Wijono

Thank you all for trying to help me fix the problem I face. Basically I have tried everything mentioned, including clearing USB history, but failed to bring back “Safe to Remove Hardware”. In response to bluebolt, I did the following: - Restore the system from Ghost image that bring back “Safe to Remove Hardware” balloon - Tried flash drive that has never been introduced to Windows 10 (or better-mentioned USB 3.0 port under Windows 10). It works perfectly alright, event after trying many times, even after reboot, “Safe to Remove Hardware” balloon still comes up normally - Once I tried with a flash drive that has been plugged into Windows 10, the “Safe to Remove Hardware” balloon disappeared, even for the flash drive that has never been introduced to Windows 10. As I mentioned earlier, that a file or a program might have prevented hotplug.dll from showing Safe to Remove Hardware” balloon. I recall that Panda Free Antivirus has USB Protection, I tried to disable the USB Protection, no change. But when I stop Panda Free Antivirus, voila…. “Safe to Remove Hardware” balloon come back! What a good luck! Now I uninstalled Panda Free Antivirus, and the “Safe to Remove Hardware” balloon works normally. But the connection with Windows 10 is still puzzling.

Thank you so much jaclaz for your attempt to help. I have cleared the Record of USB Plug in equipment, but then it does not bring back the “Safe to Remove Hardware”. To my knowledge the sentence “Safe to Remove Hardware” is embedded in the hotplug.dll, I may suspect that something else not in the Registry (such as file or program) that may have prevented hotplug.dll to show the “Safe to Remove Hardware” popup balloon. I am still hoping some one could shed some light to fix this problem.

When I want to remove a flash drive, I will click “Safely Remove Hardware” icon on the system tray, then click the drive, then a popup balloon that says “Safe to Remove Hardware” will come up, so that I then pull off the flash drive. Since recently that popup balloon that says “Safe to Remove Hardware” does not come up in both my PC running Windows XP SP3. (BTW I still like to use them in spite of EoS). I have tried modifying following registry keys, but they all have no effects: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\Advanced EnableBalloonTips FolderContentsInfoTip StartButtonBalloonTip ShowInfoTip HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Tips Show Changing the Policies of the drive to either: - Optimize for quick removal, or - Optimize for performance Also has no effect. As far as I can recall, this symptom takes place after a flash drive that has been plugged into my Windows 10 system, plugged into the Windows XP. Any help that can bring back “Safe to Remove Hardware” balloon to my Windows XP systems will be highly appreciated.

Thank you so much 5eraph for your prompt response. I have downgraded muweb.dll to version 7.6.7600.256, reregisted it with Regsvr32, but firstly I got “404 - File or directory not found”, then after second reboot it worked! In this case, what is your or anyone else opinion on using POSReady hack to WinXP?

I like WinXP very much and am still using it. On 2014/11/11 I could still get Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool and other Office Updates. But when trying to access Microsoft Updates site since yesterday I got Error number: 0x80248015 with following message: The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view. The options provided below might help you solve the problem. Does it mean Microsoft has finally closed the Updates site for all WinXP users? Or is it only me? Thanks for your comments.

I happen to find out the cause of this strange behavior, it is the following Registry entry that is existing in the desktop, but not in the laptop: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Auslogics\DiskDefrag\4.x\Settings] "General.DefWebBrowser"="C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe" After deleting that entry Auslogics Disk Defrag behaves normally, i.e., it opens the default browser IE8 when checking the updates. What is causing the existence of that entry remains a puzzle though.

Thanks for the response. I should have mentioned earlier that this behavior only takes place on my desktop. On my laptop Auslogics Disk Defrag opens IE8 when checking the updates. I also have tried to uninstall Firefox in my desktop; in that case Auslogics Disk Defrag opens IE8. But then when I reinstalled Firefox, Auslogics revert to open Firefox again. So I was thinking that something is wrong with the WinXP in my desktop. Am I wrong? Any help will be highly appreciated.

I set IE8 as my default browser in my WinXP Home SP3. I also installed Firefox 27.0.1. All programs will open IE8 as default browser when they need to access internet, such as checking the updates, except one program Auslogics Disk Defrag that opens Firefox when checking the updates, even though Firefox is not the default browser. Any enlightenment for that weird behavior will be highly appreciated.

The topic I submitted earlier is basically not a functional problem, more just sort of annoyance, not able to get the Windows Update open maximized when started, that is especially true for netbook with smaller screen. True, I can each time click “maximize window” to maximize it, but it would be nice to have it starting with the window maximized. After some attempts, I finally could achieve it by creating my own shortcut, which is basically replacing the target in the shortcut that was originally: %SystemRoot%\system32\wupdmgr.exe With the following: "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us Now, each time I click Windows Update shortcut, it will start in maximized window. Annoyance removed.

Even though the shortcut has been set to Run Maximized, starting Windows Update manually under WinXP will open it in Internet Explorer 8 not maximized. Is there a way to start wupdmgr.exe (Windows Update) maximized? All hints will be highly appreciated.

After searching in the Internet, finally I found out that the Microsoft Works shortcuts with the Target field greyed out belong to the so called "advertised shortcuts", which is basically a Windows Installer shortcut that provides two key features familiar to anyone who has installed Microsoft Office: "Install on first use" and "Detect and Repair". When a Microsoft Works program is activated, the Windows Installer engine checks whether proper versions of needed files are installed. If a file is not installed or is damaged, Windows Installer will initiate an Install-On-Demand to repair anything that is missing or damaged. That said I tried to find out what was causing the demand to reinstall MS Works Word Processing, with the help of Event Viewer, I found the following: Detection of product '{15BC8CD0-A65B-47D0-A2DD-90A824590FA8}', feature 'WP', component '{8EF0B1F1-7564-44C1-97A6-14730D80E807}' failed. The resource 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.wps\ShellEx\' does not exist. After adding “ShellEx” key into the Registry 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.wps\', my Word Processor shortcut works again. As to why was the key “ShellEx” missing, I recalled that recently I tried Kingsoft Office, it seemed that this program has taken over the assignment of .wps, and when I uninstall it, the Kingsoft Office had also removed the “ShellEx” key. Hope this experience will be useful to those that got similar problem.

I have preinstalled Microsoft Works 9 in my Eee PC. I seldom use it, but since a couple of days I find weird behavior as follows: When I click Word Processor from the Start Menu, instead of the Microsoft Works Word Processor it is the Windows Installer that is started that ends up asking Installation Disc (works9.msi) that I do not have. I have to cancel it and error message pops up. All other Microsoft Works programs like Spreadsheet etc. work perfectly all right. Only Word Processor behaves strange as mentioned above. However, I can start the Word Processor by directly double-clicking WksWP.exe in the Microsoft Works folder, and it seems to work also OK, I can also create a shortcut for WksWP.exe, clicking that shortcut will also start Word Processor with no problem. Only the original Works shortcut with greyed out target behaves like that. What could be wrong and what could be done to bring it back to normal. All hints and supports will be highly appreciated.

In Vista we can run Task Scheduler event based, e.g., we can schedule a program to run when the PC resumes from standby. Can we tweak Task Scheduler in WinXP to do the same? Perhaps with sort of add-ins or plug-ins? Any idea? Thanks a lot.

No CD drive connected. BTW, my Eee PC comes with Seagate hard disk, not a SSD, so it is not mobile drive.

No!! I did not modify my Eee PC which is: ASUS Eee PC 1000HA 10-Inch Netbook that comes with 1.6 GHz Intel ATOM N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive (Seagate Momentus 5400.4) and XP Home.

My netbook ASUS Eee PC is running WinXP Home SP3. The hard disk is SATA Seagate ST9160827AS. The system works perfectly all right, but each time when the system goes to Standby, I got Error message under the System in Event Viewer that said: Source: atapi Event ID: 9 The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period. Could someone enlighten me what could be the cause and eventually how to fix it. Thanks a lot.

I posted this message about two years ago, but still no clue till now Since I found the solution myself, I feel obliged to write it here, just in case some one else needs the same solution. The reason that Metapad's Save As default to %HOMEDRIVE% is because the Start In on the Shortcut Properties was by default %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%, after replacing it with My Documents, the Save As will then default to My Documents, or it can certainly be replaced by any other folder if so wished.

I did not know how did that happen, but it seems the problem was the result of inconsistencies between following registry keys in different places in the registry: - NoDriveTypeAutoRun - NoCDBurning Also I got rid of all keys “NoDriveAutoRun”. After that done, it seems the problem has disappeared. Those of you that have similar problem may try that tips.

I am using Sonic DLA 5.20 and Nero Express 6 under WinXP SP2, everything works fine until recently. I don’t realized when did it start, but it must be quite recently. Now my DVD-RAM Drive only changes the volume label during the boot. When the drive is empty during the boot, the volume label will be DVD-RAM Drive (E:), but if any disk is in the drive during the boot, the disk name will be displayed on the volume label. Then it will stay that way, regardless whatever disk is inserted, the volume label will not change. Additional information, when the drive was empty during the boot, regardless whether the drive is empty or not after the boot, under the Properties of the drive following is always displayed: Type: CD Drive File system: Unknown Otherwise, all other functions work properly, I can read all types of disk, write to CD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-R etc., but that the volume label does not refresh is really annoying! I have tried to uninstalled Sonic DLA and Nero Express, cleanup all entries in the Registry left by those software. I have made sure that Drive Insert Notification (Autoplay) are enabled in the Registry and Group Policy. But that problem still persists! I have found in the web few instances with the same problem as I faced, but unfortunately none with solution. I would therefore be very grateful for any kind of help leading to the fix of that problem.

Thanks pawan!! But that will remove the Command Bar completely right? Well, I still need “Home” button that is unfortunately part of the Command Bar. To satisfy my “simplicity” wish, what I would need to have is two rows only on top of the browser: 1. Menu Bar 2. Back, Forward, Refresh, Stop and Home buttons + Address bar Could anyone help please? Or is it only possible in the next generation of IE7?

Thanks for the fast comment from Idontwantspam!! To be frank I have never tried Opera yet, but I already use Firefox. The reason that I still have IE is that it is part of the OS the we cannot get rid of, furthermore there are some websites that unfortunately won’t work or does not properly work with Firefox (yet). My writing above is more like comment, but if someone knows better tricks to simplify IE7 would be highly appreciated, such as moving buttons, get rid of some buttons like “Favorites Center” etc.

I am using WinXP SP2. It has been quite a while that Microsoft has set IE7 as critical update in their Windows Update website. The word “critical” has somehow influenced me to accept that update. When I started to use IE7, I feel somewhat disappointed with its rigidity. I am the type of person that like simplicity, IE7 does not allow me to do so. There are three rows on top of the browser, we cannot customize buttons as we could with IE6. The navigation buttons are on the top left, the Home button is part of the Command Bar on the right. There are “Favorites Center” and “Add Favorites” buttons on the left next to the tabs that we cannot get rid, they are there cause one time IE7 did not have Menu Bar. Anyway the Menu Bar is back in the most recent IE7, but it is in the middle row, not the top row as it used to be. Unlike the Firefox, we cannot hide the tab even if only one tab is open. The story goes on ….. In pursuing the simplicity I managed to find Registry entry as follows that will bring the Menu Bar back to the top of the browser where it belongs: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser] “ITBar7Position” =dword:00000001 Whereas following Registry entry: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\InfoDelivery\Restrictions] “NoSearchBox” =dword:00000001 will remove the Live Search box. But that is it! No other hack I can find! True, there are a bundle of plus points that come with IE7, among others are security things, but I don’t really need it, I just like simplicity!! So, after a while I decided to uninstall IE7 and get back to IE6. Maybe I will reconsider it when one day it becomes customizable like its predecessor. And in order to prevent IE7 from annoying with critical update warning under Windows Update, I simple add following Registry entry: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\7.0] "DoNotAllowIE70"=dword:00000001 Good bye IE7!!! Any comment?

What do you mean with AltStartup? Can you brief me a little bit more? Thanks.

Hi Arie, The default value for that Registry key is: [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Startup] is: "C:\WINNT\system32\config\systemprofile\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" It is about the “Shell Folder”, not the “Run” folder, which is among others as follows: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] My problem was, if that key is empty, then when you run “System Information” > “Software Environment” > “Startup Programs”, not only the real startup programs will be listed, but also ALL programs in the folder Windows\System32. You may give a try by emptying that key if you want to. But meanwhile I have found the culprit, it is AVG Anti Spyware!! I don’t know why, but after I uninstalled that program, my problem is gone!! I.e., I can populate that key, and after reboot it stays. It would be great if someone that knows can brief me the reason .

I am using my PC running WinXP Home as Administrator. I found that following Registry Key is empty: [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Startup] I tried to enter the proper value to it, i.e., "C:\WINNT\system32\config\systemprofile\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" But then after reboot, that key reverts back to empty, as if it takes the value from cache somewhere. What can I do to solve this problem? Any help will be highly appreciated.