Noodling

I've been fiddling around with the computer recently, adding a program or two and changing the appearance of things a little. Such as? Well, such as:

• I can now right-click a folder and print its contents. Not a terribly hard change to implement, but Microsoft's directions weren't exactly spot-on. After I made this "improvement," I could no longer double click a folder to open it. I Googled the problem and found Microsoft saying, in effect, "If you did what we told you to do, you are probably having a problem opening folders. If so, here's what you should do now . . . " Well, I did it and it seems to have fixed my problem. So far, at least. Maybe tomorrow when I'll double click a folder the machine will explode.
• I cleaned up our desktop. It used to have. I don't know, maybe 40 or 50 icons scattered across it. Now there are 6, 3 of Microsoft's -- My Computer, Recycle Bin, Internet Explorer -- and 3 of my own -- Mary Ellen's Stuff, Downloads, and Tools. I used ToYcon.exe to create icons for the folders I created, and then I increased the default size of Desktop icons by about 25 percent. (I'd get rid of the IE icon if I could, but I can't.) The overall effect, I think, is a much leaner and cleaner desktop.
• I installed the TinyMenu extension to Firefox, moved the navigation buttons onto the menu toolbar, and then I killed the navigation toolbar and the reQall toolbar. Result: Firefox is leaner and cleaner and the vertical viewing area is about an inch longer.
  
• I downloaded SystemExplorer and am in the process of skinnying down our StartUp folder. If I get rid of enough stuff and if I'm very lucky, maybe the computer will take less than half an hour to boot up in the morning.