Tips and Tricks

Tips & Tricks

You often find little Registry Tips and Tweaks all over the place. If they can provide changes that enhance your computing experience, then by all means, use them. If however, they are not really necessary, or can be done using a different method or application, its your decision.

However, even if you don't perform the actual tweak, you can sometimes learn a lot about Windows and the Registry just by following it through as you read it, and learning where and how the changes are made.

Follow some of these through in the Registry Editor. You don't have to perform the changes.

Internet Explorer's Default Protocol
When you type a URL in Internet Explorer's toolbar, it automatically enters the prefix 'http://' if one is not supplied. In other words, if you type pccomputernotes.com in the text box, IE will change it to http://pccomputernotes.com and send you to the site automatically.

Sometimes, for reasons unknown to mankind, IE may lose this function. Here's what it should look like in the Registry.

1. Open the Registry Editor an find
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software /Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/URL/DefaultPrefix

2. The default value entry should be 'http://'.
(But, if you visited a lot of FTP sites, you might want to change it to ftp://. Normally, leave it at http://)

3. Close the Registry Editor.

Get Rid of Windows Animation
When you open the Start Menu in Windows, or when you minimize, maximize, or restore a window, it seems to slide out like a desk drawer. This is Windows animation, and if you have a slower system, it can seem to make it that much worse. If you would like a crisper action, open the Registry Editor.

1. Find
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Deskto/WindowMetrics

2. Right-click the entry called MinAnimate, and choose Modify.

3. Change the value to 0.

4. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.

Note: In Windows98+, the Windows Animation option is available in Desktop Properties, under the Effects tab.

Speed Up The Start Menu
When you highlight or click a choice in the Start Menu, there is a definite pause before the next menu pops up.

The delay is there for a reason. Not everyone is as proficient with the mouse as you or I. I've seen people get extremely frustrated as they try to navigate their mouse pointer to a specific menu item. If they accidentally stray to a different item for just a second. The wrong sub-menus pop out and they have to start all over.

Or some will get the right sub-menu, but when they try to move the cursor over to it, they stray off for just a second and it closes.

But, as you gain better control over that pointer, the delay can seem to get longer and become quite annoying. You can eliminate the delay and make your start menu seem a little snappier.

1. Open the Registry Editor and navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER /Control Panel/Desktop

2. If you see an entry called MenuShowDelay, then right-click on it, choose Modify, and change the value to a smaller number. You can change it to 0 if you want. The default is 400.

3. If you don't see the entry, it is still defaulting at 400. You need to creat the entry. Right-click on a blank area in the right pane. Choose New, then String Entry.
Name it MenuShowDelay. Now right-click on that entry and choose Modify. Change the value to 0. If this makes the menus too quick, experiment with numbers a little larger.

4. Close the Registry Editor.

Until next month...

If you have any questions, comments, ideas or suggestions for the NewsLetter, or our WebSite, please email me at: suggestions@pccomputernotes.com

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