As Windows 8 gets closer to the final release,
I’ve already started seeing a lot of ways to customize or tweak the
registry! There are a lot of visual and under-the-hood changes in
Windows 8 and not all of them can be changed via the GUI settings.
In this article, I’ll show you 10 cool registry hacks you can use to
customize your Windows 8 install. I’m sure there will be a lot more
customizations in the coming months, so feel free to post a comment and
let us know any that you find.
Disable Charms Bar Hint
The Charms bar in Windows 8 pops up the second you move your mouse to
the top right or bottom right corner of the screen. I find it annoying
because I do this by accident a lot. There is a registry key that lets
you disable the hint so that the bar only opens when you move to the top
or bottom right and then slide your mouse down or up along the right
edge.
Prevent Charms Bar Keeps Opening by Accident in Windows 8
Desktop Icon Spacing
Thanks Microsoft for getting rid of the options to customize our
desktop! What used to be so easy is now a registry hack! In order to
change the desktop icon spacing (horizontal and vertical), you have to
edit two values in the registry. Check out our previous post below.
Change Desktop Icon Spacing in Windows 8
Change Number of Row Tiles
By default, Windows 8 will try to figure out the number of rows it
should show on your Start Screen based on the resolution of your
monitor. What if you don’t want the number of rows it determines? Well,
you can change it to a different value if you like. As you can see, I
decided on only two rows instead of having 5 rows. You can choose a
value from 1 to 5. Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Grid
Create a new
DWORD value here and name it
Layout_MaximumRowCount. Give it a value between 1 and 5. Enjoy!
Disable User Account Control
User Account Control is a different beast in Windows 8 and you can’t
even fully disable it via the traditional GUI interface you see above.
To actually turn it off, you have to go to the registry. However, there
are a few unexpected consequences to disabling UAC in Windows 8, which
you can read in full below.
OTT Explains – UAC (User Account Control) in Windows 8
Confirm File Delete Dialog
Another missing feature in Windows 8 is the confirm file delete
dialog we were all so familiar with. I never noticed it too much, but
when I first deleted a file in Windows 8, I was shocked to see that the
file just went straight to the recycle bin. I’m sure I’ll get used to it
eventually, but if you really want it back, here’s how to get it back.
Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Go ahead and create a new key under Policies called
Explorer. Then create a new
DWORD value and give it a name of
ConfirmFileDelete. Change the value to 1 if you want the delete file dialog and 0 if you don’t want it. Sweet!
Registered Owner
Even though it’s so old and useless, I still like having the ability
to change the registered own in Windows to whatever I like. Don’t ask me
why, it’s just some weird geek thing from the early days of Windows.
Luckily, Microsoft still has the value stored in a registry key which
you can change to whatever you like.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
Under CurrentVersion, just find
RegisteredOwner and change it. Also, note there is a
RegisteredOrganization,
you could could actually put two custom lines in the about Windows
dialog. How do you even get to that dialog in Windows 8? Go to the Start
Screen and start typing
winver.
Paint Desktop Version
If you’re running several copies of Windows 8 on multiple computers
and in virtual machines like I am, it’s nice to have the Windows version
painted onto the desktop automatically. Windows 8 has a registry key
that enables you to add this to your desktop automatically. Navigate to
the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Find
PaintDesktopVersion under the
Desktop key and change the value from
0 to
1. Next time you login, you’ll see the Windows 8 version number and build number.
Border Width
If you don’t like the border size around all your windows while on
the desktop, then you can change it by going to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
Find the key called
BorderWidth and change it to any value between
0 and
50.
It’s defaulted to -15, which is some odd numbering scheme employed by
Microsoft which I don’t really get. Luckily, you can just use 0 to 50
for this registry setting instead of the crazy negative numbers.
Prevent Users From Uninstalling Apps
By default, you can uninstall any app that you download from the
Windows Store. However, it could be useful to create a user account for
guests or your kids and then prevent users from uninstalling the apps.
As you can see above, when I right-click on a metro app, the Uninstall
options is gone! Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
You’re going to have to create the
Explorer key under
Windows and under Explorer you’re going to need to create a new
DWORD value called
NoUninstallFromStart. Give that a value of 1 and then sign out and sign back in.
Enable Snap on Low Res Screens
If you’re running Windows 8 at a lower resolution, you may not be
able to snap metro apps to the right or left side of the screen.
However, using a little registry hack, you can get the benefit even on
lower resolutions. Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\
Under the ImmersiveShell key, create a new key called
AppPositioner. Under the new key, go ahead and create a new DWORD value called
AlwaysEnableLSSnapping. Go ahead and give this a value of 1.
If you’re using Windows 8 and feel comfortable modifying the
registry, feel free to play around with the options above and customize
Windows 8 to your delight. Enjoy!
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