Change your Computer Name on network

Get ready to think of some high quality appealing name for your
computer so that when you apply that, everybody else on the network
would identify you by that name.

To achieve this travel to following registry key through Registry
editor:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName\ComputerName

Then selecting the 'ComputerName' Key in left pane of registry editor,
you would find the entry in right pane as 'ComputerName'.



This name is your computers name on network, change this to whatever
that you want. And you are through to it.

Recover the lost product ID for Windows Installation

Ever imagined, that you lost your Windows product ID and later
due to some unexpected reasons your windows installation got
corrupt as a result some files went missing and finally you need
to perform reinstallation.
Then how are you going to install it back again without Product ID.

Usually when we install the Windows its ID is stored in Registry.

To get back this ID, travel to following path;

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\

Then selecting the 'CurrentVersion' key in left pane, find for the
entry 'ProductID' in right pane.
And there it is the ID you wanted.



Alternatively you can also get your product ID by right clicking on
the 'My Computers' icon on Desktop or Start Menu.
And then uder the General tab you would find your product ID at
lower section of dialog box as shown below.



So now keep it safe, may be next time even your computer won't boot,
to recover it.

Change taskbar clock AM & PM text

This is the one of the best registry tweak available.
In this tweak we change the AM and PM that is shown in taskbar
clock to some other name.



To achieve this follow steps given below:

1. Travel to following key in registry editor
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\
2. Now select the 'International' key in left pane and search for
the following two entries in right pane of registry editor.
s1159 - for changing AM
s2359 - for changing PM
3. Once you have found this entries now double click it to change
the text.

Remember it only accepts characters of minimum six letters even
if you try to stuff more, only first six will be displayed.

Enjoy the tweak, please let me know in case you are finding
some problems.

Disable all Balloon tips in Windows

I always felt it wary about those balloon tips in Windows task bar for
'low disk space', 'new hardware', etc.

The following small registry tweak can disable these balloon tips:

Go to following registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Explorer\Advanced

and then in right pane search for entry 'EnableBalloonTips' and if it is
not present then add the DWORD entry and name it as ' EnableBalloonTips'.

Once this is done then add the value to it as '0' (zero in number).

If you want to enable it again than change the value to '1'.

Remember the key and entry names are Case Sensitive.

Add Google Search in your browser address bar

One can now easily Google search for any term using the browser's
address bar, and the search results will be displayed to you in
the Google's page.

The following small registry tweak can do this for you;

Go to following registry path
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl

sometimes the 'SearchUrl' key might not be present, in that case add
it as sub-key under 'Internet Explorer'.

Now in right pane for above key 'SeacrhUrl', change the default value to

http://www.google.com/search?q=%s

press F5 to refresh registry and then exit.
For this tweak to work you might need to close all the browsers and
open again.

Shortcut to open Registry Editor

Now to open the Registry editor no need of going to Start Menu > Run.
One can create a shortcut on desktop to open the Registry Editor
follow the steps given blow:

1. Open the Notepad and copy the following code snippet:

'Open Registry Editor
'from http://www.technoglitters.blogspot.com
Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next

Dim WSHShell
Set WSHShell=Wscript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
WSHShell.Run "REGEDIT"

Set WSHShell = Nothing

2. Once this is done now save the file as 'Open_Registry.vbs'
(without quotes) remember to make the file type option in
Save As dialog box to 'All files'
3. Now you can create as many shortcuts for these files as possible.
4. Since this is script file, some Antivirus or antispyware softwares
may report abuse, but override the rules and allow it to run and
enjoy the Registry Editor at click of you mouse.

Start Button Context Menu

Using this tweak, you can run applications from the context menu
of the start button, i.e. by right clicking on the start button.

Open the registry from Start Menu > Run > regedit and follow the path:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell Key.

Right click on Shell Key, and create a new sub-key named after the
program you want to associate it with, say, Notepad. Now select this key
and create another sub-key named 'Command' and set its 'Default' entry
value as the path to the executable for example 'C:\windows\notepad.exe'.

Now if you right click on Start Menu you will see new entry for launching
Notepad.

Related Limks:
Add 'Copy To' and 'Move To' in Context Menu

Create 'Copy To' and 'Move To' in context menu

When you right click you get a menu called Context menu.
This tweak shows how you can add two useful entries to it namely
'Copy To' and 'Move To'.
Therefore copying and moving files can be done in two steps.

To add 'Copy To' option, go to Registry and follow the following path;
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
and right click ContextMenuhandlers and create a new key called
'Copy To' (without quotes).
Select the key you created in right pane, modify the value of default
entry to '{C2FBB630-297111d1A18C00C04FD75D13}' (without quotes).
Similarly, navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
and create a sub-key named 'Copy To' and give the same default value
as above.

To add 'Move to' option duplicate the above mentioned steps, but rename
the sub-keys as 'Move To' and the default values as
'{C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}'.

Now when you right click on any file or folder - except on the desktop
you will get two more options for 'Copy To' and 'Move To'.
Thia may require a windows restart or simply press F5 after modifying
to refresh the changes in registry.

Clear Add Remove Programs list

Certain program entries do remain in the Add/Remove programs
list due to some incomplete install/uninstall.
This small registry tweak allows you to remove all the unwanted
entries from Add/Remove programs list, it can also be used to hide
the Installed program from appearing in Add/Remove list.

To do this, go to registry and follow the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Under this key you will find the sub keys for each program installed.
Right Click and delete all the entries you want removed from Add\Remove
programs list.

Clear URL s Cache from Internet Explorer address bar

To view the visited URLs in IE address bar click on drop down
button on end of address bar. To selctively remove URLs from
this list go to Registry and travel to following path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs
In the right pane you will find the list of URLs ordered with name
url1 url2....url25.
Delete the entries you want to remove and rename the remaining
entries to maintain the order.
example: if you delete two entries url4 and url7 then rename the
remaining entries so that they list as url1 to url23.

Clear Run Command Cache

Commands entered in Run dialog box from start menu are automatically cached to be used later for AutoComplete.

One can selectively remove these entries from cached list of instructions.

Go to registry and follow the following path

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/RunMRU

and in right pane you will find entries for the Most recently used command in Run box.

Delete the unwanted entries or delete all.

change Program Files folder

Type regedit in Run box.

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

Look for the entry -> ProgramFilesDir

Change its value fom "C:\Program Files" to D:\Installation (or something of your wish)

Run program at login

Do you want to run a program every time you login into your computer Here you can do it, using Windows Registry.

1. Enter Notepad

2. Type [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mcft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

“name program”=”\”C:\\Program Files\\Winamp\\winamp.exe\”"

3. Save as using the .reg extension

4. Now double click the saved file and click 'yes' on popup message and allow the information to be added to Windows Registry

Next time when you will login to your PC, Winamp will start automatically.

-To deactivate this you have to delete the information from Windows Registry(go to run from start menu type "regedit"(without quotes) travel to following key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mcft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and find the file winamp that starts automatically and delete it).

set minimum login password length in Windows

By default Windows accepts both short and long passwords as the Windows login password.
Some users use extremely short passwords, which can easily be brute forced. So in order to set the minimum number of characters or the minimum length of the password, simply follow the following registry trick-:

1. Launch the Windows Registry Editor i.e. c:\windows\regedit.exe

2. Scroll down to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Policies\Network

3. Click on Edit > New DWORD Value.

4. Name this new DWORD value as MinPwdLen and in the data field (by right clicking the DWORD value), enter the minimum number of characters
the password has to be of. One thing to note here is that this value is in Hexadecimal.

5. Now, Press F5 and your system just became a tiny bit securer but certainly not unhackable.

Back up the Registry

The registry is critical for health of the system, sometimes even a small tweak, may corrupt windows and avoid from logging in. So it is always recommended to back up the Registry before applying any of your changes.
To take the back up of the registry open registry editor from start > Run, type Regedit and press enter.



In Registry editor select the highest key from left pane of 'My Computer' and then from top level menu in registry editor select File > Export, give the location where you want to store the
back-up, and its done with backup of complete registry.
On can also backup particular key, to do that same way select the key from left pane and click on File > export.

To apply the backup again you can simply double click the backup file or clcik on File > import from Registry editor.

Users using Windows ME and higher can also create system restore points, to save all the current settings of windows (including regitry). To do this navigate to start > program > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore, and select 'create a restore point'. To revert to this point later, you have to just select the point again to restore.

Learn to Use Registry

The registry is the place where windows stores all the settings related to hardware that it controls, software installed and other windows environment settings; like toolbar, colors, menus, etc.
So to apply our own customized settings, registry editing is must.

To open the registry go to 'start menu' > run then type regedit and press Enter.



Then registry editor opens, where the left pane has folder tree like heirarchy. Each item here is called Key and they may again have further sub-keys. When you select a key you will find some items in right pane. These are entries corresponding to selected keys. It is the entries that store the settings. Entries can store three types of data: String, Binary and DWORD.Always back-up the registry before applying any changes.

To create a new key just right click the parent key and select New > Key. to create an entry select the key in left pane, right-click ovr in right pane and select the data type of the entry to be created.
The changes to registry may not be effective right then and there; sometimes it may need Restart or logoff or simply pressing function key F5 (refresh) will apply the customizatons. For particular software changes, sometimes only restarting the application will work.