Assume I have made "This PC" show up on my desktop with this registry tweak:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]
"{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"=dword:00000000
And now I want to make this a kind of "system default" that applies to all users that's created after my modification, while leaving existing users unaffected. How can I achieve that?
I have looked at HKEY_USER\.DEFAULT
but that looks a bit strange and I'm afraid it's not the right place to apply my tweaks.
Best Answer
How can I apply a registry tweak to new users?
You need to apply your tweak to
HKEY_USERS
in%SystemDrive%\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT
. This has to be done by loading the registry hive.Any settings changed in the loaded hive will be copied to every new user profile that is created.
Full instructions below.
Note:
Source Tip 49: How Do You Set Default User Profile Registry Settings
So what is HKU.DEFAULT if it's not the default user?
It's actually the profile for the Local System account and is an alias for HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18:
...
Source The .Default user is not the default user