Customizing windows explorer (My Computer) and more...

[MvD]

A bit about my desktop: I can't stand desktop icons, so I don't have any I navigate via the start menu.

I've got several issues with setup:

1. How do I get my computer to start with the 'folders' sidebar rather than the usual info sidebar?

2. How do I modify the desktop context menu? I've got an Nvidia Display entry which I don't use (I tried messing around with the Nvidia control panel, but I didn't find anything).

3. How do I simplify the search sidebar? Since I am not part of a workgroup/domain and I use mostly oss media formats the additional search options are useless. I would rather use *.ogg and *.mp3

4. How do I get rid of shared documents in My Computer? I have a one user setup and I don't want to share anything. It really annoys me. (same applies for User's documents)

5. Is there any way I can further cusyomize Control Panel? I want to show the applets in groups based on their tipe. So Firewall, Security center would be in one. At the moment I can only group the applets by letters or comments.

I am on Win XP Pro SP2! Thanks in advance!

 

[office politics]

Question:
"How do I remove unwanted options that appear on right-click menus after installing software?"

Answer:
Usually, all that is required is to remove the appropriate key under the shellex\ContextMenuHandlers key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT for file type "*"
_____________________________________

Remove Shared Documents Folder
This tweak removes the Shared Documents Folder from all user accounts on the local machine.


[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
MyComputer\NameSpace\DelegateFolders\
Delete the Key: {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}
Exit Registry and Reboot

 

[EricB]

right click start, pick explore all users

you can fix a lot of your problems here like deleting shared documents

 

[MvD]

thanks for the reply guys!

Btw, I didn't find any Nvdia in the list of context menu entries. There was one entry which was simply random, is there any way I check who added this entry?

 

[office politics]

you could search your registry for the string that's displayed in the menu.