If you start Windows Explorer on your Windows 2000 machine and navigate to a Windows 9x or Me machine on your network, it takes forever for the contents of the remote machine's file/folder information to display.

This is because when Win2k attempts to browse shares on a Windows Me or Win9x machine, it also checks to see if there are any scheduled tasks enabled on the remote machine. One of the first things I do on a new Win2k box is disable this check. Then, when I click on a remote machines "C" drive, for instance, I get a list of files/folders *immediately*.

To disable this unnecessary scheduled task checking, simply do the following:

Start regedit.exe and go to the

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerRemoteComputerNameSpace" key. Then, simply right-click on the "{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}" item, and select Delete. Click Yes to confirm, then close regedit. You don't even have to reboot!

Warning: Before making any modification to your Registry, be sure to backup the section you are going to modify by clicking on the "Registry/Export Registry" menu item, choose "selected branch" and supply a filename into which to save. If you want to undo your changes, just double-click on the ".REG" file you exported.