Jalaj P. Jha » Tweaking

Tweaking Registry for Windows Media Center

Jalaj — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:38:09 +0000

Windows Media Center is an application aimed at the Home segment and catering various entertainment facilities as Television, Radio, Streaming Video and so on. It made its first appearance with Windows XP Media Center Edition. Business houses are unlikely to purchase this edition as it's name only suggests that it is unsuitable for business purposes. But what about "Windows Vista Ultimate", it too includes Windows Media Center though this is not apparent from its name.

You got it and now want to disable it? Then move ahead as you can do that with a simple registry tweak.

Open Regedit and browse through to the key as below (or create if doesnot exist)

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsMediaCenter

Create a DWORD valuename MediaCenter and set its value to 1 (numeral one). This will not allow Windows Media Center to run for the current user. To regain the original settings either set it to 0 (numeral zero) or delete it.

If you want to implement this setting across all users accessing the particular system then use the key as below instead of the one mentioned above.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsMediaCenter

statutory warning : Tweaking registry in irresposible Manner can damage your system settings and can stop your operating system to function properly or stop the functioning. Perform tweaking only if you are sure of what you are doing

Related Links :

Tweaking Registry Series

Tweaking Registry for Task Bar in Vista

Jalaj — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:39:12 +0000

This post comes a long time after earlier post Tweaking Registry for Start Menu - XP & Vista in "Tweaking Registry" series.

You can modify the task bar in Windows Vista by applying certain Registry tweaks that we will discuss here.

Open Regedit and browse through to the key as below (or create if doesnot exist)

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer

Creating a DWORD valuename (names as below) and setting its value to 1 (numeral one) will have effect as mentioned corresponding to it. To regain the original settings either set them to 0 (numeral zero) or delete them.

ValueName	Description
HideSCABattery	Remove the battery meter icon that is displayed in the system notification area (previously called the "system tray").
HideSCANetwork	Remove the networking icon from the system notification area
HideSCAVolume	Remove the volume control icon from the system notification area
TaskbarLockAll	Prevents the user from making any changes to the taskbar settings through the Taskbar Properties dialog. If you enable this setting the user cannot access the taskbar control panel, unlock, resize, move or rearrange items on their taskbar.
TaskbarNoAddRemoveToolbar	Prevents users from adding or removing toolbars. If you enable this policy setting the user will not be allowed to add or remove any toolbars to the taskbar. Applications will not be able to add toolbars either.
TaskbarNoDragToolbar	Prevents users from rearranging toolbars. If you enable this setting the user will not be able to drag or drop toolbars to the taskbar.
TaskbarNoNotification	RTurn off all balloon notifications
TaskbarNoRedock	Prevent users from moving taskbar to another screen dock location
TaskbarNoResize	Prevent users from resizing the taskbar
TaskbarNoThumbnail	If you enable this setting the taskbar thumbnails will not be shown, and the system will use standard text for the tooltips.

Related Links :

Tweaking Registry Series

The Blog Revisited – 9

Jalaj — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:49:05 +0000

This is the last part on "The Blog Revisited" before going ahead with regular posting. All posts that appeared June onwards (number was comparatively low) are covered here.

Google Webmaster Tools - A Tutorial describes all features of Google Webmasters tools.

WinAPI saw last two posts (I just can't leave this subject... it always bounces back) WinAPI : More on Font Object & Which Hindi / Devnagari Unicode font is installed on the system?. The latter one describes application that enumerates all installed fonts to see if a particular script (here Devnagari/Hindi) is supported or not.

What if you published a post and then found that the url that wordpress generated is not appropriate. You can just change it follwing this article Wordpress : Change Post URL after it’s Published

Pass Google Verification to use Analytics for your Wordpress.com Blog was an experiment that though I succeeded in a little but all my expectations did not fulfill.

This blog is hosted at wordpress.com with two premium upgrades Custom CSS & Domain Mapping. Both of these functionalities can be obtained free at blogger.com. See a comparison between the two at Wordpress.com Vs Blogger.com

Browser market has never been stable. First it was in Netscape's hand which it later lost to Internet Explorer and now Firefox is fast emerging with Safari making debut in PC browser market. So if you are developing with a single browser in mind your page may fail to display properly in others. Read a bit on how to check cross browser compatibility of your design at CSS Design - Cross browser compatibility

Internet is full of information both valuable and junk. While you need to visit a site to see valuable information junk information find many readers though mail forwarding. Read Email forwarding - All Fun and No Responsibility ?

Tweaking registry series saw a lot of new posts as listed below.

I am unaware of why people shy away from adopting Microsoft standards (sometimes Microsoft too is guilty). Conditional Comments in Internet Explorer is a feature that all browsers can adapt but unfortunately it never went ahead of Internet Explorer (just like MARQUEE tag).

Wordpress.com saw a few enhansements. Read about them through below links

There were two posts on Indian languages. Bhomiyo.Com - Indic Transliteration on the Fly describes a service that transliterates between various Indian Scripts on the fly. Google came out with the standalone Hindi transliteration web application. This facility was earlier available with only Blogger.com. Read about it at Google Hindi Transliteration spreads out

The Blog Revisited – 7

Jalaj — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:46:51 +0000

Databases allow datatypes that can store unicode data, then why was it that while MS-Access successfully stored Unicode data whereas MS-SQL server failed when I first tried. See how to handle Unicode data in Storing Unicode Data in Databases.

After of years of existence of internet most of the dictionary words domain seem to have been already taken. Do you too think so? Check for words from your regional language dictionary as domain names need not necessarily be ASCII one but can be any language text in Unicode. For details see

IME (or Input Method Editor) is an excellent way to type in Regional language text. But what to you do when a few text boxes expect English inputs while others regional inputs... do you need to switch IME on and off every now and then. Not if the software you develop takes care of automatic switching. Switching IME during runtime details how to achieve automatic switching of IME.

Most multilingual softwares allow you to set language options but require you to restart application before language change is effective. If you need immediate UI language change Changing UI Language during Runtime is one of the way to do it.

But what if the two languages you aer switching have different orientation of RTL (Right to Left) and LTR(Left to Right)? Mirroring Form for RTL languages as Arabic detilas how you can switch control locations.

Google Translate gives you facility to translate selected text or entire page between available languages. You can use JavaScript to provide translation button on your site/blog to translate current the current page details of which is here at Google Translate

Google Desktop supports interface in many languages. Google Desktop Now in Hindi came when Hindi language interface was added.

Google Reader allows you to send selected posts from RSS feed you read to your friends or share them and publish as RSS feed for others to subscribe. Read about these in More reasons to use Google Reader

After a long gap since my last post on Microsoft Project came MS Project : Define General Working Time that shows how calendar can be modified globally or resourse-wise.

Get into Technorati Top 100 in 24 Hours was the first post that brought this blog in Growing Blogs list of botd.wordpress.com. "in 24 hours" is just for attracting attention. Applying that in the timeframe may be practical but you cannot get away without getting banned by Technorati... But since Technorati never ever seemed to resolve this problem, you can easily exploit it to get higher rank by avoiding attracting attention.

WinAPI functions saw a slowdown in terms of posts on this blog and subsequent two post were WinAPI : DrawText & DrawTextEx and WinAPI : The Font Object

Google rebranded it's "personalized homepage" as iGoogle. What’s in a Name?

5th of February was called for as a CSS "edun" day (read quoted text in reverse, I don't feel eager to categorize my site for "tluda" content ) where all blogs were asked to remove CSS for a day. Having upgraded to Custom CSS I had the option to do so. No CSS on 5th April.

Microsoft came up with SilverLight to compete with Flash. Read about it here at Flash plus more with Microsoft Silverlight. I haven't looked back if it really succeeded or not.

The Flash Chart on Wordpress.com Dashboard are attractive and useful. See where did it originated in Flash Charts

New Features on Wordpress.com was update on new features added to wordpress.com and Twice the categories was reporting of a bug there.

Last 30 days and Last 30 Days were stats for April and May, Ashirwad-project.org was announcement of a new blog.

The Blog Revisited – 4

Jalaj — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:02:56 +0000

I once received an excel file that had manually created art showing a village... Then I thought to make a software that could do it taking an image input and result was Into BMP Format creating Excel Art

There is a registry tweak using which you can block regedit from being executed.. what it you accidentally blocked it but cannot undo as the regedit itself would be required to do it. Read Accidentally Blocked Regedit!

Sudoku is an addiction and I got blown by it... In order to help others learn playing sudoku I developed a software, the last version of which is linked from SuDoku Tutor 3i

I wanted to write software capable of accessing clipboard which can be done using WinAPI functions. I achieved much of my aim as described here Accessing Clipboard from VB

In days of COBOL and dBase, in my NIIT classes, I used to be called a frills genius as my softwares started with nice graphics created out of ASCII characters which I created manually. As I was working on Excel Art application mentioned above, I thought why not make an application which can create some sort of ASCII art with the help of nochrome BMP file and the result is Into BMP Format creating ASCII Art.

When you need to create a menu for your VB application, you do it on Menu Editor, but where is it saved as there is no separate file created for it... To find out I went in reading the FRM file created for storing form data. A short writup on what is where in FRM file is here The FRM File Specification

I am good at reading but sometimes I feel like closing my eyes and someone else read out to me. Adobe Acrobat is a good application where you can hear the text content using "Read Out Loud" feature. I always miss such a feature in MS Word. Read out Word Documents attempts at describing how you can create a similar feature for Word.

Microsoft do allow using Agents to programmatically read out texts for you with visible presence of some animated characters. Adding Agent Characters to your Application is a brief on how you can do that.

It was near mid of January that I required to create some Microsoft Project Files (.MPP). It started out smoothly and while working with some freatures I thought writing out something on this topic would be helpful for other starters. And it did as was always evident from the search engine keywords that drove traffic for the posts. First of the posts on Microsoft Project is here at Starting with Microsoft Project

Manipulating System Tray Icons is something that I always wanted to do and with some efforts managed to do that. Accessing System Tray from Application describes how you can use Windows API functions to Access System tray. Accessing System Tray from Application - 2 takes you ahead with how to add context sensitive menus on system tray icons.

One question is always asked about how do you create dynamic menus using VB6. Working with menus in Visual Basic starts with the basics of Menus and then dives into dynamic menus and advanced features.

One of my favorite topic has been working on Indian Languages. With introduction of Unicode Hindi fonts I always wondered how to go about making a form in Hindi language using Unicode fonts. Problem is that VB6 IDE doesn't allow Unicode characters to be used, workaround is that you populate Unicode text during runtime. VB Forms in Hindi Unicode Fonts describes it in detail.

Working with so many Windows API functions made be eager to systematically learn Windows API functions. I sat down with the MSDN and started learning function by function. Rectangle is a very important shape for Windows GUI as all windows are rectangular in shape. Windows API functions for Rectangle and RECT applied to Windows describe WinAPI functions related to rectangle.

When I was used to work on WinAPI functions by example (frankly copy/paste) one word hit like hammer... Handle, Handle Handle..... What are windows handles, how to get them and more are described in posts Windows and Handles, Getting Window Handles, WinAPI : Working with Windows Handles, WinAPI : Prevent Setting foreground window, WinAPI : Getting Window Texts

One of the most sought for Windows API functions are the ones related to System ShutDown. System Shutdown Windows API Functions describes most of those functions.

90GB to 450GB of data on A4 paper?. Oh that was a news that spread like fire and I came to know about it when I got its spark (forwarded mail). Was it really a Invention or just a hype? This and Disposable Storage Bites were the two posts meant to review the same. Now after 10 months, the developer's site no more hold the target page describing the said technology.

The Blog Revisited – 3

Jalaj — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:45:08 +0000

Beginning of January saw posting of Tweaking Registry for Internet Explorer that turned into most viewed post on this blog. Internet Explorer (4 and above) allowed a lot of customization, a few of which are listed here.

Browsers are not generally allowed access to any part of the system except the cookies, but vulnerabilities do. So when you ask Can Registry be written by JavaScript, answer is YES. While writing this post it occurred to me that I should also post other security measures known to me and so came the next two posts.

Many of us writing small desktop applications are unaware of fact that though our database is password protected, we are disclosing it by hardcoding it in the application which requires as little as MS Word to get hold to it. This security concern was detailed in Protecting the Database

I found a nice little command line utility at Microsoft site that allows you to encode web script (server side ASP or client side VBScript/Jscript on IE). Protecting Web Scripts attempted at coding the same application with a user interface.

Google Toolbar version 4 above allowed developers to develop XML based code to modify Google Toolbar to provide buttons for own site. Custom Buttons on Google Toolbar shows a basic writeup on it.

All my applications had a similar feature a file selector using a textbox, button and common dialog control. So I thought if I can make a custom ActiveX control and the result was a control that I described in three parts Creating Custom ActiveX Controls, Creating Custom ActiveX Controls - 2, Creating Custom ActiveX Controls - 3.

My early programming experience was on BBC Microcomputer during my schools. After a 4 year gap I got to resume it on a PC with MS-DOS, COBOL, Dbase etc. The posts Starting again, with MS-DOS and dBASE, Database Mangement System described the experience.

The Blog Revisited – 2

Jalaj — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:10:00 +0000

MSXML component provides you with everything that you need to read,parse or write an XML file However when you write an XML file the file contains no indentation etc to make it readable. While working on code to introduce indents in an XML file I wrote a general component to do it easily which is described in Easy way to writing XML.

I worked extensively in FoxPro 2.6 for DOS for years. A most common and fatal error that I encountered was "Not a Database File" error, which simply means that you lost your data and needed to restore from backup. In fact the database was recoverable if I had known the DBF file format specification. I got into it and developed a software that recovers files with such errors. Low Level Handling of DBF Files describes the DBF file specification and an application to read DBF file headers. Not a Database File Error in DBF describes an application which recovers data from a corrupted database file.

Event logs are a good place to log errors etc from within an application. Event Logging in Windows describes how to use WinAPI functions to achieve the same.

I find myself much comfortable with Google when looking for info, thanks to the its advanced feature. While you can always use the “Advanced Search” link on Google, Advanced Searching with Google describes it for you.

When I first learnt Windows (3.1) the first thing that fancied me was the INI files. Working with them was fun. The fun continued with Registry in Windows 95. The Windows Registry,
Getting Started with Registry describes basics of Registry.

When the blog started I had planned to put in posts related to my personal details. The posts FlashBack, The BBC Micro Computer/, My time with BBC Micro, Dry Run, The world is a small place were for the same.

That’s all for the post.