Windows 8 Registry Hack to Get Windows 7 Style Desktop
The scenario: you have the Windows 8 Metro UI but you wish to disable it
and revert to
the Windows 7 style desktop and Start menu. Here are instructions to
edit the Windows 8 registry.
Update 1: While this worked in the Developer Preview, it
is not working in my Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
Launch the Windows 8 regedit.exe. Either use Windows Explorer and Search for
regedit, or else launch Task Manager go to the File menu and select New Task
(Run...)
Once the registry editor opens, drill-down to this path:
Now change: RPEnabled from 1 to 0 (zero). See screenshot below.
The old Windows 7 style Start menu and desktop appears immediately in Windows 8. However, if
you change RPEnabled back to 1, then you need to logoff / logon before the
Metro UI returns.
Note: Unlike the Developer Preview, this did not work in
the Consumer Preview.
Warning: The big mistake is navigating to the wrong
hive in the registry, people go the HKLM when they should start in HKEY_Current_User,
as shown in the above screen shot.
The great feature of this new this new version of SolarWinds VM Monitor is that it
checks Windows Hyper-V. Naturally, it still works with virtual machines on VMware ESX Servers. VM Monitor is an nifty
desktop tool that not only tests that your server is online, but also
displays the CPU and memory utilization for each node.
It's easy to install and to configure this virtual machine monitor, all
you need the host server's IP address or hostname and the logon info.
Create a new DWORD 32-bit value called "TaskUIEnabled"
Setting its value to "1" enables the ribbon. Zero would turn off
this feature.
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Another Registry Tip: Exporting Selected Branch
My favorite technique for recovering from registry disasters is to export the
registry section before I start experimenting. To follow my example, launch
regedit then click on the File menu, Export, Selected Branch.
