Laptop question..

[JohnP]

Hi All - just a quick question this time...

Whenever I boot up my laptop it always opens a Phillips folder on my desktop.. C:\Program Files\Phillips  The contents of folder is another file folder SPC 900NC PC Camera..

Obviously something to do with a webcam.. I think it started doing this when I installed new drivers to control Carole's webcam when I was trying to sort out her problems earlier this year. There is nothing showing in startup folder...

Anyone got any ideas how I can stop it doing it. It's not a problem just annoying - I simply hit X button to close folder...

Thks,  John

[Mike]

Edit your registry, go to the 'CurrentVersion\Run' section and look for that entry, then clear it.

[MarkS]

Funny that - I get exactly the same folder opening on my 2 laptops.

Mark

[JohnP]

Mike - not sure exactly how you do this... 

[Simon E]

To run regedit just click on the start button and then select run. Then type "regedit" (Without the quotes) in to the box and click ok. Once this is done - you are in RegEdit - the program which can be used to edit the Registry in Windows XP.   

si

[Simon E]

Good link to all sorts of mad things you can do..

http://www.theeldergeek.com/registry_edits.htm

si

[JohnP]

I can get into regedit just dont understand what i have to do when i am in there...?

[Ian]

just start at the top and delete every 5th key 

or not.

CurrentVersion is one of the top levels, under that you'll find Run. Below that level will be individual keys defining the applications that should start on first login. You should find one for \windows\...\explorer.exe with that path as an argument. Delete that key.

Note, BACK UP THE REGISTRY FIRST.

or, failing that:

BACK UP THE REGISTRY FIRST.

[JohnP]

Still aint got a clue...

go into regedit & can see...

5 folders

HKey_classes_root
Hkey_Current_User
HKey_Local_Machine
HKey_Users
HKey_Current_Config


Nothing about Version. If I click on Current_User there are a load more directories but not a Run directory....

confused...!!!!!

[Ian]

hang on, let me fire up my XP virtual machine and find the exact key for you.

I think Mike was going from memory, and so was I...

[JohnP]

grrrrr....... OK will wait - thks... John

[Ian]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

I think that's the one. You might have to be a bit creative, that was taken from Windows 2000, not XP, but the registry keys don't change that much and a quick shufty at Windows 7 indicates that they're still called much the same.

[Simon E]

He might have to do a find and delete on every reference to the Philips software in the registry. I take it you are not using the software anymore?

I have had it with a couple of freebe pieces of software off the net, the only true way to get rid of them is to delete every reference to them in the registry.

From the local machine entry you have to drill down into it, ie dble click, which will open the next layer, and do this several times until you reach the RUN location. In theory you will see a ref to the philips software, it might be called by a different name, hopefully not and then you should be able to delete that key. As i said before though you might have to go to top level and do a find for the philips software name and delete every entry in the registry for it.

si

[Ian]

I think the problem is the irritation of having an explorer window opening with each new login. It's probably overkill to rip everything Philips out of the registry. Particularly as that key that opens the window may not even be labelled with the name Philips, other than in the path, so it still might open a window...

[Simon E]

Let's see what happens, you never know it might work first time.
But remember

BACK UP THE REGISTRY



Si

[JohnP]

Well have navigated to Run folder & can see a file C:\Program Files\Phillips Toucam Camera\VProperty.extp4ex.exe

Its the only entry I can see that relates to Phillips.

However, Yes I do still use my Phillips Toucam for guiding so dont want to delete the camera. Like Ian said all I wanted to do was stop the annoying thing of this random folder opening everytime I boot. I can live with pressing a 'X' rather than having the grief of Toucam not working or screwing something else up. I thought it'd be a simple fix but sounds like its a bit risky.

Thks,  John

[Ian]

John, are you sure you copied and pasted that correctly? It appears to be a combination of two registry keys. But neither of them are relevant, one's part of the philips suite the other is a trackpad utility (IBM laptop, yes?)

Now you found that key, you could search through the registry for similar Windows\CurrentVersion\run folders within the different hives (top level branch). There's one for default, current user etc...

You could also search for explorer.exe too, but it will pull out other keys that are best left alone.

[mickw]

It's not something "Philips" or "toucam" hiding in the Startup folder is it ?

Click - Start, All Programs, Startup - and have a look
If it's there delete it

[JohnP]

Ian - you are right...

C:\Program Files\Phillips Toucam Camera\VProperty.exe.... is correct...

I think I will leave as is.. I really dont want to screw something up..

Mick - The first thing I thought of with my limited PC knowledge was start-up folder but nowt in there.....

Cheers,  John

[mickw]

If you still have the software disk for the Toucam, why not just "uninstall" it (add/remove etc.) ?

It should leave the webcam driver, and probably some other crap but should remove the "webcam" software which I assume you don't use anyway (I'm not talking about the astro software).

[Mike]

John,

Simply put that path in quotes. In the registry you will see it as :-

C:\Program Files\Phillips Toucam Camera\VProperty.exe

Change to :-

"C:\Program Files\Phillips Toucam Camera\VProperty.exe"

and all will still run fine but it won't open the folder on boot up.

As long as you make a back up of your registry before making any changes you can always revert back to the saved copy after if it doesn't work.

[MarkS]

Thanks Mike!

That worked for me ...