Category Registry Edits

How to add a legal notice for users logging into your PC using the Windows registry (regedit.exe).

Adding a legal notice can be useful if there are multiple users logging into the same PC and you need them to understand any policies or rules before logging in.

Adding the legal notice using the Windows registry:

Before making any changes to the registry, it is always recommend making a backup first!

Open regedit.exe located in C:\Windows. You can also just type “regedit” in the “Run” menu in the Start menu to open regedit.exe.

Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

In the right pane find the following two strings:

LegalNoticeCaption

LegalNoticeText

LegalNoticeCaption is the window caption that will be displayed.

LegalNoticeText is the message that will be in the window that you want to display before logging into Windows.

That’s it!

How to change the registered owner name and company on a Windows PC using the Windows registry

Did you purchase a computer secondhand/used and in System Properties it show the previous owners name and company?

To find out what the owner name and company name that is registered for your Windows PC, just right-click “My Computer” on your desktop, then click “Properties”. The System Properties window will open and it will be listed under “Registered To:”.

If the owner name and/or company listed is incorrect or you just want to change it, doing so is easy to do using the Windows registry.

Changing the Registered Owner Name or Company name:

Before making any changes to the registry, it is always recommened to make a backup first!

Open regedit.exe located in C:\Windows. You can also just type “regedit” in the “Run” menu in the Start menu to open regedit.exe.

Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

In the right pane find the following two strings:

RegisteredOrganization

RegisteredOwner

You open each and change the value to the names you like or you can leave them blank.

After making the changes you can open the System Properties again and see the changes you made: Right-click “My Computer”, then click “Properties”.

That’s it!

Remove a system service from the Windows Registry

Do you have a system service on your Windows PC that is running in the background and you would like to remove it from your system? Or have a failing service you do not need and want to remove it so you no longer have an error in your Event Viewer logs?

You can easily remove services from your system using the registry.

If you know the name of the service you want to remove it will make removing it from the registry much easier. If you do not, it can make it a lot more difficult to find because there are typically a lot of services installed by default.

Remove System Service By Name

Before making any changes to your registry, you should always backup first!

After you have created a backup (you can view other articles on this site for registry backup how-to’s), open regedit.exe (type “regedit” from a command prompt or the Run menu) and navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services

In this registry key, all installed services on your PC are listed. If you know the name of the service you want to remove, you can find the name of the service in the left pane and right-click and click delete.

That’s it! Just reboot your PC and the service will no longer start or being listed in the Services Console (services.msc).

If you do not know the exact name of the service, you will need to look at each service one-by-one to determine which one is the one you are looking for. Be careful not to delete a service that may be vital to the operation of your PC.

Removing programs listed in Add/Remove programs or Programs and Features

Do you have a software program you uninstalled, but still have it listed in Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features?

You can easily use the Windows Registry to remove any listed programs from this list.

Please keep in mind, this does not uninstall the program. This only removes the entry so you no longer see it as an installed program in Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features. Is also does not remove any additional registry entries the program may have created during install. Most programs create a log file when installing that normally contains a list of all files installed and registry entires created and their locations.

If you need to manually uninstall the program, it is suggested you either contact the software manufacturer for a removal tool or you find the uninstall log and and manually remove the files and registry entries yourself.

You should always try using either Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features to uninstall a program before trying to remove it manually from the registry.

Search By Program Name

The easiest way the remove a program listed is to search the registry by the exact name the program is listed in Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features.

Find the name of the program you no longer want to see listed and note it’s exact name. Open regedit.exe (located in c:\Windows or can be opened from a command prompt or from “Run” in the Start menu) .

In regedit:

Click on “My Computer” or “Computer”
Click “Edit” in the menu
Click “Find”

In the “Find” window, type the exact name (make sure enter EXACTLY as it appears. If it is listed as “This Program”, enter “This Program” not “this program”.) of the program you want to remove and click the checkbox for “Match whole string only”.

It may take a while for regedit to find the entry. Once found, it will be highlighted in the right pane of regedit.

Make sure the entry found is in the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

If you are not in the key mentioned above, you will need to search for the next entry. You can either press “F3” or click “Edit” in the menu and then click “Find Next”.

Once you are in the correct key and the program name is highlighted in the right pane: In the left pane, find the key that is highlighted and right-click it and click delete. An example of a uninstall key: {5B34EEAF-2BD6-4323-B7C2-FB8968755ACC}, Note: this is an example only,  your key will not be an exact match.

The program should now be removed from Add/Remove Programs or Programs and features. If you still have Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features open you will need to close it and reopen it to refresh the list.

You can also find installed programs in the registry by just navigating to the following registry key and checking each key for the correct one (slower this way):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Removing startup programs from the Windows registry

Some programs when installed add entries to the Windows registry to run files when Windows starts up.

Some times some of these files are absolutely unnecessary and degrade system performance. Other times, viruses and/or malware will use these startup points in the registry to run files related to the virus or malware without your knowing.

Backing up the registry

When add/removing entries in the Windows registry, you should always make a backup first in case you add or remove something vital to the operation of the Windows operating system. Before making any changes, right-click the key you are going to modify and click “Export”. It will save it as a “.reg” file you can later use if you need to repair any modifications to the registry you have made.

Common load points in the registry

The following are common load points in the registry most programs use:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Programs can also load files in the Winlogon process by using:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify

Some virus have also been known to add additonal files to the “Shell” string in Winlogon. The shell should be “explorer.exe”, but some viruses and malware will change it to “explorer.exe nail.exe”. Nail.exe would then load with explorer.exe. To check this setting navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

In the right pane, make sure the “Shell” string only says “explorer.exe”. You should double click the “Shell” string and open it because sometimes the virus or malware will place a bunch of spaces after explorer.exe, so it may appear to be normal because you won’t see the extra filename because the spaces have pushed it to the right so far it doesn’t show in the right pane in regedit.