Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience
You may ask yourselves, why should this article be any different from all those tweaking tutorials around the Internet or, better yet, why should you read this when you can install a program that does it all for you?
windows -
comments -
23.10.2008 Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience VI
The moment has come once again to pimp your Windows XP with the skills of a power user and the tool that will always be at your disposal, Notepad. This article, along with the previous ones, will allow you to enhance and customize your operating system with advanced IT knowledge.
windows -
comments -
29.11.2008 Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience - Part II
Allow me to start this article by recommending you read (if you haven’t already) the first part of this “tweaking series,” as it sets the ground rules that must be followed in order to get the job done right.
windows -
comments -
24.10.2008 Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience - Part III
Welcome back to the registry optimization saga! If you’re just joining us, please start by reading at least our first episode, which describes a few rules that must be followed in order for the optimization process to take place successfully...
windows -
comments -
25.10.2008 Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience - Part V: Desktop Icons
Once again, it's time to enhance your Windows XP operating system exactly the way you want and without paying a cent on expensive programs that do something so simple that even a kid could handle it.
windows -
comments -
26.11.2008 Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience - Part IV: Display Properties
Welcome to yet another episode of our Microsoft Windows XP tweaking saga. If you're not familiar with the procedure, please start by reading the first article in the series, so as to fully understand how exactly you should use the lines below and how to run the tweaks.
windows -
comments -
12.11.2008 Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience - Part VIII: Add or Remove Programs
In part eight of the our tweaking series we’ll go through a few Control Panel optimizations for Windows XP power users that may not interest most people using their operating system for basic tasks.
windows -
comments -
26.12.2008 Microsoft tweaks IE 7 for performance
Microsoft has quietly released a patch aimed at improving the performance of Internet Explorer 7's phishing filter ahead of the company's regular patching schedule, which occurs on the Tuesday of every month.
microsoft -
comments -
8.2.2007 Three Really Cool Vista Visual Tweaks
Andreas Verhoeven has released three really great Windows Vista tweaking applications, designed to improve some of the visual decisions Microsoft made in Vista without much effort on your part.
download -
comments -
4.9.2007 Windows 7 to get parallel-processing tweaks
Microsoft has shared bits and pieces of how it is adding new features to its development tools to better support parallel processing.
windows -
comments -
30.9.2008 Wise Registry Cleaner 1.9
Wise Registry Cleaner is one of the safest Registry cleaning tools available in the market today.
download -
comments -
8.4.2007 Two Vista Registry Hacks
Thanks to rzalonis for this post in our forum. Here are two easy registry hacks for minor performance gains.
windows -
comments -
17.4.2007 Wise Registry Cleaner 2.9.4
Wise Registry Cleaner is one of the safest Registry cleaning tools available in the market today.
download -
comments -
27.10.2007 Gartner: Vista antitrust tweaks to take years
Antitrust related changes to security in Windows Vista 64-bit will take years to complete and will cause compatibility trouble in the interim, according to Gartner.
windows -
comments -
23.10.2006 Microsoft tweaks the Live side of the house
On July 1, Microsoft’s new fiscal year started with a new slate of Live executives — or at least a bunch of existing execs with new titles and responsibilities.
microsoft -
comments -
8.7.2007 10 top Vista tweaks part 2
As I noted in the first installment of this series, some of my favorite productivity-enhancing techniques don’t involve custom code or registry edits.
windows -
comments -
18.6.2008 Auslogics Registry Defrag 4.1.6.75
Auslogics Registry Defrag is an extremely useful program to keep your registry as compact as possible. As a result of keeping the registry defragmented and as small as possible, your computer performance will be much improved.
download -
comments -
18.1.2008 10 expert tips and tweaks for Windows Vista RC2
Click on the links for the full tweak
windows -
comments -
30.10.2006 12 Tweaks - Squeeze Every Last Drop of Performance Out of Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a resource hog. Microsoft’s latest operating system will swallow every last bit of hardware resources you throw at it in the race for a top user experience, a concept synonymous with high performance.
windows -
comments -
15.9.2007 No More Registry from Vista SP1 and XP SP3 to Windows 7?
Windows 7 is the next iteration of the Windows operating system that will succeed Windows Vista. Following the availability of the latest Windows Client, Windows Vienna was the codename for the next version of Windows.
windows -
comments -
16.1.2008 Symantec tool cleans up Windows XP SP3 registry corruption
Symantec Thursday released a free tool that wipes spurious entries from Windows' registry that had crippled some PCs running the company's security software after they were upgraded to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) or Vista SP1.
windows -
comments -
9.6.2008 Windows Registry Editor, Task Manager and Folder Options Disabled by New Infection
January 2008 comes with a new trend when talking about computer security because lots of worms, Trojan horses, viruses or other pieces of malware attempt to disable important Windows functions in order to hide their files.
windows -
comments -
14.1.2008 Microsoft postpones Winhec 2008 to Fall 2008
Microsoft announced that WinHEC 208 will not be held in the spring as previous years, but in the fall (October probably) of 2008.
microsoft -
comments -
17.11.2007 Disable and Remove Half-Open TCP Connections Limit (to Unlimited) in Windows 7 and Vista SP2 with EnableConnectionRateLimitin Registry Key
Officially, the incomplete half-open outbound TCP connection attempts allowed at any one time is now unlimited by default in Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP2 (Service Pack 2), and Windows 7. Actually, the ability to limit or restrict number of half-open outgoing TCP connections system can create or establish is built into Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7, however it’s disabled by default.
windows -
comments -
8.6.2009 The Growth of the Windows Registry from 16-bit Windows to XP SP3 and Vista SP1
The Windows registry has been around since the 16-bit editions of Windows, and will continue to be a key component of the operating system even after Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Widows XP Service Pack 3, and even after Windows 7.
common -
comments -
18.1.2008 Retrieve CD Key/Product Key From Windows Registry with Product Key Finder
You must keep CD Key/Product key of any software or application at handy place since you may not know when you will need that key again.
download -
comments -
9.7.2009 The Best Antivirus in 2008
A new year... A new beginning... And the inevitable security solution smackdown. In this context, AV-Test has thrown together in the same arena no less than 24 antivirus products from the heavyweights of the security market.
common -
comments -
29.1.2008 Windows Server 2008: Need to Know
After many months of waiting, Microsoft finally released the Beta 3 version of Windows Server 2008 (previously codenamed "Longhorn"), a major milestone pre-release version of the next version of Windows Server.
windows -
comments -
31.7.2007 What to expect from Microsoft in 2008
The famous Bink.nu "expect list" is back! Just as previous years, I made a list of what releases we can expect from Microsoft. 2005 and 2006 turned out to be pretty accurate, the only things wrong weren't my mistakes but delays or change of plans.
microsoft -
comments -
20.12.2007 Pristy Utils 2008 1.0.7
This suite of applications will help you manage your computer and will improve its performance for Windows XP/Vista.
download -
comments -
21.2.2008Shipping Seven: The Registry
Could the registry be replaced? Sure, in software, pretty much any change is possible.
In practice though...If you were to
replace the registry, you would end up with something that pretty much looks exactly like the registry.
Go take a look at all the
programs on your hard disk that use the registry APIs in
in advapi32.dll...
winbeta.org - 16.01.2008
Windows registry forensics guide: Investigating hacker activities
When analysing a compromised Windows system, investigators and system administrators can glean enormously useful information about attackers' actions
by looking through the Windows registry, a hierarchical database storing tens of thousands of settings on a modern Windows box. Whether an outside
attacker compromised the box, an inside employee engaged in nefarious activities, or malware inexplicably infected the machine, the Windows registry
contains wonderful gems of information for investigators. In this tip, we'll look at what information investigators can gather about user activity
via the registry. Next month, we'll focus on how investigators can pull useful registry information associated with the overall operating system.
winbeta.org - 06.06.2008
10 top Vista tweaks, part 2
Ed Bott: As I noted in the first installment of this series, some of my favorite productivity-enhancing techniques dont involve custom code or
registry edits. Instead, they involve learning how the basic building blocks of Windows work, and then rearranging those components to cut steps out
of the tasks you perform most often.
In todays installment of this two-part series, I share some of my favorite tweaks for
getting maximum mileage out of Windows Search. I also explain the inner workings of volume shadow copies and how you can make better use of these
automatic backups with System Restore and the Previous Versions feature. I show how to get quick access to your local and network data files by
combining shortcuts in a single, easy-to-reach location, and I explain why hybrid sleep should be the default on every desktop PC.
winbeta.org - 18.06.2008
VeriSign Raises .com, .net Registry Fees
VeriSign said late Thursday
that it would raise the
registry fees on both .com and
.net domains October 15 by as
much as 10 percent. The
increase is the first in eight
years, the company says...
betanews.com - 06.04.2007
How to uninstall VS 2008 Beta 2 before installing the final version of VS 2008
Buck Hodges: There have been a few questions about how to correctly uninstall all of VS 2008 Beta 2 in order to install the final version of VS 2008.
Scott Guthrie posted the steps for doing this earlier today. A subset of this list
would apply if you have installed Team Foundation Team Explorer 2008 Beta 2, rather than the full VS 2008 with Team Explorer.
At
the end he recommends rebooting after removing everything and before installing VS 2008. From my experience, that's good advice. The only thing
additionally I've typically done after uninstalling a non-RTM build is to delete the VS 9.0 registry hives (HKLM and HKCU) and the VS 9.0 directory
under "Program Files." Of course, there are no guarantees with this, editing the registry may render your machine nonfunctional, etc., so be
careful and back up your data.
winbeta.org - 21.11.2007
AutoPatcher December 2006
AutoPatcher is a comprehensive
collection of patches, addons
and registry tweaks that give
you peace of mind in the
knowledge that your Windows
system is up to date, even
before you connect it to the
Internet. It's designed to
quickly patch a system with
the most current updates and
tweaks available, and requires
no user interaction once you
have selected what to
install.
December
2006 releases available:
neowin.net - 22.12.2006
How to change Registry Permissions with RegIni.exe (VBScript)
Alejandro Magencio: Today I'll show how we can set the following permissions on a registry key with
RegIni.exe and a VBScript :
- Creator Owner Full Control
- Users Full Control
- Power
Users Full Control
- Administrators Full Control
- System Full Control
I will set the permissions here for testing
purposes:
winbeta.org - 11.03.2008
New WMV PowerToy & registry key documentation
The birth of the VC-1 Encoder SDKs will reduce the need for these over the next few months, but Alex has updated his WMV PowerToy and also revised our
documentation about the registry key options.
Here's the new PowerToy. It mainly removes a few options that we determined weren't in the Format SDK 11 implementation, particularly
adaptive chroma search and default adaptive deadzone.
And here's the new, hopefully final registry key documentation,
reflecting the above and other useful tidbits we've learned.
winbeta.org - 09.09.2007
Adobe Acknowledges Flaw in PDF for Windows, Urges Registry Hacks
Confirming a statement made by Petko D. Petkov on his GNUcitizen.org blog over two weeks ago, Adobe has released a security advisory warning of a
potential exploitable flaw in its Acrobat and Adobe Reader software. Adobe's suggested system registry fix suggests a maliciously crafted PDF can be
made to send e-mail undetected...
betanews.com - 09.10.2007
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner 1.25 Final
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
is a free registry repair
software that allows you to
safely clean and repair
registry problems with a few
simple mouse clicks. Problems
with the Windows Registry are
a common cause of Windows
crashes and error messages.
Registry problems can occur
for many reasons, including
references left behind after
uninstall; incorrect removal
of software; missing or
corrupt hardware drivers; or
orphaned start-up programs.
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
will scans your Windows
registry for invalid or
obsolete information and
provide a list of the errors
found. After fixing the
invalid entries, your system
will be more stable and run
faster. For maximum safety,
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
will make a backup of the
repaired entries. You will be
able to restore any changes
made using the software by
choosing Restore registry
backup. It is strongly
recommended to back up your
data before using
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
!
Changelog:
* Add checking for
update.
* Show the
problem count after scanning
every item.
* Change
donation agent.
neowin.net - 25.12.2006
AutoPatcher October 2006
AutoPatcher is a comprehensive
collection of patches, addons
and registry tweaks that give
you peace of mind in the
knowledge that your Windows
system is up to date, even
before you connect it to the
Internet. It's designed to
quickly patch a system with
the most current updates and
tweaks available, and requires
no user interaction once you
have selected what to
install.
October
2006 releases available:
neowin.net - 18.10.2006
Fix Windows Vista Help and Support
If you have been getting the dreaded "Internet Explorer cannot download / from help" error message when attempting to open Help and Support in
Windows Vista, try this fix. It re-associates the .xml file type with its default settings. Once you've merged this into the registry, re-launch Help
and Support and it should work.
You can download the fix here.
winbeta.org - 02.01.2008
DirecTV to pay $5.3M penalty
[b]Officials announced a $5.34
million settlement Tuesday
with satellite TV provider
DirecTV over alleged
violations of the Do Not Call
rule, the largest civil
penalty ever obtained by the
Federal Trade Commission in a
consumer protection
enforcement
case.[/b]
The
FTC's action "demonstrates
that the registry is a program
consumers can continue to
believe in," said FTC
Chairwoman Deborah Platt
Majoras at a press conference
held Tuesday morning.
"Sellers are on the hook for
calls placed on their behalf
and for their benefit," she
added. "It is not named the
Do Not Call Registry for
nothing."..
winbeta.org - 14.12.2005
Crudebox to Prudebox: from App Store lose to App Store win
Alkali Media have found that a few software tweaks and a name change are all that are needed to get their software, initially rejected as
"objectionable" to accepted as perfectly "acceptable". The software produces sounds that some might find objectionable. But, when the company
re-submitted their App, it became clear to them what a difference a name can make, along with a few design tweaks (including "a pink bunny and a
fleeting sunset")!
Read
full story.....
neowin.net - 28.04.2009
Windows XP Service Pack 3 RC2 via Windows Update (Public Availability Program)
Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 is available to the public. Specific registry settings will allow you to be offered SP3 via Windows
Update.
Download the script and run it on a machine currently running Windows XP Service Pack 2. The script sets a registry key
on your system. The registry key is required for Windows Update to recognize your machine as a valid target for Windows XP Service Pack 3 RC2.
Versions of Windows XP Service Pack 3 prior to Release Candidate 2 should be removed before attempting to use the registry key.
Windows Update will not offer Release Candidate 2 to machines with previous versions of the Windows XP Service Pack 3 beta.
It is
recommended that you apply the resulting update package to an activated, genuine copy of Windows XP, in a test environment. As with any pre-release
software, it is also recommended that you back up files and settings on your machine before applying this update package.
winbeta.org - 20.02.2008
Symantec tool cleans up Windows XP SP3 registry corruption
Symantec Thursday released a free tool that wipes spurious entries from Windows' registry that had crippled some PCs running the company's
security software after they were upgraded to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) or Vista SP1. The tool, SymRegFix, had been promised by Symantec two
weeks ago when users reported that upgrading to XP SP3 emptied Windows' Device Manager, deleted network connections and packed the registry with
thousands of bogus entries.
Symantec initially blamed Microsoft for the snafu, but later accepted some responsibility. Last week, the
company said the combination of a Microsoft process and the SymProtect feature of its Norton-branded consumer security software had added the errant
registry entries, and it told users to turn off that feature before upgrading. Symantec's SymRegFix clean-up tool can be downloaded from the company's site.
neowin.net - 09.06.2008
TweakVI v1.0 build 1014 for Windows Vista released
Optimize and tweak Windows
Vista with TweakVI v1.0
('Basic' edition is
freeware)
Totalidea Software has
released TweakVI, an
application that adds up to 26
time-saving productivity
improvements to Windows Vista.
In addition to tuning Windows
Vista to run faster,
TweakVI's easy-to-use
functions let you tailor the
Windows interface to meet your
personal needs. A registry
cleaner cleans up your systems
registry, and the option to
create a 256MB RAM drive
grants the fastest access to
files and folders.
TweakVI v1.0 gives you
instant access to hidden
Windows XP settings, including
ones that are hard to change.
You can make the Windows Vista
fade in and out, tweak lots of
desktop settings, customize
the Start menu, and enable
several hidden performance
options. With the Ultimate
version of TweakVI an
auto-system-optimizing feature
has been included to optimize
Microsoft's new Operating
system with a click of the
mouse only.
For the
new Windows Vista 'User
Account Control' (UAC)
TweakVI v1.0 includes several
tweaks options to configre
this Vista security feature.
TweakVI v1.0 also manages
Windows Vista system updates:
it detects available updates,
installs them and removes
backups of installed updates
for more hard drive space.
TweakVI v1.0 lets you
lock applications so others
cannot run them. Whether you
want to keep your children
from accidentally destroying
your business files, or you
have colleagues or employees
who shouldn't be using
certain programs on your
computer, Tweak-VI v1.0 locks
people out of a master list of
applications that you can
easily maintain. In addition
to locking applications,
TweakVI v1.0 also lets you
hide and lock folders so they
cannot be accessed by other
people or programs.
TweakVI v1.0 gives you
control over what programs are
launched when you start your
computer. In addition to
letting you easily manage the
programs in your Start menu,
the program also gives you
access to programs that are
launched because of obscure
entries in the Windows Vista
Registry. TweakVI v1.0 lets
you remove those annoying
programs that you've never
wanted running in the
background. With a single
mouse click, you can optimize
the physical memory in your
computer. Each program that
you run uses computer memory.
When you close a program,
often it leaves code fragments
in memory and, over time, your
Windows session runs slower
and slower. TweakVI v1.0 lets
you clean out these leftovers
so your system will run more
quickly and efficiently. For
more system performance,
TweakVI v1.0 allows to set up
multiple pagefiles and virtual
drives.
TweakVI
v1.0 optimizes your Internet
connection speed. Its built-in
table of the most popular
Internet Service
Providers' configurations
contains information that lets
you increase throughput,
whether you're using a
dial-up connection or a faster
broadband connection.
Additionally TweakVI includes
a huge list of tweaks and
restrictions for Microsoft
Internet Explorer 7, as well
as an auto optimization
feature for Firefox v1 and
v2.
TweakVI v1.0
currently comes with an
English interface; more
languages will be supported
soon. The program lets you
tweak the new Windows Vista
Sidebar, restrict access to
the taskbar, sidebar and
several other Windows Vista
feactures, rename multiple
files with a single mouse
click, generate truly random
passwords as well as
pronounceable passwords,
destroy sensitive files
without leaving a trace, find
and remove unnecessary files
from your hard drive, and
perform many other tweaks and
optimizations.
TweakVI v1.0 includes a
Windows Vista auto-logon
feature, Outlook 2002, 2003
and 2007 security tweaks, and
a number of Windows Vista
performance and user interface
tweaks. Additionally it comes
with a DiscDrive Doctor, and
lots of other useful features
for the user's daily work
with Windows Vista.
TweakVI v1.0 is available in
three different editions: the
free 'Basic
Edition' , which
contains all the basic
tweaking features for standard
system tweaking, the
'Premium Edition',
which gives you access to much
more tweaking and system
optimization features, and the
'Ultimate Edition',
for complete control on
Windows Vista, with all
plugins currently available
for TweakVI. The TweakVI
'Basic' Edition is
available without charge, the
'Premium' Edition
costs US$ 29.95, and the
'Ultimate' Edition
costs US$ 39.95.
Download: TweakVI
v1.0 build 1014
View:
Screenshot
View: Changelog/Hi
story
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 20.11.2006
Rumors: Microsoft to buy
Softricity
There are persistant rumors
all over the web since
yesterday, which say that
Microsoft would fear VMWare's
June products releases. To
compete with them, according
to those rumors, Microsoft is
in talks with Softricity, a
virtualization specialized
company, about buying
possibilities.
A source close to Microsoft
gave its comments about the
story: "It's coming down to
the final stretches,", but
also notes that it's not a
done deal yet, and that things
could still change.
If the rumor says
right, the deal would be
accomplished before the end of
the WinHEC 2006 (Windows
Hardware Engineers Conference)
event, which kicks in next
week.
The point
of buying Softricity is pretty
clear: Giving its Windows
Virtual Server products an
advantage over competing
companies' virtualization
products, along with adding
yet another feature to its
next flagship Operating System
Windows Vista, this feature
would allow application
developers to create a virtual
registry unique to their
application instead of using
the main system registry, and
to avoid DLL conflicts. These
new features in Windows Vista
would be another move in order
to get away from the
getting-old system registry
concept, a tendency that began
with the release of the
Microsoft .NET development
platform...
jcxp.net - 20.05.2006
Microsoft's XP SP3 Patch Fixes Anti-Virus Glitch
Microsoft issued a hotfix for Windows XP Service Pack 3 last week that it says "could resolve" a Windows registry corruption problem associated with
third-party security software. The problem was first discovered just over a month ago, and it notably affected users of Symantec's Norton Antivirus suite of products.
Some users who
installed XP SP3 reported seeing garbled system entries that cluttered the Windows registry. The corruption in the registry led to problems such as
lost Internet and wireless connections, along with uninitiated restarts caused by sporadic registry subkeys.
Microsoft provided an
explanation for the problem in a Knowledgebase posting on Friday. The
issue "occurs when the Fixccs.exe process is called during the Windows XP SP3 installation," the KB article explains. "This process creates some
intermediate registry subkeys, and it later deletes these subkeys. In some cases, some antivirus applications may not let the Fixccs.exe process
delete these intermediate registry subkeys." When the problem occurs, "certain applications" within Windows, such as "Device Manager and Network
Connections" may be unable to function, Redmond added.
neowin.net - 02.07.2008
The ultimate tweaker's guide to Windows
But just because the operating system doesn't look and work the way you want doesn't mean that you're stuck with it as is. Windows is extremely
tweakable; if you dig a little, you'll find that you can customize it in almost any way you want.
To help you out, we've put
together this guide to tweaking Windows. It covers both XP and Vista and lets you do all kinds of things you might have thought were impossible --
replacing your boot screen, hacking the Control Panel, speeding up Windows Flip 3D and more. Look for the XP logo and Vista logo icons to see which
tips work in which OS.
The hacks vary in the expertise you'll need. In some cases you'll get down and dirty with the Registry,
so if you're not certain you know how to make a DWORD value, for example, read our story "The tweaker's guide to the
Windows Registry" first. (Be sure to read the instructions for backing up the
Registry before you attempt any Registry edits whatsoever.)
In other cases, you'll just have to dig into hidden corners of
menus and folders. But in all cases, you'll tell Windows exactly how you want it to behave ... and it will bow down to you, the master.
winbeta.org - 18.10.2007
