Tweak the Registry

For geeks who are really looking to change the way Windows 7 looks and behaves,
we suggest digging deep—into the registry. Here you can go for more thorough personalization—
like changing the look of the log-in screen, the Taskbar, or even Internet Explorer 8's title bar. Most
of these hacks require spending only a few minutes in Regedit. But be warned: This type of activity
can be potentially dangerous to your computer. Don't dive in unless you feel confident in the
Registry. The easiest way to start Regedit is to hit the Window key on your keyboard, type regedit,
and then hit Enter. (You can also do this by clicking on the Start button.) Before you make any
changes it's probably smart to back up the key or subkey you're planning on tinkering with. Once
you've navigated to the key you're planning to change, right-click on it and select "Export" from the
pop-up menu. Pick a location to save the resulting REG file, and you're protected. In this story,
Registry entries are frequently represented with quotation marks around them; you shouldn't type
those in when you're making your changes. And once you've changed a key, it won't take effect right
away—you must exit Windows and restart first.
32) CHANGE YOUR LOG-IN SCREEN BACKGROUND Changing the wallpaper on your desktop is one of the
easiest things to do in Windows. But if you can have that display any image you want, why not do
the same with your log-in screen?
  1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion |
Authentication | LogonUI | Background.
2. Find the OEMBackground key; or right-click in the right pane and select New, then DWORD (32-
bit) Value to create it (and then give it that name).
3. Double-click on OEMBackground to open it.
4. Change the value in the Value data field to 1.
5. Click OK.
6. Using Windows Explorer, navigate to your Windows directory, then System32\ oobe. If there's a
folder in here called "info," go into it; if there's a folder inside of that one called "backgrounds," go
into that. If neither exists, you'll need to create them both first.
7. Copy the image (it must be a JPEG, and smaller than 256KB in size) you want to use as your log-in
screen background into the info\backgrounds folder.
8. Rename the image background-Default.jpg. (Note: If you choose an image that's sized differently
than your desktop and you change your resolution, it will be adjusted to fit—with a possible loss in
quality. The info\background folder also supports 12 other files of specific resolutions. The files
should be named backgroundXXXXX. jpg, where the XXXXX is one of the following: 900x1440,
960x1280, 1024x1280, 1280x1024, 1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200, 1440x900, 1920x1200,
1280x768, or 1360x768. For example, background1920x1200.jpg will be used at 1,920-by-1,200
resolution, and so on.)

The next time you restart your computer, or log out, you'll see this image as the new log-in screen. If
you chose an image that prevents the buttons and text from looking their best on the log-in screen,
you can adjust their appearance as well.
  1. Navigate back to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion |
Authentication | LogonUI (you're not going into Background this time).
2. Add a DWORD value called "Button- Set."
3. Change its value to either 1 (darker text shadows and lighter buttons) or 2 (no text shadows and
 opaque buttons, for darker backgrounds); 0 is the Windows default.

33) PERSONALIZE THE IE8 TITLE BAR. If you use Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7, you're probably
familiar with the browser's title bar, which appends "Windows Internet Explorer" to the end of every
page name. Why not change it to something a little more... you?
  1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Internet Explorer | Main.
2. Right-click in the right panel, click New, and then select String Value.
3. Name the string value you just created Window Title (space included).
4. Double-click on Window Title.
5. Type your personalized title in the "Value data" field, then click OK.

34) TURN OFF AERO SNAP. Implemented as an easier way to arrange windows on your desktop, Aero
Snap will automatically maximize a window if you drag it to the top of the screen, or resize a window
to use exactly half your display's width if you drag it all the way to the left or the right. If you don't
find this feature convenient, you can disable it.
  1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Control Panel | Desktop.
2. Scroll down to WindowArrangementActive in the right-hand pane, and double-click it to open it.
3. Change the number in the Value data field from 1 (Aero Snap is enabled) to 0.
4. Click OK

35) CHANGE TASKBAR BUTTON. Stacked Window Behavior By default, the Taskbar groups together
multiple windows of a single app, then displays all of them as thumbnails when you click on the
program's Taskbar icon. If you think it would be more handy to have Windows automatically open
the last window when you click the icon, you can make that happen.
  1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Explorer
| Advanced.
2. Right-click in the right pane, and select New then DWORD (32-bit) Value.
3. Rename the new DWORD value Last-ActiveClick.
4. Double-click on LastActiveClick to open it.
5. Change the value in the Value data field to 1.
6. Click OK.

36) CHANGE THE WIDTH OF TASKBAR BUTTONS Windows 7 is set up to always combine Taskbar buttons
from the same program and never display their labels. If, however, you've changed the setting to
either not combine the windows at all or to only combine them when the Taskbar is full, you can
change the icons' width to hide the labels there, too. Here's how.
  1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Control Panel | Desktop | WindowMetrics
2. Scroll to find the MinWidth entry. If it's not there, you'll have to create it yourself. Right-click in
the right pane, select New, then Select String Value, and name the object MinWidth.
3. Double-click MinWidth to open it.
4. Change the number in the Value Data field to the width you want to allot to the icons. With the
default small buttons, 38 is sufficient; with the larger icons, you'll want about 52.
5. Click OK.
37) CHANGE THE DELAY TIME OF TASKBAR PREVIEWS  Among the cooler features in Windows 7 are Taskbar
previews, which appear when you hover the mouse cursor over the Taskbar icon of a currently
running program. But when you do this, the preview doesn't appear immediately. Fortunately, you
can easily speed it up or, for whatever reason, slow it down.
  1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows| CurrentVersion | Explore |
Advanced
2. Right-click in the right pane, click New, and click DWORD Value or DWORD (32-bit) Value.
3. Name the new DWORD ExtendedUIHoverTime.
4. Double click on ExtendedUIHover-Time to open it.
5. Click the Decimal radio button in the Base section. In the Value data field, enter the delay time (in
milliseconds) for the preview to appear. (The Windows standard is 400 ms.)
6. Click OK to commit the change. When you hover the mouse cursor over one of the previews, all
your other windows will disappear and show just that window. There's a delay associated with this,
too. To change this, add a new DWORD in the same location called
ThumbnailLivePreviewHoverTime, and edit it the same way as above, setting its value to whatever
you want (in ms).

38) CHANGE THE DELAY TIME OF AERO PEEK Aero Peek is Windows 7's sleeker replacement for the old
Show Desktop button. Just move your mouse cursor over the icon at the right end of the taskbar to
turn all your Windows invisible. But this, too, has a delay time associated with it, so if you find
yourself accidentally activating it too often, you may want to increase the delay time. Here's how.
  1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Explorer
| Advanced
2. Right-click in the right pane, click New, and click DWORD Value or DWORD (32-bit) Value.
3. Name the new DWORD Desktop LivePreviewHoverTime.
4. Double click on DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime to open it.
5. Click the Decimal radio button in the Base section. In the Value data field, enter the delay time (in
milliseconds) for the preview to appear. (The Windows standard is 1,000 ms.)
6. Click OK to commit the change.