Hiding shared folders with $

If you would like to share a folder so that users on your network can access it easily, but are worried about displaying the folder for anyone to browse through, there is an easy way to render a shared folder invisible but still accessible.

From the shared folder dialog: (right click on desired folder\sharing and security\). You can hide a shared folder by simply adding a '$' to the end of the name you give the folder in the 'sharing and security' window. In this way, you can maintain network access to shared folders, while hiding them from prying eyes.

To browse to a hidden shared folder from another computer, simply click 'start/run' then type \\(name of the computer the share is on)\(sharename$) and press enter.

Removing the Shortcut Arrow from Desktop Icons:

Goto Start then Run and Enter regedit. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTlnkfile. Delete the IsShortcut registry value. You may need to restart Windows XP.

Changing Drive Letters

Go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management, Disk Management, then right-click the partition whose name you want to change (click in the white area just below the word "Volume") and select "change drive letter and paths."
From here you can add, remove or change drive letters and paths to the partition