Windows7How

Windows 7 LGPE Part VI, Registry

January 6, 2010

In the Windows 7 Home and Windows 7 Home Premium, the Local Group Policy Editor (LGPE) is not available. However, we can still make adjustments similar to the same changes made with LGPE. The way to do this is by way of an application called regedit.exe. This allows you to directly edit the entries in the Windows Registry with little effort. As usual, this can be dangerous, so create that system restore point and be careful not to modify any other keys other than those mentioned here. Make sure you understand the steps before you start to edit.

In each of these you will already have started regedit.exe and the Registry Explorer will be in front of you.

OK, the first one to cover here are the Security and Privacy tabs within Internet Explorer and how to hide them. To make this change, follow the instructions below.

• Go to the HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel
• Add a DWORD setting named PrivacyTab and set it to 1
• Add a DWORD setting named SecurityTab and set it to 1

To change the buttons available on the Windows 7 Security window, do the following changes.

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and change the values to all of or just selective entries of the following to 1:
  • DisableChangePassword
  • DisableLockWorkstation
  • DisableTaskMgr
• Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and change the NoLogoff entry to 1.

To clean up the Control Panel, run through the next steps

• Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
• Add a DWORD named DisallowCpl and set to 1
• Also create a new key named DisallowCpl and under this new key:
  • Create a new String value and name the settings 1, 2, 3 up to the number of icons you are removing
  • And, in each of those settings put the name of the icons in the Control Panel that you want removed

The reverse is to name only the icons you want Control Panel to display. For this do the following.

• Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
• Add a DWORD named RestrictCpl and set to 1
• Also create a new key named RestrictCpl and under this new key:
  • Create a new String value and name the settings 1, 2, 3 up to the number of icons you want displayed
  • And, in each of those settings put the name of the icons in the Control Panel that you to display

To disable the Display Delete Confirmation Dialog check-box, do this:

• Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
• Add a DWORD named ConfirmFileDelete and set it to 1

To disable the Properties command on the Recycle Bin do this:

• Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

• Create a DWORD named NoPropertiesRecycleBin and set it to 1

To increase the number of documents in your Recent Documents list, do this:

• Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
• Create a DWORD value named MaxRecentDocs and set the value as the number of documents you want to be held in the Recent Document list

And, to make additions to your Save As and Open document dialog boxes’ Places bar, make the following edits:

• Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
• This is a bit complex, so read below:
  • Start by creating a New Key and name it comdlg32
  • Create another New Key and name it Placesbar
  • Create another New String Value and call it Place0
  • Type in the path to your selected location for the Places bar into its value
  • Repeat the above two steps for each new path you want to have as a button in the Places bar, but each successive value to Place1, Place2, Place 3 and Place4 (total of 5 available slots)

Some of those are a little more arduous than you may have expected, but the extra steps are necessary to make the modification you want to make – and to keep a stable OS. If you do not understand any of this, please avoid editing your Registry. Only if you have some knowledge of how your Windows 7 OS works should you make changes yourself. However, you can always grab the nearest geek and ask that person to help you. And, of course, always create a system restore point before you make any changes to your system.

Filed under: Guides, Tips, Windows 7 Tweaks

Tags: control panel, disable properties, explorer, lgpe, microsoft, Recent Document, Recycle Bin, regedit, registry modify, save as, security, software, taskbar, windows 7, windows registry