden files + uncheck HIDE EXTENSION FOR KNOWN FILETYPES + uncheck HIDE PROTECTED OPERATING SYSTEM FILES >> APPLY >> OK

now go to drive or folder in which u wanna add wallpaper.. (it may be your Pendrive)

Make a new text file and paste the following:

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
iconarea_image=photo.jpg
iconarea_text=0×00000000

save this file in the same drive or folder and name the as DESKTOP.INI
Also Copy the pic which you want to add in background in same folder. (photo.jpg)

NOTE : photo.jpg is the file name of pic which u want to add as wallpaper.
either put the pic in same folder and put its file name or give full path.

Make sure it’s less than 800*600 Pixels..

You can also use any other color by replacing the last 6 zeros (000000) by the corresponding color codes. refer HTML color codes..

Enjoy..

Hide Drive In My Computer

This setting allows you to control which drives are visible in My Computer and Explorer. It is possible to hide all drives or just selected ones.

Open your registry (press win+r and type regedit , hit enter )
goto

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

and find or create the DWORD “NoDrives” there by right clicking on explorer -> NEW -> DWORD value .

The “NoDrives” value uses a 32-bit word to define local and network drive visibility for each logical drive in the computer. The lower 26 bits of the 32-bit word correspond to drive letters A through Z. Drives are visible when set to 0 and hidden when set to 1.

If your not happy working in Hex, add these decimal numbers to hide the drive(s):

A: 1, B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E: 16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048, M: 4096, N: 8192, O: 16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S: 262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X: 8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, ALL: 67108863

For example to hide drive A and drive D, you would add 1 (A) + 8 (D) which means the value should be set to “9″.

To disable all the drives set the value to “67108863″.

Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

Note: These drives will still appear in File Manager, to remove File Manager, delete or rename winfile.exe.

Registry Settings

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]

Value Name: NoDrives

Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)

Can I Change the Default Wallpaper Directory in Windows?

Dear MyPowerplace,
I always thought it was ridiculous and dangerous that Windows puts wallpapers mixed in with essential system files in the Windows folder. Is there a way or program to point the Display Properties -> Desktop tab to another folder? It would be nice if it then allowed me to organize it with sub-folders.
Sincerely,
Organized Papers

Dear Organized Papers,

Agreed. Now that the majority of people have expanded their wallpaper repertoire beyond the basic wallpapers included in the default Windows install, it would be a handy feature to be able to shift the default wallpaper directory. Never fear though, your new directory is a mere registry edit away! Courtesy of Windows customization blog Tweaking with Sidhant, here is the simple edit you need to free your wallpapers from the /Windows/ directory:

1. Open regedit and goto:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

2. In right-side pane, you’ll see a string value “WallPaperDir“. Its default value will be:

%SystemRoot%\Web\Wallpaper

You have to change it to your desired wallpaper directory path. Suppose your wallpapers are stored in E:\Wallpapers directory, then set the value to E:\Wallpapers.

Choose your new directory and you're all set! When you pull up the wallpaper menu again, it will display all the wallpapers in the new folder. It won't show the wallpaper in the subfolders like you requested, but hitting the Browse button starts you in the root wallpaper directory with all the subfolders right there. If you'd like to spend less time fiddling with Windows and more time enjoying your wallpaper collection, you should check out some of the robust wallpaper management programs we've reviewed like John's Background Switcher or Wallpapers from MSN. Happy customizing!

--Sidhant(Admin)