Tips to Customize Your Windows

REMOVING WINDOWS MESSENGER

A number of Windows utilities and components notably Windows Messenger and WordPad don't show in the Windows Component Wizard, so there's no apparent way to uninstall them. But you can, in fact, remove these components. XP has a Setup Information file that controls what appears in the Windows Component Wizard. If you edit this file, you can force these components to appear in the Wizard, and you can then remove them as you would any others.

To start, use Notepad or another text editor to open the Setup Information file, sysoc.inf, which is generally found in the C:\WINDOWS\INF folder. For safety's sake, make a backup of the file before editing it, so you can revert to it if you need to

When you open the file, look for the line describing the program you want to uninstall. Lines in the file have the format:

program=program.dll,OcEntry,program.inf,,numeral

Programs that are uninstallable all have the word hide (or HIDE) embedded in the string. When this word is included in the string, the program won't show up in the Windows Component Wizard. The Pinball game entry, which doesn't show up in the wizard, looks like this:

Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7

To force it to show up in the wizard, remove the word hide from the entry that refers to the component that you want to remove. For example, if you want to remove Pinball, edit its entry to this:

Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,,7

Save the sysoc.inf file, then run the Windows Component Wizard. The component will now show up in the wizard. Remove it as you would any other component.

Table 2-4. "Uninstallable" programs and their sysoc.inf entries

Entry What entry refers to

AccessOpt Accessibility Wizard

MultiM Multimedia components, including Media Player, Volume Control, and Sound Recorder

CommApps Communications components, including Chat, Hyperterminal, and Phone Dialer

AutoUpdate Windows Automatic Update

TerminalServer Terminal Server

dtc Distributed Transaction Coordinator

dom COM+

WBEM Windows Management Instrumentation

Pinball Pinball game

MSWordPad WordPad

msmsgs Windows Messenger

The Messenger service is not related to Windows Messenger, Microsoft's instant-messaging program.

To kill these pop ups, disable the Messenger service. Run the Services Microsoft Management Console by typing services.msc at a command prompt or the Run box and pressing Enter. Double-click on the entry for Messenger, choose Disabled as the Startup type from the screen that appears, and click OK. Pop ups will no longer get through. Unfortunately, neither will any network messages from administrators if you're on a LAN.

If you're running a router at home that allows you to block ports, you can kill these messages by disabling port 135.

How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent

Go to Control Panel ---> System, ---> Advanced ---> Performance area ---> Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop"

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How to Rename the Recycle Bin

To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, open Regedit and go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want

Changing Drive Letters in Windows XP?

When you add drives to your computer, such as an extra hard drive, a CD drive, or a storage device that corresponds to a drive, Windows automatically assigns letters to the drives. However, this assignment might not suit your system; for example, you might have mapped a network drive to the same letter that Windows assigns to a new drive. When you want to change drive letters, follow these steps:

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
2. Under Computer Management, click Disk Management. In the right pane, you?ll see your drives listed. CD-ROM drives are listed at the bottom of the pane.
3. Right-click the drive or device you want to change, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
4. Click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the drive letter you want to assign, and then click OK.