Nero Fiddles

Nero is a popular software program for burning CDs and DVDs. Over the years, it's become more complex and...pushy. The current version places unwanted programs on your computer and runs them. I hate that. I can make it stop, and so can you!

Also, I have two cool Firefox tricks, and two tweaks for Internet Explorer 7.

Nero Scout
If you installed Version 7 of the popular Nero CD-burning software, you almost certainly installed Nero Scout. I haven't found a way to opt out of the Scout portion of the Nero installation.

Nero Scout runs in the background and indexes all your media files, including mp3's, videos, and even photos. You might already have a program or programs keeping track of your media files, or in fact you might not even want one. But Scout isn't going to let that get in the way of running!

You'll see the Nero Scout icon when you look at "My Computer." And if that's not irritating enough, Scout also places two files in Windows startup.

You have several choices here. You can leave everything running if you want Nero Scout to index your media files. You can disable Scout, but leave its icon in your "My Computer" list. Or you can get rid of the doggone thing.

If you want to disable or remove Scout, the first thing to do is prevent Scout from starting up in the first place. Scout places two files in your startup. These are NmBgMonitor.exe and NMFirstStart.exe. You can use MSConfig, Autoruns, What's Running, or the program of your choice to turn these guys off. (See here: http://rlis.com/columns/column94.htm, and here: http://rlis.com/columns/column89.htm for more information.)

Once you're done that, you can disable Nero Scout as follows:

Double-click the My Computer icon on your desktop
Right-click on the Nero Scout icon
Choose Options
Clear the check box for "Enable Nero Scout"
OK your way out.

You can just leave things like that, and if you ever want to use Scout, simply check the box to enable it.

However, you can finish the job and make that icon go away like this:

Click Start Run
Type regsvr32 /u "%commonprogramfiles%AheadLibMediaLibraryNSE.dll"

You might have to restart, but the icon will be gone. (To undo this fix and put the icon back, type :
regsvr32 "%commonprogramfiles%AheadLibMediaLibraryNSE.dll")

If you need a suite of programs to burn CDs and DVDs, record video, make labels, and index your media files, well, Nero is a good choice. If you're looking for an alternative try DeepBurner (http://www.deepburner.com/) which includes many of the same functions. There is also a free version and a portable version.

Fun with Firefox
Ok, enough ranting. This week I found two cool things for Firefox users.

If, like me, you use the tabbed browsing feature in Firefox, then you have almost certainly, like me, closed a tab when you didn't mean to. Well just heck. Your history will show it, but then again, your history will show a lot of things. If you just want to return straight to that tab, put your cursor somewhere in the tab area, right click, and choose "Undo close tab." Your tab will reopen just as it was when you closed it. (I just reopened the DeepBurner site.) This is extra handy if you closed a tab while filling in a form. Because it comes back just as you left it, you don't have to start over on the form.

For big Firefox fun, here's a link to an icon of the fox eating the Internet Explorer icon. If you'd like to use that icon in your Firefox browser, see this tip.

Improve Internet Explorer 7 functionality

Two utilities from IntelAdmin will help you if you just can't get used to the new "look and feel" of Internet Explorer 7's menu and search bars. IE7 Search bar Remover will...er...remove your search bar! IE7 Tweak will do that and more. Get them here and here.

Once again, thank you to everyone who emailed and phoned with questions, comments, and suggestions. Please keep the comments coming to Cate.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.