Windows 7 Registry Hacks

Change Taskbar Button Stacked Window Behavior

By default, the Taskbar groups together multiple windows of a single app, then displays all of them as thumbnails when you click on the program’s Taskbar icon. If you think it would be more handy to have Windows automatically open the last window when you click the icon, you can make that happen.
1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows
CurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced.
2. Right-click in the right pane, and select “New” then “DWORD (32-bit) Value.”
3. Rename the new DWORD value “LastActiveClick.”
4. Double-click on LastActiveClick to open it.
5. Change the value in the “Value data” field to 1.
6. Click OK.

Change the Width of Taskbar Buttons

 

Windows 7 is set up to always combine Taskbar buttons from the same program and never display their labels. If, however, you’ve changed the setting to either not combine the windows at all or to only combine them when the Taskbar is full, you can change the icons’ width to hide the labels there, too. Here’s how.
1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktopWindowMetrics
2. Scroll to find the “MinWidth” entry. If it’s not there, you’ll have to create it yourself. Right-click in the right pane, select New, then Select “String Value,” and name the object MinWidth.
3. Double-click MinWidth to open it.
4. Change the number in the “Value Data” field the width you want to allot to the icons. With the default small buttons, 38 is sufficient; with the larger icons, you’ll want about 52.
5. Click OK.

Change the Delay Time of Taskbar Previews
 
Among the cooler features in Windows 7 are Taskbar previews, which appear when you hover the mouse cursor over the Taskbar icon of a currently running program. But when you do this, the preview doesn’t appear immediately. Luckily, it’s easy to speed it up (r, for whatever reason, slow it down.
1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows
CurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
2. Right-click in the right pane, click “New,” and click “DWORD Value” or “DWORD (32-bit) Value.”
3. Name the new DWORD “ExtendedUIHoverTime.”
4. Double click on ExtendedUIHoverTime to open it.
5. Click the “Decimal” radio button in the “Base” section. In the “Value data” field, enter the delay time (in milliseconds) for the preview to appear. (The Windows standard is 400ms.)
6. Click “OK” to commit the change.


 Change the Delay Time of Aero Peek
 
Aero Peek is Windows 7’s sleeker replacement for the old Show Desktop button. Just move your mouse cursor over the icon at the right end of the Taskbar to turn all your Windows invisible. But this, too, has a delay time associated with it, so if you find yourself accidentally activating it too often, you may want to increase the delay time. Here’s how.
1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows
CurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
2. Right-click in the right pane, click “New,” and click “DWORD Value” or “DWORD (32-bit) Value.”
3. Name the new DWORD “DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime.”
4. Double click on DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime to open it.
5. Click the “Decimal” radio button in the “Base” section. In the “Value data” field, enter the delay time (in milliseconds) for the preview to appear. (The Windows standard is 1,000ms.)
6. Click “OK” to commit the change

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