Getting rid of Explorer comments

[JeffO93]

We have a problem that only Windows XP has.
If you're in Windows Explorer browsing your hard drive, or the network, or you're in an application and browsing to open a document, XP tacks on all sorts of c**p comments.
What used to be "M:" is now "user Records Department Server1 (M", which shows up when browsing the network as name:"user Records Department Server1 (M" and then comment:"user Records Department". So we get the comment twice. If the comment didn't precede the computername or sharename it wouldn't be as much of a hassle.

Does anyone know how to make XP stop this? There doesn't seem to be a setting. Is there a registry hack?

[Stalemate]

I don't think it's a problem - I think that's the way Explorer displays the drives it has access to. Check out your C: drive to confirm.

Did you just recently notice this, or is it a recent occurence?

I've searched Registry settings, Google and experimented a bit with my own XP Pro laptop here at work and that'S just how it is, IMHO.

[shanff]

I am guessing this is what you are looking for...

Hiding full share name in windows xp

[JeffO93]

@shanff
That might have something to do with this, but keep in mind that the computers with the problems aren't the computers sharing the resources. So I can't name the share. I'm only hoping to rename how Windows displays the resource on each computer. I support about 100 computers. Hacking each and every XP machine from defaults sucks! But I do run build-scripts that automate these types of tasks.

@a d e p t
This IS the way Windows Explorer was designed, and this IS a problem! Windows 2000 was not designed to do this. XP obviously is. None of the Windows 2000 machines have this irritation. ALL the Windows XP machines do. I'm not alone in my grief. Other IT techs are voicing the same irritations.
You're right "that's just how it is", but it needs to be made "not just like that".

M$ seems to think shares with 50-character or longer names are fine. If it's that long it pages off the right-side of my user's browser windows, and it causes me to run around showing them all is okay. Also, when over-tasked, your eyes and hands need to thousands of things at lightening speed. When you get to something that throws 90% clutter at you and you're looking for a needle-in-a-haystack, that bogs you down. I don't have time for that. I'm overtasked with too many other things.

If I can fix this it will save $ and time. That's two things M$ obviously has too much of to stay in-touch with the rest of us.

Thanks both - I'll see if this fixes it.

[Stalemate]

I am guessing this is what you are looking for...

Hiding full share name in windows xp

That's beautiful and simple.

Worked on my office laptop.

I knew lurkers could and should get involved more.

[JeffO93]

Unfortunately, these remedies don't apply to us.
We turn off "Persistent Connection", so this data is NOT stored permanently in either Windows 2000 or XP. That means it's generated on-the-fly by our machines at the time the connection is made.

User logs on with domain account (no roaming profile).
Domain controller gives the user one mapped drive (each user has different, individual share).
Then runs the user's unique mapping batch script from the one mapped drive that maps the rest of the user's network drives (each script and each drive letter is different, per user).

Jim' and Sally's L: drive might be the same, but Anne' and Bob's might be totally different server/share. (Not all users have the same drive letters or mappings.)
When the mappings change, persistent connections screw up the dynamic environment and insist on connecting to the old share (which may not exist anymore). So we kill persistent.

So if there's a fix, it would consist of changing what info Windows adds to the sharename on-the-fly. This would be in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

This is an example of what happens in our network environment:
Computername: fen333
Comment (computer description): Finance workstation 1 x4113
In XP, My Network Places displays computername/comment as:
"Finance workstation 1 x4113 (fen333), Finance workstation 1 x4113"
Win2000 displays this: "fen333, Finance workstation 1 x4113"
I want the latter to happen in XP, too.
Maybe here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{21EC202 0-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}\shellex\
Windows 2000 points to file://%webdir%\controlp.htt, which seems to address this.
Windows XP has changed the key and has no controlp.htt file. Maybe it's all registry, or maybe there's an xml file somewhere?

This is a hard one to crack.