Windows XP Annoyances

4.2 Covering Your Tracks

In nearly every part of the interface, Windows keeps a history of your activity, from a drop-down list of typed commands in the Address Bar to the Recent Documents list in the Start Menu. The problem is there's no apparent way to control this record-keeping. Using the Registry and a number of tricks, it's possible to control some of these features and even wipe out the history at your whim.

Note that the drop-down list that appears in File-Save and File-Open dialogs when you type into the File name field is not actually a history of previously selected or typed files. Instead, it's an auto-complete mechanism that fills in the field as you type using the names of the files in the current folder.

4.2.1 Taming Recent Documents

Every time you double-click a document in Explorer or on your desktop, Windows places a shortcut to the file in your Recent Documents folder. At any given time, you might have a few hundred shortcuts in there, effectively tracing your every action when sorted by date.

The contents of this folder is used to populate the Recent Documents menu on the Start Menu (just called Documents if the Classic Start Menu is used), as well as the handful of recent documents shown in the File menu of some applications (such as Microsoft Office 2002). The contents of the Recent folder are also accessible, by default, from the Places Bar shown in most file dialogs (discussed later in this chapter).

These solutions should help you tame the Recent Documents list:

4.2.1.1 Choose how many recent documents are shown in the Start Menu

Assuming you haven't disabled the Recent folder or hidden the Documents menu, as described later, you can control how many of the most recent document shortcuts are shown in the Recent Documents.

4.2.1.2 Clear out the Recent Documents folder

Since the contents of the Recent folder are just shortcuts, they can be safely and easily deleted on the fly:

Note that this solution will erase current shortcuts, but it won't prevent new ones from being created.

4.2.1.3 Turn off the Recent Documents menu in the Start Menu

It's possible to hide the Recent Documents menu altogether, although Microsoft hasn't made it too easy for you.

If you have TweakUI (see Appendix A), open the Explorer category and turn off the Allow Recent Documents on Start Menu option. If you don't have TweakUI, open the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer, and create a new binary value named NoRecentDocsMenu. Double-click NoRecentDocsMenu and enter 01 00 00 00 for its data.

Keep in mind that even if the Recent Documents menu is hidden, shortcuts to launched documents will still be created in the Recent folder. See the next solution for a way to prevent this from happening.

4.2.1.4 Permanently disable the Recent Documents folder

Although there is no way to actually disable the creation of shortcuts in the Recent folder, there is a way to short-circuit the feature so that newly created shortcuts are deleted immediately. We do this by instructing Windows to put the shortcuts right into the Recycle Bin; the only requirement is that you configure the Recycle Bin to delete files instead of storing them.

Test the setup by double-clicking a few documents on your Desktop or in Explorer. Then, open the \Documents and Settings\{username}\Recent folder, and verify that it's still empty. Voila!

4.2.2 Thinning Out Explorer's New Menu

If you right-click on the desktop or an open folder (or open Explorer's File menu) and choose New, you will be presented with a special list of registered file types that can be created on the spot. Choose one, and Explorer will create a new, empty file with the appropriate extension in that location (although sometimes a special template file will be used instead—see Section 4.3 in this chapter, for details).

This list is maintained by certain Registry entries, and since most of us will not need to create new Ami Pro documents on the fly, there is a way to remove these unwanted entries. Having an extra entry here and there is not necessarily a big deal, but it can be quite frustrating if you're forced to wade through a long list of file types every time you want to create a new file.

The following two solutions allow to selective remove unwanted entries from the New menu, but won't prevent applications from adding entries, either when they're first installed or every time they're run.

4.2.2.1 Solution 1: using the Registry Editor

4.2.2.2 Solution 2: using TweakUI

Note: If you investigate what TweakUI actually does to your registry when you turn off a template, you'll see that the ShellNew branch described in Solution 1 has simply been renamed ShellNew- (making it easy for you reactivate it later). The corresponding key is only deleted if you click Remove.

4.2.2.3 Solution 3: prevent recurring entries (advanced users only)

If either of the previous solutions is ineffective for removing a particularly stubborn entry, in that it keeps coming back every time you start the associated application, you still have one last resort. For example, some applications actually replace this entry every time they're started, completely ignoring your preferences. Two popular programs known for this annoying behavior are Adobe Photoshop 4.0 and 5.0 (they've fixed it in version 6.0 and later) and JASC's Paint Shop Pro 4.0 or later (http://www.jasc.com/). The following solution works on both of those applications and should work on any other program that does this as well.

You'll need a good hex editor, such as UltraEdit-32 (http://www.ultraedit.com/), which we'll use to actually change the program executable.

If this is done incorrectly, it can damage an application. But if you back up any files before altering them, you eliminate this possibility.

The following example assumes you're using UltraEdit-32 to fix this problem in Paint Shop Pro 4.0. Although the specifics may change for later versions of the application you're editing, or if you're using a different hex editor, the technique should still be applicable.

Admittedly, Solution 3 is extreme, but sometimes the programmers have been so stubborn that it's your last resort. Also, if you get a hankering for some tinkering, learning the procedure for this type of customization can come in very handy.

4.2.3 Customize the Tray/Notification Area

The tray is the little box (usually in the lower-right corner of your screen, at the end of your taskbar) that, by default, contains the clock and the little speaker (plus a few other icons). Microsoft calls this space the "Notification Area," because its intended use is to notify you of system status: when you're connected to the Internet, when your laptop's battery is low, etc.

If you turn off the clock and remove all tray icons, the tray will disappear completely, providing more space for taskbar buttons. It will reappear when any tray icon is added.

Figure 4-5 shows a more-or-less typical tray. Odds are that you have more icons in your tray than you actually want or need. Whether that bothers you or not is anybody's guess. However, tray icons typically correspond to running programs, and it's usually a good idea to shut down running tasks you don't need, for the sake of both improved performance and increased system stability.

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any sort of consistency or standards for items in the tray; some icons get double-clicked, some require a single right- or left-click, and some don't get clicked at all. Some items can be removed easily, some can be removed with a setting in some obscure dialog box, and some can't be removed at all. Here are some ways to get a little more control of the tray.

4.2.3.1 Remove common items from the tray

Volume control

To remove the yellow speaker icon (the volume control), right-click it and select Adjust Audio Properties, or go to Control Panel Sounds and Audio Devices, and turn off the Show volume icon on the taskbar option. If you remove the yellow speaker, you can still adjust the volume with the Volume Control utility (sndvol32.exe) included with Windows, as well with the volume control on your speakers (if applicable).

Network connections

Each network connection configured on your system can have its own tray icon, showing at a glance when the particular connection is actually connected. This may be handy for dial-up or VPN connections but is probably unnecessary for connections that are always on, such as LAN and high-speed Internet connections. To turn off the tray icon for a particular connection, go to Control Panel Network Connections, right-click the connection entry corresponding to the tray icon you wish to remove, and select Properties. Turn off the Show icon in notification area when connected option at the bottom of the General tab, and click OK. See Chapter 7 for more information on network connections.

Windows Messenger

By default, the Windows Messenger program is loaded automatically when Windows XP starts, even though the vast majority of users will never use this program. To let you know it's there, its icon appears in the tray. To get rid of the icon, you'll have to close the program; to get rid of the icon permanently, you'll have to instruct it not to load automatically.

1. Double-click the Messenger icon (which looks like two little people) or right-click it and select Open.

2. Note that the icon will have a red X over it if you haven't yet set up a Messenger profile. Don't worry; you don't have to set up a profile unless you want to use Messenger.

3. If a sign-up wizard appears, just click Cancel.

4. Go to Tools Options Preferences tab, and turn off both the Run this program when Windows starts and Allow this program to run in the background options.

5. Click OK and then close Windows Messenger when you're done.

See Section 5.2.6 for information explaining how to completely uninstall the Windows Messenger component from your system.

RealPlayer

If you've installed Real Networks' RealPlayer utility (http://www.real.com), you'll notice a little blue icon has been placed in your tray (the installer doesn't ask). The program that this icon represents doesn't do anything and can be removed without any adverse effects. (In fact, disabling this program will allow Windows to start a little faster next time.) To disable it, start Real Player and open the configuration dialog box. Disable the Start Center option, and click OK when you're done. Note that newer and older versions of Real Player may have different procedures for disabling this icon.

Safely Remove Hardware

This icon appears if you have certain types of removable media drives, such as memory card readers. Windows suggests that you use it to "stop" a device before ejecting its media, but very rarely is this step necessary. Unfortunately, there's no way to remove this icon—your only choice is to hide it using the solution in the next topic, Section 4.2.3.2.

Additional items

See Appendix A for more settings that can affect tray icons. See the next topic, Section 4.2.3.2, for another solution.

4.2.3.2 Hide stubborn icons

A new feature in Windows XP is the ability to hide tray icons that otherwise can't be removed, decreasing clutter and increasing taskbar real-estate. Here's how to do it:

4.2.3.3 Add your own programs to the tray

The icons that appear in the Tray are placed by applications; this area is not really designed to accept user icons like the Start Menu. However, there is a way to add your own shortcut icons to the tray, providing quick buttons for a few commonly-used programs or folders: