Windows Secret - III

CLSID Folders Explained

Don't you just hate those stubborn stupid icons that refuse to leave the desktop,like the Network Neighborhood icon. I am sure you want to know how you can deletethem. You may say, that is really simple, simply right click on the concerned iconand select Delete. Well not exactly, you see when you right click on these specialfolders( see entire list below)neither the rename nor the delete option does notappear. To delete these folders, there are two methods, the first one is using theSystem Policy Editor(Poledit in the Windows installation CD)and the second isusing the Registry.

Before we go on, you need to understand what CLSID values are. These folders, like the Control Panel, Inbox, The Microsoft Network, Dial Up Networking etc are system folders. Each system folder has a unique CLSID key or the Class ID which is a 16-byte value which identifies an individual object that points to a correspondingkey in the registry.

To delete these system Folders from the desktop simply go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\Namespace{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

To delete an icon simply delete the 16 byte CLSID value within "NameSpace". Thefollowing are the CLSID values of the most commonly used icons:

My Briefcase : {85BBD920-42AO-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}

Desktop : {00021400-0000-0000-C000-0000000000046}

Control Panel : {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

Dial-Up-Networking : {992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD01CCC48}

Fonts : {BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-08000948534}

Inbox : {00020D76-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

My Computer : {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Network Neighborhood : {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-O8002B30309D}

Printers : {2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-O8002B30309D}

Recycle Bin : {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

The Microsoft Network : {00028B00-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

History : {FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}

Winzip : {E0D79300-84BE-11CE-9641-444553540000}

For example, to delete the Recycle Bin, first note down it's CLSID value, which is: 645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E. Now go to the Namespace key in the registry and delete the corresponding key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Similarly to delete the History folder, delete the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{FBF23B42-E3F0-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8}

Sometimes, you may need to play a trick on your brother or friend, well this oneteaches you how to hide all icons from the Desktop. Go to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

In the right pane create a new DWORD value by the name: NoDesktop and set its value to: 1. Reboot and you will find no icons on the desktop.

Till now you simply learnt how to delete the special system folders by deleting aregistry key, but the hack would have been better if there was a way of adding theDELETE and RENAME option to the right click context menus of these specialfolders. You can actually change the right click context menu of any system folderand add any of the following options: RENAME, DELETE, CUT, COPY, PASTE and lotsmore.

This hack too requires you to know the CLSID value of the system folder whose menuyou want to customize. In this section, I have taken up Recycle Bin as the folderwhose context menu I am going to edit.

Firstly launch the registry editor and open the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder.

In Case you want to edit some other folder like say the FONTS folder, then you will open the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{CLSID VALUE HERE}\ShellFolder.