My aim in this section is to give you the experience, confidence and satisfaction
of making changes to your Windows registry.
There are times when you read about a Windows Server 2003 feature but there is no
icon to implement it. Therefore the only way to test that feature is to change a setting in the
registry. Another reason to master registry editing is so that you
can remotely troubleshoot a machine via Regedit.
The executables to hack the registry are Regedit (or Regedt32).
The newer versions of Regedit remember the last place you visited, which is extremely useful when you are constantly adjusting values.
If you have not been to the registry before, click on the Windows START (Button), click on Run, type regedit and then press OK.
How Dangerous is Editing the Registry?
People give dire warnings about changing the registry. My view is that
changing settings via the registry is no more hazardous
than say - configuring the monitor refresh rate through the Control Panel. You may hear that if you make a mistake you can cripple your system;
I find that if you type in the wrong key value nothing happens! However I
once saw a 'gung-ho' individual delete a whole section of the registry. This would have been disastrous if
I had not exported the relevant section, so we just imported it and solved the
problem.
Use Regedit rather than Regedt32 because it has a wonderful FIND.
Use the REGISTRY Export as a precaution before you experiment.
Rename settings you do not needed or want, avoid deleting anything in the
registry.
If you are following advice from an article, check whether it says ADD or Change.
With ADD you need an extra step.
Practice remote registry editing to prepare for an emergency.
Here below is an example of a registry hack, for more ideas see the side menu.
Guy
Recommends: The Free Config Generator
Solarwinds' Config Generator is a free tool, which puts you in charge of
controlling changes to network routers and other SNMP devices.
Boost your network performance by activating network device features
you've already paid for.
Guy says that for newbies the biggest benefit of this free tool is that
it will provide the impetus for you to learn more about configuring the SNMP
service with its 'Traps' and 'Communities'.
Launch Regedit and click on the 'Find' menu search for WaitToKillAppTimeout. The default is 20000 milli seconds, my challenge is to try a shorter timeout, say about 5000 (5 seconds).
As you may guess from the name this sets the timeout on processes that are
hanging. Technically this an interesting hack as you have to set it two or
thee times in the registry - keep pressing F3 (Find next). The reason is
that this setting is found on the Current user, Default user and maybe another
user where you see a SID value.
Learning Points
Particularly with the HKEY_USER registry settings, you have to
make the changes three times; remember F3 to 'Find Next'.
Time values are in milli seconds e.g 1000 = 1
second
Guy Recommends: SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset v10
This Engineer's Toolset v10 provides a comprehensive console of utilities
for troubleshooting computer problems. Guy says it helps me
monitor what's occurring on the network, and each tool teaches me more about how the
underlying system operates.
Example: Change Registry Settings Internet Temporary File
The goal of this page is to combine skills using VBScript, WinDiff and Regedit. Our
mission is to change values in the registry.
We need to find the correct registry hive, then create a script to make the change automatically. This mission is difficult and success will
depend on attention to detail. See more on
Changing Internet Tempory File Location.
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is one of the hidden
treasures of Microsoft operating systems.
Fortunately, Solarwinds
have created the
Free WMI Monitor so that you can actually see and understand these gems of
performance information. Take the guess work out of which
WMI counters to use for applications like Microsoft Active Directory,
SQL or Exchange Server.
