Removing unused device drivers from Windows XP machines

Did you know that unless you uninstall a device driver on a Windows XP machine that it still may be sucking up valuable system resources? Here are step-by-step instructions on how you can view and remove these unnecessary devices.

When you install a device driver on a Windows XP machine, the operating system loads that driver each time the computer boots regardless of whether the device is present—unless you specifically uninstall the driver. This means that drivers from devices that you have long since removed from your system may be wasting valuable system resources.

Follow these steps to view and remove these unnecessary device drivers:

1. Press [Windows]+[Break] to bring up the System Properties dialog box.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. Click the New button below the System Variables panel.
4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices in the Variable Name text box and 1 in the Variable Value text box.
5. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again.
6. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
7. In Device Manager, go to View Show Hidden Devices.
8. Expand the various branches in the device tree and look for the washed out icons, which indicate unused device drivers.
9. To remove an unused device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall.

How to Fix "Click to Run an ActiveX Control on this webpage" Prompt

Are you receiving a windows prompt asking you to "click to run an ActiveX control on this webpage"? If so, here why you are receiving it and how to fix it.
The change was included in a recent Windows update because of a patent infringement lawsuit between Eolas Technologies and the Regents of the University of California v. Microsoft. Because of this lawsuit, Microsoft is changing the way Internet Explorer handles ActiveX controls. These changes will be in Internet Explorer 7. However, to allow developers a chance to change their code. The change was included in the April Security update (KB912812).
This is why you are receiving the following prompt when visiting some ActiveX web pages.

How to Correct this Problem
1) Download the following Compatibility Patch to revert the IE Active X Control Behavior
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=B7D9801B-4FB5-492E-903E-3400ABF1D731&displaylang=en

2) Install it and reboot your computer

3) Try the webpage you were receiving the prompt on
This should fix the issue for the time being, however when IE 7 is released this prompt will appear on web pages that have not changed the way they handle ActiveX components.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.....and Happy Birthday for me too

sorry for not to update this blogs, coz recently I'd just lost my laptop.....and still in the process of looking for the new one.

Best Regards