1. Add “Encrypt” to Context Menu for Files

Microsoft included file encryption in Windows Vista and 7 to allow you to make parts of your file system inaccessible to others. The operating system does this by scrambling the contents of a file or folder with a passphrase determined by a security certificate. As long as you can keep the certificate, you can also decrypt the file. This is especially useful when you share a folder across the network and don’t want peeping toms to see what is in some of your files. Others can also try to access the files using a LiveCD operating system, which will also fail. To quickly encrypt a file or folder through Windows without having to scramble around in the file/folder properties, you can do a simple registry tweak at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Just add a DWORD value called “EncryptionContextMenu” to that key and set the value at “1″. You’re all set!

2. Give Your Start Menu a Classic Programs List

Remember the programs list from Windows 2000? You can still have this in Windows Vista/7, even if the option doesn’t exist, by a simple registry modification that would help you achieve the given result. People might have their reasons for switching over to the classic list, perhaps because it feels more comfortable, but the Windows 7 programs list blows anything else out of the water. Since we have no objection on the opinion of others, we’ll show you how to bring the 2000 programs list to Windows 7. Time to get retro!

First, go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell

Double-click “Favorites” on the right-hand side of the registry editor and edit the value to “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs”. Replace “C” with the drive letter of your system drive (where Windows is installed).

Now, head over to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

Edit the “Favorites” value on this key to the same value you edited the other one to. Now, right-click the Start button and click “Properties.” Navigate to the “Start Menu” tab and click “Customize.” In the new dialog, make sure that the “Favorites menu” box has a check mark next to it. Click “OK” and reboot your computer. You’ll see a “Programs” menu on the “Start” menu. Enjoy!

3. Add Recycle Bin to “My Computer”

Your drives are on it, so why not also see the recycle bin? It’s illogical for Windows not to have noticed the discrepancy. Let’s modify this a bit ourselves, shall we?

To do this, head over to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace

Create a new key under “NameSpace” called “{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}.” Now, just open your “My Computer” window. It should show up.

Got Trouble?

If you have any problems accomplishing the steps in this tutorial, let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to help you!

Related Posts:

• 7 Great Registry Tweaks to Improve Your Windows Experience
• Things You Probably Didn’t Know But Really Needed in Windows 7
• 5 Awesome Ways to Tweak Windows 8
• 5 More Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]

1. Add Registry Editor to the Control Panel

One of the most frustrating parts about modifying the registry is the extra steps one must take to open it and find it. You actually have to remember the name “regedit“, and when you’re not editing the registry, you have to go through the torture of finding the name. That’s not a problem if you have a handy solution to add the registry editor to your Windows control panel. Download the registry editor hack, open the zip file, and double-click the icon representing what you’d like to do. It’s as simple as that. You can now find the registry at this location of your control panel:

2. Get Rid of Aero Shake

Windows 7 was wise to think of an idea like Aero Shake. If you don’t know what it is, Aero Shake allows you to maximize a window by shaking it around a bit in its default state. After a bit of a wiggle, Windows maximizes the current window whenever possible. Some people might not like that feature, and Windows doesn’t come with settings to disable it. They assume you’d like it, as usual.

To remove it, open the following path in your registry: 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

With the “Windows” key folder selected, go to the right-hand side of the window and create a new DWORD value called “NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts“. The value should be a decimal “1″. Actually, in numbers smaller than 10, it doesn’t matter whether you choose decimal or hexadecimal.

Once you reboot your computer, you won’t be bothered any longer by the Aero Shake feature of Windows 7 or 8.

3. Disable Balloon Tips

Since Windows XP, Microsoft has implemented balloon tips to notify users of any problems or new events in the computer. Many people are annoyed by the balloon tips that pop up every once in a while and might not take kindly to them. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, here’s the ever-famous image of a balloon tip in action:

They always show up in the right-hand side of the taskbar and can be utterly annoying when you’re trying to get work done. To disable them, open your registry editor and navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

In that key, create a new DWORD variable on the right-hand side called “EnableBalloonTips“. Make the value “0″. Once you restart your computer, you won’t see balloon tips ever again.

4. Remove “Shortcut” Text From Shortcuts

We all know what shortcuts we have, and sometimes, it’s a bit redundant for a shortcut to have the “Shortcut” indicator on it. Let’s show you what we mean:

Clearly, the small arrow on the bottom left-hand corner of the image already indicates that it’s a shortcut. Why does Windows have to tell you that it’s a shortcut in other forms? There’s a way around this through the registry, as always. This one’s a little trickier than the others, though.

First, go to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

in your registry. You’ll find a value called “link” within that key. Its value is “1e 00 00 00″. Change that to “00 00 00 00″. That’s it! After a short reboot, you’ll see that the “Shortcut” text disappeared.

5. Change The Registered Owner of The Windows Installation

If you get a computer from someone, you might notice that the person’s name is there in “winver.exe.” Here’s what we’re talking about:

This might not bother you, but if it does, there’s a way to change it. Just navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

in your registry and change the “RegisteredOwner” value to anything you’d like. Restart your computer, open the Start menu, and type “winver”. Once you press “Enter,” you should see the new name in the window that shows up.

6. Add a Right-Click Shortcut to Control Panel on The Desktop

You don’t have to always resort to opening the Start menu on your computer to open the control panel. You don’t even have to make a shortcut that occupies space on your desktop. What if we told you that you can modify Windows to add the control panel to the right-click context menu? It’s possible, and we’ll show you how!

First, quickly go to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell

in your registry. Create a new key under “shell” and call it “command.” Now, modify the “(Default)” value under “command” to “rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL”. After a restart, you’ll see “Control Panel” in your context menu on the desktop.

7. Open Command Prompt From Anywhere

Have you ever roamed around your computer, wishing to open a command line program from a location, but were too lazy to type its path into the prompt itself? One of the beautiful things about some Linux distributions is the ability to open the terminal from any file location within the GUI. Windows can do this also, but doesn’t do it by default. Instead, you’re going to have to get in the system’s innards and actually improvise.

The registry contains an “Extended” property to every shell command key, so what we’re going to do here is rename the property to nullify it. First, go to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd

in the registry and have a look at the right-side of the editor. Rename “Extended” to anything you want, like “Extended-BAK.” Do the same at “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd”. Now, when you restart your computer, you’ll be able to see “Open Command Window Here” in the context menu when you right-click on any icon on your computer.

The Grand Finale

We hope you weren’t so spooked out by the insane convenience of some of these registry hacks. We’ll be back with more in a bit. Leave a comment below if you have any questions about the material. Remember that for values lower than 10, you don’t have to distinguish between decimal and hexadecimal. Just pick one or the other.

Related Posts:

• 3 More Awesome Registry Tweaks to Improve Your Windows Experience
• Things You Probably Didn’t Know But Really Needed in Windows 7
• 5 Awesome Ways to Tweak Windows 8
• 5 More Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]

1. Tcp1323Opts

Tcp1323Opts lets you use RFC 1323, known as “TCP Extensions for High Performance”, in 3 ways. This particular value works with timestamping and network window scaling. This allows the TCP connection to negotiate a receive window size with a server, letting computers specify receive windows of up to 1 GB. This means that you’ll be able to receive up to 1 GB at a time through a connection. Of course, such a high number is unrealistic in today’s standards, but we have the possibility when we need it. The option you’re editing is a two-bit value (no pun intended). The lower bit specifies whether you want to use window scaling, and the higher bit specifies whether you want to use timestamps. Let’s edit that value, shall we?

Windows sets this value to “3″ by default. You’re going to create the value in the registry and set it to “1.”

Navigate to the following location in your registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Add TCP1323Opts as a “DWORD” value on the right-hand side of the registry editor once you reach the path in the registry. Modify this value to “1.”

2. MaxFreeTcbs

MaxFreeTcbs is an iffy value. It determines how many active TCP connections your computer can handle at any given time based on how much physical memory you have and how much performance your computer has bandwidth-wise. If the number is too high, your computer might not properly process TCP transactions because of the high amount of active connections talking to the computer at the same time. However, if the number is too low, you can’t host or request as many connections as you’d like. While the setting is arbitrarily determined, you might want to bump up the number when you upgrade your hardware or Internet connection.

Often times, your computer will perform best with a MaxFreeTcbs number of 65536, although you should still limit the amount of connections your computer has on applications that host and request several simultaneous connections, such as uTorrent.

To reach the location for the value, go to the following path in your registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Create or edit “MaxFreeTcbs” and place its value at 65536. If you’re using an older computer with lower-performance hardware, you can set this at a lower number, like 16000.

3. MaxUserPort

When an application requests an available port to open from Windows, the operating system chooses one port from 1024 to a specified maximum known as “MaxUserPort”. A port on your computer allows you to establish TCP/UDP connections through the Internet and in your local network. I could get into more detail, but we really should get moving. Well, we all know that 5000 is less than 65534. What happens when you open more options to programs seeking a port? They find a port much faster than they would with only a couple thousand available choices.

Windows sets this value to 5000 by default, but you can set it up for any number from 5000 to 65534.

The location where MaxUserPort must go is in the following registry path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Create a value called “MaxUserPort” and set it to 65534. That’s it!

4. GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize

This value has a long name, but you won’t regret modifying it if you have a big Internet connection (10 Mbps and up) and upload stuff a lot. This value represents how much data can be sent from your computer without receiving an acknowledgement (ACK) packet. Every time you send small chunks of data on the Internet, your computer has to wait for this packet, which tells your end of the network, “Everything’s OK! Send more!” Sometimes, due to latency and poor peering, this might not be ideal. So, you can edit this value to allow more data to be sent without waiting for that packet to come.

Place GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize in the following registry path, on the right side of the window.:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Set the value to 65535 and you’re done! This will make the computer able to send 64 kilobytes without waiting for acknowledgement. If you feel a drop in speed after modifying this, either remove the value or try raising it slightly, to 128 kilobytes (by setting the value to 131072).

5. MTU

One of the most common ways to increase the speed of an Internet connection is adjusting the maximum transmission unit (MTU). This value represents the maximum size of a packet transmitted from your computer. It affects your upstream speed more than your downstream speed, but taking care of upstream is just as important, ensuring that larger chunks of data are sent at a time. While this number is normally set automatically by your network card, you can adjust this based on your Internet connection speed.

Setting this value is tricky. First, you have to find out your optimal MTU value, which is one that doesn’t require packet fragmentation because of limitations in your Internet connection speed. You can do this through the command line with “ping -f -l <mtu> <your gateway>.” Replace “<mtu>” with a number from 88 to 4294967295. Replace “<your gateway>” with the gateway your network adapter uses to connect to the Internet. If you don’t know your gateway, type “ipconfig” in your command line to find out its value, under “Default Gateway,” which shows up under the network adapter you use for the Internet.

When pinging, you’ll know you reached too high of a number when the response contains the following message: Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

As long as you choose a number that doesn’t require packet fragmentation, you’re fine. Choose the highest possible number without packet fragmentation, and you have the most optimal MTU.

Now, to set this number, go to the following path in your registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\Interface ID

See the above image for an example of how I found my own principal network interface. There could be other network interfaces installed in a computer, especially when you use it as a router.

Replace “Interface ID” with the GUID for your network interface. Just browse across the different GUIDs that show up under “Interfaces” and look at the information on the right side of the regedit window to see if it matches the details of the network interface you use to connect to the Web.

Once you reach that interface, add “MTU” as a DWORD and set it at the number you got when pinging your gateway. That should fix plenty.

And We’re Done!

I really hope you got something out of this tutorial and learned how to properly speed up your Internet connection. If you follow the instructions to the letter, I guarantee you will feel a positive effect, albeit small, on your Internet connection. Don’t forget to do this to every computer on your local network if you have more than one! Leave a comment below if you have any questions about this. We’ll answer them as quickly as we can!

Related Posts:

• 3 Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]
• 12 Things You Must Do When Running a Solid State Drive in Windows 7
• Things You Can Do to Make Windows 7 Run Like a Cheetah
• 6 Useful Tips to Help Windows 7 Run Faster

1. IRPStackSize

IRPStackSize (I/O Request Packet Stack Size) basically represents how many 36-byte receive buffers your computer can use simultaneously. It allows your computer to receive more data at the same time. If you have a large Internet connection (more than 10 Mbps), you’ll benefit from this. For those of you with smaller Internet connections, you might not notice even the slightest difference, so skip this.

Your system usually allocates 15 IRPs in its network stack. More often than not, you’d benefit much more with 32, although you can configure up to 50. Try 32 first.

Here’s the location of the key in your registry: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

Add “IRPStackSize” as a DWORD value on the right hand side of the regedit window and modify the value to 32.

2. SizReqBuf

SizReqBuf represents the size of the raw receive buffers within a server environment. This means that it will affect your ability to host something in a high-latency environment. Let’s say you host a game server and tons of people complain about lag. Modifying this value will help reduce the impact of lag. You’d also benefit if you’re hosting a website or any other service, including sending files through instant messenger or Neo Modus Direct Connect.

Your system usually places this buffer at 16384 bytes. For most servers, this is efficient enough, but sometimes you have a small amount of memory and cannot keep up with the high request volume.

Here’s the location of the key in your registry: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

Add “SizReqBuf” as a DWORD value on the right hand side of the regedit window. If you have a server with over 512 MB of physical memory, modify the value to 17424. If you have less than 512 MB of memory, you should consider getting a new computer, but you can modify this value in the meantime to 4356.

3. DefaultTTL

Time to Live (TTL) tells routers how long a packet should stay in the air while attempting delivery before giving up and discarding the packet. When the value is often high, your computer spends more time waiting for a failed packet to deliver, effectively decreasing the amount of productivity in your network.

Without a value set, Windows waits 128 seconds for the transaction to finish. This makes your computer lag terribly if you’re in the middle of something and your connection with a server unexpectedly goes south.

Here’s the location of the key in your registry: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Add “DefaultTTL” as a DWORD value within the “Parameters” key. Set the value to anything between 1 and 255. The best value is 64, although you can set lower values if you wish to have the packet killed more quickly.

There’s More!

If you liked the advice shown in this post, stick around this Friday when we’ll be coming up with more ways to increase your network efficiency through the registry editor! In the meantime, leave a comment below to let us know whether any of these things helped you or if you have any questions.

Related Posts:

• 5 More Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]
• 12 Things You Must Do When Running a Solid State Drive in Windows 7
• Things You Can Do to Make Windows 7 Run Like a Cheetah
• 6 Useful Tips to Help Windows 7 Run Faster

Getting IObit Toolbox

The beta version of Toolbox 2.0 (which will be described here) is surprisingly hard to find. Even the links on the official forum announcement point to the 1.0 stable version. So far, the best download link I’ve yet found for 2.0 is here at TechSpot.

It’s a portable application, so instead of an installer you’ll get a ZIP file with the application. Just extract the ZIP file normally and run Toolbox.exe to begin.

Cleaning Options

The Registry Cleaner is simple and thorough, but not without its flaws. For example, in the screenshot below, you can see that Toolbox assigns a Risk level to the threats it finds. What it doesn’t say is precisely what the risk is pertaining to. Is the threat itself high-risk, or the act of removing it? Since Toolbox automatically selected the low-risk items for action, that suggests the latter. Going to the Help menu was no use, since the menu item does not appear to be connected to any dialog (this seems to be true on both the Stable and Beta versions).

You might not think that IObit Uninstaller would be a particularly useful app, but you may be surprised. Along with the ability to select multiple items for removal, you can perform several more advanced tricks, like being able to open the Registry right to the entries for the selected application. If you’ve ever had a package stuck in limbo, not quite installed but not quite deleted, you’ll fall in love with the uninstaller.

Performance Optimization Options

I first tried the Smart RAM application. This tool says it will scan your system memory for unneeded blocks to free. There are two levels of optimization, the Smart Scan and Deep Scan. On my tests, the Smart Scan claimed to free approximately 200-300MB of memory. The Deep Scan acted somewhat differently, first ballooning the used RAM to 100% of physical before dropping about 500MB off the previous total. After a brief period of slowness immediately following the scan, my system tended to remain almost a gig below original RAM usage (while Smart RAM continues to run in the background).

The purpose of the Internet Booster is to tweak your system and browser settings to improve overall Internet speed. Some users may find this more beneficial than others. Users of OSes and browsers that are already heavily optimized for speed (like Windows 7 and Google Chrome) will get little benefit from this section.

Repair Options

The most notable tool in this section is WinFix. When run, it performs a surprisingly comprehensive scan of your Windows settings to see if there are any configuration problems it can address. This can be anything from restoring missing system files to putting a My Computer icon back on the desktop.

The only problem I’ve yet encountered with WinFix is that it does not seem to be fully Windows 7 aware. For example, WinFix repeatedly tells me that I have no working taskbar or desktop, though the system is fully functional. This is the Beta however, and this is precisely the type of issues a Beta release is intended to work out.

Security

Unfortunately, there’s not much to say about the tools in this section. The Security Hole Scanner appears to be mainly a wrapper or front end for your normal Windows Update utility. To date, the scanner has yet to give a single result for my system, which is already set for auto updates from Microsoft.

Next up is the Process Manager, which is nearly identical in design and functionality to the existing Windows task manager. There are even a few situations in which Toolbox’s Process Manager actually lags behind the built-in version. In the Services pane, for example, Toolbox still shows svchost.exe for the bulk of services, while Win7 shows the proper names.

Control Options

In this section you’ll find a few utilities for file and disk management. The one that most stands out is the Disk Explorer, which can scan your drive(s) and give you a report on disk usage. You can use it to see which files and folders on your disk are using up the most space.

The others tools in the Control section are a Cloned Files Scanner, System Information, and Empty Folder Scanner.

Conclusion

While there’s certainly room for improvement in some areas, IObit Toolbox is clearly an extremely useful and well designed software suite. The utilities are typically very well thought out and can really help automate or improve many common administration and repair options. I, for one, will be taking it with me next time my neighbor’s computer goes down.

Related Posts:

• 3 More Awesome Registry Tweaks to Improve Your Windows Experience
• 7 Great Registry Tweaks to Improve Your Windows Experience
• 5 More Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]
• 3 Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]

Think of registry editor as a large table where the system configurations and application settings are stored hierarchically.  Various applications use the Windows registry in some way or the other and applications use the registry API to retrieve, modify or delete data from the registry.

There are lots of things which can be done with Windows registry, however we will confine this article to understand the structure and operation of Windows registry.

Structure of Windows Registry

The Windows registry is made up of two fundamental elements – keys and values. The data stored in Windows registry is structured in a tree format where each node is called a key. Each key can contain several subkeys which again can contain more subkeys and so on.

Each key also contains data entries called values. This depends from application to application; some application do not require to store values in a particular key. This is because the presence of the key is sufficient for the application to perform a task. On general instances, an application opens a key and uses the value associated with it.

The name of a key can contain alphabets and numbers, they are not case sensitive but the use of backslash character (\) is not allowed.

Predefined Keys in Windows Registry

There are six Root Keys:

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• HKEY_USERS
• HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG
• HKEY_DYN_DATA

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT:

This root key stores information about registered applications, file associations and OLE object class ID’s. Shell and COM applications user the information stored in this key. This key also stores information for DDE and OLE support, thus allows backward compatibility with Windows registration databases.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER:

This key stores only user specific settings which means that the settings for currently logged in users (including administrators) are stored in this key. Each user’s settings is stored in a new NTUSER.DAT and USRCLASS.DAT files – you can check the files from My Computer -> OS Drive -> Documents and Settings.

User specific settings and preferences include the settings for environment variables, startup items, program groups, active network connections and other application preferences. Whenever you use “Switch user” or Log off from one user and Log in back again – this key is triggered and it starts loading all the user defined system variables and environment modules.

An example will make the situation more clear. Suppose Harry and Tom use the same computer and both of them use the same Word processor application for writing articles. Harry has chosen the default font as “Arial” while Tom has set “Verdana” as the default font. The Word processor has stored this information under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Softwarename\ and whenever the system finds a specific user, it starts loading the environment from the application’s subkey defined under HKEY_CURRENT_USER

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE :

The subkeys defines under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key define the physical state of the computer. This includes different issues – available system memory, bus type, installed hardware details and so on. The subkeys contain a complete list of hardware configuration data that has ever been used by the operating system. Other critical system information are also stored under this key, this includes network preferences, plug and play information, network security, server names and so on.

There are four main subkeys of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE  and SAM. The files can be found from My Computer -> OS Drive -> Windows -> System 32 -> Config. The fifth subkey named “HARDWARE” is created dynamically and the data is not stored locally on disk. The SYSTEM subkey holds all the information about system drivers and services, while the SOFTWARE subkey contains Windows settings other software details.

HKEY_USER:

This key consists of subkeys that correspondsto HKEY_CURRENT_USER keys for each active user profile available on the operating system. Registry entries that are subordinate to this key define the user configuration for new users on the local machine as well the user configuration for the logged in user.

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG:

This root key contains information that are available at the run time and information available about the hardware profile of the operating system. The information available in this registry key is not stored to disk but it is dynamically generated when the system boots. The values stored in this key (and it’s subkeys) describe the differences between the current hardware configuration and the standard configuration of the operating system.

This key can also be called an alias of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\Current

HKEY_DYN_DATA:

This key is used on older versions of Windows NT – Windows 95- Windows Me. It contains information about various hardware devices and network performance statistics. The information is gathered dynamically during system boot and stored in RAM but not on disk.

Editing the Windows Registry

To access Windows registry, type regedit in the search box of Windows start menu. If you are running Windows XP or earlier versions, go to Run -> regedit and hit Enter to open the registry editor.

Modifying the values of existing registry entries should be done carefully because any wrong changes made may lead to system instability.

Further reading on Windows Registry:

1. How to backup registry in Windows7
2. How to clean up Windows registry
3. Why Defragment the Windows Registry

Related Posts:

• 3 More Awesome Registry Tweaks to Improve Your Windows Experience
• 7 Great Registry Tweaks to Improve Your Windows Experience
• 5 More Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]
• 3 Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]

Now, if you have lost the CD case (high chances that you would), the product keys can be extracted from Windows registry. Wouldn’t it be wise to first extract all the product keys of software and keep them at a safe location? This ensures full installation of programs after a system format. This article shows you ways to extract the serial and product keys of application software in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

1. Magical Jelly Keyfinder

Magical Jelly is the best product key finder for Windows. It’s free and portable, hence you can use it without installation or modifying the Windows registry. It can be used to extract the product keys of paid software like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Visual Studio, Adobe Photoshop etc.

Using Magical Jelly is pretty simple as double-clicking the program extracts all the available product keys from your Windows registry. This key finder program works with all the major versions of Windows (Win 95 -Win 7).

2. WinKeyFinder

WinkeyFinder is another great program to find the CD keys of installed software as well as the operating system. You can use this program to

• Find product keys of Windows XP, Vista, Windows 2003, Windows 98 and Windows ME editions
• Find serial keys of Microsoft Office 2000, 2003 and Microsoft 2007.
• Change or copy the volume serial number.
• View .NET key.

Apart from viewing the product keys, this keyfinder program lets you save your software product keys in an encrypted format. You can use this program to generate unique passwords by entering the combination of any serial key code.

Some FAQ regarding Serial and Product Keys

Note that you need to run the key finder program before formatting the system. If you format the system and try to retrieve the keys, you would find nothing as the registry would be completely fresh with no data stored. Hence, use any of the above key finder programs and save the serial keys in your computer. A better option would be to print a hard copy of all the serial keys and keep it in your shelf.

Following are some common questions regarding serial and product keys of Windows:

1. The product key retrieved by the Keyfinder is different from the one I purchased.

Ans: Some computer manufacturers use generic product keys provided by Microsoft, so that they can manufacture products at a large amount. If the key extracted by the key finder program does not match with the one that came with the Windows CD, then be rest assured that your version of Windows is not completely “Premium”. Generic keys expires after re-installation Windows while premium keys don’t.

2. If I use different Keyfinder programs, will I get different keys?

Ans: The answer is NO, you won’t. As I earlier said, serial keys are stored in Windows registry and the Keyfinder program is just a way to recover that. Thus, using different key finder program would not alter the result in any case.

3. I uninstalled a program long ago and forgot the serial key. Can I recover the serial key using a Keyfinder software?

Ans: It depends on the software itself. During uninstallation, some application programs completely remove the registry entries while others do not. You should try with a Keyfinder program and see whether the serials are still available or not.

4. I cannot boot Windows because my Operating System has crashed. How do I recover the CD key?

Ans: The keyfinder program works only when Windows is running fine. If Windows crashes, you can not use any Keyfinder to extract the serial key.

Do you have any more questions regarding Windows serial keys? What technique do you use to recover CD keys of Windows or other applications? Please share your ideas with us in the comments section.

Related Posts:

• Microsoft Pledges to Eliminate Pre-Packaged Bloatware With ‘Signature’
• 3 More Awesome Registry Tweaks to Improve Your Windows Experience
• 7 Great Registry Tweaks to Improve Your Windows Experience
• 5 More Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]

Changing the logon screen via the registry

Before you start, please backup your Windows registry to be on the safe side. The following process involves changing the registry and tweaking it to change the logon screen in Windows7

• Press Windows key + R. Type “regedit” and hit Enter.
• Now navigate to the following path as shown below:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

• On the right pane, right click on the blank space and choose New->DWORD Value. Give the name as “OEMBackground”.
• Double click on this newly created key and set the vale to –1. Chose the base as Hexadecimal and click “OK”.

• Go to your system drive (C:\) and navigate to C -> Windows ->System32 ->oobe.
• Create a new folder named “info”. Under “info” create another folder named as “backgrounds”.
• You are almost done. Now copy the image that you want to put in the logon screen into the “backgrounds” folder and rename it to “backgroundDefault”.
• Restart the computer and the change will be reflected.

The above process is pretty simple, but the downside is that it requires you to hack into the registry (which most people are afraid to do so) and it works only for a single login screen. If you want to switch to a different background, you have to restart the process from scratch.

Change the Logon screen with Logon Screen Rotator

For those who want a more automated way, logon Screen Rotator could just be the app for you. This application automates the process and changes the logon screen in each logon or as defined by the user.

• Download logon Screen Rotator.
• It is a tiny program that does not need any installation. Double click on the application file that you’ve downloaded.

• Right click on the blank space under the “Images”  tab and click on “Add Image” to add the images you want to put in the logon screen. It is recommended that the size of the images should be less than 256 KB.

• Under “Settings” tab, you can customize the settings of the application. Here you can disable the changes for the other users by checking the box labeled with “Disable Other Users Changing Settings”. You can also setup the frequency of changing the screen under “Change Logon Screen” option.

• Now click on “test” to see the effect.
• When you are done and happy with the testing, click the Close button in right hand top corner to close the logon screen rotator window. Immediately it will appear a message like this.

• Click on “Yes” to enable the program.

Restart Windows 7 and watch the effect. Now it will change the logon screen as you’ve set up the option in the setting tab.

Enjoy.

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Primary Checks

Prior to fixing your error, you need to do some basic checks

1. Make sure the write-protection latch of your drive (if it has any) is turned off.

2. If you are using an updated antivirus, try scanning the drive for viruses.

Solutions

There are many solutions to this problem and actually every one of them may have worked for some users but may not work for you. Hence I’m trying to enlist all the feasible solutions, so if one doesn’t work, try the other one.

1. Fixing Registry

• Press Winkey + R (or just open the Run from Start menu). Type regedit and hit enter.
• Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
  
  NOTE : If this is not there, you may need to add this entry. For that download the batch file add.bat from here, and double-click the file. The entry will be added to registry.
• Now in the right pane double-click the key WriteProtect. Now set the Value Data to 0 (zero) and press OK.
• Exit Registry and restart your PC.
• Now try using your USB Drive.

2. Using Formatting Utility

As the solution suggests we will be formatting the USB drive, so backup all the items in the drive first before carrying out htis step.

• Download Apacer Formatting Utility.
• Unzip the pack to a folder. Now double-click the Start.bat file in that folder. This will initiate the formatting. Wait until the formatting completes or the LED of the drive stops blinking. If you fail once give it few more try.
• Now remove the pen-drive and plug it in to the PC again. Now, open RUN and type cmd and hit Enter.
• Now in the command prompt, type CHKDSK [usb-drive-letter]: /F. That’s it. You are done.

3. Trying a low-level format

This is yet another solution which will try to solve the problem by using a low-level format. Don’t forget to backup your drive items.

• Download the free utility HDD Low Level Format Tool.
• Now using it, perform a low-level format of your USB drive. If you fail once give it few more try.
• Now open RUN and type diskmgmt.msc, hit Enter.
• Now right-click the USB Drive and press Format. Now do as shown in the screenshot below. Then press OK.

4. For Transcend USB Drive Users

Transcend has its own Recovery Tool to get rid of this error.

• Go to the Transcend Product Support Page.
• Enter your Model No. of your USB Drive, hit Enter. Now select the product which which is most similar to yours from search results.
• Download the mFormat utility. If you are asked for serial no. enter your product serial no. or if you don’t have it enter this number: 1456784523.
• Plug-in your drive and run the utility to format your drive. You may need to try this method several times to fix the error.

Well as I said earlier that every single trick among all those listed above have solved the problem for many and has not for many others. Lets hope one of these will help you out of the “Write-protection” error. If you fail, feel free to ask. But if you succeed, please let us know which one worked for you, so that our future readers get a share of your valuable experience. Also, if you feel you have a better idea, let me know via comments.

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• 3 Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]

Needless to say, the windows registry tends to be in a mess most of the time.

As a Windows user, you also might have noticed Windows becoming progressively slower as you use it, installing and removing software, going about your daily business. One of the reasons for this is because the Windows registry tends to get bloated with stale entries and such, over time and since it is stored in the memory as long as the computer is being used, it slows down the whole computer.

There are a lot of utilities available to help you clean up the registry and most of them do the job pretty well. One of them that I tried recently (and was pretty impressed with) is Auslogics’ Registry Defrag.

Registry Defrag is a no nonsense, no frills application. Download and install it from the above link and you’re all set (almost).

When run Registry Defrag for the first time, it reads the registry, analyses it and tells you the approximate gains that you’ll get by running the utility.

Once you click on Defrag, Registry Defrag schedules the defrag to take place on the next reboot of Windows. It’ll ask you to let it reboot windows, so that it can work on the registry, without Windows bothering it. Or you can keep working and reboot later at your convenience.

If you’re the kind of user who installs and removes a lot of software and are convinced that reinstalling Windows is the only way to remove the crud, try giving Registry Defrag a try.

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