Chapter 4: The Easiest Ways to Customize Windows

Overview

‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the Leopard his spots?’

R. Kipling
"How the Leopard Got His Spots"

Now and then, you'll hear people ask, "Can a Leopard change his spots?" This epigraph, taken from the story by Rudyard Kipling, describes how the Leopard and the Ethiopian once did that very thing. This is a fairy tale, of course, and all the events described there took place "In the beginning of years, when the world was so new". Many things didn't even have their proper names yet, so in order to point something out, you needed to put a finger on it.

Windows 95/98/ME and Windows NT/2000/XP are very new, especially when compared to our little story. Immediately after the final release of each of these operating systems, though, the whole user community began to discuss the problems of optimizing and customizing them. Some methods of customization are evident, but others aren't as obvious (this doesn't mean, of course, that these customizations are impossible). Both the Internet and many of the books on the market today now contain a large number of tips on customizing Windows by editing the registry. However, before doing any registry editing, try using the Control Panel applets and administrative tools first (in most cases, this approach is much safer and easier than registry editing). In any event, my goal is to point this out and even "put my finger on it".

As I mentioned earlier, most tasks related to configuring Windows NT/2000/XP can be done using Control Panel applets and administrative tools. However, some of these tasks can only be accomplished by directly editing the system registry. This chapter describes various methods of customizing, fine tuning, and troubleshooting Windows NT/2000/XP. At the same time, this chapter can't be considered a complete reference on Windows customization. Many other methods of modifying the registry will be discussed later in this book, in chapters dedicated to specific aspects of customization and troubleshooting the system.



Windows XP Registry
Linux Enterprise Cluster: Build a Highly Available Cluster with Commodity Hardware and Free Software
ISBN: N/A
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2000
Pages: 144
Authors: Karl Kopper

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