Windows xp Q's

[justrelax]

1. Anyone know how to get rid of the icons in the taskbar down on the bottom right? There's always a slew of them at startup, most of which are just icons that I can close but I find them irritating and would like to not see them. And I don't mean I want them hidden behind the drag-out thing either, I want them gone with no chance of showing up unless I put them there.

2. Is there any way to "program" a key on my keyboard so that when I push it, my email address is entered into wherever the cursor is.

Thanx for any help.

[reefrunner69]

For the first question...go to run type msconfig click OK (or start or whatever button it is), tick the option for selective start up, click on the start up tab and you can disable all programs at start up. This isn't necessarily wise cause some programs need to be run at start up, like your firewall and your virus protection. Most everything else can be turned off.

don't know the answer to the second question.

[DeFeKt]

1. Anyone know how to get rid of the icons in the taskbar down on the bottom right? There's always a slew of them at startup, most of which are just icons that I can close but I find them irritating and would like to not see them. And I don't mean I want them hidden behind the drag-out thing either, I want them gone with no chance of showing up unless I put them there.

If you can get a copy of "Registryfix" You can specify which programs you want to have open on startup.
If they are not important, "add/remove" them, or worst case scenario go into the properties of each program and select it to not open on startup.

#2, can't help sorry...don't know (besides windows remembering often used keyins)...but will watch this thread as I like to know.

Matt.

[justrelax]

ummm, yeah... Doesn't look like I want to mess with anything in there.. lol! It's not that I want to disrupt any programs at startup, I'm just a little strange and like my desktop VERY un-cluttered. It drives me nuts that I can't delete the recycle bin shortcut too, but haven't found a way around this either. I've used the auto-hide feature but would prefer just a clean taskbar.

[reefrunner69]

Hmmm....tape a piece of paper over the bottom right part of your monitor???

[justrelax]

tape a piece of paper over the bottom right part of your monitor

Rofl!! I guess if I could find some "windows blue" tape...

[zacusmaximus]

Msconfig is fine, but also not very "noob" friendly. There are tons of tweak apps out there. I've always recommended WinXP Manager for people that want to do some tweaking but don't know the intimate in's and out's of WinXP. It does a lot, safely, and without a huge footprint. The free trial is very convenient. Check it out: http://www.yamicsoft.com/xpmanager/index.html

#2: There are a number of ways to accomplish that. You can get a clipboard management app for hotkey insertion functionality, amongst other things. You can also use programs like AI Roboform. I've never used it, so I can't whole-heartedly suggest it, but I've had a number of people talk about ACU (Advanced Clipboard Utility) positively. Google it, its also shareware.

[melosu58]

I always use the Msconfig like Kevin was talking about. Pretty easy really. Have no idea about #2.

[evercl92]

There's a program that's very user friendly, that allows XP users to customize alot of settings all in one location. It's called Tweak UI, and you can download it here. Right column, half way down is the download link. It's developed by microsoft, and has alot of functionality, even will remove the recycle bin from the desktop. msconfig is really a great option for removing junk on startup, especially if you have a name brand pc (dell, hp, etc...) that has a lot of useless software installed by default.

justrelax, if you write the list of items you find on the startup tab, I'm sure we can help you disable alot of them safely.

[justrelax]

WOO-HOO, no more recycle bin!!! Silly, I know, but it makes me happy Thanx for all the links everyone, I found a bunch of stuff I will enjoy playing around with. As far as the taskbar goes, I got it to the point were stuff I don't need doesn't run and display an icon at startup. It has become appearent that there is really no way to get rid of icons of running programs, though. Oh well, at least I don't have to close 12 different icons at startup anymore.