The registry is a part of the computer most of us never visit.
That’s for good reason: the registry is home to your system’s most crucial settings. One inadvertent file change and your system might develop serious problems.
However, editing the registry is a great way to speed up your PC. Today, we’re teaching you how to perform a few simple Windows 10 registry tweaks that can significantly speed up your performance.
Back Up Your Registry
Before we begin, it’s important you back up your registry. If anything goes wrong, and if you mess up, then you can instantly restore it to its previous condition and forget you ever read this guide.
Step 1) Open the Start menu and type in regedit
Step 2) Click the File > Export option from the top menu
Save your backup file somewhere you’ll remember, then proceed to the next step. Hopefully, you won’t need to use this file – but it’s a good idea to have it.
Enable the Secret Dark Theme Mode in Windows 10
Windows 10 has a secret dark theme mode that, oddly-enough, isn’t available from the default Theme selection menu.
That’s dumb – because I think the dark mode looks pretty cool. To activate it, follow these steps:
Step 1) Open the Start menu and type in regedit
Step 2) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Themes
Step 3) Create a new personalized key, then create a DWORD value within that key called AppsUseLightTheme. Keep the value set at 0.
Step 4) Repeat the process for HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Themes. Make the same personalized key with the same DWORD value.
Step 5) Restart your PC
If you did everything right, then your Windows 10 should now have a sexy black theme. To change this theme in the future, you’ll need to delete the AppsUseLightTheme and DWORD values that you entered.
Boost Startup Speeds
Windows 10 boots up surprisingly fast. But you can boost startup times even more with a slight registry tweak. To do that, follow these steps:
Step 1) Open the Start menu and type in regedit
Step 2) Find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ Serialize (if you can’t find this key, then you may have to create it)
Step 3) In that key, create a new DWORD value and call it StartupDelayInMSec, then set that value to 0.
By default, Windows 10 delays your startup to give apps time to load. So when you finally boot into the desktop, you don’t have to wait longer for apps to finish loading. This registry key just tells Windows to ignore that command so there’s no startup delay.
Disable Login Image Using the Windows Registry
Sick of seeing your own image every time you login to your computer? You can’t actually disable that image from the default Windows settings menu, but you can disable it from the registry. To do that, follow these steps:
Step 1) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Policies\ Microsoft\ Windows\ System
Step 2) Add a new DWORD value called DisableLogonBackgroundImage and then set the value to 1
That’s it! You’re telling Windows to disable the background image from your login screen. Personally, I’m a big fan of the login image, but to each their own.
Hide OneDrive from the File Explorer Menu
OneDrive appears by default in your file explorer menu – even if you don’t really use it. If you want to hide file explorer, then you can do so using the following registry tweak:
Step 1) Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ CLSID\ {018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}
Step 2) Find the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree and then double-click, setting the value to 0.
This doesn’t actually uninstall OneDrive. It just prevents it from showing up in File Explorer.
If you ever want to access OneDrive from file explorer, you can go to C : \ Users\ \.
Do you have any more registry tweaks we can add? Drop us a line in the comments section below and we’ll add the good ones to our list!
