Disable Aeroshake minimize by GPO

Question

I'm trying to disable Aeroshake minimize mouse gesture only. Asked a question How to disable Aero Shake minimize only on Windows 7 but no answers. So I continued digging and found another solution by updating user Group Policy.

void aeroshake(DWORD action)
{
    HRESULT hr;
    IGroupPolicyObject* pLGPO;
    HKEY machine_key, dsrkey;
    LSTATUS sdf, ds, rStatus;
    GUID RegistryId = REGISTRY_EXTENSION_GUID;
    GUID ThisAdminToolGuid =
        /*{ CLSID_PolicySnapinUser/* */
    {
        0x0F6B957E,
        0x509E,
        0x11D1,
    { 0xA7, 0xCC, 0x00, 0x00, 0xF8, 0x75, 0x71, 0xE3 }
    };

    const IID my_IID_IGroupPolicyObject =
    { 0xea502723, 0xa23d, 0x11d1,{ 0xa7, 0xd3, 0x0, 0x0, 0xf8, 0x75, 0x71, 0xe3 } };
    const IID my_CLSID_GroupPolicyObject =
    { 0xea502722, 0xa23d, 0x11d1,{ 0xa7, 0xd3, 0x0, 0x0, 0xf8, 0x75, 0x71, 0xe3 } };
    GUID ext_guid = REGISTRY_EXTENSION_GUID;

    // This next one can be any GUID you want
    GUID snap_guid = { 0x3d271cfc, 0x2bc6, 0x4ac2,{ 0xb6, 0x33, 0x3b, 0xdf, 0xf5, 0xbd, 0xab, 0x2a } };

    // Create an instance of the IGroupPolicyObject class
    CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED);
    CoCreateInstance(my_CLSID_GroupPolicyObject, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
        my_IID_IGroupPolicyObject, (LPVOID*)&pLGPO);

    // We need the machine LGPO (if C++, no need to go through the lpVtbl table)
    hr = pLGPO->OpenLocalMachineGPO(GPO_OPEN_LOAD_REGISTRY);
    if (hr != S_OK) {
        goto release;
    }

    hr = pLGPO->GetRegistryKey(GPO_SECTION_USER, &machine_key);
    if (hr != S_OK) {
        goto close;
    }

    // create key for disable Aeroshake minimise
    sdf = RegCreateKeyEx(machine_key, TEXT("Software\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Desktop\\NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts"),
        0, NULL, 0, KEY_SET_VALUE | KEY_QUERY_VALUE, NULL, &dsrkey, NULL);

    // Create the value
    ds = RegSetKeyValue(dsrkey, NULL, TEXT("NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts"), REG_DWORD, &action, sizeof(action));
    RegCloseKey(dsrkey);

    // Apply policy and free resources
    pLGPO->Save( TRUE, TRUE, &ext_guid, &snap_guid);
    rStatus = RegCloseKey(machine_key);

    // Write the GPO back to the directory
    hr = pLGPO->Save(
        FALSE,
        TRUE,
        &RegistryId,
        &ThisAdminToolGuid);

close:
    RegCloseKey(machine_key);

release:
    pLGPO->Release();
}

This looks like a proper way but I have problem with OpenLocalMachineGPO it always returns E_ACCESSDENIED. Can that be sorted w/o need to run as Admin. Also when the code run as Admin it still doesn't change the required policy.

Answer 1

E_ACCESSDENIED means no access, of course you need enough permissions to modify the GPO.

In addition, The key value NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts is under the Sub Key Software\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Explorer

sdf = RegCreateKeyEx(machine_key, TEXT("Software\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Explorer"),
        0, NULL, 0, KEY_SET_VALUE | KEY_QUERY_VALUE, NULL, &dsrkey, NULL);

You'll need to reboot or at least log off, then log in to take effect.(Even you modify in GPO directly)

Then the changes will be updated to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer:

NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts = 0x00000001

Of course, you can also modify this key directly.(need to create it first if you don't have one)

void aeroshake(DWORD action)
{
    // create key for disable Aeroshake minimise
    HKEY hKeyRoot, dsrkey;
    LSTATUS sdf = RegOpenKey(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, TEXT("Software\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows"), &hKeyRoot);
    sdf = RegCreateKey(hKeyRoot, TEXT("Explorer"), &dsrkey);
    // Create the value
    sdf = RegSetKeyValue(dsrkey, NULL, TEXT("NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts"), REG_DWORD, &action, sizeof(action));
    RegCloseKey(dsrkey);
}