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Disabling
the F3 Search Key
Preventing
Changes to File Associations
Locking
File Associations
Prevent
Changes to the Start Menu
DOS
Restrictions
Networking
Restrictions
Control
Panel Restrictions
Restricting
the Start Menu, Explorer, and the Desktop
Eliminating
the Right Click on the Taskbar
Eliminating
the Right Click on the Desktop
Hiding
Any Combination of Drives
Disabling
Drives in My Computer
Not Saving
Settings on Exit
Not
Displaying the Network Neighborhood
Disabling
Run or Find from the Start Menu
Hiding
All Icons from the Desktop
Disabling
the Right-Click on the Start Button
Disabling
My Computer
Disabling
File and Print Sharing
Adding
Open With to the Right Click in the Explorer
Opening a
DOS Window to either the Drive or Directory in Explorer
Adding
Explore From Here to Every Folder
Removing
Open, Explore & Find from Start Button
Opening
Explorer from My Computer
Re-Enabling
DHCP Error Messages
Removing
the Hand Icon from Shared Resources
Creating
a Network Logon Banner
Disable
Password Caching
Changing the
MaxMTU and other Network Settings
Changing the
Telnet Scroll-Back Buffer Size
Not
Displaying the Last User Logged on
Setting
the Minimum Password Length
Turning
off System Beeps
Changing
the Location Of Special Folders
Deleting
Specific Registry Value
Setting
the Recycle Bin to Always Delete
Setting
the Internet Explorer Home Page
Preparing to
Move Hard Drive to Another Computer
Comparing
Registries
Setting
Excel 2000 High-Contrast Cell Selection
Changing
Common Icons
Changing
Office 2000's Excel Undo History
Changing
the Title on Windows Media Player
Turning
Off the Help on Min, Max, Close Icons
Automatically
Deleting a Registry Key
Fixing
no AutoRun for CDs
Renaming
the File System Profiles
Sticky
Menus
Automatic
Shutdown with Windows NT
Kill
Hung Processes When Logging Off in Windows NT
NT
Crash Log File
Changing
the Location of Outlook Express Data Files
Disabling
the Blinking Cursor
Getting
Rid of Schemes
Creating
a Legal Text Notice Before Logon
Enabling
the Middle Mouse Button on Logitech Mouse
Easily
Opening a File with Notepad
Displaying
Hi-Color Icons without the Plus Pack
Backing Up
the Registry
Removing
Unwanted Items from the RUN Menu
Compacting
the Registry
Changing
Exchange's Mailbox Location
Removing
Sound Events from Control Panel / Sounds
Changing
the Registered Owner
Adding an
Application to Every Folder
Saving
Desktop Settings
Getting Rid
of Tips
Changing
the Location of Windows95's Installation Files
Creating
a Default File Opener
Deleting
Registry Keys from the Command Line
Automatic
Screen Refresh
Adding
Items to the Start Button
Removing the
InBox Icon and Recycle Bin Icons from the Desktop
Removing
Items from NEW on the Desktop
Changing
the Tips of the Day
Get
Your Folders to Open the Way You Want Every Time
Clearing
the Documents Menu Automatically
Fixing a
Corrupt Registry
Recycle Bin
Edits
Removing
the Shortcut Arrows
Turn Off
Window Animation
To speed up
the Start Menu
Changing
your Modem's Initialization String
Increasing
the Modem Timeout
Removing
Programs listed from the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs
Section
Specifying
programs to run every time Windows95 starts
If you want to disable the ability to use the F3 key from either the Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer
You can prevent users from changing associations via Windows Explorer's Tools / Folder Options / File Types tab.
If you have your file associations the way you want for a particular file type, you can remove it from the list that gets displayed in the Folder Options / File Types screen
If you want to turn off all system beeps (like the ones that go through your computers' internal speaker):
You can modify the registry to change the location of special folders like:
Note: TweakUI from Microsoft will allow you to make these changes from a dialog box as well
In a previous tip,
Automatically
Deleting a Registry Key, it was mentioned how to remove an entire
registry key.
If you want to simply remove a specific value within a
key, use the syntax below:
[Registry Key]
"value"=-
For example:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"MSConfig"=-
would delete the value MSCONFIG.
You can set the recycle bin to always delete items (like holding down the shift key when dragging files to the recycle bin)
If you want to set the home page used by Internet Explorer through the registry
To remove the devices from device manager when taking a HD from one
computer to another,
simply:
While working with changes to your system, you might want to see what
is changing in your Registry.
Since you can export it to a text file,
the steps are fairly easy
If you want to increase the contrast in selected cells:
You can change many of the common Windows icons.
0-13 Are the Drive and Application Icons
0 - To change the
Unknown Application Icon
2 - To change the Default Application
Icon
3 - To change the Closed Folder Icon
4 - To change the Open
Folder Icon
5 - To change the 5 1/4" Floppy Icon
6 - To change the 3
1/2" Floppy Icon
7 - To change the Removable Disk Icon
8 - To change
the Hard Drive Icon
9 - To change the Network Drive Online Icon
10 -
To change the Network Drive Offline Icon
11 - To change the CD Drive
Icon
12 - To change the Ramdrive Icon
13 - To change the Entire
Network Icon
19-27 Are the Start Menu Icons
19 - To change the Programs
Icon
20 - To change the Documents Icon
21 - To change the Settings
Icon
22 - To change the Find Icon
23 - To change the Help Icon
24
- To change the Run Icon
27 - To change the Shutdown Icon
Other Icons
33 - To change the DUN Folder Icon
34 - To
change the Desktop Icon
35 - To change the Control Panel Icon
37 -
To change the Printer Folder Icon
40 - To change the Audio CD
Icon
43 - To change the Favorites Icon
44 - To change the Logoff
Icon
To prevent any changes to the Start Menu, even a right click:
There are restrictions you can make to the ability to execute DOS programs
There are general restrictions you can make in Networking
There are many general restrictions you can make to the Control Panel
There are many general restrictions you can make to the Start Menu, the Explorer and to the Desktop itself.
By default, Excel has only approximately 16 undo's you can perform.
To increase that number:
You can change the title bar for the Windows Media Player
To eliminate the right click on the taskbar:
Start Regedit
To eliminate the right click on the desktop:
When the mouse goes over the minimize, maximize and close icons on the
upper right hand side of a window, you normally get a display telling you
want those are for.
To disable that display:
To add the option Open With when you right click on a file in the Explorer:
Normally you cannot automatically delete registry keys from reg file. But there is a way...
Simply include a minus sign inside the left bracket before the main key.
For example.
If you want to delete the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\ Software \ Microsoft \ Office \ 8.0 \ Common \ Assistants, your regfile
would simply look like:
REGEDIT4[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Common\Assistants]
This would delete that key and any below it.
If your CDs have stop starting automatically, and you have checked everything else:
In the Control Panel / System / Performance / File System, you
can select either Desktop Computer, Mobile or docking system, or Network
Server.
You can change these labels to something more descriptive:
Normally when you move the mouse over the Start Menu / Programs, it
will automatically cascade and show the submenus.
If you want them to
open only when you actually click on them:
Most laptops allow the operating system to turn off the hardware after
shutdown, instead of displaying the message telling you it's now safe to
turn off your system.
You can take advantage of this capability by
enabling the Power Down After Shutdown feature.
To enable this feature, simply add a REG_SZ value named HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\PowerdownAfterShutDown and set it to 1.
Next, tell NT to shut down and see if the machine turns itself off after shutting down. If it doesn't, change the value back to 0 to restore normal operation.
When you tell NT to shut down, it first sends shutdown requests to any
running processes.
Most 32-bit applications honor these requests and
shut down, but older 16-bit apps running in the Virtual DOS Machine often
won't.
When this occurs, the operating system prompts you with a dialog
box asking if you want to kill the task, wait for the task to die on its
own, or cancel the shutdown.
By modifying the Registry, you can
automate this process.
You can force NT to kill all running processes on shutdown by adding a REG_SZ value named HKEY_USER\\ControlPanel\Desktop\AutoEndTasks and set the value to 1. You can also add this value to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT so that all new accounts will shut down the same way.
In addition to the crash log file, you can also enable two other
methods of crash notification and logging.
You can enable an administrative alert by changing the value of
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl\SendAlert to 1. The next time the system crashes, an administrative alert will be sent that may provide the first sign of the crash.
You can also make NT log the crash in the event log by changing the value of
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\CrashControl\LogEvent to 1 instead of its default 0. Now, the exact time of the crash will be permanently recorded.
Normally Outlook Express keeps its data files in the C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express directory.
To change this:
To stop the cursor from blinking in applications such as Word:
If you got a DHCP error message, selected to not see DHCP errors, and now want to see them again;
When you right click on your desktop and pick properties your Display
Properties screen appears.
Under Appearance tab / Schemes, determine if
you want all those wild schemes.
If not they can be deleted and clear
approximately 45K.
Before you delete them, choose or create at least 1
Scheme and "Save As" (in my case Bud 1).
If you want to stop a drive or any combination of drives appearing in Explorer/My Computer
Add the Binary Value of 'NoDrives' in the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Give it a value from a combination of the table below:
A 1 00 00 00
B 2 00 00 00
C 4 00 00 00
D 8 00 00 00
E 16 00 00 00
F 32 00 00 00
G 64 00 00 00
H 128 00 00 00
I 00 1 00 00
J 00 2 00 00
K 00 4 00 00
L 00 8 00 00
M 00 16 00 00
N 00 32 00 00
O 00 64 00 00
P 00 128 00 00
Q 00 00 1 00
R 00 00 2 00
S 00 00 4 00
T 00 00 8 00
U 00 00 16 00
V 00 00 32 00
W 00 00 64 00
X 00 00 128 00
Y 00 00 00 1
Z 00 00 00 2
Where (for eg) you want to hide Drives {C,E,J,O,R,U,Y,Z} you would give
'NoDrives' the value 14 42 12 03
Where C+E = 14, J+O = 42, R+U=12 and
Y+Z = 03
Please NOTE: The Numbers are to be added in HEXadecimal ie:
ABCD = 0F, not 15 All Drives Visible is 00 00 00 00 All Drives Hidden is
FF FF FF 03
You can create a banner that will come up just before you logon to the computer:
Now before anyone logs into that computer, this banner will come up on
the screen.
This can be useful for any legal warnings you want to give
regarding the use of the computer.
When you share a local resource, Windows95 normally puts a hand in from
of that resources icon.
To remove hand icon from your shared
resources:
To enable the middle mouse button on Logitech Mouses to act as a double-click button by only pressing it once:
This will enable you to right click on any file and have the option to
open it with notepad.
Also if a file has no association and you try to
open it it will open with notepad
There are many backup programs for the registry but if the computer goes down and you can't fire off Win95 because of the registry problem.
Backup to a directory the following files:
These files can be copied to the windows directory from Win95 or DOS to help correct problems.
Add or Edit the following Registry Keys
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\opennew]
@="Dos Prompt in that
Directory"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\opennew\command]
@="command.com
/k cd %1"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\opennew]
@="Dos Prompt
in that
Drive"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\opennew\command]
@="command.com
/k cd %1"
These will allow you to right click on either the drive or the directory and the option of starting the dos prompt there will pop up
How to compact the registry?
When you create a mailbox in Exchange for e-mail, you specify the file
where you want to mail to go.
You cannot change this in Exchange
afterwards.
If you want to change the file name or location::
When you view what events you can assign sounds to from Control
Panel / Sounds,
you cannot delete the events themselves. In order
to do that:
Adding an Application to the Right Click on Every Folder
Here is how to add any application to the menu when you right click on
any Folder.
This could be useful if there is an app you always want
available and don't want to go through the Start menu
Now when you right click on any folder, you can have access to that
application
This will work for both Windows95 and NT 4.0
Now when you right click on any folder, you can open up an Explorer
window of that folder.
This will work for both Windows95 and NT 4.0
When I would go to Control Panel or Start Menu Programs, or any other Desktop window setting; meaning size, position, icon arrangement, they would never be as I set them. I found an answer:
At
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
There
is a "NoSaveSettings" key. I deleted it and now my all my stuff stays
where I tell it.
The same key shows up
at:
[HKEY_USERS\bwil\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer](where
bwil is your password profile) Just thought I'd share this with you
all.
Remember those "Tips of the day" that appeared when you first install
Win95?
If you don't want them any longer and want to clear yet more
Clutter, approximately 5K, you can delete them at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \
SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ Tips
If you need to change the drive and or path where Windows95 will look for it's installation files:
If you want to create a Network Logon Banner:
In this example, when you right click on a file in Explorer, NOTEPAD will show up as an option.
With the OEM Version of Windows95, a new switch, /D, is added to
Regedit.
This enables you to delete items from Registry.
The syntax is: REGEDIT /L:system.dat_location /R:user.dat_location /D
Reg_Key
where Reg_Key is the key you want to delete
There are two requirements:
1. That you have to boot to the same OEM
version of Windows95 as the REGEDIT.EXE file.
2. You cannot be in Win95
at the time you use this switch.
When you make changes to your hard drive and use Explorer, the changes
are not usually displayed until you press the F5 key
To make the
updates automatic:
As in Windows for Workgroups, when logging on to an NT Domain, it is
preferable to disable password caching.
This allows for the single
NT Domain login and eliminates the secondary Windows logon
screen.
It also eliminates the possibility of the respective passwords
to get out of sync.
To disable password caching on the workstation, a one-line addition to
the registry needs to be made.
To make the change, create a ASCII text
file called DISABLE.REG with the following lines:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]
"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000001
Open up a DOS box and type REGEDIT DISABLE.REG
You can also download the DISABLE.REG file.
If you need to re-enable password caching, download ENABLE.REG and repeat the process just with the different file name
There are four network settings that can be configured so when dialing
to an ISP, you should get somewhat greater throughput.
They are the
MaxMTU, MaxMSS and DefaultRcvWindow, and DefaultTTL
MaxMTU and MaxMSS
DefaultRcvWindows and DefaultTTL
To add items when you right-click on the Start Button:
When you right click on the Start Button, you can select Open, Explore
or Find.
Open shows your Programs folder. Explore starts the Explorer
and allows access to all drives.
Find allows you to search and then run
programs. In certain situations you might want to disable this
feature.
To remove them:
Note: - When you remove Open, you cannot open any
folders.
If you need to undo any of the changes, you can download the
registry settings before the changes.
When you right-click on the desktop and select New, a list of
default templates you can open up are listed.
To remove items from that
list:
By default, the Telnet session has a window size of 25 lines. To
increase this so you can scroll back
and look at a larger number on
lines:
You can edit the Tips of the day in the Registry by going
to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \
CurrentVersion \ explorer \ Tips
To turn off the display of local or networked drives when you click on My Computer:
To get your folders to open the way you want every time:
Below is a reference for the icons I've been able to figure out:
0 - Default Icon
1 - Default Document
2 - Application
3 -
Closed Folder
4 - Open Folder
5 - 5 1/4 Drive
6 - 3 1/4
Drive
7 - Removable Drive
8 - Hard Drive
9 - Network Folder
10
- Network Offline
11 - CD
12 - RAM Drive
13 - Entire
Nertwork
15 - My Computer
16 - Printer
17 - Network
Neighborhood
18 - Network Workgroup
19-27 are the Start Menu
icons
19 - Programs
20 - Desktop
21 - Settings
22 - Find
23
- Help
24 - Run
25 - Suspend
27 - Shutdown
28 - Share
29 - Shortcut
31 - Recycle Bin (Empty)
32 - Recycle
Bin (Full)
33 - Folder, Dial-Up Networking
34 - Desktop
36 -
Program Group
40 - Audio Card
In addition, you can change:
The Documents Menu displays the last file and programs you used. You
can clear item manually but only through editing
the Registry can you
turn this off automatically. This can be useful on computers that are used
by multiple people.
The same settings can be also used in NT 4.0
Your Documents Menu should now be blank. This will be for all subsequent users who logon as well.
Normally, when you right button click on the Start button, it
allows you to open your programs folder, the Explorer and run Find.
In
situations where you don't want to allow users to be able to do this in
order to secure your computer.
Now when you right click on the Start button, nothing should
happen.
You can delete only those items that you need.
Note:
- On Microsoft keyboards, this also disables the Window-E (for Explorer)
and Window-F (for Find) keys.
In areas where you are trying to restrict what users can do on the
computer, it might be beneficial to disable the ability to click on My
Computer and have access to the drives, control panel etc.
To disable
this:
Now when you click on My Computer, nothing will happen.
You
might want to export this section to a registry file before deleting it
just in case you want to enable it again..
You can change many of the icons that are located on your desktop.
Some of the additional items that can be searched for are:
Additional icons can be found in:
By default, when you click on the My Computer icon, you get a display of all your drives, the Control Panel etc. If you would like to have this open the Explorer:
If your registry has gotten corrupted, and re-installing Windows95 over
your existing version does not fix the problem,
there is a hidden,
read-only, system file on the root of your boot drive called
SYSTEM.1ST.
This is the initial system registry created when you
first installed Windows95.
You will need to install your 32-bit apps and any other programs or
changes that modified your system registry
but you will not need to go
through a new again. Your 16-bit apps should not need to be re-installed
since they do
not modify the registry. You will also retain your
current desktop configuration.
Fooling with the recycle bin. Why not make the icon context menu act like other icon context menu's.
Add rename to the
menu:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20
Add delete to the
menu:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:60,01,00,20
Add rename and delete to the
menu:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:70,01,00,20
Restore the recycle bin to win 95 defaults including un-deleting the
icon after deletion:
... Restore the
icon.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}]
@="Recycle
Bin"
... reset win 95 defaults
.
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:40,01,00,20
Other edits to the recycle bin
icon:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:40,01,01,20
... standard shortcut arrow
"Attributes"=hex:40,01,02,20 ... another
shortcut arrow
"Attributes"=hex:40,01,04,20 ... and another shortcut
arrow
"Attributes"=hex:40,01,08,20 ... make it look disabled (like it's
been cut)
I added the above edits for fun. But it gets you thinking.
Note:
Adding rename and delete to the context menu takes effect instantly. To
restore the icon after deletion requires screen refresh (F5).
Have
fun.... Tom
Also see the Installation Section on doing this automatically during installation.
Also see the Installation Section on doing this automatically during installation.
If you want to start programs every time Windows95 runs, but would like
to hide them from users
by not having the listed in the Startup folder
or the WIN.INI file, you can have them load through the registry.
You can shut off the animation displayed when you minimize and maximize windows.
If your modem it timing out during file transfers or loading Web
Pages,
you might try increasing the timeout period.
To change it:
If you remove an installed program and its files by deleting the
files,
it may still show up in the Add/Remove programs list through the
control panel.
In order to remove it from the list (so you don't need
to re-install in order to just remove it again).
This will only delete them from the list, not delete the actual
programs.
Only programs designed for Windows95 will show up here in the
first place.
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