Freeware or How-to Clean out "WinXP Taskbar

[Phil2011]

Hi everyone, I redently discovered that I cant remove Junk entries in the Current or Past Items menu, and its full of stuff that I'd never evne dream could get there! Help anyone - I'm not as tech savy as I was in the days of Dos 5,6 & win 2,3: but Im no xxxxx. And i cant seem to remove all that stuff!

Thanks Phil2011

I hope I have not broken any rules!, Got to go!

Phil

[Sope]

CCleaner does an excellent job of removing junk files.
The free version is all you need.

[Phil2011]

Thanks Sope, I have CCleaner installed & Up to date, perhaps I dont have it properly configured? Any help greatly appreciated!

Phil2011 (Whidbey Island - Washington, Not WA-D.C.

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by Phil2011

cant remove Junk entries in the Current or Past Items menu

I am not able to understand what do you mean by current or past items menu. Can you explain it please?

[deya]

@ Phil2011 - here's how to do what you're asking, Remove Past Icons from List

I think that's what you're referring to? Just follow the instructions written underneath the image on the page.

[Phil2011]

Originally Posted by Anupam

I am not able to understand what do you mean by current or past items menu. Can you explain it please?

To Anupam, I,m running an eMachine with WixXP sp2, origional install, Iv'e applied allof Microsofts opdates and it now says SP3. Anyway, when I right click the taskbar and select properties I get a box with a list of Current Items(list of what & how I want to display)Current Items. Well if I scroll down a bit the box Title says "Past Items), ant at last count there were well over 20 Items there, some were just installed i.e., PikPic, and lots of entries from MS word Student & Teacher 2003, ther is an option to always hide, always show and Hidewhen inactive. I should mention that I do run in "Classic View. I'm wanting some of the past items gone, some to display, and I cant seem to get into it for manual editing. If I'm not posting properly or respond properly, someone please let me know! I like this site and would rather not get tossed out, I,m definately a newbie, perhaps at some point I can contribute, rather than use. Thanks to all!
Phil2011

[Anupam]

OK Phil, now I get it. You are talking about clearing the entries in the Customize Notifications area. This can be accessed from : Right click taskbar --> Properties --> clicking on Customize button in the side of "Hide inactive icons".

Is it really important to clear that list? I don't think it causes any problems.

Anyways, if you want to clear it, Microsoft offer a "Fix It" for this problem... where you can download it, and execute, and it will do the work for you.

It can be found here :

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283084

There is another method by which it can be done, but it involves editing the registry, and I won't suggest that for you. So, the Fix It solution above should be good enough.

And don't worry, you won't get tossed out of the site... we are all learners here, and we learn from each other.

But, its a request, try to explain about a problem clearly, so that others can understand it, and it will make them help you better .

[Phil2011]

It is important, because a few days ago I installed PikPic(/), and I cant get it to display in the taskbar, and I assumed that it was due to all the extra junk in there.

A few days ago, I went into Exlporer, unhid everything (safe for me, but not my beloved wife), I went through 5,632 files searching for a way to get into that area.

Here I,m asking for an opinion from all who read. I am sick and tired of Microsoft, and the incessant updates, I'm considering wiping this glotiried web browser, and going with? There is my problem, is there any or mor than one Freeware OS'(s), apps, Etc.. Which would allow me to cut Microsoft off?

[Anupam]

Phil, if you want to try another OS, everyone here would suggest Linux. Its free, and its wonderful. There are many many kinds of Linux that you can try. For a start, to get a feel of what it is about, I will suggest that you try Puppy Linux first.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%...%20Started.htm

Download the ISO image from this page :

http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%...%20Release.htm

named lupu-528.iso.

Burn this ISO onto a CD, using a burning software.

Put this CD into the optical drive, and then restart your computer, and let it boot from the CD.

This will lead you into Puppy Linux, which will run from the CD. You can play around with it, see how it feels like. It won't make any changes to the hard disk.

Puppy Linux is a very good distro. Its of small size, but power packed. It will give you an idea of what, and how Linux is.

When you want to plunge further, then you can try bigger distros, like Linux Mint, or Ubuntu.

There are quite a few people here, who use Linux, and they will guide you further. Just post in the Linux forum, for Linux related questions.