TUTORIAL & FREE DOWNLOAD

2009-01-29T11:31:00.000-08:00

Remove The "Shortcut To" Prefix

2008-03-23T19:41:00.003-07:00

Is the "Shortcut to" text prefix on your shortcuts annoying you no end? Here is the way to remove all instances from all your shortcuts.

Fire up your registry editor and go to HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. On the left pane, create a new binary value named link. Set the value to 00 00 00 00. Restart your system and the "Shortcut To" text prefix is gone.

Note: This applies to all your existing as well as and newly added shortcuts!

Using Quick View On Any File

2008-03-23T19:41:00.002-07:00

A handy tool that comes with Windows95/98 is the Quick View application. By right-clicking on some files, you'll see an option called Quick View, that will allow you to view the contents of a file without opening the application. The problem is that this doesn't work with just any file. Some files are sometimes just stamped with and unknown extension but maybe the contents can still be viewed with Quick View.

Open up registry editor and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\. Under this key, add a new key named QuickView. Set the value of the Default value to * and close the Registry Editor. This should work for most files now. And who said Quick View is useless?

Customizing The Shortcut Arrow

2008-03-23T19:41:00.001-07:00

Windows will attach a black arrow to icons to distinguish shortcuts from the original. Most of us just find this more annoying than helpful. Most tipsters will advice you to search the registry for a value called Piffile and delete every instances of it. But we find that it is impossible to recover it when the deed is done. We have another trick with a little twist.

Open up your registry editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons. Now, on the right pane is a list of icons ( we found out that on some systems, Windows 98 especially, the right pane is blank. Don't worry, just add the value as required ). Find the value 29. If it isn't there, just add it. The value of this string should be C:\Windows\system\shell32.dll, 29 ( which means the 30th icon in shell32.dll - the first one begins with 0 ). Now, we need blank icon to do this. Just create one with white as the whole icon. Go here to learn how to create an icon. Once done just change the value to C:\xxx.ico, 0 where "xxx" is the full path of the icon file and "0" is the icon in it.

Now for some fun. If the blank icon is a bit boring, change it again. You will find that under shell32.dll there is a gear icon, a shared folder ( the hand ) and much more. Experiment for yourself!

Make DLL Files Show Their Own Icons

2008-03-23T19:39:00.001-07:00

If you find the generic Control Panel Applets or DLL old icon with the two gears boring, something can be done.

Fire up your registry editor and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cplfile\DefaultIcon. Change the default string value to %1. This for Control Panel icons. For DLLs, go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\DefaultIcon and change the default string value to %1.

The next time you take a look at your C:\Windows\System directory, you will see that old icon with the two gears, any DLLs and Control Panel applets (CPLs) that contain even one icon will show something more interesting--the first icon they contain. The only drawback is that DLLs and CPLs that do not contain icons are represented by the "unknown type" icon. But you might just think it is worth it.

Save Window Settings

2008-03-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

Funny why you have customized the look (toolbars, view, details) of an Explorer or Control Panel window only to find that the second window doesn't look the same as the one you have just customized. But there are ways to have your Explorer/Control Panel window keep its settings for good. Start your registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. In the right hand pane you'll find the NoSaveSetting key. No matter what value is given to this Registry key, the Desktop/Explorer/Control Panel settings will still be modified again after opening 29 of those windows. Delete the NoSaveSettings key. Just refresh your desktop to take effect.

Instant Refresh

2008-03-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

You might find that Windows doesn't refresh Explorer instantly. If you have created a new file, you might have to wait a few seconds before the file shows up under explorer. And if system resources are low, Explorer sometimes won't even refresh by itself! If you are tired of pressing F5, launch the registry editor and scroll to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Update. On the left pane, double click UpdateMode. Change the binary value from 01 to 00. Restart and Windows will refresh at a faster rate.

Default Icon Display

2008-03-23T19:37:00.003-07:00

Default Icon Display

Most of use are not so satisfied with the default icon view. A little tweak on the registry can cure that. Open up your registry editor and get ready.

Control Panel Icon Display

The default icon view for windows such as the control panel, windows opened with the "Open" command on the context menu and similar windows can be changed by modifying the registry. Go to this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams On the right panel, there is an entry like this: 03,00,00,00,03,00,00,00 and the fifth group of numbers controls the icons.

Large icons = 01
Small icons = 02
List = 03
Details = 04

Place the cursor to the left of the fifth position, hit delete and then enter the new value.

Explorer Icon Display

LIke the above tip, the default icon view that displays in the right panel of the Explorer can also be changed by modifying the registry. Open up HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\ Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ExpView. Highlight ExpView. On the tool bar, click Registry and select Export Registry File. This brings up a save screen where you name the file and direct where it is filed when saved. Edit the exported file. There are three lines of data in the data stream. There are 21 bytes of data in the first line and 25 bytes of data in the second. The 45th byte of data (the next to last in line two) controls how the icons are displayed. Refer to the above paragraph for entering the new icon display value. After making a change, save the file and close it. Then double click the file to merge it into the registry.

BMP Thumbnail As Icon

2008-03-23T19:37:00.002-07:00

You can actually use a thumbnail version of a BMP file for its own icon displayed in Explorer. Go to HKCU\Paint.Picture\Default. Double-click default and change its value to %1. Please note however that this will slow down the display rate in explorer if there are too many BMP thumbnails to display. To restore it, change default back to C:\Progra~1\Access~1\MSPAINT.EXE,1. You may use other icons if you feel like it.

More Start Button Fun

2008-03-23T19:37:00.001-07:00

Lets say you have a bout 4-5 very useful applications which you use always. By placing them all on the first level menu will eventually crowd your start menu. Now why not utilize the right-click option instead? The right-click option gives you the ability to Open, Explore and Find. If you can add a shortcut to your application to that menu, it would be great.

To do this, crank up your registry editor and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell. Right-click on Shell and create a new key. Type in an appropriate name for the key. On the right pane, double-click on the Default value, and add a title with a & character in front of the letter as an accelerator key. Right-click on the key you just created and create another key under it called command . For the Default value of command, enter the full path and program you want to execute in the Value data box.

For example, if you wanted Notepad, you would add that as the first key, the default in the right panel would be &Notepad so when you right click on the Start Button, the N would be underlined and you could just press that key. The command would be something like C:\Windows\notepad.exe. Now when you right click on the Start Button, your new program will show up.

Restore Start Menu To Alphabetical Order

2008-03-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

We always liked the alphabetical order of the Start Menu. It will help organize things. But we noticed that with IE4 (and Windows 98), Windows will arrange all items that is in the Start Menu in alphabetical order first during installation. Observe and you will see that all single items will be placed below all folders.

Now for the problem. You will also notice that after the installation of Windows, all new folders added will be placed below the single items that comes with Windows. This means that there will be 3 sections, one for folders, one for single items and another one for new folders after installation. Wondering why Windows can't just group all the folders together in alphabetical order but to put new folders apart from the old ones after install?

We found that the answer lies in the registry. Open your registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu Click once on Menu and on the right pane, you will see a string value named Order. Double-click this value. On the right side, you will see a list of folder and shortcut names This string was created during install to record all folders and shortcuts. All new entries added after install will be recorded in the end of the value rather than placing them in the middle of the key which is why, although all new folders created will be placed in alphabetical order too but not together with the folders after setup.

The workaround is simple - just delete the Order value and the registry will create a new one without any order. Since the registry has lost all records on how the start menu should be arranged, restart and you will see that the start menu has been rearranged in alphabetical order - together.

This tip works on all the Start Menu branch. Another branch that has also the "record" thing is the Accessories branch. Repeat the same step.

Remove Settings Menu Items

2008-03-23T19:34:00.002-07:00

Remove Windows Update From Settings

There will be a Windows Update item at the Settings branch of the Start Menu. To get remove it, flare up the registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Create a new Binary value called NoWindowsUpdate. Set the value to 01 00 00 00.. To restore, change the value of the key to 00 00 00 00.

Remove Active Desktop From Settings

To remove the Active Desktop submenu item from the Settings branch of the Start Menu, use the registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Create a new Binary value called NoSetActiveDesktop. Set the value to 01 00 00 00.. To restore, change the value of the key to 00 00 00 00.

Remove Taskbar From Settings

To remove the Taskbar submenu item from the Settings branch of the Start Menu, use the registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Create a new Binary value called NoSetTaskbar. Set the value to 01 00 00 00.. To restore, change the value of the key to 00 00 00 00.

Remove Folder Options From Settings

To remove the Folder Options submenu item from the Settings branch of the Start Menu, use the registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Create a new Binary value called NoSetFolders . Set the value to 01 00 00 00.. To restore, change the value of the key to 00 00 00 00.

Remove Find From Start Menu

2008-03-23T19:34:00.001-07:00

If you already have a better search program and want to disable the one in the Start Menu, here's how to remove it.

Launch the registry editor.
Scroll to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Right-click on the right pane and select New, DWORD Value. Name it NoFind.
Double-click and enter 1 as value. Note: This will also disable the Find under Explorer and won't respond to the F3 key. To restore the Log Off User option, reverse the steps by changing 1 to 0 or delete DWORD value.

Remove Documents From Start Menu

2008-03-23T19:32:00.002-07:00

The Documents menu is a nuisance for those who never actually used it.

To remove, launch registry editor.
Scroll to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Right-click on the right pane and select New, DWORD Value. Name it NoRecentDocsMenu.
Double-click and enter 1 as value. To restore the Documents menu, reverse the steps by changing 1 to 0 or delete DWORD value.

Remove Favorites From Start Menu

2008-03-23T19:32:00.001-07:00

If you think you really don't need the favorites menu, follow the steps to remove it.

Flare up registry editor.
Scroll to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Right-click on the right pane and select New, DWORD Value. Name it NoFavoritesMenu.
Double-click and enter 1 as value. To restore the Favorites menu, reverse the steps by changing 1 to 0 or delete DWORD value.

Remove Run From Start Menu

2008-03-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

To remove the Run command from the Start Menu,

Fire up the registry editor.
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Double-click NoRun on the right pane and change it to from 0 to 1.
To restore the Run command, reverse the steps by changing 1 to 0.

Remove Log Off User From Start Menu

2008-03-23T19:30:00.001-07:00

For those of you who don't need the Log Off User option, these are the steps to remove it.

Flare up registry editor.
Scroll to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Right-click on the right pane and select New, DWORD Value. Name it NoLogOff.
Double-click and enter 1 as value. To restore the Log Off User option, reverse the steps by changing 1 to 0 or delete DWORD value.

Editing Inaccessible Appearance Items

2008-03-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

You can change the appearance of Windows in your Control Panel, Display applet or right-click your desktop and select Properties. But there are still some things you just can't change. For example, you might find it tempting to change your disabled (grayed out), highlighted or shadowed object. Never mind that, just open your registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Control Panel\Colors. On the right pane are the display options in RGB triplets. Search for keys with highlight or shadow descriptions.

Aligning Drop-Down Menus to the Right

2008-03-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

All Windows' drop-down menus will be aligned to the left of the menu item itself. It is possible to align it to the right instead. This features becomes useful when trying to access menus with submenus that appear directly to the right.

Open up the registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. On the right pane, create a string entry called MenuDropAlignment. Set its value to 1. Restart and you will notice that now all the drop-down menus are aligned to the right.

Editing Menu Pop/Slide Out Speed

2008-03-23T19:14:00.001-07:00

When you pass your mouse over a menu, you will notice that there is a slight delay before the submenu pops out (Windows 95, NT4) or slide out (Windows98, NT5). Now this is suppose to be a feature from Microsoft for new Windows users to look "friendly". Now there are 2 groups of people who will get very annoyed. The first one are the ones who think that the delay is not needed. They want the menu to fly out instantaneously. The second line are the ones who don't want the menu to pop out when you pass your mouse over them - they want them to pop out only when you click at the menu like old DOS and Win 3.11 menus.

Open up the registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\ On the right pane, look for a value called MenuShowDelay. If it isn't there, just create one. Now, to set the value in milliseconds. Now, we have seen a lot of books and sites saying that the value should be set to 1 for fastest and 10 for slowest. Wrong! Since the value is set to milliseconds, a little calculation will tell you that the figures don't make any sense. The default is 400 (see? 1-10 is way off the track). Set 50 or below for fast or near instant fly-out or 65534 for near eternity. Since we can't disable the menu to fly out when you mouse over them, you can set them to the maximum value so that they won't pop out until a long time. Click on the menu for them to pop out.

However, we noticed that if you use the "click once to select" and "highlight when pointing" option, you will find that this registry tip will effect your mouse. If you set the menu delay to very fast, you will notice that the brief delay of highlighting icon is gone (hurray!). But if you set the menu delay to almost never, your icon highlighting will also be gone! You will have to click once to highlight and click again to activate the icon.

Turn Off Windows Zooming Animation

2008-03-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

The windows zooming animation probably originated from Mac OS's. It is considered one of the cute features of window. But if you have plenty of windows to maximize and minimize, you will wish there isn't such a feature. Open up the registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop\. On the right pane, look for a value called MinAnimate. Change the value to 0. Restart Windows and the animation is gone.

Maintaining the Registry

2008-03-23T19:08:00.002-07:00

How can you backup and restore the Registry?

Windows 95
Microsoft included a utility on the Windows 95 CD-ROM that lets you create backups of the Registry on your computer. The Microsoft Configuration Backup program, CFGBACK.EXE, can be found in the \Other\Misc\Cfgback directory on the Windows 95 CD-ROM. This utility lets you create up to nine different backup copies of the Registry, which it stores, with the extension RBK, in your \Windows directory. If your system is set up for multiple users, CFGBACK.EXE won't back up the USER.DAT file.

After you have backed up your Registry, you can copy the RBK file onto a floppy disk for safekeeping. However, to restore from a backup, the RBK file must reside in the \Windows directory. Windows 95 stores the backups in compressed form, which you can then restore only by using the CFGBACK.EXE utility.

Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 automatically creates a backup copy of the registry every time Windows starts, in addition to this you can manually create a backup using the Registry Checker utility by running SCANREGW.EXE from Start | Run menu.

What to do if you get a Corrupted Registry
Windows 95, 98 and NT all have a simple registry backup mechanism that is quite reliable, although you should never simply rely on it, remember to always make a backup first!

Windows 95
In the Windows directory there are several hidden files, four of these will be SYSTEM.DAT & USER.DAT, your current registry, and SYSTEM.DA0 & USER.DA0, a backup of your registry. Windows 9x has a nice reature in that every time it appears to start successfully it will copy the registry over these backup files, so just in case something goes wrong can can restore it to a known good state. To restore the registry follow these instruction:

1. Click the Start button, and then click Shut Down.

2. Click Restart The Computer In MS-DOS Mode, then click Yes.

3. Change to your Windows directory. For example, if your Windows directory is c:\windows, you would type the following:

cd c:\windows

4. Type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each one. (Note that SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0 contain the number zero.)

attrib -h -r -s system.dat
attrib -h -r -s system.da0
copy system.da0 system.dat
attrib -h -r -s user.dat
attrib -h -r -s user.da0
copy user.da0 user.dat

5. Restart your computer.

Following this procedure will restore your registry to its state when you last successfully started your computer.

If all else fails, there is a file on your hard disk named SYSTEM.1ST that was created when Windows 95 was first successfully installed. If necessary you could also change the file attributes of this file from read-only and hidden to archive to copy the file to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT.

Windows NT
On Windows NT you can use either the "Last Known Good" option or RDISK to restore to registry to a stable working configuration.

How can I clean out old data from the Registry?
Although it's possible to manually go through the Registry and delete unwanted entries, Microsoft provides a tool to automate the process, the program is called RegClean. RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys stored in a common location in the Windows Registry. It finds keys that contain erroneous values, it removes them from the Windows Registry after having recording those entries in the Undo.Reg file.

Editing the Registry

2008-03-23T19:08:00.001-07:00

The Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) is included with most version of Windows (although you won't find it on the Start Menu) it enables you to view, search and edit the data within the Registry. There are several methods for starting the Registry Editor, the simplest is to click on the Start button, then select Run, and in the Open box type "regedit", and if the Registry Editor is installed it should now open and look like the image below.

An alternative Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE) is available for use with Windows NT/2000, it includes some additional features not found in the standard version, including; the ability to view and modify security permissions, and being able to create and modify the extended string values REG_EXPAND_SZ & REG_MULTI_SZ.

Create a Shortcut to Regedit
This can be done by simply right-clicking on a blank area of your desktop, selecting New, then Shortcut, then in the Command line box enter "regedit.exe" and click Next, enter a friendly name (e.g. 'Registry Editor') then click Finish and now you can double click on the new icon to launch the Registry Editor.

Using Regedit to modify your Registry
Once you have started the Regedit you will notice that on the left side there is a tree with folders, and on the right the contents (values) of the currently selected folder.

Like Windows explorer, to expand a certain branch (see the structure of the registry section), click on the plus sign [+] to the left of any folder, or just double-click on the folder. To display the contents of a key (folder), just click the desired key, and look at the values listed on the right side. You can add a new key or value by selecting New from the Edit menu, or by right-clicking your mouse. And you can rename any value and almost any key with the same method used to rename files; right-click on an object and click rename, or click on it twice (slowly), or just press F2 on the keyboard. Lastly, you can delete a key or value by clicking on it, and pressing Delete on the keyboard, or by right-clicking on it, and choosing Delete.

Note: it is always a good idea to backup your registry before making any changes to it. It can be intimidating to a new user, and there is always the possibility of changing or deleting a critical setting causing you to have to reinstall the whole operating system. It's much better to be safe than sorry!

The Structure of the Registry

2008-03-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

The Structure of the Registry

The Registry has a hierarchal structure, although it looks complicated the structure is similar to the directory structure on your hard disk, with Regedit being similar to Windows Explorer.

[font_body]Each main branch (denoted by a folder icon in the Registry Editor, see left) is called a Hive, and Hives contains Keys. Each key can contain other keys (sometimes referred to as sub-keys), as well as Values. The values contain the actual information stored in the Registry. There are three types of values; String, Binary, and DWORD - the use of these depends upon the context.

There are six main branches, each containing a specific portion of the information stored in the Registry. They are as follows:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - This branch contains all of your file association mappings to support the drag-and-drop feature, OLE information, Windows shortcuts, and core aspects of the Windows user interface.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER - This branch links to the section of HKEY_USERS appropriate for the user currently logged onto the PC and contains information such as logon names, desktop settings, and Start menu settings.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - This branch contains computer specific information about the type of hardware, software, and other preferences on a given PC, this information is used for all users who log onto this computer.
HKEY_USERS - This branch contains individual preferences for each user of the computer, each user is represented by a SID sub-key located under the main branch.
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - This branch links to the section of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE appropriate for the current hardware configuration.
HKEY_DYN_DATA - This branch points to the part of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, for use with the Plug-&-Play features of Windows, this section is dymanic and will change as devices are added and removed from the system.

Each registry value is stored as one of five main data types:

REG_BINARY - This type stores the value as raw binary data. Most hardware component information is stored as binary data, and can be displayed in an editor in hexadecimal format.
REG_DWORD - This type represents the data by a four byte number and is commonly used for boolean values, such as "0" is disabled and "1" is enabled. Additionally many parameters for device driver and services are this type, and can be displayed in REGEDT32 in binary, hexadecimal and decimal format, or in REGEDIT in hexadecimal and decimal format.
REG_EXPAND_SZ - This type is an expandable data string that is string containing a variable to be replaced when called by an application. For example, for the following value, the string "%SystemRoot%" will replaced by the actual location of the directory containing the Windows NT system files. (This type is only available using an advanced registry editor such as REGEDT32)
REG_MULTI_SZ - This type is a multiple string used to represent values that contain lists or multiple values, each entry is separated by a NULL character. (This type is only available using an advanced registry editor such as REGEDT32)
REG_SZ - This type is a standard string, used to represent human readable text values.

Other data types not available through the standard registry editors include:

REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN - A 32-bit number in little-endian format.
REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN - A 32-bit number in big-endian format.
REG_LINK - A Unicode symbolic link. Used internally; applications should not use this type.
REG_NONE - No defined value type.
REG_QWORD - A 64-bit number.
REG_QWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN - A 64-bit number in little-endian format.
REG_RESOURCE_LIST - A device-driver resource list.

Enable UDMA/66 mode on IDE Channels

2008-03-21T00:29:00.007-07:00

Even if DMA is enabled on IDE channels, by default UDMA/66 mode is disabled. You can improved
disc performance by enabling it. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and
Navigating to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\ {4D36E96AE325-
11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000]. In right pane look for a key by the name
"EnableUDMA66". If it is there, set its value to 1 if it is not already set to 1. If not, add a dword entry
by the name "EnableUDMA66" and set its value to 1.