One Tip A Day » Registry

Increase The Number of Rows In Windows 7 Media Center EPG

Tony Williams — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 05:20:13 +0000

Windows 7 Media Center is probably the best all-round media center available, beating other solutions hands down and with a few easy tweaks it can be made even better. One of the limitations of W7MC is that the TV EPG only displays details for 7 channels at a time – scandalous for users like myself with 50″+ plasma TVs.

With a few quick tweaks it is possible to increase the number of channels displayed to 10:

To Increase the number of channels in Windows 7 Media Center’s EPG:

Close Windows Media Center
Install the Take Ownership registry file
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\ehome and find Microsoft.MediaCenter.Shell.dll, Right-click on the file and click ’Take Ownership’
Copy Microsoft.MediaCenter.Shell.dll to a temp directory and put this patch in the same directory
Run the patch (you may need to take ownership of the Microsoft.MediaCenter.Shell.dll in the temp directory)
copy the new version of Microsoft.MediaCenter.Shell.dll created by the patch to C:\Windows\ehome

You now should have extra rows displaying in W7MC.

Source: Windows 7 News & Tips, hack7mc

How To Add New Menu Items to Windows Explorer Right Click Menu

Tony Williams — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:58:16 +0000

Gili has put together a nice clear guide on hos to add add add Move to Folder and Copy to Folder items to Windows Explorer right click menu. It requires a few registry changes, so please don’t even start making the necessary changes if you’re not comfortable editing your registry!

Before starting, backup your operating system registry file. Use instructions provided in section 2 here.
Click Start.
Vista users: in the Start Search type Regedit to open your Registry Editor.
XP users: Click Run, then type Regedit to open your Registry Editor.
Browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
Right Click and select New and then Key. Name the key Copy To.
From the right hand side right click on the subkey named Default and select Modify.
In the Value data field enter the following string: {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
Right Click and select New and then Key. Name the key Move To.
From the right hand side right click on the subkey named Default and select Modify.
In the Value data field enter the following string: {C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Click OK
Close the Registry Editor

The Copy To Folder and Move To Folder options will appear when right clicking a file or folder in Windows Explorer.

Speedup Your Windows PC

Tony Williams — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:18:28 +0000

Making a few simple changes can make an amazing difference to the performance of your PC. Tweaking a few settings can give your PC a whole new lease of life, and also make using the internet even better.

Amit has pulled together some simple changes that most Windows users will benefit from applying to their PCs. They aren’t that difficult to implement, but if you’re not confident making registry changes then you are probably better off not trying to apply these chances.

Step 1: Change the IE Concurrent Download Limit - Internet Explorer’s default settings only enable you to download up to two downloads at the same time. Optimizing the download settings enables you to download up to 16 files concurrently from the same server.

Method – Open registry editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

Right click the right pane and select New->DWORD Value. Type MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server and give it a value of 16. Add another DWORD using the same process – call it MaxConnectionsPerServer with the same value – 16.

Step 2: Disable Windows Indexing Service – The indexing feature consumes system resources, and may adversely affect your system’s performance. By disabling the indexing feature, you free up disk space on your computer and may improve its performance.

Method – Goto Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Find the Indexing Service, right click and select “Disable”.

Step 3: Resize your Internet Explorer Cache - The default cache settings of IE are configured to hold a large number of cached temporary Internet files. However, storing many small files on your hard disk consumes valuable disk space and can cause disk fragmentation. Reduce the maximum size of IE cache to 128MB for optimal performance.

Method – Start Internet Explorer, Select Tools -> Internet Options ->General. Under Temporary Internet Files click the Settings button and type the amount of disk space to use.

Step 4: Windows Menu Display Speed – Menus are displayed on your computer according to Windows’ default settings. By optimizing these settings, you speed up your computer’s ability to display (and hide) these menus.

Method – Goto Start -> Control Panel -> System. Click the Advanced tab, and under Performance, click the Settings button. Clear the Fade or slide menus into view check box, and then click OK.

Improve PC Gaming By Disabling Windows Key

Tony Williams — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:11:37 +0000

Mr Byte has produced a very clear guide to disabling the Windows key on keyboards. If you’re a keen gamer, this guide could prove handy as the Windows Key is right bang in the middle of important gaming keys like CTRL and ALT, so it can be easily pressed. Pretty annoying if you are in the middle of a fire-fight and suddenly your PC switches to the desktop.

If like me you never use the Windows Key, then here is how to disable it:

Goto Start -> Run and Type Regedit and press Enter (In Vista, type ‘Regedit’ in Search Box under Start)
Browse to ‘My Computer\ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ Leyboard Layout‘
On the right hand side pane, right click and move over ‘NEW‘ and Click ‘Binary Value‘
This would have created a new entry with the name ‘New Value #1‘ with Type ‘REG_BINARY‘ and Data as zero-length binary value.
Right Click ‘New Value #1′ and rename it to ‘Scancode Map‘
Right Click again and click ‘Modify Binary Data’ and enter ‘00000000000000000300000000005BE000005CE000000000‘
Close everything and restart your computer.

if you want to restore your Windows Key, then just delete the new entry that you’ve just created.

Optimize Windows Vista With TweakVI

Tony Williams — Sat, 05 May 2007 16:40:02 +0000

TweakVI is a freeware program that claims to be the first to both both tweak and optimize Windows Vista. The free Basic version of TweakVI comes with 13 plugins that perform various functions. Other plugins are available, but they have to be paid for.

The TweakVI feature I like the sound of the most is the settings transfer, which allows you to transfer your Vista tweaks between machines, which will be handy if you building a new machine or even just rebuilding your current one.

Other Key features of TweakVI include:

Activate hundreds of hidden Windows Vista settings
clean your registry
activate system and software restrictions
display detailed system information
create a 256MB RAM drive
protect your privacy
clean your harddrive
manage TrueType fonts
improve your internet connection
optimize your CPU
optimize your RAM
manage system updates

To try out TweakVI click here

How to enable the DVD Library in Windows Vista Media Center

Tony Williams — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:59:34 +0000

Iv’e spent a lot of time copying my DVD library to my computer’s Hard Disk to protect my disks and to save having to swap them around everytime I want to watch them. In Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, DVD content that was stored on the hard disk automatically appeared in the My Videos folder, but it didn’t in Windows Vista.

I’ve finally worked out how to get my DVD Library to appear under Windows Vista Media Center and it involves a quick registry change to enable the ‘DVD Gallery’ feature that Microsoft have disabled in the default settings.

Warning: Remember all registry changes are made at your own risk.

Exit Windows Media Center if it is running.
Click StartStart button, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then click regedit in the Programs list.
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

In the results pane, right-click ShowGallery, and then click Modify.
Delete the contents that appear in the Value data box, type Gallery in the Value data box, and then click OK.
Exit Registry Editor

Now all of your DVD titles should appear in the new Vista DVD Gallery, providing easy access.

Protect Your Files From Prying Eyes By Locking Folders

Tony Williams — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:07:23 +0000

If you are using a shared computer then it’s a good idea to protect your confidential information from being accessed by other users.

A simple and free way to do this is to make a few small changes to your registry files, so that you and you alone can access your files:

If you want to lock E:\folder1, then open Notepage and type the following (substituting ‘folder1′ for whatever your folder is called):

ren folder1 folder1.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

then save this file as ‘loc.bat’ in the same drive where folder1 is stored
Now create a new notepad file and add the following text:

ren folder1.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} folder1

Now save this 2nd text file as key.bat in the same folder as where folder1 is stored
Now go to your file manager and doubleclick loc.bat and your folder will be locked. To unlock it, click on key.bat

Repeat this for any other folders that you want to lock.

Source: Tech-Buzz

Who Needs Vista??!! Show Your PC Some Love This Christmas And Tune It Up

Tony Williams — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 00:01:26 +0000

Vista may be coming out next year, but if like me you can’t afford to upgrade to Vista then why not show your current PC some love this Christmas and give it a tune up?

I’ve just reinstalled Windows XP as I’ve treated my PC to a new motherboard for Christmas. Here are some of the tweaks I’ve done so far to make my machine faster, which I think are worth sharing.

Disable Last Access Update To Speed Up Access To Files

When XP opens folders it can waste a lot of time trying to update the last access time. To stop XP doing this requires a registry tweak:

Open Regedit by going to ‘Start’. Click on ‘Run’ and type ‘regedit’
Navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlFileSystem’
Right-click and select ‘DWORD Value’
Enter ‘NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate’ as your new DWORD Value
Once you’ve created the DWORD value, right-click on the new DWORD and click ‘Modify’
Change the Value Data to ‘1′
Click ‘OK’

Disable Indexing Services

Disabling Indexing Services can provide a significant performance increase depending on how you use your computer. If you rarely search for files on your PC then you should turn it off, to stop XP wasting time keeping the search index up to date. It also take up large amounts of RAM and can make your PC sound noisy.

Here’s how to turn off indexing:

Go to ‘Start’
Click ‘Settings’ then click on ‘Control Panel’
Next, click on ‘Add/Remove Programs’
Click the ‘Add/Remove Window Components’
Uncheck the ‘Indexing services’
Click ‘Next’

Clean Up Your Hard Drive

Over time you’ll be amazed how much crap can accumulate on your PC taking up valuable space. The best and quickest way to cleanup your hard drive is to install and run CCleaner. CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It also can clean remove all traces of what you’ve been doing online.

Install CCleaner
Once it’s installed Right-click on your Recycle bin and click ‘Open CCleaner’
Click on ‘Cleaner’ in the left-hand navigation
Tick ‘Internet Explorer’ and ‘Windows Explorer’ and ‘System’
Untick ‘Cookies’, ‘History’, ‘Recently Typed URLs’ and ‘Last Download Location’ in the Internet Explorer Sub-menu if you don’t want to lose your internet history
Next click on the ‘Applications’ Tab at the top and tick the applications you want to clean
Then click on ‘Analyze’ in the bottom right hand corner and CCleaner will start its magic
Once CCleaner finishes analysing it will tell you how much space it can free up. If you like what you see, click ‘Run Cleaner’ and the files will be removed

Speedup Folder Browsing

On most PCs, everytime a folder is opened there will be slight delay, while XP searches for any network files or printers. Stopping XP doing this can make a big difference to folder browsing speeds:

Open My Computer and click open the ‘Tools’ menu
Select ‘folder options’ and then select the ‘view’ tab
Uncheck ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers’
Click ‘Apply’ and then click ‘Ok’
If you are prompted to reboot your pc then do so

Make Your PC Boot Faster

If you don’t regularly clean your temp and history folder then XP will waste time checking these folders everytime you boot your PC. To stop this, you can create a batch file that will clear the temp and history folders when you shutdown your PC, so that your PC won’t waste time checking these folders the next time it starts up:

Open Notepad and create a new file with the following entries:

RD /S /q “C:Documents and Settings”UserName without quotes”Local SettingsHistory”
RD /S /q “C:Documents and SettingsDefault UserLocal SettingsHistory”
RD /S /q “D:Temp” < –”Deletes temp folder, type in the location of your temp folder

Save the new file as ‘cleantemp.bat’ somewhere where you can find it easily
Now go to ‘Start’ and select ‘Run’
Type in‘gpedit.msc’ and click ‘Ok’
Click on ‘Computer Configuration’ then ‘Windows Settings’
Click on ‘Scripts’ and then on ‘Shutdown’
Click ‘Add’ and find the batch file that you created and then press ‘Ok’

That’s it. I’ll post some more ways to give your PC a treat later on in the week.

Clean Your PC Frequently

Tony Williams — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 09:10:43 +0000

I know that not everyone will be as obsessive as me about cleaning their PC, but it is a good idea to clean your machine every now and then to get rid of programs and settings that you no longer use.

My favourite program for doing this is CCleaner. This great little app will removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history if you want it to.

It’s also freeware which makes it even better.

Download it here now.

An alternative is to use Regcleaner which has more tools for cleaning the registry, but doesn’t have the same breadth as CCleaner.