[Hirudin]

OK, I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, I was trying to find out how to do this and searched many times, I didn't find anything useful.

Anyway, you can change the "transition effects" setting in the Display Properties -> Effects -> Visual Effects dialog box window thing. Also, I bet this could be used to change the other settings like:
Smooth edges of screen fonts
Use large icons
Show icons using all possible colors
Show window contents while dragging
Hide keyboard navigation indicators until I use the Alt key
(I have only tested with "transition effects" though.)

I'm no expert, but this did work for me. I'm also sleepy, if this is incomprehensible lemme know and I'll try to fix it or something...

I used a file comparison program to narrow the registry entry that controlls this setting down to the MinAnimate string in HKEY_USERS\<random numbers windows assigns to the current user>\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
0 = NO transition effects
1 = USE transition effects

The problem was, you can't create a registry key unless you know the random a** (or maybe not random) string of numbers Windows 2000 aparrently assigns to users. I figured out a sullution though: Change the .DEFAULT user, then when windows copies it to the new user account it'll be setup the way you want.

The only way I could figure out to change the .DEFAULT account in time is to do it in the RunOnceEx.cmd file. Use REG.EXE to add any registry entries you want.

Here's a very simple RunOnceEx.CMD file that will add this key:

@echo off

SET DFLT=HKU\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

REG ADD "%DFLT%"\WindowMetrics /V MinAnimate /D 0 /f

exit

The quotation marks around %DFLT% are important, don't forget them.

I've also turned off the "Getting Started With Windows 2000" window:

@echo off

SET DURO=HKU\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

REG ADD %DURO%\Explorer\tips /V Show /T REG_DWORD /D 00000000 /f

exit

I've also set a "Cleanup" cmd file to run immediately after the first login
(The main reason to have "cleanup.cmd" run after the first login is so you can have it delete all the stupid shortcuts on your desktop and/or start menu like "Connect to the Internet.lnk")

@echo off

FOR %%i IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%i:\CD.txt SET CDROM=%%i:

SET DURO=HKU\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

REG ADD %DURO%\Runonce /V Cleanup /D "%CDROM%\Install\CLEANUP.CMD"

exit

And here's everything that pertains to this from my RunOnceEx file:

@echo off

FOR %%i IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%i:\CD.txt SET CDROM=%%i:

SET DURO=HKU\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
SET DFLT=HKU\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

REG ADD %DURO%\Runonce /V Cleanup /D "%CDROM%\Install\CLEANUP.CMD"
REG ADD %DURO%\Explorer\tips /V Show /T REG_DWORD /D 00000000 /f
REG ADD "%DFLT%" /V UserPreferencesMask /T REG_BINARY /D b0200080 /f
REG ADD "%DFLT%" /V SmoothScroll /T REG_DWORD /D 00000000 /f
REG ADD "%DFLT%"\WindowMetrics /V MinAnimate /D 0 /f

exit