How do I get rid of these URLS (from microsoft) @ my Favorites

www.clansites.org/~clan2b/forza/myfavorites.JPG

I tried: (from start.cmd)

RD /S /Q "%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Favorites\Links\"
RD /S /Q "%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Favorites\Favorites\"

this command does work when I typ it manually from cmd.exe,

but it doesnt work from my start.cmd (strange) file

Sorry for bad English

Just like the Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player icons, I wouldnt be surprised if these favorites are created after the explorer shell loads, which means anything run from runonceex wont remove them (assuming thats the case).

Try creating a batch file that has these commands in it, place it in your startup folder then have the batch file remove itself once it finishes.

Also, I might recommend removing the contents inside those folders, and not the folders themselves. You can easily do this by adding "*.*" after the last backslash and before the quotes.

Also, instead of using that particular path in future, try using this instead

"%USERPROFILE%\FAVORITES\LINKS"

So for your start-up batch try this

@ECHO OFF
IF EXIST %SYSTEMDRIVE%\SYSTEM32\CMDOW.EXE CMDOW @ /HID
IF EXIST "%USERPROFILE%\FAVORITES\LINKS" RD /S /Q "%USERPROFILE%\FAVORITES\LINKS"
DEL %0

You can try adding the Favorites folder itself, but I think that that may be rewritten on every boot, without doing some editing somewhere.

If you do attempt to remove the Favorites folder you wouldn't need to also remove the Links folder as it would be removed as part of the removal process of its parent folder. You could therefore just remove the word 'Links' from the example above.

If the folder keeps on coming back, you could consider changing the DEL %0 for EXIT or GOTO :EOF, so that it doesn't delete itself after running.

Very nice...

It's also necessary to delete the data Links (which is hard coded) from the registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]
"LinksFolderName"=""

Instead of doing that with the Startup.cmd file, how do you make that work with the Cleanup.cmd file that runs after RunOnceEx.cmd launches it?

This is how my Cleanup.cmd file looks like, but it doesn't work. The favourites and links folder will pop up after reboot.

@echo off

RD /S /Q "%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Favorites\Links"

RD /S /Q "%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Favorites\Favorites"

RD /S /Q %systemdrive%\Drivers

del /f /q %systemdrive%\Cleanup.cmd

For that stupid links folder, I am using this regtweak:

;Remove the LINKS folder in Internet Explorer Favorites
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]
"LinksFolderName"=""
"Locked"=dword:00000001

For that stupid links folder, I am using this regtweak:

;Remove the LINKS folder in Internet Explorer Favorites
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]
"LinksFolderName"=""
"Locked"=dword:00000001

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

oh nice!!

I just gave up, but now I can add these line to my regtweaks

What I do to remove the favourites is in the winnt.sif file add

[Branding]
    BrandIEUsingUnattended  =  Yes

and

[FavouritesEx]

if the FavouritesEx is blank no links are created, I don't mind the links folder, that is still there but empty unless I move my favs there. I still have to delete the Windows Marketplace url but that is it.

Edited July 28, 200521 yr by benners

For that stupid links folder, I am using this regtweak:

;Remove the LINKS folder in Internet Explorer Favorites
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]
"LinksFolderName"=""
"Locked"=dword:00000001

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I tried that and it doesn't work. Why is that the case? It works for you, but not me?

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