Devoid of Anything Useful

[Flashy Text] Post Updated [Flashy Text] // I'm sure those tags work...

There are a few things WinXP users always piss me off with, being still stuck as one myself, and it is usually not because XP was made by Microsoft.

// this is still largley uncomplete. The reason it is is because I want to see something new appear and push NJRC down.

These few things I mention are simple to solve. If you can run XP, you can tweak your com. Of course, Vista people are encouraged to follow this too; but the specific menu/directory names may be different.

1) Thumbnail caching (continous present tense of "to cache")
When you use the Thumbnail view on folders with more than a certain number of pictures, XP stores a "Thumbs.db" file in that folder (now you know what that is for) so that the next time you use Thumbnail view, they would load faster.

However, unless you are trying to view some folder with more than a thousand pics like my ecchi pic collection, it does not really speed up the thumbnailing, and just takes up some kB in your drive. Some kB only, you say. An average Thumbs.db file is about 50+kB for a folder with at most 100 pics. Multiply that by a lot of folders, and you see the picture.

2) Default Folder view not "Details"
What is the use of having so much space used to display a file using tiles? Even List is better than tiles. Details would be the best, but the right details must be chosen. Usually you just need the size, type (for sorting) and Date Modified. Sadly Folders don't show the size of their contents.

3) Hiding known file extensions
This is not just an annoyance. It could be a security threat. Imagine if someone wrote a malicious program, changed the icon to an innocent text document, and just left it on the desktop. You open it, thinking it is a mysterious text file and boom. Your com crashes.

Also, when trying to change the file extension, it is irritating not to see the original exension. When I tried creating a batch file on someone's com to ffmpeg, I had trouble changing the exension from a .txt to a .bat

4) Cluttered Desktops
A desktop with more than 10 icons is flooded. You would only need My Computer, My Network Places, Recycle Bin, at most 2 to 4 CD/Hard Drives.


5) Stuffing everything into the system drive (most commonly C:\)
Now that I've got an excellent example look at what happened to poor Edward. Got his laptop screwed (or more accuratley, his HDD). It would have been simple enough if the drive was partitioned, then at least the data disc can still be accessed via a Portable HDD case. Sadly, from what I can recall he didn't, and saddedly he had to copy some stuff from me which i copied from him. Good Riddance.

6) Lack of creativity (for a lack of a better word to use)
Seriously, less than 41% (and yes, 78.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot (this too if you didn't know)) of XP users know what a web browser, word processor, spreadsheet program or a vector/raster image editor. Basically what you know are Internet ExploderExplorer, Microsoft (some of you affectionatley drop the M$) Word, M$ Excel and Adobe Photoshop/M$ Paint.

So, after reading, here is a useful guide

How not to annoy me in just about 15 minutes.
Just go to Start Menu > Search > For files or Folders (or just go to My Computer and hit F3). The search sidebar should be there.

Click "All files and Folders", and key in "Thumbs.db" (without inverted commas) into the "All or part of the file name".
Then goto "More advanced options". Check "Search system folders", "Search hidden files and folders" and "Search subfolders".

Run the search, and you would soon get many (unless someone cleared them for you/you don't use thumbnail view).

After the search, just to show yourself how much space you saved, select all the files (Ctrl+A) and check Properties. Then chuckle to yourself for saving that amount of space.
Hit delete. Some files may produce an error, this is likely to be because they were trapped in a zip folder. Ignore them and carry on.

Now what. You deleted the Thumbs.db, but XP would still make them when you use the view. Now you need to tell it to stop.
Go to Tools > Folder Options > View Tab, and check "Do not cache thumbnails". While you are there, you might as well uncheck "Hide extentions for known file types".

Also, if the folder view is already details, just hit "Apply to Folders" at the top. If not, change yor folder view and do it.
//

It will be too late to partition your drives now, so I would not really bother, and just start replacing those words in your vocabulary.

Still incomplete, but just comment away.