- Before start to edit your windows registry, You Have to do following!!!
Make sure before modifying your system Registry about its backup, because Registry contains all information how your system runs. This backup will help you to restore Registry in case any problem occurs after modifying. Learn how you can Export and Import Registry File before Editing?
You can backup the whole Registry and also its sub keys.
Click Start Button then type RegEdit in Run box and click Ok button. Here you can export the whole Registry or you can locate the required sub keys that contain the information that you want to edit.
Go to File menu option then click on Export option for backup and save it with on any your system drive with .reg extension and you can restore this backup going File menu using import option.
How to Remove Add/Remove Programs Entries from RegEdit??
Generally we use Add/Remove programs option in Control Panel to remove any unwanted program from our computer. Normally this may be due to poorly designed uninstaller with this program. That is why some programs may not be removed properly and a reference to this program remains in the computer registry. This reference in registry may be creating problems to run your computer smoothly. Here you need to delete this reference to edit your computer registry using RegEdit editor.
First go to Start button and open Run dialog box. Type here RegEdit and press Enter.
Now in editor Navigate to the given path
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.
Here locate the entry created by your program with its name and select that entry from the list on the left panel and delete its key.
Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer, the program will be removed from your computer permanently.
Disable Right Click on Desktop!!!
It is really possible to disable the user's ability to right click on the desktop by simply following these steps.
1- Click on Start than Run
2- Locate the following registry Key
3- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Create a new DWORD value named NoViewContextMenu within the above registry key and set its data value 0 to disable the right click context menu on the desktop, and to 1 to enable it.
4- Exit from windows registry and restart the session to take effect.
How to restrict user's to access shutdown button???
This tip is very interesting for home and some small office users, who wants to restrict user's ability to shutdown their computer. You can hide the Shutdown button from the Start menu using registry editor and also restrict access to shutdown, if a user clicks on Ctrl+Alt+
Follow the given steps to hide system shutdown button from start menu:
To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with Administrative rights.
Click Start button and type RegEdit in Run option then press Enter for next.
Here locate the location to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\Explorer
Here in right side panel, right click to create a new DWORD value with name NoClose.
Now assign number 1 to its value data box.
Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
But next time, if you want to unhide the shutdown button then simply change the value data box to 0 or delete this DWORD item.
Again close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
Disable Right Click on Desktop!!!
It is really possible to disable the user's ability to right click on the desktop by simply following these steps.
1- Click on Start than Run
2- Locate the following registry Key
3- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Create a new DWORD value named NoViewContextMenu within the above registry key and set its data value 0 to disable the right click context menu on the desktop, and to 1 to enable it.
4- Exit from windows registry and restart the session to take effect.
How to restrict user's to access shutdown button???
This tip is very interesting for home and some small office users, who wants to restrict user's ability to shutdown their computer. You can hide the Shutdown button from the Start menu using registry editor and also restrict access to shutdown, if a user clicks on Ctrl+Alt+
Follow the given steps to hide system shutdown button from start menu:
To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with Administrative rights.
Click Start button and type RegEdit in Run option then press Enter for next.
Here locate the location to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\Explorer
Here in right side panel, right click to create a new DWORD value with name NoClose.
Now assign number 1 to its value data box.
Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
But next time, if you want to unhide the shutdown button then simply change the value data box to 0 or delete this DWORD item.
Again close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
How to create your own Run Command for any specific application???
It will help you to make your own Run Command (program shortcut) to run a program or a document directly. No more need to navigate the location of a program or document to run it, simply click on Start button to open Run box and type the programs shortcut name to open it directly.
Follow the given steps to disable the save settings functionality for desktop:
To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
Click Start button and type regedit in Run option then press Enter for next.
Here locate the location to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App paths
Now right click on App Paths and select New > Key, title the key and name it whatever you want your run command to be. In this case, we will try to create a run command for SecueCRT application.
New > Key > SecureCRT.exe
Now select the SecureCRT.exe folder and click right on (Default) string value then click Modify at the right hand side panel.
Here enter the path of the program that you want to execute in the value data field. In our case, the path of SecueCRT application will be C:\Program Files\VanDyke Software\SecureCRT \SecureCRT.exe.
Now again in right side panel, click right to create a new String value with the name SecureCRT and its values as C:\Program Files\VanDyke Software\SecureCRT\SecureCRT.exe.
Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
How to Hide all drives in My Computer???
If you want to prevent any users to access your computer or network shared drives using My Computer then you can hide the all drives for example C:/, D:/ and save your data from any unknown user. But next time you can turn on the display of these drives using registry editor. Now edit the computer registry to turn off the display of drives, but be careful to work with computer registry.
Follow the given steps to hide computer drives:
First click on Start button then type RegEdit in Run option.
Here locate the location to:
HKey_Current_User \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows\ Current Version \ Policies \ Explorer
Here right click on right side of Registry editor panel and add new DWORD then put its value 3FFFFFF.
Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
How to change the title of Windows Media Player???
You can surprise your friends to show them your name on Window Media Player as Title. If you have some knowledge to edit the windows registry keys then you can do it very easily and next time you can reverse these changes same as you done, but be careful to edit windows registry because any mistake can create problem for windows.
Follow the given steps to change the title bar for windows media player:
First click on Start button then type Regedit in Run option.
Here locate the location to:
HKEY_USERS \ .DEFAULT \ Software \ Policies\ Microsoft \ WindowsMediaPlayer
Here right click on right side of Registry editor panel and create a new string value of Title bar and give any name as you want to appear in title bar.
Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
How to Hide all desktop icon???
1- Start run Regedit
2- Go to HKey_Current_User \ Software\ Microsoft \Windows \ Current Version \ Policies \ Explorer
Right click on the right panel and add a New DWORD Value
Name it NoDesktop
Give it a value of 1
Logoff or Reboot the computer
Now all icons are hidden on the desktop
How to reduce shutdown time of your windows???
You can reduce the shutdown time of windows. Actually windows XP take time to close all running programs and applications before shutdown, but you can minimize this time if you have little knowledge about editing windows registry.
Follow the given steps to reduce the shutdown time:
First click on Start button then type RegEdit in Run option. Here locate the location to:
Go to Hkey_Current_User\Control Panel\Desktop
Here in right side panel, double click on AutoEndTasks and here its default value is 0. Now change it to 1.
Now in same side panel double click on value name WaitToKillAppTimeout. Its default value data is 20000; now change this value of WaitToKillAppTimeout to 3500.
Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
How to find out the reson of windows sudden crash???
You can find out the reasons why there was a sudden crash of your windows. Microsoft criticizes that half of the windows failure due to third party software installed on that computer, but there are some common reasons of windows failure like User behavior, BIOS and Driver Updating, Software Problems (install and uninstall process) and Shared information (Windows shared libraries).
By editing the windows registry keys, you can find out the system failure reasons. But always export or backup the whole windows registry keys on backup drive before editing. Because any mistake in Registry can cause serious problem in your computer to run properly.
Follow the given steps to edit computer registry for log file:
1- First click on Start button then type RegEdit in Run option.
2- In registry editor panel change the DWORD value shutdownreasonUI to 1 in the given key:
3- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Reliability
4- Now after reboot the system, you can check the system log file (Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Logfiles) to find out the reasons of system failureDisplaying a Text Notice before Logon???
You can create a funny message or legal warnings for others just before logon to your computer. This is very useful if you want to give a message to new user about the use of computer. Edit the value of registry keys to create a banner message.
Click Start button then type RegEdit in Run option then press Enter for next.
Here locate the location to:
HKeyLocalMachine \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Win Logon
Here in right side panel, right click to create a new string value LegalNoticeCaption and give it a value you want to see in the menu bar
Now again right click to create a new string value called LegalNoticeText and change the value you want to see in the dialog box
Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect
How to Disable the Blinking Cursor in Computer Applications???
If you are using any computer application, for example MS Word or MS FrontPage and you did not like blinking of cursor. You can stop the cursor from blinking in these applications to edit your computer registry keys, but be careful to work with computer registry.
Follow the given steps to stop cursor from blinking:
First click on Start button then type RegEdit in Run option.
Here locate the location to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Here add the string value with name CursorBlink and value -1
At the end restart your computer for this change.
View previously opens Folders after Shutdown or Logoff
If you need to access lot of folders on your home computer or on the network regularly then you can set them re-open automatically, when you will login, shutdown or restart your computer next time. There is no need to open regularly used folders manually, just configure the simple sitting, your computer will automatically reload all the previously opened windows.
By default windows XP disables this option to reload automatically all the previously opened windows, when you login on, shutdown or restart your computer.
Follow the given steps to configure your computer to reload previously opened folders automatically after shutdown.
To edit this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
First click on Start button then go to Control Panel.
Open the “Appearance and Themes” option in control panel then click on Folder Options.
A small windows dialog box will appear with the title “Folder options”, click on View tab.
Under the Advanced setting section, scroll down to bottom and click the “Restore previous folder windows at logon” option and then click Ok button to save sitting.
Now when you log off, restart or shutdown, your computer will automatically open the previously opened folders from the same location as before.
How to rename Recycle bin
You can change the name of Recycle Bin of your system if you wish. It is very easy and interesting but it require some changes in windows registry,
First click on Start button > click on Run option.
Type here regedit.exe and press enter then you will find there REGEDIT editor.
In regedit editor you will open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder, In this folder open the CLSID folder then open the {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} folder >ShellFolder folder at last.
Here simply change the data value from "40 01 00 20" to "70 01 00 20".
After performing all above steps restart your computer then you will find option to rename Recycle name after right clicking on Recycle Bin Icon. Now you can change new name as you wish.
How you Changing the Icon Spacing in XP?
You can manage your desktop icons in windows XP horizontally as well as vertically spacing. You can change the location, size of icons and spacing between icons manually but you can arrange these setting using windows methods.
First Right click on your windows XP desktop then click on Properties option. Here click the Appearance tab then go to Advance button and under Item you will find many options to change the desktop icons, for example choose icon spacing in both ways and then here you can change the size putting number (minimum or maximum) under size. When you finished all setting then click ok button.
How to Disable or Enable Auto run CD?
In windows XP you can enjoy a good feature to run CD or DVD automatically when you loaded it into you CD drives on your computer. This is a defaults feature in windows XP but you can disable and enable it according to your nature of work. In user interface mode there is no option to disable or enable this feature, you must edit the registry of windows and be careful to work registry.
Click Start button then type regedit in Run option then press Enter for next.
Here locate the location to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom
Here you can disable or enable automatically running your CD. Change the value of Autorun to 0 for disable and change the value to 1 for enable. At the end restart your computer for this change.
Set Num Lock Key Always On!!!
You can set your Num Lock to stay on by default when you logon your system.
There are two different techniques to set Num Lock stay on by default.
If you can use Registry Editor correctly then click on start button and type Regedt32.exe in Run command. Here Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard and change the value for InitialKeyboardIndicators from 0 to
2.You can do same by configuring the script to change the NUM LOCK state. Click Start button and then open Notepad. Copy the giving code and paste in Notepad.
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.SendKeys "{NUMLOCK}"
Now save this file with name "num.vbs" must including the quotes. At the end copy this file to user startup folder. The path for this folder is Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.
Now restart the computer. Num Lock should come on and stay on.
At the end Click OK button to apply the selected scheme.
How you can save Energy using Energy saving feature?
You can save your system energy applying these features.
First Right click on your system desktop and a popup menu will appear.
Select the Properties option from the menu.
Click Screen Saver tab and then select Power button, here you will get Power saving sitting option for your monitor.
Select your power scheme from available option, for example turn off monitor time, turn off hard disk and stand by your system.
At the end Click On OK Button to Apply the selected scheme.
How To Print through Command Prompt???
If you are working at the Command Prompt your can modify and print the text file very easily. There are different ways to print text a file while working at the Command Prompt. Assuming the file you want to print is in your current folder, you can type here with your file name with extension. For example
print filename.txt
and press Enter. Here .txt is the file extension. You must use the extension. Now in the same way you can edit this file before printing with given command
edit filename.txt
and press Enter. This command opens the MS-DOS Editor to edit this file. Edit the file and then press Alt, F, P to print it.
Start Any Application when you logon!!!
You can start your computer applications automatically and control the sequence of the programs when your computer comes up.
Here we consider you want to run three different applications (WordPad, calculator, and notepad) and minimized automatically with sequence at windows startup. However, you can write a batch file to do the job for you. Open any text editor like notepad and type the following command.
Start /min wordpad.exe start /min calc.exe start /min notepad.exe
Now choose the option, Save As to save this file with .bat extension. For example filename.bat.
Now Right- click on Start button and choose open > Double click Programs > here open Startup folder. Now drag your .bat file in the Startup folder and close the dialog box.
Next time When you restart the computer, WordPad, Calc will start first and then Notepad. You won't see the batch file run because you told it to run minimized
How to Increase and Decrease the size of Recycle Bin!!!
You can increase and decrease the size of the Recycle Bin. There are some size limitations with Recycle Bin size, its default size is equivalent to 10 percent of the drive size. But if you delete a larger size file accidentally, you can retrieve this file from Recycle Bin that is why you should set the maximum storage size of the Recycle Bin.
First Right click on the Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop of your computer then go to Properties.
Adjust the slider bar in the center of the screen from 10% to maximum size as you want.
Then click OK button to save your new sitting and exit the Recycle Bin Properties Window.
After change reboot your computer to have Windows fully initiate the necessary changes to your system.
How to find a lost file on your Computer???
Today tip will help you to enjoy the quick and easy way to find lost files on your computer. Here I recommends you, try to search a file with its file extensions (for example for word file, type *.doc, Excel *.xls, Acrobat *.pdf, *.ppt and *.exe for executable files. If you don't know the name of file but know that it contains a string of text then try to search for files containing specific text, type the text you want to find from any file or folder. This is time taking process but creates very precise result. In Look in, click the drive, folder, or network you want to search. To save time, always select the specified drive or location instead of whole computer.
Click Start Button, point to Search, and then click For File or Folders, a Search Results dialog box will appear. In Search for files or folders named, type the file name or folder name you want to find in containing text.
To specify additional search criteria, click Search Options, and then click one or more of the following options to narrow your search:
Select Date to look for files that were created or modified on or between specific dates.
Select Type to look for files of a specific type, such as a text or WordPad document.
Select Size to look for files of a specific size.
Select Advanced Options to specify additional search criteria.
Click Search now.How to remove the text from the Desktop icon? ??
Desktop is the interface of Windows, which contain the icons, taskbar etc. that allow the user to interact with the computer to perform different operations. Usually the picture of icon represents its purpose so if you want your desktop looking very clean then you can remove the title under the desktop icons. May be you are thinking it is so easy, just go to rename option and set blank name or single spacebar entry but the problem is this, windows will not allow you to set blank name or name with single spacebar entry. Here interesting thing is this; window will allow you to use the ASCII code for a space, which is 0160.
First clear all the text from that icon
Now type the ASCII code, simply hold the Alt key, type the number 0160 from the number pad and release the Alt key then press Enter button to finish the process.
But if you want to remove the text of multiple icons, then repeat the above process with adding one extra ASCII code for second icon, (for example for second icon you type the 0160 twice and for third icon type 0160 three times with Alt key and so on).
Add a picture to a folder
To add a picture to a folder
| 1. | In Windows Explorer (the program that appears when you open folders such as My Computer, My Documents, My Pictures, or My Music), right-click the folder you want to add a picture to, and then click Properties. |
| 2. | In the Properties dialog box, click the Customize tab. If there is no Customize tab, you cannot add a picture to that folder. You can add pictures to other folders, however. |
| 3. | On the Customize tab, click Choose Picture. |
| 4. | In the Browse dialog box, click the picture you want to use, and then click Open. |
| 5. | Click OK. |
When you view the folder using Thumbnails view, Windows displays a thumbnail of the picture you selected.
Auto logon for Windows XP
Would you rather not have to log on after your computer starts? If you’re the only person who uses your computer, you can make life a little easier by skipping the Welcome screen completely and having Microsoft Windows XP take you straight to your desktop.
To automatically log on to Windows XP upon startup
| 1. | Click Start, and then click Run. Note: Remember your user name at the top of the Start menu, because you’ll need it later. |
| 2. | In the Open box, type control userpasswords2 and click OK. |
3. | Clear the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer check box. Click OK. |
| 4. | Click the User name box, type the user name that was displayed on the Start menu in step 1. If you normally type a password to log on, type your password in both the Password and Confirm Password boxes. Otherwise, leave these boxes blank. Click OK. |
Auto logon now allows anyone to start and use your computer without typing a password.
Note: Keep in mind that you should not enable auto logon if you need privacy for any files on your computer. If you need to maintain privacyHow to change the start button text on Windows XP???
Tired of the boring old “start” button at the bottom left corner of your Windows XP’s monitor? Want something new to replace it? Well here’s how to change it.
With a few modifications in the Windows Registry, you can replace the “start” text with anything you like. Great for achieving a new, custom look for your Windows XP. So let’s get started.
Warning: this tutorial is more for advanced users, and I'm not
Responsible if your system gets messed up. Only attempt the following
At your own risk.
Step 1: Modify explorer.exe
If the warning didn’t scare you enough, then the title of this step probably did. Yes, we are going to change Explorer, the backbone of your Windows XP, but don’t worry. Everything should be safe as long as you follow the steps closely. As explorer is a binary file, we need a special tool to modify it. One of the best ones for this purpose is Resource Hacker. There are of course others that will get the trick done, but we will be using RH this tutorial so I recommend installing it to avoid making mistakes. Install it and let’s continue.
As always before changing anything. you want to back up. So open My Computer and navigate to and look for explorer. Copy pastes it to a safe location on your hard drive.
Now that you’ve backed it up, fire up Resource Hacker and find the same explorer.exe.
When you’ve found and opened explorer in RH, navigate to String Table -> 37 -> 1033. The “start” value is on line 4, after the 578. Change the text “start” to anything you want, making sure you keep the quotes. In this example. I changed the text to manojweb.com
Press the Compile Script button to make Resource Hacker put together the code. Now click File and Save the script as explorer.exe. into C: \WINDOWS\inf or another C: \WINDOWS subfolder.
Note: make sure you choose Save AS, NOT just save!!
And that’s all for the first step! Now let’s move onto the second one -modifying the registry.
Step 2: changing the registry.
By now, you have a modified explorer sitting in the /inf/ subfolder, so we need to tell Windows to use that one, instead of the original one still resting untouched.
To do this, we need to make just one simple registry modification. To open up the registry, press start > run and type regedit.
In the registry editor window that opens, navigate toHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon and look for the registry entry “shell”. Click it.
Change the explorer.exe to inf/explorer.exe or whereever you saved the modified explorer.
And believe it or not, you’re done! All you have to do now is reboot or log out and bacö in to see the changes. Enjoy your new custom Windows XP start button!
