Windows 7

See Also

AutoHotkey

Show a Useful Long Date

1. Open "Region and Language" settings
2. Click "Additional settings..."
3. Select the "Date" tab
4. Set "Long date:" to ddd, dd MMM yyyy

Make Device Manager Show Disconnected Devices

@echo off
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start "" devmgmt.msc

Disable "These files may be harmful to your computer" Security Warning

1. Start IE
2. Press <alt + t>, <o>
3. 'Security' Tab
4. 'Local Intranet'
5. Move slider to 'Low'
6. Press <alt + s>, <alt + a>
7. Add any IPs, machine names, etc... that you want to permit in (no wild cards, DNS, x.x.x.x/x notation)
8. Press okay, and close IE
9. Restart any open explorer windows

Disable Compressed Folders (ZIP & CAB)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CompressedFolder\CLSID]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.zip\CLSID]
 
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CABFolder\CLSID]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.cab\CLSID]

Enable Compressed Folders (ZIP & CAB)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CompressedFolder\CLSID]
@="{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.zip\CLSID]
@="{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31}"
 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CABFolder\CLSID]
@="{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.cab\CLSID]
@="{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262}"

Disable thumbs.db

1. Start gpedit.msc
2. Go to: User Configuration/Administrative Template/Windows Components/Windows Explorer
3. Enable Turn off caching of thumbnail pictures and Turn off the caching of thumbnails in hidden thumbs.db files

Note: In Win8, its called File Explorer not Windows Explorer

125% DPI

If you were unlucky and Windows decided that it 'knew better' and that you wanted bigger stuff, you may have issues with oversized fonts even after you turn the setting back to 100% DPI. ref

Use the following registry file to fix this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"="SSERIFE.FON"
"MS Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"="SERIFE.FON"
"Courier 10,12,15"="COURE.FON"

Verify System Files

sfc /scannow

Verify Drivers

More info here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244617

# Verify all the drivers in the system
verifier /all
 
# Dump the current Driver Verifier status and counters to the standard output
verifier /query
 
# Dump the current Driver Verifier settings to the standard output
verifier /querysettings
 
# Erases all current Driver Verifier settings
verifier /reset

Fix the sticky menu items

1. Win + Break
2. Click "Advanced system settings"
3. Select the "Advanced" tab
4. Click "Settings" in the "Performance" section
5. Uncheck "Fade out menu items after clicking"
6. While you're at it, uncheck "Fade or slide menu items into view"
7. Click "OK", "OK"

Remove a stuck item

If you've already got a stuck item, you can remove it by running the following:

tskill dwm

Setup for an SSD

1. Enable AHCI in the BIOS before installing Windows... otherwise you'll need to do the fix below.
2. Enable TRIM - fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0
3. Disable system restore (Win + Break -> System Protection
4. Disable indexing
5. Disable scheduled defragmentation
6. Move (or at least shrink) the page file
7. Disable hibernation powercfg -h off
8. Disable Prefetch and Superfetch - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters, set EnablePrefetcher and EnableSuperfetch to 0
9. Disable Pagefile clearing and large system cache - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management, set ClearPageFileAtShutdown and LargeSystemCache to 0
10. Disable Windows Search and Superfetch services
11. Enable write caching
12. Setup No-GUI boot - msconfig, Boot

Enable AHCI After Install

1. Boot the system without AHCI enabled
2. Set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci\Start to 0
3. Reboot & enable AHCI
4. Boot and allow Windows to install the new driver
5. Reboot

Disable the truly nasty 'handwriting' font

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"Segoe Print (TrueType)"="segoeui.ttf"
"Segoe Print Bold (TrueType)"="segoeuib.ttf"
"Segoe Script (TrueType)"="segoeui.ttf"
"Segoe Script Bold (TrueType)"="segoeuib.ttf"