How to: Remove Shared documents from Windows XP

Have you ever noticed that Shared documents icon that always shows up inside the My Computer folder? Windows uses it to store media files shared by different users of the same computer, but if you’re the only user in your PC then that icon is simply useless. This is why I’m going to explain a couple of tricks to get rid of it.

The first trick requires downloading TweakUI, a handy Windows app that lets you tweak hidden options in Windows. Run the program, go to My Computer and uncheck the “Files stored on this computer” option. The shared documents will disappear!

The second trick only works if you have Windows XP Professional. Click on the Start button, select Run and enter gpedit.msc to open the Group Policy editor. Here, go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components and click on Windows Explorer. On the right pane list, towards the end, you’ll see the option “Remove Shared documents from My Computer”. Double click it, select Enabled and you’re done.

Insert flv video into PowerPoint

What is a flv video?
Flash Video, also known as flv, is a file format that is used to deliver video over the Internet. It uses the .flv file extension. Video sharing sites such as YouTube and MySpace make use of Flash Video format.

Inserting flv video into PowerPoint
There are several programs which allow you to view Flash Video. One example is VLC Media Player, which is free and can be downloaded at http://www.videolan.org.

To insert flv video into PowerPoint, one way is to make use of the VLC Media Player.
First, install the VLC Media Player.
Once done, create a folder.
Move the presentation and flv video to the folder.
Now, open the presentation.
Go to the slide which you want to have the Flash Video inserted.
You will need the control toolbox to be displayed.
Click View > Toolbars > Control Toolbox.
On the toolbar, click on the last icon which should be "More Controls". (For PowerPoint 2007, Click Developer tab. Under Controls, click on the icon "More Controls".)
Scroll right to the bottom and look for VideoLAN VLC ActiveX Plugin (both v1 and v2 is fine).
Click Ok.
Now, right click on the control that has been added, select Properties.
This will bring up the properties dialog box.
Under MRL, enter the filename (e.g. abc.flv).
Once done, close the dialog box.