XP: Show Version on the Desktop

Contributed by davak September 13, 2004  
Tagged: Windows

Quick registry hack describing how to show your version of XP on the desktop.

In our large network environment, we are now displaying the version on every user’s system. This helps us figure out if problems are service pack two (sp2) related, for example.

Of course, you can use Microsoft Power Tools, but that’s too much of a pain to install system-wide.

Here’s the little registry hack:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"PaintDesktopVersion"=dword:00000001

DWORD 0 is off
DWORD 1 is on

If you don’t know registry, don’t screw with it!