Pop Up A Banner When Windows Boots - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

You might want to have a banner pop up when a user is going to log on, a banner that contains any kind of message you want to display. This can be used to display the company’s policy, for example. Or a warning message to trespassers telling them to buzz off!

Navigate to:

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT

\CurrentVersion\WinLogon

Create a new String Value here called LegalNoticeCaption. Enter whatever you want to see in the bar at the top. Now create another new String Value called LegalNoticeText. Modify it to the message you want to display each time Windows boots.

The message will be displayed at the next logon.

Change The Window Title In WMP - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

Use this hack if you want to give the Windows Media Player window title something descriptive and/or creative, for example, “WMP”. (This is a non-creative, non-descriptive title, but you can do better.)

Navigate to:

HCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\

WindowsMediaPlayer

And to:

HLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\

WindowsMediaPlayer

Set the String Value for the setting TitleBar to the required text you wish to display, in our sad case, “WMP”. To revert to the default title, delete the TitleBar setting entirely. Just restart WMP to see the effect.

Remove Or Change The Shortcut Arrow Icon - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

A tiny little modification to XP. If you prefer not to see the shortcut arrow icon in the bottom corner of the shortcut, use this hack to change it—or even remove it.

To delete the icon, remove the entry IsShortCut from the following keys:

HCR\lnkfile (in “lnkfile”, it’s a small “ell,” not an “I”)

HCR\piffile

HCR\InternetShortcut

To change the icon, go to:

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons

Change the String Value entries for the setting “29” to the path and filename of the new icon. Setting this value to blank has the same effect as deleting them, but without any side effects.

By deleting the icon, Windows no longer considers these shortcuts as shortcuts. There maybe some side effect in using the shortcuts after this change: in some cases, deleting the arrow for .LNK files leads to duplicate items in the Explorer context menu. Ideally, rather than deleting the icon, just remove the file path to be on the safe side.

Add A Custom Folder To My Computer Or The Desktop - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

This hack will create a custom folder—like the special My Documents folder—and one that cannot be deleted or renamed!

Navigate to:

HCR\CLSID

Create a new key with a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). The GUID is a 128-bit identifier that is usually generated by Windows. This can be a random number that is used to uniquely identify COM objects when required for a Registry entry. Examples of GUIDs are:

{25892e17-80f6-415f-9c65-7395632f0223}

{a53e98e4-0197-4513-be6d-49836e406aaa}

{e33898de-6302-4756-8f0c-5f6c5218e02e}

These GUIDs should only be used on personal machines as their uniqueness cannot be guaranteed. GUIDs are usually generated by Windows, and not manually entered as we’re doing here. If the GUID is distributed in runtime apps, there is the probability— however remote—of it clashing with the existing GUIDs.

For this example, we’ll use a random GUID:

{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}.

Hence, the key value will be:

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}

Set the value of the “(Default)” setting for this key to the name of the folder—say “Computer Gurus Archive”. Create a new sub-key under the main key and call it “DefaultIcon”. That is, create a key called:

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE

-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}\DefaultIcon

Set the value of the “(Default)” setting to the filename and path of the icon file you want to use for this folder. For example, “C:\Computer Gurusicon.ico”, without the quotes. If you don’t specify a path to an icon file, Windows will use its default folder icon.

Create another sub-key under the main key called

“InProcServer32”, that is, create the key called:

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE–11CE-

BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}\InProcServer32

Set the “(Default)” setting here to “shell32.dll”. Create another String Value called ThreadingModel, with the value set to “Apartment”.

There’s more! Create another sub-key called

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF–

ABCD1DE12345}\Shell\Open My Folder\Command

Set the “(Default)” value here to the command that should be executed when the folder is clicked. In this case, it would be “explorer /root, c:\Computer Gurus Archive”

Create another set of sub-keys called

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF

-ABCD1DE12345}\ShellEx\PropertySheetHandlers\

{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}

Then create another sub-key called

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF

-ABCD1DE12345}\ShellFolder

Under this key, create a new Binary Value called Attributes with the value “00 00 00 00”.

To put the folder on the Desktop, add the following key:

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\

{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCFABCD1DE12345}

To place the folder in My Computer, add the following key:

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\

{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CEBFCF-ABCD1DE12345}

The folder cannot now be removed or renamed without reversing the above steps.

Hide The Username On The Start Menu - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

Use this hack to hide the Username that is usually displayed in the XP start menu—not the Classic Start Menu, where the username is not displayed.

Navigate to:
HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
And to:
HLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Change the DWORD Value NoUserNameInStartMenu to 1 to hide the username display. The default is 0.

Change Registered Owner And Organisation Name - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

If you’ve accepted the default owner name (computer name) in office, say, or if you’ve entered the wrong information during installation—or if you just want to change it to something funny!— you can use this hack to change the details.

Navigate to:
HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\
CurrentVersion

Modify the String Values RegisteredOwner and RegisteredOrganization as required. Put in the new values without the quotes.

Make DLLs Display Their Icons - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

By default, Windows Explorer displays a generic icon for all DLL files. Some poor DLLs actually offer their own icons. So if you'd like to know at a glance which ones have icons, you'll need to go through the following procedure. Remember that this tweak will cause the first icon contained in a DLL to be displayed in Windows Explorer.

Navigate to:
HCR\dllfile\DefaultIcon

Back up the key you are about to modify: highlight "(Default)" in the right frame and select Export Registry File... . Save the file to the location of your choice, so if you don't like the results of this tweak, double-click the exported file to undo the changes you are about to make.

Then, right click "(Default)" and choose Modify. Replace all the information contained in the Value data: field with %1. Now reboot and launch Windows Explorer. Look at the file called Shell.dll in C:\Windows\System and note that it - and many other DLLs - now display an icon of their own!

Increase Balloon Tip Notify Time - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

Frankly, a silly hack - just for fun! This one will, of course, increase the time for which balloon tips will be displayed.

Navigate to:
HCR\Software\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify

Create or modify the DWORD called BalloonTip to reflect a value of 0000000a. You might need to restart for the change to take effect.

Add Copy to / Move to To The Right-Click - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

An extremely useful hack, which adds "Copy to folder" and "Move to folder" to the right-click menu of every file and folder. When you select, say, "Copy to folder," you'll get an Explorer-style menu where you can navigate and choose the destination folder.

Navigate to:

HCR\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\

ContextMenuHandlers

Create a new key here called "Copy To". Change the "(default)" value to

{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Then, in the same key (HCR \AllFilesystemObjects \shellex \ContextMenuHandlers), create a new key called "Move To". Change its "(default)" value to

{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

The change will be effective immediately.

Remove Items From The System Tray - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

We can't think of a really good use for this one, and it's just for fun that we're including it here. We all use the System Tray in the Taskbar, but you can get prevent any items from appearing there - except the time, if you've set the clock to appear in the System Tray! So once you apply this hack, the System Tray will be blank except for the time.

Navigate to:
HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

And to:
HLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows
\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create a DWORD Value in both locations called NoTrayItemsDisplay. Set it to 1 to make items in the System Tray vanish. Come to think of it, this is a cool prank hack! Just log out and back on for the change to take effect.

Remove "File" From Explorer - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

Ever used the File menu in a Windows Explorer window? We're guessing not. In fact, did you even know it was there? It's useless. But equally useless is this hack, which removes the menu.

Navigate to:

HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows

\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

And to:

HLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows

\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create a DWORD Value in both locations called NoFileMenu. Set it to 1, or back to 0 if you want the File menu to reappear.

Create Your Own Tips - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

If you are getting bored of the Windows tutorial tips that appear when you log in to windows, use this hack to change and add your own tips.

Navigate to:
HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\Tips

The tips are listed in alphabetical or numerical sequence. You can either replace the string values in the existing tips, or create your own tips, or increment the existing letters or numbers and enter a string value with your own tip. For example, if the last tip is designated “Y”, the next tip could be “Z” with your String Value text.

You can use any message in the String Value; it needn’t be a tip! For example, try “Don’t forget to call home!” as a tip and see how it appears when you next log in.