Windows Tweaks II

Windows registry tweaks II

In this tutorial I am going to be showing you some more registry tweaks and as always Make backups of your registry listed below is how to do it for each version of windows

Windows 98 Click on Start Run then type Scan reg in the dialog box that comes up and press Enter. When a window tells you that there are no errors, click on yes to back up the registry, and then click on ok. To restore the registry, click on start shutdown then click on restart in MS-DOS mode, and select OK.
At the C:\WINDOWS> prompt, type Scan reg /restore (there is a space before the slash) and press Enter. Select a backup from the list and press Enter again.

Windows 2000 You use Regedit's Export feature to do this click on start then run and type regedit in the dialog box that comes up and at the top click on Registry then select export registry file a new window will come up and you will have to put in a name for the back up I would name it "Registry Backup" then click on the save button and at the top click on the yellow folder that has a arrow pointing up to change where you want to save the backup file I recommend making two copies one on the hard drive and one on a floppy or Cdr/Cdrw CD (if your computer has a rewriteable drive)

Windows Me and XP Click on Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore to bring up the System Restore Wizard. To back up the Registry, choose create a restore point
To restore the Registry, follow the steps above and select restore my computer to an earlier time

Change the start button text

This is something I do when I either buy a new computer or do a clean install I hate to have to click on start just to shut down to begin you will have to download a Hex editor to do this tweak I have included links to some free hex editors

These Hex editors work with Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
http://www.technologismiki.com/en/
http://www.hhdsoftware.com/hexeditor.html

The file we are looking for is called Explorer.exe
In windows 95,98,Me and Xp it is located in C:\windows
For windows 2000 and NT it is located in C:\WINNT
Before modifying it make a backup of the file and create a new folder to put it in and name it Explorer backup and put it on your desktop or in a place that will be easy for you to find

Make a copy of explorer.exe and rename it explorer1.exe and then open it up in your hex editor
Next look for the word START there are a lot of entries for START so use the search function on the hex editor to find all strings that are equal to S T A R T the hex number is 53 00 74 00 61 00 72 00 74 you want to keep searching until you find one that is before the following text “There was an internal error and one of the windows you were using has been closed”

These following offsets should help you find it in the version of windows that you are currently using

Windows 98
Offset: 0x00028D6E - 0x00028D76
Windows NT4
Offset: 0x00028BEE - 0x00028BF6
Windows ME
Offset: 0x00033DDE - 0x00033DE6
Windows 2000
Offset: 0x0003860E - 0x00038616
Windows XP (Enhanced Start Menu)
Offset: 0x000412B6 - 0x000412BE
Windows XP (Classic Start Menu)
Offset: 0x0004158A - 0x00041592
Windows XP SP1 (Enhanced Start Menu)
Offset: 0x0004208E - 0x00042096
Windows XP SP1 (Classic Start Menu)
Offset: 0x0004259A - 0x000425A2

As soon as you find the right string, you can begin changing the letters in "Start" with five other characters. You should use five characters or less to save on task bar space, if the word you are using is less then five, replace the remaining characters with the space key
Save the modified file "Explorer1.exe" in the Windows directory, and check to see that you have two Explorer files in the Windows directory, they should be both be the same file size but show different modified dates.

***only do the one for your version of windows***

Windows 95, 98 & ME
Start up in DOS at the command prompt go to the Windows directory and rename "explorer.exe" to "explorer.old". Then copy the new Explorer file "explorer1.exe" to "explorer.exe". Next do a directory listing and make sure that "explorer.exe" has the most recent modified date and time. Restart your computer and Windows should reload along with the new Start button text that you have changed it to.

Windows NT
Close any open programs that you have open if any and bring up the Command Prompt window and then switch back to the GUI (graphic user interface) and open the Task Manager. Find the "explorer.exe" process and end it, the only thing that should be open is the command prompt and the task manager. Switch back to the command prompt and go to the Windows directory and rename "explorer.exe" to "explorer.old", and copy the modified Explorer file "explorer1.exe" to "explorer.exe". Then do a directory listing and check that "explorer.exe" has the most recent modified date and time. Go back to the Task Manager and launch a "New Task" called "explorer.exe" this should reload the shell along with your modified "Start" button.

Windows 2000 and XP
Open up regedit and expand the trees to find the following key(s) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon Search for the value named "Shell" and change it to the filename of the new explorer "explorer1.exe". Close regedit and reboot Windows for the change to take effect. To undo the changes modify the value of "Shell" and set it back to "explorer.exe".

Change logon wall paper
Open up regedit and expand the trees to find the following key(s)
Hkey_users\default\control panel\desktop
the value we want to change is Wallpaper
change this path to where the file you want to use is example C:\windows\Dead.bmp or what ever your file name will be.
Close regedit and reboot your computer and your logon wall paper has been changed.

Change the command prompt
Example: C:\documents and settings\user>
open up regedit and expand the trees to find the following key(s)
Hkey_Local_machine\system\currentControlSet\control\sessionmanager\enviroment
Create a Reg_expand_sz string and name it prompt in the dialog box that comes up listed below are some codes and variables that you can use to customize the prompt

Special Codes
$A - & (Ampersand)
$B - | (pipe)
$C - ( (Left parenthesis)
$D - Current date
$E - Escape code (ASCII code 27)
$F - ) (Right parenthesis)
$G - > (greater-than sign)
$H - Backspace (erases previous character)
$L - < (less-than sign)
$N - Current drive
$P - Current drive and path
$Q - = (equal sign)
$S - (space)
$T - Current time
$V - Windows XP version number
$_ - Carriage return and linefeed
$$ - $ (dollar sign)

Variables
%USERNAME% - Current Username %COMPUTERNAME% - Local computer name %USERDOMAIN% - Local domain name
The default prompt is "$P$G"
example
[%computername%]$S$P$G shows the computer, drive and path [%username%]$S$P$G shows the current user, drive and path
You will have to Restart or log-off Windows for the changes to take effect.

Change the Command Prompt Colors (Windows NT/2000/XP)
open up regedit and expand the trees to find the following key(s)
HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\command Processor

Double click on Default color and in the dialog box that comes up type in two hex color values
Hexadecimal value Colors
0 Black
1 Blue
2 Green
3 Aqua
4 Red
5 Purple
6 Yellow
7 White
8 Gray
9 Light Blue
A Light Green
B Light Aqua
C Light Red
D Light Purple
E Light Yellow
F Bright White

A value of F0, for example, would give black text on a white background, and 1E will give show yellow text on a blue background.
The change should take effect the next time you open a console window

Uninstall some of Windows programs in Windows 2000/XP

Windows hides some of these programs from being listed in the add remove list from it’s users for the simple reason they don’t want you to mess with them This tweak will allow you to see these items and have the option to uninstall them if desired. The
first thing you need to do is
Open the SYSOC.INF file this file is located in your windows folder the quick way of doing this is to click on start, search then all files and folders then click on more advanced options and check the following boxes Search system folders, Search hidden files and folders and Search sub folders and the long way if you want to look at other things while you are in the folder. (It is safe to look but when you start modifing the wrong files you can really screw your computer up so use caution when editing any file in you windows folder).
Example. C:\Windows\INF you may have to click on show the contents of this folder if you have the files hidden next thing you will have to do is click on tools then click folder options then click on the view tab and where it says Hidden files and folders click on show hidden files and folders click on apply and close the window the highlight any folder or icon and press the letter I and it will go through all folders that start with the letter I if you do not see it near the top of your screen and do the same for the Sysoc.inf file
once you have found the file double click on it and Notepad will open up and you will see something like this

[Version]
Signature = "$Windows NT$"
DriverVer=07/01/2001,5.1.2600.1106

[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,hide,7

To change it so wordpad or other listed programs are shown remove the "hide" text, leaving the surrounding commas. For example you would change the WordPad entry from:
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7
To:
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,,7

These are the main hidden Windows components in Windows XP

Accessibility Wizard
AccessOpt=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,optional.inf,HIDE,7

Automatic Windows Update
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7

COM+
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7

Communications components (including Chat, Hyperterminal, and Phone Dialer)
CommApps=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,communic.inf,HIDE,7

Distributed Transaction Coordinator
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7

Windows Messenger
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

WordPad
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7

Multimedia components (including Media Player, Volume Control, and Sound Recorder)
MultiM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,multimed.inf,HIDE,7

Pinball game
Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7

Tablet PC
TabletPC=tabletoc.dll,TabletSetupProc,Tabletpc.inf,HIDE,7

Terminal Server
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2

Windows Management Instrumentation
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7

To save the changes click on file then save and reopen the Add/Remove programs window in the control panel .

Show Detailed Information in Device Manager (Windows 2000/XP)
This is useful when you want to have more information on devices that are not displayed in Device Manager
to start out open up regedit and expand the trees to find the following key(s)
HKEY_Local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\session manager\environment
then Create a new String value "DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS"
0(zero) is the default setting and 1 will show detailed information
close regedit and you may have to either log out or reboot the computer for the changes

Change the Alignment of Drop-Down Menus
this will change the alignment of the drop down menus by default they are to the left but with this tweak you can make them align to the right
Open up regedit and expand the trees to find the following key(s)
Hkey_current_user\control panel\desktop
and create a new string and name it 'MenuDropAlignment'
and to have it go to the right use '1' or use '0' for left alignment
you will have to either log off or restart your computer for the changes
Restart or logoff Windows for the changes to take effect.

Wrap Icon Titles
this will change the icon title text to either be one long line or in multiple lines
open up regedit and expand the trees to find the following key(s)
Hkey_current_user\desktop\windowmetrics
double click on Icon Title wrap and change the 1 to a 0 (zero) and then press ok and
and create a new string and type in "IconTitleWrap" in the box that comes up in regedit
0(zero) is to disable it and 1 is to enable it
Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.

Thanks for reading this