Table of content
Registry
Registry
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Annoyances
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Autorun
Switch off the annoying automatic start of programs on periphical devices when touching it with explorer.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=hex:b5,00,00,00
"CDRAutoRun"=hex:00,00,00,00
A hex value starting with 00 disables, and a value of 01 enables the Autorun feature. Only CD's that are configured with an autorun program will start, even if Autorun is enabled on your machine.
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DHCP-Fix
DHCP VULNERABILITY FIX taken from Axcel216, this is a must!!
This is an Internet security risk that affects ANY Windows 9x/2000 computer configured as a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) client, and exposes the user to different type of attacks (spoofs): web page hacks, stealing credentials/private information, altering data etc.
Further more, Microsoft acknowledged this as a potential security risk, has posted a Registry and a VBS (Visual Basic Script) workaround, but has NOT posted an official OS patch.
According to L0pht, most cable modem DHCP clients and large internal organizations are at risk.
The purpose of this article is to show you how to implement the FIX:
Run Regedit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans
Expand the "NetTrans" key -> look in the left hand pane at the 000n subkeys (where n can be any integer number from 0 up to 50) -> click on each one of them -> create a new DWORD Value -> right-click in the right hand pane -> select New -> DWORD -> name it "PerformRouterDiscovery" (no quotes) -> double-click on it -> check the Decimal box -> type 0 (zero) -> hit OK. Now repeat this under ALL your 000n keys (most likely you'd have more than one).
Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows.
Done.
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Floppy
Stop Explorer and other windows applications from scanning the floppy drive when opening.
This is caused by opening a file on a floppy disk.
Resulting in increased speed using explorer and windows. Avoid cannot read floppy error messages. Also reenables the autorun feature of cd-roms
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
NoDriveTypeAutoRun 0000 Binary Value Data: 95 00 00 00
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MyDocuments
Annoyed about continous when My Documents folder is always selected by default?
Even though specified a different Start In folder for each shortcut. There is a registry fix for this one.
REGEDIT4
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Documents
"DisableStartInMyDocs"="0"
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Privacy
How To Disable RegWiz
Click Start | Run and type in the following command:
regsvr32.exe -u c:\windows\system\regwizc.dll
This will disable the RegWiz control so that it cannot be used. If you later
need to re-enable the control, type the same command but substitute -c
for -u.
How To Remove Personal Information
If you disable RegWiz as described above, that should be all you need to
do. However, you can alternatively leave RegWiz enabled and simply
remove or change your personal information in the registry. To do this,
click Start | Run and type in RegEdit. Find the following key in the
right-hand pane and click on it:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\User Information
If you have registered this version of Windows, the information you sent to
Microsoft (name, address, telephone number) will be shown here.
Double-click any item in the right-hand pane to edit its value. According to
Microsoft, none of this data is required for Windows 98 to function, so you
should be able to change any item here to an empty string.
How To Remove or Change the MSID and HWID
Although the controversial MSID and HWID values are included in the User
Information key above, these are not the values that are managed by
RegWiz. Instead, it uses the following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\HWID
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\MSID
In case of suspect access use regmon with the keys *HWID*;*MSID* to watch what happens.
Cheat the registration with
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION
"RegDone"="1"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Welcome\RegWiz
"@"="1"
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Shutdown
This is to solve hassles with shuting down and hanging applications
REGEDIT4
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Shutdown
"FastReboot"="1"
;fast shutdown disabled, there is a lot of discussion about this mine works with enabled flawlessly
;"FastReboot"="0"
;stop hanging on shut down with unfinished tasks, this kills hanging apps
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
"AutoEndTasks"="1"
;force faster access after apps kill
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
"HungAppTimeout"="1000"
;Standard is 5000 Millisecs
"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="1000"
;Standard is 20000 Millisesecs
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control
;from default 20000msecs, there is no evidence at the moment in which of both locations (see above) this key works primary
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="1000"
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SuspendOff
You don't use suspend anyway (visible in win95 Startmenu shell only)? Here is the heck:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/enum/root/*pnp0c05/0000/
(it might be slighly different on your machine).
Now modifiy the entry APMMenuSuspend from 01 to 00, restart Windows and "suspend" is gone.
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Misc Stuff
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ContextMenus
Make a search for a single key "Shell" in the registry where all filetypes are handled. You'll see all of those entries above the first vertical bar when right clicking a file.
These are the keys for advanced submenu handlers which are almost global valid
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\SHELL\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\shell\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\ContextMenuHandlers
You need to search for their classid's through the registry to get an understanding how they operate.
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Dun
CLSID for DUN-operations
{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
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NewMenu
REGEDIT4
;reintroduces New to the Startmenu, if you really like it, if not remove it
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New]
@="{D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719}"
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OpenWith
In the Registry Editor, go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects and make a new key called shell. (Do this by right-clicking on the AllFilesystemObjects folder and choosing
New/Key from the pop-up menu.) In the shell key, make the new key openas. In the openas
key, make a key called command. Now double-click on the Default icon in the command key
and, in the Value data field, enter
C:\WINDOWS\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1
and click on OK. Close the Registry Editor. You'll now find the Open With menu item on the right click pop-up menus of most file and folder objects.
This hack is equivialent to the Ctrl+Right click command.
REGEDIT4
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shell\openas
"command"="C:\WINDOWS\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1"
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Garbage
REGEDIT4
; add undelete
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}]
@="Recycle"
REGEDIT4
;add rename
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20
REGEDIT4
;add delete
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:70,01,00,20
REGEDIT4
;restore to normal
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:40,01,00,20
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ProductID
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version
On the right you will find the product key in plain text,
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Screensaver
From ateizznuff at forums.winguides.com (regedit)
Prevent screen saver changes via the Control Panel, hide the Control Panel / Display / Screen Saver tab:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Name: NoDispScrSavPage
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
Now this is a cool trick for network administrators to prevent from all virus crap comming along with SCR-files.
However this trick doesn't prevent from hacking the INI-file directly.
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SystemHiding
To delete the menu or option beneth, drill down to:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
and create a new DWORD with the name shown on right and the appropriate dword value.
or remove the appropriate semikolon from the following regfile.
REGEDIT4
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
;Documents
;"NoRecentDocsMenu"=dword:00000001
;Favorites
;"NoFavoritesMenu"=dword:00000001
;Find
;"NoFind"=dword:00000001
;Log Off username
;"NoLogOff"=dword:00000001
;Run
;"NoRun"=dword:00000001
;Active Desktop
;"NoSetActiveDesktop"=dword:00000001
;Control Panel
;"NoSetFolders"=dword:00000001
;Folder Options
;"NoFolderOptions"dword:00000001
;Printers
;"NoSetFolders"=dword:00000001
;Taskbar and Start Menu
;"NoSetTaskbar"=dword:00000001
;Windows Update
;"NoWindowsUpdate"=dword:00000001
;Shutdown
;"NoClose"=dword:00000001
;Startupscreen
;"NoStartBanner"=dword:01000000
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Reghints
;starts upon next boot and deletes himself
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce]
@="windows-filespec"
;W95 in New-Menu
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.extension]
"Shell-New"="any registered application"
;NT dito
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.ext\ShellNew]
"Command"="windows-filespec"
;95/98 if monitor doesn't support DDC set to 0 saves about 10 seconds startup time
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Display\0001\Default]
"DDC"="1"
;95/98 long file names display
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"NameNumericTail"="0"
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Speed
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Speed L2
For some weird reason win98 is not using at full capacity the L2 cache of P2-P3 and Celeron A (Mendocino) processors.
Here is a trick that will insure the maximum use by win98 of your L2 cache:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager
On some win98 installations there are 2 SessionManager keys so you have to choose the one that contains the keys AppPatches, CheckBadApps and CheckVerDLLs.
Right click on SessionManager and create a new key called MemoryManagement then on the right key windows create a dataname DWORD SecondLevelDataCache with a hex-value of 200 if you have a P2 or P3 and with a hex-value of 80 if you have a CeleronA (Mendocino) processor. This process will insure that win98 will use the full available processor's L2 cache.
Verify L2 is enabled in bios
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Standard hints
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CleanRegistry
General
Do a thorough scandisk.
Do a thorough defrag.
Boot to dos and run
Win95
smartdrv 8192 8192
c:\windows\regedit /e c:\savereg.txt
c:\windows\regedit /c c:\savereg.txt
reboot (to turn off smartdrive, otherwise the compatibility mode would be invoked)
Even if it seems to hang, leave it and walk away, it will work.
It seems to hang around 20%, and again at about 80%, this is normal, and it will continue!
When it's done, compare the size of your old user.dat and system.dat files (in root C to the new ones in the C:\windows dir. Remember that this is pure text, and a 2k difference is a lot of data.
You have to run a little nifty FixReg utility in windows afterwards, as Regedit /c has a BUG in reading back LineFeed control characters in registry values. These values are almost related to modem initialization strings, but not only. I've experienced 6 locations in my registry, where those values were truncated at the LineFeed character. The utility fixes this, you find it on http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~flibble/regsmall.html with further information also on http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~flibble/regcheat.html
You've to point to the savereg.txt file with the utility and it will check for corrections and tell you if any happened.
However this process can be risky as the reimport is done in textmode and may last a long time (Processor-speed/Registry-size), it may seem to hang at certain points in the process, leave it in peace, it will finish even after hours.
WIN98
Though others say to use the same procedure under win98, I urgently recommend to use:
Scanreg /fix /opt
Does everything automatically, the win95 procedure does nothing more than Scanreg /fix /opt does but lasts much longer.
For both cleanup methods is valid:
- Regclean4.1a will still sometimes find Apps-related crap dealing with own CLSID's
- Easyclean will still find invalid references to non existing stuff, each Zip-operation creates new of them
- Regcleaner will still point to brand related keys you have uninstalled already
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Login
Required Login
Add this registry key, make it a DWORD and give it a value of 1.
HKLM\Network\Logon\MustBeValidated
You can also add;
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
add string value;
LegalNoticeCaption
and
LegalNoticeText
Whatever you type in the value will show before the user gets a chance to login.
One is for what is printed on the Windows Box and the other is what is printed within the box.
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Regclean
Regclean offers some not well known parameters for usage:
REGCLEAN [mode] [options]
Mode:
<none> : Standard mode
/A : Automatic (standard mode only, no prompting)
/S : Silent mode (no UI) recommended if you are a routinier
/D : Detail mode (full UI) recommended if curious what is going on
Options:
/? : Display RegClean options
/Help : Display RegClean options
/L [file] : Log all activity to file (default is REGCLEAN.LOG) but the log file is not very user friendly
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Hoaxes
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ActualizeDrives
REGEDIT4
;automatic explorer actualisation replacing F5 change from 0
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Update]
"UpdateMode"=01
;NT
;"UpdateMode"=dword:00000001
FACTS: This key change doesn't do anything, though it's there, just ignore it.
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HDD
REGEDIT4
;avoiding redicoulous file operations
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
"ReadAheadThreshold"=hex:01,00,00,00
FACTS: This tip decreases the cache function see Devices/Tweaks/Hoaxes/HDD-Read-Ahead
Instead make it even more advanced with this setting
"ReadAheadThreshold"=hex:00,00,00,0f
In this case "ReadAheadThreshold" is set to 1.5 MB (1536 KB).
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CPU Priority
Source: thomast@ns.sympatico.ca reported at axcels
Run Regedit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\BIOS
In the right hand pane create a new DWORD Value called "CPUPriority" (no quotes) -> double-click on it -> check the Decimal box -> type 1.
This will speed things up by using the fastest priority to the CPU when opening any program, and works with 99% of the PCs
FACTS: German PC-world made extensive tests and found nothing changed on certain machines, there is no registry call at all for this value in windows around.
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CPUIdle
Source: thomast@ns.sympatico.ca reported at axcels
Everyone knows you can download a program called CpuIdle to keep your CPU cool.
Microsoft has an automatic CPUIdle Registry setting, never released to the public. Here it is as a REG file:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\CPUIdle]
"Idle"=dword:00000001
Run Regedit to add a new Key name (CPUIdle) and the Idle DWORD value in it, or just run the REG file.
This will keep your CPU cool indeed.
Cooling Tools like CPUIDLE,Rain or Waterfall hog the CPU resources, so in real terms they don't really cool it down.
FACTS: German PC-world made extensive tests and found nothing changed on certain machines, they simply made the finger test compared to the Program CPUIDLE. With the key alone you can not touch the cpu but with the program you can.
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