13 Useful Windows 10 Registry Hacks to Optimize Your Experience

Windows Registry holds all the tweaks to customize your Windows experience and deal with little nuisances that Microsoft wrongly assumes every user will love. From changing the Windows design to unlocking hidden features, there are tweaks for everything. To help you improve your Windows 10 experience, here are a bunch of Windows 10 registry hacks worth trying.

Warning: messing with the registry could corrupt your Windows. It is recommended that you follow the instructions precisely and don’t mess around if you don’t know what you are doing. Just to be safe, create a backup of your registry before making any changes.

Accessing the Windows Registry

As all the tweaks require a trip to the Windows Registry, it is important to know how to access the Registry. Press the Win + R keys and type regedit in the “Run” dialog that opens. Click “OK” and the Windows Registry will open.

1. Increase Network Speeds

Many of the registry tweaks in the list will involve design or aesthetic changes that may make Windows 10 feel that much slick and better to you. But there’s also a whole trove of registry hacks designed to improve your Internet speeds.

If you’re having problems or experiencing packet loss, there are various things you can do, like increase your IRP Stack Size, enable TCP extensions, or increase the maximum number of ports available to various programs trying to connect to your router.

There are enough network speed tweaks in regedit that we have a whole list dedicated to it. If you’re mainly in the Registry Editor to improve your Internet speeds, then click on over.

2. Use Windows Photo Viewer Instead of Photos App

Everyone has at some point had problems with the Photos app in Windows 10. It’s no big secret. At the same time, the Windows Photo Viewer that we know from back in the Windows 7 days did the job very well, yet it was removed with a Windows 10 update some years ago.

The code for Photo Viewer is still there in Windows 10. You just need to create a fairly elaborate registry entry to unlock it. It’s a little different than your typical registry tweak, and we’ve created a guide for how to use the registry to make Windows Photo Viewer your default photo app in Windows 10.

3. Disable Windows 10 Lockscreen

The lock screen is a nice added layer of security on your Windows PC, requiring a password or PIN for you to log back in. If you feel secure in the security of your PC, you can turn the lock screen off altogether.

There are a couple of ways you can do this in Windows 10, one of which is through the registry editor. Here’s our guide on how to disable your Windows 10 lock screen through the registry.

4. Show Detailed Information on Startup

If your PC is experiencing slowdowns or inexplicable crashes, then you should make it your priority to diagnose what’s causing those problems. One possible way to do this is to set the Windows 10 startup to “Verbose Mode,” which will give you a much more detailed breakdown of the processes happening on your PC as you boot.

To activate this, go to the following registry key:

Next, right-click an empty space in the pane on the right, then select “New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.”

Name the value “VerboseStatus,” right-click it, select Modify, and in the “Value data” box enter 1.

5. Open Last Active Window in Taskbar

Ever since Windows 7, open apps in the taskbar (or Start bar) have had their own icons, with each open window or instance of that app bundled under that one icon, and visible in thumbnails when you hover your mouse over the icon. This is designed to save space in your taskbar, and generally make things neater.

By default, when you click a taskbar icon for an open app, these thumbnails pop up, but you can make a registry tweak so that when you click a taskbar icon, the last active window of that app opens, which can save some time. Here’s how to do it.

6. Disable Shake to Minimize

The “Aero Shake” is a feature introduced in Windows 7 that lets you minimize windows by grabbing the one you want to keep open and “shaking” it. You may not have realized you even had this feature, but now that you know, you might not want it because it can sometimes minimize all your windows without you necessarily wanting that.

Shake to Minimize can also be a problem for people prone to hand tremors due to illness or other causes. If this describes you, click through for our guide on how to remove the “Shake to Minimize” feature.

7. Add Your Own Apps and Options to the Context Menu

The context menu is a fine thing, but to really take control of it, you can create registry keys to add specific apps or Windows features to it. The exact way to do this will depend on what you want to add to the context menu. We have registry hacks for adding “Check for Updates” to the context menu, for example, or adding the “Defrag” option to your context menu.

We also created a guide showing you how to add an “Open with Notepad” option to the context menu, though really you can replace Notepad in this guide with any other app on your PC.

8. Change Windows Apps and Settings to “Dark Mode”

The debate of whether reading white writing on a dark background or dark writing on a light background is healthier rages on, but if you’re in the first camp, then you can use the registry to activate Dark Mode across Windows.

9. Remove the Windows 10 Action Center Sidebar

Windows 10 Action Center Sidebar offers handy quick access buttons and notifications. However, if you find these buttons to be unnecessary and are not comfortable with the sidebar taking up half the screen when you open it, you can simply disable it.

There are a couple of ways to do this, including the trusty registry, so click on through for our guide on how to remove the Windows 10 Action Center altogether.

10. Remove the OneDrive Button from the File Explorer

If you don’t use OneDrive or shifted to another cloud storage service after Microsoft decided to downgrade its storage packages, then there is no point of its icon hanging around in the File Explorer.

We have a registry-based guide that shows how to get rid of it. There are a couple of steps to the process, so check out our guide on how to hide OneDrive from File Explorer.

11. Automatically Delete Pagefile.sys at Shutdown

The Pagefile.sys file is pretty handy in Windows 10, stepping in as virtual RAM to take some load off your physical computer RAM to help speed up the process of retrieving program data, navigating your PC quickly, and other vital functions that RAM carries out.

The pagefile does, however, take up quite a bit of storage space on Windows 10, so here’s our registry hack to automatically delete Pagefile.sys when your PC shuts down.

12. Adjust Menu Animations

You can also adjust menu animations to make them look snappier. If you have a slower PC, then faster animations should make it easier to navigate. We have a detailed article on how to adjust and disable menu animations; you can refer to it to learn how to pull off that registry tweak.

13. Disable Windows 10 Startup Delay

Windows puts a tiny delay on startup to help apps starting up with Windows go through the process smoothly and so that you can start with a smooth desktop without lags.

However, if you don’t have many startup apps – for instance, if you have disabled startup apps – this delay could be unnecessary. You can disable this delay to speed up the Windows startup. With all that in mind, here’s our guide on how to disable the startup delay in Windows 10 using the registry editor.

Registry tweaks aren’t the only way to turbo-charge your Windows 10 experience. We also have a list of many other Windows 10 tweaks for you to check out. Say what you will about Windows – its tweakability runs deep. If you have any other neat registry tricks or Windows hacks, do share them in the comments.

Related:

Content Manager at Make Tech Easier. Enjoys Android, Windows, and tinkering with retro console emulation to breaking point.

6 Registry Hacks to Make Your Windows PC Faster

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

By Sarah Jacobsson Purewal

Today’s Best Tech Deals

Picked by PCWorld’s Editors

Top Deals On Great Products

Picked by Techconnect’s Editors

The Windows Registry is a database that holds your operating system’s configurations and settings. This includes everything from how long your mouse must hover over a taskbar icon before the preview pops up (in Windows Vista and Windows 7) to performance settings.

Windows 7 (and Vista) have more eye-candy features built into the operating system, but a number of Registry hacks and tweaks can speed up—or, at least, appear to speed up—the performance of your computer. Before we start mucking around with your PC’s guts, however, we’re going to make sure that you have a reliable backup of your Registry in case something goes sour.

Though editing the Windows Registry is not nearly as scary as it sounds, making an incorrect change can cripple your system. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, it’s important to take the precaution of backing up part, or all, of the Registry before you proceed.

Back Up the Entire Registry

To back up your Registry, you can use the free Registry-specific backup tool ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT). ERUNT is simple to use, more reliable than System Restore, and works with Windows XP, Vista, and 7 (even 64-bit versions). ERUNT also saves each restore point independently of the other points, unlike System Restore (in System Restore, all restore points are dependent on other points).

Back Up Part of the Registry

If you’re changing just one part of the Windows Registry, and you know which part that is, you don’t have to back up the entire Registry. Instead, you can back up the part you plan on changing using the Registry’s export feature.

First, go to Start, Run, type regedit, and press Yes. This will open the Registry Editor.

Next, find the part of the Registry you’re going to change. Right-click on the Registry key you plan on changing, and click «Export.» The Registry Editor will prompt you to save a .reg file to your hard drive.

To undo Registry changes, just find your .reg file and double-click it. The .reg file will reset your Registry values to their existing values (but will not remove values that you’ve added).

Hack Your Registry

Now that you’ve backed up your Registry—perhaps more than once—it’s time to start hacking away. To get to the Windows Registry, go to Start > Run (in Windows Vista/7 you will have to type run into the Start menu search bar and press Enter). Type regedit, click Yes, and the Registry Editor will open.

Hack 1: Speed Up Aero Peek

Windows 7’s Aero Peek lets you see the desktop when you move your mouse cursor over to the «show desktop» button at the end of the taskbar. The standard delay time for the Aero Peek preview is 500 milliseconds, or half a second. Here’s how to speed it up:

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.

2. Right-click on the right pane and click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new DWORD «DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime.»

3. Double-click on DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime to open it. Under «Base,» click Decimal and then enter the delay time (in milliseconds) in the «Value data» field. Click OK, and your Aero Peek time will be set. You can set the value to higher (a longer delay time) if you’re activating it too often by accident, or to lower (a shorter delay time) if half a second is just too long.

4. Log off and log back on for the change to take effect.

Hack 2: Speed Up Taskbar Previews

When you roll over taskbar icons in Windows Vista and in Windows 7, little previews appear. The standard delay time for these previews is 400 milliseconds, or just under half a second. If this is too slow (or too fast) for you, you can adjust the delay time with an easy Registry hack.

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.

2. Right-click on the right pane and click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new DWORD «ExtendedUIHoverTime.»

3. Double-click on ExtendedUIHoverTime to open it. Under «Base,» click Decimal and then enter in the delay time (in milliseconds) in the «Value data» field. Click OK to set the time (default is 400 milliseconds).

4. Log off and then log back in for the change to take effect.

Hack 3: Speed Up Menus

If you’d like to speed up the menus in Windows Vista or Windows 7, try this easy Registry tweak:

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop.

2. Find MenuShowDelay and double-click to open. Adjust the value in milliseconds (the default is 400 milliseconds, or just under half a second).

3. Log off and then log back on for the change to take effect.

Hack 4: Prevent Reboots

If you have a habit of leaving your computer on all the time (as do I), you’ll occasionally run into the problem of automatic system reboots. These usually happen after Windows downloads some sort of important update, and will usually be preceded by a notification (that gives you about 10 to 15 minutes warning, unless you click it away). If you’re not around to see said notification, and you have a lot of windows or important documents open on your computer, these reboots can be a hassle.

So here’s how to keep your computer from automatically rebooting with an easy Registry hack. This hack works for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Windows.

2. Right-click in the right pane and select New > Key. This will create a new folder. Name the new folder «WindowsUpdate.»

3. Open WindowsUpdate and right-click in the right pane (there will be a value already in the pane called «Default»). Select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name this DWORD «NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers.»

4. Open NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and change the Value data to 1. Do not change the Base button to «Decimal»; instead, keep it at «Hexadecimal.» Click OK.

5. Exit the Registry Editor and log off and log back in for the settings to take effect. Your system will now never force a reboot without your explicit permission.

Hack 5: Disable Notification Balloons

If you hate pop-up notification balloons on your Windows Vista or Windows 7 taskbar, you can disable them using a simple Registry hack:

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.

2. Right-click on the right pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name your new DWORD «EnableBalloonTips.»

3. Double-click on EnableBalloonTips and set the Value data to 0. It doesn’t matter if you have Decimal or Hexadecimal clicked under «Base,» because 0 is 0 in both decimal and hexadecimal.

4. Log off and log back on for the change to take effect. You’ll no longer see any annoying notification balloons from the taskbar.

Hack 6: Boot XP Faster

Is Windows XP booting too slowly? Here’s how to speed up your boot-time with a quick Registry tweak.

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > ContentIndex.

2. In the right pane will be a value called «StartupDelay.» Double-click on StartupDelay to open it. Change the «Base» from Hexadecimal to Decimal, and enter 40,000 (the default setting is 480,000).

3. Exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer. Your computer should boot up considerably faster—while this worked for me on my Windows XP laptop, values lower than 40,000 didn’t produce a noticeable difference.