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.