Have you ever wondered how to remove the “Catalyst(TM) Control Center” item from the desktop context menu? After writing yesterday about how to remove the NVIDIA Control Panel, a number of readers wrote in asking how to get rid of the ATI version.
We can look in the same place in the registry in order to quickly remove the item, or we can use the same utility we used yesterday to completely disable the shell extension.
Note: This method works the same for XP, Vista, and Windows 7.
In case you aren’t sure what we’re talking about, here’s the menu item we’re looking to remove:
Remove the Registry Hack Way
Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\ACE
Double-click on the (Default) value in the right-hand side, and then add some dashes in front of the value to disable it. You should be able to right-click on the desktop and see that the item is removed.
If you would prefer, you can simply get rid of this key, but I would do right-click / export the key out to a file for backup purposes before deleting it.
Completely Disable the Shell Extension
If you don’t want that shell extension loading at all, you can use the awesome Nirsoft ShellExView application to just completely disable the extension and prevent it from running.
Note: make sure to launch ShellExView by right-clicking and choosing Run as Administrator if you are using Vista. This doesn’t seem to work for Windows 7, but the registry hack above will work perfectly fine.
Find the “SimpleShlExt Class” item with the description “ACE Context Menu” in the list, and click the Disable button.
If you aren’t sure it’s the right one, double-click on it to see the details, and verify that it’s similar to this one (although your version could be different)
At this point, you should have a nice clean desktop context menu:
Does this menu item annoy you as much as it does me?
One of the many annoyances I have with Internet Explorer is the fairly small default width of the tab bar… as somebody who opens a lot of tabs all the time, it becomes difficult to manage. With a simple tweak, we can remove the command bar that usually sits on the right of the tabs.
Today there are a plethora of options available for storage, both online and off. More and more options are becoming available for cheap and often free online storage. You have to shop around a bit for a service that fits your needs. Some free accounts do not offer a very much capacity, and ones
As you know this week we have been covering ways to help protect your children online and with PC’s in general. Vista includes the feature Parental Controls which help in making those tasks easier. So far we have covered How To Block or Allow Programs, Limit Time Kids Can Use The PC, and How To
In my latest article on Lifehacker, I examined some of the most offensive myths out there regarding PC performance tweaking, and debunk them once and for all:
A while back I wrote an article on how to use Outlook 2007 as an RSS reader. In my new position I am actually using Thunderbird as my email client and wanted to subscribe to RSS feeds using this instead of using a separate app like RSS Owl or Google Reader. Not that there is anything wrong with
This is another installment in using the Parental Controls feature in Vista. I figured this week I would cover these controls and other utilities we can use to help protect the kids. At the end of this week or beginning of next I will put together everything and do one comprehensive article that
There are several ways to control the volume on your computer. If your a keyboard ninja you may rely on hot keys to control volume. If you have a set of amplified desktop speakers you can use the volume knob. There is also the old fashioned way of clicking on the speaker icon in your system tray
Parents are always looking for ways to keep their kids safe. Windows Vista has added a cool feature called Parental Controls which are very easy to use which help when it comes to computers and the Internet. About a year ago I covered how to use the controls to filter unfavorable Websites.
This article was written by Leon Steadman, the same helpful reader that showed us how to Use a Custom Theme for the XP Classic Logon Screen.
When it comes to the business world and office documents, there are tons of file formats, extensions, and associations to be considered. When Adobe came out with the PDF format it was to be the “standard” and even that can be sometimes be difficult when dealing with conversion for different tasks
