Unlock Gtalk Hidden Powers & Secrets

With Google Talk Messenger being all the craze right now, some people hating it, and others loving it, I figured that I would post a list of tips and tricks for those curious about the extra "features" Google implemented and has not said much about.

You can edit most settings by opening regedit (start -> regedit), and navigating to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Google/Google Talk.

The "Google/Google Talk" key has several sub-keys that hold different option values:

Accounts: This one has subkeys for each different account that has logged in on the client. These keys have different values that store the username, password and connection options.

Autoupdate: Stores the current version information. When the client checks for updates it compares Google's response with these values. If an update is needed, it will download and update the new version.
Options: This is the most interesting part, where most of the current hacks should be used (keep reading).

Process: Stores the process ID. Probably used by Google Talk to detect if it's already running or not.

1.) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\show_pin
If 1, shows a "pin" next to the minimize button that keeps the windows on top of all the other open windows when clicked.

2.)HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\view_show_taskbutton
If 0, hides the taskbar button, and leaves the tray icon only, when the window is shown

3.)HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\away_inactive
If 1, status will be set as Away after the specified number of minutes.

4.)HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\away_screensaver
If 1, status will be set as Away after the specified number of minutes.

5.)HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\inactive_minutes
Number of inactive minutes to become away if auto-away is on.

Use multiple identities on Google Talk
Want to run Google Talk with multiple Gmail identities? If you have several Google Gmail accounts you also may want to run multiple instances of Google Talk This is especially important for families that share a single PC. Nothing worse than a family member signing you out so they can sign in under their own account!Basically, to have "Google Polygamy" you need to run Google Talk with the following switch: /nomutex
1: Right-click on the desktopStep
2: Select NewStep
3: Select ShortcutStep
4: Paste this into the text box:
"c:program filesgooglegoogle talkgoogletalk.exe" /nomutex
5: Click Next and choose a shortcut name such as Google Talk1, Google Talk2, or something related to your Gmail account for easy remembering which account is which.Step
6: Click OK a few times.

There are a few secret parameters you can add to Google Talk and make it function differently.

/nomutex, which allows you to run more than one instance of GT.
/autostart, when Google Talk is run with this parameter, it will check the registry settings to see if it needs to be started or not. If the "Start automatically with Windows" option is unchecked, it won't start.
/forcestart, same as /autostart, but forces it to start no matter what option was set.
/S upgrade, Used when upgrading Google Talk
/register: registers Google Talk in the registry, includig the GMail Compose method.
/checkupdate: check for newer versions
/plaintextauth: uses plain authentication mechanism instead then Google's GAIA mechanism. Used for testing the plain method on Google's servers.
/nogaiaauth: disables GAIA authentication method. The same as above.
/factoryreset: set settings back to default.
/gaiaserver servername.com: uses a different GAIA server to connect to Google Talk. Used for debug purposes only, there are no other known GAIA servers.
/mailto email@host.com: send an email with Gmail
/diag: start Google Talk in diagnostic mode
/log: probably has something to do with the diagnostic logging

To add these, open up your GT shortcut, and where it says "Target:" add one or more of these inside the quotations, but after the .exe part