nukesgoboom

greetings friends. i was able to fix my problem with a little twist on the normal way of doing things. i want to tools, folder options, then file types. i clicked new, and for the file extention name i typed avi this had all been tried before and failed, but here is what i did differently. i clicked on Advanced and then in associated file type, i scrolled down to avi which existed akwardly, just the way i typed it in all lower case letters while the other extentions were uppercase or dramatically spelled out. i hit OK and changed the icon back to what i wanted it to be, then restarted my computer. success, the files now carry the icon i wanted and they open on double click after a restart.

Suddenly and without warning, my .avi file extentions in windows xp have become broken. I think this was related to CCleaner's registry cleaning. I tried going to Tools->Folder Options->File Types and i found that the .avi file extention doesn't exist. I tried to add it by clicking New... and typing in AVI. it stays on the menu until i close it, and when i reopen the File Types menu, there is no more AVI extention! What is going on here? Is there anyway to make the AVI extention permanent in the File Types menu? I also cannot change the icon which sucks, it defaults to the windows media player icon. Why is this happening? If it was really just a registry cleaning problem, why can't i recreate the .avi file extention? I can open .avi files on double click only during that session of windows, but i still cant change the icon at all! Thanks for your help!

thank you for your reply. now that i understand the severity of the nature of the RightClick->New->Shortcut, i guess that i will simply have to live with it for now and just now worry about disabling it, even though i did find it annoying. i should point out one more thing, which is i was too agressive yesterday with my option disabling in ShellExView and i encountered a problem where my quick launch would be disabled and not shown EVERYTIME i rebooted, and i had no idea what was going on, but it turns out that one of the many 170+ options in SHellExView that i had disabled, was making it so that the quick launch wouldnt show. i recommend being careful and if you have a problem with something random like the quicklaunch, check your settings on your ShellExView! i was using it to try to disable the right click, new, shortcut i had mentioned in my 1st post.

when i load up ShellExView, i have 170 options to choose to disable or not, to try out each one individually would take hours of free time, and even then it might disable the RightClick->New option entirely, not just the 'shortcut' which is the only thing i want to disable. by editing the registry, i was able to disable the entire 'new' menu after right click, but again that is not what i am trying to do, i should note that there is only 1 registry key which i was able to modify that affected the right click->new menu, even though there are 3 options i currently have under NEW, which are Folder, Shortcut, New Text Document. so it looks like this Shortcut option is tied to the entire New menu after the right click? is that because it comes default with windows xp pro? does Shellexview really have the power to strike at individual sub menu options?

Greetings. I was wondering how to disable the Right Click->New->Shortcut on the desktop of windows xp? I have my right click menu almost perfect and exactly the way I want it EXCEPT this annoying useless 'new shortcut' option. I have been using programs such as ShellexView and also ContextEdit but I can't find a way to disable the Right Click->New->Shortcut on the desktop of windows xp. Does anyone know of a way to disable this? Thanks for your time!

whoa it seems a ton of people also had this problem. i thought i was the only person who cared about it LOL. Thanks to you guys for replying to me and helping me. here is what i found so far from other people: There are ways around this problem. The directories are being created (and held open) by WINLOGON.EXE. - Boot into safe mode. - Remove the offending directories. - Create a text file with the same name as the directory (make sure it no longer has the .txt extension). - From the command prompt, set the system and hidden attributes. (attrib +s +h "msn gaming zone") Because the files have the same name as the annoying directories, WINLOGON can't create or open directories with that name. If Windows has been set to hide protected operating system files (see Folder Options, view tab), you won't see the text files anymore. There must be a way to hack WINLOGON to prevent it from creating this worthless crud, but I haven't found it yet. I owe this solution to 'twister', who lives/posts here: http://www.asendtechnologies.com/vb/showthread.php?t=6868 This will give you added power over your Xtremely Pesky operating system. I did the following and have had NO problems Do a find on 'sfcfiles'. You need to do the advanced search option, and check 'Search system folders', 'Search hidden files', and 'Search sub folders'. Results will be sfcfiles.dll, in one or more places. Change all their names (highlight the file and hit F2) to sfcfilesold.dll. XP may tell you that you are being very very BAD, so tell XP to go piss up a rope...lol........ Restart, and voila, you can delete nwwia, xerox etc. Windows 2000 and XP include a feature called Windows File Protection (WFP), part of the System File Checker, which is intended to avoid some of the common DLL consistency issues. This feature may also block valid attempts to change system files and it can therefore be disabled using this tweak. Open your registry and find the key below. Change the value of "SFCDisable" to equal "ffffff9d" to disable WFS or "0" to enable it. The other valid hexadecimal values are: # 1 - disabled, prompt at boot to re-enable # 2 - disabled at next boot only, no prompt to re-enable # 4 - enabled, with popups disabled # ffffff9d - for completely disabled Restart Windows for the change to take effect. Additional Steps for Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 and Windows XP This setting is disabled in Windows 2000 SP2 and Windows XP, and needs to re-enabled using a hex editor and changing SFC.DLL (or SFC_OS.DLL for Windows XP) following these instructions: After a reboot, you are then able to remove the folders as you normally would. Be aware that this does, however, also remove the protection of critical system files, which depending on your level of expertise, could be either good or bad. The tweak itself is harmless. I managed to safely remove "Program files\MSN Gaming Zone" and "Program Files\xerox" and keep them removed. Here's how: 1 - Boot in Safe Mode and delete the folders 2 - While in Safe Mode, start Notepad (or Wordpad, etc). 3 - I enter this text in the file: "This file is to prevent Winos from re-creating a directory with the same file name." 4 - Save the file as "MSN Gaming Zone" (if an extension got stuck on, remove it). 5 - Change the permissions on "MSN Gaming Zone" to "Read Only." (It can be tricky to get at the "OK" button in Safe Mode!) 6 - Reboot normally. Now you'll have a regular read-only file named "MSN Gaming Zone," which isn't perfect, but it's better than having the silly directory. I used the same method to remove "NetMeeting," "Frontpage," "Outlook Express," "Windows Media Player" and some other garbage. If you ever have any problems, just delete the file you created. All this works in Win2000 and XP. Good Luck I've managed to get rid of a bunch of these annoying things with some real heavy artillery... I mount my windows xp drive in linux with the experimental ntfs read/write driver and delete them from there. Windows File Protection can't save you now! hahaha! Anyone who wants to do neat things like this could just get one of the "live-on-cd" linux distributions (www.knoppix.com). You don't even need to install linux permenantly.

With help from users on this board, i was able to find out about a program called unlocker which would allow me to delete things that programs were 'holding onto' even if they weren't really. Now unlocker works great, but when i delete a folder that windows claims to be using and it really isnt, the folder is deleted UNTIL i restart windows. Then it respawns. the respawned folder is empty, which is good, however it keeps comming back which is very annoying to me. i like to keep a organized computer as well as tidy so this bothers me. the biggest examples of my problem are useless folders that have done nothing since windows xp was installed, all in C:\Program Files xerox internet explorer Microsoft ActiveSync microsoft frontpage movie maker msn gaming zone netmeeting outlook express windows nt xerox nearly all of these folders are 0 bytes in size. i dont understand why these folders keep respawning. which service of windows keeps respawning it? i have deleted these folders in safe mode, but they still respawn anyway on the next reboot. is there anyway to permanently delete them so they dont come back?

using Unlocker i was able to delete all of the folders i had mentioned previously. thank you guys very much for helping me! and thank you for the link to the Bold Fortune forum, i loved reading all the research about the thousands of useless windows xp files.

i have the following folders in C:\Program Files that i would love to delete but they refuse to die. im using windows xp. xerox outlook express netmeeting msn gaming zone microsoft frontpage when i attempt to delete, they say "cannot delete, being used by another person or program" but i know this is false because of the context of the folders or they are just plain empty all the time. for example i never play the games from msn but they always claim they are in use, its not true, its a lie! i have tried booting off a different harddisk and deleting the folders, but when i boot again they are back! i have a program called MoveOnBoot but that only works with files. is there anyway to permanently delete these folders? thanks you!

AndyManchesta and humpty, you people are gods amongst mortal insects. that little trick worked perfectly, that option is now gone from my right click menu on the rec. bin. thank you so much for your wisdom and i hope that you have a wonderful day.

thank you very much for your reply. i installed the program you linked too, and found the registry key of the window washer utility, and i opened regedit and went to that key and deleted it. however, the option is still there. the only other solution i can think of is to re-install the program and then try to select 'disable from context menu' and then uninstall it. thats all i can think of. is there anything else besides that i can try? i know there is some key in the registry that is showing this option. where are the recycle bin context menu options located in the registry?

i love ccleaner and now i use it every day. a long time ago, i used a program called window washer that i have since uninstalled. however, when i right click on my recycle bin, i still have an option called wash with bleach left over from this program that i dont know how to remove. how can i delete this option from the right click context menu on the recycle bin?