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You might have seen this on some corporate computers: You can display a legal notice when the computer is booted! Here’s how you can create your own.

As always, please read this important information on editing the System Registry.

How To

1. Hit the Windows Key+R, type regedit into the run dialog and hit OK.
2. Now that you’re in the the Registry, navigate to this key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system
   
3. We are concerned with of the two keys in the right pane:
   1. legalnoticecaption - This will be the caption of the legal notice dialog box
   2. legalnoticetext - This will be the actual legal notice text
4. Double-click each of these keys and set the Value Data field to display what you’d like.
5. Next time you boot your machine, the Legal Notice will be displayed!

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This is a pretty big pet peeve of mine: When trying to shut down the computer, I get message boxes telling me that a program is still running! I always close all programs before I shut down, but that doesn’t actually mean that the program has closed - some programs still run in the background!

This Registry Hack will automatically kill all programs that are running, either in the background or in the foreground, upon shutdown.

As always, please read this important information on editing the System Registry.

How To

1. Hit the Windows Key+R, type regedit into the run dialog and hit OK.
2. Now that you’re in the the Registry, navigate to this key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
   
3. Double click the AutoEndTasks key (in the right pane) and change the Value Data to 1
4. Close the Registry and restart your machine to enable the change!

Now, when you shut down this computer, all programs will be killed and the computer shouldn’t be delayed!

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Last week, I posted a few Recycle Bin tricks, one was how to skip the Recycle Bin and delete a file automatically. Today, because I love Registry Hacks, I will show you how to disable the Recycle Bin and permanently delete items with no chance of recovery! </evil_laugh>

Before you mess around the System Registry, please read this warning.

How To

1. Hit the Windows Key+R, type regedit into the run dialog and hit OK.
2. Now that you’re in the the Registry, navigate to this key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\BitBucket
3. With the BitBucket key highlighted, you should see a DWORD value in the right plane called NukeOnDelete^[1]
   
4. Double-click the NukeOnDelete DWORD value and change the Value Data to 1^[2]
   
5. Exit Registry and reboot your machine!

Optional

You could export the keys and call them at will (meaning you can bypass the Recycle Bin when you want).

1. While NukeOnDelete is highlighted, click File then Export and name it something descriptive like “Skip The Trash”.
2. Now, change the DWORD value back, and export it with a different name: “Use The Trash”.

Now you can double-click the appropriate key when you want (you will have to restart the machine to enable the change)!

^[1] If the NukeOnDelete DWORD value doesn’t exist, you can create it by right-clicking in the right plane, click New then DWORD. Name this newly created DWORD value: NukeOnDelete. Make sure the the Base is set to Hexadecimal.
^[2]Setting for Value Data it 0 will use Recycle Bin, while setting it to 1 will permanently delete items.

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MMMMM... Related Posts

Welcome!

First off, I wanted to extend a little “Hello!!” to all of the new RSS subscribers! Last Thursday (7/5/07) 330 people accessed the Samanathon.com feed - THAT’S A RECORD HIGH! I have noticed that there is a lot of traffic coming in from StumbleUpon, apparently a number of my articles have been submitted - Thank you to whoever is hooking me up! In the last seven days, the site has received 30,000 visitors and 60,000 page views!

What Is This Site All About?

Samanathon.com is all about making Windows XP and Vista work the way you want! We have a ton of article ranging from Hacking The Windows Registry to Writing A Batch File To Set Your IP Address to Funny Japanese Videos. We also encourage commenting: You Comment, I Follow! - Each comment gives you a free link from a PageRank 6 site, so comment away! Also, we do have forums on the site (just another way for you to get free linkbacks!).

Each week we post a Speedy Links article featuring links to posts from the week’s top commentators and users from the boards so you get free, deep links just from participating on Samanathon.com!

For those who are new, here is a very short list of a few of my favorite articles:

Registry Hacks

• Disable Disk Cleanup Wizard Compression Calculation
• Automatically Sort The Programs Menu Alphabetically

Tips And Tricks

• Have Firefox And Thunderbird Use The Same Profiles On A Mutli-Booting Machine
• Clean And Organize Your Start Menu
• Bash The XP Search Companion And Use The Windows 2000 Search

Browsers

• Internet Explorer 7’s Kiosk Mode
• Delete Firefox 2’s Temporary Files Automatically When It Closes
• Delete Internet Explorer 7’s Temporary Internet Files Automatically When It Closes

Windows Tips

• Shrink Your Recycle Bin
• Automate Hard Drive Cleaning

Stats

For my regular readers out there, the site has had a huge jump in traffic, so much so that the site was down for an hour last week because my host told me that my site was consuming too much system resources on the server - not bandwidth, but actual CPU and memory!

Here is an image of my latest stats:

What’s Next?

There are plenty of Registry Hacks and Japanese videos coming up - I love doing both of these and have strayed away from them lately!

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Tanooki Mario Suggests You Read These Related Posts:

The Windows Context Menu appears when you Right-Click an object, whether it’s the Desktop or a file. I’m sure you’ve used it. The problem is, it’s missing some very basic options! We’re going to change all of that: This Registry Hack is part of a series on hacking the Windows Context Menu.

Open The Command Prompt From The Right-Click Context Menu

I love the Command Prompt - it’s a geek’s best friend when it comes to doing something quick and easy! The problem is that, when I’m working in Windows Explorer and I need to run the Command Prompt from the current window, I have to opening a command prompt and then navigating to the folder I’m currently in - which is frequently quite a few folders deep!

There’s a quicker way to get there with a Registry Hack (and you know I love Registry Hacks! ) We can add an option to the right-click context menu that will open a command prompt window at your current location!

Example

Let’s say you wanted to open the Command Prompt in your My Documents folder, you would simply right-click and then choose to open a command prompt, which would open it at:

C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Account\My Documents

How To

Warning: Before you play in your Windows Registry, please read this important information on editing the Windows Registry.

Open the Registry Editor by hitting the Windows Key+R, typing regedit. Navigating to the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/
Classes/Folder/shell

Note: Within HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes, there is a key named .Folder - we want the key named “Folder” without the period before it.

Once you’re at the shell key, right-click it and select New->Key. Name this new key Command Prompt.

Next, in the right plane, double click the (Default) value and name it whatever text you want to appear when you right-click on a folder - name it something descriptive like: Open Command Prompt.

Now, right-click the newly created Command Prompt key and create another new key. Name this new key Command.

In the right plane, double click the (Default) value and enter the following into the Value Data field:

Cmd.exe /k pushd %L

You should end up with the following:

You can now exit the Registry, the new menu option will show up immediately!

Note: The option wont appear when you right-click on a file - it only shows up when you right-click on a folder.

Explanation

Here is an explanation of the value we entered:

Cmd.exe /k pushd %L

We’ll break it down into parts:

Cmd.exe

This makes the call to open the Windows Command Prompt.

/k

Usually, the Command Prompt exits after you issue a single command. This switch tells the Command Prompt that it isn’t being used to issue only a single command and to remain open.

pushd

Tells the Command Prompt to store the name of the current directory.

%L

Uses the name that was stored by the pushd command to start the Command Prompt at that location.

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