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 (don't type any quotes).

Remove the Recycle Bin from the Desktop

Remove the Recycle Bin from the Desktop

If you don't use the Recycle Bin to store deleted files, you can get rid of its desktop icon all together.

Run Regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/explorer/Desktop/NameSpace

Click on the "Recycle Bin" string in the right hand pane. Hit Del, click OK.

Speed up your browsing of Windows 2000 & XP machines

Here's a great tip to speed up your browsing of Windows XP machines. Its actually a fix to a bug installed as default in Windows 2000 that scans shared files for Scheduled Tasks. And it turns out that you can experience a delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows 2000 is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Note that though the fix is originally intended for only those affected, Windows 2000 users will experience that the actual browsing speed of both the Internet & Windows Explorers improve significantly after applying it since it doesn't search for Scheduled Tasks anymore. Here's how :

Open up the Registry and go to :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace
Under that branch, select the key :
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
and delete it.
This is key that instructs Windows to search for Scheduled Tasks. If you like you may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if necessary.
This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up your browsing processes.

Set the Search Screen to the Classic Look

When I first saw the default search pane in Windows XP, my instinct was to return it to its classic look; that puppy had to go. Of course, I later discovered that a doggie door is built into the applet. Click "Change preferences" then "Without an animated screen character." If you'd rather give it a bare-bones "Windows 2000" look and feel, fire up your Registry editor and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ CabinetState.

You may need to create a new string value labeled "Use Search Asst" and set it to "no".

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".

Backup your Outlook Express Data: Step by Step...

Outlook express data consists of the several parts.

Email messages
Account settings
Address Book (if used)
Mail rules (if any)
Passwords

1. Email Messages:

From the Outlook Express menu select Tools Options Maintenance and click the StoreFolder button. You see a dialog with the name of the directory that has your mail files. If you look in that directory you find files named after your mail folders and news groups. They all have a .DBX suffix. Outlook Express keeps all messages in these database files. If you make copies of these files regularly, you'll have a safe backup of your OE mail.

Restore (if necessary): To restore the backup data, just copy it back to the directory. You can selectively restore folders by just copying specific files back. Alternatively, you can use OE's File Import Messages feature to import one or more of the backup folders. Email Account Settings.

As far as we know, the procedure works for all kind of email: The regular SMTP / POP3 based email, MAPI, IMAP or even the free Hotmail Account, that is built into Outlook. For Hotmail, however, some messages and settings might be stored only at the Hotmail server ( = somewhere at Microsoft !) and not on your local PC.

2. Account settings:

Data about your mail and news accounts are stored in the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Account Manager. To save this data, start RegEdit and select that key in the left-hand pane. Then from the menu select Registry Export Registry File. Save the file to a name like "outlook.reg".

Restore (if necessary): To restore the account settings, right-click the .REG file and select Merge.

Note: As an alternative, you can save the data one account at a time through Outlook Express: click Tools Accounts Export and specify the name of the file to save the settings. Be sure to save this information for every account.
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3. Address Book

Getting the data out of your address book for safekeeping is relatively easy. From the menu select File Export Address Book and select the comma separated text file as your output format. Then select the fields you want to export. To make sure you know where the backup is going, give a full path name. To restore the address book or to get your addresses onto a new system, the process is not quite symmetrical. Select File Import Other address book and select the text file option again. You'll be given a list of fields to import. Since you're importing a file that was created by Outlook Express, you usually don't need to make any changes here. After that, click your way on through the wizard and you'll get your address book back.

4. Mail Rules

The mail rules are stored at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities. If you run Regedit and export this entire subkey to a file the same way you did with account settings: from the menu select Registry Export Registry File. Save the file to a name like "rules.reg".

Restore (if necessary): Under the Identities key each subkey has a long number that looks similar to {36753740-2WEE-781D3-89B1-00A0C9900DSA}. So if you have five different identities in Outlook you will have five of these long numbers. Below the numbers are all the settings specific the the identity (signatures, mail rules,...). If you are restoring without reinstall and on the same PC these numbers do not change (as far as we know !) and you can just restore the registry entries by clicking on the reg file.

Moving OE settings to a NEW PC:
If you're moving to a new system or doing a clean install, the {...} numbers are be different and you may have to manually move the entries to the differently numbered entries that are actually being used.
How to do this? This is the method that we use in our office:
1. Export the registry branch on the old PC to a *.reg file.
2. Transfer this "reg" file to the new PC
3. On the new computer search for the (still empty) settings of your new Outlook Express installation. Once you find, you have the new {...} number!
4. Now, open the transfered*.reg file with a text editor and make a "Search and Replace":
Replace the old {....} value with the NEW {...} that you just located in the registry.
5. Save this file and then click on it. This will import your old settings in the NEW registry.

5. Passwords

Outlook Express, along with those of most other Microsoft applications such as Internet Explorer, stores its passwords in .PWL files in your Windows directory. There's a separate file for each username on the system. Backup the files frequently.

How To Recover a Damaged User Profile in XP

Have had problems with a damaged User Profile? Help is at hand. Read on...
Windows XP is a really good operating system as long as it is running fine, but when it doesn't, you have to scurry around looking for solutions to get it back to normal. Once in a while, it so happens that you get a message that reads something like this:
Windows cannot load your profile because it may be corrupted. You may log in using a temporary User Profile.
OrThe system has recovered from a serious error. This happens when the user profile becomes damaged.
Empty Windows XP desktop after logging in post a damaged user profile Windows does boot up, but when you arrive at the desktop, you are shocked to find that the desktop items are missing. That's not all; you find that all the personal settings such as theme, wallpaper, and icons are gone too. As if this is not enough, you find that the my Documents folder doesn't contain any of your documents. Internet Explorer bookmarks and Outlook Express personal settings are gone too, along with your emails. Sounds nightmarish, doesn't it? Don't worry, today we will show you how to get everything back in order.
We will first explain how the above scenario takes place and the cause for it. The reason behind such a situation is that the user profile gets damaged (as we mentioned earlier). A user profile contains all the files and settings for a particular user, and when there are many users using a Windows XP computer, there are as many user profiles, each with its own unique settings. When a user profile gets damaged (due to various reasons such as the file system getting corrupted), Windows XP creates a new user profile and logs you into this new profile. The new profile will be that of a user logging in for the first time - bland and devoid of any customizations.
The Rescue Work You have to login as an administrator to do the following; in other words, the user needs to have administrative rights. To do this, you must log off and then log on to the default administrator account. Start by Securing Your Data
Since your data in the original account is your priority, you need to secure it first and only then proceed further. To start the backup process, open Windows Explorer and go to C:\Documents and Settings folder. Now locate and then open your original account folder. You will be able to view all the files and folders in the original user profile as seen in the screenshot. You must configure Windows Explorer to show hidden and system files before doing this.
You can now back up all the files and folders inside this folder to another location in another drive. Probably the first folder would be your my Documents folder, which you can see as UserName's Documents (like Temp's Documents). You can also copy the contents of the Favorites folder.
Outlook Express users can find the files related to their emails at a location such as "Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\ {D10E00AF-FC98-4E44-B5CC-F13E6D3AE304} \Microsoft\Outlook Express" folder, as seen above.
Address Book is another important thing you may want to back up. You can find the Address Book file in "Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book" folder. Outlook 2000/XP users will find the PST file in the "Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook" folder. After you are done backing up your most important files, you can proceed with the recovery procedure. We shall start with System Restore.
Plan A: System restore System Restore utility allows you to return the computer to a state it was in an earlier time period. It can therefore allow you to recover a damaged user profile, if the damage is not too extensive.

System Restore utility can be found in Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools. After it is launched, you can see the Welcome to System Restore page, where you can select "Restore my computer to an earlier time" and click Next.
In the next page, you can select a Restore Point when your computer did not have any problem and click Next. You are given a confirmation message, and you must click Next to start the restore operation. The system will restart after the System Restore operation is complete, and you can then attempt to log on to your original user account. Before attempting System Restore, we would like to tell you a few things. If there are multiple user accounts on the system, returning to a previous Restore Point will return all the user profiles to the earlier state. If the damage to the user profile is due to something like a bad sector on a hard drive, then System Restore will not be able to correct the problem. The above-mentioned process was plan A. If this solution works, then things should look the way they did before with all your user profile settings and data restored. If it doesn't work, then we shall go to Plan B.
But before that, you must undo the System Restore operation. To do that, launch System Restore again. This time around, you will see a new option "Undo my last restoration." Select this option and click Next. Follow the instructions to undo the System Restore operation.
Plan B: Copy your user profile In this method, you can try to restore the user profile by creating a new account with administrative privileges. Here is how you can create an administrative account. Open the Control Panel and then open User Accounts.

Make sure that you select Computer Administrator as the account type. Click Create Account to create the new user account.

You will now have to copy the old user profile to this newly created one. Though this may sound a little complicated, it is actually a simple process. Log onto the newly created user account and log off. Log back into the administrative account.
Open System Properties from the Control Panel and select Advanced tab.
Click the Settings button in the User Profiles section. You can now see a User Profiles window that lists the different user profiles present on your computer.
You can see the old user profile here (in this case, it is Temp). Select the old profile in the list and click "Copy To" button. In the next window, click the Browse button, locate the Documents and Settings folder, and select the new account. Click OK. You will see a confirmation dialog box informing you that the original files will be deleted and you will be prompted to confirm the copy operation. Click Yes. Once the copying is done, close the User Profiles and System Properties window, and log off. You can now attempt to log on to the new account again. If this method works, well, then things should be back to normal. If, even after doing the above, you are still not able to log on to your account, then we will have to go to Plan C. But before we move on, you need to delete the new user account and user profile. Log on to the Administrator account, open User Profiles and click Delete. Then, open User Accounts in the Control Panel and delete the new account and its files.

Plan C: Moving to a new user profile manually In this method, you will create a new account and a new user profile. You can then manually copy your data files and other parts of the user profile from the original to the new one. Please note that when you move to a new user profile in this manner, you will lose all the personalized settings such as themes, wallpaper, and icons. First, create a new account as we did before. Log on to it to create a default new profile and then log off again. Log on back to the Administrator account. Open Windows Explorer and go to C:\Documents and Settings folder. Locate and open your original account folder. Make sure that you have enabled viewing of hidden system files and folders to be able to view all the files present in that folder.
Copy the contents of the folder containing the data that you want to move to the new user profile. In our case, we will copy the contents of C:\Documents and Settings\Temp\Temp's Documents folder to the C:\Documents and Settings\JCL\JCL's Documents folder. Copy the contents of the Favorites, Outlook Express (or Outlook), and Address Book folders. Make sure that you do not copy any file related to the operating system, as there is a chance that this may be the root cause of your problem. You should not therefore copy Ntuser.dat, Ntuser.pol, or Ntuser.ini from the original profile to the new one. After you are done copying the files and folders, log out of the Administrator account and log on to the new user account. You should now be able to access all your data files as you did before and also most of your applications. You may need to reinstall or reconfigure some of the applications, though. You will also need to recreate all your personalized settings. Clean up the old user profile After you are done restoring the new user profile, you no longer require the files and folders of the old profile and can get rid of them. You can do it by once again opening the User Profiles window, selecting them from the list of profiles, and clicking the Delete button. Backing up the user profile automatically After having been through the nightmarish experience of a damaged user profile, you might not want to go through it again. We will find out how to safeguard against a repeat of such a scenario. This can be done by making Windows XP believe that the local user profile is a roaming user profile. The advantage of this is that Windows XP will back up your user profile each time you log off. To achieve this, you have to log out of your new account and log in to your Administrator account. Open User Profiles window in System Properties, select the new user profile, click Copy To button and type the name of a folder on another drive in the Copy Profile To text box.
After this procedure is done, open Computer Management by simply running "compmgmt.msc" (without the quotes). Go to System Tools\Local Users and Groups\Users folder. Next, double-click on your account name and select the Profile tab. Type the path to the backup in the Profile Path text box, as shown in the next screenshot.
We are done. This is just one more step towards a crash-free Windows and one thing less to worry about.