Desktop icons in modern Windows

Having access to “Azure Dev Tools for Teaching” (formerly known as MS Imagine, MS DreamSpark, and MSDN Academic Alliance) for training and experimentation has its perks, but I miss the ability to show certain desktop icons without activating Windows 10 and/or Server 2019. Here’s how.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]
"{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}"=dword:00000000
"{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"=dword:00000000
"{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}"=dword:00000000
"{5399E694-6CE5-4D6C-8FCE-1D8870FDCBA0}"=dword:00000000

On the same note, here’s how to enable accent colours for “Start, taskbar, and action centre”, and “Title bars and window borders”.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize]
"ColorPrevalence"=dword:00000001

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"ColorPrevalence"=dword:00000001

This is how to turn off combining of taskbar buttons and lock the taskbar. The latter is handy if you want your taskbar to keep displaying two rows and you have “Intel HD Graphics Control Panel” installed.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoTaskGrouping"=dword:00000001
"TaskbarLockAll"=dword:00000001