Remove Shutdown on Start Menu

There's plenty of pages on removing the "Shutdown" option from the Start Menu. Many suggest a GPO involving a "Remove and prevent access to the shutdown command" setting. There are two such policies on Windows 2003, but both disable the Start Menu as well as the button on Windows Security dialog, when you press Ctrl-Alt-Del. Other web pages mention the below reghack, but in the HKCU hive. It disables the Start Menu but leaves it on the W-S dialog. If you instead set it in the HKLM hive it affects all users. The change affects after a user logoff/logon.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer]
"NoClose"=dword:00000001

Windows Server Allow DNS aliases in SMB shares

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281308

With the correct service packs and hotfixes installed, change the following registry entry and restart the Server service to affect the change.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters]
"DisableStrictNameChecking"=dword:00000001

Extending Activation deadline on Vista

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/microsoft-allows-bypass-of-vista-activation/
http://windowssecrets.com/introduction/skiprearm-doesnt-work-activation-still-broken/

2007 discussions of the "SkipRearm" regval and the admin commands "sl -xpr" and "sl -rearm".

Limiting IE cache

http://windows7themes.net/set-internet-explorer-cache-size-via-ie-registry-or-group-policy.html

Limiting IE cache in registry:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\Cache\Content\Cache Limit
CacheLimit(DWORD)=size in MB

Limiting IE cache in a GPO:

In gpedit.msc, expand User Configuration, Windows Settings.
Right-click on Internet Explorer Maintenance and select(check) Preference Mode.
Expand Internet Explorer Maintenance and click Advanced.
Double-click on Corporate Settings.
Temporary Internet Files can be capped per user and/or per machine.

MSOffice File Validation Add-In slow to open LAN-based files

http://alex-tesla.livejournal.com/15979.html
(Russian)

The new Office File Validation in MSUpdates causes grief with large LAN-based files. There's registry entries that disable the feature, or you might ask why disable when you could just uninstall it. The above page includes the below ADM file to use for a group policy.


;msoffice2003validation.adm disable MSOffice validation tool
CLASS USER
CATEGORY "Microsoft Office Validation Add-In"
CATEGORY "2003"
POLICY "Enable in Excel"
KEYNAME "Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\FileValidation"
VALUENAME "EnableOnLoad"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
END POLICY
POLICY "Enable in PowerPoint"
KEYNAME "Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\PowerPoint\Security\FileValidation"
VALUENAME "EnableOnLoad"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
END POLICY
POLICY "Enable in Word"
KEYNAME "Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Security\FileValidation"
VALUENAME "EnableOnLoad"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
END POLICY
END CATEGORY
END CATEGORY

Installing Chrome to save space

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=5e1c479011e250fa&hl=en
http://www.ghacks.net/2010/10/19/how-to-change-google-chromes-cache-location-and-size/

Chrome taking up a lot of space in user folders on Terminal Server.  This thread mentions a few handy clues.
1) Download Google Pack, as it installs Chrome into the ProgramFiles folder rather than each user's AppData folder.
2) Go thru each user's AppData and delete any old Chrome app version number folders.
3) Download the Chrome Installer from "http://dl.google.com/chrome/install/xxx.xxx/chrome_installer.exe" where xxx.xxx is the last two in the release number. For example, for version 13.0.782.112, you would use 782.112. You could also Google "chrome_installer.exe" and find a site with the most recent stable release. Once you have the installer, run it with the --system-level parm.
4) Modify the Chrome shortcuts and shell\open regvals to use the "--disk-cache-size=[size_in_bytes]" switch to reduce the cache, and "--disk-cache-dir=[folder_location]" to relocate on another drive if you have one.


*Update:
http://www.google.com/support/installer/bin/answer.py?answer=126299
This Google Answer has links to offline installers, including one for the whole system.
http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?system=true&standalone=1

Changing boot order in GRUB

http://www.torrent-invites.com/miscellaneous/58489-changing-grubs-boot-order.html

After installing Linux dual-boot, you still want your Windows partition to boot first? The above page details the steps well. It depends on which version of GRUB you have, v2, or v1 (legacy).

For v1, run "sudo pico /boot/grub/menu.lst" to edit the file and put the entries in the order you want. # lines are comments, and it uses the order in the file.

For v2, run "sudo pico /etc/default/grub" and change the GRUB_DEFAULT value to the menu entry number you want. Use 0-based counting for the menu entries in the file /boot/grub/grub.cfg, or try "grep 'menuentry' /boot/grub/grub.cfg", or just count on the current menu when it's booting. In v2, you also need to run "sudo update-grub" after this change.

Note: On v2, the above method is recommended. I found you could instead edit the grub.cfg file, changing the "set default=" line to the required value. However, it will be overwritten with the above-mentioned GRUB_DEFAULT value next time these processes rebuild the CFG.