sleepyp

This post is simply to share a bit of work i did over the weekend. I built a registry file which adds context menu, file typing, and a default icon to the 64 compressed file extensions on my XP CD in the i386 folder. Basically this .reg file correctly sets up the association between the compressed files and expand.exe (the LZ Compression Util included with XP). With the tweak applied, all the files are iconified, described as "Compressed File", and have "Expand" as their default action. I have tested the code and it appears to work with all filenames/pathes. I have seen other tweaks of this nature but none which worked properly for me and none which did the nice shell stuff. the extensions included are: AC, AD, AS, AV, AX, BA, BI, BM, CA, CH, CN, CO, CP, CS, DA, DB, DL, DR, DS, DT, EX, FO, H, HL, HT, HX, IN, MD, MF, MI, MM, MO, MS, NL, NT, OC, OS, PI, PR, RA, RE, RL, RO, RS, SA, SC, SD, SE, SI, SQ, SR, SY, TH, TL, TR, TS, TT, VB, VX, WS, XD, XM, XS, ZI (on CD they appear with a _ added to the end of the extension). i know there is a "registry tweaks" pinned thread, but it's 37 pages long and frankly needs to be cleaned up a lot. if you are slipstreaming in an archive manager such as 7zip, WinRAR, etc, you won't really need this tweak. oh well, enjoy the 1600 lines of code shell_expand.reg

still can't get this to work, and i have a request for something i haven't seen anywhere: can anyone post working hive-format code to enable the Quick Launch toolbar?

ok, after looking around it would appear that the settings for the Taskbar visuals & toolbars and the desktop icons are all stored at: [HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop] However the settings are effectively not human-readable as they're simply gigantic strings of hex values. Here's what I exported in regedit: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop] "TaskbarWinXP"=hex:0c,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,b0,e2,2b,d8,\ 64,57,d0,11,a9,6e,00,c0,4f,d7,05,a2,22,00,1c,00,0a,11,00,00,1a,00,00,00,01,\ 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,01,14,02,00,00,00,\ 00,00,c0,00,00,00,00,00,00,46,81,00,00,00,11,00,00,00,ec,fc,cc,dc,c2,15,c5,\ 01,80,ca,cb,10,18,18,c5,01,32,c9,a5,bb,ee,15,c5,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\ 01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,07,02,14,00,1f,50,e0,4f,d0,\ 20,ea,3a,69,10,a2,d8,08,00,2b,30,30,9d,19,00,2f,43,3a,5c,00,00,00,00,00,00,\ 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,5c,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,53,32,af,01,\ 10,00,44,4f,43,55,4d,45,7e,31,00,00,44,00,03,00,04,00,ef,be,52,32,d1,64,54,\ 32,d8,a0,14,00,00,00,44,00,6f,00,63,00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,\ 20,00,61,00,6e,00,64,00,20,00,53,00,65,00,74,00,74,00,69,00,6e,00,67,00,73,\ 00,00,00,18,00,3c,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,52,32,02,96,10,00,50,61,74,72,69,63,\ 6b,00,26,00,03,00,04,00,ef,be,52,32,a4,70,54,32,cb,a0,14,00,00,00,50,00,61,\ 00,74,00,72,00,69,00,63,00,6b,00,00,00,16,00,64,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,53,32,\ 0a,0e,13,00,41,50,50,4c,49,43,7e,31,00,00,4c,00,03,00,04,00,ef,be,52,32,a4,\ 70,54,32,82,a1,14,00,36,00,41,00,70,00,70,00,6c,00,69,00,63,00,61,00,74,00,\ 69,00,6f,00,6e,00,20,00,44,00,61,00,74,00,61,00,00,00,40,73,68,65,6c,6c,33,\ 32,2e,64,6c,6c,2c,2d,32,31,37,36,35,00,18,00,42,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,52,32,\ a4,70,14,00,4d,49,43,52,4f,53,7e,31,00,00,2a,00,03,00,04,00,ef,be,52,32,a4,\ 70,52,32,a7,70,14,00,00,00,4d,00,69,00,63,00,72,00,6f,00,73,00,6f,00,66,00,\ 74,00,00,00,18,00,52,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,52,32,a7,70,10,00,49,4e,54,45,52,\ 4e,7e,31,00,00,3a,00,03,00,04,00,ef,be,52,32,a4,70,52,32,a7,70,14,00,00,00,\ 49,00,6e,00,74,00,65,00,72,00,6e,00,65,00,74,00,20,00,45,00,78,00,70,00,6c,\ 00,6f,00,72,00,65,00,72,00,00,00,18,00,48,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,52,32,ab,70,\ 11,00,51,55,49,43,4b,4c,7e,31,00,00,30,00,03,00,04,00,ef,be,52,32,a7,70,52,\ 32,ab,70,14,00,00,00,51,00,75,00,69,00,63,00,6b,00,20,00,4c,00,61,00,75,00,\ 6e,00,63,00,68,00,00,00,18,00,00,00,10,00,00,00,05,00,00,a0,1a,00,00,00,29,\ 01,00,00,60,00,00,00,03,00,00,a0,58,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,73,75,69,74,63,61,\ 73,65,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,9c,e0,9e,35,b2,33,5e,42,b6,1a,98,37,fb,ac,80,\ a7,d2,d3,1f,19,b6,81,d9,11,9f,32,00,e0,18,b4,ea,ac,9c,e0,9e,35,b2,33,5e,42,\ b6,1a,98,37,fb,ac,80,a7,d2,d3,1f,19,b6,81,d9,11,9f,32,00,e0,18,b4,ea,ac,00,\ 00,00,00,08,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,e2,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,60,00,\ 00,00,00,00,00,00,52,00,32,00,1e,02,00,00,52,32,66,9a,20,00,46,49,52,45,46,\ 4f,7e,31,2e,4c,4e,4b,00,00,36,00,03,00,04,00,ef,be,52,32,66,9a,55,32,9a,08,\ 14,00,00,00,66,00,69,00,72,00,65,00,66,00,6f,00,78,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,\ 00,2e,00,6c,00,6e,00,6b,00,00,00,1c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,76,00,00,00,01,00,\ 00,00,68,00,32,00,4f,00,00,00,52,32,ab,70,20,00,53,48,4f,57,44,45,7e,31,2e,\ 53,43,46,00,00,4c,00,03,00,04,00,ef,be,52,32,ab,70,55,32,9b,08,14,00,36,00,\ 53,00,68,00,6f,00,77,00,20,00,44,00,65,00,73,00,6b,00,74,00,6f,00,70,00,2e,\ 00,73,00,63,00,66,00,00,00,40,78,70,73,70,32,72,65,73,2e,64,6c,6c,2c,2d,36,\ 31,30,30,00,1c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,e0,06,00,00,00,00,00,00,16,\ 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,16,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,01,00,\ 00,00,aa,4f,28,68,48,6a,d0,11,8c,78,00,c0,4f,d9,18,b4,0c,03,00,00,e0,0c,00,\ 00,00,00,00,00,16,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,16,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\ 01,00,00,00 "Toolbars"=hex:11,00,00,00,00,00,00,00 "Upgrade"=dword:00000001 The only thing I'm not entirely clear on is what precisely "Upgrade" is. Any ideas? a google search on this string is understandably fruitless...

i experienced a problem when using Virtual PC while logged into the host machine via Remote Desktop Web Connection. Specifically, the mouse tracking seems to not work at all in VPC when you're logged in remotely. just wanted to post it here as a heads up for people. my method is to enable remote desk on the development virtual PC and then do a chained connection like this: [remote system]>[remote desk web connection machine (your main machine]>[Virtual PC (dev machine)]. (That is assuming your development package will be including Term Services)