                           Windows 95 Registry

              Tricks, Speedups, Tweaks, Workarounds & Fixes


The Windows 95 Registry is a unified database for storing system and
application configuration data in a hierarchical form.
Its role is to replace the .INI files used by older Windows 3.xx
versions. All data from the system initialization files: SYSTEM.INI,
WIN.INI, CONTROL.INI etc., is now contained into the Registry, together
with most of other system settings.
All Windows 95 specific programs now store their initialization data into
the Registry instead of into the .INI files.
The actual Registry files are: SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT (and their
automatically created backups from the last successful Win95 load:
SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0), located in the Windows 95 folder (default is
\WINDOWS). For protection purposes, all these four files have the
following attributes: hidden, read-only, system.


                           Registry Structure


When you run the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe), you see the following
Registry subtrees under the "My Computer" header:

* HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT: Contains software settings about drag-and-drop
  operations, handles shortcut information, and other user interface
  information. There is a subkey here for every file association that
  has been defined.

* HKEY_CURRENT_USER: Contains information regarding the currently
  logged-on user (see also HKEY_USERS below).
     # AppEvents: Settings for assigned sounds to play for system and
       applications sound events.
     # Control Panel: Control Panel settings, similar to system.ini and
       win.ini in Windows 3.xx.
     # InstallLocationsMRU: Contains paths for Startup folder programs.
     # keyboard layout: Specifies current keyboard layout.
     # Network: Network connection information.
     # RemoteAccess: Current log-on location information, if using Dial-Up
       Networking.
     # Software: Software configuration settings for the currently
       logged-on user.

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE: Contains information about the hardware and
  software settings that are generic to all users of this computer.
  Subkeys include:
     # Config: Configuration information/settings.
     # Enum: Hardware device information/settings.
     # Hardware: Serial communication port(s) information/settings.
     # Network: Information about network(s) the user is currently logged
       onto.
     # Security: Network security settings.
     # Software: Software specific information/settings.
     # System: System startup and device driver information and operating
       system settings.

* HKEY_USERS: Contains information about desktop and user settings for
  each user that logs onto this computer. Each user will have a subkey
  under this heading. If there is only one user, the subkey is ".default".

* HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG: Contains information about the current hardware
  configuration, pointing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

* HKEY_DYN_DATA: Contains dynamic information about the plug-and-play
  devices installed on your system. The data here changes if devices are
  added or removed on-the-fly.



                         Registry Editting Rules



To edit the Registry, you need to run the Registry Editor, a program called
RegEdit.exe, located in your Windows 95 folder (default is \WINDOWS).


* IMPORTANT: BACKUP Windows 95's Registry Files (SYSTEM.DAT, USER.DAT,
             SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0) and System Files (SYSTEM.INI and
             WIN.INI) BEFORE ATEMPTING TO MAKE ANY CHANGES !


* BEWARE: When you add/delete/modify a Registry item/value/key/string,
          IT WILL NOT PROMPT YOU FOR CONFIRMATION !


NOTE: If you are not familiar/comfortable with "messing around" with your
Win95 Registry file structure/settings, do not atempt to make modifications
to the Registry!

NOTE: To learn more about how to modify/add/delete values/keys/strings into
Win95's Registry, open RegEdit.exe, and click on Help. Read carefully all
related topics!
To learn more about Win95's Registry Structure, open the WIN95RK.HLP
file, found on your Win95 install CD-ROM, in the \ADMIN\RESKIT\HELPFILE
folder, and READ carefully all Registry related topics (especially the
Hierarchy topic)!

NOTE: These tips have been tried by Win95 users (and some by me), but with
no guarantee they will also work on your system!
So take extreme caution when making changes to the Registry!
Faulty Registry entries may result in system crashes or/and lockups!


In the following Registry editting tips, the pathways (in the Registry
Editor left-hand pane screen) point to a specific item/key/string/binary
value, located in the right-hand pane, into Registry's tree structure,
with explanations of what they do, and how/why you may want to modify them
to customize/speedup/fix your Windows 95 system.
As far as I know, this is the most comprehensive online database of Win95
Registry tips. I'll keep adding more in a future release.
If you have some Registry tips of your own, I'd be happy to add them to
this database, if you'd agree to send them to me. Also, if you have any
comments/ideas/questions, send me a "wire" at:
axcel216@aol.com

Thanx for your time and patience.
Hope you'll find here some tricks to your liking...

... Enough said. And now for the fun part:


REGISTRY.TXT Topics Contents:

BLINK... NOT!  (My own trick)
MENUSHOWDELAY
RENAME RECYCLE BIN
DITCH RECYCLE BIN
SHOW BMP ICONS
NAMENUMERICTAIL
MIDDLE BUTTON
OPEN NEW WINDOW
NEW MENU
DITCH THOSE ARROWS!
CHANGE ARROWS
DOS MODE OPTIONS
ADD NEW TIPS
MINANIMATE
UPDATEMODE
MOVE STARTUP FOLDER
DOCUMENTS OFF!
ADD NEW SOUNDS
REMOVE NETWORK NEIGHBORHOOD
VIDEO REFRESH RATE
HARD DRIVE THRASHING
MODEM INITIALIZATION STRING
RECEIVE WINDOWS
MODEM TIMEOUT
REMOVE PROGRAMS
RUN COMMAND HISTORY
NEW COMMANDS
NUMLOCK
CLEAR DESKTOP ICONS
NO LOG  (My own trick)




BLINK... NOT!  (My own trick)

Undocumented! To change the cursor blinking rate to NON-BLINKING in any text
editor, word processor or command line in Win95, open Regedit and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop\CursorBlinkRate
Highlight CursorBlinkRate in the right-hand pane, right-click on it, click
Modify, change the numeric value to -1 and click OK. Close Regedit and
restart Win95.
NOTE: This setting doesn't apply to the MS-DOS mode.


MENUSHOWDELAY

Undocumented! Speed-up Start menu: open Regedit and create a new string
(key) under:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop
and name it MenuShowDelay. Give it a value from 0 (fastest) to 10 (slowest).
These values are the time in milliseconds that the popup will wait before
showing. Restart Win95 to see the Start menu open its popups instantaneously.
MenuShowDelay=0
is the fastest rate, higher numbers are slower (permited: 0-10).


RENAME RECYCLE BIN

Undocumented! To change the name of the Recycle Bin icon, open Regedit and
go to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever tickles your fantasy. 


DITCH RECYCLE BIN

Undocumented! If you don't use the Recycle Bin to store deleted files
(that you may want to recover some day though...), you can get rid of its
desktop icon all together. Open Regedit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace
Find the string "Recycle Bin" and press Delete. That's it, folks.


SHOW BMP ICONS

I found two ways to have the icons of all your BMP-s show as a small
picture of the actual bitmap:
1. Open Regedit, find Paint.Picture (or whichever program BMP-s are
registered to). Add a new key under Paint.Picture named DefaultIcon.
In the right pane, change the default value (by double clicking it) to %1.
%1 tells Win95 that the default icon for this file type is in the file
itself, and since there is no icon in a BMP file, Windows 95 makes a small
preview image of the BMP for the icon. Sorting/viewing BMPs is now easy.
This will allow you to use the BMP files as icons and they will also show
up in Explorer.
2. Open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Paint.Picture\DefaultIcon
In the right-hand pane, double-click on the Default value, and change it
from "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\COOL.DLL,41" to "%1".


NAMENUMERICTAIL

Undocumented! To have a directory named "New Documents" in Win95, but have
the short file name be "DOCUMENT" instead of "NEWDOC~1":
The only time short filenames are relevant is in a mixed computing
environment, to share files with systems that don't support LFN-s:
1. Start LFN-s with the short version: rename the above folder
DOCUMENTS-NEW, which would resolve to Docume~1.
2. Get rid of the tildes: add the value:
NameNumericTail=0
in the following Registry binary key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
and the above example (assuming there wasn't already a \DOCUMENT folder)
would resolve to the correct eight-character name.


MIDDLE BUTTON

To use a Logitech (or compatible) middle Mouse button as a double-click:
Open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Logitech\MouseWare\CurrentVersion\SerialV\0000
In the right-hand pane, modify "DoubleClick"="000" to read:
"DoubleClick"="001"
Or maybe you have this version:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Logitech\Mouseware\CurrentVersion\Serial\0000
In the right hand pane, double-click the "Double Click" key and change
the value "000" to "001".


OPEN NEW WINDOW

If you're browsing through folder windows, it's usually nice to have Win95
set to use a single window that changes when you open a new folder.
However, if you want to copy or move files around, you should be able to
quickly open a separate window or a folder.
This can be done by holding "CTRL" as you double-click, but it would be nice
to have this option on the right-click menu, next to "Open" and "Explore".
To add this to the menu, open Regedit and go to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Default Icon\shell\shellex.
Under "shell", add a new key called "opennew". Modify its (Default) value to
say "Open New &Window". Then, add another key under "opennew". Call this one
"command", and set its (Default) value to "explorer %1". A side effect is
that "Open New Window" now also appears when you right-click on the Start
Button, which is completely pointless because it does that anyway.


NEW MENU

To add file types to the New menu item on the mouse menu, edit the
Registry. Find the extension of the data file for the program in question
(i.e. .doc for Word) under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. Below the files extension
you need to add a new key with the value 'ShellNew'.  
Once that key is in place you have 2 options: 1 is to start with a null
file (one with no preset styles, etc), the other is to start from a
template file.  
For a null file, in the ShellNew key insert a new string value named
'NullFile' and leave the value blank. To use a template file, insert a new
string value named 'FileName' and set the value equal to the path of the
template document.
The default is in the hidden ShellNew subdirectory beneath your Win95
directory.
When you use the New feature of the button menu, Win95 either copies the
template file or creates a null file.


DITCH THOSE ARROWS!

Undocumented! To get rid of ALL shortcut desktop arrows: open Regedit, and
go to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk
open it and delete the "IsShortcut" key. Then find:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pif
open it and delete the "IsShortcut" key as well. Restart Win95.


CHANGE ARROWS

To change the shortcut arrows on your shortcut icons, open Regedit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\Shell Icons
Change the value labeled 29 (could be different on your system) to the icon
file of your choice.


DOS MODE OPTIONS

To change the options Win95 gives you when making a shortcut to an MS-DOS
program/game that requires its own AUTOEXEC.BAT, open Regedit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\MS-DOSOptions
Create a new key called AUTOEXEC.BAT in any of the directories found in
this key and give it a value. Now you'll be able to use this command in
your existing AUTOEXEC.BAT, to load whatever program the directory that
you are in corresponds to.


ADD NEW TIPS

To edit the Win95 Startup Tips and add your own to the Welcome to Windows
95 Tips Dialog Box that appears at startup, open RegEdit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Tips
Go to the end of the list of existing Tips (Win95 comes with 48 Tips).
To add a new String Value, right click at the end of the list. Select NEW.
Type the next highest number from what's listed directly next to "ab".
Press ENTER. Right click again on the number value you created. Select
MODIFY. In the box marked VALUE DATA, type your new User Tip. Select OK.
Close RegEdit and restart Win95. You will see your new tip the next time
the Welcome to Windows 95 Tip dialog box appears.
At the beginning of the VALUE DATA, you might want to begin the new tip
with a text string like "My Own Win95 Tips:". This way you'll remember
which are the tips you added.


MINANIMATE

Undocumented! To turn off Window Animation (eliminate exploding windows):
Shut off the exploding windows displayed when you minimize/maximize
windows. This makes navigating Win95 a lot faster especially for those who
don't have super fast video cards. Open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
Right-click an empty space in the right pane. Select new/string value.
Name the new value MinAnimate. Double-click on the new string value
(MinAnimate) and click on Modify. Enter 0 for Off or 1 for On and hit OK.
Close Regedit and restart Win95.


UPDATEMODE

Undocumented! If you'd like Win95 to refresh your files/folders constantly,
open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Update
In the right-hand pane right-click on UpdateMode, select Modify, select 01,
and change it to 0. Click OK. Close Regedit and restart Win95.


MOVE STARTUP FOLDER

Undocumented! This Registry editting will move the \Startup folder from
the \Start Menu\Programs folder to a different location, let's say \Windows
(default Win95 files folder). The programs located in the \Startup folder
will still run, but the \Startup folder will be in a different directory
(\Windows in this case).
This helps if you don't have anything in the Startup folder, getting it out
of your way. The folder is just relocated, not deleted!
To do this, open Regedit, and go to: 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
The right-hand window contains the path to the current location of the
Startup folder (the default is: \Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp).
Change this value to \Windows to make \Startup disappear for ever!
This is valid for all Win95's default folders (you can change their
location to anything you want). Example: change Win95's fonts location
from \Windows\Fonts to \Fonts.


DOCUMENTS OFF!

The Documents Menu is a clever idea - it displays a list of the last
dozen-or-so programs and files opened from the Explorer. You can clear the
menu temporarily; the only problem is that there's no way to turn it off
permanently. This can be seen as a lapse in security, and the lack of a
way to turn it off is confusing. There is a way around this:
1. To clear the menu temporarily, right-click on an empty portion of the
taskbar. Select Properties from the menu that appears, and click on the
Start Menu Programs tab. Click Clear to clean out the menu. Note this is
only temporary until you launch another file.
2. To make the documents menu always empty, right-click on the Recycle Bin
on the Desktop, and select Properties from the menu. Under the Global Tab,
select Use one setting for all drives. Turn on the option labeled Do not
move files to the recycle bin. Open RegEdit, and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Folders
In the right pane there should be a list containing one or more of your
"special" folders. If an entry named Recent doesn't already exist, select
New from the Edit menu, and then select String Value. Rename the new item
to "Recent." Next, double-click on Recent, and under Value Data, type
C:\Recycled, press OK and close the Registry. Click on the desktop, and
press F5 to refresh the desktop, so the change takes effect.


ADD NEW SOUNDS

To Add sounds to any Win95 application/program, open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps
There are two subfolders here: .Default and Explorer.
Open the Apps folder, click New, and then Key from the menu. Type in your
application's filename, without extension (for example Winfile, which is the
executable WITHOUT the EXE extension for File Manager), and click New and Key
from the menu again, in the new Winfile subfolder. Name this new key Open.
Then create a new key with the Winfile subfolder selected and name it Close.
Close the Registry and click on Start, Settings, Control Panel and then
double-click on Sounds. Assign sounds to Winfile's Open and Close functions.
From now on, when you open/close Winfile.exe, the sounds will play.
For each application on your system, you can add sounds to these events:
AppGPFault
Close
Default
Maximize
MenuCommand
MenuPopup
Minimize
Open
RestoreDown
RestoreUp
SystemAsterisk
SystemExclamation
SystemHand
SystemQuestion
Other events may be possible (depending on your application, not all programs
support all these sound events; it depends on the events your particular
application generates).


REMOVE NETWORK NEIGHBORHOOD

Undocumented! To remove the Network Neighborhood Icon from your Desktop,
open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace
Click the particular icon you want to remove and choose Delete.


VIDEO REFRESH RATE

To set the Video Refresh Rate:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Display\0000\Default
RefreshRate=-1
-1 is the value for automatic refresh rate, any other value corresponds to
the Hz rate. Also if you have loaded more that one video driver you may
have more values under display (eg: 0001,0002, etc.)


HARD DRIVE THRASHING

Hard Drive Thrashing: open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer
Default value is:
Max Cached Icons=4000
It is also recomended to edit your SYSTEM.INI file's [vcache] section
to read (SYSTEM.INI is found in your Win95 folder, \WINDOWS by default):
[vcache]
mincachefile=0
maxcachefile=4096


MODEM INITIALIZATION STRING

To change the Modem Initialization String: open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\currentControlSet\Sevices\Class\Modem\0000\init
and change setting to the new values.


RECEIVE WINDOWS

To set the Default Receive Windows (RWIN): open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_LOCALMACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\DefaultRcvWindows
and change the number:
DefaultRcvWindows=-2144
The number above is the default setting.


MODEM TIMEOUT

To increase/decrease the Modem Timeout: open Regedit, and go to:
HEKY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\XXXX\Settings
Where XXXX is the number of your modem:
Inactivity Timeout=30
means that the Inactivity Timeout is set to 30 minutes.


REMOVE PROGRAMS

To remove Programs Listed in Control Panel Add/Remove Programs Section:
Even though you can remove programs this way it doesn't always remove all
traces from the Registry. Open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
and delete the remnants of the program you want to remove.


RUN COMMAND HISTORY

To edit the Recent History of RUN commands: open Regedit, and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU
and add/remove the commands you want.


NEW COMMANDS

Create a new text file with the lines bellow, name it NEW.REG, and then
double-click on it:
REGEDIT4
; Add the "Open DOS Box" option for files and folders:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\Shell\Open_DOS_Box]
@=3D"Open DOS &Box"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\Shell\Open_DOS_Box\command]
@=3D"COMMAND.COM /K CD %1"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\Shell\Open_DOS_Box]
@=3D"Open DOS &Box"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\Shell\Open_DOS_Box\command]
@=3D"COMMAND.COM"
; Add the "Edit with Notepad" option for unknown files:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\Shell\Edit_with_Notepad]
@=3D"Edit &with Notepad"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\Shell\Edit_with_Notepad\command]
@=3D"notepad.exe %1"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\Shell]
@=3D"Edit_with_Notepad"
Running this registration file, adds one command to the shortcut menu when
you click folders or folder shortcuts:
- Open DOS Box: opens an MS-DOS box set to the directory/folder you
click on.
It also adds two commands to the shortcut menu when you click a file:
- Edit with Notepad: it opens the highlighted file in Notepad;
- Open DOS Box: opens an MS-DOS box set to the directory/folder the file
is in.
"Edit with Notepad" is also set as the default option for all unknown
extensions. From now on, when you double-click on a file with an unknown
extension (not associated in the Registry with a specific application),
it will open in Notepad.


NUMLOCK

To have the NumLock key turned ON or OFF upon Win95 startup, open Regedit
and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Microsoft\Input Devices
Double-click on Input Devices, then click New, then Key. Name the new key
Keyboard. Highlight Keyboard, right-click on it, then click New and choose
String Value. Type in NumLock and click OK. Then right-click on NumLock
and click Modify. Type in ON to turn the NumLock key on (or OFF to turn it
off). Close Regedit.


CLEAR DESKTOP ICONS

To clear your desktop of the Inbox or Recycle Bin icons, open Regedit and
go to the:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace
folder as if you were navigating Explorer.
NameSpace contains within it two folders that correspond to the icons for
the Inbox and the Recycle Bin. The folder names are ridiculously long and
made up mostly of numbers. But when you select one of the folders, an
object in the right-hand pane tells you if the folder is for the Inbox or
the Recycle Bin. You can then delete the folder corresponding to the icon
that you don't want displayed on your desktop anymore.
You can always get to the Inbox from Start/Programs/Microsoft Exchange and
use the Del key to delete a selected file. If you need to get into the
Recycle Bin or restore files, just go the Recycle Bin folder found on your
primary hard drive's root folder.

NO LOG  (My own trick)

Undocumented! For those of you who installed MS Plus! for Win95, there is
a way to disable the System Agent log update. Open Regedit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Plus!\System Agent
In the right-hand pane, highlight No Log. Right-click on No Log, click
Modify, and change the numeric value from 1 to 0. Close Regedit and
restart Win95.
You can now safely delete the file SAGE.TXT (or whatever you called it)
located in your \Program Files\Plus! folder, if you don't want System
Agent to keep a record (log) of its actions anymore.