There are many paid softwares available  to serve the purpose . But who likes to pay for softwares these days so here’s a simple solution:

All you need is a compression software like Winzip, Winrar or 7zip.

Right click on the folder you want to protect  and select Add to Archive.

Look for encryption section and specify a password.

If you also  check mark ” Encrypt file name”,it will protect individual file names.

Select OK , to compress your folder.

Now when you click to extract file , It asks you to enter password.

That’s It.  Now you can write this file on CD/DVD or copy to USB.

Off-course many people will like this to be more formal and easier. But for that you will need to purchase an encryption software.

When you install Windows, Setup requests that you enter your name, and optionally, the organization name. This registration information is displayed under Registered to in the General tab of System when you click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.

 To change your name and company information after Windows is installed on your computer, follow these steps:

 

Important

 

This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs.

 

How to back up and restore the registry in Windows Click Start, and then click Run.

• In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
•  Locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
•  To change the company name, do the following:
• In the right pane, double-click RegisteredOrganization. Under Value data, type the name that you want, and then click OK.
• To change the name of the registered owner, do the following:
• In the right pane, double-click RegisteredOwner. Under Value data, type the name that you want, and then click OK.
• Click Exit on the File menu to quit Registry Editor.

1. Using the Windows Explorer, select all the files you want to rename
2. Press F2 or right click and select Rename
3. Enter the prefix for the name you want (e.g. Newname)
4. This will automatically rename the rest of the files Newname (1).jpg, Newname (2).jpg etc.
5. Make sure you include the extension if you have the Explorer configured to show them.

To rename the start button, you will need a hex editor.
My preference is UltraEdit

1. Copy the \windows\explore.exe file to a new name (e.g. explorer_1.exe)
2. With the hex editor, open that file and go to offset 412b6
3. You will see the word start with blanks between each letter
4. Edit it be any 5 characters or less
5. Save the file
6. Boot to DOS
7. Copy the existing c:\windows\explorer.exe to explorer.org
8. Copy explorer_1.exe to explorer.exe
9. You will also need to replace the explorer.exe in the c:\windows\system32\dllcache file as well with the new one.

Note: If the partition is NTFS and you can’t access the files from DOS:

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon.
3. Change the value of Shell from Explorer.exe to explorer_1.exe

You can use this tip to speed up the Start Menu in Windows XP release candidate 1. You can customize the speed of the Start Menu by editing a Registry Key.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type Regedit in the box, and then click OK.
3. Expand the menu in the left panel and select the HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop folder.
4. Scroll down in the right panel and double click on the MenuShowDelay file.
5. In the Value Data box, change to default value for the menu speed from 400 to a lesser number, such as 1.
6. Click OK.

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on your computer.

This tweak is for broad band cable connections on stand alone machines with winXP professional version – might work on Home version also. It will probably work with networked machines as well but I haven’t tried it in that configuration. This is for windows XP only, it does not work on win2000.
I use 3 Com cards so I don’t know how it works on others at this point. It does not involve editing the registry. This tweak assumes that you have let winXP create a connection on install for your cable modem/NIC combination and that your connection has tcp/ip – QoS – file and print sharing – and client for microsoft networks , only, installed. It also assumes that winxp will detect your NIC and has in-box drivers for it. If it doesn’t do not try this.
In the “My Network Places” properties (right click on the desktop icon and choose properties), highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose “Advanced” then “Advanced Settings”. Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK

1. From the windows XP cd in the support directory from the support cab, extract the file netcap.exe and place it in a directory on your hard drive or even in the root of your C: drive.
2. next, open up a command prompt window and change directories to where you put netcap.exe. then type “netcap/?”. It will list some commands that are available for netcap and a netmon driver will be installed. At the bottom you will see your adapters. You should see two of them if using a 3Com card. One will be for LAN and the other will be for WAN something or other.
3. Next type “netcap/Remove”. This will remove the netmon driver.
4. Open up control panel / system / dev man and look at your network adapters. You should now see two of them and one will have a yellow ! on it. Right click on the one without the yellow ! and choose uninstall. YES! you are uninstalling your network adapter, continue with the uninstall. Do not restart yet.
5. Check your connection properties to make sure that no connection exists. If you get a wizard just cancel out of it.
6. Now re-start the machine.
7. After re-start go to your connection properties again and you should have a new connection called “Local area connection 2″. highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose “Advanced” then “Advanced Settings”. Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK.
8. Choose connection properties and uncheck the “QOS” box
9. Re-start the machine
10. after restart enjoy the increased responsivness of IE, faster page loading, and a connection speed boost.

Why it works, it seems that windows XP, in its zeal to make sure every base is covered installs two seperate versions of the NIC card. One you do not normally see in any properties. Remember the “netcap/?” command above showing two different adapters? The LAN one is the one you see. The invisible one loads everything down and its like your running two separate cards together, sharing a connection among two cards, this method breaks this “bond” and allows the NIC to run un-hindered

1. Start regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTlnkfile.
3. Delete the IsShortcut registry value.
4. You may need to restart Windows XP.

Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Messenger
You can now modify whether it starts initially and/or whether it’s to run at all.
UPDATE: I have recieved some email that say this fix slows down outlook when starting, that is because outlook wants to start messenger when it starts, the easiest and fastest way to disable messenger and still have a quickj starttime with outlook is to rename the exe file, located here c:program filesmessengermsmsgs.exe, to something other than msmsgs.exe, such as msmsgsnew.exe.