Help me with those annoying things in Windows XP 12

[raygg]

A. You know how sometimes a program gives you that annoying 'not responding' message when you check out why a pgm seems to be running too slow using Windows Task Manager - and then you get that even more annoying message asking you if you want the error information sent to Microsoft?

How do you kill the message to MS from ever popping up? Is it a service you can turn off?

B. Those incessant windows updates.... A few years ago you hardly ever got a msg that there are windows updates available. Personally I would like to get this msg only on months with an R on the 30th. But I knoiw it's a security thing. So now when I look in C:\Windows and see a ton of hidden folders with names like $NtUninstallKB887472$ that occupy 733mb and 4214 files in hundreds of folders. These have accumulated since I bought my laptop 24 months ago. When can I get rid of these deadbeat folders that MS puts on my box and never sends me a friendly love note to tell me "we have placed 733 mb of crap on your harddrive sucker - how's your drive holding up? Fragmented or what?". Is there some sort of rule - get rid of everything older than 3 months? etc

C. Why isn't there some kind of utility to review all your folders and tell you there are all these temporary files (*.TMP) and TMP folders sprinkled throughout your system folders occupying dead space. Look at C:\WINDOWS\system32\*.tmp, C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\temp

D. What are these folders that keep appearing with gobbledygook folder names like C:\ebfe45403e30599050946ae4 or C:\fa06f703033785a2a0a8b8\update? If these are files that do an update and then have no future purpose why don't they get placed in some appropriately named folder like c:\windows\somemorecrapwedumpedonyou?

E. Those REALLY annoying Bing Vibrant popups - especially prevalent on this website - how to premanently stop them? (I know this is not XP stuff but it really fills the bill as ANNOYING.

 

[raygg]

Have you noticed how annoying it is when you write a file to a CD-RW or a DVD+RW and found that after you click ok to write files to disk, that when you try to write on that disk (because it is RW) again after you delivered the original files to some other system, you get a message that the disk is write protected?

In other words xp finalized the disk without telling you.

So how do you write to a CD-RW or a DVD+RW and NOT finalize it inadvertently?

 

[linney]

What third party software are you using to burn files in XP, as I understand it, XP never came with pre-installed DVD Burning software, it only had CD burning software?

cant see pictures on picture cd
thread779-1512483

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=...-card&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

This thread is a bit old, and you might be better off asking questions in new threads, one question per thread, that way you will attract a larger audience with more relevant information to your problem, rather than people interested in "annoying things" about XP.

 

[wvdba]

there is a freeware called windirstat.exe that will give you a pictorial image of your drive with a directory next to the pic. you can then click on each "chunk" of the drive and delete it using the directory on the screen.

 

[MiggyD]

to goombawaho:

have you tried putting "

http://www."

in front of the name?

-MiggyD

My mind not only wanders, it sometimes leaves completely.

 

[goombawaho]

If you're replying to my (ancient) comment on April 6th about blocking the Vibrant text pop-ups, I have figured things out for the client in question. There's a Grease Monkey script which will take care of text pop-ups should you want to snuff them out.

 

[MiggyD]

OMG! I didn't even look at the date! Yes, it was in regards to THAT post. If I'd seen the date, I wouldn't have responded as I'd be certain you would have figured it out by now.

Oh well, maybe someone in the future will benefit from this.


--MiggyD

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. - Douglas Adamsi]

 

[goombawaho]

I was just poking you in the ribs. I never figured it out via the HOSTS file, but found a better way.

 

[flyboytim]

goombawaho, sorry I missed the April 6 post.

The line that works for here in the HOSTS file is this:

Spoiler

127.0.0.1 tek-tips.us.intellitxt.com

As I said before using this may deprive this site from advertising revenue, so I do not advocate its use.

 

[linney]

flyboytim,

Is your code box using white text rather than black, or is it just my browser or machine?

Did you intend people to highlight the box to read the contents? It reminds me of invisible ink. Maybe Intellitxt is just protecting their investment?

 

[flyboytim]

The spoiler box is working as it is supposed to, according to the TGML instructions:

To read the contents of the spoiler, highlight the spoiler box's contents.

The code box works a little differently. I used the spoiler option because, in the past, someone objected quite strongly to the use of this HOSTS trick to deprive a website of funds by hiding or blocking adverts in the body of the text here.

Readers have the choice to be corrupted by my words at their own peril.

 

[linney]

Thank you for that explanation, I visit Tek-Tips every day, and that is the first time I have ever seen the "Spoiler" box, which goes to prove that you are never too old to learn something new. Thanks again.

 

[raygg]

Don't you find it annoying that in Windows XP (after how many generations of updates and lessons they've learned) that in you would THINK that you could do a tabbed or split screen windows explorer.

I don't think windows explorer has been significantly updated since windows 3.1.

Hasn't anyone ever come up with a windows explorer on steroids yet?

 

[linney]

I take it you are not talking about options available on the Taskbar, things such as "Tile windows horizontally" or "Tile windows Vertically"?

What do you mean by "tabbed"?

 

[BadBigBen]

Hasn't anyone ever come up with a windows explorer on steroids yet?

Directory Opus (available since before Win 3.1)

http://www.gpsoft.com.au/

[xplorer²]

http://www.zabkat.com/x2lite.htm

there is also Norton Commander, ErdCommander, Total Commmander, etc....

also in Win7 you can open two instances of Explorer and quickly place them side by side...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[mscallisto]

Have you tried dragging a Shortcut and holding it over the Start Button and then dropping it on the Start Button?

Nifty, never knew that ... have a star

sam

 

[goombawaho]

Will this thread ever die??? Rhetorical question - not thread jacking.

 

[raygg]

Don't you find it annoying that you have to go thru the exercise to safely stop a thumb drive when you want to remove it? I know a guy who just pulls out the damn thumb drive and never bothers to safely remove it - on a MAC - and never had a problem. I have ruined a couple of thiumb drives this way - and I do not know why or what happened to cause them to become unreadable because I did not practice safe usb removal. And other times when I do the clicking on the safely remove thingy in the icon tray it will not stop the thumbdrive or usb device. What is this safely remove stuff all about? Why can't I pull out the USB connection without preparing to pull it out safely?

 

[linney]

In Device Manager/ Disk Drives/ USB, have a look at the Properties of the USB/ Policies. You can set it to not use the Safely Remove if you want.

 

[DonKlein]

At least on XP the light in my USB stick went out when it was properly disconnected. The fact that it stays lit up on Win 7 caused me to doubt that it is really disconnected -even though Win 7 says it is.


Just an irritation,
Don

 

[mscallisto]

I too (only once) lost flash drive contents by not safely removing the device.

I was told that before XP it was necessary to safely remove it because of a buffering problem but that was fixed with XP.

Anyway I prefer to remove safely with the left mouse click as opposed to the right mouse click.