XP, not as Microsoft wants it, but the way you do

Nov 12, 2008 21:01 GMT  ·  By

Welcome to yet another episode of our Microsoft Windows XP tweaking saga. If you're not familiar with the procedure, please start by reading the first article in the series, so as to fully understand how exactly you should use the lines below and how to run the tweaks.

However, don't hesitate to have a look at some of the other tweaking articles as well, other than part one - part two and part three, which might uncover some of the secrets behind Windows XP that you weren't aware of.

If the previous article was focused on Folder Options-related tweaks, in today's piece, we'll only take a look at a few ways to change the behavior of Display Properties. If you've already read the other articles in the series, then you should already know they contain tweaks that cannot be activated from Control Panel, Folder Options, or any other standard Windows customization utility.

Of course, this is the case with this piece too, but, since activating some tweaks will no longer grant users access to very important areas of Microsoft Windows, I will also post the reverse tweak to ensure the way back, just in case you're not very fond of a particular change in your system.

So, now that you've created your tweaks.reg file and placed the “Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00” text at the beginning of it, let's start our journey into the optimization world, starting with the tweak I promised you.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/System] "NoDispCPL"=dword:00000001

A serious change that you can make on your system is to disable the user's access to the Display Properties (from Control Panel, right-click on the desktop, etc). That's exactly what the tweak above does.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/System] "NoDispCPL"=dword:00000000

As you might have already guessed, this tweak will once again allow to view your system's Display Properties window.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer] "NoThemesTab"=dword:00000001

If you're not interested in removing access to the entire Display Properties window, but only to a few of its tabs, we'll naturally help you easily do this with minimum effort. For example, the two lines above will remove just the Themes tab from the Display Properties window. As I'm sure you've guessed it already, to re-enable the tab, just replace 1 with 0 in your tweaks.reg file (as I also did in the previous tweak), and run it again.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/System] "NoDispBackgroundPage"=dword:00000001

Next in line is the Desktop tab, of course, so feel free to use the two lines above to activate this tweak. Also, you can replace 1 with 0 to deactivate it.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/System] "NoDispScrSavPage"=dword:00000001

If you wish to make sure nobody will ever change your screensaver settings again, just use the tweak above to remove Screen Saver tab from Display Properties. Just like before, 0 instead of 1 will activate it again.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/System] "NoDispSettingsPage"=dword:00000001

And last but not least, to remove the Settings tab in the Display Properties window, just add the above two lines to your tweaks.reg file before running it. Activating the tab again works the same way as shown until now: replace 1 with 0 in the lines above, and execute the file once more.

These being said, here is where we must part once again. If you found these tweaks helpful or have some of your own, please don't forget to send us your feedback through the comments section.