I would say go to your local book store and search for a book on registry settings.
I think the registry would be better to learn for tweaking than group policy would be.
I'm sure you've heard "don't mess with the registry, etc, etc"
I just bought "Windows 7, the missing manual" from O'Reilly at Barnes & Noble. Not too much to do with the registry but alot of good info.
thank you Havoc, that was what i'm looking for. I already own the Windows Registry guide textbook for Microsoft Press 2nd edition. That is why I asked the questions I did in my OP.
Havoc if you know of any other book in regards to the windows Registry. Please post them when you can, the more info/resources I have the better.
cheers
Little needs to be done within the registry anymore, but to be honest, there's no answer to your question. They are two completely different topics and don't really rely or build on one another.
That being said, there's little reason to learn group policy unless you plan to be the admin of a large number of computers on a network, using a domain structure. Neither topic you are asking about it meant to tweak a computer. While on the subject of tweaking, that ship has sailed already. Windows OSes don't need to be tweaked to run at their best. They do it out of the box, as long as you give it the newest drivers and follow good computing habits.
Thank you DeaconFrost for your reply, that was informative. However, it sounds like your saying that. Using the registry to "customize" windows is no longer possible?
You should reread DeaconFrost's post again. There is nothing about not being able to change registry settings, customize, it just doesnt' serve much purpose as a general rule. About the only time to make a change is when there is a particular problem that is known to be associated with a reg setting.
I don't recall ever going to the registry to customize Windows. Same with group policy. That is used to set options for many users, or prevent certain users from changing certain things about their computers. Neither concept has anything to do with tweaking (performance) or customizing Windows.
I think you should first learn about Windows Registry and then learn what are registry cleaners and how they fix and speed up PC.
Registry cleaners were good back in the day but no longer. Most, if not all tweaks can be done with various wizards and dialog boxes within Windows. If someone wants to learn about the registry, I say good. Better that than him/her coming back saying he/she deleted/changed a key in the registry and something doesn't work.
The book from Microsoft Press that you have is the one I was thinking about. There are others from Microsoft Press, I did a search (Barnes&Noble):
Windows 7 Resource Kit
Windows 7 Administrator's Pocket Consultant
Configuring Windows 7 "Training Kit"
and maybe
Windows Powershell 2.0
I can not thank you enough HAVOC and Isabella77 for your replies. Your replies have given me the information I needed.
Cheers
Quote