Let me share with you two discoveries I made while attempting to wrest control of my household computers from their respective Wincrap XP operating systems.  First is the problem of the ear-splitting  ’BEEP!!!!’ that practically blows you (and those sitting near you) out of your seat whenever you raise or lower the speaker volume.  Going into the control panel and changing the Sound Scheme to “No Sounds” is the intuitive solution and would be too easy, so we can rule that out right away.  Here’s the correct procedure, in thirteen easy steps:

1. Right-click on My Computer;  2. On the Hardware tab, click on [Device Manager];  3. On the “View” menu, select “Show hidden devices” ; 4. Under “Non-Plug and Play Drivers”, right-click “Beep”;  5. Click “Disable”;  6. Answer [Yes] when asked if you really want to disable it;  7. Answer [No] when asked if you want to reboot’ ; 8. Right-click “Beep” again;  9. Click “Properties”;  10. On the “Driver” tab, set the Startup type to Disabled;  11. Click [Stop];  12. Click [OK];  13. Answer [No] when asked if you want to reboot.

A second problem arose from my need to port Snag-It application’s user settings from PC to laptop.  The relevant data file is stored in a very important folder called Local Settings that holds data files for most of the third-party applications that we use.  Naturally, Microcrap does not want us to have access to this folder, nor to be able to see it even after we have checked the box labeled “Show hidden files and folders” in the Folder Options viewer.  Despite the obfuscating tactics of the Redmond Bozo Conspiracy, you can access the Local Settings folder from the command line by typing the following string in the “Run” field:    %Userprofile%\Local Settings