Tutorials


This page consists of the following tutorials (in case it seems too long for you):
  1. Set-up Daemon Tools Lite to be able to mount game CDs & play NoCrack repacks (also have working in-game audio like the good old times)
  2. Enabling the "super secret" Administrator account on Windows Vista and newer
  3. How to completely disable Microsoft Defender

  • Set-up Daemon Tools Lite to be able to mount game CDs & play NoCrack repacks (also have working in-game audio like the good old times)
In this tutorial, we will show you step-by-step how to set up Daemon Tools Lite (Free) to be able to mount virtual game CDs, be able to play NoCrack repacks & have in-game CD audio! There are 4 steps that you need to follow, in the first step we will guide you through the installation process, in the second step we will prepare the drive letters (important), in the third step we will configure Daemon Tools and finally, in the fourth step, we will add an IDE drive with the drive letter 'D:' So let's begin! :)

1. Install Daemon Tools Lite
The first step is to install Daemon Tools! Get yourself a copy of DT Lite in the following link:
(For older Windows like 7, XP, 2000, 98 & 95 please check out our Tools & Runtimes page)

Execute it as Administrator and follow the below screenshots:

Choose 'Free License'

Let the installer download the required files

Again, choose 'Free License' and click on "Configure setup options"

Toggle/untoggle the checkboxes as shown in the screenshot and click "Agree & Continue"

Daemon Tools is installing...

Done! Cick on "Close"

2. Configure drive letters
In this second step, you will change the drive letter of your internal CD/DVD drive in your computer (if you have one), in order to free up the drive letter 'D:', which will be assigned later to your new virtual IDE drive. This is an important step, so don't skip it! Let's continue...

In this screenshot, you can see that the internal CD drive is assigned the drive letter D:
It is important that the drive letter D: is reserved for the virtual IDE drive, so let's change it to something else like E:

Open 'Computer Management' console as shown below, or execute 'compmgmt.msc' in Start Menu

Click on 'Disk Management'

Right-click on your CD drive and click on 'Change drive letter and paths'

Change the D: drive letter

With something like E:

Confirm the change

Voila! Now your internal CD drive has the 'E:' letter and 'D:' is unassigned (reserved for later)

3. Configure Daemon Tools
In this step, we will configure some DT options, like startup behaviour and virtual image file types. Let's go!

Start Daemon Tools Lite and Skip the tutorial

Skip those offers

At the left bottom click the Settings icon
We will configure only the General & Integration sections

In the General section, configure as shown in the screenshot and click 'Save'
It is important that "Automount" is set as shown, otherwise your virtual IDE drive will be lost on the next reboot of Windows 10!

In the Integration section, configure as shown in the screenshot and click 'Save'

4. Add a new IDE virtual drive and assign the 'D:' drive letter, but first, some prelude...
You have made it to step 4, congratulations! Now, first we need to talk about some things and we will continue. In this final step, you will add a new IDE virtual drive with the letter 'D:'. You might be asking, why IDE drive and why exactly in D: ??? Well, look. We are dealing here with old games and computers of old times used to have CD drives that were connected with that old & bulky IDE cable  into the IDE controller. The D: drive letter used to be first in the alphabet, as long as it comes to CD drives, like A: for the floppy drive, C: for the system drive/hard disk where Windows is installed and so on, you get the picture. Most old games are programmed to look for the first D: drive letter for the CD drive, where they would ask the user to insert the physical CD in order to deal with copy protection\DRM and to also play the CD-Audio tracks for the actual game. That's why when we deal with virtual CD drives & emulation, atleast we will do it like a pro!

Second, some other thing. There is this thing called SPTD, which stands for "SCSI Pass-Through Direct" and is used to emulate advanced copy protections for virtual game CD images. In order for you to have a working virtual IDE drive, you need to have installed that little thing. Fortunately, Daemon Tools provides this.

And third! With Windows 10 build 1903, Micro$haft introduced some protections in the Windows 10 kernel to deal with the security vulnerabilities in Intel & AMD processors, that were found during that time. Which essentially, makes SPTD incompatible with Windows 10 1903 and newer versions. You can read more about the case here:

In order to make it compatible again, you need to disable those kernel protections in the registry. You don't need to worry about it, as long as you have your Windows updated. So, copy/paste the following, save it as .reg file and execute it!

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"FeatureSettingsOverride"=dword:00020000
"FeatureSettingsOverrideMask"=dword:00020000

Alternately, you can download the .reg file from here:

(Remember that those registry entries may reset to their defaults after updating Windows 10 and you might need to re-import the registry file!)

After you are done, reboot your Windows 10 system and then you are ready to proceed with adding the virtual IDE drive! So, follow us below :)

Open Daemon Tools and click the 'Home' icon at top-left
Click on Drives

Add a drive

Click in 'Virtual Drive'

And select IDE

Install SPTD

Reboot your computer

After your computer is rebooted, open Daemon Tools and click on the 'Home' icon at top-left
And click on Drives

Add a drive

Now SPTD is successfully installed, repeat the previous drill!
Make sure the new IDE drive is mounted in D:

Add it!

Now as you can see, you have successfully added the new virtual IDE drive in D:
Make sure that on the drive icon at the top it says "IDE", otherwise it is a normal DT drive

And Voila! Mission completed :)

So, that was it! You now have a working Daemon Tools and a virtual IDE drive. You are now ready to be able to mount all types of virtual CD images, especially old games while also having a working in-game audio\music! Was it that hard?

  • Enabling the "super secret" Administrator account on Windows Vista and newer
Aren't you tired of constantly clicking "Run as Administrator"? Even if you did so, some repacks here that use DxWnd and are installed in C:\Program Files will still show you a message about not having admin privileges and some games installed there will still not save your game. Well, there is a solution for this, the ultimate solution. What you need to do is enable the built-in Administrator account and start using it instead of using your current "administrator" user account. Now be careful, because with this administrator account the UAC prompts will disappear and running any software will be run with real admin privileges! But at least you won't have to bother with "Run as administrator" (for real).

Open command prompt or cmd.exe by running it as administrator first! Don't forget that step. Afterwards type in the following:
net user administrator /active:yes

Sign out of your current user account and sign in into the Administrator account. Windows will show the initial configuration screens (like when first installing Windows) and then you will be ready to go. Done, enjoy freedom!

  • How to completely disable Microsoft Defender
Pssst, hey kid! Wanna buy some antivirus freedom? Just kidding. Or actually I'm not kidding. Ever since Windows 10 came into existence you get this M$ Defender. Which is actually good in some sense but it is mostly a corporate piece of.... software which in many cases prevents you from running some "downloaded" games & programs. Sometimes you just want to disable it but after you reboot your computer or just about some hours later it pops up again. Why would you want to disable it? Well, there are several cases. First you want to replace it with some other antivirus but this thing just keeps running in the background hogging your whole system. What if you are an advanced internet user and you know where you get your "stuff" from? The thing prevents you from running it most of the times even though you know for sure that your downloaded stuff is virus free. Well, guess what? Some companies pay M$ good money to prevent you from running other software. I won't get more specific but I think you know what I'm talking about. The easier solution is to just add the affected executables or the folders in the exclusion list, but this here is a more permanent solution.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you want you can enable M$ Defender at any time, but at your own discretion and not by M$'s discretion. This guide will be for disabling M$ Defender without disabling the firewall (why would you need to disable it anyway?). Also, the Windows Updates will work fine.

Disabling this crap isn't as easy as 1, 2, 3 but I will try to make it look like it's as easy as 1, 2, 3. In the past I used to dabble with all kinds of Group Policy (gpedit.msc) settings and it kinda worked until recent versions of Windows 10 came and what happens with Windows 11? Forget it.

This procedure involves running a PowerShell script and booting into a live PE environment (live Linux CD/USB will also do the job). There is this wonderful site called "privacy.sexy" which offers various PowerShell scripts to disable/enable all kinds of things, privacy related or not (P.S. this isn't sponsored by them at all).


Clicking on the "PRIVACY OVER SECURITY" will reveal "DISABLE WINDOWS DEFENDER".


By default the checked box will disable the selected components, enabling the REVERT switch will enable the selected components. You can enable/disable various buttons, after you have made your choice, click on the bottom first green box to download the script and then execute it.

For simplicity I will provide pre-made scripts which you can download below and execute them.
https://www.mediafire .com/file/v24bvi0d7nq8x0h/M$_Defender_Scripts.zip/file (remove the space before .com)
SHA256: M$_Defender_Scripts.zip - 320002D4AC96DA63037242B562BD3CADDB34D85FD4AB52895EE8BAB4D2FB7411
(Last updated: 24/Aug/2023)

After executing the script of your choice, let it finish & reboot your computer. Step 1 is done, now you need to boot from a live CD/DVD/USB to delete a folder which contains the M$ Defender engines & executables. If you skip this step, Defender will still continue running in the background (MsMpEng.exe) and will still prevent you from running some software although it won't show you notifications.

The folder that needs to be deleted is this:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\(any folder that starts with numbers for example 4.8.2211.5-0)
This folder cannot be deleted normally because your user account doesn't have system permissions to do so.

And voila! Done, boot back into your system and now Defender is completely gone.

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