Little annoyances

I got a new computer!! :hyper XP Pro
And now I have a lot of do-once things that I can't usually remember. Also some never-done-yet things that I would like to do.

1) I want to right click start to windows explorer and land at a folder where I want to land, rather than in the start menu. Can I do this?

2) There's no download loading bar showing when I download things, so I don't know how far along they are or how much the estimated time left is.

3) Is there a way to get rid of balloons like "it's safe now to remove your flash drive"?

4) How to get rid of the ******* spell-checker in Thunderbird

5) I tried moving my profiles for Thunderbird and FF across with a flash drive and that didn't work. I'm going to try to export them to the flash drive and reimport them that way. Any other easy suggestions? Haven't found the address list at all so far.

6) Ever since I got XP, I can't arrange my desktop icons the way I want to. So while I'm thinking of things I want to change, this is one of them. They end up in absurd little rows. No more circles. No more bunches here and single loners there. They don't seem allowed to group without having a standard distance apart and position on the screen. If I use a planet wallpaper, I like to make the icons into little moons around it. Can this old feature from 98 be gotten back?

I'm sure I'll think of more, but that's a start.
Thanks for any help!!!
abri

 

So happy to hear about your new computer!

I can help you with the last of your problems. Right click desktop and select "Arrange Icons By" and untick "Align to grid", that should allow you to put the icons anywhere you want!

Can't wait to hear what else you have in that machine!

 

#6. Right click on empty screen. Click "Arrange Icons by". Unselect "Align to Grid."

Cummon back Abri, you know you miss 98!

 

balloons you can remove in gpedit.

Goto start - run - type: gpedit.msc
Look through the option and one allows you to remove that annoying balloon.

 

It's just the Texans who are attached to Win98 .. and do you know why? Because they are true pioneers. Survivors. Suffering as a way of life.

I gave up Win98 in 2002 and the only thing I missed was my ChessMates game.
lol

 

OMG! You're a dear!! I'm in love! It worked!! <dances around> ... XP home was ... well functional. hahahahaha LOL

 

wow! I found a lot there. This one's not so easy, because it's not English, so ... while in balloons might be called Ballonen, I don't think they went for the literal translation in this case. I'll have to ask about that one.

Thanks for pointing out gpedit.msc ! A great find.

 

This powertoy from MS lets you play with alot of settings

http://download.microsoft.com/downl...a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe

 

Looking at it .... it's a cryptic little bugger!
abri

 

In Tweak UI
highlight Taskbar and Start menu on the left hand side
and you will see 'enable balloon tips' under settings

 

Thank you Shane! That did it