Appendix C: Per-User Settings

Appendix C

Per- User Settings

Chapter 4, “Hacking the Registry,” and Chapter 18, “Fixing Common IT Problems,” described numerous useful registry settings. This appendix continues by describing the most interesting settings in the Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (Windows) registries.

The settings in this appendix are per user; they're in HKCU . The root key HKLM contains similar settings, but the settings in HKCU are more interesting because these are often useful for deployment and customization. Also, many of my favorite IT hacks are in HKCU rather than HKLM because they affect per-user behaviors instead of the overall computer configuration. I'm not able to describe every setting in HKCU , incidentally. Even if I could figure out every setting, documenting them all would require hundreds of pages. Instead, I'm focusing on the most interesting and useful settings in the registry with a dab of just-plain-cool settings thrown into the mix.

The resources that I used to discover these settings vary. Many times I just know what a setting does from experience. Other times, I used Microsoft's Developer Network (MSDN), Knowledge Base, or resource kits. If I get really desperate to figure out a setting, I'll install the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) and then search for the setting in the header files, which yields surprisingly good results.

The headings in this appendix follow the organization of HKCU to make finding information easier. Thus, you'll see top-level headings for HKCU\ControlPanel , and so on. This appendix doesn't describe the relationship of HKCU to HKU and the profile hives that the operating system loads, though. For more information about this relationship, see Chapter 1, “Learning the Basics.”

AppEvents

Windows associates sounds with certain events. The most notable are the sounds you hear when you log on to or off of the operating system. You assign sounds to different events—including minimizing windows , opening menus , and so on—in the Sounds And Audio Devices Properties dialog box shown in Figure C-1. To open this dialog box, in Control Panel click Sounds And Audio Devices. Figure C-1 shows which subkeys of AppEvents provide this dialog box's values. Many applications also associate sounds with certain events. For example, you can download and install sounds for use with Microsoft Office 2003 Editions. These sounds provide great feedback that I've missed when they're not available. If you don't like the sound that a particular event produces, you can change the sound file associated with it. For example, you can create your own recording that says “You've got spam!” and associate that sound file with Windows Messenger's New Mail event.

Figure C-1 Associate sounds with events using the Sounds And Audio Devices Properties dialog box.