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What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

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Most of us have opened up regedit (or similar registry tool) at least once and made some modification or change to fix or tweak a particular windows setting. What is your favorite windows registry tweak/hack?

I’ll start off by listing a few registry tweaks I’ve tested & used in the past with success.

It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyways) that changes to the windows registry must be done with extreme caution. Careless changes can make Windows operate strangely (even more than how it normally operates!) or cause it to stop working altogether. Back up your windows registry before you do anything:
Click Start, Run, type regedit, and press to open the windows registry editor. Then choose My Computer in the folder pane on the left, click File, Export, give the file a name, and select a location to store it (preferably on a CD-RW or other type of removable media). The resulting file may be huge, and restoring your registry from it may take a while. WinXP’s system restore utility also makes regular system restore points but having an additional registry backup doesn’t hurt.

That being said, I look forward to the various windows registry tweaks/hacks that everyone else has used with great success. Please make sure to provide the full reg key and brief description of the change it makes/advantage it provides to windows.

Topic

Speed up Disk Cleanup with this registry tweak…

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

Navigate to
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\volumecaches

– delete the compress old files key (export the key first if you would like to restore this function afterwards)

This registry tweak speeds up the time it takes for Disk Cleanup to work. I have personally experienced that disk cleanup can take a very long time to scan the harddrive, removing the above compress old files key will stop windows from calculating the amount of space it would save if you compressed old files which speeds up the disk cleanup alot! I got this from another TR member in a another discussion – it’s awesome!!!

Speed up windows xp start menu appearance with this tweak…

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

A simple Registry tweak can speed up your Start menu and its submenus:

Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop (the last word may appear as ‘desktop’).

Double-click the MenuShowDelay icon on the right, and change ‘Value data’ from its default of 400 (milliseconds) to something speedier, like 0.

Alternatively, you can slow the menu down to 4000 milliseconds (4 seconds) if the menu appears too quickly to suit you.

– I got this tweak from PC World magazine

Too fast

In reply to Speed up windows xp start menu appearance with this tweak…

This tweak if set to low can make it difficult to navigat menu’s. 0 is definately to fast. I set mine to 150.

That’s spot on!

In reply to Speed up windows xp start menu appearance with this tweak…

I changed mine to 0 and it is perfect!

Thanks,
Jim

Resize your wallpaper…

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

Resize Your Wallpaper

If you just switched to a wide-screen monitor, your desktop wallpaper image may no longer look right, or maybe you just want to make a small adjustment to it. For more-granular control of your wallpaper’s placement,

navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop

double-click the WallpaperOriginX icon in the right pane. (If you don’t see this icon, right-click in this pane, choose New, String Value, type WallpaperOriginX to name the value, and press .) Type a number (in pixels) for the starting horizontal position of your wallpaper’s left edge, and press . Now double-click the WallpaperOriginY icon (create it if necessary as explained above) and enter a number for the starting vertical position of the image’s top edge. If your wallpaper image is larger than the screen, type a negative number (for example, -200) to push the picture’s top or left edge off the screen.

To test the effect, first minimize the Registry Editor (and any other open window), right-click the desktop, choose Properties, and click OK or Apply to refresh the wallpaper placement. Repeat these steps as needed until the wallpaper is positioned correctly.

The settings work whether you’ve set your wallpaper to be centered, tiled, or stretched.

– I got this tweak from PC World magazine

Find every file type when performing a search in Windows…

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

When you search for a file in Windows (choose Start, Search, For Files or Folders, or press in any Explorer or folder window to open the search pane), Windows searches only for file types it recognizes. Files that aren’t listed in the ‘Registered file types’ list are ignored (to view this list, open Explorer, choose Tools, Folder Options, and click the File Types tab). So while ‘Read_Me.xyz’ may be a perfectly good file name to you, Windows pays it no mind because of the unrecognized ‘.xyz’ file extension.

To fix this, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex

Double-click the FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions icon in the right pane, change the 0 in the ‘Value data’ box to 1, and press .

– I got this tweak from PC World magazine…

Find every file type at search

In reply to Find every file type when performing a search in Windows…

I dont actually see the “point” in this tweek.

If open the “search dialog”, and type NOTHING in the “name field”, Windows list ALL files in the search path.

Or did I miss something here?

windows only looks for registered file types…

In reply to Find every file type at search

if you had file named file.xyz,
windows file search wouldn’t locate it because file type .xyz is not a registered file type.
Windows searches only for file types it recognizes. Files that aren’t listed in the ‘Registered file types’ list are ignored.

Using the reg hack provided, windows would look for every file, regardless of file type.

It’s not something that everyone will use but it’s nice to know you can force windows to do something it should have done by default in the first place.

Re-Title Internet Explorer…

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

By default, Internet Explorer’s title bar shows the name of the Web site you’re viewing, followed by “Microsoft Internet Explorer”–or in some cases, your company’s name or the name of the ISP that supplied the browser. To change the repeating text in IE’s title bar (or to get rid of it altogether),

navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

double-click the Window Title icon in the right pane. (If you don’t see this icon, right-click in the pane, choose New, String Value, type Window Title, and press .) Type what you want to see on IE’s title bar, or type nothing to show only the site name. Note that the hyphen that normally separates the site name from the page title will remain. When you relaunch Internet Explorer, you will see the change

– I got this tweak from PC World magazine

I’ve been using

In reply to Re-Title Internet Explorer…

this one for a while. I recommend changing it to: Micro$oft Infernal Exploiter.

I’ve also seen “Internal Explosion”…

In reply to I’ve been using

among other words that can’t be posted in a friendly discussion environment.

Customization is nice when it works.

This is a very usefull tweak

In reply to I’ve also seen “Internal Explosion”…

Been using it since W2K. I put the name of my company there with my phone number. I then use the advanced button in the appearance tab of display properties to change fade and font to company colors.

How About ….

In reply to I’ve been using

INFECTION EXPEDITOR

AKA

In reply to I’ve been using

Internet Exploder. Not original, got if from Webalizer if I recall correctly.

… some basic info on the windows registry

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

The windows registry is a database that is built on five top-level Keys.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT: Dedicated to storing information about file types and OLE-aware applications. OLE stands for object linking and embedding and describes how an object–such as a document–can be created in one application and embedded in another.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER: Provides access to configuration data for the active user on the PC. The data is actually extracted from the
HKEY_USERS Key–which contains user information for all accounts on the system.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE: The repository for all data about installed hardware and software.

HKEY_USERS: Contains select preferences data for all users of the computer.

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG: Extracts data from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE pertaining to the active hardware configuration.

By clicking the (+) sign next to a Key, you can expand the view to reveal sub-Keys. Clicking the Key itself reveals the Values for that Key in the right-hand pane. Double-click a Value icon, and you can edit the data contained within it.

As mentioned at the beginning of this discussion, you can use RegEdit to make windows registry backups: from the entire Registry to a single key. Just select the Key containing the data to back up and click File, Export. Assign the backup file a name and then navigate to the folder where you want to save it. RegEdit will save the selected Key in a file with a .reg extension. Now say you perform a change to Keys or Values under the Key you backed up and the changes disable your system. You can go back to the original Registry state just by double-clicking the .reg file you created.

Needless to say, farting around with the windows registry can be dangerous – it’s a good idea to keep a system backup handy, in case things go very wrong. Make registry changes that you know to be safe and always backup the registry before making changes just in case.

Edit User Name & Organization…

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

Do you want to change the registered user name & organization that was setup in your winxp install or perhaps you accidentally mistyped this info and would like to correct it.

Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

On the left frame, find RegisteredOwner and RegisteredOrganization. Double click on each of these entries to edit them, click on ok when you’re finished and that’s it. Verify the changes by viewing the ‘general’ page under system properties.

useful…

In reply to Edit User Name & Organization…

Thanks Rob. hmm, I once needed to do the same thing at my work and don’t remember what i did. I probably reinstalled the OS, hehe, my bad

Reduce hung application timeout…

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

When shutting down, Windows attempts to stop all running tasks. If a task is not responding or refuses to shut down, there?s a built-in delay before Windows will force the task to end. This delay is called the timeout, and it can be shortened if you?re experiencing problems or unreasonable delays when shutting down your system:

Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Double-click the WaitToKillAppTimeout value. This number controls the time to wait, in milliseconds, before unresponsive applications are
forced to close. The default is 20000 (twenty seconds), but it can be decreased to any value; the minimum is 1 millisecond, although it?s
impractical to use any value smaller than about 2000 (two seconds) here.

Also in this key is the HungAppTimeout value, which does pretty much the same thing as WaitToKillAppTimeout; just enter the same number for both values.

Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

Double-click the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value. This works the same as the WaitToKillAppTimeout value described above, except that it
applies to services instead of applications.

Close the Registry Editor when you?re done & restart Windows for the change to take effect.
These values also affect the timeouts at times other than just shutting down, such as when you click End Process in the Windows Task Manager.

– this tip was obtained from a TR download, an O’Reilly Tips & Secrets sample chapter

Small prob with this tweak

In reply to Reduce hung application timeout…

This tweak can close an application before it saves the file state to hard disk.

yes, you’re right

In reply to Small prob with this tweak

you have to play around with the time delay to find out what works best for you but that is definitely a problem that can be experienced

– if you find it does cause you problems, change it back to it’s default value

I use this instead

In reply to yes, you’re right

I always install the User Profile Hive Cleanup service from MS to ensure hung apps release registry keys when logging off/shutting down windows xp and 2000. It seems to prevent long waits for hung apps to close and save their info.

Yeah, I know this is a registry tweaks thread, but I was a little concerned about people using this tweak and loosing data or bits of the registry.

To d/l the Uphcleanup service and for a better description of what it can do:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1B286E6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582&displaylang=en

Command Prompt Here

In reply to Small prob with this tweak

Being a cli user from way back I often want to open a command prompt in a given folder from explorer…

create the keys…
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\CmdPrompt\
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\CmdPrompt\Command\

In the Command key create a default REG_EXPAND_SZ value of ‘%SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe’

This adds a ‘CmdPrompt’ item to the context menu for folders and will open a cmd prompt starting in the currently selected folder.

You need some parameters for cmd.exe

In reply to Command Prompt Here

If you don’t give parameters, it would start with the default folder. So you may need this: cmd.exe /k “cd %L”.

CMD Prompt Here Power Toy

In reply to Command Prompt Here

That accomplishes the same as running the CMD Prompt Power Toy. That’s one I always put on my computers!

I like this tweak too

In reply to Reduce hung application timeout…

I have mine set to 5000 which seems to work ok. 🙂

Perform a Boot Defragment to make your system start faster…

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

There?s a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which will put all the boot files next to one another on your
hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.

On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To
make sure that boot defragment is enabled on your system, navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction

Edit the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y.

Exit the Registry and reboot. The next time you reboot, you?ll do a boot defragment which should speed up subsequent startups.

– another goodie from a TR / O’Reilly tips & tools article

Disable 8.3 Name Creation in NTFS to improve NTFS drive performance…

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

Files that use the 8.3 naming convention can degrade NTFS drive performance. Unless you have a good reason for keeping the 8.3 naming convention intact (such as if you?re using 16-bit programs), a performance gain can be achieved by disabling it.

Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Control\FileSystem\

Double click on NTFSDisable8dot3NameCreation and change the value 1

Exit the windows registry and reboot for this change to take effect.

– this tip was obtained from a TR / O’Reilly tips & tool article

Unload Dll and more

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

This tells Windows to always unload the dlls of programs that have stopped.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AlwaysUnloadDll]
@=”1″

other ones I use are
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]
“dontdisplaylastusername”=dword:00000000
“shutdownwithoutlogon”=dword:00000001
“undockwithoutlogon”=dword:00000001
“DisableNT4Policy”=dword:00000001

There are many more, but these are the most useul to me

I have also used the reg hack that removes that last User Logon name…

In reply to Unload Dll and more

If you?ve elected to use the standard logon dialog box instead of the Welcome screen, or if the XP computer is joined to a domain, XP tries to be helpful by displaying the account name of the last user who logged onto the computer; you only have to type in the password. However, this is a security issue because it gives a hacker half of the information needed to log on. Why make it easier? Of course, you should already have renamed the administrator account and disabled the guest account so a hacker won?t have those account names to use. The next step is to disable the display of the last logged-on user.

To do this, navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

In an empty portion of the right details pane, right-click and select New DWORD Value, Rename the new value dontdisplaylastusername and then Double-click the new value and enter 1 in the Value Data field

A better way…

In reply to I have also used the reg hack that removes that last User Logon name…

…to handle this option is through Group Policy.

Run gpedit.msc, navigate to Computer Configuration ->Windows Setting->Local Policies->Security Options…Scroll down to Interactive Logon:Do not display last user name.

Open it and set it to enable

What happens when 2 programs are using the same DLL

In reply to Unload Dll and more

If 2 programs are using the same DLL, will it unload the DLL if you exit only one program or will it leave the DLL loaded while the other program is still open

???

In reply to Unload Dll and more

Could repost this one. It’s cut off & I don’t have that AlwaysUnload…in my registry, either.

Thank you!
David.

Ditto

In reply to ???

Same problem. Please repost the Value Name.

Unload Dll Myth

In reply to Unload Dll and more

This key is not supported in Windows 2000 and XP. Shell automatically unloads a Dll when the usage count is zero, but only after the DLL has not been used for a time. This inactivity might be long at times such as when a Shell extension DLL is being debugged. Yes for operating systems BEFORE Windows 2000, you can shorten the inactive period by adding this registry key

Dunno if this counts, but it’s definately a hack (or two…)

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

Because we are a Novell house (NetWare 4.11 – y2k patch set up quite incorrectly) with a mix of Windows (98 to XP) and two networked printers (that are also set up in a rather non-standard way), I have to NET USE both printers on the XP machines or they take forEVER to initialize.

Also, with our version of Novell, for some reason, the “Power User” option in XP goes away once the Novell client is installed (no idea). So I’ve had to cacls too many things to count (AIA, GroupWise (we’re on 5.5ep) wouldn’t let the users add to their spell check, etc) to get them to work…

Disable the ‘clear history’ button in IE

In reply to Dunno if this counts, but it’s definately a hack (or two…)

Our employees used to just clear the history if they were surfing non-work related sites. This tweak greys out the clear history button. I have used it in W98/W2K/WXP.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel]
“History”=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel]
“History”=dword:00000001

To go back to default change 00000001 to 00000000

That tweak was found at this site.

Internet Explorer Tips

Not necessary

In reply to Disable the ‘clear history’ button in IE

You do realize that when a user cleans out the history their index.dat file is left intact and contains a list of all the sites that have been visited.

Cookies Anyone!

In reply to Not necessary

The index.dat file has cookie information. It does not store “ALL” the websites visited. If its that important to find out where users are going, it should be easy to justify an application that you can use to track there activities. Tracking them at the desktop seems rather inefficient, Don?t you think.

Registry edits via network

In reply to Disable the ‘clear history’ button in IE

I want to apply this registry edit to disable the ‘clear internet history’ button on about 150 machines over our network.

What can I do to either activate a script or use AD to get this done.

Any help would be great. I have others I want to do also, but this is the main one and I am sure the rest will all just be a matter of editing the actual registry entry.

Thanks,
Chris

The Long Way

In reply to Registry edits via network

There is a way in the registry edit screen. I only know how to do it on XP. Go to start and then select run. Run regedit. On the screen, go to File and select Connect Network Registry. Enter the computer names. This will give you access to all of their registration data.

Rename My Computer icon on windows desktop

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

This tweak allows you to have a personalized name instead of the generic “My Computer”. Doesn’t do anything to enhance windows performance but still a pretty good tweak. A useful application of this tweak would be if you setup all the computers on your network this way, if you ever had to offer remote support to a client and didn’t know the name of the computer that the user was working on and asked them for the computer name, they could just look at this icon and it would show them the computer name.

To change this, navigate to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

– double click on Localized String,
replace the value data with %USERNAME% on %COMPUTERNAME% (exactly as typed here) and click on OK

the ?My Computer? icon will now reflect the current user and computer name (you may have to refresh the windows desktop for the change to take effect).

My Computer Name Change

In reply to Rename My Computer icon on windows desktop

Or you could just right click on ‘MY Computer’ in the Start Menu and use ‘Change Name’ in the sub-menu to reflect anything you want. And then right click again and click to ‘show on desktop’

what a great little hack

In reply to Rename My Computer icon on windows desktop

Thanks so much for this enhancement.It looks very professional on a Server. Looks like you know what you are doing. A terrific find.
Thanks again.

Enable Snap to Default button

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

Enable/Disable Snap To Default Button
This forces the cursor to always jump to the default button of any dialog or alert that opens.
You can also disable this if you currently have it enabled.

Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse

Double click on the string named SnapToDefaultButton

change the value data to 1 (this enables snap to default button)

change the value data to 0 (this disables snap to default button)

click on OK, exist regedit and test it out.
Some of these registry tweaks may require a reboot but alot of them will work immediately.

Force the use of the Classic Start Menu

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

Force Use of Classic Start Menu

This tweak loads the Classic Start Menu and makes it impossible to change back to the Windows XP version. This is useful in an office environment where it’s important to you (it may not be, to each his own) to turn off all of the windows xp eye candy which sets up the computer for best performance, not best appearance. It also stops those pesky users from farting around with these settings.

Navigate to:

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

Modify/Create the Value Name according to the Value Data listed below.

Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: NoSimpleStartMenu
Value Data: 1 (a value of 1 forces the Classic Start Menu, 0 is the default value)

Exit Registry, this may require a reboot to become active.

Speed up Internet Explorer

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

By default, the registry sets the concurrent http connections in Internet Explorer to 2 in the registry. You can speed up how fast a web page loads (especially pages with a large number of http get requests) by increasing that number. Go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\InternetSettings

Create a new DWord mame, and call it: MaxConnectionsPerServer (this is case sensitive)

And give it a new value anywhere from 4 to 30 (decimel). This number is the number of concurrent http threads the browser will use. This works especially well on high latency links, like bad frame relay, or even better on satellite links.

Send to And Move to in context menu

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

With these regkeys you have to extra choises in your context menu (click right in explorer), Move to and Copy to

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Copy To]
@=”{C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Move To]
@=”{C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Send To]
@=”{7BA4C740-9E81-11CF-99D3-00AA004AE837}”

This is wonderful!!

In reply to Send to And Move to in context menu

Why in the world was this not included as standard? Did Bill not trust us with such power?

question about this

In reply to Send to And Move to in context menu

I’m not too registry savy so I’m hoping you can clarity this some –
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Send To]
@=”{7BA4C740-9E81-11CF-99D3-00AA004AE837}”
Is there a space after Send To]
and are the quote marks supposed to be there?
Thanx

Beware

In reply to Send to And Move to in context menu

Hi!

Please note the unforeseen consequences of adding CopyTo and MoveTo to the context menu:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/02/02/66160.aspx

Best wishes,

Andrew

FAT32 TO NTFS

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

Very simple ,if you are running FAT32 and want to change to NTFS. how, close all running programs ,
click Start,Run, in the box type cmd ,press ok,
this will open command window,you see something like “C”\WINDOWS_ the _ will be blinking after the _ enter convertc: /fs:ntfs (if the hard drive is not c then put the correct letter)and you must have a space after the colon and the slash,press enter ,next time you start then the conversion will take place,so close and click restart it will convert and may reboot your computer twice .
and that is all ,so easy and no disc needed.

Registry Twaeking

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

well all i have been a technician for a few years now however i have never had to do much with the registry, the most i ever do in the registry is when i load windows i go in and remove all the mozilla pluggins the netscape pluggins etc…. or when i remove a program from the computer i go into the registry and delete any files assosiated with that program otherwise i have never encountered many issues with the registry i have alot to learn about the registry so any insight would help one day i will need this insight i am sure thanks

Not a tech for long

In reply to Registry Twaeking

I only recently passed my A+, but I’ve been messing about with the registry tweaking keys from the first day I decided it was time to build my own PC and I needed to know more about how this thing works… which is about 8 years. But I do play safe and tend to follow instructions rather than trying to create my own. LOL 🙂

Automatic logon

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315231 (works for Win2k too).

I know, I know, it?s a security risk but there are situations when this comes in very handy. I use it a lot, especially for home users. It is much better to have automatic logon with a strong password than manual logon with a blank (or dumb) password.

TweakUI

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

I think TweakUI covers about every tweak I have seen here (and a LOT more). It’s the FIRST program I add to a new install.

Yup, TweakUI is very good…

In reply to TweakUI

– it’s also nice to learn about using the windows registry and how to make changes to it, similar how it’s nice to use a windows gui to do things but it’s also nice to do things from the command line as well

TweakUI

In reply to Yup, TweakUI is very good…

Where can I get it?

Cheers.

Where To Get Tweak UI

In reply to TweakUI

It’s on Microsoft’s Power Toy page:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Hope this helps.

you can get at microsoft, here’s the link…

In reply to TweakUI

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

take into account that tweakui and the xp powertoys are not supported by Microsoft, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about PowerToys. PowerToys are for Windows XP only.

Not just for WinXP

In reply to you can get at microsoft, here’s the link…

Rob, I have been using PowerToys since they first came out! Back then, there were only a few “toys” (TweakUI has been around from the start), and Win98 was the latest OS out there. Over the years, there have been new versions of the “toys”, and more toys get added each time. I know of versions that work on Win98, Win2000, and WinXP. They are *not* necessarily interchangeable between OS versions, but they’re certainly not just available for WinXP. 🙂

You’re absolutely right…

In reply to Not just for WinXP

I was just quoting the fine print from the xp powertoys web page itself, tweakui has been around for a while and it’s definitely been available for the os’s you quoted, sorry for the mixup.

Tweak UI etc

In reply to You’re absolutely right…

Yes probably the first thing I shove in the box is Tweak UI, I still prefer my O/S on a seperate drive etc., was trying this Power Tools thingy, but it seems to be only available via that”Validation” rigmarole…sigh.

Change XP activation, crashing spool service and more

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

1. Change your pirated XP serial # to a genuine corporate serial #: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;328874

2. Fix a corrupted spool service: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;312052

3. Bunch of more hacks: http://www.onecomputerguy.com/registry_tips.htm

Rename assigned desktop icons

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

If your into modifying the look and feel of your WinXP environment you can change the name of system icons on your desktop. Open the registry editor and go to HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Explorer\CLSID. Within the CLSID key, you’llsee the following five keys that represent the desktop icons. My Network Places-(208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D) MY COMPUTER-(20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D) MY DOCUMENTS-(450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103) RECYCLE BIN-(645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E) INTERNET EXPLORER-(871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D) To Change an icon name,simply double click it’s default value in the pane on the right,a new window will come up, in the Value Data Field type the new name and click OK.close editer. Right click an empty spot on the desktop and click Refreshto see the new name.

Hide a Drive from View and/or Access

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

You can prevent users tampering with or viewing a drive by hiding it with a useful registry tweak.

Assuming you want to do this with individual users, go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer.

Create a DWORD value and call it NoDrives, the value that you give it will determine which drives will be made invisible. Use *decimal* values and hide drives by using the following numbers depending on the drive letter:

A: 1 B: 2 C: 4 D: 8
E: 16 F: 32 G: 64 H: 128
I: 256 J: 512 K: 1024 L: 2048

You get the picture 🙂 To hide two or more drives, you need to add their values together, for example to hide C and D, add 4 + 8 and enter the decimal value 12.

In addition, to prevent Run, Map Network Drive, or the Dir command being used to view the contents of folders, you can create another DWORD called NoViewOnDrive, and use the same values given above. Logging off and back on again is needed to make the changes take effect.

You can make these changes on the whole system by editing the same key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and you can hide all drives by setting the decimal value at 67108863, but I can’t really see anyone wanting to it!

Fix Log-Off Issue

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

OK this is a GPO Tweak not a registry hack but I use it a lot at work:
Windows 2000 machines sometimes sit around for a whole minute trying to log off. The fix is to enable the setting “Maximum retries to unload and update user profile” in Local Computer Policy – Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates – System – Logon. I set it to 5 (seconds) rather than the default of 60. If the profile is not properly unloaded by 5 seconds it seems highly unlikely it will succeed if I wait a full 60.
I have also used the previously-mentioned way of speeding up Disk Cleanup quite frequently.

disable paging of kernel

In reply to Fix Log-Off Issue

If you have ample ram, you can disable paging of the NT kernel. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]

“DisablePagingExecutive”=dword:00000001

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/3d3b3c16-c901-46de-8485-166a819af3ad1033.mspx?mfr=true

All of my XP registry hacks

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; list of all standard windows xp registry

; **************************************************************************************
; start – add file extensions to outlook attachment allowed list
; **************************************************************************************

; [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security]
; “Level1Remove”=”.ade;.adp;.asx;.chm;.crt;.ins;.isp;.js;.jse;.lnk;.mdb;.mde;.msc;.msp;.mst;.pcd;.pdf;.prf;.reg;.scf;.sct;.shb;.shs;.url;.wsc;.wsf;”

; **************************************************************************************
; end – add file extensions to outlook attachment allowed list
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – set internet explorer title and default home page
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
“Start Page”=”http://m4i/”
“Window Title”=” Macro 4″

; **************************************************************************************
; end – set internet explorer title and default home page
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – clear internet explorer temp files when browser closes
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache]
“Persistent”=dword:00000000

; **************************************************************************************
; end – clear internet explorer temp files when browser closes
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – clear windows page file at shutdown
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
“ClearPageFileAtShutdown”=dword:00000001

; **************************************************************************************
; end – clear windows page file at shutdown
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – enable consistent windows explorer folder view
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell]
“BagMRU Size”=dword:00005000

; **************************************************************************************
; end – enable consistent windows explorer folder view
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – disable windows xp balloon tips
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
“EnableBalloonTips”=”0”

; **************************************************************************************
; end – disable windows xp balloon tips
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – enable outlook dumpster
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options]
“ExcludeCustomKeys”=”FaxSep1;IMEX;SP0;SP1;WinRules0”
“FullAddressInText”=”SMTP COMPUSERVE FAX”
“DumpsterAlwaysOn”=dword:00000001

; **************************************************************************************
; end – enable outlook dumpster
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – make my computer first icon on desktop
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}]
“SortOrderIndex”=dword:00000054

; **************************************************************************************
; end – make my computer first icon on desktop
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – remove links folder in internet explorer
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]
“LinksFolderName”=””

; **************************************************************************************
; end – remove links folder in internet explorer
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – show windows version on desktop
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
“PaintDesktopVersion”=dword:00000001

; **************************************************************************************
; end – show windows version on desktop
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – disable windows xp error reporting
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting]
“AllOrNone”=dword:00000002
“IncludeMicrosoftApps”=dword:00000000
“IncludeWindowsApps”=dword:00000000
“IncludeKernelFaults”=dword:00000000
“DoReport”=dword:00000000
“ShowUI”=dword:00000000

; **************************************************************************************
; end – disable windows xp error reporting
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;239924
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]
“DisableDHCPMediaSense”=dword:00000001

; **************************************************************************************
; end – http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;239924
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – add options to right click menu in wndows explorer
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Copy to…]
@=”{C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Move to…]
@=”{C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}”

; **************************************************************************************
; end – add options to right click menu in wndows explorer
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302361
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR]
“FilterQueueType”=dword:ffffffff

; **************************************************************************************
; end – http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302361
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – configure properties for application, security and system event logs
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\Application]
“DisplayNameFile”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,\
6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,\
00,65,00,6c,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
“DisplayNameID”=dword:00000100
“File”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,\
00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,63,00,\
6f,00,6e,00,66,00,69,00,67,00,5c,00,41,00,70,00,70,00,45,00,76,00,65,00,6e,\
00,74,00,2e,00,45,00,76,00,74,00,00,00
“MaxSize”=dword:00500000
“PrimaryModule”=”Application”
“Retention”=dword:00000000
“RestrictGuestAccess”=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\Security]
“DisplayNameFile”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,\
6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,\
00,65,00,6c,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
“DisplayNameID”=dword:00000101
“File”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,\
00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,63,00,\
6f,00,6e,00,66,00,69,00,67,00,5c,00,53,00,65,00,63,00,45,00,76,00,65,00,6e,\
00,74,00,2e,00,45,00,76,00,74,00,00,00
“MaxSize”=dword:00500000
“PrimaryModule”=”Security”
“Retention”=dword:00000000
“RestrictGuestAccess”=dword:00000001
“Security”=hex:01,00,14,80,90,00,00,00,9c,00,00,00,14,00,00,00,30,00,00,00,02,\
00,1c,00,01,00,00,00,02,80,14,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,\
00,00,02,00,60,00,04,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,8d,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,\
05,0b,00,00,00,00,00,18,00,9d,01,02,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,\
23,02,00,00,00,00,18,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,20,\
02,00,00,00,00,14,00,fd,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,01,\
00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\System]
“DisplayNameFile”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,\
6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,\
00,65,00,6c,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
“DisplayNameID”=dword:00000102
“File”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,\
00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,63,00,\
6f,00,6e,00,66,00,69,00,67,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,45,00,76,00,65,00,6e,\
00,74,00,2e,00,45,00,76,00,74,00,00,00
“MaxSize”=dword:00500000
“PrimaryModule”=”System”
“Retention”=dword:00000000
“RestrictGuestAccess”=dword:00000001

; **************************************************************************************
; end – configure properties for application, security and system event logs
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – launch windows desktop, windows explorer, browser in separate processes
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
“DesktopProcess”=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
“SeparateProcess”=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\BrowseNewProcess]
“BrowseNewProcess”=”yes”

; **************************************************************************************
; end – launch windows desktop, windows explorer, browser in separate processes
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – add command prompt here to windows explorer right-click menu
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd\command]
@=”cmd.exe /k \”cd %L\””

; **************************************************************************************
; end – add command prompt here to windows explorer right-click menu
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – set command prompt text
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment]
“PROMPT”=”$m $d $t $_$p $g”

; **************************************************************************************
; end – set command prompt text
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – disable wireless service
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WZCSVC]
“Start”=dword:00000004

; **************************************************************************************
; end – disable wireless service
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – disable command prompt unc path checking
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor]
“DisableUNCCheck”=dword:00000001

; **************************************************************************************
; end – disable command prompt unc path checking
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – force windows classic view for control panel
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer]
“NoSimpleStartMenu”=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
“ForceClassicControlPanel”=dword:00000001

; **************************************************************************************
; end – force windows classic view for control panel
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – disable error reporting
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl]
“AutoReboot”=dword:00000000
“CrashDumpEnabled”=dword:00000000
“DumpFile”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,\
74,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,45,00,4d,00,4f,00,52,00,59,00,2e,00,44,00,4d,00,50,\
00,00,00
“LogEvent”=dword:00000001
“MinidumpDir”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,69,00,6e,00,69,00,64,00,75,00,6d,00,70,00,00,00
“Overwrite”=dword:00000001
“SendAlert”=dword:00000000

; **************************************************************************************
; end – disable error reporting
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – disable personalized menus
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
“IntelliMenus”=dword:00000000

; **************************************************************************************
; end – disable personalized menus
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – display administrative tools on start menu
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
“StartMenuAdminTools”=”YES”

; **************************************************************************************
; end – display administrative tools on start menu
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – disable hideing of inactive icons on taskbar
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
“EnableAutoTray”=dword:00000000

; **************************************************************************************
; end – disable hideing of inactive icons on taskbar
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – don’t show last logged on userid
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]
“dontdisplaylastusername”=dword:00000001

; **************************************************************************************
; end – don’t show last logged on userid
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – add pop-up blocker allowed sites
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\New Windows\Allow]
“*.macro4.com”=hex:
“*.macro4.net”=hex:

; **************************************************************************************
; end – add pop-up blocker allowed sites
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – set company and owner registration information
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion]
“RegisteredOrganization”=”Macro 4”
“RegisteredOwner”=”Internal Systems”

; **************************************************************************************
; end – set company and owner registration information
; **************************************************************************************

; **************************************************************************************
; start – set internet explorer temp files allowed space to 25mb
; **************************************************************************************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\Cache\Content]
“PerUserItem”=dword:00000001
“CachePrefix”=””
“CacheLimit”=dword:00006400

; **************************************************************************************
; end – set internet explorer temp files allowed space to 25mb
; **************************************************************************************

Yeah… nice

In reply to All of my XP registry hacks

Nice list… how long have you been compiling it?

Get rid of those annoying balloons!

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

The very first thing I do when I activate a Windows XP machine is get rid of those infuriating balloon tips–I love this one!

Drill down to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Create a new DWORD value, name it EnableBalloonTips and hit Enter.
The default value is 0, which prevents them from popping up:D

Show drive letters before path in Explorer

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

To display drive letters before (instead of after) the path of mapped drives:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
“ShowDriveLettersFirst”=dword:00000001

all about windows registry

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

http://registry-windows.blogspot.com

this site contain information about windows registry

Windows registry

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

I am not expert computer user but once i came across with registry problem. I opened registry editor but unable to understand what to do. Do you know, my computer was responding badly. I had to use Windows registry repair software to repair the corrupted registry. If you have manual solution to correct registry, do provide me.

Color change

In reply to What are your favorite windows registry tweaks/hacks? Please share…

I know this inst real big but im only 15 and took my laptop to school one day and found some color changing. You wana navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Colors and they are all running off RGB codes and allot of them are only available if you use classic mode. Just tryin to share the little ive been able to find myself.

[Author]

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