A Tip A Day ~ {ERG}

[ExcitableBoy]

4 November 2008
Remove Windows Media Player
context menu (right-click) items

The Short Answer:
To delete MicroSucks (oops, I mean Microsoft's) permanent context menu items such as:
Add to Windows Media Player list
Play with Windows Media Player

Do this
Start | Run
regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll

To undo it (or rather reinstall the context menu extensions support)
regsvr32 wmpshell.dll


The Long Answer:
With very minor exceptions, I do not and have not used used Windows Media Player for years. Winamp and Media Player Classic do now and have always worked much better for me than Microsoft's clumsy attempts. But for fear of running into that one file I need to see that only works with DRM, I can't just delete it. Not to mention the fact that windows update keeps trying to shove the damn thing down my throat. But in an effort to force you to keep using it, it does not have an option for removing its context menu additions. Like a bad case of herpes, you just can't make them go away. Note I did not call them "Options", because they are not optional . . . ARGH!

If like me, you have taken the time to get all your file association and context menu items to behave the way you want, you might have noticed that there is no easy way to remove the context menu items for Windows Media Player. Thats because Windows Media Player does not use the registry values built into windows to control such things. Why? Because they don't want you to be able to remove them.

The good news is you CAN remove the shell context menu handler program that controls them. It all revolves around a DLL call wmpshell.dll. If you can un-register it from Windows, thus removing these items.

How to unregister this DLL:

1. Click the START button
2. Click the RUN option
3. type in: regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll

If you change your mind, and want them back you can just as easily re-register the DLL. Just repeat steps 1 & 2, but for step 3 use regsvr32 wmpshell.dll

Now to be clear, this will do nothing to make your context menu choices what you want them to be. That is a different matter entirely, but one that is very well documented all over the Internet.

Note: while I have not tested this on Vista, it will most likely work

[LoneRanger]

Creating a Program Inventory

If you run a warehouse, you need to know what you have in stock; you need an inventory. When you have an inventory, you are better able to manage everything within the warehouse walls. Without the inventory, every day is a bigger chore than it needs to be and probably full of unwelcome surprises. (Running an uninventoried warehouse isn’t just a job — it’s an adventure! And if you do it on roller skates, it’s a zippy adventure.)

Although a computer is much smaller than a warehouse, managing a computer is not much different from a conceptual standpoint. When you take inventory in a warehouse, you are making a list of what is really there. When you take inventory of your computer, you start by figuring out what should be there. This list of what should be installed on your system is your computer inventory When figuring out your program inventory, you are probably tempted to click the Start menu and see what you have installed on your system. Don’t! That comes later, after you figure out what the heck you do with your computer. (If you start by looking through the Start menu, what you find will improperly color your inventory. Trust me; you get better results by ignoring the Start menu for the time being.)

You can take either of two approaches to putting your inventory together: the think-tank approach and the laid-back approach. There is no right answer; just pick the one that appeals to you the most, and then do it.

The think-tank approach

The best way to put together a program inventory is to think through how you use the computer. I call this the think-tank approach because you are putting your list together in one fell swoop, using sheer brain power to hammer out an inventory that reflects the way you use your computer. (Plus, you can impress the heck out of your know-nothing friends by telling them you belong to a think-tank. If you tell them in a snobby voice, it sounds very impressive, indeed.)

To create an inventory using the think-tank approach, follow these steps:
1. Turn off your computer, unplug the phone, grab a cold drink, and clear a place on your desk. You can’t think effectively if you are interrupted. (Despite what the personal productivity gurus try to sell us, multitasking is for computers, not for people.) Now you are ready; this is think-tanking at its best.

2. On a fresh sheet of paper, start listing all the programs you need on your computer in order to do your work. Think through the tasks you do on a regular basis and write down the names of the software you use to do those tasks. Do you do a lot of writing? Chances are good your inventory should include a word processor, such as Word or WordPerfect. Do you crunch numbers for a living? Then
your inventory probably includes a spreadsheet program. Do you design Web pages? You probably have a page design program in your inventory. Write them all down.

3. Include tasks that are easy to overlook, such as balancing your checkbook or entertaining your mind. There are probably more than a couple of utility programs you use on a regular basis, such as WinZip or Adobe Reader. These should be on the list, as well.

4. Check your bookshelves and write down what you find, but only if what you find is what you really use. Chances are good that you have software manuals or installation disks stored somewhere. (Of course, they may be buried under a half-inch of dust, but rediscovering these old, dust-buried friends can be exciting.)
If you find items on your bookshelves that you no longer use, gently toss them into a corner. You can always donate them or maybe even sell them at eBay. Plus, you free up valuable space on your bookshelves.

Creating your inventory should take you about an hour only. If you find yourself
taking more time than that, you are probably allowing yourself to become distracted. If you take much less time, then you are not successfully navigating the think tank and are probably missing some items.

The laid-back approach

If you like a more leisurely approach to life and your Windows system is not so bollixed up that you can’t use it effectively, you can put together your program inventory another way: Keep a journal. Yep, you read right — keep a journal. A program diary. The steps for creating an inventory the laid-back way are, well, laid back:
1. Put a small notebook next to your computer.

2. Over the course of a typical week, write down every program you use. If you start the program, write it down. You don’t have to write times and dates for using the programs, just the program name.

3. At the end of the week, admire what should be a nice long list of programs.

4. If you find duplicates on the list, remove them. For instance, you may have written a program name down on Friday, forgetting that you already wrote it down on Tuesday. When you are done, your inventory should contain nothing but a unique list of programs you use in your work.

If you decide to take this laid-back approach, you’ve got some time on your hands. After all, you shouldn’t move forward with the rest of your cleaning tasks until you have your inventory done. If your inventory takes a week to put together, what will you do with your free time? I suggest going for a walk. Or, if you tend toward being a couch potato, catch a few reruns of Law and Order. Of course, you could read through the rest of this post above, but don’t do any of it yet — you really do need that inventory.

[LoneRanger]

Remove Unwanted Programs with the brute-force method

In the old days of computing, things were different. When you installed a program under the DOS system it went into a single folder, and life was wonderful. If you needed to delete the program, you just deleted the directory. Everything related to the program was deleted from your system in one swoop.

Not so any more. Today, only rarely are programs installed in a single place on your hard drive. Instead, installation programs act like that little spreader device on the back of salt trucks — the salt comes down the chute, hits the rotating blade, and is spread everywhere. Modern installation programs often place program pieces not only in the program directory, but also in your system folder, your profile folder, a drivers folder, and various other places.

In addition, programs add things to the Registry, that central repository of all things most important to Windowsdom. Thus, to delete a modern program from a Windows system involves two very important steps:

1. Locate the files that make it work.

2. Clean up the Registry.

The brute-force removal method should be the last way that you try to remove programs. Often programs install pieces of themselves in multiple places on your hard drive. Just because you delete the main program file and remove it from the Registry does not mean that all the far-flung pieces and parts have been removed. The orphan pieces likely won’t interfere with the operation of your other programs, but they do — over time — clutter up your hard drive and occupy disk space.

Therefore, brute-force removal involves a third step: doing away with the bits and pieces.

Locating and removing the program

To locate an unwanted program and then remove it by brute force, follow these steps:

1. Right-click shortcuts or menu items and choose Properties. You should be able to see where the shortcuts point. Pay particular attention to the Target field. This field normally shows the complete path and program name executed by the shortcut or menu item.

2. Write down the full path so that you have it after closing the dialog box. Don’t waste trees unless you have to. Open a Notepad window and copy the contents of the Target field to the Notepad window. That way you don’t have to worry about transcription errors.

3. When you’re satisfied that you located the folder containing the program files, open that folder.

4. Note in your Notepad window all the program names in that folder. You need those filenames when you clean up the Registry.

5. Delete the items in the folder that are related to the program you want to remove. If the entire folder is used for the program, delete the entire folder. If in doubt concerning what you’re about to delete, don’t delete it. Instead, move it to a different place on your hard drive or rename it. Doing so allows you to see whether your change makes any difference to Windows. If you run into problems, you can always move back the file or folder or give it its original name.

Cleaning up the Registry

You must clean up the Registry after deleting program files.You do this by using the Registry Editor to search through the Registry. Editing the Registry is, by nature, pretty technical. You’ve no way around it, though. If you’re going to remove a program manually (that is, by brute force) from Windows, you must go through the Registry and remove it there, as well.

Manually cleaning the Registry in this way is a perilous adventure, but one you can easily complete if you’re very careful. Make sure you delete only those things that you’re sure should be deleted and make sure you have a backup of the Registry in case a problem crops up.

Grab the list of programs that you created in the previous section and follow the steps given here:

1. Choose Run from the Start menu. Windows displays the Run dialog box.

2. Enter regedit in the Open field and click OK. The Registry Editor starts.

3. In the left window, collapse the Registry tree by clicking any My Computer subfolder minus signs. The tree may already be collapsed, in which case you’re done with this step.

4. Select My Computer at the left side of the screen and press Ctrl+F. The Find dialog box is displayed.

5. In the Find What field, enter the program name you want to search for.

Enter the program name from the list you compiled in the previous section.

Enter just the program name along with any filename extension, such as .exe, .dll, or the like. Don’t enter the full path name for the program. You should also leave the Keys, Values, and Data checkboxes selected in the Find dialog box.

6. Click Find Next. If the Registry Editor finds a match, it expands the tree in the left
window to show where it found the match. It displays the matching data in the right window.

7. Delete the information located, if appropriate. Before deleting, examine the information, as well as other information in the key where the match was found. You can delete the item by pressing the Delete key.

8. Press F3 to find the next occurrence of the program name. If the Registry Editor finds a match, it expands the tree in the left window and displays the matching data in the right window.

9. Repeat Steps 7 and 8 until you find no more program references to delete.

10. Repeat Steps 3 through 8 for each program that you listed in the previous
section.

11. Close the Registry Editor.

[LoneRanger]

Eliminating Remnants of Failed Programs

A failed program is the name for a program that never did get installed correctly
or work properly. Perhaps the failed program is one where you got halfway through the download and the dog yanked your Internet connection from the wall. Or it could be one where you got most of the way through the installation program and it unexpectedly exited. The reasons for failure could be myriad, and all such failures lead to a cluttered system.

If you want to reinstall your failed program, you should have no problem — just start the install process again. (Some install programs are even smart enough to figure out that you completed a partial installation before and overwrite the partial install.)

If you decide that you want to get rid of the failed program, put on your detective’s cap and start looking around for what the program added to your system. You can do this in a couple of ways: either look for a log file or, if you can’t find the log, manually search for files.

Many installation programs create log files that tell what was done during the installation process. If you can find the log file, you can read it to discover what was done, and then manually undo what was done. (Log files can typically be opened with Notepad or some other text editor.)

Installation log files can be in any number of places. If you downloaded a program to your hard drive prior to installation, the log file could be in the same folder where you placed the downloaded file. If the installation program already created a folder for the program, the log file could also be there.

Or, the log file could be in a temporary folder that the install program used. Check the various Temp folders on your hard drive to see if anything is there.

If you cannot locate the log file, do a search for the files by following these steps:

1. Choose Search from the Start menu. Windows displays the Search Results dialog box.

2. On the left side of the dialog box, click All Files and Folders. The options on the left side of the dialog box change to reflect your choice.

3. In the All or Part of the File Name field, enter *.*. The asterisk-dot-asterisk notation dates back to the early days of DOS. It is geek shorthand for “find all files.”

4. Click the down-arrow next to When Was It Modified? The options in the left side of the dialog box expand.

5. Choose the Specify Dates radio button. The controls right under the radio button become active.

6. Change the From and To dates to today’s date. This step assumes that you tried to install the failed program today. If not, wrack your brain to figure out when the failed installation took place and enter that date for the From and To dates.

7. Click Search. Windows goes to work, feverishly trying to locate any files that were modified whatever day you specified in Step 6. When the search is completed, take a look at what it located. The results may lead you to the pieces of the failed program that were installed.

After you find the pieces, figure out whether it’s okay to delete those pieces. If in doubt, rename or move the pieces to a different folder and restart Windows. If you experience no repercussions from making the change, you can easily delete the files for good.

[LoneRanger]

Finding Temporary Files

Programs create data. Even when you don’t think they’re creating data, they often are. Large application software is the biggest culprit in file creation. Not only does the software create a document, a workbook, a spreadsheet, or a graphic, it also often creates temporary files.

Temporary files are intended to be just that — temporary. They’re intended by their creators to store data for a short time and then be deleted. Sometimes they overstay their welcome, however. They become permanent residents of a hard drive, sitting quietly, not bothering anyone, and occupying space. Sometimes lots of space.

Temporary files collect on your system when the program that created them never gets around to deleting them. Perhaps the program was ended abnormally, before it could delete the files. Perhaps the program has a glitch that precluded the deletion. Who knows? The only thing you can be sure of is that the unneeded temporary files are cluttering up your system.

The best approach is to track down temporary files and make sure they’re under control. You should search for both folders and specific types of temporary files. Once you find the files, you can determine whether you want to delete the files.

Locating and deleting files from temporary folders

Temporary files cluster together in temporary folders. The folders are temporary; they’re just used as repositories for temporary files by individual programs or by the operating system itself. If you locate the temporary folders on your system, you can find a bunch of temporary files for possible deletion.

To locate the most likely candidates for temporary folders and then to delete their contents, shut down any programs you have running and follow these steps:

1. Choose Search from the Start menu. Windows displays the Search Results dialog box.

2. At the left side of the dialog box, click All Files and Folders. The options at the left side of the screen change to reflect your choice.

3. In the All or Part of the File Name box, enter temp. Folders using the letters temp in them are the most common repositories of temporary files. You may discover other likely candidates for folder names, depending on the software installed on your system. Don’t be afraid to try searching for other folder names, as well (such as those containing the letters tmp).

4. Click the More Advanced Options down arrow.

5. Use the Type of File drop-down list to select Folder. This action tells Windows that you only want to find folders. If you don’t do this, you get zillions of files returned by the search.

6. Make sure the first three check boxes under the advanced options area are selected.The three options are Search System Folders, Search Hidden Files, and Folders, and Search Subfolders. If these options are not selected, you may miss quite a few temporary folders on your system.

7. Click Search. After a short time you should see a number of different folder names start popping up in the search results. You could have only a few results, or you could have many. I had 124 matches on my main system. Some of the matches aren’t applicable, as you get folder names such as Templates or systemprofile. (Both contain the letters temp.) Others are clearly designed to hold temporary files, with names such as InstallTemp, WUTemp, or Temporary Internet Files. The bottom line is that each of these folders may contain old files that you can get rid of.

8. Open each potential folder, examine its contents, and decide whether you need to keep the files. If you decide to delete them, delete only the files inside the folder, not the folder itself. Instead, rename the folder, such as keep temp or keepInstallTemp. Then, when you later restart Windows and use it for a while, you can see whether your system generates any errors. If not, then you know you can fully delete the folder.

[LoneRanger]

Get up-to-date

I don’t recommend that you tell Windows that it’s OK to automatically apply patches as soon Microsoft makes them available. AutoUpdate is a disaster. I do, however, recommend that you apply the patches after Windows consumers have had a chance to put them through the wringer. Let the other guys and gals get the arrows in their backs. Wait a week or two to apply security patches. I keep a running account of the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly on the Microsoft Patch Reliability Ratings page at AskWoody.com.

If you haven’t updated Windows lately, do it now:

1. Check AskWoody.com’s Microsoft Patch Reliability Ratings page to see if any recent patches are causing big problems. Write down the “KB” number for any patch that you want to avoid. Dangerous patches are identified with a red stoplight. Ones that have serious side effects you should know about get a yellow light. The six-digit Knowledge Base number will help you identify which patches to avoid.

2. Choose Start➪All Programs➪Windows Update. Windows uses Internet Explorer to take you to the Windows Update site. Even if Firefox serves as your browser of choice, Microsoft will only allow you to download and apply updates using Internet Explorer. Go figure.

3. If necessary, follow the instructions to install new versions of the Windows Update “sniffer,” the download management program, and any other ancillary software. Microsoft changes versions of the update software with alarming regularity. The process can be quite time consuming, but sooner or later you see the choice in Figure above.

4. Do not choose Express Install (Recommended). If you do, your PC will be updated with all the outstanding patches. Instead, click Custom Install. The Windows Update sniffer examines your computer and presents you with a list of all the high-priority patches available for your particular computer.

5. Uncheck the boxes in front of any patches that you identified in Step 1. Don’t worry — the patches will still be there the next time you run Windows Update. With a little luck, the patches may even be fixed in a week or a month.

6. Click Go to Install Updates and then click the Install button. Depending on the updates involved, you may have enough time to grab a latte. Or ten. If Windows Update tells you that it has to install one patch before it can install others, don’t panic. Go ahead and follow the directions.

7. If any of the updates requires some intervention on your part, accept all the defaults. It’s unusual for a security patch to ask for your intervention, but it does happen (for example, the abominable GDI+ patch known as MS 04-028). Usually, you see a window that says Downloading Updates, followed by a window that says Installing Updates, with several rolling progress bars.

8. Allow Windows Update to restart your computer, if need be. If you need to restart your computer, you should get a warning. Click Restart Now.

9. If Windows Update said it needed to install one patch before it could install others (in Step 6) or if your computer restarted, as soon as you have control of the computer again, immediately go back to the Windows Update site. If Windows doesn’t take you there automatically, choose Start➪All Programs➪Windows Update.

10. Repeat Steps 4 through 9 as many times as necessary to install all the "good” updates. Many people who try to install Windows XP Service Pack 2 go to Windows Update and come away mystified when the site doesn’t even offer to install SP 2. There’s a good reason why. SP 2 has several bugs in it, and if you try to install SP 2 on a computer that hasn’t been properly prepped, you can end up crashing your machine — permanently.

Windows Update goes through a two-step process, first downloading and running the patches that are necessary precursors to installing SP 2, forcing you to restart Windows, and then offering SP 2 as an option on the second time around. It’s important that you repeat Steps 4 through 9 as many times as it takes to get your system completely, totally patched.

Windows Update pesters you incessantly, trying to get you to turn on Automatic Updates. Make sure that you understand the consequences of your actions, before you heed the Update Siren’s Song.

11. Choose File➪Exit to get out of Internet Explorer.

Congratulations. Windows is up-to-date.

[LoneRanger]

Check your firewall

The minute you have your computer up-to-date, you need to make sure that you have a firewall alive and kicking to keep you from getting zapped or zombified via your Internet connection. The Windows firewall is not bad, all things considered, although it has one huge, glaring design flaw.

If you don’t have ZoneAlarm or a good alternative installed, you should check right away and make sure that Windows Firewall is in place and protecting you from the outside world. Here’s how:

1. Click Start➪Control Panel➪Security Center.

You see the Windows Security Center, as shown in Figure. The Windows Security Center tells you whether Windows Firewall is working. If the Security Center tells you that you need to Check Settings for Automatic Updates (at the bottom of Figure), you have my permission to yawn and do nothing at all.

2. If the Security Center shows that your firewall is on, breathe a sigh of relief and go to Step 5.

3. If the Security Center shows that your firewall is off, click the button marked Recommendations. An odd little dialog box titled Recommendation appears, admonishing you to Turn on Windows Firewall for All Network Connections.

4. Click Enable Now. Windows responds with another odd dialog box (see Figure), telling you that it turned on the firewall.

5. Click Close in the Security Center dialog box and then click OK in the Recommendation dialog box to get back to the Windows Security Center. The Security Center should tell you that your firewall is on.

6. Click “X” in the upper-right corner of the Security Center to let it return to the bowels of Windows. Your firewall has sprung to attention.

[LoneRanger]

Show filename extensions

This is the single most important step you can take to get some control over your Windows destiny. That’s why I recommend you tell Windows to show you filename extensions immediately after you have your security defenses up.

Some (ahem) genius at Microsoft decided years ago that Windows should refrain from showing you the full names of all your files. So, for example, Windows doesn’t tell you that a file is really called resume.doc; it tells you the file is called resume. Windows puts a picture of Word on the file’s icon and tells you the file is “Type: Word document,” but it doesn’t tell you the simple truth: The file’s real name is resume.doc. Windows hides the .doc — the filename extension.

There are many reasons why you want to be able to see the full name of every file that you work with, but I think one simple incident speaks volumes: Thousands of people inside Microsoft — including a bunch of executives who should know better — got infected by the ILOVEYOU virus because they double-clicked a file, thinking it was a letter, not realizing it was a program.

A very infuriating program. Had they seen the full name of the file — ILOVEYOU.vbs — many (if not all) of the “Softies who got stung” would’ve realized that double-clicking the file would run a Visual Basic program.

Anyway, trust me, you want to see the full names of all of your files. Here’s how:

1. Choose Start➪My Documents.

2. Choose Tools➪Folder Options. The Folder Options dialog box appears.

3. Select the View tab. Under Advanced Settings, uncheck the box that says Hide Extensions for Known File Types. While you’re here, click the button that says Show Hidden Files and Folders and uncheck the box that says Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended). When you are finished, the Folder Options dialog box should look like the Figure below.

4. Click OK and then close out of the My Documents window. From that point on, Windows (and Office and many other applications) will show you the full filename. No more secrets, eh?

[LoneRanger]

Protect against spyware

Every Windows user needs spyware protection. and you will be well served if you follow these simple steps:

1. Start your favorite Web browser. Go to microsoft.com/athome/
security/spyware/software/default.mspx and click the link to download Microsoft Antispyware.

2. Run the downloaded program, take the defaults, and install Antispyware. Make sure that you activate all of the Security Agents.

3. Next, go to mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml. Click to download Mike’s StartUpMonitor.

4. Double-click the downloaded file to open it and then double-click StartupMonitor.msi to install it.

You now have excellent — although not infallible — spyware protection. Free.

[LoneRanger]

Tame (or trash!) Messenger

Windows Messenger. MSN Messenger. Two different programs. Two different sources of gray hair. Windows Messenger ships as part of Windows XP. It’s a dowdy, stable, corporate-oriented version of the venerable instant messaging program. MSN Messenger, its considerably more lively offspring, comes pre-installed on many machines. It also comes along for the ride sometimes when you install other software.

Some people like MSN Messenger. (I don’t think I know anybody who would admit to liking Windows Messenger.) Personally, I think both Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger constitute enormous time sinks that, in almost all cases, should be banished from the face of the earth. But that’s the subject of a rant in a different part of this thread.

You probably already know whether Windows Messenger or MSN Messenger has taken over your PC, but if you have any doubts, check the System Tray, down near the clock. If you see the Pillsbury Doughboy — er, Winged MSN Messenger of Corpulent Glory — down in the tray, one of Microsoft’s Messengers is alive and broadcasting your presence to anyone who knows (or can guess) your Hotmail address.

There are ways to completely cut both Messengers off at the knees, but as part of a makeover, I suggest you take the kinder, gentler approach:

1. First, remove MSN Messenger. Choose Start➪Control Panel➪Add or Remove Programs. Windows shows you MSN Messenger in the resulting Change or Remove
Programs list (see Figure).

2. Click once on MSN Messenger and then click Remove.

3. Windows Installer asks if you’re sure you want to remove MSN Messenger. Click Yes, Yes, a Thousand Times Yes! (or some similar button). The uninstaller unceremoniously dumps you back in the Add or Remove Programs window, shown in Figure. While you’re at it, you might want to remove the MSN Toolbar and any other marketing flotsam and jetsam Microsoft may have left on your system. Click the offensive program, click Remove, and take the defaults to get rid of other junk.

4. Next, block access to Windows Messenger. On the left side of the Add or Remove Programs window, click Add/Remove Windows Components. Windows brings up the Windows Components Wizard (see Figure below).

5. Scroll to the bottom of the Components list and uncheck the box in front of Windows Messenger. Microsoft was required to add this component to Windows XP in Service Pack 1 as part of an antitrust agreement. Unchecking the box doesn’t completely remove Windows Messenger, but it should keep Messenger from running.

7. When the wizard is done, click Finish. Windows Messenger should never darken your door again.