The Old New Thing

Tips/Support - The Old New Thing

What is the default size of the Recycle Bin, and how can an administrator control the size of the Recycle Bin?

July 1, 2014 Jul 1, 2014 07/1/14
Raymond Chen
A customer was setting up a file server to which they intended to redirect all their employees' documents. They were concerned about the amount of disk space used by all the Recycle Bins on that server. Is there a fixed default size for the Recycle Bin, or is it based on the size of the disk? Is there a way we can change the default size for...

Getting past the question to solving the problem, episode 2014.06.25

June 25, 2014 Jun 25, 2014 06/25/14
Raymond Chen
Today is another example where the right thing to do is not to answer the customer's question but rather to solve the customer's problem. A customer liaison asked, "What do the registry keys X and Y do? We noticed that they are both read from and written to when you open a common file dialog. Just curious." I replied, "I'm curious as to your...

Finding the "Run as administrator" command, a game of hide-and-seek

June 24, 2014 Jun 24, 2014 06/24/14
Raymond Chen
Back in the old days, the "Run as administrator" menu option was placed on the extended menu. To get the extended menu, you hold the shift key when you right-click on the shortcut. In Windows 7, the "Run as administrator" option was moved to the primary menu, so you no longer need to hold the shift key to get it. Well, except that ...

Why do network servers sometimes show up as a Recycle Bin Location?

June 11, 2014 Jun 11, 2014 06/11/14
Raymond Chen
A customer wanted to know why some of their users showed network servers among the locations shown in the Recycle Bin property sheet. Answer: Because those users are using Folder Redirection. In particular, if you redirect the My Documents folder, then a network Recycle Bin location is created to hold the files deleted from My Documents. ...

How do I change among the three levels of play in Space Cadet Pinball?

May 13, 2014 May 13, 2014 05/13/14
Raymond Chen
Many many years ago, a customer presumably was taking advantage of the unlimited support part of their support contract when they asked In the documentation for Space Cadet Pinball, it says... The game is divided into three levels of play: basic, intermediate, and advanced. The objective of all levels is to achieve the highest point total...

The StartRunNoHOMEPATH policy affects whether the user's HOME path is the current directory when you use Start.Run, but make sure you read that carefully

April 30, 2014 Apr 30, 2014 04/30/14
Raymond Chen
A customer (via the customer liaison) discovered that even though they had set the policy, they found "if the user creates a Notepad file, the file is searched in the user's HOME directory, in contradiction of policy," I asked the liaison to confirm: "The steps you describe are rather vague. Are you saying that the problem occurs when the ...

There is no complete list of all notifications balloon tips in Windows

April 16, 2014 Apr 16, 2014 04/16/14
Raymond Chen
A customer wanted a complete list of all notifications balloon tips in Windows. There is no such list. Each component is responsible for its own balloon tips and is not required to submit their list of balloon tips to any central authority for cataloging. In order to create such a list, somebody would have to go contact every component team ...

How do I disable zone markers for downloaded files, so that Explorer stops being a nag about running downloaded files and just trusts me to do the right thing?

March 11, 2014 Mar 11, 2014 03/11/14
Raymond Chen
My Little Program about manipulating the zone identifier for downloaded files appears to have struck a nerve with commenter Tess, who launched into some sort of diatribe about how Microsoft should stop being a busybody and warning users about opening files that they downloaded. You are welcome to disable the feature if it offends you so. In...