Yikes! Shortcuts from hell. The devil's in my machine!

  • Thread starter Thread starter FlitchGlitch
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FlitchGlitch

What on earth is the problem with Bill? Get this: I buy a new machine
with XP installed... that's installed on Disk 0 which of course is C.
After notifying Bill of my existence and getting rid of some of the
baby-talk and nanny-isms I add in my old HD as Disk 1, D through I.

The old HD (Disk 1) had all sorts of obsolete junk, some of which may
of course prove useful in the future, so I copied the maybe-useful
stuff over to a directory on C called "OldCDrive". Suddenly I find
shortcuts to programs etc from Win3.1, DOS 6.2, NT, and Win2K sitting
in C:Documents and Settings\User\Recent. I never created these.
Methinks that Nanny Bill has been sticking his nose where it isn't
wanted and creating these automatically.

Apart from the waste of space, this might create installation
difficulties. This came to my notice because I'm about to install
WinZip and I noted that I have an old WinZip 3.1 GRP and a Winzip.INI
file left over from the mid-nineties when I had a demo copy. Nanny
Bill has created in XP a shortcut to the .INI file What's going to
happen when I install the current 32 bit program?

OK, you're not responsible for the silliness of Bill but you can tell
me:

1) can I crush (delete) everything in C:Documents and
Settings\User\Recent? Now and often in the future?

2) How do I stop XP from noticing these things and creating shortcuts
other than when I explicitly tell it to?

And while we're at it: What are these little files "thumbnails.db" I
find all over the place? How do I stop THEM breeding?

Are there any other little nasties that I haven't yet found?
 
Purchase a good book and learn all about Windows XP.

Microsoft® Windows® XP Inside Out, Deluxe Edition
http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/6271.asp

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| What on earth is the problem with Bill? Get this: I buy a new machine
| with XP installed... that's installed on Disk 0 which of course is C.
| After notifying Bill of my existence and getting rid of some of the
| baby-talk and nanny-isms I add in my old HD as Disk 1, D through I.
|
| The old HD (Disk 1) had all sorts of obsolete junk, some of which may
| of course prove useful in the future, so I copied the maybe-useful
| stuff over to a directory on C called "OldCDrive". Suddenly I find
| shortcuts to programs etc from Win3.1, DOS 6.2, NT, and Win2K sitting
| in C:Documents and Settings\User\Recent. I never created these.
| Methinks that Nanny Bill has been sticking his nose where it isn't
| wanted and creating these automatically.
|
| Apart from the waste of space, this might create installation
| difficulties. This came to my notice because I'm about to install
| WinZip and I noted that I have an old WinZip 3.1 GRP and a Winzip.INI
| file left over from the mid-nineties when I had a demo copy. Nanny
| Bill has created in XP a shortcut to the .INI file What's going to
| happen when I install the current 32 bit program?
|
| OK, you're not responsible for the silliness of Bill but you can tell
| me:
|
| 1) can I crush (delete) everything in C:Documents and
| Settings\User\Recent? Now and often in the future?
|
| 2) How do I stop XP from noticing these things and creating shortcuts
| other than when I explicitly tell it to?
|
| And while we're at it: What are these little files "thumbnails.db" I
| find all over the place? How do I stop THEM breeding?
|
| Are there any other little nasties that I haven't yet found?
|
|
 
Anyway that's what this NG is for.

I wasn't aware we were here to take your attitude. Hope someone answers you.
 
I guess if you are so much against Bill, then dont buy
product that he has programs in. Get an Apple or
something. Knowbody is forcing you to buy Bill's stuff.
allan
 
Hey! They're only shortcuts!

You can hide 'recent documents' or clear items from it if you want - right
click on the bar at the top of the Start Menu, chose properties and go to
'Customise.'

There's a check box for recent documents at the bottom.

The thumbnails files enable XP to show your images as, er, thumbnails...and
slideshows etc.

They can safely be deleted, but its actually rather a good feature, and they
will only be recreated again.

I wouldn't be too harsh on Bill - XP is very stable and I think rather good.

But it obviously has its faults.

I have noticed though, that the advisors on these boards get touchy when
Bill is criticised - to them it must be like farting in church!

Regards
 
If you want help, ask nice. We're not paid by MS, we're
not associated with MS. Only trying to help.
If you have an attitude, take it elsewhere. Others are
here for assistance.
 
1) can I crush (delete) everything in C:Documents and
Settings\User\Recent? Now and often in the future?
Click to expand...

Yes, clear it whenever you want. It just contains shortcuts to files
you recently accessed. Having those shortcuts there will in no way
effect anything else you do on the computer. A shortcut to an old
version of WinZip in your recent folder will not impact an installation
of the latest version of WinZip.
2) How do I stop XP from noticing these things and creating shortcuts
other than when I explicitly tell it to?
Click to expand...

TweakUI has a setting to turn this off (so that means it's probably in
the registry somewhere). You can download Tweak UI (one of the Windows
XP PowerToys) from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp. After
installing, run Tweak UI. On the left select Explorer and on the right
find the setting called "Maintain document history". Remove the check
from that setting and apply your change.
And while we're at it: What are these little files "thumbnails.db" I
find all over the place? How do I stop THEM breeding?
Click to expand...

Those contain a database of the thumbnail images of the files in that
folder. If you switch your folder view to thumbnail you will see those
images. By creating and storing them in a db file Windows doesn't have
to regenerate those images every time you browse into a folder. Windows
creates the thumbnails.db file the first time you view a folder in
thumbnail view, updating that file when a refresh occurs. If you never
switch to thumbnail view then the file won't be generated. You can
safely delete existing ones, the only impact will be the need for
Windows to regenerate if you want to see thumbnails.
Are there any other little nasties that I haven't yet found?
Click to expand...

Who knows? So far the things you have listed I don't consider to be
nasty at all.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP MCE
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.
 
See comments at end.

Tom Porterfield said:
Yes, clear it whenever you want. It just contains shortcuts to files
you recently accessed. Having those shortcuts there will in no way
effect anything else you do on the computer. A shortcut to an old
version of WinZip in your recent folder will not impact an installation
of the latest version of WinZip.


TweakUI has a setting to turn this off (so that means it's probably in
the registry somewhere). You can download Tweak UI (one of the Windows
XP PowerToys) from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp. After
installing, run Tweak UI. On the left select Explorer and on the right
find the setting called "Maintain document history". Remove the check
from that setting and apply your change.


Those contain a database of the thumbnail images of the files in that
folder. If you switch your folder view to thumbnail you will see those
images. By creating and storing them in a db file Windows doesn't have
to regenerate those images every time you browse into a folder. Windows
creates the thumbnails.db file the first time you view a folder in
thumbnail view, updating that file when a refresh occurs. If you never
switch to thumbnail view then the file won't be generated. You can
safely delete existing ones, the only impact will be the need for
Windows to regenerate if you want to see thumbnails.


Who knows? So far the things you have listed I don't consider to be
nasty at all.
Click to expand...

Now there we are. Thanks to you and to Shooter.

I apologize if I sounded testy before. I've had a hell of a job trying
to get my old DOS programs working in XP (they're still not 100%) and
I simply wasn't in a mood to put up with this sort of hand holding
that XP seems to go on with. Now if they'd handhold when trying to run
programs that conform to VESA 3.0 that'd be useful... <g>

I think I'd also be happier with Win2K (actually I'd be happiest with
a 32 bit version of DOS 6.2 <g>) where there's far less emphasis (so
I'm told) on the game playing, video watching, and other non-serious
uses of the PC. I'm considering junking XP and installing it instead.
 
XP takes a little bit of getting used to, and there are some holes in
security.

But I've found it to be incredibly stable - almost bullet proof. I run my
online business on it and it hasn't let me down yet.

New service packs give me the heebie jeebies though - I download them onto a
copy of my main computer first to check whether they will mess anything up.
It's not that they have caused me problems with XP, but SP2 is on its way,
and a SP for Win98 some years ago crashed my system so badly that I lost
some important files...

Full backwards compatibility can never be assured - it might be asking a bit
much of XP to deal with all DOS applications.

(I don't attempt to stick compact cassettes in my CD player :-)
 
Shooter said:
XP takes a little bit of getting used to, and there are some holes in
security.

But I've found it to be incredibly stable - almost bullet proof. I run my
online business on it and it hasn't let me down yet.

New service packs give me the heebie jeebies though - I download them onto a
copy of my main computer first to check whether they will mess anything up.
It's not that they have caused me problems with XP, but SP2 is on its way,
and a SP for Win98 some years ago crashed my system so badly that I lost
some important files...

Full backwards compatibility can never be assured - it might be asking a bit
much of XP to deal with all DOS applications.

(I don't attempt to stick compact cassettes in my CD player :-)
Click to expand...
Microsoft has said that SP2 WILL break some things. Any program
that uses DCOM or RPC could have difficulties. Here's a link to some
info.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/security/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnwxp/html/securityinxpsp2.asp
If that wraps here the ssme link tinyized :-)
http://tinyurl.com/upuv

gls858
 
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