Classic Shell: Forum

Windows 7 x64bit
Latest Classic Shell (4.2.4)

I have just installed the latest version of Classic Shell - my first attempt in using this application. I only installed the "Classic Explorer" portion, and not anything related to the Start Menu or IE. I followed the forum directions to install the Admin Templates to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions (unzip the "PolicyDefinitions" folder in C:\Program Files\Classic Shell, and copy the .admx files from C:\Program Files\Classic Shell\PolicyDefinitions to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions; and copy the .adml files from C:\Program Files\Classic Shell\PolicyDefinitions\en-US to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US).

I was able to "Disable Breadcrumbs" via the Admin Template. However, I cannot for the life of me get the "Tree Item Spacing" template to accept negative numbers. The help section in Windows Group Policy even says enter "negative numbers to reduce the spacing" and it also states that the setting requires Classic Shell 4.0.4 or later, which I have. I can only get the"Tree Item Spacing" templates (for both Computer Configuration and User Configuration) to accept positive numbers, and not negative numbers.

I can set a negative number via the regular way in Class Shell settings, but not via the Admin Templates. When I select "Apply", nothing happens, and when I select "OK", nothing happens - and it won't let me close the dialogue until I select "Cancel" or until I enter a positive number and select "OK".

I've ran CCleaner to clear all cache and memory, restarted, and tried again, but still no luck.

Ideas? Maybe install an older version?
Thanks!

Unfortunately the gpedit tool limits numbers to be between 0 and 9999. This makes it unsuitable for entering negative numbers or color values.
For those settings you will have to use the registry directly.

From other forum posts it says to export registry settings from Current User and then "merge" to Local Machine. I'm unfamiliar how to do this, but I'm willing to try.

Do I export the settings from:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicExplorer\Settings

Edit the file so that it says
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicExplorer
instead of
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicExplorer\Settings

Save the reg file under a new name (so the original still exists)

Then right click on the newly saved reg file and select "merge"?

That would work, but make sure it only includes the settings you want.

Aha! That worked! I also should say I backed up the entire registry before making changes (via regedit - highlight computer - file - export - named file "REGEDIT_BACKUP.reg". Then I "merged" the file I created, logged out, and logged into the different accounts that I have on my PC. The settings that I had specified in the file (there were only a few), are now greyed out and are the default for all users. Settings that I did not edit, can still be edited by all users.

If you don't want to lock the setting and just change the default value, add "_Default" to the name of the registry key. For more information look at the Administrative Settings section on the help file.

Thanks for the tip about adding _Default to the registry key. That works great! I initially read about that in the help file but for some reason forgot to apply it.