There're lots of posts in the forum about Visual Effects and performance setting, and I'm a little confused... All I want is to set it to Custom with everything DISABLED except for the last two options ("Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop" and "Use visual styles on windows and buttons")... How do I do it?????

10x, everybody

Ran, Israel.

I too would appreciate some guidance on this - and the other registry tweaks.

It is not obvious in the vast number of posts when the best time is, or method, to apply the various types of tweaks.

Could one of the folks who know what they are doing give us ten minutes please?

Just a simple breakdown such as

At T13 - apply any reg tweaks that . . .

At T13 - apply any reg tweaks that . . .

In RunOnce - apply any reg tweaks that . . .

quick guidance

monitor your registry!

if u're doing this for only 1 computer i'd say the best effective way would be modifying the hive*.inf files...

XtremeMaC - thanks for reply. I don't think it's so much getting the tweaks that folks like me struggle with (if we can't monitor and find them, there are thousands posted) - it's more knowing when and how to apply them during an UA to make them work.

Yea, I know that trial and error will get us there in the end - but if someone has already worked it out . . .

BTW I did look at the posts and info on editing the hives, I even opened up some of the hive files to see if I could handle it. Erm . . . I think I'll pass for the time being.

T-12 and T-13 are basically the same. Apply HKCU settings if you want them to take effect for all users, however some don't work such as perhaps VS settings.

RunOnce/RunOnceEX/Startup/GUIRunONce - Apply all User specific tweaks.

Either place you can apply HKLM settings however....

Thanks Alanoll, that was just what I needed. I'll live with doing a few Visual settings post install.

You could try creating a self destructing batch file that applies the tweaks the first time you log in as a user. Put the batch file in $Docs\Default User\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. The batch file will be removed from the user's startup folder after execution, but will remain in the Default user account, and executed whenever a new account is created.

My batch files looks like this:

CLS
@echo off
cmdow @ /HID

ECHO.
attrib -R "%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\HKCU.cmd"
DEL "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\*.*" /q
REGEDIT /S %systemroot%\HKCU2.reg
DEL "%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\*.cmd"

EXIT

All additional registry tweaks are in HKCU2.reg, which is in the $$ folder of the CD.

PLEASE relate to my question... You have totally ignored it!!!

It's very important!!!

@Keynan here it's what i use:

;windows visualfx

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects]"VisualFXSetting"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\AnimateMinMax]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\ComboBoxAnimation]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\CursorShadow]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\DragFullWindows]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\DropShadow]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\FontSmoothing]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\ListBoxSmoothScrolling]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\ListviewAlphaSelect]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\ListviewShadow]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\ListviewWatermark]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\MenuAnimation]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\SelectionFade]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\TaskbarAnimations]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\Themes]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\TooltipAnimation]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\WebView]

"DefaultApplied"=dword:00000001

this reg file must put all your visualfx enabled so you must change to dword:00000000 to disable them. also u must change the key below to yours. the best way it's use regedit to navigate to your keys and export them. finally i must say that this tweaks does NOT work for me. if i go to visualfx properties they are all activated and set like i want but this it's not applied by windows don't know why . after i clic ok in the dialog they are applied. hope i've help u

;windows visualfx

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects]"VisualFXSetting"=dword:00000001

      PLEASE relate to my question... You have totally ignored it!!!

It's very important!!!

Like I said, create a self destructing batch file that executes a reg file on first boot. After reboot tweaks should be applied. For the desktop shadows you can add the following tweak to HKCU2.reg (or whatever the name of reg file is you've specified in the batch file):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Configure Advanced Visual Effects

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects]

"VisualFXSetting"=dword:00000003

;Configure Start Menu/Show Protected OS Files

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]

"ListviewShadow"=dword:00000001

WIth regards to Visual Styles of Windows/Buttons, that should be applied automatically if you've created a theme file and configured the theme service to start on bootup, as per the following thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=9878

what does these do?

ListviewAlphaSelect

ListviewWatermark

WebView

I would like to be able to disable the following items below , cuz i dont see any of those options under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects

show shadow under mouse

use background images for each folder type

use common tasks in folders

Thanks!

Bump.... still waiting

Could someone please have a look at this batch file. The file seems to run just fine but the settings aren't imported.. Any idea why?

(and yes, I did get a nights sleep before asking this )

@echo on
title Applying Visual FX Settings...
ECHO.
attrib -R /S "%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\visualfx.cmd"
REGEDIT /S "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\visuals.reg"
REM start /wait del "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\*.reg" /q
DEL "%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\visualfx.cmd"

try 1 at a time..

ATTRIB command see if it works

then the REG command

& so on

First of all try running the file manually to see if it works as expected.

Also, when you installed Windows, did you install to a clean formatted partition, or over the top of an existing Windows Partition?