Disable Aeroshake minimize by GPO - c++

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);
}