Windows Explorer - Windows XP

I normally don't produce a separate page for an operating system, but Windows XP really needs it.


Problems


Basic Customization

I really don't like the "new" Windows Explorer and desktop - this is how I "fixed" it.


Sharing a drive

I run a local network at home and all the machines can see each other's data ... except that it took me almost 3 months to figure out how to see the hard drive of a new XP Pro system. Oh, it could see all the other systems on the network, it's just that none of them could see the XP Pro system (apparently, XP Home does not have this problem).

The trick was to remove the Guest account under Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Local Security Policy / Local Policies / User Rights Assignment / Deny access to this computer from the network. When this was done, all the other computers were able to see the shared drives.

I don't know why the Guest account was set, but the computer was worthless until this setting was removed. I assume that in a domain you will want to lock out Guest, but in a workgroup, you need to allow it.

These are other things I tried to "fix" the problem

To see the contents of the Program Files and Windows directories, add Everyone to their Properties / Security tabs.

Unfortunately, flash (USB) drives are a problem - when I shared one of these on a Windows XP Pro system, it could be seen on another Windows XP system ... but not on my Windows 95 or Windows 98 systems.


More Lies

I have a very low opinion of Windows Explorer - here is another example.

One system was running out of disk space, so I used Agent Ransack to look for large files. Among others, it found this

Well, I tried to find it by navigating to it with Windows Explorer - opening the dirctories one at a time. That's right ... not found. and the 9 subdirectories under it were not shown.

The solution - I have Explorer configured to allow me to click on any file and copy its path to the clipboard. I used that and pasted the path in the Windows Explorer address bar.

Wow ... a bunch of hidden files and directories are shown (7,500 files, about 128 MB worth).

Interestingly, 8,440 objects are shown in

but not AVSEQ02-1[1].wmv.

I can see why Microsoft does not want you to see this stuff - it allows you to see ALL the crap downloaded with web pages (well, files anyway ... I don't see the cookies this way). You can even open (and copy) javascript (*.js) and style sheets (*.css) that web pages "include". (I have other tools that allow me to read those, so its not that big a deal.) This method also displays the normal Explorer right click menu, not the weak crap Explorer shows for Temporary Internet Files.

As to why one method shows almost 1,000 more objects than the other ... we've already established that Explorer is a lier. It appears that cookies are a part of the difference.


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Author: Robert Clemenzi - clemenzi@cpcug.org
URL: http:// cpcug.org / user / clemenzi / technical / WinExplorer / xp.htm