A Scanning your drive after a crash is a good idea. If Windows doesn't shut down properly, you're likely to have lost clusters and other file problems that ScanDisk can catch and correct. Nevertheless, the forced scan is annoying.

The easiest way to turn this feature off is, again, with Tweak UI. If you're using Windows 95 or NT, you can download Tweak UI from www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/contents/wutoys/nttweakui/default.asp and our cover CD. Windows 98 users will find it on the Windows 98 CD-ROM (see the preceding tip).

Once you've installed Tweak UI, select Start-Settings-Control Panel. Double-click the Tweak UI icon, then the Boot tab (if you're using Windows 98, you'll have to scroll right to find the tab). On the Autorun Scandisk drop-down list, select Never. Click OK.