Registry Tweaks

Hi All,

Just a few Registry Tweaks to help things along.

1. Shift your Start menu into overdrive

Have you ever noticed the short delay after you click the Start menu button, before Windows displays the menu? If you noticed the delay, you might have thought it was caused by system activity. But it's a deliberate, programmed pause controlled by a Registry setting. You can remove it.

In any Windows version, navigate to and select the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop

Double-click MenuShowDelay in the right window, change the number in the Value data box to 0, and click OK.

2. Don't let stalled programs slow you down

This tip's just for XP: When a program hangs, Windows will eventually take notice within five seconds, asking whether you want to force the program to shut down. If you'd like to see that prompt sooner, select in the left pane of the Registry Editor the same HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop key as in the previous tip; in the right pane, however, double-click HungAppTimeout.

Change the default of 5000 (milliseconds, or 5 seconds) to something smaller, such as 2000 (milliseconds). However, don't enter 0 � doing so may prevent applications from shutting down normally, which can cause other problems.

You can also enable AutoEndTasks (sometimes called "forced exit") to tell XP to ignore possible hung apps and simply to shut them down.

To do this, double-click the AutoEndTasks key in the right pane and change the value from 0 to 1. However, I don't recommend this change, because shutting down applications before they're ready can lead to unpredictable results.

3. Shut Windows down in the blink of an eye

If some of your applications are making Windows' shutdowns slow to a crawl, you can speed things up.

In XP, double-click WaitToKillAppTimeout in the same HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop key as noted above and change its default value of 20000 milliseconds (20 seconds) to something smaller. As before, don't use 0!

4. In any Windows version, you can quash sluggish services � the processes used by Windows itself � when the OS closes. To do so, navigate to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control

With Control selected in the left window, double-click WaitToKillServiceTimeout on the right and change the data value to something smaller than the default. (Again, values are in milliseconds; each 1000 milliseconds equals one second.) Note that Windows may change what you enter at some point, because some services require a specific minimum value.

5. Suppress Windows' annoying low-disk-space pop-up

Running low on disk space is aggravating enough without constant nagging about it. To turn off the taskbar's pop-up reminders about your overstuffed hard disk, follow the steps appropriate to your operating system.

In XP, navigate in the Registry Editor's left pane to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

Right-click in the right pane and choose New, DWORD Value. Type NoLowDiskSpaceChecks and press Enter to create the key. Now double-click the new icon and in the Value data box, enter 1 and click OK.

In Vista or Win7, Navigate to here in the Registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies

If an Explorer subkey is present under Policies, click it.

If the Explorer subkey doesn't exist, create it. With Policies highlighted in the left pane, right-click in the right pane and choose New, Key. Type Explorer and press Enter to create the key.

Next, with Explorer highlighted in the left pane, right-click in the right pane and choose New, DWORD Value. Type NoLowDiskSpaceChecks and press Enter to create the key. Now double-click the new icon; in the Value data box, type 1 and click OK.

6. Add an encryption option to your context menu

If your hard disk is formatted with NTFS, you can encrypt files and folders in XP Pro, Vista, and Windows 7 � although your mouse may give out before completing the operation. It's eight steps! Right-click the file, choose Properties, click Advanced, select the encryption option, click OK twice, confirm or change options, and click OK one more time.
As you can imagine, this encryption method gets old very quickly. You can streamline the process to a couple of clicks by adding an Encrypt command to Explorer's context menu.
Here's what to do: Navigate in the Registry Editor to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
With the Advanced key selected in the left pane, right-click in the right pane and choose New, DWORD Value. Type EncryptionContextMenu and press Enter. Next, double-click the EncryptionContextMenu icon, change its data value to 1, and click OK.
The next time you right-click a file or folder in Explorer, you'll see a new Encrypt option on your context menu. If the folder you right-click is already encrypted, the command changes to Decrypt.

Cheers,

ticker