Subject: Customize Windows 8 start menu tool for admins
Posted: 28 April 2013 at 8:15pm
Windows Explorer uses two resources to store settings and changes... that being the filesystem and registry.
What I've done with Windows Vista/7 is replace relevant entries with preconfigured entries saved from a customized system. Haven't done this for Windows 8, but may get around to it at some point as it's time-consuming to reconfigure the interface.
General steps for capturing and identifying Registry changes:
1) Export "HKCU\Software\Microsoft"
2) Customize Windows Explorer interface and logoff.
3) Log back in and export "HKCU\Software\Microsoft".
4) Use WinDiff.Exe (Microsoft utility) to compare the exported registry script files.
Capturing Windows Explorer changes to the filesystem can be done using ProcMon.Exe (Process Monitor) utility.
In the end all the changes can be implemented by killing Explorer.Exe, moving files, importing registry changes, and launching Windows Explorer again.
