Windows Registry is a registry that stores configuration information about many important parts of this operating system. By editing you can tune Windows to behave the way you want it.
go to the start menu to open run application launching window and then type regedit (then enter) to start the registry editing program. The registry editor should start.
How the Registry is stored
In Windows 95, 98, and Me, the Registry is contained in two hidden files in your Windows directory, called USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT.
In Windows 2000 and Windows XP, the Registry is stored in several Hives, located in the \windows\system32\config and \Documents and Settings\ {username} folders.
Structure of the Registry
The Registry has a hierarchal structure, like the directories on your hard disk. Each branch (denoted by a folder icon in the Registry Editor, see below) is called a Key. Each key can contain other keys, as well as Values. Each value contains 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 (five in Windows 2000 and Windows XP), 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 types as well as OLE information for all your OLE-aware applications.
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER - this branch points to the part of HKEY_USERS appropriate for the current user.
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - this branch contains information about all of the hardware and software installed on your computer. Since you can specify multiple hardware configurations, the current hardware configuration is specified in HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG.
- HKEY_USERS - this branch contains certain preferences (such as colors and control panel settings) for each of the users of the computer. In Windows 95/98/Me, the default branch here contains the currently-logged in user. In Windows 2000/XP, the default branch here contains a template to be used for newly-added users.
- HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - this branch points to the part of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE appropriate for the current hardware configuration.
- HKEY_DYN_DATA (Windows 95/98/Me only) - this branch points to the part of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, for use with Windows' Plug-&-Play subsystem.
Using the Registry Editor
The Registry Editor (regedit.exe) is included with Windows to enable you to view and edit the contents of the Registry. When you open the Registry Editor, you'll see a window divided into two panes. The left side shows a tree with folders (see Structure of the Registry above), and the right side shows the contents (values) of the currently selected folder (key).
- To expand a certain branch, click on the little 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. 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.
Uninstall Programs Manually
Just because Windows XP has the Add/Remove Programs feature it doesn't mean your application will appear in the list. Furthermore, even if it does appear, it's no guarantee that the uninstall feature will work. When you run across one of these situations the items listed below will help in getting rid of the application. Be aware that these steps may not remove everything associated with the application and can impact other applications on the computer. Have a backup or restore point and use caution.
Find the directory for the application and delete all the files in the directory. Delete the directory.
Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
- To remove the application entry from Add/Remove Programs (if present), open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
- Some applications have Services attached to them. If this is the case, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services, locate and delete the service.
In Windows Explorer, navigate to the individual user settings and delete program references. Common places to check would be:
- C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
- C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
- C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries. [Do this for each User ID listed]
- C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.[Do this for each User ID listed]
If no entries were found in the previous step and the application launches automatically, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows and delete the entry.
Move Location of History Folder
By default, History files (the URL to sites that you have visited, organized by day) are stored at in the folder %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\History. You can redirect these files to any folder using the following Registry changes:
- Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
- Key: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserShellFolders
- Name: History
- Data Type: REG_SZ
- Value: path to new folder
Clear Pagefile on Shutdown
When Windows shuts down, it leaves the pagefile intact on the hard drive. Some programs may store sensitive information in clear text format in memory (which in turn may be paged out to disk). You may wish to empty this file for security reasons, or to help speed a boot time defrag, or because you dual boot, and you don't want to share the file, or just as part of troubleshooting a problem. Making the following registry change (or create the following entry) will clear your page file when rebooting.
- Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
- Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdown
- Data Type: REG_DWORD
- Value: 1
Disable Changing Passwords
If, for some reason, you decided that you didn't want users of a Windows 2000 computer to be able to change their password unless prompted to, you can make this Registry change to implement that:
- Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
- Key: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
- Name: DisableChangePassword
- Data Type: REG_DWORD
- Value: 1
A value of 0 means they can change their password whenever they want to. A value of 1 means that users will not be able to change their password unless prompted (by the password expiring, or by the box next to "User Must Change Password at Next Logon" being checked). Please use caution and frequent backups when working with the Registry.
Get Rid of Shared Documents
New to Windows XP is a "Shared Documents" folder that appears in My Computer. This is really just a pointer to another area on disk. You can keep this from appearing by deleting the following Subkey from the Registry:
- Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\My
- Computer\NameSpace\DelegateFolders
- Subkey: {59031a47-3f72- 44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}
- Delete the whole Subkey and all that it contains.
You may wish to right-click this Subkey and export it before deleting it, just to be safe. This also will prevent the current users "My Documents" from showing up in the same area of My Computer. Use caution and frequent backups when editing the Registry.
Model your explorer toolbars
This helps you add an image to the background of your explorer toolbar. To do this go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\toolbar and add a new string value named? BackBitmapShell? (Without quotes) to it and set its value to the path of the image file. Tip #595: Add a background bitmap to the Internet Explorer toolbar One can easily add a bitmap to the Internet Explorer toolbar. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar and create a new string value named? BackBitmapIE5? (For Internet Explorer 5) and set the path of the bitmap as it value.
Show a Recycle Bin in your My Computer
- Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\My
- Computer\NameSpace
- In NameSpace create a New Key & named it as {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-
- 00AA002F954E}
- Now in Right pane make a value Default to “Recycle Bin” without Quotes.
- Refresh a comp or Restart a comp to effect a change that u have made
- Attributes
- 70 01 00 20? Adds both rename and delete to the menu
- 50 01 00 20? Adds only rename option to the menu
- 60 01 00 20? Adds only delete to the menu
- 47 01 00 20? Adds cut, copy, paste to the menu
- 40 01 00 20? Changes the menu to its default condition
Shutdown XP Faster
When a user shuts down Windows XP, first the system has to kill all services currently running. Every once in a while the service does not shut down instantly and windows give it a change to shut down on its own before it kills it. This amount of time that windows wait is stored in the system registry. If you modify this setting, then windows will kill the service earlier. To modify the setting, follow the directions below:
- Start Regedit.
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
- Click on the "Control" Folder.
- Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
- Right click on it and select Modify.
- Set it a value lower than 2000 (Mine is set to 200).
- Or
- Like previous versions of windows, it takes long time to restart or shutdown windows
xp when the "Exit Windows" sound is enabled. To solve this problem you must disable this useless sound. Click start button then go to settings -> control panel -> Sound, Speech and Audio devices -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Sounds, then under program events and windows menu click on "Exit Windows" sub-menu and highlight it. Now from sounds you can select, choose "none" and then click apply and ok. Now you can see some improvements when shutting down your system.
Display message on startup XP
If you would like to display a legal message or any other message in a pop-up window when windows starts read below:
- Start Regedit; if you are unfamiliar with Regedit please see our FAQ.
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows
- NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon.
- Modify the key “legalnoticecaption” with what you want to name the window.
- Modify the key “legalnoticetext” with what you want the window to say.
- Restart.
Change a name of Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
- Key: Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
- Name: Window Title
- Data Type: REG_SZ
- Value: Text
- Whatever text you enter in for the value will appear in the title of the IE Window.
- Note: I have only checked this in IE 5.x and 6.x.
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