untrackable windows setting?

[Spacey Spade]

Windows 98...

I logged checking "show small icons in start menu" with both InstallRite
and Total Uninstall. Both came up with the following change in the
registry:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
Discardable\PostSetup\Component Categories\{00021492-0000-0000-C000-
000000000046}\Enum]
"Implementing"=hex:1c,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,d4,07,03,00,01,00,08,00,00,00
,08,00,04,00,7c,01,02,00,00,00,21,bf,5c,0e,5f,d1,d0,11,83,01,00,aa,00,5b
,43,83,81,45,e0,01,ee,4e,d0,11,bf,e9,00,aa,00,5b,43,83,

This reg file is the end result for the change. The problem is that
when I merge this file into the registry while big icons are showing in
the start menu, big icons remain in the start menu. Logging Explorer
with Regmon wasn't helpful either.

What I figure is that this is a setting that is saved when Windows shuts
down.

Why the big fuss? I'd like to have all individual customizations
as reg files. InstallRite can export reg files, making the process
easier (why didn't anybody tell me before!!!)

Spacey

<rant>
Windows XP...
I believe XP has a settings backup wizard of some sort... wizards for
everything and I hate it. For example, what is simpler: backing up the
whole windows partition or windows directory periodically (like you can
in win98), or using the system restore (winxp)? With the former, you
know what you've got. With the latter, you have to learn all about an
MS feature's capabilities that will get replaced in the future by
another MS feature with different capabilities. Blah.
Another example... I have no idea what files comprise the registry in
XP, and I doubt that a default XP would just let me copy them to make a
backup. Also have no idea how I would scanreg /restore as in win98.
Perhaps I should have instead picked NT as my first OS! Or better yet,
FreeBSD. Universities would do good to "switch to Linux" or something
for a better learning environment. Sciences teach mostly theory and
little application, so why the technology-style OS?
</rant>

 

[Bjorn Simonsen]

Spacey Spade wrote in

What I figure is that this is a setting that is saved when Windows shuts
down.

Not sure this is what you ask for, but....below follows copy of an
article that I saved from www.pcnineoneone.com a while ago, but could
not find online now (don't click the link in the article below,
see my comments and alternative link further below.)

<quote>
Save Desktop Icon Placement

Ever use Safe Mode? Ever use Safe Mode with a lot of desktop
icons? Bummer, huh? But there's a fix. Simply go to
http://borg.isc.ucsb.edu/ftproot/pub/windows/winnt40/RESKIT/Server-Post_Installation/
and download LAYOUT.DLL and LAYOUT.REG. Put layout.dll in
\Windows\System (Windows 9x) or
\Windows\System32 (NT4, Win2K) and merge layout.reg by right-
clicking the file and choosing Merge from the context menu.

What you'll get is two new entries on the context menu for
desktop system icons like My Computer and My Documents. These
entries are Save Desktop Icon Layout and Restore Desktop Icon
Layout. So just right-click My Computer, save your layout, and
whenever you need to, restore it just as easily. Don't forget
to save them right away and whenever you make a change.
http://www.PCNineOneOne.com
</quote>

The download URL for dll and reg file mentioned in the above no longer
works, but I found a another copy here
<http://www.fester.de/9downld/layout.zip>
(text in german, but file sizes match those I saved from before, so I
guess if you simply follow the instructions above they should work)

Current page/article at pcnineoneone with same title suggest to use
Wintidy, see <http://www.pcnineoneone.com/tweaks/tweekz1k.html>.

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen

 

[Spacey Spade]

Spacey Spade wrote in


Not sure this is what you ask for <snip>

Not quite what I had in mind. The setting I am refering to is
"show small icons in start menu". It is not this setting that is
important in itself, but my inability to find a registry entry for it.
I want some confirmation that all settings are indeed saved in the
registry. Also would like to know if anyone has a methodology to
finding any setting by using a registry logger, particularly in this
case where I have failed (which led me to believe that Windows held the
registry change in RAM and would only write it to user.dat or whatever
upon shutting down).

But nice to hear from you Bjorn!

Spacey

 

[Bjorn Simonsen]

Spacey Spade wrote in

Not quite what I had in mind. The setting I am refering to is
"show small icons in start menu". It is not this setting that is
important in itself, but my inability to find a registry entry for it.

You might already have tried
<http://google.com/groups?as_q=small icons in start menu&as_ugroup=*registry*&num=50>
but if not, among the hits (from NT/2k groups, but I guess described
behavior is similar in Win98) see fx:

<http://google.com/[email protected]>
<clip>
[...]the data stored appears to hold many settings.[...]
Hence I could not figure out how to change this to turn on/off
small icons,clock, always on top, and autohide.

(which led me to believe that Windows held the registry change in
RAM and would only write it to user.dat or whatever upon shutting
down).

from a thread bout Taskbar autohide, but relevant info:
<http://google.com/[email protected]>
<clip>
[...] There is a value called Settings which is a REG_BINARY
type and it is this stores the settings of your taskbar, for
example whether the start menu is showing small icons, the
placement and the auto-hide feature. The problem is that this
value is only written to at log-off, so in order to catch it, you
would need to set up the environment how you want it, log off,
log on again and then export the data. You could then script this
at logon. [...]
</clip>

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen

 

[Andreas Kaestner]

Spacey Spade ([email protected]) schrieb/wrote:

I want some confirmation that all settings are indeed saved in the
registry.

Confirmed.

Also would like to know if anyone has a methodology to
finding any setting by using a registry logger, particularly in this
case where I have failed (which led me to believe that Windows held
the registry change in RAM and would only write it to user.dat or
whatever upon shutting down).

Use Regshot from http://regshot.ist.md/

o make a registry snapshot
o change the setting in question
o reboot
o make a second snapshot
o compare both snapshots

 

[Spacey Spade]

Spacey Spade wrote in

Not quite what I had in mind. The setting I am refering to is
"show small icons in start menu". It is not this setting that is
important in itself, but my inability to find a registry entry for it.

You might already have tried
<http://google.com/groups?as_q=small icons in start menu&as_ugroup=*registry*&num=50>
but if not, among the hits (from NT/2k groups, but I guess described
behavior is similar in Win98) see fx:

<http://google.com/[email protected]>
<clip>
[...]the data stored appears to hold many settings.[...]
Hence I could not figure out how to change this to turn on/off
small icons,clock, always on top, and autohide.

(which led me to believe that Windows held the registry change in
RAM and would only write it to user.dat or whatever upon shutting
down).

from a thread bout Taskbar autohide, but relevant info:
<http://google.com/[email protected]>
<clip>
[...] There is a value called Settings which is a REG_BINARY
type and it is this stores the settings of your taskbar, for
example whether the start menu is showing small icons, the
placement and the auto-hide feature. The problem is that this
value is only written to at log-off, so in order to catch it, you
would need to set up the environment how you want it, log off,
log on again and then export the data. You could then script this
at logon. [...]
</clip>

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen

Thanks for doing my homework Reading those threads confirms what I
thought. Conclusion is that it is not worth the effort to decipher
the different settings stored in one binary entry through trial and
error. This being the case, on installing Windoze OS's I will have to
change some settings through GUI. Bummer... in winXP there sure are a
whole hell of a lot spread all over the place.

 

[omega]

Spacey Spade ([email protected]) schrieb/wrote:


Confirmed.

An exception is the situation upon a bad shutdown. Scandisk is able to
assess when its services might thereby be wanted. (If not told to miob
in the msdos.sys.) At the early stage of the boot process, long before
the reg is read. I'm describing 9x boot process, not being intimate with
the later - still I presume the significant action to apply under the
later W OS as well. That is: the "bad shutdown" flag gets written directly
to the HDD.

Re technical details on this disk write, I'm best qualified to merely
quote. "When Windows detects that it hasn't shut down properly it sets
the bit 4 of byte 8 of the FAT, if it detects a disk error it sets bit 3.
Win.com will run Scandisk at the next boot." /David Candy

 

[omega]

(e-mail address removed) (Spacey Spade):

... in winXP there sure are a whole hell of a lot

What is the size difference? I remember it as a most remarkable change, the
size of the reg upon default install of XP compared to 9x, but have forgot
what those numbers were.

spread all over the place.

As to the layout of the branches, one key area of difference.

...........................................................................

HKCU...Current User (preferences)
HKU....Users (preferences, all profiles)

In 9X, [HKCU] is a mirror, a virtual link, to a subkey of [HKU].
In 2000/XP, same deal.

...........................................................................

...........................................................................

HKCR...Classes_Root (filetypes, ole, etc)
HKLM...Local_Machine (lots of stuff)

In 9X, HKCR is a mirror to a subkey of HKLM.

[HKCR] = [HKLM\Software\Classes]

== But ==

In 2000/XP, [HKCR] is a converged thing.

[HKCR] = [HKLM\Software\Classes] + [HKCU\Software\Classes]

- Use [HKLM\Software\Classes] to change your global defaults.
- Use [HKCU\Software\Classes] to change settings on a per profile level.

What happens when there are writes to [HKCR].

- New keys will be stored at [HKLM\Software\Classes]
- New or changed values will be stored at [HKCU\...] when it has the
correspondent keys. Else, goes to [HKLM\..].



__

Karen S.


PS. I cannot even remember how many hive files you all have on disk. Like
eight of them, or ten, or something, right? Here in 98 land, it's just the
two: user.dat and aystem.dat. My system.dat I've kept almost down to 5mb.
And my user.dat, well this week I put it on its bulemia diet and brought
it down to 800k. Now, as far as XP sizes, I think I saw a MSKB article
where MSFT was making assurances that you can go up to one gigabyte in
registy size....

 

[Spacey Spade]

(e-mail address removed) (Spacey Spade):

What is the size difference? I remember it as a most remarkable change, the
size of the reg upon default install of XP compared to 9x, but have forgot
what those numbers were.

Dunno. Currently XP not installed... taking the long way around. I
think you might find this interesting:

http://unattended.msfn.org

The only options I'm leaving on in [Components] are:
Vol = on
; so my particular subwoofer and speakers can be adjusted simultaneously
TerminalServer = on
; cause it's a family puter

.... and I have a feeling there will still be tons of stuff to remove
or change in other ways. Check out http://blackviper.com and his
excellent advice, particularly on services. Do you have plans for
getting a new machine anytime soon?

<snip layout of branches>

Someday I'll come back and read your layout info when I need it... thx.

Spacey

 

[omega]

omega (e-mail address removed) wrote...


Dunno. Currently XP not installed... taking the long way around.

Wow. You've handed it the walking papers? Did it call home to Redmond
and cry that its feeling were hurt? Oh, wait. Now I see, the rest of your
message. Calling in the strategists, to be sure that the battleship will
sail smoothly.

I think you might find this interesting:
http://unattended.msfn.org [...]
... and I have a feeling there will still be tons of stuff to remove
or change in other ways. Check out http://blackviper.com and his
excellent advice, particularly on services.

At a point where I get required to do XP, I'll read everything like that
carefully, on how to get it under control.

[...]

Do you have plans for getting a new machine anytime soon?

The two most recent times I bought machines, there was a six+ month
delay between my purchase and my actually moving into them. Notebooks
that look worth buying, the lowest I can see is towards $2k. Given
the relationship between time and the value+cost of hardeare -- together
with my past record -- I've decided this time to be sure I am ready to
make that major U-haul move soon after the purchase. So this isn't a
purchase I'm going to be doing, say, this month. Part of being older,
I think, moving can be traumatic. <g>

It won't happen this month, but I suspect it will happen this year, a
notebook to run W2000. I've increasingly been falling prone to daydreams
about working under a system resources allowance that wasn't so limited.
<glancing over at my resmon red bars>

 

[Spacey Spade]

[...]

It won't happen this month, but I suspect it will happen this year, a
notebook to run W2000.

May I suggest WinXP? If anything it will keep you from having to switch
from 2000 to XP in a few years. If you strip XP bare, all it is 2000
ver 5.1.

This notebook looks good (Toshiba 5005-s507 at $999)

http://www.pcvideoonline.com/productdetail.asp?level=7&catid=19&producti
d=97
http://www.plasmakings.com/productdetail.asp?level=7&catid=19&productid=
97
http://www.toshiba.ca/web/product.grp?lg=en&section=1&group=223&product=
297

It's an older laptop, but they all become old anyway.

+ PRICE!
+ geforce4 go (i'd look into what the 440 is)
+ 1600x1200 lcd resolution (if you have good macroscopic vision like me)
+ loaded features, and it's sexy like you (there goes marketing ploy
+ 1394
- I think it's a desktop processor, so cooling may be an issue... but I
would want to take it apart and see if I can do some mods to better the
cooling (unlikely, but I would still want to). If you look for 5100
series they have mobile processor:
http://www.toshiba.ca/web/product.grp?lg=en&section=1&group=223&product=
532
- 802.11g antenna not built in
? Is lcd visible in sunlight? AFAIK, Toshiba was first to put out this
technology

I've increasingly been falling prone to daydreams
about working under a system resources allowance that wasn't so limited.
<glancing over at my resmon red bars>

Especially since amount of RAM available has outrun the limited
resources of win9x. You get a new laptop with 512Mb, and win9x doesn't
know what to do with that much capacity.