Maelstorm

I know quite a few people have been looking for this. So here it is. The location in the registry for the content, layout, position, and size of items on the Windows 10 Start Menu is here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore I am going to warn you though, much of the data is binary. It looks something like a C struct or attributes of a C++ class. There does appear to be UTF-16 encoded strings in the data too, so it looks like it copies the shortcut information into the database. I wouldn't try to modify the data as it may corrupt your user profile and make your start menu unusable. So using regedit.exe, you can export the key and then reload it at a later date to restore your start menu. You will have to restart StartMenuExperienceHost.exe for any changes to take effect. Enjoy.

I went from Windows XP to Windows 10 a few years ago and I have gotten used to it. Right now, I'm trying to add a php file template to show up on the New context menu when I click on the desktop. I found a few way on the web, but I can't seem to get it to work. I've been modifying the registry directly. Here's what it currently looks like. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.php] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.php\OpenWithProgids] "VSCode.php"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.php\ShellNew] "NullFile"="1" "FileName"="%ProgramData%\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Templates\\template.php" This latest incarnation was followed from here which did not work: https://superuser.com/questions/1572416/populate-new-files-from-windows-context-menu Any ideas on what I need to do?

I've been looking through the files of a WinPE 3.0 and for the life of me, I cannot seem to find where WinPE starts setup which installs Windows. Now I know about cmdlines.txt, winpeshl.ini, and the registry key HKLM\System\Setup that runs winpeshl.exe. So, from boot.wim, how does windows setup get started?

I can build Windows XP All In One install DVDs in my sleep. Well, my script builds it. I have been looking through the forums, online, and the deployment documentation from Microsoft, but I am still confused about how this works. Here's what I have been able to gather so far: Instead of an i386 directory, there's a install.wim file that contains the installation image. Instead of winnt.sif, the unattended answer file is now an xml file. There is the Windows System Image Manager which shows a bunch of components and packages which I have no clue about. Windows PE? In WIn XP, Win PE was made from the Win XP installation files. How is it done now? The image that I have is Win 7 Pro SP1 AMD64. I don't plan to do any upgrading to ultimate or anything. In Win XP, there are several hooks which can be utilized by custom code to perform various tasks. Do these hooks exist in Win 7? How does one use them? Hotfixes. Before, you could specify a command line switch for a hotfix and it would integrate itself in the windows install. Does that method still apply or has the procedure changed? Related to #6: How does one now install additional software like flash player, acrobat reader, Seamonkey, Firefox, etc...? Which hook do you use? Before, I would start a very elaborate installation from cmdlines.txt which would in turn call my WINSETUP.CMD which would then kick off the software installation.I will probably have more questions beyond this. But this should get me started.