changing settings in win xp

(win xp sp2)
I'd like to change some (annoying) things in xp:

-whenever i rightclick a file, there is an "open with" section and then a list of programs that appears either at the left or right side. I want to change this so that it only appears on the right side.

-i never used windows media player and havent even installed it. if i click "open with section" for a videofile, this program is in that list too. I want to remove windows media player from that list.

-when you click on "start" and then "programs", only the most recent programs are shown. I want to set it so that all programs are instantly shown, not just recent ones

-whenever there is only a few mb left on a hard disk drive, there automatically appears this program "there is too little space on this drive, starting clean-up" and then there is a program that lets you delete files that are "not needed". How do you remove this program, i dont want to see it automatically appear.

-is it possible to make a shortcut, that when u click on it, all hidden files and all file extensions are immediately shown?

 

Anyone know how to set ANY of these? even if its only 1 of them..

 

Which side the context menu appears depends on where on the screen you're bringing it up. If the item is on the far right side, and there isn't enough room to display the menu on the right, it will display on the left.

Windows Media Player is part of Windows. Even if you could uninstall it, I wouldn't recommend it. Other media players rely on its files as well, and you'll end up with more problems. If you really want to edit the context menu for various file types, you can search the web for such utilities. There's certainly a risk with this kind of tweaking. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're removing an entry for a program that doesn't exist anymore.

I've never heard of this before. This isn't Windows XP behavior. Either you have some type of theme installed that's producing this behavior, or this isn't the correct description of the problem.

Why would you not want Windows to notify you of a potential disk space problem (unless this isn't the system drive)? Realize that if a drive gets too full, you can end up with corruption problems and data loss.

You'd have to edit the registry. Proceed at your own risk.
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article03-102

I don't understand this question.

 

The Open With list is more of a Most Recently Used list than part of any Context Menu handler, so changing this should be just as safe as changing the Send To menu, other than the obvious risks of messing around in the registry.

Note that if the program you remove from the list is associated with that file type, Windows will automatically put it back on the OpenWithList the next time you right click a file of that type.

Edit the registry at your own risk as always!

Open Regedit and navigate to this key:

Code:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts

Find the folder for the file extension you want to edit (for videofile check .avi or .wmv for example)
Expand that key, then click on the OpenWithList folder.
On the right side find the program you don't want to appear, and delete it
You'll have to do this for each extension that has WMP on the list.
To quickly find them all:

1. Highlight the FileExts folder from the above Key.
2. Click Edit | Find
3. Enter wmplayer.exe in the box
4. Under Look In, uncheck Keys and Values, leaving only Data checked
5. Click Find Next. When a value is found, make sure you are still under the key shown above. The path will be displayed in the Status Bar at the bottom.
   Click View | Status Bar if it's not displayed
6. Delete each value found, then press F3 to find the next one.
7. Go back to the FileExts folder and repeat for each program you don't want to appear in an Open With list, substituting the correct executable name

Right click the Start button, click Properties, click the Start Menu tab, then click the Customize... button next to Classic Start menu
Uncheck Use Personalized Menus at the bottom
This feature/option is only for the Classic Start menu

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000692.html
You have to press F5 or switch to a different folder if Explorer is open. Sometimes a right click in the window, then click refresh is needed.
The script is a toggle. You can make two scripts, one to hide, one to show if you want; Comment 5 shows how to make one to unhide.
You can remove the popup notice, comment 19

If you use common tasks, and want to toggle the These files are hidden screen, add the following lines:
Add , strShowBarricade to the end of the DIM statement
Add strShowBarricade = k = strKey & "\WebViewBarricade" in the definitions sections
Add WshShell.RegWrite strShowBarricade, 1, "REG_DWORD" in the If portion above the echo statement
Add WshShell.RegWrite strShowBarricade, 0, "REG_DWORD" in the Else portion above the echo statement

HTH

Jerry

 

very useful!

but I don't know what you mean with this:

 

In My Computer, click Tools | Folder Options. On the General tab click Show common tasks in folders. This will turn on the Common Tasks pane so you can see what it is (thumbnail below). When I was testing the script, when the Common Tasks pane is active, I would always get a message for system folders (Windows, Program Files) that "These files are hidden" (the Barricade), with a link to click to Show the contents of this folder, even when I'd toggled the settings. This didn't happen when Common Tasks was not enabled,. So you'd need to add those 4 lines to the script at the locations specified to eliminate that "Barricade" page.

So the complete script would be:

Code:

' Script to toggle Windows Explorer display of hidden files,
' super-hidden files, and file name extensions

Option Explicit
Dim dblHiddenData, strHiddenKey, strSuperHiddenKey, strFileExtKey, strShowBarricade
Dim strKey, WshShell
On Error Resume Next

strKey = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced"
strHiddenKey = strKey & "\Hidden"
strSuperHiddenKey = strKey & "\ShowSuperHidden"
strFileExtKey = strKey & "\HideFileExt"
strShowBarricade = strKey & "\WebViewBarricade"
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
dblHiddenData = WshShell.RegRead(strHiddenKey)

If dblHiddenData = 2 Then
    WshShell.RegWrite strHiddenKey, 1, "REG_DWORD"
    WshShell.RegWrite strSuperHiddenKey, 1, "REG_DWORD"
    WshShell.RegWrite strFileExtKey, 0, "REG_DWORD"
    WshShell.RegWrite strShowBarricade, 1, "REG_DWORD"
    WScript.Echo "Windows Explorer will show hidden files and file " & _
        "name extensions. You might need to change to another folder " & _
        "or press F5 to refresh the view for the change to take effect."

Else
    WshShell.RegWrite strHiddenKey, 2, "REG_DWORD"
    WshShell.RegWrite strSuperHiddenKey, 0, "REG_DWORD"
    WshShell.RegWrite strFileExtKey, 1, "REG_DWORD"
    WshShell.RegWrite strShowBarricade, 0, "REG_DWORD"
    WScript.Echo "Windows Explorer will not show hidden files or file " & _
        "name extensions. (These are the default settings.) You might " & _
        "need to change to another folder or press F5 to refresh the " & _
        "view for the change to take effect."

End If

HTH

Jerry

 

ok i understand now.. thx