* Gearhead columnist Mark Gibbs finds WinGuides Tweak Manager from WinGuides Network to be a great tool
WinGuides Tweak Manager from WinGuides Network is a great tool!
Over the last few weeks we’ve sliced and diced the Windows registry, and while we’ve hit the basics, there’s a bit we’ve left out. For example, we haven’t touched on the many delights of registry programming.
The Windows registry is a big, eccentric subsystem, and if you want to go deeper, we recommend these books: Windows Annoyances by David A. Karp; Microsoft Windows XP Power Pack by James Michael Stewart, Stu Sjouwerman, et al.; Using Microsoft Windows XP Professional by Robert Cowart & Brian Knittel; Peter Norton’s Complete Guide to Microsoft Windows XP by Peter Norton and John Paul Mueller; and Microsoft Windows 2000 Registry Handbook by James Honeycutt. All have bits and pieces about Windows registries. The last book is a particular gold mine.
One thing you’ll find as you explore this terra incognita is that there are all sorts of Windows and application settings that you can’t change without going into the registry. Even then, there are settings you won’t know exist unless someone tells you (how people find out about these hidden settings involves poking and prodding Windows and applications with a dedication that borders on the obsessive).
Here are a few of those obscure registry tweaks worth knowing:
1. Change the default Internet Explorer search page (all versions of Windows): This changes the search engine accessed by the search button on the Explorer toolbar. Find the value “Search Bar” under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain and set the data (a string value) to the required URL.
2. Change the Search Assistant in Internet Explorer (all versions of Windows): This is how you can define a different Internet Explorer Search Assistant (that’s the search engine that handles URL requests that generate 404s). Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerSearch find SearchAssistant and set its string data to the URL of the search engine.
3. Automatically log on to Windows NT, 2000 and XP, and bypass the Winlogon dialog box: This requires you to add several new values under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon. First set AutoAdminLogon to 1 to enable autologon (0 disables it). Then add a string value named DefaultUserName set to the account name you want to log on as. You also need a string value named DefaultPassword set to the correct password for the account, another new string value named DefaultDomainName set to the domain of the user (which you can ignore if the PC is not in a domain), yet another string value, AutoAdminLogon, set to 1 to enable autologon (0 disables it); the value DontDisplayLastUserName must be disabled. Under Windows 2000 you’ll also need the string value ForceAutoLogon set to 1 to prevent resetting on reboot. Be warned – anyone who has access to the machine can look in the registry to see the password!
4. Change the dialog box shown before logon (all versions of Windows): You can create a dialog box that will be shown to any user before logging on to the system – useful for where you need something like a warning about “authorized users only.” Under KEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWinlogon find the value LegalNotice Caption and set it to whatever you want the notice to be titled (“Achtung!”) and set the value LegalNoticeText to the required message text (such as “Authorized personnel only!”).
Pretty complicated, eh? Well, you can simplify your life considerably – at least as far as registry settings are concerned – by investing in a tool called WinGuides Tweak Manager from WinGuides Network.
This is a great tool! It presents a tree-structured list of categories (Windows, Hardware, Network, Security and Software) that contain subcategories and/or tweaks. Windows subcategories include Accessories, Appearance, Desktop and Explorer along with tweaks such as “Change the Location of System and Special Folders.”
When you select a tweak, the various settings for that are displayed along with extensive explanations (these require you to be online, as this launches a Web browser), and you can set the values as required. Registered subscribers can download the online explanations, and WinGuides also offers a freeware version of its Windows Registry Guide 2002.
In all, WinGuides Tweak Manager covers some 1,100 registry tweaks for Windows, Internet Explorer and Office. The list of tweaks is regularly updated and downloaded to your copy of Tweak Manager on demand. At $30, this product is a steal.
