change default user settings

[sled]

Good day all,

Here's my current level of understanding:

All explorer customization settings (detail view, toolbar settings, etc) are kept in:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams

with subkeys 01, 02, etc corresponding to consecutive folders that have been opened while the 'Remember each folders view settings' is in effect. Also underneath the key above is the subkeys Default and Desktop, which contain the template new folders (01, 02, etc.) are created with. It seems logical that instead of changing each of the numbered folders to suit, one should change the template they are made from. Unfortunately the data in Default and Desktop are in hex, and I have no idea how to decipher them. I went to hivedef.inf but there is no 'streams' entry in that file, let alone 'streams\default.' I checked through all the hive*.inf files and the only entry that seems related (or even exists at all) is the line:

HKR,"2030\Execute\1","CommandLine",0x00020000,"%SystemRoot%\system32\shmgrate.exe MergeDesktopAndNormalStreams"

in hiveusd.inf-although I don't have any idea what it does. Probably just a red herring. This leaves me with two possible solutions:

1. Find out where the data placed in the streams\default key when the registry is created comes from, and change it there.

2. Decipher the hex data in streams\default, change it to my liking, and merge it later during setup.

I'm a bit out of my league with the first solution, and i've been scouring the web for more information about the second. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Sled