ArcMap Advanced Settings Registry Keys
The ArcMap Advanced Settings utility is a companion settings utility for ArcMap. It is designed to give users safe access to customization settings for ArcMap that cannot be changed within the software itself. This document describes the registry keys written by the ArcMap Advanced Settings utility. The utility never writes anything to the registry unless the Apply button is pressed, and then, it only writes settings for those values that have changed.
ArcMap assumes default values for non-existent registry settings. Most of the registry settings utilized are located in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. This means when a new user logs in and starts ArcMap, the registry keys do not exist and defaults for most settings are assumed. Not all registry keys utilized by the software are listed here; only the ones for which no user interface exists in the software for setting them.
The following format is used to describe registry items:
Value Type: Registry Path\Value Name
Description: Describes function and usage
The following registry keys and values are listed and described based on the tab in the ArcMap Advanced Settings utility. The tabs are listed in alphabetical order in this document.
Advanced Editing Tab
COGO field mapping (7 registry keys)
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\COGOFeatureClass\Direction
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\COGOFeatureClass\Distance
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\COGOFeatureClass\Radius
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\COGOFeatureClass\Delta
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\COGOFeatureClass\Tangent
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\COGOFeatureClass\ArcLength
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\COGOFeatureClass\Side
Description: These values are strings of field names that the ArcMap Editor uses when it writes the COGO attributes of a line to the feature class. The fields are used by the Traverse tool, Inverse command and Proportion command. If there is no field mapping set, the following field names are used; Direction or Angle, Distance, Radius, Delta, Tangent, ArcLength and Side.
Topology and advanced editing settings (8 registry keys)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Titus\ShowDirtyAreas
Description: This determines whether or not the dirty area symbol will be included when a topology layer is added to ArcMap. A value of 0 (default) means no dirty area symbol will appear and 1 means the dirty area symbol will appear in the topology layer.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Titus\ErrorWindowShown
Description: This determines what the position is of the error inspector dialog when the dialog is opened. A value of 0 means the error inspector will remember its previous position when it is opened and 1 (default) means the error window will be shown undocked when you open it.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Settings\Annotation\ShowFollowWarning
Description: For the Edit Annotation tool in Follow Feature Mode, this determines whether or not a warning is shown if the feature that an annotation is following is outside the current map extent. A value of 0 means the warning will not be shown and 1 (default) means the warning will be shown. In both cases the Follow Feature Mode will be suspended.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Titus\PointErrorZoomFactor
Description: This is used to determine the extent of the map used when zooming to a single point error. The default value is 1/50 of the extent of the topology.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\AutoPanFactor
Description: This is a width in pixels that determines how close to the edge of the display the cursor needs to be before the display automatically pans. This functionality only works for the Sketch tool in the ArcMap Editor. The AutoPanTolerance setting also needs to be set for this functionality to work. The default is 10 pixels.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\AutoPanTolerance
Description: This is the distance in pixels that the display will pan once the cursor is within the AutoPanFactor distance. This functionality only works for the Sketch tool in the ArcMap Editor. The default is 0 pixels which disables this functionality.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\VertexSearchFactor
Description: This is a factor that is multiplied by the current snap tolerance setting to determine a distance to search for features to show their vertices. The factor is used when the v key is pressed with any standard editor tool. All vertices of features within "factor * snap tolerance" will be drawn. The default is 5.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Titus\TopologyControl Width
Description: This is the width in pixels of the Choose Topology control.
Data Frame/TOC Tab
Data frame refresh rate
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Settings\Refresh Rate
Description: The default is 500. This is the number of milliseconds that ArcMap will use as an interval to check the display. The lower the number, the more smoothly ArcMap will appear to draw. This can also be used to synch ArcMap's refresh rate to a camera so that flickering can be eliminated. The valid range is 1-1000.
Default patch size and shape (4 registry keys)
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Settings\PatchWidth
Description: The default for this is 12. This is the width of the default patch line. This can be customized in ArcMap (Tools | Options | TOC). This value is saved with a document; when the document is opened, the setting is restored. This registry setting (as with all patch width size and shape settings) sets the default for new documents only.
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Settings\PatchHeight
Description: The default for this is 12. This is the height of the default patch line. This can be customized in ArcMap (Tools | Options | TOC). This value is saved with a document; when the document is opened, the setting is restored. This registry setting (as with all patch width size and shape settings) sets the default for new documents only.
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Settings\LinePatch
Description: The default for this is Horizontal. This is the default patch line. This can be customized in ArcMap (Tools | Options | TOC). This value is saved with a document; when the document is opened, the setting is restored. This registry setting (as with all patch width size and shape settings) sets the default for new documents only.
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Settings\AreaPatch
Description: The default for this is Rectangle. This is the default patch shape. This can be customized in ArcMap (Tools | Options | TOC). This value is saved with a document; when the document is opened, the setting is restored. This registry setting (as with all patch width size and shape settings) sets the default for new documents only.
Display rotation alpha factor
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Settings\Rotation Alpha
Description: This sets the relative transparency of the superimposition of your data as you rotate it using the rotate tool on the data frame tools toolbar. Valid values range from 0 (completely transparent so you don't see what you're rotating) to 255 (where you only see what you're rotating). The default is 200, which makes the original data look faded out. A value of 100 will effectively reverse that effect.
Marker symbol rotation
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Symbology\Settings\RotateWithTransform
Description: The default value for this setting is 1, which means that marker symbols will rotate additionally with dataframe rotation. When set to 0, marker symbols will not rotate with data frame rotation and instead maintain their orientation with respect to the page.
Editor Tab
Data and editing behavior (5 registry keys)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\EmptyStringIsNull
Description: When editing attribute values ArcMap will assume that an empty string (“”) really means Null if set to 1, or if set to 0, it really is an empty string.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\InitDefaultsOnSubtypeChange
Description: If this value is 1, the database will reinitialize values based on your subtype such that those values will be based on your new value, if 0, you will have to do this manually, or you continue to use the old values.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\StickyMoveTolerance
Description: This is the pixel tolerance that the mouse must move before a move operation starts when moving features.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\MaxDivisionPoints
Description: Maximum number of divisions a line can be divided into using the division tool.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Jet 4.0\MaxLocksPerFile
Description: If you are calculating more than 9,500 records against an Access database when inside of an edit session, the operation will abort because of the Jet engine lock count limitation. If you increase this value, you can calculate more features. Note: Changing this registry key requires administrative privileges.
User interface control size settings (3 registry keys)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\SubtypeControl Width
Description: This is the width in pixels of the Subtype control.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\TaskControl Width
Description: This is the width in pixels of the Task control.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Garcia\ZControl Width
Description: This is the width in pixels of the Current Z control that is available in the customization dialog.
GeoStatistical Tab
Variography
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\ESDA\Variography\Max_Input_Points
Description: By default, the semivariogram/covariance tools work with data sets having a maximum of 300 data points. This value was chosen for performance and for usability reasons. However, you may want to increase the maximum. If you do increase the maximum, you may experience slow performance with large data sets.
Voronoi map non-clustered data color
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\ESDA\Voronoi\Cluster_Color
Description: When creating a Voronoi map, if you set the type to Cluster, a polygon that has a value outside the range of all its neighbors will turn gray by default. This indicates that it may be an outlier or have a "no data" value.
Export to Grid default values (4 registry keys)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Exp2GRID\Columns
Description: This is the default setting for the number of columns when exporting a geostatistical layer to GRID.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Exp2GRID\Rows
Description: This is the default setting for the number of rows when exporting a geostatistical layer to GRID.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Exp2GRID\Block_X
Description: This is the default setting for the size of the X block when exporting a geostatistical layer to GRID.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Exp2GRID\Block_Y
Description: This is the default setting for the size of the Y block when exporting a geostatistical layer to GRID.
Grid symbology default values (4 registry keys)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Renderers\Grid\XSize
Description: This is the default grid X size setting for geostatistical layers.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Renderers\Grid\YSize
Description: This is the default grid Y size setting for geostatistical layers.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Renderers\Grid\XBlockSize
Description: This is the default setting for the size of the X block when exporting a geostatistical layer to GRID.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Renderers\Grid\YBlockSize
Description: This is the default setting for the size of the X block when exporting a geostatistical layer to GRID.
Hillshade symbology default values (5 registry keys)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Renderers\Hillshade\GridX
Description: This is the default grid X size setting for hillshade geostatistical layers.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Renderers\Hillshade\GridY
Description: This is the default grid Y size setting for hillshade geostatistical layers.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Renderers\Hillshade\Ambient
Description: This is the default ambient setting for hillshade geostatistical layers.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Renderers\Hillshade\Diffuse
Description: This is the default diffuse setting for hillshade geostatistical layers.
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\GeoStatisticalExtension\DefaultParams\Renderers\Hillshade\ZScale
Description: This is the default ZScale setting for hillshade geostatistical layers.
Graphs Tab
Default color palette and order of appearance (2 registry keys)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\Graphs\DefaultPaletteIndex
Description: This is the palette of colors that is selected from when a graph is created.
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\Graphs\DefaultColorTable
Description: This is a comma delimited set of numbers that represents the table of colors that are initially used to set the colors for graph bars, lines, points, etc. The first number in the string is the number of colors to follow. The colors are selected from the color palette indicated by the DefaultPaletteIndex setting above.
Maximum data points settings (2 registry keys)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\Graphs\BarColumnPieMaxDataPoints
Description: This is maximum number of features that can be shown in a Bar, Column, or Pie graph. This setting acts as a failsafe to keep the graph generation process from “hanging” in situations where large datasets have been chosen.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\Graphs\MaxDataPoints
Description: This is maximum number of features that can be shown in graph types other than Bar, Column, or Pie. This setting acts as a failsafe to keep the graph generation process from hanging in situations where large datasets have been chosen.
Linear Referencing Tab
Linear referencing (7 registry keys)
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\DynSeg\RouteField
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\DynSeg\FromField
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\DynSeg\ToField
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\DynSeg\MField
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\DynSeg\OffsetField
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\DynSeg\XField
REG_SZ: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\DynSeg\YField
Description: These values are space-delimited strings of field names that ArcMap automatically uses to populate the linear referencing user interface if these fields are found the source table.
Identify route locations (2 registry keys)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\DynSeg\IdentifyDecimalPlaces
Description: This controls the number of decimal places for numbers used on the Identify Route Locations dialog. Valid values are 0 to 10; anything else (or non-existent) will result in the default of 3 being used.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\DynSeg\ShowIdentifyRouteLabels
Description: This controls whether the 'route' and 'measure' text will be included when labeling route locations. If 0, then do not show labels; anything else (or non-existent) will show labels.
Hatching
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\DynSeg\HatchDefaultPrecision
Description: This controls the default precision of numbers in text for newly added hatch definitions. Valid values are 0 to 10; anything else (or non-existent) will result in the default of 2 being used.
Miscellaneous Tab
Monitor settings (2 registry keys)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Settings\Monitor\Height
Description: This is the height in millimeters of your monitor’s display area. If monitor settings are not customized, ArcMap gets the dpi setting from your display driver to use for scaling purposes. Changing this setting to reflect the setting for your monitor will cause some things like legend items in the user interface to draw at their correct size. Click the Get monitor dimensions button to query your display driver for monitor dimensions. Note that this retrieves only the dimensions your display driver thinks are right. For a more accurate value, use a ruler to physically measure the display area of your monitor. To delete customized monitor settings, click the Delete customized settings button.
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Settings\Monitor\Width
Description: This is the width in millimeters of your monitor’s display area. If monitor settings are not customized, ArcMap gets the dpi setting from your display driver to use for scaling purposes. Changing this setting to reflect the setting for your monitor will cause some things like legend items in the user interface to draw at their correct size. Click the Get monitor dimensions button to query your display driver for monitor dimensions. Note that this retrieves only the dimensions your display driver thinks are right. For a more accurate value, use a ruler to physically measure the display area of your monitor. To delete customized monitor settings, click the Delete customized settings button.
Printer settings
(This ArcMap 8.x feature is no longer available in ArcMap 9.x)
REG_DWORD: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcMap\Settings\Disable Paper Message Box
Description: This sets whether the user is warned (1), or not (0) when ArcMap starts up and cannot find a printer from which to derive the page size for a new document’s layout or a printer for an existing document. The purpose is to allow developers to create applications that export maps automatically and do not need to have a printer in order set the page size.