When you open the Windows Live Photo Gallery Screensaver settings dialog, theme controls may be missing and the message "This computer’s video card can’t play themes" is displayed. You might be knowing that the themes in Windows Photo Gallery slideshow as well as in Windows Live Photo Gallery screensaver won’t be enabled if the Graphics card score (Windows Experience Index) is less than 3.0. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘registry’
“This Computer’s Video Card Can’t Play Themes” Message in WLPG Screensaver Settings Dialog
How to Uninstall Winter Fun Pack 2004 After Upgrading to Windows 7 or Vista
Did you install the Microsoft® Winter Fun Pack 2004 in your Windows XP system earlier, and then upgraded the system to Windows 7 or Windows Vista? In that case, the uninstaller for Winter Fun Pack 2004 may not work correctly under Windows 7/Vista, throwing out error code 1713. If the uninstaller does not work, you can remove the related files and registry entries manually.
The list of registry entries and files added by Microsoft® Winter Fun Pack 2004 for Windows® XP is available at the following link:
Browser Defender™ – Download Analysis for winterfunpack2004forwindowsxp.msi
Important: Before proceeding, take a complete registry backup either using System Restore or using a program like ERUNT. This article is targeted towards intermediate and advanced users.
Registry Fix
To make things easier, I’ve made available a .REG file which removes the Winter Fun Pack 2004 related registry keys. Download winterfunpack-remove.zip (partly based on BrowserDefender.com’s installation track data), unzip and double-click the .REG file to run it.
Things to Remove Manually
1. Registry Values
After running the REG file, you may have to remove some registry values manually:
1. Start Regedit.exe and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Installer \ Folders
2. In the right-pane, delete the values relating to Winter Fun Pack 2004 (Refer the URL above)
3. Exit the Registry Editor.
2. Files & Folders
Use the information at BrowserDefender.com and delete the files and folders added by Winter Fun Pack 2004.
3. Outlook Express Signature
1. Start Outlook Express
2. In the Tools menu, click Options
3. Click Signatures
4. Select MP Song Signature and click Remove
Note: In Microsoft Outlook, you can remove the MP Song Signature via the Tools menu, Options, Mail Format, Signatures.
5. Click OK.
How to Disable Taskbar Thumbnail Preview in Windows 7
Windows 7 does not include a GUI to disable the taskbar thumbnail preview feature. I’ve experimented with the registry setting TaskbarNoThumbnail and its equivalent GPO Turn off taskbar thumbnails. That setting seems to apply only to Windows Vista, and has no effect in Windows 7.
You can however disable the taskbar thumbnail feature (sort of) in Windows 7 using a registry edit. This can be done by setting the taskbar thumbnail preview hover delay to a large value (say 10000 milliseconds or more), so that the preview is not immediately generated when you hover over a taskbar icon. Well. Then the article title should have really been "How To Delay Taskbar Thumbnail Preview in Windows 7".
I heard about this registry value via article Adjust Taskbar Preview Hover Delay at WinGeek.com (Credits to Steve Sinchak), and experimented the registry value by inputting a large decimal value to prevent immediate display of thumbnails in the Windows 7 Taskbar.
1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press {ENTER}
2. Navigate to the following location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
3. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named ExtendedUIHoverTime
4. Double-click ExtendedUIHoverTime and click Decimal
5. To increase the hover delay to 5 seconds, type 5000. Type 10000 for 10 seconds and so forth…
6. Exit the Registry Editor.
7. Logoff and login back, or restart the Shell ("Exit Explorer" method).
Related Article
Adjusting Aero Peek Desktop Preview Mouse Hover Delay in Windows 7.
How to Restore Missing Windows Media Center AutoPlay Entries in Windows 7
After installing or upgrading to Windows 7, you may notice that the AutoPlay dialog does not list Windows Media Center as one of the options.
This is the case when you open Change AutoPlay settings applet in Control Panel.
Windows 7 does not seem to include the Windows Media Center AutoPlay registry entries by default. However, you can add the necessary entries manually or export the keys from a Windows Vista PC (which is what I did). The AutoPlay entries are populated from this registry branch:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ AutoplayHandlers
Tip: Keys and Values starting with the word "EHome" (EHomeDVDDropTarget, EHomeMusicDropTarget, EHomePhotosHandler, EHomeSVCDDropTarget, EHomeVCDDropTarget, EHomeVideosHandler) are the ones we need.
I’ve made available a REG file which adds all of the Windows Media Center AutoPlay handler entries to the registry.
Registry Fix
Download w7-ehome-autoplay.zip, and save to Desktop. Unzip and run the enclosed REG file.
Windows Media Center is now added to the AutoPlay dialog!
Fix for Event Log Service Startup Error 1079
When you start the Event Viewer, the following error message may be shown.
Event Log service is unavailable. Verify that the service is running.
Any attempts to start the Event Log service results in the following error:
Windows could not start the Windows Event Log service on Local Computer.
Error 1079: The account specified for this service is different from the account specified for other services running in the same process.
Error 1079: The account specified for this service is different from the account specified for other services running in the same process.
As the Windows Event Log service isn’t running, starting Task Scheduler results in the following error:
Windows could not start the Task Scheduler service on Local Computer.
Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start.
Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start.
This problem was reported by one of our readers via email, and it has been fixed. Service startup error 1079 occurs if the logon account for the service is incorrectly set. Usually this is resolved by fixing the service logon account (via the Log On tab in the Property sheet) via the Services MMC (services.msc)
This can’t be done in case of Windows Event Log, where the Log On tab controls remain grayed out by default.
So, we need to alter the ObjectName registry value in the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog
Start the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) and navigate to the above branch:
Double-click ObjectName value and set its data as NT AUTHORITY\LocalService {for Windows Vista & Windows 7}
Double-click ObjectName value and set its data as LocalSystem {for Windows XP}
Restart Windows.
Registry Fix
To automate the above setting, download eventlog-svc-fix.zip and run the REG file which is applicable for your Operating System. The zip file includes the REG fixes for Windows XP and Windows 7/Vista. Restart Windows after applying the fix.
How to Disable Explorer Search Box Suggestions in Windows 7
Earlier we saw how to clear the search MRU entries in Windows 7. Are you one of those who find the Search Box suggestion pop-ups annoying, and don’t require this feature? Here is a registry edit which disables the search box suggestions in Windows Explorer.
1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press ENTER
2. Navigate to the following branch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Explorer
Note: The above key may not exist by default, and you may need to create the above branch manually.
3. Create a DWORD value named DisableSearchBoxSuggestions
4. Double-click DisableSearchBoxSuggestions and set its data as 1
5. Exit the Registry Editor.
This setting disables suggesting recent queries for the Search Box and prevents entries into the Search Box from being stored in the registry for future references.
Registry Fix
To automate the above download w7-disable-search-suggest.zip, unzip and run the enclosed REG file. To reverse the changes run the file undo.reg
Using the Group Policy Editor
This is only for Windows 7 editions that include the Group Policy Editor.
1. Launch the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
2. Navigate to the following branch:
User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Explorer
3. Set Turn off display of recent search entries in the Windows Explorer search box to Enabled
4. Exit the Group Policy Editor.
Note: If you enable this policy, Windows Explorer will not show suggestion pop-ups as users type into the Search Box, and it will not store Search Box entries into the registry for future references. If the user types a property, values that match this property will be shown but no data will be saved in the registry or re-shown on subsequent uses of the search box.
How to Remove “Always Use the Selected Program” Option From Open With Dialog
The Open With dialog in Windows allows you to open a file using different programs. Also, you can create or change the file type association by selecting the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" checkbox in the Open With dialog. Sometimes, users wrongly associate file types and end up having to fix the associations manually. To prevent this, you can remove the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" checkbox so that file type association using Open With dialog is not possible.
1. Launch Regedit.exe and navigate to the following branch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
Note: If the above branch does not exist, you need to create it manually.
2. Create a new DWORD value named NoFileAssociate
3. Double-click NoFileAssociate and set its data to 1
4. Exit the Registry Editor.
The above registry change effects the current user account only. To implement the change for all users (machine-wide), create the NoFileAssociate value in the following branch:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
Additional Information
The above edit when used in Windows 2000/XP, results in a grayed out "Always use the selected program…" checkbox. Whereas in Windows Vista & Windows 7, the checkbox is removed completely.
How to Adjust Aero Peek Desktop Preview Mouse Hover Delay in Windows 7
Aero Peek is a new feature introduced in Windows 7, which allows you temporarily view the desktop, without having to minimize all the open windows. You can temporarily preview the desktop by moving the mouse pointer over the Show desktop button at the end of the taskbar. The default hover delay is 1 second. If this time is too short for you, you can delay it further more to avoid accidental preview of the desktop, using the registry hack discussed in this article.
How to Disable Internet Explorer 8 Welcome Screen (Tour and RunOnce) for All Users
When you open Internet Explorer 8 the first time, you’ll see the Set Up Windows Internet Explorer 8 screen asking you to configure the search and accelerator settings. After configuring the settings, a new tab window opens automatically, redirecting to Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Website. This article tells you how to disable the Internet Explorer 8 Tour (Set up & Welcome screen) for all user accounts.
Fix: Places Bar in Open/Save as (Common Dialog) Box Is Empty in Windows XP
The places bar which appears in the left side of the Open and Save As dialog boxes in Windows XP, contains shortcuts to the following folders by default:
- Recent
- Desktop
- My Documents
- My Computer
- My Network Places
The default places can be customized by editing the registry. After adding/removing custom places using a third-party tool, you may experience a problem where the places bar is completely empty.
