Ever since Microsoft released the consumer preview of Windows 8, many
power users have found registry hacks and tweaks to change the way
Windows 8 behaves in certain situations. While most veteran Windows
application developers had already started developing Modern UI apps,
Windows enthusiasts were excavating deep into Windows 8 Registry Hives
and the Local Group Policy Editor this whole time to find native
solutions to problems that novice users may face. If you’ve been
following us since the release of the Windows 8 developer build, then
you may know that we have covered an umpteen number of Windows 8 tips,
registry hacks and Local Group Policy Editor tweaks to enhance the
overall usage experience. In what follows, we bring you the best 20
Windows 8 tweaks, hacks and tips that you may find handy.
For your reading convenience, we have divided this post into the following sections.
- Local Group Policy Editor Tweaks
- Windows Registry Hacks
- Tips related to Windows 8 features
Before you start tweaking your Windows 8 PC, you should get familiar
with Local Policy Editor and Windows Registry editor. The former is a
MMC (Microsoft Management Console) snap-in that enables users, with
administrative privileges, to customize a wide range of system component
settings, and restricts the control a standard user can exercise on the
system, whereas the latter is a database that stores preferences,
configurations and settings of both system and user applications, and
therefore provides you with workarounds to disable certain features and
make others work.
Local Group Policy Editor Tweaks
Disable Uninstall Option For Windows 8 Modern UI Apps
The biggest change in Windows 8 is the Modern UI (formerly known as
Metro UI). Now, in addition to the Desktop workspace, you have the Start
Screen. The apps that you install from Windows 8 Store can only be
accessed from the Start Screen. The
Uninstall or Change a Program
dialog box lets you uninstall only those applications that are
installed from external sources. You can uninstall any Windows Store app
from Start Screen by right-clicking it and then selecting Uninstall
option from the bottom. Although, it saves the hassle of opening
Uninstall or Change a Program dialog
box, it provides access to all users to easily uninstall the Windows
Store apps from your computer. If you’re looking for a way to keep
standard users from uninstalling Modern UI apps, check out our article
to find out
how to disable the uninstall option from the Start Screen.
Hide Specific Windows 8 Control Panel Tools Or Applets
The Control Panel in Windows 8 is just like the one that comes with
the previous versions of Windows. It contains different system tools and
applets for changing default settings of different PC components.
However, there are simple options that allow standard users to disable
the settings, meaning that anyone who has access to your computer can
change your PC settings using the Control Panel. For instance, the Mouse
applet lets users change default settings of the mouse, like its
movement and clicking speed. Using the policy settings in the Local
Group Policy Editor, you can restrict users from changing the settings
of system components. You can follow
our guide on hiding Windows 8 Control Panel applets to prevent your PC users from changing the settings.
Turn Off Windows Store
Windows 8 comes with its own app marketplace called the Windows
Store. The number of apps available for download are increasing with
each passing day, and the Windows Store still needs to go a long way.
Just like other app marketplaces, there are both free and paid apps
available for download. If you are lending your Windows 8 device to your
friend or colleague, then you probably don’t want them to download paid
apps, using your credit card information. Disabling the Store is a good
way to prevent anyone else from installing any unwanted app to your
system, however, there is no default option to disable the Windows
Store. You can check out
this tip to disable the Windows Store by changing its policy setting in Local Group Policy Editor.
Disable Lock Screen & Lock Screen Image
While the Lock Screen in previous versions of Windows adds an extra
layer of security to Windows logon and allows you to temporarily lock
your system, the Windows 8 Lock Screen offers some extra features; other
than the ability to lock your computer with a password, it also lets
you view the notifications from different apps such as People, Email,
Date & Time, Battery Status etc. If you are using Windows on a
tablet, entering the password in order to gain access to the computer
every time you login can be a bit annoying. The default settings
provided by Windows 8 lets you tweak the elements of the Lock Screen,
but does not have an option to completely disable it. However using the
Local Group Policy Editor, you can permanently disable the Lock Screen,
which in turns gives you direct access to the Windows Logon screen. The
Lock Screen policy setting dialog also enables system administrators to
prevent standard and guest users from changing the Lock Screen image.
Check out the steps for disabling the Lock Screen in
this post.
Disable Lock Screen App Notifications For All Users
Unlike its predecessors, Windows 8 is optimized to run on both PCs
and tablets. Just like the iOS and Android operating systems, Windows 8
also provides you with app notifications right on the Lock Screen. For
instance, if you have unread messages, it will send the notification on
the lock screen, enabling you to quickly read the message. In the PC
Settings menu, there are options to turn the Lock Screen notifications
On and Off, but it is applicable only on the current user and other PC
users can view their notifications. If you want to disable the Lock
Screen notifications for all PC users, the Local Group Policy Editor
lets you do it. Follow our guide to
disable Lock Screen app notifications for all users in Windows 8.
Enable Account Lockout Policy And Set Lockout Threshold & Duration
The User Accounts feature lets administrator and standard users
create multiple user accounts for other PC users. It equips each PC user
with a facility of saving their private information like account
passwords, financial information etc., without worrying about data theft
attacks. Just like any OS, Windows 8 also lets you protect your User
Account with a password to prevent others from accessing your data.
However, you might have noticed that if you keep entering the wrong
password while trying to log in to your account, it gets locked after
some attempts. You have to wait for some minutes before you can make
another attempt to log in to your PC. Using the Local Group Policy
Editor, you can enable the account lockout policy and customize both the
account lockout threshold & the account lock-out duration.
This article explains all the steps required to change the settings related to account lockout policy.
Disable Sync Settings For All Users
You may know that Windows 8 can be used with both a local account and
a Microsoft account, but the advantage of using the latter is that all
of your settings, including background, theme, internet history,
shortcuts etc, can be easily synced with other devices running Windows
8. For instance, if you have Windows 8 installed on both PC and tablet,
you don’t have to manually tweak the settings on both devices, instead,
you can just turn the Sync feature on to automatically sync settings,
internet history, Start Screen background, color scheme etc., with other
Windows 8 devices. However, if you don’t want your devices to sync the
settings, you can disable sync from the PC Settings for your user
account. You can also enforce system-wide level settings to disable the
Sync feature for all users, you may follow the steps from
our guide to disable Sync feature for all user accounts.
Restrict Account Users From Changing Personalization Settings
The Personalization dialog box was first introduced in Windows Vista.
It basically collects all the UI and screen related settings and show
them in one location, so that users don’t have to open different menus
to change screen and Windows UI settings. If you’re a system
administrator, and are looking for a way to restrict your PC users from
changing Personalization settings, then you can use Local Group Policy
Editor to disable the Personalization dialog box for all users. You can
check out
our guide on disabling different Personalization settings.
Prevent Users From Changing Internet Settings
The problem with some system wide settings, such as the internet
settings, is that when you change them in one user account they get
changed for all users profiles. If you are a system administrator, you
can prevent other users from changing the internet settings from the
Local Group Policy Editor.
This article guides you through the process of restricting users from accessing Internet Settings in Windows 8.
Enable Windows Store On Windows 8 To Go PC
The Windows To Go feature of Windows 8 Enterprise edition allows
users to boot the Enterprise edition of the operating system from a USB
flash drive. It proves to be quite useful in instances where you need to
run Windows 8 temporarily on a system and don’t want to go through the
hassle of installing it on your PC. Even though, it offers a complete OS
environment from the external USB drive, you cannot use the Windows
Store to update installed apps and install new ones, as it is disabled
by default in Windows To Go workspace. The fact that it is disabled by
default does not mean that Windows Store is not available at all; You
can gain access to it by enabling it from the Local Group Policy Editor.
Check out our guide on
enabling Windows 8 Store on Windows To Go Workspace.
Windows Registry Hacks
Change The Maximum Number of Tile Rows On Start Screen
The Start Screen of Windows 8 displays shortcuts to the installed
apps in the form of colorful tiles. The tiles can be used to quickly
access your favorite programs. If you install a news app, its live tile
will display the latest headlines. You can move the tiles around, create
groups for similar types of tiles and resize the tiles. When you open
the Start Screen, Windows 8 detects the resolution of your monitor and
decides the total rows of tiles that will be displayed on the start
screen. There is no default option to control the maximum number of
rows, so, if you want, you can not have a fewer number of rows. However,
a simple registry hack allows you to control the maximum number of rows
that will be displayed on the Start Screen. In order to set a maximum
limit for the number of tile rows, navigate to the following registry
key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Grid
Right click in the main window, select New, and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value. Now, rename it to
Layout_MaximumRowCount.
and then open the key to set the custom maximum number of rows. You can
restart or log off your computer to implement the changes. On a monitor
with 1920 x 1080 resolution, you can get up to 6 rows of tiles on the
Start Screen.
Set Border Size of Desktop Windows
You may already know that Microsoft has dropped the Aero, and Windows
8 wraps windows in non-transparent borders. This move was aimed at
making the operating system faster and more efficient by removing heavy
UI elements that consume too much of system resources. You can still
change the color of Windows borders to match your theme, but since the
transparency is no more there, large borders mean that more screen space
will be blocked by the active window. By default, there is no simple
way to set a custom border size, however, you can change the border size
of windows from the Windows registry. To change the border size, first
open Windows Registry Editor and locate the following registry key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
Now, look for the “BorderWidth” key and open it. By default, the
value is set at –15. You can choose any value from 0 – 50 for the
windows borders.
Set Custom Desktop Icon Vertical & Horizontal Spacing
One of the features that most Windows enthusiasts miss in Windows 8 is
Windows Color and Appearance. As
the name suggests, it is a UI related settings dialog box that allows
you to change the size and colors of desktop elements. One of its
options allow users to change the vertical and horizontal spacing
between the desktop icons. In Windows 8, you can change the default
values of vertical and horizontal spacing using the Windows registry
editor. In order to change the icon spacing, head over to the following
registry key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
Now, from the right side, look for the keys named “IconSpacing” and
“IconVerticalSpacing”. By default, the value of both keys is set at
–1125. You can increase this number to increase the space between
desktop icons.
Windows 8 Start Screen Animation Registry Hack
The start Screen in Windows 8 can be customized using the
Personalization options included in the PC Settings. It allows you to
choose a tattoo to be displayed on the Start Screen and select the main
color for the Modern UI. When you open the Start Screen, it displays the
tiles in a specific animation. Windows does not provide you with an
easy way to change the speed or style of the animation, however, a
simple registry tweak can be applied to enable and control the
animation. Other than the tiles, this registry hack also work for the
animations for User picture, Username, and the Start text (present at
the left side of the Start Screen). In order to change the Start Screen
animations, open the Windows Registry Editor and open the following
registry key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Grid
Now, right-click in the main window of the registry editor to create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value and rename it to
Launcher_SessionLoginAnimation_OnShow.
Once created, open the key and change the value to 1. Close the
registry editor and open the Start Screen. You will notice that the
hidden animation is enabled.
![Start-Screen-Animation-Registry-Hack[2]](http://cloud.addictivetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Start-Screen-Animation-Registry-Hack2_thumb.jpg "Start-Screen-Animation-Registry-Hack[2]")
As stated earlier, you can also control the animation by creating more registry keys. However, a small tool by
WINAERO called
Start Screen Animations Tweaker
provides the front-end of these registry hacks, making it easier for
you to tweak the animations without manually editing the registry.
Tips related to Windows 8 features
Bypass Windows 8 Start Screen On Startup & Jump Directly To Desktop
The biggest change in Windows 8 is the removal of Start Orb and
introduction of the Start Screen. Now, when you login to Windows,
instead of going to the Desktop, you are greeted by the Start Screen. It
provides you with tiles for various apps, included Desktop, allowing
you to quickly access the required app. A lot of avid Windows users are
not happy with this huge change in the UI, and are annoyed by the
additional step required to open the Desktop. You can find a number of
tools that lets you skip the Start Screen and take you directly to the
to desktop, however if you are not fond of installing additional
software on your PC, you can manually change the Windows Startup
behavior. Check out
this tutorial to bypass the Start Screen and jump directly to Desktop after you log in to Windows 8.
Customize Windows 8 Win+X Menu
Once you get the hang of all major changes in the UI of Windows 8,
you will start noticing the small ones. While Windows doesn’t offer a
number of features that were present in previous versions of Windows, it
offers some brand new additions. Amongst all the new additions, Win+X
menu is the most significant one. In Windows 7, the Win+X shortcut is
used to access the Windows Mobility Center, but it can now be used to
access a special menu that appears at bottom left corner of the screen.
The Win+X menu in Windows 8 lets you quickly access some useful System
Utilities, such as Programs and Features, Mobility Center, Network
Connections, Power Options, Device Manager, Task Manager, Run dialog box
etc, but it doesn’t allow users to customize this menu.
In this article, you can find two simple ways to edit the Win+X menu in Windows 8.
Turn Off SmartScreen Filter For Windows 8
In Windows 8, Microsoft has introduced a brand new security feature
called SmartScreen. It warns users about the potential threats and
temporarily prevents installation of those third party apps that are
considered as unsafe. It is a good feature for enhancing your computer
security, since there is a possibility of your computer getting infected
with a virus after installing a third party app from an external,
untrusted sources. However, it can get quite annoying for some users,
who do not like a prompt appearing on their screen every time they
install a third party tool. If you’re power user who install a lot of
third-party tools, you can choose to disable the SmartScreen filter by
following the steps from
our guide.
Create Custom Refresh Point In Windows 8 With Recimg Tool
In case your Windows 8 PC is not running smoothly, the Refresh Your
PC feature of Windows 8 lets you refresh all the settings of your
computer without making any changes to your personal files. During the
refresh, your files and personalization settings will not be changed, as
it only reverts your PC settings to the default state, and the Windows
Store apps will remain intact (third party apps will be removed,
however). Although, Refresh Your PC feature quickly takes your PC to the
default state, it doesn’t allow you to create a custom restore point.
Using a command line tool called
Recimg, you can create a
custom refresh point in WIM (Windows Installer Image) format. It
actually saves the current snapshot of your PC and lets you restore your
PC to specific custom refresh point. This enables users to to retain
all their settings, files, and desktop applications after using the
Refresh Your PC feature. In
this post, we have explained all the steps required to create, and restore, a custom refresh point using
Recimg command.
Create Wireless Ad Hoc Internet Connection In Windows 8
We have talked about a lot of features that were available in Windows
7, but are missing from Windows 8. One of the most used features of
Windows 7 is support for creating SoftAP or Ad-Hoc network connection.
Windows 8 doesn’t provide an easy way of creating ad-hoc connection to
turn the device into a virtual router for sharing internet with other
devices, but using the Network Shell console, users of both client and
server versions of Windows 8, can easily create SoftAP connection. It
allows users to take advantage of the hosted network (Virtualization)
feature for creating a virtual wireless connection. The Hosted network
plays a vital role in creating a virtual wireless adapter and a lot of
applications that create a virtual Wi-Fi hotspot use the same method to
create virtual router. In order to create a virtual Wi-Fi hotspot, it is
necessary that your network adapter supports virtualization. You can
follow our
step-by-step guide to create a wireless Ad-Hoc internet connection (SoftAP) in Windows 8 using the built-in
netsh utility.
You can also use a third party tool to create the Wi-Fi hotspot.
Previously, we have featured some tools that allow you to do that, such
as
WiFi HotSpot Creator.
It turns your system into a virtual Wi-Fi router, allowing you to share
your internet connection with other devices, like laptops, tablets, and
smartphones. It also supports WPA/WPA2 PSK-based security mode for the
ad-hoc/SoftAP connection.
Another hotspot utility worth mentioning here is
Connectify.
It turns your computer into a Wi-Fi hotspot, allowing Wi-Fi enabled
devices in your vicinity to connect to your PC’s virtual Wi-Fi router to
share the the internet
Enable Hibernate Option In Windows 8
Hibernation comes in handy in situations where you want to quickly
access your PC, and prefer not to cold boot the system. Instead of
rebooting or shutting down the PC, when you put your computer in
hibernate mode, the system is powered down, but the current state of
Windows is saved to the hard disk. When you turn on the computer back
from hibernation, it returns to exactly the same state. The Hibernate
mode is not enabled in Windows 8, and users are required to manually
enable it from System Power Settings By default the Power Options in
Windows 8 (accessible from the Settings Charms) include only Sleep,
Shutdown and Restart options. If you want to enable and add Hibernate
mode to the list of Power Options, all you need is to follow the steps
from
this guide.
All the above mentioned Local Group Policy Editor tweaks, Windows
Registry hacks and tips will allow you to use Windows 8 to its full
potential without installing any risky software on your computer. If you
have any other useful tweaks that we’ve missed in our list, drop them
off in the comment section below.
Want to know what makes Windows 8 tick? Read our
Windows 8 review and guide.
To learn how to move around faster in Windows 8, check out our compilation of
Windows 8 hotkeys.
![Start-Screen-Animation-Registry-Hack[2]](http://cloud.addictivetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Start-Screen-Animation-Registry-Hack2.jpg "Start-Screen-Animation-Registry-Hack[2]")
