I'm running win 2K and would like a better way to unmount my USB pen drive other than double clicking the icon in the clutter bar, selecting the device, clicking stop, confirming that I want to unload it, closing the box which says I have unloaded it and then closing the device panel.
Six Clicks! All in different locations around the screen.
I don't want to just pull the drive out, just to be sure.

Single-click the icon in the task tray. This will allow you to select what you want to unmount without opening another window. You still will have to hit 'OK' to the box telling you it was unmounted, but 3 clicks is much better than 6.

It's easier (feel like a fool for not knowing that one though ) but not as easy as dragging it to the trash.

It's easier (feel like a fool for not knowing that one though ) but not as easy as dragging it to the trash.

I'd like to be able to do NOTHING, period. In win98, I don't have to mess with anything to unplug a USB device, I just unplug the thing. Why does 2000 have to be different?

And don't tell me it's better because it forces the write-behind cache to flush. Windows 2000 does not complain when I unplug a memory card from the flash reader. It only complains when I unplug the flash reader itself, whether or not a memory card is inserted. So it's got nothing to do with the cache.

Why does 2000 have to be different?

[conspiracy]
You will wear-out your mouse faster.... and Microsoft sells mice.
[/conspiracy]

Okay, Area 51 theories aside ( ), does anyone have a solution for Win2k and USB unplugs?

It may just be an INF tweak to the driver it's using for the device. If I remember, the first empeg USB drivers caused 2000 to have the ejection feature, and was later turned off once 1.0 shipped.

Not sure if it's a good idea to try to hack the .INF file when it's a mass storage device. At least with the empeg you would know when it's safe because the emplode sync would have finished. W2K could still be doing stuff on the USB key without you knowing and yanking it out could be cause Bad Things To Happen (tm).

- Trevor

The thing is that we yank it out anyway and then deal with the annoying ``you should have turned it off first'' dialog, which is easier than trying to deal with the ``turn it off'' function.