Windows.XP.in.a.Nutshell.1002005.2Ed [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

8.7. Ten Cool Things You Can Do in Your Registry

Armed with your new understanding
of the Windows XP Registry, you're no doubt ready to
get in there and start exploring. Hopefully, this chapter has
provided the "lay of the land" you
need to get and keep your bearings in the otherwise confusing
wilderness of the Registry. While we don't have the
kind of room in this book it takes to make you an expert, we would
like to send you on your way by pointing out some interesting
landmarks; i.e., ten cool changes you can make in your own Registry.

1. Expand the scope of IE's AutoComplete
   feature .

   In Internet Explorer, you can enter an incomplete URL (i.e.,
   oreilly instead of www.oreilly.com) and IE will attempt to
   complete the address itself by searching for all instances. However,
   IE only searches the .com,
   .edu,

   .net , and
   .org top-level domains (TLDs) by default, and
   only tries the

   www prefix. To add new domain
   suffixes and prefixes to search, go to:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\UrlTemplate

2. By default, this key has four values in Windows XP: 1, 2, 3, and 4,
   set to www.%s.com, www.%s.net,
   www.%s.org, and www.%s.edu,
   respectively. The value names (the numbers) specify the search order
   (lower numbers take precedence), and the data specifies the format.
   Feel free to rearrange the existing items, remove unwanted items, or
   add new TLDs, like entire branch in the Registry is used
   as a template with which to create new user profiles. As described
   earlier in this chapter, the path:

   HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT

   is duplicated for each new user that is created in Windows XP. If,
   down the road, you trace a certain problem to an incorrect Registry
   setting, you can just visit this branch and obtain the default value.
   For example, I recently ran into a problem caused by incorrect data
   in the UserPreferenceMask value, located in
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
   Panel\Desktop. I looked up the corresponding value
   in HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control
   Panel\Desktop, and copied its data into the active
   UserPreferenceMask value. Problem solved!

   Another use of this key, especially for those who need to configure a
   large number of users, is that any change made to the
   .DEFAULT branch will appear in each new user that
   is added to the system (existing users won't be
   affected). This can be a great way, for example, to disable the
   system sounds for each student account on a classroom computer.

3. Disable the Shut Down command .

   If you're running a kiosk or demo system (or if you
   just don't want people shutting down your machine),
   you can disable the
   Shut Down command by going to:

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

   Create a new DWORD value in this key and name it
   NoClose. Double-click the new value, and set its
   data to 1. You'll have to log out and log back in
   (or restart Windows) for this change to take effect. Note that in
   order to shut down now, you'll have to press
   Ctrl-Alt-Del, and click Shut Down. To undo this change, just delete
   the NoClose value.

4. Registry Editor remembers where you were .

   Each time you open the
   Registry Editor, it automatically expands
   the branch you had open the last time Registry Editor was used, but
   no others. So, if you find yourself repeatedly adjusting a particular
   setting and then closing Registry Editor (such as when implementing
   the previous tip), make sure the relevant key is highlighted just
   before Registry Editor is closed, and that key will be opened next
   time as well.

   Note also the Favorites menu, which works very much like the one in
   Internet Explorer, allows you to bookmark frequently accessed
   Registry keys. While it's useful, I personally find
   the existence of such a feature in a troubleshooting tool like
   Registry Editor to be more than a little eerie.

5. Change the registered user and company names for Windows
   XP .

   When
   Windows XP is installed, a user and
   company name are entered. Unfortunately, there is no convenient way
   to change this information after installation. Surpriseyou can
   do it in the Registry! Just go to:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

   The values you need are RegisteredOwner and
   RegisteredOrganization, both of which can be
   changed to whatever you'd like. You may notice that
   the Registry key containing these values is in the Windows NT branch,
   rather than the more commonly used Windows branch.
   Don't worry, both branches are used in Windows XP.
   The less-used Windows NT branch contains more advanced settings,
   mostly those that differentiate the Windows 9x and Windows NT lines
   of operating systems (as described in Chapter 1).

6. Change your default installation path .

   When you install Windows XP, the
   path to your
   installation files is set in the Registry. Unfortunately, this
   setting is not updated when drive letters change or when you point to
   a different location when optional components are added or removed.
   To change the default setup path, making subsequent configuration
   changes more convenient, go to:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

   Start by changing the SourcePath value to either
   the root directory of your CD drive (e.g. d:\),
   or to a path on your hard disk or network containing the Windows XP
   installation files. Note also the Installation
   Sources entry, which is a REG_MULTI_SZ
   value (see Section 8.1, earlier in
   this chapter, for details on this value type). It contains a list of
   all the folders displayed in Windows' drop-down
   list, allowing you to quickly point to any one of several favorite
   installation paths.

7. Try something new with My
   Computer .

   Double-click the
   My
   Computer icon, and the My Computer window appears. It
   doesn't have to be this way. The program launched
   when you double-click My Computer is simply another value in the
   Registry. Start by navigating to:

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

   (See the following tip for an easy way to locate this key)

   You'll notice that the structure of this key is very
   similar to standard file type keys (discussed earlier in this
   chapter), which means we can treat this object like a file type and
   create new actions for it. Open the Shell subkey, and create a new
   key named open; in the new Open key, create a new
   key named command. You should then be here:

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

   Double-click on the default value of that new Command key and type
   the full path and filename of the program you wish to open. For
   example, I find it handy to have the My Computer icon open an
   Explorer window; to do
   this, just type explorer.exe for the value data.
   You'll have to log out and log back in for the
   change to take effect.

8. Some handy Registry navigation
   shortcuts .

   The previous tip involved navigating to the
   Registry key associated with the My Computer icon on the Desktop,
   which is located in the HKCR\CLSID branch. If you
   visit this branch, you'll notice hundreds of Class
   ID keys, all sorted alphabetically (so to speak), which makes finding
   a single key rather laborious. Luckily, there are a few alternatives
   that will greatly simplify this task.

   First, you can simply search the Registry for "My
   Computer." Start by highlighting the key at the top
   of the tree (coincidentally named "My
   Computer"), which instructs Registry Editor to begin
   searching at the beginning. Then, use Edit
   Find, type
   My Computer, make sure that all
   the "Look at" options are checked,
   and click Find Next. The first instance it finds will probably be the
   key you're looking for, although it
   won't always be this easy.

   Another shortcut is to use the keyboard. Like Explorer, when you
   press a letter or number key, Registry Editor will jump to the first
   entry that starts with that character. Furthermore, if you press
   several keys in succession, they will all be used to spell the target
   item. For example, to navigate to:

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

   start by expanding the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key.
   Then, press C + L +S quickly in succession, and Registry Editor will
   jump to the CLSID key. Next, expand that key by pressing the (+)
   button, or by pressing the right arrow key, and press { + 2 + 0 (the
   first three characters of the key name, including the curly brace),
   and you'll be in the neighborhood of the target key
   in seconds.

9. Permanently remove many unwanted system tray
   icons .
   

   In Section 8.3.4,
   earlier in this chapter, the
   HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
   key is described as listing many programs that are run automatically
   when Windows starts. Some of these entries are included in
   order to install icons in the system tray (the area on your Taskbar,
   by the clock). Since most of the tray icons that come with Windows
   can be toggled on and off in Control Panel, the more bothersome ones
   are usually installed by third-party programs. To disable one or more
   of these tray icons, preventing them from loading the next time
   Windows starts, you'll have to delete the
   corresponding value in this key (renaming isn't
   sufficient). Use caution, and certainly make a Registry patch to back
   up the entire key before fiddling with it.

10. Alphabetize your Start menu in one
    step .
    

    The Windows XP Start menu allows you to rearrange shortcuts by
    dragging and dropping them; the unfortunate consequence of this
    feature is that new shortcuts and folders that appear when
    applications are installed are added to the end of the list. Now, you
    can sort a single Start Menu folder alphabetically by right-clicking
    any shortcut and selecting Sort by Name, but this can get tedious
    very quickly. The solution to this is in the Registry; just navigate
    to:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu

    and you'll see subkeys and values that determine the
    sort order of the contents of the Start menu (and the Favorites menu,
    next door). Simply delete the entire Start menu key to sort all of
    the folders in your Start menu alphabetically, or selectively delete
    the desired subkeys to sort corresponding folders. Note that the next
    time you drag-drop a shortcut in the Start menu, Windows will
    recreate these keys automatically, so you may wish to write a WSH
    script (see Chapter 9) to automatically delete this
    key, say, every time Windows is started.