Registry hacks have been something I have come to enjoy messing with, they can help to improve your computer's system performance or change features that you want or don't want and there are hundreds of them and can be found easily on the net.
So why am I giving you a top 5 when they're so readily available to us on the internet?
Well first of all its a great refresher for all of those who like registry hacks, and it helps me keep refreshed with them as well.
The second reason is because I want to share the I knowledge I have picked up along the way to help others who are interested and learning how computers work.
So this top 5 will be a mixture of fun hacks and useful hacks that I have enjoyed using on my own system.
!!!Don't forget to 'Create a Restore point' just in case any of these go wrong!!!
Adding 'Open with Notepad' to your right-click context menu, this registry edit proves useful because when ever you need to open an unknown file it forces you to hunt for the right program to open it but having the option to use notepad is great because notepad can open pretty much anything. This hack is also useful to add any other program you may want to use to the context menu just change the program 'example.exe' from notepad to any other 'example.exe' program.
Here's how to do it;
Open regedit.exe by pressing the start button and typing regedit into the search bar and press enter. This will open a window like this
Navigate to the following key location: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell. Once in the shell key folder, right-click it and create a new key and name it 'Open With Notepad'. Then on the 'Open With Notepad' folder right-click and create another new key and name it 'Command'.
In the box on the right double click on (Default) and type - notepad.exe %1(like I said before this is where you can insert any program you want instead of notepad). This change should take effect straight away. To test it right click a file and see the option 'Open With Notepad' in the context menu.
Ever had that issue when your about to turn of your PC before going out or going to bed and you see that little shield with the exclamation mark? Well that for the unacquainted is the irritating hijack of the windows update telling you that updates need to be installed before your computer shuts down. Now we all know we need to keep our computers up-to-date because they are important. But it always seems to happen at the most inappropriate times so what can we do to stop this happening? We create a registry key that stops the shutdown from being hijacked completely allowing you to manually restart the PC when you want to install the updates at a more convenient time.
Note: This works for Windows Vista and Windows 7
Here's how to do it;
Open regedit.exe by pressing the start button and typing regedit into the search bar and press enter.
Then navigate to this key location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
If the \WindowsUpdate\AU part doesn't exist just create them the same way you created the keys in the previous registry hack. Once that's done in the right hand box right-click and create a 32-bit DWORD and name it; 'NoAUAsDefaultShutdownOption', and give the value of 1. Again this should happen straight away.
This registry edit is purely for fun and takes a little doing but the pay off is worth it.
When you get to your login screen or need to access the task manager to kill a task or look at your processes and press the hotkey combination Ctrl+Alt+Delete yes? Well have you ever thought that the background image is a little boring and said to your self “I wish I could change the background of this screen like I can change the desktop background”. Well you can and you can use any image you want as long as it is less than 256KB.
There's two parts to this hack and here's how to do it;
Open regedit.exe by pressing the start button and typing regedit into the search bar and press enter.
Navigate to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
Part 1: On the right you should see 'OEMBackground', if you don't see it right-click in the right box and create a 32-bit DWORD and name it 'OEMBackground'. Double-click on the value you just created and change the value to 1 from 0, then click OK and your done here. Next, part 2.
Part 2: Now navigate to your C: drive through start>computer>Local Disk (C:) from here navigate C:\windows\system32\oobe. Inside here create a new folder and name it 'info' then open that folder and create another folder and name that 'backgrounds'.
Then just copy the picture you want to use – which has to be a JPEG format – and right-click and rename the picture to 'backgroundDefault.jpg'. Then restart your PC, the next time you get to your login screen it should have changed.
This Registry edit if for all you security conscious people, like me I like to protect some files to keep them safe. Of course I back them up but I also don't want people to alter or change what I've done so I encrypt the file with a layer of security protection. What I will show you is how to add the Encrypt/Decrypt option to the context menu for easier access.
Here's
how you do it;
Open regedit.exe by pressing the start button and typing regedit into the search bar and press enter.
Navigate to the key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
When you get to the key location then just right-click and add a new value and call it 'EncryptionContextMenu', then double click and set the value from 0 to 1.
Right-click on a file you want to encrypt and click Encrypt.
You will then see a window like this choose the default option.
There you go simple.
This one is purely for convenience, and entirely up to you if you want to add it of not. Control panel is well used by computer nerds to the point that if the icon was an actual button you could press, it would need replacing. So here's how you add it to the right-click desktop context menu.
Here's how you do it;
(This is the last time I use the same sentence honestly)
Open regedit.exe by pressing the start button and typing regedit into the search bar and press enter.
Navigate to the key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell
Right-click on the shell folder, select New>Key and title it with 'Control Panel'. The right-click on the folder you just created and select New>Key and title it with 'Command'.
Select the Command key, then right click on it's value called '(Default)' and click modify. In the window that appears input this; rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL into the value data field then click OK and close the registry and return to the desktop.
To test that it worked just right-click on the desktop and there you have it.
I hope these have been useful, fun and informative. There are literally thousands of these hacks that you can mess with, make sure you backup your Registry before you make any changes just in case. If you unsure how to do this then check out my Backing up your Registry article.
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