Three good reasons to venture into Windows' Registry
I approach the Windows Registry the same way I approach my dentist's office. I enter both places only when necessary.
Sometimes, the fastest, most efficient way to make your PC more usable is to venture into the belly of the Windows beast via the Registry Editor. Before you make any Registry changes, create a backup by setting a restore point via System Restore.
Put the brakes on stalled apps
Programs crash: it's a simple fact of PC life. But you don't have to wait for Windows to spin its wheels while it waits for the stuck process to come to life. You can close frozen apps in no time by changing a key value in the Registry.
With your restore point in place, click Start > Run (in XP) or just Start (in Vista), type regedit, and press Enter. Navigate to and select this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
In XP, right-click the key AutoEndTasks in the right window and select Modify (or simply double-click the key). In Vista, you may have to create this key by right-clicking in the right pane and choosing New > String Value. Type AutoEndTasks and press Enter. Then double-click the new key. In XP, change the Value data to 1. In Vista, enter a Value data of 1.
Reposition your desktop wallpaper
For years, I've decorated my PC desktops with images of fine art I download from the Web Museum. Unfortunately, the images sometimes are pushed a little too far to one side or the other, cutting off one edge and leaving an unsightly white border on the opposite.
To adjust your wallpaper's placement on the desktop, reopen and select the same Registry key as in the above tip:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
This time, double-click WallpaperOriginX in the right pane, or right-click the key and choose Modify. (If you don't see such a value listed, right-click in the right pane and select New > String Value. Type WallpaperOriginX and press Enter.)
Enter the number of pixels from the left edge you want the image to start and click OK. Now repeat the steps for the WallpaperOriginY key, but enter the number of pixels from the top edge you want the image to appear. You can enter a negative number to move the left or top edge of the image off the screen that number of pixels.
To check your wallpaper's position, right-click the desktop, choose Properties, and click OK or Apply to refresh the screen.
Block programs from appearing on the Start menu's list of frequently used apps
Many people like the way the Start menu lists the programs you access frequently. But you might prefer to keep a program you use from being displayed on the Start menu. To prevent an application from being shown along with other programs you often access, open the Registry Editor as described above, and navigate to and select this key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications
Select the key corresponding to the executable file for the program you want to keep off the menu. For example, choose the Winword.exe key if you want to exclude Microsoft Word. Right-click in the right pane, choose New > String Value, type NoStartPage, and press Enter.
Bonus tip: As I mentioned above, I keep my trips to the Registry to a minimum, but if you find yourself opening the Registry Editor on a regular basis, create a desktop shortcut that opens the utility. Just right-click the desktop, choose New > Shortcut, enter the path to the Registry Editor executable file (it's probably C:\Windows\regedit.exe), give the shortcut a name, and press Enter to create the shortcut.
Go one step further by adding a keyboard shortcut that opens the utility. To do so, right-click the shortcut you just created and choose Properties. Click in the "Shortcut key" text box under the shortcut tab, enter the key combination of your choice (Ctrl-Alt-R is one possibility), and click OK.
Dennis O'Reilly has covered PCs and other technologies in print and online since 1985. Along with more than a decade as editor for Ziff-Davis's Computer Select, Dennis edited PC World's award-winning Here's How section for more than seven years. He is a member of the CNET blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET.
1) type "regedt32" - you get more to browse through.
2) don't screw up - you can break stuff.
3) Safety tip: before you change or add anything, it's a good idea to back up that bit of registry. Select the key(s) you want to save in the left hand pane, then click File -> Export. Save it as a .reg file (so you only need to double-click it to restore it). You can also choose to back up the whole registry, or just the bit you're working on. back it up to the desktop (or better yet a USB geek stick) just in case - that way you can always reach it in case of emergencies.
4) the whole concept of a registry sucks - it is the main reason why most folks' computers slow down over time as it collects detritus, corrupts, and in general sits as a single point of failure. So be careful in there... ;)
/P
1. Scream at Microsoft to design a more stable OS. It will be just as effective in the long run as mucking with the registry, but without the short-term risks.
2. You don't have to learn photoshop to edit your images. There are a number of consumer-grade programs that you can use to adjust the image so it fits your screen res perfectly. Photoshop, of course, does it best.
3. Not a problem for me, can't help ya.
How about just making an OS that just works correctly the first time? Oh, wait. Apple already makes that.
The more software available, the more bad apps there are. However, Microsoft should make a non-changable reg entry area.
I also don't have any problems using Windows as of now.. No errors at all. Everything works as I want.
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by c|net Reader
November 20, 2008 2:23 PM PST
- The context menu for shortcuts in XP's Start menu provides a "Remove from this list" option which prevents that shortcut from appearing in the Start menu's MRU again. That would seem the more straightforward way to accomplish the task.
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