HideSettingsPages Version 0.4 Beta

Version 0.4 Beta is ready after two years and a few months (since Version 0.3 Beta was released) that contained college, other software work, and unrelated stuff! Make sure to read the Readme included with HideSettingsPages or on the Wiki as it has important info. Also refer to the System Requirements.

If you are reading this in Notepad or another text editor, it displays best in Word Wrap view. Click on Format>Word Wrap on the top bar. Notepad++ users will find it under View>Word Wrap.

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HideSettingsPages -- Version 0.4 Beta -- 12/19/2019 (MM/DD/YYYY).

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CHECKSUMS
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MD5 checksums are no longer used for HideSettingsPages as of Version 0.4 Beta since MD5 isn't as good as SHA256.

You can use Windows PowerShell to confirm the hash of the files listed below by running
Get-FileHash .\HideSettingsPages.exe -Algorithm SHA256 in the folder you extracted the archive to and comparing the output to my sum listed below. Substitute the filename in the command with the filenames below. HowToGeek has a nice article on this:
https://www.howtogeek.com/67241/htg-explains-what-are-md5-sha-1-hashes-and-how-do-i-check-them/ , but the Windows section is a bit further down on the page.

SHA256 checksum of "HideSettingsPages.exe" after extraction: 34762A4923940E187E047ECBC80238C5E77AA6403C48AAC3EB2A2D1D2B3E3A3E

SHA256 checksum of "hsp_registry-helper.exe" after extraction: 6AAFCB57CB97E4A2589B945C084578F3F6EDE070FA1C802897E72E6271E52480

SHA256 checksum of "EmergencyUndoAllChanges.reg" after extraction: CEE7B24BE99FF7DA0476A471169825428D1686F70BFDAFB1CEE94151F9F629B4

The Registry key value this app writes to is "SettingsPageVisibility" located at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer". Anything in this app that requires writing to this key value will ask for administrative permissions.

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CHANGELOG
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Below this text is the changelog. It compares HideSettingsPages Version 0.3 Beta to HideSettingsPages Version 0.4 Beta.

If you would like to look at the same comparison as I did while writing this changelog, you can do so here:
v0.3-beta...v0.4-beta
The link above will be active by the time this is posted, but I used a slightly different comparison since the one I linked to wasn't ready yet. However, the content was the same, so it shouldn't matter.

Many of the changes presented below have a related issue in the Version 0.4 milestone, if you would like to look at a bit more detail than listed here.

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HideSettingsPages Version 0.4 Beta Changelog

HideSettingsPages

• Added:
  • Importing and exporting page list selections is now possible, and can be done with the relevant items in the File menu, or with Ctrl+O for importing and with Ctrl+S for exporting. By default, your current selections will remain, but if you want to, you can have them be unchecked before importing them by checking Uncheck all page list items before importing selections in the Options menu.
  • Checking/unchecking all items in the page list is now possible from the page list context menu.
  • A specific key value can now be applied using the Directly apply key value window which is accessed from the File menu. If you wish, you can copy your current selections into the window with by Shift-clicking on the menubar item, by pressing Ctrl+Shift+D, or by checking Always copy selections into Directly apply key value window in the Options menu.
  • The Settings app can be launched from File>Launch Settings app. There's another application with a similar purpose to this one with this feature, and I thought it would be a useful addition.
  • Clicking either radio button in the Settings page visibility groupbox will now update the label above the page list to reflect your choice.
  • On application startup, the page list will be loaded from a file named pagelist.txt if there's a file with that name next to the EXE file. If not, it'll just be loaded from the built-in page list. This can be used to add additional pages not listed by default, or to remove pages that aren't required for a given situation.
  • The About window About tab textbox now has a tabstop, which should allow for screenreaders to read the text if needed.
  • In case there are any page list items that aren't in alphabetical order, the page list is now set to sort its items automatically.
  • Add some comments to clarify the code.
  • Links to the project's Appveyor build status have been added to the readme.

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• Changed:
  • Missing Settings app URIs (as of Windows 10 1903 and based on what shows up on my desktop) have been added to the page list (with the exception of Region, since I couldn't figure it out and Microsoft doesn't list it) and unneeded ones have been removed.
  • Increased the height of the Registry key value preview textbox to show more of the preview. Some side effects occur as a result:
    • Controls in the Settings page visibility groupbox are closer together and the groupbox itself is smaller.
    • The Settings page list groupbox is moved up slightly and the label above the page list was moved up a little as well.
    • There's less of a gap on the top and bottom for the Apply, Undo, and Exit buttons.
  • Restore point reminder window is now a custom form with two link labels that direct users to relevant parts of the posts that were automatically opened when the user clicked Yes in the previous version. There's also a checkbox in the bottom-left in case the user doesn't want this message to show up again if they click No. Automatically opening the links really bothered me personally, so it's good that it doesn't do that anymore since other people were probably bothered, too.
  • Instead of opening the System Properties page in the Control Panel when choosing to create a restore point, the real System Protection window is opened. On 64-bit Windows, this involves using a workaround where CMD is started from C:\Windows\sysnative in order to get access to the real System32 directory where SystemPropertiesProtection.exe with the System Restore settings lives. As a result of the CMD workaround, a CMD window will show up, but it can be ignored.
  • Tab indexes for About window controls have been improved so that tabbing through controls works in a way that makes sense.
  • Page list is now pulled from a text file resource instead of being stored in the checked list box directly, which allows for easier editing of the page list when necessary.
  • If building from source via code downloaded from the master branch on GitHub, text in the About window's About tab shouldn't be jumbled together and should now have proper line endings.
  • Changed Acknowledgments tab and menubar button to match the RTF document title (added an "e": Acknowledg(e)ments)
  • Fixed typo in readme and added mention of Windows 10 in S Mode to the part talking about Windows 10 S.
  • Updated copyright boilerplate with more detail, including that Microsoft is not associated with this project and that they don't endorse the software.
  • Updated copyright years to 2017-2019.

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• Removed:
  • Since copyright years aren't required, the placeholder copyright year text for Microsoft's copyrights has been removed to make more sense.

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hsp_registry-helper

• Added:
  • Starting the application from the command line with the argument of /about will now show more information about the application than what's in the /help output. This message is similar to what's shown in the HideSettingsPages About window for hsp_registry-helper.

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• Changed:
  • Messageboxes should no longer be blurry on HiDPI displays.
  • Updated copyright years from 2017 to 2017-2019.

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Other

• Added:
  • If you want to, there's a new application named CrLf2Semicolon that converts any Windows line endings in the input to semicolons. There's also a checkbox to convert Unix line endings in addition to Windows line endings, if necessary. This application isn't included as a binary in the archive, so it needs to be built from source to use it. This may be useful if you want to test new page lists without loading them into HideSettingsPages, checking all items, and applying.

HideSettingsPages Version 0.3 Beta

After roughly three (3) months of work on this project so far, HideSettingsPages is now ready for its first pre-release at Version 0.3 Beta! Make sure to read the Readme included with HideSettingsPages or on the Wiki as it has important info. Also refer to the System Requirements.

If you are reading this in Notepad or another text editor, it displays best in Word Wrap view. Click on Format>Word Wrap on the top bar. Notepad++ users will find it under View>Word Wrap.

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HideSettingsPages -- Version 0.3 Beta -- 8/18/2016 (US date layout).

MD5 checksum of "HideSettingsPages.exe" after extraction: 6E90FC3013CCF7D16D2BDE954F232CAC
MD5 checksum of "hsp_registry-helper.exe" after extraction: 8952A9902321FC14A20793E0B70AF76E
MD5 checksum of "EmergencyUndoAllChanges.reg" after extraction: 743D453E4BB9D2FCB39E746C72D3EF1C

You can use a tool called MD5Check to compare the hashes.

Instead of a standard changelog, I'm going to list some features of HideSettingsPages and HideSettingsPages Registry Helper (sometimes refered to as "hsp_registry-helper".)

The Registry key value this app writes to is "SettingsPageVisibility" located at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer". Anything in this app that requires writing to this key value will ask for administrative permissions.

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HideSettingsPages Version 0.3 Beta features:

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• HideSettingsPages:

  • You can choose whether the resulting Registry key value will hide pages or only show certain pages.
  • You can select from a list of pages to hide or show only.
  • You can preview the Registry key value while selecting pages from the list or choosing whether to hide or show only.
  • The Registry key value preview can be opened in a larger window to make it easier to read with the "View larger..." link label.
  • Unselecting all the pages in the list will cause no pages to be listed in the preview box.
  • The current data in the key value in the Registry can be viewed by clicking "File>Verify current key value..." or by pressing "Ctrl+E".
  • The startup warning message and the restore point reminder message can be disabled by unchecking their items in the "Options" menu.
  • Before applying the key value, a messagebox will show the user their current selections and allow them to cancel.
  • All modifications to the Registry key value the Windows 10 Settings app uses to hide or show pages can be removed by clicking the "Undo all changes" button.
  • App can be quickly exited by clicking "File>Exit" or by clicking the "Exit" button at the bottom of the main window.
  • You can go to the latest stable release page by clicking "Check for updates" on the About window.
  • HiDPI screens are supported. This has been tested on the Surface Pro 4.
  • 256x256 color icon.
  • Runs on Windows 7 SP1 even though it's intended to be used on Windows 10 Creators Update or newer.

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• hsp_registry-helper:

  • HiDPI screens are supported for the messageboxes so they aren't blurry.
  • hsp_registry-helper.exe can be used standalone with just command-line args/switches and administrative permissions for some args. Please refer to the help text that hsp_registry-helper displays when no args are used for more information on what's available.
  • Tells the user when the Registry key value has been applied or removed, if there is no key value to remove or if it doesn't exist, and if it couldn't apply or remove the key value due to not having administrative permissions.
  • Is only 19.5 KB.
  • Is at version 0.2 currently. Version numbers used for HideSettingsPages releases are based off the version number of "HideSettingsPages.exe" instead of "hsp_registry-helper.exe".

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• Other:

  • If for some reason HideSettingsPages cannot be launched and running "hsp_registry-helper.exe /undo" as administrator doesn't work and you want to undo the modifications to the Registry key value this app sets, you can open "EmergencyUndoAllChanges.reg" in an administrative command prompt (cmd.exe).
  • Both projects are licensed under the Gnu GPL v3+.
  • Although it's possible to set the key value this app sets with either Group Policy Editor or the Registry Editor, I decided to make an app to make this easier for people. Refer to "Help>Acknowledgements" in HideSettingsPages for more info.