Table of Contents

Microsoft - Windows - 7 - Miscellaneous

MSDN - Canonical Names of Control Panel Items voor Windows 7/2008R2 en Vista/2008. Voor als je bepaalde control panels wilt weergeven op deze systemen via GPO instelling.
OS Attack - Huge list of Windows 7 Shell Commands

Microsoft Support - Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 update history

Microsoft Support articles

Information about Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2 (KB976932)
The Welcome screen may be displayed for 30 seconds during the logon process after you set a solid color as the desktop background in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 (KB977346) fix included in SP1.

Convenience rollup update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. Requires SP1 for Windows 7 and April 2015 servicing stack update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Long update search times are supposedly fixed by manually installing KB3145739 and KB3161664

June 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 contains updated Windows Update client (possible fix for long update scan times).
July 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Blogposts/Articles

MSDN Blogs > Larry Osterman's WebLog > What’s up with the Beep driver in Windows 7?
How-To Geek - How to Disable SuperFetch on Windows Vista
TechNet Blogs > Infrastructure Consulting Blog by Panos Macheras > Windows 7 SteadyState solution simplified! describes an option to replace the functionality that Windows SteadyState offered to Vista and XP on Windows 7.
Microsoft Download Center - Creating a Steady State by Using Microsoft Technologies

Classic (XP) Shell

Classic Shell is a collection of features that were available in older versions of Windows but are removed from Vista and Windows 7. It has a classic start menu for Windows 7, it adds a toolbar for Windows Explorer and supports a variety of smaller features. Look here for the full list.

Disable Hibernation

powercfg.exe /hibernate off

Weer aan:

powercfg.exe /hibernate on

Bron:Web Talk - How to Disable Windows 7 Hibernation

Disable active probing

Windows 7 tries to get the file http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt to determine if it can connect to the Internet.
To disable this behavior execute the following command to set the EnableActiveProbing registry DWORD to 0:

REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NlaSvc\Parameters\Internet" /v "EnableActiveProbing" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Via GPO: Set “Turn off Windows Network Connectivity Status Indicator active tests” to Enabled under Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\System\Internet Communication Management\Internet Communication settings.

Source:Microsoft TechNet - Appendix K: Network Connectivity Status Indicator and Resulting Internet Communication in Windows Vista

See also:
M86 Security Knowledge Base - PRB: User repeatedly prompted for authentication recommends adding the website http://www.msftncsi.com/ into the WebMarshal proxy bypass list.
Bluecoat Knowledge Base - Intermittent Internet access problems when running Windows 7 or Windows Vista through the ProxySG recommends disabling active probing or adding the URL to the local policy rules so the NCSI connection is not logged or authenticated.

Removing the Uninstall or change a program button from the Explorer Command Bar

Set “Hide the Programs Control Panel” GPO setting under User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Programs to Enabled.

Source:Remko Weijnen's Blog (Remko's Blog) - Removing the Uninstall or change a program button from the Explorer Command Bar

Removing the "Add a network location" wizard not possible

Petri.co.il Forums - Windows Server 2008 - My Computer - Add a Network Location
edugeek - Remove "Add a network location" in group policy?

Remove Network from Windows Explorer

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum]
"{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}"=dword:00000001

Sources:
Uneducated Users - Remove Network Icon from Windows Explorer 2008 R2 provides .adm file.
hide Network in explorer on windows terminal server 2008?, in the Terminal Services forum on BrianMadden.com

Hide specific local useraccount from logon screen

Import the following registry key:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts]
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\Userlist]
"Administrator"=dword:00000000

Replace Administrator with the name of the account you want to hide from the logon screen.

Enable/Disable IPv6

To disable import the following registry key:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
// http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852/en-us
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TCPIP6\Parameters]
"DisabledComponents"=dword:ffffffff

To enable import the following registry key:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
// http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852/en-us
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters]
"DisabledComponents"=dword:00000000

Source:Microsoft Support - How to disable IP version 6 (IPv6) or its specific components in Windows 7, in Windows Vista, in Windows Server 2008 R2, and in Windows Server 2008

Credential Providers and Other User on the Windows 7 logon screen

By default in a workgroup environment Windows 7 displays all unhidden accounts on the logon screen and does not display an “Other User” option to log in as a hidden account.

A really nasty completely unsupported quick fix that is bound to break things further down the Windows 7 road (e.g. when installing SP2+) is to pull WSSCredentialProvider.dll from Windows SteadyState 2.5, place it in %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\ and register it with the following registry import:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{E45D4335-8E88-42de-BA59-653840B6CB08}]
@="WSS Credential Provider"
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{E45D4335-8E88-42de-BA59-653840B6CB08}\InprocServer32]
@="WSSCredentialProvider.dll"
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\Credential Providers\{E45D4335-8E88-42de-BA59-653840B6CB08}]
@="WSS Credential Provider"


Some info/quotes found while searching for this problem on the Internet

You cannot force the "Other User" icon to display.  It will show up only when one of the following is true:

1.  The computer is a member of a domain.

2.  You are connecting to the computer via Remote Desktop session from a Windows XP computer

Source: Windows Client TechCenter > Windows 7 IT Pro Forums > Windows 7 Installation, Setup, and Deployment > How can we force-display the Other User icon on the Windows 7 Login screen

Apparently, i figured out another way to remove the icon and its work well.I need to implement Credential provider filter dll to do that.

Source: Windows Client TechCenter > Windows 7 IT Pro Forums > Windows 7 Security > How to Disable 'Other User' login screen icon from Windows 7 login screen

You cannot directly prevent the Switch User button from appearing; if the conditions are present that cause it to appear, 
then it's going to appear. What you can do however: prevent the conditions that cause it to appear.
That button appears either when a tile is in the selected state and 1.) your credential provider is enumerating tiles other 
than the one that is selected, or 2.) other credential providers are enumerating tiles.

The first condition is easy to prevent: In GetCredentialCount(), always report that you will enumerate only one credential. 
(This means of course that you must structure the tile to handle all users.)

To prevent the second condition, you will have to implement a credential provider filter. (Search for the 
"ICredentialProviderFilter" interface if you don't know what that is.)

Source: stackoverflow - how to hide windows 7 switch user button in vc++ CredentialProvider sample

Credential provider location in registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\Credential Providers\.
Source: Credential Provider Filter not working

See also:
MSDN Magazine > Issues > 2007 > January > Create Custom Login Experiences With Credential Providers For Windows Vista

Force use of Windows 7 Basic theme in default userprofile

REM Load the default user registry hive.
"%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\reg.exe" LOAD HKLM\DEFUSER "%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT"

REM Set default user theme to Windows 7 Basic
"%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\reg.exe" ADD "HKLM\DEFUSER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes" /v CurrentTheme /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "%SYSTEMROOT%\Resources\Ease of Access Themes\basic.theme" /f

REM Unload the default user registry hive.
"%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\reg.exe" UNLOAD HKLM\DEFUSER 

Turn Windows 7 "Please Wait..." into useful messages

“Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | “Verbose vs normal status messages”. Change state to “Enabled””

SOE Team Stuff - HOWTO: Turn Windows 7 "Please Wait..." into useful messages.