Tips for windows 8

1.Windows 7/8 

Configure the logon menu to give 
you additional options

The Windows logon screen offers an 
accessibility symbol to make it easy for 
impaired users to log-in, but most of us 
barely even notice it. However, you can 
make it more useful by having it show 
applications and input options with the 
help of a free tool and some tweaks. The 
tool you need is called Ease of Access 
Replacer and can be found on this link: 
http://goo.gl/z1NoPb.
Before you can use the tool, you must 
allow Windows access to the relevant file. 
To do this, open the folder “C:\Windows\
System32” in Windows Explorer and search 
for the file “utilman.exe”. This file is called 
up from the logon screen and must be 
replaced. You need administrator access to 
make this change.
Right click on “utilman.exe” and select 
the context command “Properties”. Now, 
click in the section “Safety”, click on 
“Expand” and activate the field “Owner”. 
Select “Administrators” in the list below 
and confirm the selection by clicking on 
“Accept” and then on “OK”. Now click 
again in the section “Safety” and then 
on “Process”. Select the group name 
“Administrators”. In the list below, select 
the option “Approve” in the row “Full 
access”. Confirm that with “Apply” as well 
as “OK”, and close the dialogue. Now open 
the folder you unzipped earlier in Windows 
Explorer. In the sub-folder, “EOAR”, rightclick on “EOAR Setup.exe” and select the 
context command “Run as administrator”. 
Confirm the user account control dialogue 
box by clicking on “Yes”, and in the 
following dialogue, deactivate the option 
for the restore point because only the file 
“util.exe” is replaced and the original file 
will be backed-up. Now click on “Install”.
If the process ends with an error 
message, you have not changed the 
necessary authorisations correctly. If the 
process runs successfully, you will see the 
file “utilman.exe” with another symbol and 
only 191KB in size. For the new functions, 
click on the accessibility symbol on the 
logon screen. A small dialogue with some 
useful features will now be available. 

2.Windows 8
Configure the Windows button to 
trigger the Start menu

Traditionally, the Start menu could be 
triggered by pressing the Windows 
button, but this functionality is missing in 
Windows 8, and pressing it opens the Start 
page of the Modern UI. But you can set 
Windows to trigger the Start menu with a 
mouse click, by writing and running a small 
script. To do this, open notepad and type 
the following: 
"Set.WshShell.=.WScript.CreateObject(_
WScript.Shell”)WshShell.sendkeys..^{ESC}”
Save the new text file as an EXE file 
under a name such as “win_key.exe”. This 
is necessary so that you can pin it to the 
taskbar. Now open Windows Explorer and 
navigate to the file you saved. Right-click 
the entry and select the context command 
“Pin to taskbar”.
Now right-click again on “win_key.
exe” and select the context command 
“Rename”. Change the name to “win_key.
vbs”. Confirm the warning for changing the 
file type with “Yes”. Now you must edit the 
target for the shortcut in the taskbar. To 
do this, press and hold the [Shift] button 
and right-click on the file you pinned earlier. 
Select the context command “Properties”. 
In the "Target" field, change the link to 
the location of the VBS file. You can also 
choose to set an icon of your choice using 
the button “Other icons”. The file offers 
several selections such as “C:\Windows\
System32\shell32.dll”.
On the other hand, you will find a 
typical windows logo in the file “C:\
Windows\ehome\ehdrop.dll”. Finally, 
confirm the selection and acknowledge the 
settings with “Apply” and “OK”. The new 
icon will be updated in the taskbar. Clicking 
this icon will let you open the Start menu 
easily and without too much of a fuss. 



3.Windows 8

Deactivate the lock screen for 
quick access

The lock screen is added in Windows 8 as 
an additional layer of security. You must 
first click there or press a button to go to 
the logon screen.
But if you find it troublesome, you can 
deactivate the lock screen to quickly go to 
the logon screen. You will need to make 
some changes to the Windows registry 
to enable this. Change to the Desktop 
view and press the buttons [Windows] + 
[R]. Now enter “regedit”, press [Enter] and 
confirm the user account control dialogue 
box by clicking “Yes”. Navigate to the key 
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\
Microsoft\Windows\Personalization”. If 
the subkey “Personalization” is still not 
available, create it with the command 
“Process | New | Key”. Once done, click on 
the right-hand panel and open the option 
“Process | New DWORD value”. Name 
the new value “NoLockScreen” and press 
[Enter]. Double-click the new entry, change 
its “Value” to “1”, and confirm the changes 
by clicking “OK”. Now close the registry. 
The lock screen has been disabled and the 
logon screen will be presented when you 
next start the system.