Articles and Tips

Turn Off Error Reporting
In Windows XP:

  1. Left click on your Start button in Windows and go to Control Panel.
  2. Double click on the System icon.
  3. On the Advanced tab, click the Error Reporting button, and then check "Disable error reporting". (You can leave the check box for critical errors checked.) Voila, no more nag note about sending Microsoft a report.

In Windows Vista:

  1. Left click on your Start button in Windows and click on to Control Panel.
  2. Click on System and Maintenance and then Problem Reports and Solutions.
  3. Click on Change Settings and then on Advanced Settings.
  4. As you can see, Vista takes error reporting to a whole new level. You can choose to turn it off or on, or choose different levels of reporting.

Turn off the Windows XP Desktop Icon Cleanup message

  1. Right click on your Windows desktop, and left click on Properties.
  2. Go to the Desktop tab.
  3. Click the Customize Desktop button.
  4. Uncheck the box that says Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days.

Note: This feature was removed in Vista.

Set Windows to Show All Files and File Extensions

  1. Right click on your Start button and click on Explore to open Windows Explorer.

In Windows XP:

  1. Click on Tools, Folder Options, View.
  2. Check Show hidden files and folders.
  3. Uncheck the boxes next to Hide extensions for known file types and Hide protected operating system files. Click Ok.

In Windows Vista:

  1. Click on Organize, Folder and Search Options, and the View tab.
  2. Put the green circle next to Show hidden files and folders.
  3. Uncheck the boxes next to Hide extensions for known file types and Hide protected operating system files. (Vista will ask you if you are sure - click Yes.) Click Ok.

Turn off the "Automatically Restart On Failure" Error
If this feature is on, and your machine crashes, you won’t be able to find out why, because it will just keep rebooting.

  1. From the Windows desktop, hold down the Windows key and press the Pause/Break key. This will open Windows System Properties.

In Windows XP:

  1. Click the Advanced tab.
  2. Under Startup and Recovery, click on the Settings button.
  3. Under System failure, uncheck Automatically Restart.

In Windows Vista:

  1. Click on Advanced System Settings.
  2. On the Permission window, click Continue.
  3. Under Startup and Recovery, click on the Settings button.

Under System failure, uncheck Automatically Restart. Click Ok and then Ok again.

 

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