May 11, 2008

Q. After hiding or removing some icons from the notification area in the tray, I see a list of Past Items. How can I delete them?

A. This is a follow up to last week's column. Microsoft has a method for doing this as shown in their Knowledge Base article. However, this covers only Windows XP Home and XP Pro, and requires editing the registry. Vista stores this information in a different place than XP. To make this process easier, I have written a little program that will accomplish this for all versions of XP and Vista. It is called "ClearPastList.exe" and can be downloaded from the download section of this site. Before it will take effect, either closing and then re-starting Explorer, or re-booting the computer is required.

Q. I am using Vista and Windows mail for my email program. But, whenever I click on an email link, I get a message that wants me to install Outlook. I don't want to use Outlook, so how can I make it open Windows Mail?

A. What is required is for you to change the program associated with the file type from Outlook to Windows Mail. When Microsoft Office is installed, Outlook is usually installed with it. And, if Microsoft Outlook is installed, it pretty much tries to take over, assuming that you are just dying to use it. Well, for a lot of us, this just isn't the case.

In XP, changing the association was a pretty cumbersome process. Here is that process as listed in Microsoft's Knowledge Base article:

"To change which program starts when you double-click a file whose file type is associated with a particular program, follow these steps:

1. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer, right-click a file for which you want to change the program that opens that file type, and then use either of the following methods to change which program starts:

• Click Open With to choose the program that you want.

• Point to Open With, and then click Choose Program to choose the program that you want.

2. Notice that the Open With dialog box appears. Use one of the following methods to select the program that you want to use to open this kind of file:

• In the Programs list, click the program that you want.

• Click Browse, locate and then click the program that you want to use, and then click OK.

• Click Look for the appropriate program on the Web to browse the Internet for the program that you want.

3. Click to select the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box if it is not already selected.

4. Click OK."

To do the same thing in Vista is considerably easier. Open the Control Panel, click on "Classic View" on the left of the dialog box. Find and click on the "Default Programs" icon.  Click on "Default program settings". You may have to wait a few while the list is propagated. On the left side, highlight "Windows Mail". At the bottom of the dialog, click on "Set this program as default". Click OK, and it's done.

From this Default Programs dialog, there are many other default settings that you can change. File associations can be easily changed and auto play settings can be changed.