57. Enlarge and resize the quicklaunch bar

The default size of the quicklaunch bar in Window XP is quite restrictive. It can only display three icons without forcing you to click on an arrow to extend it. Fortunately, it is easy enough to extend the quicklaunch bar by moving it to another location. To do this:

Right click on a free area of the taskbar and uncheck the 'lock the taskbar' menu item. Now click on the pattern of dots that appears just to the right of the start button, and drag to move the quick launch bar out of the taskbar.

Drag the quicklaunch bar to one of the edges of the screen and release it so that it forms a bar. Right click the new quicklaunch bar and select 'always on top' and 'auto-hide.' Now you have a convenient quicklaunch bar that hides itself when not needed, and can easily hold all your shortcuts.

58. Disable desktop cleanup wizard

The desktop cleanup wizard, run manually, analyzes the shortcuts on your desktop and informs you if any have not been used for more than 60 days. If you OK them, it will then delete these unused shortcuts. The cleanup wizard is also set by default to run every 60 days and delete unused shortcuts from the desktop. This can be inconvenient, for obvious reasons. To turn the automatic cleanup off:

Go to 'start\control panel\display' and choose the 'desktop' tab. Click the 'customize desktop' button at the bottom. In the 'desktop cleanup' section, clear the 'run desktop cleanup wizard every 60 days' button.

Next Section: Essential advice for beginners

59. Stopping desktop ad popups

Have you been getting those irritating advertising pop-ups on your desktop? You know, the ones that show up in a little grey box, regardless of what you might happen to be doing on your PC, mostly advertising software you can download to stop said pop-up ads from occurring… Is this making your blood boil? Relax, there's an extremely easy way to get rid of them and no, you don't have to buy their software to do it.

These ads are exploiting a feature of Windows 2000 and XP, the Messenger service. This service allows for text-based communication between computers on a network by using the 'net send \\(computername) message' command from the command prompt (remember start/run, type 'cmd').

Of course, some bright spark figured they could use this for advertising purposes. Essentially it's the same principal as sending text-based adds to cell-phone users. To stop these pop-ups, all you need to do is stop the 'messenger' service.

To do this: Right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage.' Expand 'services and applications' and click 'services.'

Highlight the 'messenger' service, right click it and select 'properties.'

In the 'general' tab, click the 'stop' button to stop the service, then set the 'startup type' dropdown box to 'disabled.' This will ensure that the messenger service does not load the next time you start your computer. You will no longer get those pop-up messages on your desktop. Enjoy the peace and quiet.

Note that the 'messenger' service has nothing whatsoever to do with Microsoft's 'MSN Messenger' instant messaging program, so don't worry about affecting it with this tip.