Getting a better view of My Computer(Windows XP)

             In the ‘My Computer’ folder, Windows shows references to ‘Shared Documents’ and files of the set up user among other things. Since you use your computer alone these references are superfluous.

             With an entry in the registry, you can get rid of the folder references. For that, open ‘Start | Run’, enter the command ‘regedit’ in the following ‘Open’ dialog and confirm with ‘OK’.
             In the editor, navigate through the tree-structure on the left side to the key ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\ DelegateFolders’. The key contains several sub-keys with cryptic names, which all begin and end in curved brackets. Select the key {59031a47- 3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe 6b30ee} and remove it. Answer the security query by the operating system, whether you really wish to delete the key with all its subkeys, with ‘Yes’.
              By doing so, the symbols for ‘Shared Documents’ and the files of the different users will disappear from ‘My Computer’.
Note: In case you need these symbols again later, you create the key ‘{59031a47-3f72-44a7- 89c5-5595fe6b30ee}’ under ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\ explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\ DelegateFolders’ from ‘Edit | New | Key’. The fastest way of doing it is to select it before deleting it and save it in a REG-file through ‘File | Export’. Then all you need is to double-click on the relevant REG-file to restore the sub-key.