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Guy's Top 10 Free Tools

1) FreePing
2) Network Monitor
3) Xobni
4) PuTTY (UNIX)
5) IP SLA Monitor
6) BgInfo
7) Net-SNMP
8) CatTools 
9) Exchange Monitor
10) WinDiff

Vista Registry Editor - Examples of .Reg Files

Vista Registry Editor - Examples of .Reg Files

The purpose of this page is to provide examples of .reg files.  In addition, I will show you how to merge these text files with your registry.

• How to transfer the .reg settings into the registry
• What to do once you have applied the .reg file
• AutoAdminLogon
• Autoplay - Disable with NoDriveTypeAutoRun
• Build Number and PaintDesktopVersion
• DontDisplayLastUsername
• Hide the Public Folder from the Vista Desktop
• Increase Simultaneous Downloads
• NoControlPanel - Disable the Control Panel
• Rename the Computer Icon
• Registered Owner - Classic Registry Editor Example
• Roaming Profile - Disable
• Shortcut - Remove Arrow
• UAC - Disable ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin

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How to transfer the .reg settings into the registry

Typical Microsoft, there are at least three ways of transferring information from the .reg file. into your registry.  There are also a couple of tricky ways that I only mention for completeness.

1. Double-click the .reg file
2. Right-click the .reg file, select Merge from the drop-down menu
3. Launch Regedit then select, File (menu) Import
4. Execute the command: Regedit /s path to xyz.reg
5. Create a VBScript file employing the .regwrite method

What to do once you have applied the .reg file

Once you have added the new values to the registry, what next?  How do you view the new settings?  You could take the ruthless approach and reboot the machine.  Alternatively, you could run through this progression:

• Press F5 - It works in some contexts, e.g. desktop settings.
• Close, then reopen the interface, e.g. Control Panel.
• Log off / Log on.  Works well for many of the HKCU settings.
• Reboot, often the only way to see HKLM changes.

Next, I have specific examples of .reg files.

AutoAdminLogon

Here are the settings that you must change in order for my Auto.reg example file to work on your system.

"AutoAdminLogon"="1"
"DefaultUserName"="xxx"
"DefaultPassword"="xxxx0xxxx"
"DefaultDomainName"="xxx.xxx".  Definitely needed in a domain situation.

Copy the settings below into a text file.  Make the amendments to suit your machine and username, save the file with .reg extension, for example Auto.reg. If necessary, refer to How to transfer the .reg settings into the registry.

Setting AutoAdminLogon requires you to restart the operating system.

For lots more information on AutoAdminLogon see here

Autoplay - Disable with NoDriveTypeAutoRun

Media Change Notification (MCN) messages from the CD-ROM driver trigger AutoPlay.  However if, these messages are suppressed then the CD will not automatically start playing.  You can disable Autoplay by configuring the appropriate value of NoDriveTypeAutoRun.  Here is an example .reg file.

See more on NoDriveTypeAutoRun

Build Number and PaintDesktopVersion

What this .reg file does is add a message displaying the Build Number to the bottom right of you desktop.

Copy the instructions below into a text file, save the file with .reg extension, for example Build.reg. Then refer to How to transfer the .reg settings into the registry.

Note this registry setting is a dword (and not a REG_SZ), consequently, observe the colon and the lack of speech marks around the 000000001.

See more on Vista Build Number

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DontDisplayLastUsername

The idea is to prevent one user inadvertently locking out another user account.  Stops the name of the last user displaying in the Logon dialog box.  Here is my example .reg file:

Copy the instructions below into a text file, save the file with .reg extension, for example NoDisplay.reg.  See more on DontDisplayLastUsername

Hide the Public Folder from the Vista Desktop

Note: There was no Public folder on my Vista Desktop, thus, to see this registry hack in action I created an additional 'opposite' script.  In this script I set the value of each dword to zero:
"{4336a54d-038b-4685-ab02-99bb52d3fb8b}"=dword:00000000.

What this script below does, is to turn 'hide' off, in plain English, it displayed the Public folder on my Vista desktop.

'Opposite' Script to Display the Public Folder

See more on Hide Public Folder

Increase Simultaneous Downloads

NoControlPanel - Disable the Control Panel

See more about NoControlPanel here

Guy Recommends: SolarWinds LANSurveyor

LANSurveyor will produce a neat diagram of your network topology.  But that's just the start; LANSurveyor can create an inventory of the hardware and software of your machines and network devices.  Other neat features include dynamic update for when you add new devices to your network.  I also love the ability to export the diagrams to Microsoft Visio.

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Rename the Computer Icon

Is the example script below voodoo?  It sure is magic.  The code below will change the desktop icon called 'Computer' to display:  Username at MachineName.  Copy the instructions below into a text file, save the file with .reg extension, for example Computer.reg. Then refer to How to transfer the .reg settings into the registry.

Perhaps it would be better to review this article before you start with the script below

Notice that LocalizedString=hex(2):  This is the way to script the data type called 'Expanded String'.  What's encoded in hex is: %username% at %computername%.  If you need to investigate further, then read this article.

Registered Owner Classic Registry Editor Example

Let me take a wild guess.  Your organization is not called "Computer Performance", and, your RegisteredOwner is not "Guy".  My point is that you should make changes before you import my Owner.reg file.

Copy the instructions below into a text file, save the file with .reg extension, for example Owner.reg. Then refer to How to transfer the .reg settings into the registry.

Here is the story of Evans Twp and RegisteredOwner

Roaming Profile - Disable

Registry tweak to prevent roaming profiles saving on the local machine.  Example registry .reg file.

Shortcut - Remove Arrow

Copy the instructions below into a text file, save the file with .reg extension, for example Arrow.reg.  Note: For this .reg example to work, you must get noarrow.ico, unzip and copy to Vista's \windows folder.

See more details on how to remove arrows on shortcuts

UAC - Disable ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin

Disable the annoying UAC 'Continue' pop-up box; copy and paste this .reg example into notepad, save with .reg extension.  Double click and merge with your Vista registry.

• See much more on UAC (User Account Control)
• See more on ConsentPromptBehavior

Summary of .reg examples

The technique is the same for all these files.  Copy my example into notepad, save the file with .reg extension, then double click and merge with your registry.  Remember to include the name of the Registry Editor, also keep the second line blank.  In order to see the fruits of your work, try this progression: press f5 (refresh), logoff / logon, finally try restarting your computer.

If you need more information on producing .reg files then check out this page: How to create .reg files.

Windows Vista Training

Train Signal have an excellent Windows Vista Training Course.  As an MCT trainer, I am a huge advocate of Train Signal’s products.  What impresses is me is that they demonstrate everything that they teach and they stay away from traditional 'lecture-style' training.  If you are looking for a complete DETAILED coverage of Windows Vista, then I highly recommend that you give this course a try.  I have reviewed their 18 hours of videos myself, and I guarantee that you will not be disappointed!

Watch a Vista Training Video Demo.

Windows Vista Registry Tweaks:

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