Windows Tips

When you share a FAT partition between Linux and Windows, Windows will complain every 5 minutes that there is not enough free space on the drive (less than 15%), which is very annoying. You can disable these messages.

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
Value Name: NoLowDiskSpaceChecks
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = default, 1 = disable messages)

• To hide some drive letters:

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
Value Name: NoDrives
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (A=1, B=2, C=4, D=8, E=16, F=32, G=64, H=128, I=256, J=512, K=1024, ...)

• To prevent from accessing some drive letters:

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
Value Name: NoViewOnDrive
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (A=1, B=2, C=4, D=8, E=16, F=32, G=64, H=128, I=256, J=512, K=1024, ...)

• To change / reinitialize drive letters assignments (not dangerous to erase all values):

Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]

• To initialize a disk, view/create partitions, format partitions, type in Start|Run diskmgmt.msc.

Some useless services should be disabled for more security :

• DCOM : Start / Run [dcomcnfg] / Component Services / Computers / My Computer (right click) / Properties / Default Properties / Enable Distributed COM on this computer [uncheck]
• NetBIOS : Connection Status / Properties / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) [double click] / Advanced / WINS / Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP [check]
• Audit : Start / Run [secpol.msc] / Local Policies / Audit Policy ; you can activate some logging (eg logon events) by double clicking Success and Failure checkboxes