That Windows Explorer is one of the most used parts of Windows XP, I probably don’t have to tell you. But did you also know that whenever you go to My Computer and browse through files on your PC, you are in effect using Explorer. Using the icons on the desktop, right-clicking on files and folders, copying and pasting files are all examples of using the features that the Explorer provides. Yet, there are many of the features that Windows Explorer provides which can be easily customised to make Windows XP more tolerable. Let me show you (if you don’t know it already)how you can change many of the features and take advantage of some of the new, lesser-known features. ( pssst: I have read a few books, so I am collating the bits in here…) 

Lets see… have you ever bothred to customise the way you interact with files and then how you view the same? Try this one… 
Tip 1: When you click on a file, Windows searches for the default programme to open for the file from the registry. Then, Windows loads that application and directs what file to open up. Often, when you install many programmes on your computer, programmes compete over which one is going to be the default programme in order to open a file.
 
For instance, I have installed various music applications like Winamp to place CDs and MP3s on the PC. However, with Apple releasing iTunes for Windows, I promptly switched loyalties. Once I installed iTunes on my PC, it filched over all of my music files. Whenever I would insert a CD into my drive, iTunes would automatically load and start playing it. When I would click on a MP3 file on my hard drive, the same would occur. So far good.
 
However, there are some days when I am adamant enough to use Winamp for my MP3 files. One big reason for this is that when I click on a music file, which is played in iTunes, it is automatically added to my music library. The confusion happens when I am sorting through my collection of songs that I ripped from my old CDs because I don’t always want to add the songs to my library in iTunes. One easy solution to this problem is to change the file association back to Winamp so that when I click on a file, it will be played in Winamp. Then if I like it, I can always add it to my library later within iTunes.
 
Tip 2: Context menu (one that pops up when you right-click on a file) can get cluttered with extra entries, options that you just don’t need. To get the context menus back under control I always opt to remove items and then add or customise the components to suit my needs.
Sometimes you may experience programmes that take over all of your context menus. Compression applications such as WinZip or Picozip always end up adding programme entries to all of the context menus. I have both Picozip and WinZip installed on my PC and every time I right-click on any file or folder, I see five entries from Picozip giving me different compression options (and add another two from WinZip). Yes, this can be a convenient feature, but if you do not compress and extract zip files very often, then you might not need the added convenience. Instead you could remove these entries from your context menu, which will give your system a cleaner interface as well as a small performance boost if you have a lot of extra entries in your context menu.
Caution: Before editing your registry, it would be wise to create a system restore point by using system restore. Doing so will provide an easy method to revert back to your original configuration before you make any changes—just in case you accidentally delete or modify something that hurts your computer. Never Say Ouch!!!
Actually removing these programmes from your context menus can be a little tricky since they can spread to different places in the registry. The only way to remove these types of entries is to edit the registry directly.
1.    Start up the Registry Editor by clicking on the Start button and selecting Run. Then type regedit in the box and click OK.
2.    When the Registry Editor appears, expand the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder. You will now see a list of every file type that is set up on your computer.
3.    If the entry that you want to remove from the context menu appears in all context menus such as the Picozip example above, you will have to expand the * folder.
4.    Now that you have the correct folder expanded, expand the Shellex and ContextMenuHandlers folders. Your registry path should look like HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
5.    Look through the list until you find the entry that you want to remove. Right-click on the folder of the entry and select delete. You will find that identifying some of the programs is easy. For example, Picozip is labelled Picozip. However, you may run into some items that are listed using their application ID number or a vague name. If that is the case, copy (Control + C) the application ID, which is formatted like this—{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}—to the clipboard. You may have to expand the folder to see the ID. Then, once you have the ID copied to the clipboard, hold Control + F to bring up the search box in regedit and paste the ID in the box. Next, just click Find and you should be able to find some other references to that same ID in your registry that also might give you some clues to what it is. If that does not work, try doing a search on Google to see if that turns up anything.
6.    Once you are finished removing all of the entries from your context menus, just close Registry Editor and you are finished. Your changes will be in effect immediately.
Removing entries that appear only under certain file types
If you want to remove an entry on a context menu that appears on just one type of file or a few different types of files, this section will show you how to easily remove it using the context editor in Folder Options.
1.    Open up My Computer.
2.    Click on the Tools menu, select Folder Options, and click on the File Types tab.
3.    Scroll though the list of file types and select the extension that you would like to modify.
4.    Click the Advanced button to bring up the Edit File Type window
5.    Select the item that you want to remove and click Remove.
6.    Click OK and its done!
If you ever want to revert back to your original context menus, you can just restore your computer to an earlier checkpoint. Or, if you didn’t create a system restore checkpoint, you can just reinstall the application to take care of it.
I have a hell many more tips, and will paste them if anybody is interested…..and is still using XP (like I do)