Got XP Annoyances? Try These Four Smart Fixes for Windows Woes

Stop boot-up hiccups, zap folders that keep popping up, make Windows Explorer more reliable.

Windows XP is loaded with annoyances, but what else is new? The following tips will stop XP from crashing, scanning your disk every time you boot, and hanging when you don't expect it to. Even if you're not hassled by these problems today, clip and save the page, because these gremlins strike when you're least ready.

The Hassle: All I wanted was for Windows XP to perform its Error Checking routine on my NTFS-formatted drive--just once. But now Error Checking appears every time I boot up, and unless I tap a key within a few seconds, it starts running.

The Fix: At some time in the past, you must have opened the Error Checking dialog box (to get to it, right-click the drive's icon in Explorer and choose Properties, Tools, Error-Checking) and clicked 'Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors', which tells XP to check the drive the next time you boot. I'm not sure what caused the recurring check-on-boot hiccup (talk about slow boot time, eh?), but I have a fix. After your drive completes the error check, click Start, Run, type cmd, and press <Enter>. Now type chkntfs /x c: (change 'c:' to your drive's letter, if it's different, and don't forget the space before and after the '/x') and press <Enter> again. Your boot-up disk scans will be ancient history.

??? Quick Digital-Photo Tip: If you've accidentally deleted images from your digital camera's memory card or somehow corrupted the card, get them back with (Art Plus's Digital Photo Recovery tool). This freebie tries--usually successfully--to recover JPEG, TIFF, and some RAW files. Unfortunately, it can't restore MOV video files. Be prepared for a wait, too: It took almost an hour to wend its way through my 2GB SD Card. See Kirk Steers's article "How to Recover (Almost) Anything" for the lowdown on the best recovery strategies.

The Hassle: Whenever I boot my PC, a folder loaded with the contents of System32 pops open. What a pain in the posterior!

The Fix: A string value in one of your Registry entries is corrupt. You can follow Microsoft's long-winded advice and fiddle with the Registry if you want to, but there's a quicker solution: Go to PC World's downloads to download and run Kelly's System32 Folder Opens Upon Boot, a Visual Basic script that automatically tweaks your Registry as necessary.

The Hassle: I don't know what I did (or didn't do) to cause this, but when I try to run XP's Cleanup tool to empty my Temp folder, my system hangs.

The Fix: Cleanup is probably choking on one or more corrupted temporary files on your system; these files can also cause PC crashes. Clean the Temp folder this way: Click Start, Run, type %temp%, and press <Enter>. Press <Ctrl> -A to select all the files, and then press the <Delete> key. If that doesn't do the trick, try deleting your Internet temp files as well: Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, Internet Options, and choose Delete Files. Make sure to check Delete all offline content.

A while back, I had to track down why Windows Explorer was unexpectedly crashing on my PC. (It turned out to be a malfunctioning third-party shell extension, which I removed and shot.) But in the course of my troubleshooting, I discovered a neat trick: When you open folders as separate Explorer tasks--and thus in separate memory locations--a Windows Explorer crash won't bring down the whole system. Open Folder Options in Control Panel (it may be in 'Appearance and Themes'), select the View tab, and check Launch folder windows in a separate process. You'll need to reboot for the setting to take effect. The downside: The workaround requires additional system resources for each folder, which may cause your computer to run more slowly. Minimize the slowdown by reversing the procedure once you've identified the Explorer problem.

I placed shortcuts on my desktop to Control Panel applets and system tools that I use frequently. To do this on your PC, open Windows Explorer and navigate to your \windows\system32 folder. In XP, look for files ending in 'CPL'. In Vista, click the Type tab and look for Control Panel Items. Right-click those you access most often (such as sysdm.cpl for System Properties, or devmgmt.msc for Device Manager), click Send To, and choose Desktop (create shortcut).

Jon Bjerke, Champaign, Illinois

Steve Bass