Registry tweaks, tricks & hacks to optimize, enhance and secure

Regedit Tips & Tricks
***Bringing Up the Shutdown Dialog Box***
Create a new txt file somewhere on your system, open it and put in this one line:
(new ActiveXObject(”Shell.Application”)).ShutdownWindow s();
Save and Close the file. Change the extension to js and your got it.
You can make a shortcut to that file to make it easy to shut down your system.

***Stop Password Expiration***
If you want to do this for all users, enter:
Start / Run / net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited
If you are getting an error message that your password is about to expire:
Right click on the My Computer icon
Select Manage
Go to Local Users and Groups / Users
Right-click on the user you want to change
Select Properties
On the General tab, check Password never expires Click OK.

***Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages***
To turn these off:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurr entVersionpoliciessystem
If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named DisableStatusMessages
Give it a value of 1 = display or 0 =no display

***Speeding Up the Display of Start Menu Items***
An easy way to speed up the display of the Start Menu Items is to turn off the menu shadow.
Right click on an open area of the Desktop
Select Properties
Click on the Appearance tab
Click on the Effects button
Uncheck Show shadows under menus

***Changing the Picture Displayed for a User***
You can change the picture that gets displayed for a particular user
Go to the Control Panel
Select User Accounts
Click on the Account to change
Click on Change my picture
You can then browse to the picture you want to use

***Changing the Internet Explorer Title***
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMainWindow Title
Enter what you want appear in the title bar

***Displaying Automatically Ending Non-Responsive Tasks***
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktopAutoEndTasks
Set the value to be 1
In the same section, change the WaitToKillAppTimeout to the number of milliseconds you want.
Download reg file
Adding / Removing Additional Programs
Added 8/16/01

***By default, WindowsXP does not display all the programs you can add or remove.***
To show this list:
Edit the WindowsInfsysoc.inf file
In the Components section, simply remove the word hide.
This will leave two commas together (like on the rest of the items).
Then you can go to the Control Panel / Add or Remove Programs / Add/Remove Windows Components and the new items will be displayed.
[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp4 0ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
msnexplr=ocmsn.dll,OcEntry,msnmsn.inf,,7
smarttgs=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,msnsl.inf,,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7

Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7
AccessUtil=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,accessor.inf,,7
CommApps=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,communic.inf,HIDE,7
MultiM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,multimed.inf,HIDE,7
AccessOpt=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,optional.inf,HIDE,7
Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7
ZoneGames=zoneoc.dll,ZoneSetupProc,igames.inf,,7

***Cleaning the Prefetch Directory***
WindowsXP has a new feature called Prefetch. This keeps a shortcut to recently used programs.
However it can fill up with old and obsolete programs.
To clean this periodically go to:
Star / Run / Prefetch
Press Ctrl-A to highlight all the files

***Hide/Unhide Logon Names***
If you want to hide or unhide the names of users that are displayed on the initial logon screen:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion Winlogon SpecialAccounts UserList
Add a DWORD with the name of the user account you want to hide
Make sure it has a value of 0
If there is an existing account, you can unhide it by giving it a value of 1

***Set the Online Registration as Being Completed***
You can set WindowsXP to assume the online registration has been completed.
Run Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion
Create a String Value called RegDone Give it a value of 1

***Creating a XPBoot Floppy***
To create a bootable floppy from within WindowsXP:
Insert a floppy into the A: drive
Open the Explorer
Right click on the A: Drive
Select Format
Check Create an MS-DOS startup disk
Click on the Start button
This will create a XP boot disk

***Opening a Command Prompt to a Particular Directory from Explorer***
If you want to open a command prompt to a directory that is selected in the Explorer:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Directory shell
Create a new key called Command
Give it the value of the name you want to appear in the Explorer. Something like Open DOS Box
Under this create a new key called command
Give it a value of cmd.exe /k “cd %L”
Now when you are in the Explorer, right click on a folder, select Open DOS Box, and a command prompt will open to the selected directory.