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Help me with those annoying things in Windows XP 12

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raygg

raygg

Technical User
Jun 14, 2000
397
US
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.
 
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^^^^^Bumping an old thread for that commentary???? Meh - marginal at best.
 
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Goom, didn't have your coffee yet? I know I'm grumpy in the morning when the caffeine level in my bloodstream has not hit a certain point... ;-)

PS: never lost a single USB stick on XP or previous by just unplugging them...

but I did witness one going to electronic heaven. At work an apprentice pulled one from VISTA, no puff of smoke, no sizzle to be heard, but the darn stick rolled over and died...


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"
 
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Thanks for that tip, Linney. I don't recall knowing that one. I'd be interested in trying that method for a while just to see if nothing else. I have had issues in the past with not using "safely remove". However, I think that also can depend upon the hardware and associated drivers. I know, for instance, that SIIG sells some PCI USB cards advertised to have some sort of built-in protection for quick removal / hot-plugging, so whether Windows handles it correctly or not, you should be safe.
 
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Don't you find it annoying when you want to delete more than one entry at a time from START->PROGRAMS but each time you delete one entry in start-programs it closes and you have to open it up again and have to relocate the next item you want to delete?

I installed Nero10 and it has a Manuals group item, a BurningROM menu item plus 13 more menu items in one stack. Each of these 15 menu items runs a tool except the Manuals menu item. Open each Manuals group menu item to a new menu item stack of 11 manuals. It does not stop there. Every one of the 11 manuals menu items is a group item opening another stack of the requested manual in 14 different languages.

I find all this redundancy annoying and it uses up too much real estate. This type of menu redundancy is the worst I have ever seen, although the Nero 10 products seem to do function well - whoever designed the UI installation was lazy and did not offer an installation language option so only one set of manuals in one language could be selected and set up in the manual, instead of 11manuals x 143 languages = 154 menu manuals items instead of just 11 manuals.

To delete all these extra menu items I have to click start-programs-nero-nero10-manuals-NeroDiscSpeed Manuals-NeroDiskSpeed [Chinese - traditional]. Then right click-delete to delete this ond menu item. Then the 5 layers of Nero menus closes and I have to click start-programs-nero-nero10-manuals-NeroDiscSpeed Manuals-NeroDiskSpeed [Chinese - simplified] to delete the next extraneous menu item. Annoying. Very tedious.

Is there somewhere in the registry or something buried deep in Documents and Settings - username where the start program menu structure is stored so it can be edited and items deleted/rearranged?
 
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Can you access these two locations and work from there?

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs

C:\Documents and Settings\usernamexxxx\Start Menu\Programs


It may be necessary to show Both Hidden and System Files, and also to uncheck "Hide known file types" in Control Panel/ Folder Options/ View, to navigate to the mentioned locations.


 
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Have a Star - That's a great tip!!
 
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Don't you find it annoying when you have to fill in one of those boxes on a webpage with some vital logon id, your name, your email address, and in the little dropdown there is still that same misspelled logon or email id or name that has been there for months or years and you wish you had some way of removing it? How do you remove those annoying left over tibits you fatfingered?
 
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usually right mouse and with cursor over that item hit delete key
 
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Or if you see it in the drop down, and have it selected, just hit the <Del> button on your keyboard - same difference. At least, that's the way I've always done it.

Also, if you run a general clean-up tool, such as CCleaner (or being this is XP, RegScrubXP 3.25 - found at it'll clear out all of those if you don't specify to leave some content.

Another way might be (and I've not tried this, so it's only a guess) turn off autocomplete in Internet Explorer, then close Internet Explorer, reopen, and turn autocomplete back on... perhaps that'd clear it all out.

But be forwarned, the last 2 suggestions will wipe everything if anything. No way to pick and choose with those methods.
 
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You know what is really annoying? The ASK search option keeps coming back to the topright search windows in my firefox browser on xp. I click on the arrow next to the word ASK in the windows and I get a bunch of choices don't want - it seems to be loaded with advertising in the things it finds --- but google usually finds what I want without advertising. I keep using the 'manage search engines' and delete the ASK entry - but XP lets that ASK entry to be placed back in the search engine list time after time. How do I get rid of it?

 
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linney - a star to you - I was able to uninstall it using the add/remove programs - thanks
 
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You know what's really annoying? I have a Lenovo laptop and this year I replaced the battery with a non-Lenovo branded battery. What's really annoying is that everytime I plug in to the wall there is a yellow balloon that pops up to tell me I do not have a genuine Lenovo battery. Unlike a lot of those balloons that pop up from the icon tray this one does not have an 'X' to close it. It does not disappear eventually and when I click it, it opens a browser page at the Lenovo website order a battery page. How do I stop this annoying balloon from reappearing (without buying a new battery)?
 
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You could have someone else buy a Lenovo branded battery and give it to you as a stocking stuffer!! LOL

Sorry I can't help with this annoyance.

Sam
 
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If you uninstall the thinkvantage power manager does the warning go away?

Jim

 
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Thanks guys - I think I have it figured out.

Ray
 
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