As Windows 10 gains a larger market share over the next few years, you can be sure that there will be plenty of ways to customize or tweak the registry! A lot of visual and hidden changes can only be done through the registry.
In this article, I will show you 10 cool registry tricks that you can use to customize your Windows 10 installation. I’m sure there will be more customizations in the future, so post a comment and let us know any good ones you find.
Obviously, before you start, make sure you do a backup of your Windows and registry.
Table of Contents
Customize the on-screen context menu
A nice registry hack is to add your own shortcuts to the desktop right-click context menu. It doesn’t have much there by default, but if you happen to be on screen a lot, you can add some links to your favorite shows.
First, access the following registry key:
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\
Now you have to add two keys below cover Key. The first name should be the name you want to use for the shortcut and the second name will be called request. Above, I created a name called Notebook and then created request below Notepad. Finally, double click Default in the right pane and change the value to notepad.exe, for example.
Now when you right click on the desktop you will see Notepad and clicking on that will open Notepad! Good!
Icon spacing on screen
Thanks to Microsoft for removing options to customize our screens! What used to be so easy is now a registry attack! To change the icon spacing on the desktop (horizontal and vertical), you must edit two values in the registry. Check out our previous post below.
Change desktop icon spacing in Windows 10
Click to Last Active Window
This is probably one of my favorite little tricks for Windows 10. Have you ever opened several windows of the same app, like Word or Excel, and then had to click through to another app like Chrome yet?
However, when you click the taskbar icon to go back to Word or Excel, instead of taking you straight to the window you opened before, it just shows you a thumbnail image of all the windows. book. With this hack, when you click on the icon of a program with multiple instances open, it will take you straight to the last active window.
Of course, you can simply press the ALT + TAB key combination, but this is useful if you always use the mouse instead of the keyboard. Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Go ahead and create a new 32-bit Dword named LastActiveClick and give it a value of 1.
Turn off user account control
User account control is another beast in Windows 10, and you can’t even completely disable it through the traditional GUI interface you see above. To actually disable it, you have to go to the registry or edit the local security policy. However, there are some undesirable consequences of disabling UAC in Windows 10, which you can read in their entirety below.
OTT – UAC (User Account Control) Explained in Windows 10
File Delete Confirmation Dialog
Another missing feature in Windows 10 is the file deletion confirmation dialog that we are all too familiar with. I never noticed it too much, but when I first deleted a file in Windows 10, I was shocked to see that the file 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 in Policy named Explorer. Then create a DWORD value and give it a name ConfirmFileDelete. Change the value to 1 if you want the file delete dialog and 0 if you don’t. Sweet!
Registered owner
Even though it’s so old and useless, I still love being able to change the registered owner in Windows to anything I like. Don’t ask me why, it was just some weirdness in the early days of Windows. Luckily, Microsoft still has the value stored in the registry key, which you can change to anything you want.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
In CurrentVersion, just look for Registered owner and change it. Also, note that there is a Registered, you can actually put two custom lines in the about Windows dialog. How to access that dialog in Windows 10? Click Start and type winner.
Paint Desktop Version
If you’re running several copies of Windows 10 on multiple computers and in virtual machines like I am, it’s nice to have the Windows instance automatically drawn to the desktop. Windows 10 has a registry key that allows you to automatically add it to your desktop. Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Find PaintDesktopVersion Under Desktop lock and change the value from 0 arrive first. Next time you sign in, you will see the Windows 10 version number and build number as shown above.
Border width
If you don’t like the border size around all your windows while on the desktop, you can change it by going to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
Find the key called Border width and change it to any value between 0 and 50. It defaults to -15, which is some weird numbering scheme used by Microsoft that I really don’t understand. Luckily, you can just use 0 to 50 for this registry setting instead of crazy negative numbers.
Download Windows 7 Volume Control
If you’re not a fan of the new horizontal volume control feature in Windows 10, you’ll be happy to know that you can use the vertical control again, just like in Windows 7. Navigate to the following key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
Create a new key in the current instance named MTCUVC and then create a new DWORD value inside MTCUVC called EnableMtcUvc. Leave it with a value of 0.
Remove OneDrive from Explorer
Finally, if you don’t use OneDrive for your cloud storage, what’s the benefit of having it always visible in Explorer? Luckily, there is a simple registry trick that will remove it from Explorer with ease.
Navigate to the following key:
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}
Change the value of System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree to 0 and restart your computer. That’s it!
If you are using Windows 10 and feel comfortable modifying the registry, feel free to use the options above and customize Windows 10 to your liking. Interesting!
