Useful Registry Hacks To Optimize Your Windows 10 Experience

Windows 10 is full of useful settings that can enhance your experience, but many features just may not be accessible in Settings or Control Panel.

With the Windows Registry Editor, you can enable hidden features in Windows 10 that not only provide more information, but enhance your experience in Windows 10.

It should be noted that Registry Editor is a powerful tool, and it is recommended that you back up the registry first before making any changes.

Doing so allows you to restore the backup and restore the system if you edit or delete the registry entries incorrectly.

Below are the highlighted registry hacks you need to know to improve your experience with Windows 10.

Disable Bing Search in Windows Search

Windows Search comes with the integration of the Bing search engine, and it lets you find the content on Bing if a local search does not find anything.

If you do not like Bing because of privacy or performance issues or if it is causing issues, you can disable it through the registry.

To disable Bing Search in Windows 10, please follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Search.
2. Search for Registry Editor and click to open it.
3. If Windows will display a UAC that requires your permission to start the editor, just press the Yes button to continue.
4. Navigate in the Registry Editor to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Search key.
5. Right-click Search and select New > DWORD (32-bit) value as shown below.

   

6. Type BingSearchEnabled to create the new value.
7. Double-click BingSearchEnabled and sets the value 0 and press the OK button.
8. Search under the same location CortanaConsent.
9. Double-click on it and change the value to 0 and then press the OK button.
10. Close Registry Editor and restart Windows Explorer or restart Windows 10.

After making the above changes to the registry, Windows 10 will now search for local search results such as documents, images, files, apps, or settings. If there are no local results, Windows will display a blank page.

Disable the Windows 10 lockscreen

The Windows 10 lock screen feature may be unnecessary if you do not have a touch-enabled display. While there are several Windows settings available that you can customize to enhance the screen experience, you can also remove it by editing your registry.

To disable the Windows 10 lockscreen, follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Search.
2. Search for Registry Editor and click to open it.
3. If Windows will display a UAC that requires your permission to start the editor, just press the Yes button to continue.
4. Double-click in register HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
5. Navigate to SOFTWARE Policies Microsoft Windows

   

6. Under the Windows folder, create a key named “Personalization. ”

   

7. Right-click on the new personalization key you just created.
8. Select New | DWORD (32-bit) value.

   

9. Enter NoLockScreen as the name.
10. Double-click the entry and change the value to 1.

Once this key is created, the Windows 10 lock screen will be disabled.

Add ‘Open Command Window’ to File Explorer’s context menu

By customizing your registry, you can also reset the context menu option to open a Command Prompt window and open it automatically in a specific folder, as shown below.

To add ‘Open Command Window Here’ to the context menu, follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Search.
2. Search for Registry Editor and click to open it.
3. If Windows will display a UAC that requires your permission to start the editor, just press the Yes button to continue.
4. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Directory Background shell cmd
5. Right-click on the cmd (folder) key.
6. Click Permits and then click on the Advanced button.

   
7. On “Advanced Security Settings”, select the Change link next to owner “TrustedInstaller”.

   

8. Type your account name in the field provided.
9. Click Check names to verify your account name.
10. Click OK.
11. Check the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects option.
12. Click the Apply button and click OK.
13. Navigate to “Licenses”, select the Administrators group.
14. Enable Talitte for the Full control option.
15. Click the Apply button and click OK.
16. Navigate back to the Registry folder ‘cmd’ and right-click on the HideBasedOnVelocityId DWORD.
17. Click Rename.
18. Change the DWORD name of HideBasedOnVelocityId no ShowBasedOnVelocityId.
19. Press Enter.
20. Restart Start.exe

Once you restart Explorer, if you hold Shift and with the Right-click on a folder you will now see the context menu named Command Window open here.

Display seconds on the taskbar clock

By default, the Windows 10 taskbar only shows the hours and minutes and does not provide a built-in option to display the seconds as well.

Fortunately, you can customize your registry and enable support seconds on the Windows 10 taskbar, as shown below.

To view seconds on the taskbar clock, follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Search.
2. Search for Registry Editor and click to open it.
3. If Windows will display a UAC that requires your permission to start the editor, just press the Yes button to continue.
4. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer Advanced
5. Right-click on the advanced as its background and select New> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

   

6. Key name “ShowSecondsInSystemClock”.
7. Double-click the value and change it to 1.
8. Click on “OK”
9. Closing Registry Editor.
10. Sign out and sign back in to see the changes. You can also restart Windows.

Enable verbose mode in Windows 10

Adjusting the Registry allows you to start your Windows 10 PC in ‘Verbose mode’ and get more detailed information and extremely useful troubleshooting.

This mode will display the specific step the operating system is taking during Windows startup and shutdown.

This mode allows you to troubleshoot startup and shutdown issues to see the specific steps being performed when an issue occurs.

Verbose mode is a feature that you should only enable if you have the technical knowledge to solve critical issues in Windows.

To enable ‘Forbidden’ mode, please follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Search.
2. Search for Registry Editor and click to open it.
3. If Windows will display a UAC that requires your permission to start the editor, just press the Yes button to continue.
4. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Policies System
5. Right-click the System folder.
6. Select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

   

7. Name it “VerboseStatus“.
8. Double click VerboseStatus and change its value to 1.
9. Click OK.
10. Closing Registry Editor.
11. Restart.

Once this setting is enabled, you will find both your shutdown and the startup process more ‘verbose’, as it shows every step along the way.