I’m writing this article specifically for Windows 7, because the FullRowSelect registry value that you used in Windows Vista, doesn’t work in Windows 7. (REF: Enable or Disable Full Row Select feature in Explorer in Windows Vista). After some of our readers reported that setting FullRowSelect to 0 doesn’t do anything in Windows 7, I decided to have a look at this issue. Playing with different bitmask values, I finally got what I wanted – to disable full row select feature in Windows Explorer (Details mode) in Windows 7, but with a minor side-effect which is explained in the later part of the article. Read the rest of this entry »
Windows 7 doesn’t include an option wherein you can disable auto arrange in folders (icons view). Sometime back I created a magical registry hack (FFlags DWORD 43000001) that disabled the "Full Row Select" functionality in folders in Windows 7. I also posted some interesting observations in article How to Disable Full Row Select in Explorer in Windows 7 about the registry hack, which demonstrates that applying the hack also brings back the missing "Auto arrange" menu option in the View menu of folders when in Icons view.
We hereby bring you a slightly tweaked version (sets FFlags to 43000000) of the same registry hack and provide some screenshots in this article. After applying this edit you can enable or disable auto arrange feature on a per-folder basis. Of course, an "Undo" REG file is provided in case you want to revert back to the factory default setting. Read the rest of this entry »
A desktop theme contains various settings such as cursors, icons, wallpaper, screensaver and other UI settings. It’s obvious that when one of those theme parameters is changed, Windows saves the customized setting in a separate theme file named Custom.theme, which is displayed in the Personalization window as "Unsaved Theme".
"Unsaved Theme" Reappears Automatically After Deleting?
If the "Unsaved Theme" is reappearing automatically even after deleting it (which wipes out Custom.theme), it could be a shell enhancement software running in the system and making changes to certain theme parameters (REF: Theme File Format). To know which setting is exactly being modified under the hood, you could do so using a text file compare utility like Compare It!.
1. Start Compare It!
2. Browse to the following location:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes
3. Select the first .theme file, the theme you were previously using.
4. Select the second .theme file Custom.theme
And here comes the comparison… every change highlighted in green color.
(Fig 5, the SizeAll mouse cursor setting changed by an unknown program.)
Depending upon which theme parameter was changed and the resulting value data, you might have a clue about the program which changed the setting. If not, you may use Process Monitor to investigate this further.
My previous post explained how to use the Internet Options dialog to copy the web addresses of current tabs in Internet Explorer. Wouldn’t it be nice if there is a way to capture the page title in addition? This can be especially useful if you have some unfriendly URLs (e.g. URLs not based on page title), such as:
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/?p=300
By looking at the URL, nobody would even have the slightest notion of what that link is about. In that case, capturing the page title along can be of utmost help. Well! There is a way to do that in Internet Explorer 7 and higher. This article might make it look complicated but believe me, it takes just 4 mouse clicks to get the title and URL of your open tabs. Read the rest of this entry »
When researching about a topic in the internet, one might easily end up opening a couple a dozen of web sites in separate tabs. What would you do if you need to copy all those URLs to make a note of them in your document, or send them to a friend? Rather than copying one URL at a time, here is a smart way to do it en masse, in Internet Explorer. Read the rest of this entry »
The Desktop Slideshow options lets you configure the picture position, picture change interval and turn on or off the shuffle option. Here is another hidden feature in Windows 7 configurable using the Registry Editor, that allows you increase the desktop slideshow transition animation duration.
Increase Desktop Slideshow Animation Duration
1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press {ENTER}
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Personalization \ Desktop Slideshow
2. Right-click on the key and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it AnimationDuration
3. Double-click AnimationDuration and set its Value data to 1000 (milliseconds)
4. Exit the Registry Editor.
Demo
For the purpose of illustration I’ve set AnimationDuration to 2000 milliseconds, and the effect of which can be watched in this video.
When trying to view an image file via the link in Start menu Recent Items list or from the Jump List, Windows Live Photo Gallery displayed the error An error is preventing the photo or video from being displayed followed by the error code 0×80010108.
The interesting thing is that the same image file opens correctly when double-clicked directly, rather than launching it from Recent Items or via the Windows Live Photo Gallery Jump List.
The problem is seen in Windows Live Photo Gallery Build 15.4.3508.1109. I narrowed the problem down to the Windows Live Photo Gallery Viewer Shim (PhotoViewerShim.dll), and would like to share the workaround I used. Until Microsoft fixes the problem, you may use the following workaround.
Workaround
1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press {ENTER}
2. Go to the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ WindowsLive.PhotoGallery.bmp.15.4 \ shell \ open \ DropTarget
3. Right-click DropTarget, click Rename and prefix a hyphen so that it becomes "-DropTarget"
4. Repeat the steps for the following keys (for GIF/ICO/JPG/PNG/TIF file types):
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ WindowsLive.PhotoGallery.gif.15.4 \ shell \ open \ DropTarget
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ WindowsLive.PhotoGallery.ico.15.4 \ shell \ open \ DropTarget
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ WindowsLive.PhotoGallery.jpg.15.4 \ shell \ open \ DropTarget
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ WindowsLive.PhotoGallery.png.15.4 \ shell \ open \ DropTarget
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ WindowsLive.PhotoGallery.tif.15.4 \ shell \ open \ DropTarget
This is done so that Windows Live Photo Gallery doesn’t use the DropTarget GUID {00F346CB-35A4-465B-8B8F-65A29DBAB1F6} (PhotoViewershim.dll).
Registry Fix
To automate the above steps, download fix-wlpg-err-80010108.zip and unzip the contents to a folder. Double-click fix-wlpg-err-80010108.reg to run it.
When you open the Services MMC (services.msc), the following errors appear, and the list of services may or may not display after dismissing the error message dialog boxes.
One or more ActiveX controls could not be displayed because either:
1) Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page, or
2) You have blocked a publisher of one of the controls.
As a result, the page might not display correctly.
… followed by the error Object doesn’t support property or method ‘ConnectTo’ in URL mmcndmgr.dll/views.js.
Resolution
Run the Fix-It Solution from Microsoft
[Windows 7 Users] Download the Fix it solution by clicking the image above, and run the executable. The problem should be taken care of, automatically.
To Fix the Problem Manually
1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press {ENTER}
2. Navigate to the following branch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Internet Settings \ Zones
3. Under the Zones key, delete the subkey shown with an ASCII character, as in the above graphic. If it doesn’t exist, ignore and proceed to the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Internet Settings \ Zones \ 0
4. Double-click the DWORD value named 1200, and type 0 as its value data.
The DWORD value 1200 corresponds to IE Security Zone setting "Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins". Setting the value to 0 permits ActiveX controls and plug-ins.
5. Exit the Registry Editor.
6. Logoff and login back to your account.
