How To
88 MAXIMUMPC DECEMBER 2003
Take Control of Windows Error Reporting
Sure, it’s great to help Microsoft track down bugs inside Windows
and applications, but when you’re in a hurry to print something and
an unruly app keeps crashing and generating those annoying error-
report messages, you don’t care about helping Gates and his bully
boys. You can turn off error reporting entirely by going to System
Properties Windows key + PauseBreak , clicking the Advanced tab,
then clicking the Error Reporting button.
You can either disable error reporting entirely by selecting that
option, or you can zoom to the “Choose Programs” screen and
specifically choose the apps you want to include or exclude from
the error-reporting process.Reject the New Dumb Search Interface
Do you miss the simplicity of the old Windows 982000 search
utility? Does it make you angry that Windows XP dumbed down
your search options and gave you a bothersome Search mascot?
We’ll show you how to not only ditch the mascot, but also revert
to the original, more powerful search interface.
Open Regedit by going to Start, Run, and typing Regedit in
the Open box. Then browse to H+EY?CURRENT?USER<Software<
Microsoft<Windows<CurrentVersion<Explorer<CabinetState< and
create a new String Value called “Use Search Asst,” and set the
value to “no”.Explorer Crashes Got You Down?
If you’re sick of a single Windows Explorer window
crashing and then bringing down the rest of your OS with
it, follow this tip: Open My Computer, go to Tools, then
Folder Options. Click on the View tab, then scroll down to
“Launch folder windows in a separate process” and enable
this option. *ust be aware that you’ll have to reboot your
machine for this tip to take effect.
Now, if Explorer does crash on you, taking your Taskbar
and Start menu with it, it’s easy to get them back. *ust
press Control + Alt + Delete. Then File, then New Task, and
type explorer.exe to start a fresh version of your shell.System Restore and the Recycle Bin
We really dig System Restore. If you install a driver that hoses your system, System
Restore will frequently let you roll your system back to a time before that evil driver
arrived. However, System Restore will eat 2 percent of your disk by default. That’s not
a big deal if you’ve got a puny 10GB hard drive, but if you just shelled out for a 180GB
monster, 2 percent of that drive is 3.6GB.
To save your drive, open up System Properties again, go to the System Restore
tab, and move the slider until you’re a little more happy with System Restore’s disk
space usage.
If you thought System Restore was a disk hog, the Recycle Bin consumes 10 per-
cent of your drive by default. That’s a full 18GB on our new monster 180GB drive. To
turn down the Recycle Bin’s disk usage, right-click the Recycle Bin, go to Properties,
and move the slider from 10 percent to something a little more compatible with
today’s massive disks we wonder when we’re going to see a sub-1 percent option . ■