Top 10 Registry tweaks

Windows Registry holds all the tweaks to customize your Windows experience and deal with little nuisances that Microsoft thinks every user will love. From changing Windows’ design to unlocking hidden features, there are tweaks for everything. To help you improve your Windows 10 experience, here are five Windows 10 registry hacks worth trying.

Warning: Messing with the registry could corrupt your Windows. It is recommended that you follow the instructions precisely and don’t mess around if you don’t know what you are doing. Just to be safe, create a backup of your registry before making any changes.

Accessing the Windows Registry

As all the tweaks require a trip to the Windows Registry, it is important to know how to access the Registry. Press the “Win + R” keys and type regedit in the “Run” dialog that opens. Now click on “OK,” and the WindowsRegistry will open up.

1. Remove the Windows 10 Action Center Sidebar

Windows 10 Action Center Sidebar offers handy quick access buttons and notifications. However, if you find these buttons to be unnecessary, and your are not comfortable with the Sidebar taking up half the screen when you open it, you can simply disable it.

In the Registry go to the below-mentioned location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell

Here, double-click on “UseActionCenterExperience” in the right panel and then change its value to “0.” Afterwards, restart the PC, and you will see that the Action Center Sidebar will be gone, and the notification panel will be much cleaner and smaller in size.

2. Remove the OneDrive Button from the File Explorer

If you don’t use OneDrive or shifted to another cloud storage service after Microsoft decided to downgrade its storage packages, then there is no point of its icon hanging around in the File Explorer. Here is how to get rid of it.

Move to the below-mentioned location:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}

I know it will be very hard to find the {018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6} entry between so many similar entries. To quickly find it when you reach the “CLSID” folder, click on “Edit” in the top menu, and then click on “Find.” In the “Find” dialog type {018D5C66-4533 and hit Enter. You should be at the required entry.

Double-click on “System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree” in the right panel and change its value to “0.” This will immediately remove the OneDrive icon. If not, restart the PC. Additionally, you can also completely uninstall OneDrive or move OneDrive to another local drive if its is taking space.

3. Automatically Delete Pagefile.sys at Shutdown

Pagefile.sys acts as a virtual RAM which Windows uses as RAM to store programs that are not in use, thus it puts less pressure on the actual RAM. Although it is not recommended to disable it, you can delete it to save space and also avoid any vulnerabilities. The page file size is mostly near the size of your actual RAM, so it can take a lot of space depending on your RAM. When it is set to delete with shutdown, you will save space but at the expense of prolonging shutdown time.

Move to the below Registry location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

Click on “Memory Management,” and then double-click on “ClearPageFileAtShutDown” in the right panel. Now set its value to “1,” and restart the PC. Every time you shut down your PC, the pagefile will be deleted. Don’t worry – it will be created again when needed.

4. Adjust Menu Animations

You can also adjust menu animations to make them look snappier. If you have a slower PC, then faster animations should make it easier to navigate. I have written a detailed article on how to adjust and disable menu animations; you can refer to it to learn how to pull off that registry tweak.

5. Disable Windows Startup Delay

Windows puts a tiny delay on startup to help apps starting up with Windows smoothly go through the process, and you start with a smooth desktop without lags. However, if you don’t have many startup apps, like if you have disabled startup apps, then this delay could be unnecessary. You can disable this delay to speed up the Windows startup.

Go to the below-mentioned Registry location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer

Right-click on “Explorer,” and then select “Key” from the “New” option. Once the new key is created, rename it “Serialize.”

If the “Serialize” key is already created under the “Explorer” key, then there is no need to go through the above process.

After that, right-click on “Serialize” and select “DWORD Value” from the “New” option. The DWORD Value key will be created in the right panel. Rename this key to “StartupDelayInMSec,” and make sure its value is set to “0.” Now you should notice a tiny boost in Windows startup time.

Conclusion

Above we have listed some handy Windows 10 registry tweaks to optimize your Windows 10 experience. There are also many other Windows 10 tweaks that you can make to further improve your Windows 10 experience. So keep exploring ,and you should find many ways to customize your Windows 10 PC according to your needs. If you know of any other cool Windows 10 registry hacks, do share with us in the comments section.