®

PC Magazine ®
Windows XP Solutions
Second Edition
Neil Randall
 ®
PC Magazine ®
Windows XP Solutions
Second Edition
Neil Randall
PC Magazine® Windows® XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Randall, Neil.
PC Magazine Windows XP solutions / Neil Randall. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-471-74752-9 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-471-74752-1 (pbk.)
1. Microsoft Windows (Computer file) 2. Operating systems (Computers) I. Title.
QA76.76.O63R362 2005
005.4’46--dc22
2005023677

Trademarks: Wiley and related trade dress are registered trademarks of Wiley Publishing, Inc., in the United States and other countries, and
may not be used without written permission. PC Magazine and the PC Magazine logo are registered trademarks of Ziff Davis Publishing
Holdings, Inc. Used under license. Windows XP is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and /or other
countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or
vendor mentioned in this book.
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About the Author

Neil Randall has been writing about computers for twenty years, beginning with the Commodore
and moving through every type of PC and every operating system available since then. He has pub-
lished hundreds of articles, columns, and reviews in numerous magazines during that time, and he
is currently a Contributing Editor for PC Magazine. He has published eight books on computer top-
ics, including the effective use of Internet technologies and resources, publishing Web sites, and the
history of the Internet. He is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, where he teaches
multimedia applications, interface analysis and design, and digital design.
For Heather, whose endurance can only inspire.
Contents at a Glance
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

Part I Securing Windows XP

Chapter 1 Windows XP Service Pack 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2 Protecting XP Against Viruses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter 3 Dealing with Spyware and Adware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Part II Avoiding Disaster

Chapter 4 Backing Up Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Chapter 5 Windows Update: Letting Microsoft Protect
Windows XP for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 6 Recovering from Windows XP Problems . . . . . . . . . . 79

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Part III Taming the Internet

Chapter 7 Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Chapter 8 Putting the Internet to Work for You . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Chapter 9 Tailoring Internet Explorer 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Chapter 10 Controlling Windows from Afar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Part IV Letting Windows’ Hair Down: The Creative and Entertaining

Side of Windows XP

Chapter 11 Imaging Central: Working with Digital Cameras

and Scanners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Chapter 12 Working with Video Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Chapter 13 Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making
Videos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Chapter 14 Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music . . . . . . . . . 209

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
vi Contents at a Glance

Part V Changing the Interface

Chapter 15 Giving Windows a Facelift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Chapter 16 Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar,
and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Chapter 17 Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel . . . 289
Chapter 18 Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface . . . . 311

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Part VI Installing and Removing Software and Hardware

Chapter 19 Installing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Chapter 20 Removing Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Chapter 21 Installing Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Chapter 22 Hardware Configuration, Maintenance, and
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Chapter 23 Speeding Up Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Part VII Who Owns What: Setting Up Users, Permissions, and Policies

Chapter 24 Adding Users and Groups to Your System . . . . . . . 395

Chapter 25 Controlling User Access with Permissions . . . . . . . 411
Chapter 26 Locating and Migrating User Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Chapter 27 Configuring Group Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

Part VIII Networking Your Home or Business

Chapter 28 Planning Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Chapter 29 Connecting Your PCs in a Small Workgroup . . . . . . 465
Chapter 30 Using Windows XP as an Internet Server . . . . . . . . 475

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Part IX Appendixes

Appendix A Installing Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

Appendix B Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

Part I Securing Windows XP

Chapter 1 Windows XP Service Pack 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Getting and Installing Service Pack 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Before the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Installation Itself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
What SP2 Brings to the Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Improved Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Improved Web and Email Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Other Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Using the Windows Security Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Automatic Updates, Virus Protection, and Manage
Security Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Chapter 2 Protecting XP against Viruses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Understanding Viruses, Worms, and Trojans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Virus Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Viruses Keep Getting Smarter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
How a Virus Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Using Antivirus Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Scanning from the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Getting Started with Norton AntiVirus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The Norton AntiVirus Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Configuring Antivirus Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter 3 Dealing with Spyware and Adware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
What Are Spyware and Adware? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Working with Spyware/Adware Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Dedicated versus Bundled Anti-Spyware Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Getting Rid of Old KaZaA the Manual Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
What Kazaa Installs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
How to Get Rid of Kazaa and All Its Buddies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
viii Contents

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Antivirus Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Anti-Spyware Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Firewall Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Testing Your Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Part II Avoiding Disaster

Chapter 4 Backing Up Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Backup Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
A Guide to Backup Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Floppy Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Compact Discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Digital Video Discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Separate Hard Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
USB Thumb Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Tape Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Network Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Third-Party Backup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Copying Files Manually and Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Using the Backup Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Using the Recycle Bin as a Backup Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Recycle Bin as Backup? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Using the Recycle Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Chapter 5 Windows Update: Letting Microsoft Protect
Windows XP for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Using Windows Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Exploring Privacy Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Scanning for Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Selecting Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Setting Up Automatic Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Understanding Security Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Understanding Service Packs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Chapter 6 Recovering from Windows XP Problems . . . . . . . . . . 79
Using System Restore to Avoid Headaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Restoring to an Earlier Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Configuring System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Safe Mode and Other Startup Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Accessing the Startup Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Safe Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Safe Mode with Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Safe Mode with Command Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Enable Boot Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
 Contents ix

Enable VGA Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Last Known Good Configuration (Your Most Recent Settings
That Worked) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Controlling Your System with Task Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Sorting Out Problems with Virtual Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Using the Automated System Recovery Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Establishing Security with EFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Encrypting and Decrypting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Establishing a Recovery Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Data Backup Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Ghost Imaging Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Part III Taming the Internet

Chapter 7 Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Internet Connection Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Setting Up Internet Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Establishing Dial-Up Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Setting Up DSL Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Establishing Cable Connections Directly or through a Router . . . . . 117
Understanding Automatic Connections and How to Turn
Them Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Tweaking the Registry to Speed Up Connections . . . . . . . . . . 119
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Chapter 8 Putting the Internet to Work for You . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Setting Your Default Internet Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
The Nearly Hidden Features of Outlook Express . . . . . . . . . . 126
Working with Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Using OE for Your Hotmail or MSN Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Configuring OE’s Email Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Using OE for Newsgroups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Turning to the Command Line for Quick-and-Dirty Jobs . . . . 133
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Chapter 9 Tailoring Internet Explorer 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Internet Explorer 6 and XP Service Pack 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Establishing Security and Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Controlling Cookies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Controlling History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Controlling the Browser Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Controlling AutoComplete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Configuring Security Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
x Contents

Changing Program Associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Internet Explorer’s Programs Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Folder Options’ File Types Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Chapter 10 Controlling Windows from Afar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Remote Desktop: Being in Two Placesat Once . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Setting Up Remote Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Using Remote Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Providing Help and Training through Remote Assistance . . . . 152
Using Remote Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Invoking Remote Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Special Considerations for Remote Desktop and
Remote Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Connections through Firewalls and Network Address
Translation Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Using These Features with Multiple Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Remote Control and Information Technology Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Alternative Browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Email Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Password Managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Part IV Letting Windows’ Hair Down: The Creative and Entertaining

Side of Windows XP

Chapter 11 Imaging Central: Working with Digital Cameras

and Scanners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
A Thousand Pictures Are Worth a Gazillion Words . . . . . . . . 168
Controlling Your Camera from within Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Editing and Altering Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Printing and Publishing Your Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Getting the Most from Your Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Scanning Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Scanning Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
If Your Camera Doesn’t Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Moving beyond Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Chapter 12 Working with Video Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Using Windows Media Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Choosing Video File Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Watching DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
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Using Windows Media Encoder 9 Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Converting and Capturing Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Capturing Screen Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Broadcasting Live . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Chapter 13 Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg:
Making Videos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
What You Need to Get Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Making Your First Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Planning Your Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
The Movie Maker Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Chapter 14 Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music . . . . . . . . . 209
Playing Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Using the Info Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Using Media Player’s Online Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Enhancements: Audio and Visual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Working with the Media Library and Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
A Guide to Digital Music Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Media Player, CDs, and Portable Audio Devices . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Photo Editors/Graphics Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Music Players and CD Creators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
DVD Players and Burners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Part V Changing the Interface

Chapter 15 Giving Windows a Facelift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Why Fix It? Is It Broken? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Choosing between the Logon Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Changing the Desktop: Backgrounds, Resolution, and
Color Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Changing Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Changing Your Screen Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Setting Up Your Favorite Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Making Other Interface Adjustments from the Advanced
Appearance Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Saving Your Interface Adjustments as a Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Be Kind to Your Eyes: ClearType . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Getting Rid of Desktop Clutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Getting an Icon-Free Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
xii Contents

Arranging Your Icons for Easier Viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Organizing Icons into Desktop Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Changing Your Display with Your Graphics Card’s Tools . . . . 259
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Chapter 16 Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar,
and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Starting, Not Stalling: Building a Better Start Menu . . . . . . . . 265
What’s in the Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Reverting to the Old Windows Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Setting the Start Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Taking Windows to Task: Building a Better Taskbar . . . . . . . . 274
Moving the Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Manipulating the Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Resizing and Hiding the Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Making the Taskbar Go Away . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Adding More Toolbars to the Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Adjusting the Taskbar’s Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Reducing Clutter by Hiding Taskbar Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Chapter 17 Changing Your Interface from the
Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Changing the Way Your Folders Look and Act . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Folder Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Folder Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Setting the Folder Template and Icon for New Folders . . . . . 298
Working with Compressed Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Compressed (Zipped) Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Compressing with the Advanced Attributes Dialog BOX . . . . . . . . . 303
Saving Your Mouse Finger with the Single-Click Option . . . . 304
Selecting and Opening with the Single-Click Interface . . . . . . . . . . 305
The Single-Click Interface and Laptops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Configuring Your Keyboard and Your Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Setting the Mouse’s Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Setting the Keyboard’s Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Setting the Date and Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Chapter 18 Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface . . . . 311
Reverting to the Windows 2000 Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Choosing the Classic Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Setting the Control Panel Back to Normal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Simplified Folders, ClearType, and More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Working with Accessibility Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
I Am Blind or Have Difficulty Seeing Things on Screen . . . . . . . . . . 316
I Am Deaf or Have Difficulty Hearing Sounds from the
Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
 Contents xiii

I Have Difficulty Using the Keyboard or Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

I Want to Set Adminstrative Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Tailoring the Interface with PowerToys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Installing the PowerToys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Digging into the Interface with Tweak UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Playing with the Rest of the PowerToys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Shells and Interface Customizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Virtual Desktop Managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Part VI Installing and Removing Software and Hardware

Chapter 19 Installing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Planning the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Performing the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Installing from Compressed Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Other Installation Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Chapter 20 Removing Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
The Easy Way: Add or Remove Programs, Built-In and
Third-Party Uninstallers, and System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Add or Remove Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Third-Party Uninstallers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
The Desperate Way: System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
The Harder Way: Manual Uninstalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Chapter 21 Installing Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Why You’ll Want to Install Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Hardware Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Installing External Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Installing Internal Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Installing Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Chapter 22 Hardware Configuration, Maintenance, and
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Working with Device Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Repairing Hardware Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Establishing Hardware Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Maintaining Your Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Using the Error Checking Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Using the Defragmentation Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
xiv Contents

Chapter 23 Speeding Up Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

From Zero to Sixty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Lowering the Wind Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Slamming on the Brakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Uninstallers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
System Repair Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Windows Speed-Up Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Part VII Who Owns What: Setting Up Users, Permissions, and Policies

Chapter 24 Adding Users and Groups to Your System . . . . . . . 395

Why Use User Accounts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Adding Users with the Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Computer Administrator Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Limited Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Standard Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Guest Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Adding Users with the Computer Management Tool . . . . . . . 403
Password Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Disabling Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Deleting User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Combining Users into Groups with the Computer
Management Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Chapter 25 Controlling User Access with Permissions . . . . . . . 411
Simple versus Standard File Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Working with Simple File Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
The Windows XP Privacy Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Making Folders Private . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Working with Standard File Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Sharing versus Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Limiting the Number of Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Setting Folder Permissions from My Computer . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Gaining Access to Protected Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Chapter 26 Locating and Migrating User Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Copying from Documents and Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Copying Other User-Specific Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Migrating Your Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Migrating Favorites and Cookies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
 Contents xv

Chapter 27 Configuring Group Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Installing the Group Policy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Configuring Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Understanding the Policy Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Examples of Policy Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Example 1: Setting Password Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Example 2: Setting Windows Explorer Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Password and Password Recovery Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Account Utilities and Biometric Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Part VIII Networking Your Home or Business

Chapter 28 Planning Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Why Plan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Peer-to-Peer versus Client-Server Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Ethernet Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Wired versus Wireless Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Ad-Hoc Networks (Peer-to-Peer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Infrastructure Networks (Access Point) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Hybrid Wired/Wireless Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Chapter 29 Connecting Your PCs in a Small Workgroup . . . . . . 465
Beginnings: A PC and an Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Expansion 1: The Broadband Router with Access Point . . . . . 466
Connecting the Router to the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Expansion 2: The Notebook PC with Wireless Adapter . . . . . 470
Creating the LAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Sharing Resources on the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Chapter 30 Using Windows XP as an Internet Server . . . . . . . . 475
Installing and Starting FTP and Web Services . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
Starting and Stopping the Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Allowing Server Traffic through the Firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
Serving Up a Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Uploads and Downloads via FTP Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Web and FTP Server Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Mail Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
xvi Contents

Part IX Appendixes

Appendix A Installing Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

Setting the CD-ROM as the Primary Boot Device before
You Install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Installation Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Scenario 1: Installing Windows XP on a New Computer
or New Hard Drive (PC with One Drive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Scenario 2: Installing Windows XP on a Multiple-Drive PC
with a New Primary Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Scenario 3: Upgrading a Previous Windows Version . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Scenario 4: Dual-Booting Windows XP on a System
with Another Windows Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
What to Do About SP2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Appendix B Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Performing an In-Place Reinstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Performing a Clean Reinstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Preparing for the Clean Reinstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Completing the Reinstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Product Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Acknowledgments
Thanks again to Microsoft, obviously the sine qua non for this book, and to Chris Webb for getting it
through the hoops. And thanks to Jodi Jensen, who has shown more patience with me than I would
have.
And thanks once again to Catherine and Michelle, who have managed to grow up to become truly
fine young women despite a father who has spent enough time in his basement to make Gollum
seem like a sun worshipper.
Introduction
Welcome to the Second Edition of PC Magazine Windows XP Solutions. This time around, in response to
your suggestions, I’ve beefed up the coverage of security and data backup, and I’ve covered Windows
XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) in detail. I had finished writing the first edition just as SP2 was starting to
undergo beta testing, but between then and now it has become a mainstay of Windows XP.
As a frequent contributor to PC Magazine over the past eight years, particularly in the “Solutions”
section, I’ve had the pleasure of writing about Microsoft’s operating systems—covering features,
usability, technology, and hints and tips. Windows XP has fascinated me from the minute I down-
loaded and installed the first beta version back in late 2000. This book covers the issues I’ve been
asked about most often, as well as a number of topics I’ve long wanted to explore on my own.
Released over two years ago, Windows XP has worked — and sold — so well that only now does
Microsoft seem eager to release the next Windows version. Codenamed Longhorn, this version will
be in limited beta testing by the time this book is released and is scheduled to be available to the
public at some point in late 2006 (which means that you shouldn’t count on seeing it until mid-2007
or so). Assuming a 2007 date, this means that Windows XP will have reigned as the company’s pri-
mary desktop environment for five years by that point, and certainly longer while consumers start to
upgrade. Five-plus years in the computer world is a long, long time.
The question, even after Longhorn releases, will be whether or not people flock to it. After all,
Windows XP works very well, and Microsoft’s continual updating of Windows XP means that it has
not grown particularly long in the tooth. Furthermore, as this book emphasizes throughout, you can
customize every major element of Windows XP to suit your needs precisely. Unlike previous ver-
sions of Windows, this one never gives you the sense that you’re stuck with something no matter
how much it annoys you or hinders you over the course of daily use. If you don’t like something, just
change it — then change it again as often as you like.
This book helps you do just that. It also helps you work with the programs included in Windows
XP, build a Windows XP network, add hardware and software to your Windows XP environment,
make Windows XP the center of your Internet activity, and fix the major Windows XP problems. The
book takes as its basis the countless hours I’ve spent with this important operating system: installing,
reinstalling, configuring, networking, and just generally playing with Windows.
Over the course of two decades writing about computers, operating systems have fascinated me
most. And, to be honest, I’ve never met one I didn’t like. Okay, the Commodore 64 OS had its down-
side, and the Atari ST locked up too often, and MS-DOS 3.3 was one of the worst things to look at in
computing history. I spent months with each of them, however, figuring out how to make them work
the way I thought they should have worked in the first place. I loved my three Amigas, I tried hard to
make my first Macintosh crash, I took my chances with those extremely geeky early versions of Linux,
and I gave the underappreciated BeOS a very real chance. This fascination continued throughout the
various incarnations of Windows, beginning with Windows 2.0 back in 1987 and proceeding up the
Microsoft food chain to Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11, NT 3.5, NT 3.51, 95, 98, 98 Second Edition, 2000,
Millennium Edition, and finally, XP. With each release, I saw Windows getting better in different ways.
But to me, four releases stand out as landmarks: Windows 3.0, the first version that actually worked;
Windows 95, with its significant revamping of the interface; Windows 2000, the first usable network
workstation from Microsoft; and Windows XP, the culmination of the lot.
xx Introduction

What you get in Windows XP is an operating system both mature and novel. Certainly Microsoft’s
most stable operating system to date, it combines this stability with a growing degree of security (the
constant updates have helped in this regard) and draws on the years of development of such technolo-
gies as file systems, networking, and hardware recognition. You can fairly easily restrict who accesses
which files and folders in Windows XP, you can quickly connect your Windows XP machine to a net-
work, and you can plug hardware into it without wondering if it will ever work. On top of all of this,
Microsoft has placed a multilayer interface with enough new features to satisfy those who love new
ways of doing things, yet maintained a firm entrenchment in Windows interfaces of the past.

Who Should Read This Book?

I’ve written this book for Windows users who want to get more out of their Windows XP installa-
tions and for current Windows XP users looking to move beyond the basics and into more advanced
topics. The idea is to present answers to questions I’ve been asked over the years about this operat-
ing system, along with solutions to issues you’ll almost certainly encounter as you use Windows XP
for an increasing range of purposes. When I’ve had to choose (to keep the book to a reasonable size),
I’ve opted for important but lesser-known topics or variations on standard topics.
With this focus, this book is ideally suited to home users who want additional Windows XP
expertise, to small business users who want to explore how to expand the capabilities of their
Windows XP systems, and to anyone who finds himself or herself on the receiving end of questions
about how to make Windows XP work the way its users want.

What You Need to Use This Book

For the most part, the solutions offered in this book will work on Windows XP Home Edition,
Windows XP Media Center Edition, and Windows XP Professional. Some things, however, work
only with the more advanced Windows XP Professional. So if you want to use these solutions, you
have no choice, unfortunately, but to upgrade. Fortunately, Windows XP Home Edition upgrades
easily to Windows XP Professional, so you needn’t be concerned with losing anything other than an
hour’s time or so, but there’s no question that Windows XP Professional costs more.
Some of the features covered in this book that apply only to Windows XP Professional include:

Standard File Sharing (Chapter 25)

Group Policy configuration (Chapter 27)
The Encrypting File System (Chapter 6)
Remote Desktop (Chapter 10)
Remote Assistance (Chapter 10)
Web Server and FTP Server (Chapter 30)
 Introduction xxi

Windows XP Professional offers other unique features as well, including the capability of down-
loading multilingual interface add-ons, the capability to connect to network domains, and the capabil-
ity to take advantage of PCs with more than one processor. These features do not appear in this book,
but they demonstrate the very real sense that Microsoft has designed Windows XP Professional to be
the more capable of the two operating systems. For many users, however, the Home Edition works per-
fectly well, and given its lower price, it might well be the right choice for you.

Conventions Used in This Book

To help you get the most from the text and keep track of what’s happening, I’ve used a number of
conventions throughout the book:

When a new term is introduced, it is shown in italics.

Characters you are asked to type appears in bold.
Keyboard shortcuts are shown like this: Ctrl+A. Sometimes, I show a shortcut that looks
like this: Winlogo+E. This shortcut uses the Windows Logo key—the key with the
Windows “flag” image that is generally in the lower-left corner of your keyboard between
the Ctrl and Alt keys. Pressing and holding down the Winlogo key while you press the E
key is a quick way to open a My Computer screen. Sometimes, you also need to type
something after pressing the Winlogo key combination. For example, this command
sequence
Winlogo+R, regedit
tells you to press and hold the Winlogo key while pressing the R key (which opens the
Run dialog box) and then type regedit and press Enter. This is a pretty fast way to open
the Registry Editor (see Chapter 16 for more on this topic).

Icons Used in This Book

Following is a brief description of the icons used to highlight certain types of material in this book.

Tip
Each Tip gives you additional information that adds to the topic under discussion. The information typically
springs from something in the immediately preceding paragraph and provides a succinct suggestion that you
might want to follow while working through the chapter. In effect, a Tip says, “You should try this as well.”
xxii Introduction

Note
A Note is just that: a note. Usually a note provides information related to the topic under discussion but not
essential to it for the purposes of working through that topic. A Note says, essentially, “Here’s an interesting
point about the topic.”

Caution
Each Caution in this book alerts you to something worth paying attention to — for example, something that
can cause you problems while working with the current topic. A Caution says, “Before going any further,
make sure that you consider this point.”

How This Book Is Organized

This book offers a wide range of solutions. The sheer complexity of Windows XP means that learn-
ing it completely requires months of working with it, but the 80-20 rule applies here very well: you
can learn 80 percent of the features that give you the most bang for your buck in roughly 20 percent
of the time it would take to learn every single feature this operating system contains. This book gives
you that 80 percent along with a taste of the other 20 percent. It assumes that you already know the
basics of working with Windows — using the mouse, dragging and dropping icons, opening pro-
grams, and copying files, for example — and that you’re ready to take the next steps toward mastery.
At the end of each of the eight parts in the book, you’ll find a short write-up of utility software you
can purchase or download to help you with that part’s tasks and needs. Of course, I can’t guarantee
that any of the products listed will actually be available by the time you read this book or that any of
the listed prices will be accurate (which is why I haven’t listed very many). But as I was writing the
utility sections I made every attempt to point you in the direction of reliable, available software.

Part I: Securing Windows XP

Once upon a time, buying and using a computer meant getting excited about all the fascinating soft-
ware you could acquire and use. That’s still the case, but the buzz surrounding computers today is
much more about security, intrusion, infection, and theft—a far darker lexis that requires far different
attention. Part I focuses on four major security solutions for Windows XP: downloading and installing
Service Pack 2, working with firewalls, installing and configuring antivirus software, and using anti-
spyware software. Service Pack 2 fits into this mix precisely because its focus is on security. As a result,
you could consider the first part of this book something of an equivalent to locking the doors before sit-
ting down to enjoy your favorite book or TV show, but that’s computing life these days.
 Introduction xxiii

Part II: Avoiding Disaster

No matter how careful you are with your system, eventually something will go wrong. Part II out-
lines the numerous methods that come with Windows XP for preventing problems in the first place,
with a chapter devoted to what you can do when they occur. Here, you learn about configuring
Windows Update, backing up your files and folders, and working with the Encrypting File System.
Part II also provides solutions for a malfunctioning Windows, showing you what to do when
Windows won’t boot properly, how to restore your system to a previously functional state with
System Restore, and how to close misbehaving programs.

Part III: Taming the Internet

Windows XP practically demands that you connect it to the Internet, offering an impressive variety
of programs to help you make use of that constantly growing communication and information
source. Part III shows you how to configure the Internet Explorer Web browser to function precisely
as you need and how to use some of the lesser-known features of the Outlook Express email pro-
gram. Here, you also learn about the two remote-control programs built into Windows XP: Remote
Desktop and Remote Assistance. I demonstrate how to take advantage of both to work with PCs in
other locations.

Part IV: Letting Windows’ Hair Down: The Creative

and Entertaining Side of Windows XP
Of course, using Windows XP isn’t all about changing the interface and making problems go away.
It’s also about having a good, productive, and creative time. Part IV shows you three primary means
of doing so. Without buying a single extra program, you can use Windows XP to transfer and edit
photos from your digital camera, make videos complete with fancy transitions, and capture music
for your portable audio player. If you haven’t yet used Movie Maker 2 or Windows Media Player 10,
both part of Windows XP, you might be surprised at what they’ll let you accomplish in a short period
of time.

Part V: Changing the Interface

For the past several years, Sun Microsystems has based much of its image on the motto The network is
the computer. Especially today, with millions of computers connected to the Internet and many of these
connected to local, regional, or national company networks as well, the motto has a substantial ring of
truth. For those of us who use our computers for work, play, and everything in between, a different
motto might well hold sway. My personal belief is that the interface is the computer because the inter-
face gives us the tools we need to make things happen. If you think about it, you see only the interface,
not the computer itself (unless you have the technical training necessary to understand what’s going on
under the hood). We see screens filled with text and graphics, not the zeros and ones that lie behind
them; we see program icons rather than executable files; we see windows layered on top of one another,
not the screen redraw that occurs when we click one of those windows to make it active.
Because the interface lies at the core of the Windows XP experience, Part V of this book focuses
squarely on how to use it and, just as importantly, how to tailor it to your needs. You have an enor-
mous amount of choice over how Windows looks and feels, with customizations available in a wide
range of locations. Change any and all of it to help you work more effectively and enjoyably.
xxiv Introduction

Part VI: Installing and Removing Hardware and Software

Of course, even with all the features built into Windows XP, it remains in one sense only the foun-
dation on which to build a complete computing experience. Part VI examines the ins and outs of
installing software and hardware, making sure it works right, and, when necessary, getting rid of it.
The chapters in this part provide solutions for adding hardware devices to your system, including
opening up your computer case to do so and finding new drivers for your hardware and new
updates for your software. Also available here are details on hard disk maintenance, one of the most
effective ways to keep your PC in good working order.

Part VII: Who Owns What? Working with Users,

Permissions, and Policies
Anyone coming to Windows XP Professional from the much less technologically advanced worlds of
Windows 95/98/ME can quickly get lost in the intricacies of user accounts, access permissions, and
figuring out how to move data, when necessary, from one Windows XP installation to another. Part
VII covers all these issues, showing you where to find important user data such as email files and
Internet favorites settings, as well as how to make your folders private so that nobody else can get
into them. The complexities of the Group Policy settings also find their way into this section, illus-
trating yet another method of customizing the interface the way you want it, but this time in a more
technical fashion.

Part VIII: Networking Your Home or Business

Windows XP is built for the Internet, but it’s also built for connection to a local network for the pur-
pose of sharing resources. Part VIII covers the various types of networks available and demonstrates
how to connect to them. It also shows how to share an Internet connection between two or more
computers by using a cable or DSL router and how to set up a wireless network using the built-in
support offered by Windows XP. In addition, here you can learn the fundamentals of setting up a
Web server and a file transfer server with Internet Information Explorer.

Part IX: Appendixes

The appendixes cover two crucial elements in working with Windows XP: installing and reinstalling
the operating system itself. They discuss the different types of installation, issues surrounding dual-
boot installation with other operating systems, and how to perform a painless reinstallation without
losing your important data.
 Part I
Securing Windows XP
Chapter 1
Windows XP Service Pack 2
Chapter 2
Protecting XP Against Viruses
Chapter 3
Dealing with Spyware and Adware
Part I Utilities
Chapter 1

Windows XP
Service Pack 2

W hy place this chapter first? Quite simply, if you’re running Windows XP, you should also
be running Service Pack 2 (SP2). The purpose of SP2 is to render Windows XP more
secure, less vulnerable to attacks from the Internet, and more easily integrated with existing third-
party security software. SP2 was introduced to the world just after the first edition of this book was
completed, and for that reason it represents the single most important change to XP in the interven-
ing months. Even if you never bothered to install Service Pack 1 — for whatever reasons — you owe
it to yourself to get SP2 on your system as quickly as possible.
This chapter covers the features of SP2, along with details about downloading (or ordering it on
CD) and installing it. Consider this the first step in making your Windows XP machine and the data
it stores safer and more stable, a process continued in the chapters that follow.

Getting and Installing Service Pack 2

By far, the easiest way to acquire Service Pack 2 is to through Windows Update. As covered in Chap-
ter 5 (for all Windows Update functions, not just the service packs), you can use Internet Explorer to
head for the Windows Update site (www.windowsupdate.com), or you can set Windows to update
itself automatically. If you choose the latter method, depending on your settings Windows will do one
of the following:

Inform you that Service Pack 2 is available and let you download and install it
Inform you that it has downloaded Service Pack 2 and let you install it
Download and install it without your intervention

In the first two instances, you must use the resulting dialog boxes to tell Windows to put the ser-
vice pack in place. See the section “The Installation Itself” a little later for details.
There are two other ways to acquire SP2:

Order the free CD: From the Microsoft site, navigate to the Windows XP area, follow the
link to Service Pack 2, and look for the link to order it on CD. As of this writing, the URL
3
4 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

is www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads; of course, this URL can change at any time.

The CD is free to all (not just those in the United States), so this is worth having whether
or not you plan on installing Service Pack 2 that way.
Download the SP2 File: Numerous download sites have SP2 available as a single, large
file. One example is www.download.com, where you’ll find it as a 266MB download.

Tip
There’s a particularly strong reason to install a service pack from CD rather than from Windows Update. If your
computer is already compromised — that is, it has already contracted viruses, spyware, and so on — any sub-
sequent download can be affected, including items from Windows Update. For this reason, if you want to use
the protection features of SP2, you’re much better off ordering the CD and installing from it, simply because the
CD won’t be compromised. That said, for a completely clean PC, the best idea of all is to reinstall Windows XP
from scratch and apply SP2 from the CD after doing so. For instructions on reinstalling Windows XP, see
Appendix B. And hey, there is lots in this book to keep you busy while you wait for the CD to arrive.

Before the Installation

Most software you install on your system takes little if any preplanning. Download the file or insert
the CD, step through the installation process, and away you go. Usually, you don’t even have to shut
down any programs before starting, although it’s never a bad idea to do so (and a warning box almost
always tells you to do so).
Any time you modify your operating system (OS), however, you should always do so with as
clean a system running as possible — and with everything you need backed up, just in case disaster
strikes. It’s not absolutely necessary (many SP2 installations have been done without this planning),
but it’s recommended anyway.
Following is a list of suggestions for ensuring the greatest possible likelihood that SP2 will install
without problems.

1. Give yourself some time to do the installation properly: Plan on spending an evening
doing the installation, ideally longer. It might take less. While the actual installation is in
progress, don’t plan to do anything on the PC.
2. Perform a backup of the files you can’t live without: This includes programs whose
installation CDs you no longer possess, and those whose CD or registration keys you
couldn’t find if your life depended on it. See Chapters 4 and 26 for more on data backup.
3. Perform a full virus check on your system: Be sure to set your antivirus software to
include all files, including system files and program files. Include all your hard drives.
Depending on how much data you have stored on your drives, this process could take
several hours. See Chapter 2 for sites to visit to conduct online antivirus checks.
 Chapter 1: Windows XP Service Pack 2 5

4. Perform a full spyware check on your system: Delete all spyware files and programs
located. If you know you have programs that include spyware, delete them from your
system thoroughly. See Chapter 3 for sites to visit that offer free online spyware scans.
5. Get rid of as many programs you can from the Startup folder, and prevent as many
programs as possible from automatically loading when Windows starts: These pro-
grams won’t likely do any harm to the installation, but your SP2-enhanced Windows will
start more quickly without them; besides, you’ve been wanting to get rid of those time-
wasters for a while anyway, right?
6. Ensure that you have adequate space: Check that you have at least 2GB of space avail-
able on your primary Windows XP hard drive.
7. If you are installing to a notebook PC, plug in the power cord: Do not run it on battery
power. If the batteries fail during installation, you can cause significant damage to
Windows itself (although SP2 is good at recovery).
8. Using the disk utility of your choice (Microsoft’s CHKDSK is fine), check your hard
drives for errors: Let the utility correct the errors, and proceed from there. See Chapter 22
for more on working with hard drives.
9. Go to Windows Update, before installing SP2, to get your PC up to date with the lat-
est files: This is particularly true of noncritical updates. However, if Windows Update lists
SP2 as an available download, this means that its scan of your PC has indicated that you
may install it without difficulty. Before doing so, however, go to step 10.
10. Download and install the latest device drivers for as many hardware devices as you
need: You can get these from the support areas of the manufacturers’ Web sites. Examples
include drivers for hard drives (particularly SATA drives and RAID systems), video cards,
sound cards, external drives, printers, and more. Again, these aren’t actually necessary, but
doing this will ensure that SP2 installs on top of a fully up-to-date system.
11. If your PC has more than one account, log off all users from your PC, and log in as an
administrator: Better yet, reboot the PC to clear out all users and log in as an Administrator.
If you do not have an Administrator account, let someone with such an account perform the
SP2 installation. If your PC has one account only, it’s almost certainly an Administrator
account anyway. However, see Chapter 24 for more on establishing and determining user
accounts.

The Installation Itself

Ideally, your SP2 installation will require no thought, no intervention, and no actual work. Start it up
and away it goes, with your next act being simply to log in as a user and go back to whatever you
were doing before the installation. In fact, in most installations, this is precisely what happens. Here
is the process.

1. Start the installation by doing one of these things:

a. Downloading from Windows Update
6 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

b. Inserting your SP2 CD

c. Double-clicking your downloaded SP2 installation file
2. Confirm that you want to update the system. If you’re not sure, if there’s something you
want to update in Windows before you do so, or if you just don’t want to take the time
right now, this is a good place to cancel the process.
3. If you are installing from Windows Update, Windows XP now downloads the files neces-
sary to perform the installation. You may continue working during this process; Windows
lets you know when the download is complete and installation is ready to commence. If
you are installing from the CD or the full downloaded file, you don’t get this respite —
installation begins immediately.
4. Once in progress, the installation of SP2 acts much like installation of any other software —
except that it takes longer. In fact, it can take as long as an hour (although it usually takes
less).

What SP2 Brings to the Table

When Microsoft says that something is necessary, you’re probably tempted to just download it,
install it, and be done with it. Usually, it turns out to be a good idea; no matter what the nay-sayers
might suggest, Microsoft does actually want its products to run properly and not be the subject of
continuing claims about lack of security, stability, or sense. In the case of service packs for Microsoft’s
operating systems, however, installation is always a good idea. In every case, these service packs offer
improvements to the OS itself. These improvements range from bug fixes, to new versions of pro-
grams, to fundamental changes in security.
That said, you will also always hear horror stories. No matter how many people successfully
install a service pack, you will hear only from the people who, for whatever reason, had a bad time
of it. And there’s no question that some PCs accept Windows service packs much less readily than
others do. The problem is that it’s hard to figure out why. Possibly it’s an incompatible piece of hard-
ware; possibly it’s an old driver or two that simply refuse to get along. Possibly the PC is already
loaded with viruses or other malicious software and simply doesn’t install anything without incident.
And possibly, it’s simply a combination of hardware and software elements that just don’t work
together with the upgrades that the service pack installs.
There is, however, one thing that can safely be said for any Windows service pack installation: If
the version of Windows XP already installed on your system doesn’t work well, installing a service
pack probably won’t help. In fact, it might make it worse. Don’t install a service pack expecting it to
heal your PC, the way installing an antivirus program or a disk repair utility can help. Those pro-
grams are designed to take an ailing system and make it healthier. Windows service packs are
designed to make the operating system more effective. But service packs are not healers.
Still, there are numerous reasons to install any Windows service pack, but especially Windows XP
Service Pack 2. The following sections explain some of the major reasons. The assumption here is
that you do not already have Service Pack 1 on your system. For those who do, the text includes
notes about what is different in Service Pack 2.
 Chapter 1: Windows XP Service Pack 2 7

Note
You do not have to install Service Pack 1 before installing Service Pack 2. SP2 contains all the features and
fixes of SP1, adding many of its own.

Improved Security
Analysts and critics of Windows XP have continually focused on security issues. As with previous
versions of Windows — especially since the popularization of the Internet — XP has been suscepti-
ble to hackers, crackers, intruders, and thieves, and this susceptibility has made IT-savvy businesses
and users wary of running Windows (including the XP version) on their main production PCs.
Service Pack was designed from the outset primarily as an improvement on XP’s security, and to that
end, it incorporates numerous important security features.
Primary among these security features is the Windows Firewall. To be sure, SP2 doesn’t actually
represent the first appearance of the Firewall; it appeared, in fact, with the original Windows XP.
However, SP2 improves the capabilities of the Firewall along with its default performance. Later in
this chapter you look at how to configure the firewall; for now, it’s important to note that the firewall
is turned on by default in SP2, and that — more important — it has been added to the startup and
shutdown processes of Window XP to minimize intrusions from the Internet in the time between the
loading of the networking subsystem and the appearance of the desktop. Previously, that time offered
a window of opportunity for hackers to break into system and establish control of the network.
The most visible sign of the concern for added security is the Windows Security Center, covered
(like the Firewall) in its own section later in this chapter. The purpose of the Security Center is to
provide a central interface from which you can see at a glance whether or not Automatic Updates,
the Firewall, your browser settings, and your antivirus software are in place, and from which you can
configure the features of these security tools. The Security Center loads automatically when you
install SP2, encouraging you to take advantage of its controls in order to secure your PC against all
possible threats (or at least the ones that it can manage).

Improved Web and Email Functions

For many of us, most of the day is spent on the Web or in email. As a result, email and the Web are
the two primary targets for outside intruders. Not all intrusions are malicious, but at the very least,
all are inconvenient and are often flat-out annoying. SP2 helps you recover some of the time and
energy you’ve been wasting until now dealing with these annoyances by providing additional fea-
tures in Windows’ two major built-in Internet programs: Internet Explorer (IE) and Outlook Express
(OE). Here is a list of the most significant features added to these two programs:

Protection from downloads (IE): One of the classic methods of compromising your PC is
for Web pages to initiate procedures to store files on your hard drive. SP2 provides Internet
Explorer with an Information Bar, which appears immediately below the Address Bar and
informs you each time IE recognizes a potentially harmful download. These downloads
typically come from ActiveX controls, but they can include other recognized problem files
as well, such as .exe files (program executables). Whenever the Information Bar appears,
you can hover the mouse pointer over it to discover what is being called to your attention
8 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

and to take action. Two menu items appear: Download File and What’s the Risk? Choose
the first to override the Information Bar and download the file in question; choose the sec-
ond to go to the Microsoft site where an explanation page explains what the danger is. In
the case of a download, IE causes a Security Warning window to appear, letting you Run
or Save the file; in the case of ActiveX controls, it lets you configure IE to accept or reject
all such files from specific sources or to ask you every time one appears.
Protection from downloads (OE): Microsoft email products (the full Outlook program
in particular) have suffered terribly from their susceptibility to viruses and other malicious
code sent as attachments and as images within messages. With SP2, Outlook Express is
far more watchful for such code, blocking suspicious attachments and, by default, not
displaying graphics in a message opened in a separate window or in the Preview pane. As
with IE’s Information Bar, you can view the messages by clicking the block notification and
instructing OE to download them, but some attachments are simply blocked from down-
load completely. If that happens, and you know the code is valid, you can reply to the
sender to have that person reattach and resend them. If you’re not certain, be glad that the
attachment has been blocked.
Control of IE add-ons: Numerous programs add capabilities to IE to allow you to work
with files germane to those programs from within your browser. Typical examples include
virus checkers, download utilities, and the unending stream of toolbars available from
Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and practically everywhere else. SP2 adds a Manage Add-ons win-
dow to IE, accessible via IE’s Tools menu. Figure 1-1 shows this utility, in whose viewing
pane is displayed all the add-ons currently loaded in IE. Another view, available by click-
ing the drop-down menu in the Show field, allows you to see what add-ons IE has used,
not just those currently loaded. You can click the name of each add-on and choose to
Enable or Disable it. If it is an ActiveX object, you can click the Update ActiveX button to
have IE go to the manufacturer’s site and download the latest version. The most important
element here is the capability to disable add-ons because they often result in the worst
slowdowns you’ll experience when using IE.
Protection from the resizing of IE windows: Few things are more annoying than having
your browser window resized simply because you went to a specific Web site and loaded a
specific page. Resizing is caused by scripts deliberately encoded to cause the browser window
to enlarge (they could shrink it as well, but they never do), a method unscrupulous Web
authors use to ensure that you see the pages they want you to see (by hitting you over the
eyeballs with them). SP2 gives IE the code needed to stop these scripts from running, thereby
eliminating the resizing problem. If you want larger windows, you can resize them yourself.
Blocking of popups: Unwanted resizing of browser windows might be among the most
annoying events when Web browsing, but having new windows pop up on their own is
infuriating beyond belief. Popups are designed to focus your attention and force you to
notice something (usually an ad or a survey) you wouldn’t otherwise pay attention to.
Popups are intrusive, disruptive, counterproductive, and just plain rude. Numerous
toolbars (Google, Yahoo!, MSN) prevent popups from appearing; but with SP2, Internet
Explorer can block them as well. And as with all pop-up blockers, you can choose to have
the popup appear if you want. After IE has informed you that it has blocked a popup,
hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the link, and it will appear as a separate window.
 Chapter 1: Windows XP Service Pack 2 9

Figure 1-1: Internet Explorer’s Manage Add-ons dialog box.

Other Enhancements
The original Windows XP was the first Microsoft OS that offered built-in support for wireless net-
works, but Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity, formally known as the IEEE 801.11 networking standard) was
relatively new at the time and the support was limited. Service Pack 1 improved the capability of XP
machines to connect to wireless LANs, but SP2 makes it easier still. SP2 allows Windows to recog-
nize Wi-Fi broadcasts more reliably, enabling instant connections to public wireless networks in
locations such as airports, schools, libraries, coffee shops, and other hotspots. Simply turn on your
notebook and wait for XP to offer a choice of connections.
Also in the networking vein, SP2 improves the interplay between XP’s networking and the
Bluetooth standard. (Bluetooth is the specification for wireless personal area networks.) Whereas it
was often previously necessary to spend considerable amounts of time configuring XP in order to
have the connection actually work, with SP2 the connections are more frequently immediate.
They’re not as reliable as Wi-Fi connections, and in fact are often compared to the Wi-Fi capabilities
of XP as of Service Pack 1. But if you own Bluetooth equipment, anything’s better than what it was
like before, so this will come as a particularly pleasant improvement. Whether or not Bluetooth con-
tinues to evolve and capture market share remains to be seen, but Bluetooth devices — ranging from
keyboards to network adapters and print servers — are certainly appealing for a wide range of rea-
sons. SP2 makes them that much more appealing.
Only one other major enhancement ships with SP2: a new version of Windows Media Player.
WMP 10 is covered in detail in Chapter 14, so here I’ll simply say that it works more capably with
10 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

DVD movies and that it offers numerous music (and other media) download purchases from directly
within the program. In addition, facing obvious competition from the iPod, particularly the iPod’s
ease of building playlists, WMP 10 gives you better tools for organizing your music files.

Using the Windows Security Center

The Windows XP Security Center, which installs with SP2, is an easily accessible, easily compre-
hended dialog box designed to help you keep your XP installation more secure. It appears automat-
ically after the SP2 installation, providing you with only a few choices, but these choices are crucial
for security enhancement.
Figure 1-2 shows the Security Center in action. You can open the Security Center from the
Control Panel (click Start, choose Control Panel, and double-click the Security Center icon), and
you’ll want to do so to configure it to your needs. Notice that Figure 1-2 shows only one possible
view of the Security Center; what it actually looks like depends entirely on how you have your own
PC configured. For example, if you have none of the displayed component categories installed, you
will see buttons allowing you to configure it to include those components once you do install them.
The Security Center has five separate areas, four of which offer configuration options. The fol-
lowing sections provide a rundown of the four configurable areas, along with what to do with them
to make your computer more secure.

Figure 1-2: Windows XP Security Center installed with SP2.

 Chapter 1: Windows XP Service Pack 2 11

Resources
The bar on the far left of the Security Center houses the Resources area. At first glance, this area
seems nothing more than a set of links to information screens, but in fact, it’s more valuable than
that. Each of the five links offers its own useful security details:

Get the latest security and virus information from Microsoft: This link leads to the
Security home page on the Microsoft site (www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx). That
page, shown in Figure 1-3, provides a wealth of detail surrounding security updates, viruses
and other malicious software, and how to configure your PC for the highest possible security.
Clicking the link More Security Updates on this page, for example, leads to a list of security
bulletins and downloads. Farther down the page (not shown in the figure), the Trustworthy
Computing section provides a list of best practices and technology information.
Check for the latest updates from Windows Updates: Clicking this link leads to the
Windows Update site (covered in detail in Chapter 5). It’s useful to have the link on the
Security Center, especially as you get more and more used to checking the Security Center
for possible issues surrounding your PC.

Figure 1-3: Microsoft’s Security site.

12 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Get support for security-related issues: This link leads directly to the Microsoft Support
home page for security issues, a compendium of information about intrusions, viruses, and
protection mechanisms. Included here are recent announcements about dealing with secu-
rity problems, including information about such matters as how to determine if a security
warning, received via email or the Web, is genuine.

Caution
When you receive an email message about security or about the need to log in to an account in order to con-
firm anything at all, DO NOT COMPLY unless you are absolutely certain the message is legitimate. To deter-
mine legitimacy, visit the Web site of the organization or company that apparently sent the information to you,
and browse their site for information surrounding fraudulent messages. The general rule of thumb is that
sites such as banks, eBay, and any other site that can get their hands on your money will never issue such
messages. Sending fraudulent messages in order to gain access to your accounts is known as phishing and
is one of the most dangerous security problems facing computer users today.

Get help about Security Center: Clicking here loads the Windows Help system for the
Security Center applet. It’s a pretty useless Help page.
Change the way Security Center alerts me: This link opens the dialog box shown
in Figure 1-4. Checking each of the options (Firewall, Automatic Updates, and Virus
Protection) tells Windows to inform you when your computer might be at risk because
of the way you have Security Center configured. Although less useful than the warnings
provided by some third-person security utilities, this is certainly a step in the right direc-
tion for Windows itself. Notice that the pictured dialog box has the Virus Protection but-
ton unchecked; you might choose to do this if your antivirus software already has its own
alert system.

Figure 1-4: The dialog box for configuring Security Center alerts.
 Chapter 1: Windows XP Service Pack 2 13

Firewall
The Firewall area of the Security Center gives you a button for turning Firewall monitoring on or off,
as well as a link to a Help screen explaining why you should use only one firewall on your system.
The answer to the second point is that different firewalls work differently, to the degree that they
might very well prove incompatible with one another. That said, many users have two or even three
firewall packages running on their PCs: the Windows Firewall, a third-party firewall (such as
ZoneAlarm), and the firewall built into their network routers.
However, if you install a product such as Norton Firewall, the installation strongly recommends
that you let the product disable the Windows Firewall automatically. Users attempting to work with
both firewalls simultaneously have reported slowdowns and lockups.
The most important Security Center link to the Firewall is in the Manage Security Settings area at the
bottom of the screen. Clicking this link yields the Windows Firewall configuration dialog box with its
three tabs: General, Exceptions, and Advanced. From here, you control the workings of the Windows
Firewall; even if you change nothing, exploring its various screens lets you see what firewalls actually do.
The General tab offers only three choices: On (recommended), Off (not recommended), and Don’t
allow exceptions. By default, except on Domain installations of SP2, only the first choice is selected. If
you install a third-party firewall product that does not automatically disable the Windows Firewall,
check the Off radio button and click OK to disable it manually in favor of the newly installed product.
The check box labeled Don’t Allow Exceptions tells Windows to ignore any settings under the
Exceptions tab, which you come to next. Essentially, checking this box tells Windows to inform you of
any and all incoming data from the Internet, no matter what. This setting means that you will have to
override every single program with a connection from the Internet, even those such as email and Web
browsing that you do all the time. Check it only if you have the time to do such extensive monitoring.
The heart of the Firewall lies in the Exceptions tab. As Figure 1-5 shows, this tab displays a list of
some of the programs and services currently installed on your PC (see the following bulleted list for
adding others), along with a check mark denoting which ones you are allowing to bypass your fire-
wall. To force Windows to block a program from bypassing the firewall, uncheck its box and click
OK. To prevent Windows from even notifying you of such occurrences, uncheck the box at the bot-
tom of the dialog labeled Display a Notification When Windows Firewall Blocks a Program. With
this box checked, you have the option of overriding the Firewall each time a block occurs; with this
box unchecked, Windows Firewall blocks programs without your intervention (which essentially
means that you won’t be able to use those programs if their design is to download data).
At the bottom of the dialog box are these four buttons:

Add Program: This button opens the Add Program dialog box, which consists of a list of
everything installed on your PC, letting you manually select (or browse for) the programs
you want to control via the Firewall. This option is important for adding programs that
Windows has not initially determined to perform data downloads but that you know do
engage in such activity.
Add Port: This button allows you to declare that data using a specific port, which uses
either the TCP or the UDP protocol, will bypass the firewall automatically. The primary use
for this option lies with online games that require specific ports to work properly. When
you open a port for any purpose, however, you should always return to the Windows
Firewall dialog box after using it in order to close it again. Intruders are always looking for
open ports — to leave them open invites disaster.
14 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 1-5: Allowing exceptions to Windows Firewall blocking.

Edit: This button shows you the folder path for the program you’ve selected in the list and
lets you change the scope of the exclusion. Figure 1-6 shows the dialog box that appears
when you click the Change Scope button (this button is also available when you click the
Add Port button). The options are for any computer on the network to allow this program
through the firewall, for only those in this computer’s subnet (with all PCs outside that
subnet blocking the program), or for a customized list of PCs (listed by IP address) that
will allow that program to bypass the firewall. If you have only one member of your family
or your office who needs to unblock data from a specific program, use this feature to
unblock that person’s PC address.

Figure 1-6: The Change Scope dialog box.

 Chapter 1: Windows XP Service Pack 2 15

Delete: This button gives you the option of deleting a program from the Programs and
Services list. Doing so prevents it from being monitored entirely, so before deleting it, con-
sider simply checking it and, therefore, allowing it access as an exception.

The Advanced tab of the Windows Firewall dialog box (see Figure 1-7) offers still more options.
In the Network Connection Settings area, you can specify which of the connections shown in your
Network Connections folder will use the Windows Firewall. Be aware, however, that unchecking an
option renders that connection open to unprotected intrusion. It is possible to allow one or more
connections to use the Windows Firewall while other connections use a third-party firewall. There’s
little (if any) reason to ever do that, though.

Figure 1-7: The Windows Firewall Advanced tab options.

You can specify the firewalled components of each connection by clicking the Settings button.
This opens the Advanced Settings dialog box, with one list of selectable items under the Services tab
and another under the ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) tab. Each item you choose for
inclusion will be available through that specific network connection to anyone who uses that con-
nection. For example, you can specify whether users on that network connection are able to access
FTP or Web servers or Windows features such as Remote Desktop.
If you want to study the workings of the Windows Firewall, click the Settings button in the
Security Logging area. The resulting Log Settings dialog box lets you specify if you want to log suc-
cessful connections or dropped data packets, along with where on your system to store the log file
created by this option. You can also specify the maximum size of the file, 4MB by default, but as
small or as large as you want. With the logging feature turned on, you can open the file at any time
16 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

(using any text editor, such as Notepad) to see what the firewall has been doing. The information is
highly technical and is primarily useful for troubleshooting purposes. But if you’re determined to
understand firewalls (and especially the differences among firewalls), the details can be fascinating.

Automatic Updates, Virus Protection,

and Manage Security Settings
The Automatic Updates and Virus Protection Settings areas work similarly. Both provide information
about what the specific feature does, and both offer a button that lets you turn the feature on.
Automatic updates are covered in detail in Chapter 5, and antivirus protection is covered in Chapter 2.
Windows XP does not have any built-in antivirus protection (although rumors persist that it will
be added before too long). What the Security Center does, however, is work in conjunction with
third-party antivirus packages (from McAfee, Symantec, and so on) to monitor your system contin-
ually for attempted viral intrusion. Clicking the Recommendations button (refer back to Figure 1-2)
yields a dialog box with only one choice: whether to monitor your antivirus software yourself (the
default) or allow Windows XP to do so for you. Check the box if you regularly check your antivirus
settings. If you see no Recommendations button, it means that Security Center already knows that
the antivirus software is installed and that you want Windows to monitor it.
At the bottom of the Security Center are three links under the heading Manage Security Settings
for: Internet Options, Automatic Updates, and Windows Firewall. All three simply open the dialog
boxes necessary for configuring these options. Internet Options are discussed in Chapter 9, and
Automatic Updates are covered in Chapter 5. The Firewall settings are detailed in the section imme-
diately following this one.
All three dialog boxes are available from the Control Panel; having them in the Security Center is
merely a matter of convenience.

Summary
Windows XP Service Pack 2 provides a level of security that no desktop version of Windows has
managed to achieve in the past. The Windows Firewall alone is worth the price of admission; how-
ever, the Security Center points to a solid future of drawing together the myriad threads of security
options that have been available to Windows users for a long time but that have always worked dis-
parately and often at odds with one another. Third-party security solutions remain not only valid
but also frequently preferred. But even out of the box — except for the crucial omission of antivirus
software — SP2 can render any PC much less vulnerable than before. Simply put, do not let anyone
in your office or your household run Windows XP without it.
Chapter 2

Protecting XP
against Viruses

I f you buy a new computer these days, it’s likely to ship with an antivirus package. This fact, more
than anything else, should convince you of how widespread viruses have become and how much
the computer industry has come to accept their inevitability. Quite simply, viruses are a fact of com-
puting life.
If your computer did not come with an antivirus package, you should install one before you do
anything else. These things aren’t luxuries; you need them. Very few viruses actually do significant
harm to your PC, but it takes only one such infection to make your life thoroughly miserable.
Furthermore, even those viruses that don’t destroy data or programs can slow down your PC or
cause it to behave unpredictably. Even worse, however, is the fact that the entire purpose of a com-
puter virus is to spread. If you don’t protect your PC, you will almost certainly start sending viruses
to other people. Safe computing isn’t just about you.
The other reason to install an antivirus package is that, increasingly, these packages deal with more
than just viruses. Other forms of malicious software, including spyware (covered in Chapter 3), can
also affect your system and even your privacy. You don’t want this stuff glued to your hard drives or
floating around in memory, but most of us have at least a small amount of it. Some PCs, especially
those that have no protective software tools, are inundated with it.

Tip
Just say no. That’s the best guideline I can possibly give you. If you get a message on your computer asking
if you want something downloaded and/or installed, click the No or Cancel button. There are reasons to
allow downloads — updated virus definition files, automatic updates from Microsoft, new Acrobat Reader
versions from Adobe, for example — but before pressing the Yes/OK/Install button, be absolutely certain you
know what you’re letting yourself in for. The primary cause of intrusion problems on personal computers,
especially Windows machines, is user ignorance; perhaps that’s a tough word to use, but unfortunately it fits.
People simply don’t realize that anything you don’t specifically ask for, no matter how nicely the request
might be phrased, is designed to do something you probably don’t want it to do. Just say no, and you’ll be
much better off.

17
18 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

This chapter deals with viruses and virus protection programs. Chapter 3 deals with spyware.
Between the two of them, and especially when used in conjunction with a firewall program (see
Chapter 1), you have a decent chance of protecting your computer from the majority of intrusions
you’re likely to experience in your daily computer use.

Understanding Viruses, Worms, and Trojans

There are thousands of viruses out there, and many different categories of viruses, but generally they
all fit a single basic definition. A virus is a computer program intentionally designed to associate itself
with another computer program in a way that when the original program is run, the virus program
is run as well; the virus replicates by attaching itself to other programs. The virus “associates” itself
with the original program by attaching itself to that program or even by replacing it, and the replica-
tion is sometimes in the form of a modified version of the virus program.
Notice the intentionally designed part of the definition. Viruses aren’t just accidents. Programmers
with significant skills author and develop them, and then find ways to get them onto the computers
of the unsuspecting. The stronger antivirus programs get, the harder the virus authors work to get
around them. For many virus authors, the whole thing is simply a challenge; for others, the point is
having a good time making computing life uncertain or even miserable.
Viruses have quite correctly gained a reputation for harmfulness, but in reality many are not
harmful. Yes, some damage files or perform other forms of destructiveness, but many are simply
minor annoyances or, from the user’s perspective, nothing at all. To be considered a virus, a program
need only replicate itself; anything else it does is extra. Of course, the whole point behind viruses is
that they run without the user’s awareness, but that’s not strictly necessary. You could knowingly cre-
ate a self-replicating program, attach it to another program, and run it on your own machine so that
it spreads, and it’s still a virus. But that’s not the way it usually happens.
Even relatively pain-free viruses aren’t completely harmless, of course. They consume memory
and CPU resources, thereby affecting the speed and efficiency of your machine. Furthermore, the
antivirus programs that sniff them out and eliminate them also consume memory and CPU
resources; many users, in fact, claim they slow the computer down noticeably and are more intrusive
than the viruses themselves. In other words, viruses affect your computing life even when they’re not
actually doing anything.

Virus Types
The preceding explanation of viruses is actually more specific than the way we tend to use the term
virus. In fact, it is often called a program virus or a file virus in order for commentators to differenti-
ate it from other types of viruses. These viruses, which also go by the names file infectors and para-
sitic viruses, are those viruses that attach themselves to an executable file (that is, programs), and are
the most common and the most discussed. The virus typically waits in memory for the user to run
other programs, using such an event as a trigger to infect that program as well. Thus, they replicate
simply through active use of the computer. There are different types of file infectors, but the concept
is similar in all of them.
Other virus types (although not all are technically viruses) include boot sector viruses, macro
viruses, email viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and droppers. All these programs are part of a category
 Chapter 2: Protecting XP against Viruses 19

of program known as malware, or malicious logic software. What they all have in common is that
they act without the user’s knowledge, committing some kind of act inside the computer that they
are intentionally designed to do.
Boot sector viruses or infectors reside in specific areas of the PC’s hard disk, those that are read by
the computer at boot time. True boot sector viruses infect only DOS’s boot sector, while a subtype
called MBR viruses infect the master boot record. Both of these areas of the hard disk are read during
the boot process, during which the virus is loaded into memory. Viruses can infect the boot sectors
or floppy disks, but typically a virus-free, write-protected boot floppy has always been a safe way to
start the system virus-free. The problem, of course, is guaranteeing that the floppy itself is unin-
fected, a task that antivirus programs attempt to do.
Macro viruses work much the same way as program viruses, which makes sense, because macros
are simply small programs. These viruses make use of the fact that many programs ship with pro-
gramming languages built in. The languages are designed to help users automate tasks through the
creation of small programs called macros. The programs in Microsoft Office, for instance, ship with
such a built-in language, and in fact provide many of their own built-in macros. A macro virus is
simply a macro for one of these programs. This type of virus became known through its infection of
Microsoft Word. When a document containing the virus macro is opened in the target application,
the virus runs and does its damage. In addition, it is often programmed to copy itself into other doc-
uments so that continual use of the program results in continual spread of the virus. Viruses for
Microsoft Office programs are so common that, by default, when you open a Microsoft Office pro-
gram, the capability to run macros is disabled. You have to tell Office to turn that feature on.
Email viruses have become a major source of malware distribution in the past few years. They
function (mostly) by automatically mailing themselves to everyone in the user’s contact list.
Microsoft Outlook has been the primary target for email viruses because of Outlook’s popularity.
A worm is a program that replicates itself but doesn’t infect other programs. It copies itself to and
from floppy disks, or across network connections, and sometimes it uses the network to run. One
type of worm, the host worm, uses the network only to copy itself onto other machines, while
another type, the network worm, spreads parts of itself across networks and relies on network con-
nections to run its various parts. Worms can also exist on a non-networked computer, in which case
they copy themselves to various locations on your hard drives.
The Trojan horse name comes from the Greek myth, best recounted in The Odyssey, in which the
Greek army gave a wooden horse as a gift to the Trojans and then hid inside the horse as it was taken
into Troy. They jumped out and captured the city, ending the long siege. The idea in computers is the
same. A Trojan horse is a program that is hidden inside a seemingly harmless program and launches
when that program is run. It is designed to perform actions that the user doesn’t want performed.
Trojan horses do not replicate themselves.
Droppers are programs designed to avoid antivirus detection, usually by encryption that prevents
antivirus software from noticing them. The typical function of droppers is to transport and install
viruses. They wait on the system for a specific event, at which point they launch themselves and
infect the system with the contained virus.
Related to these programs is the concept of the bomb. Bombs are usually built into malware as a
means of activating it. Bombs are programmed to activate when a specific event occurs. Bombs based
on time events activate at a specific time, typically using the system clock. For example, a bomb
could be programmed to erase all .doc files from your hard drive on New Year’s Eve. Other bombs
20 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

use logic to activate: an example might be to wait for the twentieth instance of a program launch and
at that time erase the program’s template files. In fact, looked at this way, bombs are just malicious
scripts or scheduling programs.
Viruses can be thought of as special instances involving one or more of these malware programs.
They can be spread through droppers (although they need not be), and they use the worm idea to
replicate themselves. While viruses are not technically Trojan horses, they act like them in two ways:
first, they do things the user doesn’t want done; second, by attaching themselves to existing pro-
grams, they effectively turn the original program into a Trojan horse (they hide inside it, launch
when it launches, and commit unwanted acts).

Viruses Keep Getting Smarter

The macro virus concept works because the programming language provides access to memory and
hard disks. So, in fact, do other recent technologies, including ActiveX controls and Java applets.
True, these are designed to protect the hard disk from the program (Java better than ActiveX), but
the fact is that these programs can install themselves on your computer simply because you visit a
Web site. Obviously, as we become increasingly networked, and as we expect such conveniences as
operating system upgrades over the Internet, we put ourselves at greater risk from viruses and other
malware. Although many people have never had a virus attack, the chance of a destructive one
increases constantly. So it makes sense to guard against it. Like it or not, that almost certainly means
getting a good antivirus program, of which several — including some free ones — are available. Go
to any good download site and try one out. Make sure, however, that you can frequently update it
because new viruses continue to appear.
Virus authors are nothing if not innovative, and they have constantly come up with new ways of
thwarting antivirus software. Stealth viruses, for example, are viruses that mislead the antivirus soft-
ware into thinking that nothing is wrong. Essentially, a stealth virus retains information about the
files it has infected and then waits in memory and intercepts antivirus programs that are looking for
altered files. It gives the antivirus program the old information rather than the new. Polymorphic
viruses alter themselves when they replicate, so that antivirus software that looks for specific patterns
won’t find all instances of the virus; those that survive can continue replicating.
Several other types of smart viruses are appearing regularly, as the game of cat and mouse between
virus authors and antivirus software producers continues. Recent efforts, for example, have concen-
trated on other genres of communication software, particularly in instant messaging programs such
as AOL Messenger and MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger. The idea is to have instant messages
that provide cleverly worded links (“lol you’ll like this” is one example) that unsuspecting IMers will
click. 2005’s Kelvir worm is perhaps the most nefarious of these; it attempts to spread itself to IM
contacts, and to each machine it downloads additional software.
Also increasing are the methods by which viruses and Trojans — along with spyware in particular
(spyware is covered in Chapter 3) — can hide themselves from detection. The best example of these,
called rootkits, demonstrates the degree to which it has become necessary to have help in monitor-
ing your system. A rootkit is a collection of software tools that intruders install on computers after
they’ve gained user access (usually by other intrusion means). The rootkit collects usernames and
passwords, creates “backdoors” into which other malware can be installed, and contains mechanisms
by which it can hide itself from intrusion. Persistent rootkits store themselves in the registry or in the
file system and launch whenever Windows loads. Kernel-mode rootkits function at the core of the
 Chapter 2: Protecting XP against Viruses 21

operating system and are virtually undetectable because they intercept the operating system’s basic
processes. Detecting rootkits has become a major goal for antivirus and anti-spyware software,
although standalone tools such as Sysinternals’ rootkitrevealer (www.sysinternals.com) focus exclu-
sively on such detection.

How a Virus Works

Viruses work in different ways, but here’s the basic process.
First, the virus appears on your system. It enters your system, usually as part of an already
infected program file (.com or .exe), and in the past almost exclusively through the distribution of
infected floppies (the famous boot sector viruses). Today, viruses are frequently downloaded from a
network as part of a larger download, such as part of the setup files for a trial program, as a macro for
a specific program, or as an attachment on an email message.
Note that the email message itself is not usually a virus, but with JavaScript as a component of
HTML-based messages they can be. A virus is a program and must be run to become active. A virus
delivered as an email attachment, therefore, does nothing until you run it. You run this kind of virus
by launching the email attachment, usually by double-clicking it. One way to help protect yourself
from this kind of virus is simply never to open attachments that are compressed files (such as .zips),
executable files (.exe or .com), or data files for programs, such as office suites, that provide macro
writing features. A graphics file or a sound file is safe, for example, because it is none of these; then
again, it’s possible to intentionally misname files in an attempt to get users to open them and, in
doing so, create malware problems.
A virus starts its life on your PC, therefore, as a Trojan horse–like program. It is hidden within
another program or file and launches with that file. In an infected executable file, the virus has essen-
tially modified the original program to point to the virus code and launch that code along with its
own code. Typically, it jumps to the virus code, executes it, and then jumps back to the original code.
At this point, the virus is active, and your system is infected.
Once active, the virus either does its work immediately — these are called direct-action viruses —
or sits in the background as a memory-resident program using the terminate and stay resident (TSR)
procedure allowed by the operating system. Most are of this second type are called resident viruses.
Given the vast range of activities allowed by TSR programs, everything from launching programs to
backing up files and watching for keyboard or mouse activity (plus much more), a resident virus can
be programmed to do pretty much anything the operating system can do. Using a bomb, it can wait
for events to trigger it and then go to work on your system. One of the things it can do is scan your
disk or (more significantly) your networked disks for other running (or executable) programs and
copy itself to those programs to infect them as well.

Using Antivirus Programs

Antivirus programs are utilities that track, inform you about, quarantine, clean, or delete files that
contain known or suspected viruses. Notice the last part of this sentence: known or suspected viruses.
By far the more important of these two adjectives is known; antivirus software can function effec-
tively only if it knows precisely what it is looking for. The suspected part refers to the capability of
22 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

this sophisticated software to recognize patterns in virus construction: If it detects a pattern within a
file it has scanned that comes close to matching the various virus patterns contained in its database,
it will let you know and offer to quarantine that file for you.
So, what does your antivirus program know? Very simply, any virus code that it has been pro-
grammed to look for. When your antivirus utility conducts a scan of your files, it examines the code
of any files you specify to see if those files contain code that matches one or more virus definitions
the utility contains. The virus definition file, therefore, determines the effectiveness of your antivirus
utility; it cannot detect viruses that are not contained in the definition file. Because of this, your
antivirus utility is next to useless unless you keep it continually updated.
Fortunately, all antivirus utilities contain a means of updating the definition files. Either you
download the files from the manufacturer’s Web site manually, or you configure the utility to connect
to the Web site every so often (your choice) to check for updated definition files — along with
updates to the program itself — and download and install them. If you have a broadband Internet
connection, you might as well configure your utility to check daily.

Tip
If you are responsible for other peoples’ computers — those of family members or fellow office workers, for
instance — check them occasionally to determine that (a) the antivirus utility is running, and (b) the definition
files have been updated. One of the most common mistakes PC users make is to shut off the automatic
update feature of these utilities but think they are protected because the antivirus program is indeed running.
All the utility can do in that situation is ensure that the PC remains uninfected by old viruses; it can do noth-
ing to guard against newcomers.

For the purposes of this chapter, I have decided to focus on one antivirus package, Symantec’s
Norton AntiVirus (which I abbreviate as NAV). This is not in any way meant to denigrate the other
popular antivirus packages out there: McAfee VirusScan, Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security,
Kapersky Antivirus, or any others. In fact, in comparative reviews, Norton AntiVirus has not typi-
cally proven better than the others in any significant way. Its choice for this book is primarily the
package’s popularity and the fact that it serves just fine as an example of what antivirus software
accomplishes.

Scanning from the Web

It’s not actually necessary to purchase an antivirus package if all you want to do is check your PC’s
current virus situation. Increasingly, antivirus vendors are offering scanning of your PC directly from
their Web sites, a process that tends to take a bit longer than local scanning but which has four major
benefits:

You can successfully scan a PC that does not have the latest virus definition files installed
locally.
You are always assured of the most up-to-date virus scan possible.
 Chapter 2: Protecting XP against Viruses 23

You can scan PCs on which, for whatever reason, you cannot install antivirus software.
You can get a second opinion to see if the results are different from those of your installed
antivirus program.

The next two figures show the Web pages for two of the more popular Web-based antivirus scans.
Figure 2-1 is the User Agreement page for McAfee FreeScan, accessible from the McAfee home page
(www.mcafee.com).

Figure 2-1: McAfee’s freely available Web-based download service.

Figure 2-2 shows the starting page for Trend Micro’s Housecall, the online free virus scan corre-
sponding to their PC-cillin product (www.trendmicro.com).
In both cases, you need to agree to a download of an ActiveX control to have the virus-scanning
software start, and this is indeed one of two apparent strikes against this method of virus checking.
Since some of the fear surrounding malware is precisely the vulnerability of your PC to software
placed on your hard drives from outside, it seems counterintuitive from a security standpoint to
allow an ActiveX control to install itself on your PC and then allow that control to scan all the files
on your system. To be sure, there’s no way a reputable company would do anything so stupid as to
cause damage or steal data in this way, but that won’t stop everyone from being concerned.
24 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 2-2: A similar service available from Trend Micro.

The other issue is much more functional. Web-based scans tell you what’s on your system right
now, but they do nothing to prevent additional viruses from infecting your PC from that point on. A
locally installed antivirus program continually checks your PC’s memory, the files you download
from the Internet, and much more. In other words, an installed package acts as a preventative, while
a Web-based scan acts only to determine what’s already wrong.
That said, however, these free scan sites can save you time and again, so don’t hesitate to use
them. And, while you’re at it, say thanks that they’re available at all.

Getting Started with Norton AntiVirus

You have several choices when it comes to acquiring Norton AntiVirus. The first is to purchase it as
a standalone package, either from your local computer store or through the Symantec online store at
www.symantecstore.com. Figure 2-3 shows the page from this store for the most recent (as of this
writing) version of the product. As the figure shows, you can buy the package and have it shipped to
you, you can buy only a downloadable version, or you can buy both. You can also purchase a backup
CD of the product — not a bad idea, actually, as long as you have the extra 10 bucks.
 Chapter 2: Protecting XP against Viruses 25

Figure 2-3: Buying your antivirus product online.

Symantec has made the software available in several other packages as well. It forms one of the core
elements of Norton Internet Security (including the AntiSpyware Edition), as well as Norton
SystemWorks, a product that has been available from the company for several years. SystemWorks
incorporates the antivirus package with utilities for hard disk security and repair, disk clean-up, system
monitoring, and much more. These products made their start — and indeed the company’s start — as
Norton Utilities. When you consider the difference in price between the antivirus package on its own
($49.95) and the full utility package ($69.95), it probably makes sense to get the whole shebang.
The first step, of course, is to install the software. This is actually simpler with Windows XP than
with Windows 9.x versions, as long as you’re using the recommended NTFS file system. For the
FAT32 file system — the file system used on Windows 95, 98, and ME — NAV installs a Rescue fea-
ture that enables you to create emergency disks that are usable if your XP installation fails to start.
With Windows XP (or Windows 2000) and the NTFS file system, however, this feature not only
doesn’t work, it isn’t even installed. So, it becomes even more crucial to keep your system backed up,
using a backup program or ghosting program.
Once installed, NAV automatically launches its LiveUpdate feature. This features works very
much like any automatic update feature, informing you that updates are available from the com-
pany’s download site and giving you the opportunity to perform the update at that moment or wait-
ing until later. Immediately upon installation, you should perform the update without even thinking
about it. If you don’t, you’ll be out of date before you start.
26 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

LiveUpdate is shown in Figure 2-4. In this figure, the utility is accessing the Symantec site to
determine if any of the Norton SystemWorks programs or data files (such as virus definition files) on
your PC need updating. If you own NAV on its own, the Products and Components window will
show far fewer programs, of course, but the principle remains the same. LiveUpdate tells you what’s
available for download and lets you download and install them with one click. You should launch
LiveUpdate manually on a periodic basis, but by default it monitors Symantec’s site and informs you
automatically of any updates it finds.

Figure 2-4: LiveUpdate in the process of downloading component and data file information.

The Norton AntiVirus Control Panel

For manual scans, configuring the software and checking out all available options launch the NAV
control panel. Figure 2-5 shows the control panel with the NAV button on the left side selected; in a
standalone NAV product, this will be the only button available. In this figure, all options are selected,
as the check mark beside each one indicates. The date to the right of three of the features states when
that function was last performed or, in the case of Renewal Date, when the subscription runs out.
Each year, you must renew NAV, most recently at a cost of $19.95, in order to continue having access
to the latest virus definition files.
In addition to the status display shown in Figure 2-5, this front page of the control panel gives you
two other options. The most important is the Scan for Viruses button, from which you can perform
manual scans of your system. As Figure 2-6 shows, this screen lets you choose how extensive you
want the scan to be. You can scan the entire computer (a task of a few hours on a typical system these
days) or scan only the floppy drives, only the removable drives (such as CDs), only one or more of the
hard drives, only specified folders, or, to help you isolate virus-inhabiting files, only specific files on
your system. Clicking any of the last three options yields a related dialog box that lets you select pre-
cisely what you wish to do; clicking any of the first three launches the scan immediately.
 Chapter 2: Protecting XP against Viruses 27

Figure 2-5: The Status display of NAV’s control panel.

Figure 2-6: Options for manual scanning.

The third choice on the control panel is to read the numerous reports that NAV compiles as it
goes about its business. Figure 2-7 shows the report screen, with the threat alerts highlighted. This
example shows the capacity of NAV to locate spyware (covered in Chapter 3) rather than viruses per
se, but that’s only because this particular PC had not experienced a virus threat during the range of
dates covered in the report (or NAV didn’t catch them). Note that from this dialog box you can’t
28 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

actually do anything about the items caught during scanning; this is simply a report, but a highly
informative one nevertheless.

Figure 2-7: NAV’s report screen.

Tip
Norton AntiVirus helps you keep your system up to snuff even further by adding to the Windows interface. In
My Computer, for example, you can right-click a file or folder and choose Scan with Norton AntiVirus, to have
the program perform an immediate scan of only that component. The package also adds a toolbar to Internet
Explorer.

Configuring Antivirus Software

As you might expect, Norton AntiVirus, like all antivirus products, is highly configurable. Upon
installation, all the most important features are turned on, but you can opt to disable specific features
or enable even more features to give yourself the best mix of convenience and protection.
Why do I say convenience? Because antivirus software by its very nature is intrusive. It has to
examine everything being downloaded to your system, it has to update its malware definition files,
and it has to launch itself at specified times in order to conduct scans of your hard drives. If you also
 Chapter 2: Protecting XP against Viruses 29

have it set to examine all files you upload, including email messages, all this scanning can cause the
system to slow down appreciably, at times to the extent that you swear something is not working.
This is especially true of operations it performs in the background; it’s not uncommon to be waiting
for a Web page to appear, or a large graphics file to open, only to discover that the antivirus program
has been hogging system resources performing one of its numerous functions. For this reason, NAV
(again, like all such packages) lets you turn some of those functions off if you wish, or schedule them
at the most convenient times possible.
Figure 2-8 shows the NAV Options dialog box. When using your antivirus package, take some
time to explore the various possible configurable elements; sometimes they’re not immediately
apparent. In NAV, for example, the entire left side of the Options screen consists of numerous con-
figurable elements. Figure 2-8 shows only one such grouping — the Auto-Protect options — and not
even all the ones available in this group. Clicking the Auto-Protect menu item on the left yields addi-
tional subcomponents, each of which you may configure as you see fit.

Figure 2-8: NAV’s Auto-Protect options.

The following list highlights some of the more interesting options and what they do:

Auto-Protect: The Auto-Protect feature allows NAV to monitor your system continuously,
detecting malware as it appears on your PC. With a slow processor, this feature can take a
significant toll on your PC’s performance. That’s really the only reason you should even
consider toggling the feature off. If you do have it on, it’s also a good idea to have it load
with Windows so that it can begin its monitoring immediately. The middle of the screen
lets you choose whether you want NAV to automatically attempt to repair files in which it
30 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

detects malware, attempt to repair them but quarantine them if it cannot, or deny access
to the file. If you know a user does not understand the dangers associated with viruses, the
denial option might be your best bet to ensure that no file with improper code detected
gets used on the system.
Script Blocking: This feature allows NAV to stop software scripts from being run on your
PC, thereby helping you avoid viruses that enter your system as part of the script. This
feature does not attempt to detect the virus; instead, it presents you with a dialog box let-
ting you choose whether or not you want the script to run (unless you choose the option
to have it simply block the script without telling you). As with everything else related to
security, if you don’t know what it is, don’t allow it to happen.
Manual Scan: When you suspect something bad might have made it to your PC, or if you
simply want extra peace of mind, periodically perform a manual scan. The options here are
similar to any scan except that you can include or exclude your PC’s boot records and/or
master boot records. These are low-level areas of the primary hard drive; if infected with
a virus, they launch that virus every time you boot up your PC.
Email. Given the preponderance of email-related viruses and other malware, you should
definitely consider leaving all email scanning features toggled on (their default). The two
major choices are to scan incoming messages and/or outgoing messages. If you choose the
latter, every time you send an email from one of the supporting programs (such as Outlook
Express), you see a small notification box giving you the progress of the virus scan for that
message (or those messages if you send more than one at a time). This option is important
less for your own system than for those of your recipients; so out of sheer courtesy, be sure
to leave it toggled on. However, it does slow down the sending process somewhat, espe-
cially on slow systems or systems with slow Internet connections. The only other option
in the Email section is to monitor for worms, an obvious choice to include.
Internet Worm Protection. Apart from worm blocking in email, NAV gives you the
option of monitoring your system for worms at all times, preventing access in numerous
ways. For the most part, you need not concern yourself with configuring this feature; the
default settings handle the vast majority of cases, and NAV will learn your preferences as
you use your programs. Using this dialog box, however, you can configure the feature pre-
cisely as you wish, setting the options for individual programs, incoming and outgoing
connections, and how to deal with Trojans. Figure 2-9 shows the Trojan configuration dia-
log box, which simply lists the Trojans NAV knows about and lets you block them or allow
them. Because NAV identifies Trojans by specific rules programmed into it, it sometimes
misidentifies files as containing Trojans when in fact they do not. If you know this to be
the case, toggle that particular Trojan identification off.
Instant Messenger: Because Instant Messaging software has become increasingly vulnera-
ble to malware, antivirus programs now protect IM as well as email. You have the option in
NAV of adding virus protection to the three most popular IM programs: AOL Messenger,
Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger (there is no option to include others, such as ICQ).
You also have the option of automatically informing the sender when you receive a mes-
sage containing a virus.
 Chapter 2: Protecting XP against Viruses 31

Figure 2-9: A list of Trojans whose rules are programmed into NAV’s database.

Threat Categories: You don’t have to allow NAV to scan your system for all possible threats.
The Threat Detection Categories dialog box (which you open by clicking the Threat
Categories item in the left pane) lets you uncheck those you don’t want it to detect, pre-
sumably because you have other programs on your PC that do so. For example, if you
have a third-party spyware package running (Chapter 3 covers spyware), you might want
to uncheck the spyware and adware boxes, letting the dedicated package do its work with-
out conflict with NAV.

Summary
Your antivirus program is the best friend you have on your computer. Ideally, you wouldn’t need it,
of course, because nobody would stoop so low as to write viruses in the first place, or they would be
caught and jailed for it. But people do write them, many of them in fact, and there’s absolutely no
reason you should be the one to suffer for it. Any major antivirus utility package will do, so if you
don’t have one already, find one that suits your price range and your needs and install it. You can’t
possibly be sorry about it.
Chapter 3

Dealing with Spyware

and Adware

S pyware and adware make up a category of software, called malware, that takes advantage of
two facts of life with a computer in the early twenty-first century: Almost everybody is on the
Internet, and almost nobody pays attention to what they put on their PCs. In general, Spyware refers
to programs that, without the user’s knowledge, collect information from the PC and transmit it to
one or more servers over the Internet. Adware takes a different approach by sitting in memory and
occasionally displaying banners on programs that have been scripted to perform this function.
Together, these two categories of software have caused a great many users a great many prob-
lems over the past couple years — to the degree that one of the collective nicknames for this software
is scumware. The programs are difficult to spot and, in some cases, quite difficult to remove from
the PC.
This chapter briefly examines spyware and adware and demonstrates how to monitor and remove
it using dedicated utilities. It also shows the complexity, in one particular case, involved in removing
spyware/adware manually.

What Are Spyware and Adware?

One of the biggest questions concerning spyware and adware lies with definitions. Until you can
state precisely what something is, it’s impossible not only to deal with it in all cases but also to legis-
late against it — although two bills, HR 29 and HR 744, are wending their way through the U.S. leg-
islative processes as of this writing (a Google search on the two bills will reveal the text). Indeed, the
computer industry itself can’t make up its mind about how to define it, a problem for even those
companies who wish to comply with both legislative decisions and consumer satisfaction.
What’s the problem? First of all, the word “spyware” itself is confusing.. Although the term now
refers to a fairly broad range of software (as I discuss later), originally, it meant software that,
unknown to the user, acquired personal information and sent it to whomever it was programmed to.
In other words, it was spying on you. This could include programs that collected keystrokes or a
wide variety of other information, the primary element being the user’s lack of awareness of what was
going on. In some cases, such as those involving programs included with other packages (see the

33
34 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

section on removing KaZaA, below), the user was even unaware that the program was being (or had
been) installed. But in most cases, users installed the software without even bothering to check;
that’s how this category of programs became so widespread.
Two questions (at least) come to the fore here. First, if a user installs the software despite a warn-
ing stating that it will operate in the background and help “customize” the computing experience,
does that make it all okay? Second, what happens with other forms of data-monitoring software
placed unknowingly on the user’s hard drive, a category into which cookies fall? The answer to the
first question should be easy, in the sense that we’re all responsible for our own lack of vigilance. But
are the explanations that appear with the installation enough to guide users realistically? Given the
tendency of a great many people to click OK no matter what they see, obviously there are issues
here. Is user ignorance something software vendors should be allowed to take advantage of? The
questions increase in complexity, of course, when examined in the corporate and institutional
domains.
The second question is the subject of continual debate among software companies of all kinds, not
just those who produce anti-spyware and anti-adware products. One big question surrounds cookies.
These little bits of code are placed on your hard drive by, in fact, many Web sites, and you allow them
simply by configuring your Web browser to do so — or, more specifically, by not preventing it from
doing so. When you visit a site, the Web server software looks for cookies appropriate to that domain,
then “remembers” your settings, or your username, or what’s in your shopping cart, and so on. So, in a
sense, cookies track who you are and where you’ve been. Does that make them spyware?
According to numerous anti-spyware programs, yes. But according to other sources, no.
Microsoft’s Anti-Spyware program (covered below) does not scan for cookies by default (you can do
so manually) because to deactivate and destroy cookies renders the browsing experience slower and
in some ways less enjoyable. An argument also exists that cookies can be used to eliminate popups
that first-time visitors receive; the cookie identifies you as someone who has already seen that ad or
filled out that survey and does not bother you again. Eliminating the cookie would result in greater
annoyance, not less. A counterargument suggests that it’s easy for today’s monitoring software to dis-
tinguish between cookies that gather information in order to track user behavior and those that do
not. But the point is that there’s no consensus yet about whether even the behavior-tracking cookies
are properly categorized as spyware.
In addition to this confusion, several companies have taken exception to having their products
labeled spyware or adware in the first place. The argument here is that if consumers choose to acti-
vate the products, knowing full well what they do, they shouldn’t have a negative label attached to
them — which, unquestionably, the words “spyware” and “adware” have become. Other companies
have deliberately incorporated adware into their offerings, arguing that they provide useful informa-
tion to customers without performing objectionable actions such as monitoring keystrokes or Web
navigation patterns. Furthermore, numerous software products send information to the vendor
without anyone complaining, or at least not with the same complaints as with malware. Windows
XP itself offers to send data whenever a program (or the operating itself) crashes, which means it has
already gathered this information against such an occurrence. This would hardly be classed as spy-
ware, but it’s certainly similar to that negatively considered category.
When all is said and done, however, you’re not likely to encounter anyone who actually wants
spyware on their systems. This chapter details how you can control it and, ultimately, get rid of it.
 Chapter 3: Dealing with Spyware and Adware 35

Working with Spyware/Adware Programs

As the spyware and adware epidemic has grown, so has the number of software packages designed
to deal with it. In this section, I examine two types of programs: those that handle spyware and adware
exclusively, and those with spyware/adware monitoring and deleting capabilities built into a larger
package of utilities.

Dedicated versus Bundled Anti-Spyware Programs

If you’re serious about controlling spyware and adware, you should consider installing a program
designed specifically to identify, monitor, and delete it. That way, you have a utility that does only
one job, and you can be sure that, as long as the vendor supports the program to industry standards,
it will be constantly current and always able to deal with the latest threats. Bundled utilities typically
upgrade several of the included programs at once, which means that if the spyware portion needs
updating, but another utility in the package will be ready within a day or two, it makes sense to hold
back the entire bundle to ensure a more efficient download and installation for the user. The prob-
lem with this approach, of course, is that you might miss a crucial detection during that delay.
The three programs examined briefly here belong to different categories. The first is shareware —
that continuingly valuable category that produces many of the most useful utilities out there. The
second is from Microsoft itself, designed as an add-on to Windows XP. The third is a component
within a larger group of utilities. Obviously, it makes sense to give the Microsoft item a try, because
it’s intended to run with XP, but because you can try all three for absolutely no cost, why not take
them all for a spin?

Tip
To get the best results out of anti-spyware packages, have only one running at a time. This is especially true
if your goal is to compare one program against the other, because otherwise you can’t really pick out their
individual strengths and weaknesses.

SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY

Originally released in 2002, Spybot Search & Destroy (better known as SS&D, of course) has gained
the reputation as one of the best standalone spyware detectors, monitors, and removers in the busi-
ness. SS&D is available free, although the Web site (www.safer-networking.org) quite reasonably
asks for a donation to defray the numerous costs (to say nothing of the time spent) encountered by
the developers. Unlike another equally highly regarded utility, LavaSoft’s Ad-Aware, SS&D is not
available as a purchased package (although Ad-Aware also has a free version); you download the lat-
est version (1.4 as of this writing), install it, and when you discover it works, go to the site and con-
tribute to someone who helps keep your system safe.
Installation is simple and fast (although you should create a Restore Point with System Restore
before doing so, in case you want to reverse the process). Upon installation, you’re immediately
36 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

presented with a dialog box labeled “Legal Stuff,” which tells you that if you remove advertisement
robots (adware) with SS&D, you might not be able to run the host programs they came with. Just say
OK, and continue the installation. This is precisely what you want the program to do. You then get a
small utility offering to make a backup of your Windows registry, another good idea at this time.
Once this is done, a rather mysterious button appears in the installation wizard called “Immunize
this System.” The explanation is no less mysterious: “Now that you are up-to-date, it is recom-
mended that you apply some basic Immunization. Just click the button to do this.” Go ahead
and press the button, because SS&D simply wants to configure itself to block some known mal-
ware from functioning on your system. Version 1.4 blocks over 6000 such products with its simple
immunization.
As with all such products, the next step is to let SS&D perform its magic. On the main screen,
click the Check for Problems button and sit back and watch. With its default settings, SS&D uses its
built-in database of known threats to search your system and block the worst offenders as you work,
and to delete any it has found. You can click the Settings button to change this configuration so that
SS&D does even more than what its initial setup handles. For example, as Figure 3-1 shows, it lets
you select which cookies you wish to retain on your system if you configure the program to routinely
erase your usage tracks. Using the Tools menu, you can have SS&D stop programs from loading
when Windows boots, another useful service.

Figure 3-1: Spybot Search & Destroy’s cookie control settings.

 Chapter 3: Dealing with Spyware and Adware 37

Essentially, though, SS&D simply sits in the background and guards your PC against the latest
spyware programs. When it locates them, it displays them in a color-coded format, with red repre-
senting the most important threats and green representing the usage tracks. It then lets you choose
which threats to delete and it provides information on how to work with the usage tracks, including
ignoring specific ones and/or dealing only with those from specific products. It then does whatever
is necessary to get rid of the threats, including changing the registry settings that the programs have
already changed. It works, and that’s all you really care about.

MICROSOFT ANTISPYWARE BETA

As of this writing, Microsoft AntiSpyware is still in beta version 1.0. But like SS&D, it works. In fact,
the two packages seem to work together very well (unexpectedly so) to provide a two-pronged pro-
tection against spyware and adware. Figure 3-2 shows the program loaded and ready for a system
scan. Options are few in this program, because its purpose is simple: it checks your system for
known spyware and adware threats, reporting on whatever threats it locates and either allowing you
to take action or quarantining or removing the threats automatically depending on how you’ve
established the configuration.

Figure 3-2: Microsoft AntiSpyware’s main interface screen.

Figure 3-2 also shows the results of a scan for spyware, after clicking the Scan Now button on the
main interface screen. The Quick Stats area shows the number of scans that have been run on the
current system, as well as the number of spyware files detected and the number currently held in
quarantine. This should be useful information, of course, but its cumulative nature makes it less so.
In this particular example, for instance, the number of files detected includes 3–4 files detected
38 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

numerous times. The more important information occurs in the Last Scan Run section; in this case,
the program has noted 95 infected registry entries. Sounds bad, until you see that there’s only one
actual spyware threat (at least, according to this utility). To deal with these results, click the View
details link, which yields the dialog box shown in Figure 3-3.

Figure 3-3: The results of a spyware scan.

This information is precisely the same as the details on the main interface screen following a scan,
except that you can click the View Results button in order to do something about the detected
threats. Figure 3-4 shows the result of clicking this button, the Spyware Scan Results screen. Each
threat offers a drop-down menu that allows you — as the figure shows — to Ignore, Quarantine,
Remove, or Always Ignore the detected threat. On the right-hand side of the dialog box is an expla-
nation of the selected threat, along with a useful paragraph of advice. Here, the threat is low, and
ignoring it won’t hurt anything. Mind you, that’s merely the opinion of the people who created the
database of possible threats, so feel free to take it on yourself to ignore or delete as you wish.
By default, Microsoft AntiSpyware scans your system every day at 2:00 a.m. On the Schedule
screen, you can change the schedule to whatever time of the day you wish, and the frequency to
daily, weekly, or monthly. Be sure to schedule the scan for a time of day you will not be using the PC.
While not as resource-intensive as an antivirus scan, the AntiSpyware scan unquestionably slows
your system, to the degree that you’ll find it difficult (and frustrating) to carry on normal activities
while it is in progress.
One of the better elements of the AntiSpyware utility is the ability to control the tracks your PC
use leaves behind. Figure 3-5 shows the Tracks Erase screen, accessible from the Advanced Tools
button. Each of these programs or activities leaves a trail of what you did, and the idea here is to
erase those trails so that nobody knows where you’ve been, what forms you’ve filled out, what you’ve
put in the form fields, and so on.
 Chapter 3: Dealing with Spyware and Adware 39

Figure 3-4: Taking action against a spyware threat.

Figure 3-5: Microsoft AntiSpyware’s Tracks Eraser screen.

Some of the more useful tracks to erase from this dialog box include the following:

Google Toolbar History: If you use the Google toolbar to perform your searches, your
search strings are saved in the toolbar. You can erase them manually, but AntiSpyware can
do this for you. The Google Toolbar (strangely enough) does not provide an auto-erase
function.
40 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

ICQ: By default, the ICQ chat program saves transactions of your chat sessions. Rarely do
you need these, and often you don’t even want them.
Internet Explorer History: If you don’t want another user of your system knowing where
you’ve been surfing, check this option to erase the history.
Internet Explorer Intelligent Forms: IE’s automatic forms completion feature is an obvi-
ous time-saver, but it’s an equally obvious information risk. Checking this option gets rid
of all saved form information, highly useful for privacy purposes.
Kazaa: If you use Kazaa as your P2P program, you might want to get rid of your search
history automatically. This option lets you do so.
Recent Documents: This option is available here for several programs, including
Windows XP itself. Checking the option clears out the information on the last files
accessed for those programs.
Temporary Files: For both IE and Windows itself, you can automatically clear out any
temporary files the system has saved.

Once you’ve made your selections, click the Erase Tracks button. If you want AntiSpyware to
retain your selections, check the Remember Checked Tracks box at bottom right.
Incidentally, some of these tracks can be adjusted elsewhere within Windows XP: the Taskbar
Options dialog box and TweakUI, to cite just two examples. See Chapter 16 for information on con-
figuring the Taskbar, and Chapter 18 for details on TweakUI.

YAHOO! TOOLBAR
Numerous toolbars are available for download, at no cost, from the Internet. Google, MSN, and
Yahoo! are among the most popular. All of them have their useful features, and all of them clog up
the nice, neat elegance of your browser toolbar. Yahoo! has recently added a utility called Anti-Spy to
its toolbar, and to be sure, it’s highly useful. Not as useful as a standalone product, but an excellent
supplement to your main anti-spyware program.
After installing the Yahoo! toolbar, check the Anti-Spy button located third from the left after the
Search Web button (the Anti-Spy button looks like a crosshairs). Choose Run Anti-Spy; the software
immediately checks for updates and then presents the main interface screen. From here you can
check the options to have it scan for cookies or to have it scan immediately upon launching it (or
both), or you can just click Begin Scan to see what it locates on your system.
The progress area on the Scan Results screen (see Figure 3-6) tells you what the program is cur-
rently looking at — the registry, common file locations, or system memory. When finished (it takes
only a minute or two even on a large system), it presents you with a list of threats found, along with
the option to Remove or Allow each threat. To learn more about a threat, select it and double-click
the View Details command.
If you choose to Remove a threat, Anti-Spy informs you that doing so might cause some programs
to malfunction and that you might be breaking a licensing agreement. If you’re uncertain whether or
not to delete the threat, use System Restore to create a Restore Point on your system before perform-
ing the removal.
 Chapter 3: Dealing with Spyware and Adware 41

Figure 3-6: The results of a scan using Yahoo! toolbar’s Anti-Spy.

Getting Rid of Old KaZaA the Manual Way

One of the earliest and most often cited culprits in spyware installation was KaZaA (hereafter just
Kazaa without the bizarre capitalization). Newer versions of the software (starting in 2004) have
become much clearer about what gets installed, so this section deals with older Kazaa installations.
These are still happily running on thousands (if not millions) of hard drives out there, quite possibly
yours. Because it takes a great deal of effort to eliminate all traces of old Kazaa from your PC, a sep-
arate section seemed necessary to help those who need to do so.
Kazaa was once the unquestioned leader in peer-to-peer file-sharing software. Despite frequent
warnings from the computer and mainstream press, the program got more and more popular daily.
The original Napster held the number one spot until the music industry got together to destroy it
with lawsuits, but the Kazaa Media Desktop had at this point avoided any such problems (although
not suggestions about threats) because it did not itself provide the network from which downloads
took place (it used the Open Source and noncentralized Gnutella network as its basis).
Despite the software’s popularity (or perhaps because of it), many of Kazaa’s users have had prob-
lems galore. Uninstalling early Kazaa can cause enormous problems because getting rid of Kazaa
itself does not usually get rid of everything that installed along with Kazaa. The Kazaa installation
procedure asks if you want to install a variety of additional software, and, even though you can say
no to these requests, very few people do. Installing software has become so routine and so relatively
safe that users tend to assume that clicking the OK buttons during the process won’t do any harm.
Most of the time, they’re right. With Kazaa, they’re not.
42 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

What Kazaa Installs

Here’s the problem. Kazaa installs not only itself but, unless you watch carefully during installation,
additional programs as well. Specifically, a full installation of Kazaa also installs SaveNow, which is
designed to provide “contextually relevant offers” (as quoted from the Kazaa Setup Wizard) and, in
the next screen of the Setup Wizard, a set of “Promotional Software.” SaveNow, combined with the
promotional software, includes the following software that Kazaa tries to install:

SaveNow: Downloads promotional Web sites to your computer to help you search for
products.
New.net: Allows creation of Web sites with unofficial domain names — in practice, it sim-
ply becomes annoying.
Delfin Media Viewer: Shows movie trailers, portions of MP3 songs, games, and so on
without your requesting them.
MediaLoads: Delivers content to your desktop while you eat, sleep, or go out on dates.
b3d Projector: Displays ads on the Kazaa program itself.

Note
Most of the problems with Kazaa that I’ve been called upon to fix have been for the program bundle exam-
ined here. Different versions of Kazaa have installed different programs, but as of this writing, the current
version (2.6) has cut the additions considerably. The discussion here applies most directly to the equally
widely distributed earlier versions, although differences exist in many of them.

Simply put, you should allow none of these programs — not a single one — on your PC. If you
have not yet installed Kazaa, do so only without these programs. With the exception of New.net, a
bothersome add-on, all of these programs perform some form of adware or spyware functions. Not
only that, but Kazaa also includes technology from Cydoor, which inserts itself into your registry, can
be uninstalled only with extreme difficulty, and sends you customized ads based on a unique code
with which it tracks you. Together, these programs turn your PC into a machine that spits out infor-
mation about you regularly and sucks in files you couldn’t possibly want. And, unlike those pesky
telephone solicitors who call you at dinner time every night, you can’t just hang up.

How to Get Rid of Kazaa and All Its Buddies

Uninstalling Kazaa itself is easy. Open the Add/Remove Programs utility in Control Panel, locate
Kazaa Media Desktop, and click the Change/Remove button. A few clicks later, you’ve deleted it.
But, you haven’t deleted the rest of the programs Kazaa installed. They continue doing what they’re
doing and, very largely, without you knowing it. To uninstall Kazaa fully, including all its associated
programs, perform the following steps:
 Chapter 3: Dealing with Spyware and Adware 43

1. Use System Restore to create a restore point for your system. If, after all the activity in this
list, your PC has trouble operating, enter System Restore again (you can do so in Safe
Mode), and restore the PC to the newly saved time.
2. Unload Kazaa from memory. Closing the program the normal way doesn’t accomplish this
goal because Kazaa minimizes itself to the icon tray and continues to run. Find the pro-
gram in the icon tray, right-click it, and choose Exit. To ensure that you have unloaded it,
press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open the Task Manager, find Kazaa in the list, and shut it down.
3. Open the Add/Remove Programs utility in Control Panel, locate Kazaa Media Desktop,
click the Change/Remove button, and follow the wizard to uninstall it. With Kazaa itself
gone, it’s time to work on the other programs.

Tip
For best results when removing any program, reboot Windows after every uninstallation. Doing so sets the
Registry to its most up-to-date state and prevents any possible conflicts. In most cases, the reboot isn’t
strictly necessary, but, when removing problem software, such as the programs listed here, the reboot pro-
vides an extra degree of reassurance.

4. Open Task Manager, see if SaveNow appears in the list, and end it. Reopen Add/Remove
Programs, and uninstall SaveNow.
5. Repeat this process for MediaLoads, New.net, and b3d Projector.
6. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer. From the Tools menu, choose Folder Options.
Click the View menu, scroll down the Advanced Settings list, and click the Show Hidden
Files and Folders radio button.
7. Still in My Computer or Windows Explorer, locate the following folders and files:
■ C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\Start Menu\kazaa\: Delete the entire folder
and then repeat for every user’s folder in Documents and Settings. If the Default User
and All Users folders contain this folder, delete them as well.
■ C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\Desktop\: Delete any item with “Kazaa” or
“My Shared Folder” in the name.
■ C:\Windows\System32\: Delete the following files: cd_clint.dll, cd_gif.dll, cd_swf.dll,
and cd_load.exe. Also look in C:\Windows\System if the files are not in Windows\
System32. Deleting these files removes the Cydoor technology installed with Kazaa.
■ C:\Windows\BDE: Delete the entire folder.
■ C:\Program Files\BDE: Delete the entire folder.
44 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

■ bdedownload.dll, bdedata2.dll, bdefdi.dll, bdeinsta2.dll, and bdeinstall.exe: Delete

all these files — you might have to search for them, but you will find most in
C:\Windows\System32.
8. To guarantee that all possible traces of these programs are gone, you need to edit the reg-
istry. Again, do not do so unless you know exactly what you are doing, and, even then, not
until you have backed up the registry (but, without doing this, the programs or at least
their DLL files can reappear). This can take a considerable amount of time, and you are
unlikely to track down every single entry. For example, the following list shows the entries
created by b3d Projector:
■ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Brilliant Digital Entertainment
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{82FC7881-AACC-11D2-B9C6.0000E842E40A}
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\b3d_auto_file
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ BDEPLAYER.BDEPlayerCtrl.1
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ CLSID\{51958169-D5E3-11D1-AA42-0000E842E40A}
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{51958168-D5E3-11D1-AA42-0000E842E40A}
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\b3dini_auto_file
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{67925165-C4B6.11D2-B9C6.0000E84F59A6}
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{51958167-D5E3-11D1-AA42-0000E842E40A}
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{67925164-C4B6.11D2-B9C6.0000E84F59A6}
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\s3d_auto_file
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ BDESmartInstaller.BDESmartInstaller
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\BDESmartInstaller.BDESmartInstaller.1
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.b3dini
■ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\BDEPLAYER.BDEPlayerCtrl
Other keys in HKEY_CLASSES, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software, and HKEY_LOCAL_
MACHINE\Software contain elements of the installation for the other programs. Search
through as many as you can, but you’ll soon be able to tell by the behavior (or, we hope,
lack of behavior) of your PC if any elements remain.
9. Reboot your computer.
10. Open the System Configuration utility (click the Start button, choose Run, type msconfig,
and press Enter), and click the Startup tab. Scroll through the list to see if any likely items
remain from this group of programs. If so, uncheck the entry, and click OK until Windows
restarts.
 Chapter 3: Dealing with Spyware and Adware 45

Congratulations. You’ve uninstalled the highly problematic Kazaa Media Desktop! It takes time,
but it’s worth it. Your machine is your own again.

Summary
Spyware is a major concern. At its worst, it sends information, without your knowledge, to Web sites
and databases you might not wish to be a part of. Even at its most harmless, however, it can seriously
slow your system and use up significant amounts of memory. Along with viruses, spyware represents
one of the most serious problems with computing today, and you owe it to yourself to do everything
you can to avoid it and, if necessary, get rid of it. You have a lot to lose.
Part I

Utilities

N umerous utilities are available for controlling viruses, spyware, and Internet intruders. You
have to purchase many of them, but some function partially in their shareware versions, and
a few are entirely free. Most offer the substantial benefit of a try-before-you-buy program, so you can
determine the effectiveness of the product, your need for it, and how well you like working with it.
Our suggestion is to download and try as many of these as you can to see the differences among
them and to learn how each can help you. While this guideline holds true for all utility categories
discussed in this book, it is especially true for this group, which focuses on keeping your system safe.
But along with the suggestion to try a number of them we must caution you that, used in conjunc-
tion with one another, these utilities can cause problems, especially when it comes to antivirus pro-
grams. You’ll do best to have only one utility running at a time, although you can comfortably run
more than one firewall.

Antivirus Utilities
Norton AntiVirus (www.symantec.com), covered in Chapter 2, is the granddaddy of antivirus pro-
grams and an extremely popular one even to this day. However, numerous others are available, many of
which have made their mark because PC manufacturers have installed them on their products before
selling them to consumers. One of the most widely used is McAfee’s VirusScan (www.mcafee.com), in
version 9 as of this writing, which like Norton AntiVirus is available via subscription. For roughly $40
per year for either program, you get a package of well-regarded software that does its job as well as any.
Depending on which reviews you read, either McAfee or Norton works more efficiently on a typical
home user’s PCs, and both work comparably in small business environments. There’s really very little
difference between them.
Also like Norton AntiVirus, McAfee VirusScan also comes bundled in software suites. McAfee’s
Internet Security Suite combines the company’s VirusScan, Personal Firewall, SpamKiller, and
Privacy Service products, for less than double the price of VirusScan alone. Personal Firewall runs in
conjunction with the Windows Firewall or can replace it on your system if you prefer to run only
one. Privacy Service offers parental controls over incoming downloads and provides warnings when-
ever intrusions occur that might endanger your personal data, including data related to identity theft

47
48 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

(it attempts to detect phishing attempts, for instance). VirusScan Professional, another bundle,
includes VirusScan along with the company’s anti-spyware and anti-spam utilities. Many of these
programs are also bundled in the McAfee RedZone Suite, and these products offer access to the
online scanning version of the anti-malware programs.
Also in the anti-malware business is Central Command (www.centralcommand.com), which
offers a wide variety of utilities not only for Windows users but for numerous Linux and Unix sys-
tems as well. Vexira Antivirus is the utility that concerns us here. The key differentiating point for
Central Command’s products, as the company’s name suggests, is that they’re controllable over a net-
work, and in that way they are clearly designed for business use. In fact, Central Command offers its
Antivirus product for Windows Server networks as well as for Linux and Unix networks, and with all
its products IT managers (or whoever serves that function in smaller companies) can keep all the
workstations, and possibly servers, malware-free and guard the entire network.
Trend Micro’s PC-cillin Internet Security (www.trendmicro.com) is a single product merging fea-
tures similar to the suites mentioned previously. Well known for years as the antivirus program
included with various newly purchased PCs, PC-cillin continues as a popular and critically success-
ful antivirus program. The Internet Security package adds to this utility by including anti-spyware,
anti-phishing, and such niceties as Wi-Fi intrusion detection (to help you determine whether some-
one is tapping into your Wi-Fi network), spam filtering, and a personal firewall. As with other ven-
dors, Trend Micro offers a fully functioning 30-day evaluation copy from its Web site. It also offers a
free online virus scan, as does Panda Software (pandasoftware.com/activescan).
Alwil Software (.avast.com) provides easily the most compelling argument for insisting that every-
one you know install antivirus software. Its product, Avast Antivirus, is free, and is easy to use and
well proven. You may not use Avast on a business system, however; for that, you’ll need to purchase
the Professional edition. The company also offers a PDA version of the utility because PDAs have
increasingly become the targets of virus writers.
BitDefender (www.bitdefender.com) also offers a free version of its desktop antivirus product,
BitDefender Client Standard. The free version, BitDefender Free Edition, offers a full range of antivirus
capabilities, including scheduled scanning and automatic virus definition updates, and tosses in a very
nice skins feature, allowing you to customize the interface in a variety of different ways.

Anti-Spyware Utilities
Despite the fact that nobody seems to know exactly what spyware is, anti-spyware packages have
become increasingly numerous over the past 18 months. Many offer free versions, so your best bet is
to select two or three, try them, and then try a few more, until you get one or two you especially like.

Tip
Because some spyware installations are (in effect) spyware of a sort themselves, albeit harmless, you
should install anti-spyware programs only after using System Restore to set a restore point. This will allow
you to turn back your system to the time of the restore point if you notice anything unusual (such as slow-
downs) occurring in your daily work.
 Part I: Utilities 49

Spybot Search & Destroy (www.safer-networking.org) is one of the better-known spyware utili-
ties, which is why I featured it in Chapter 3. But it’s far from the only free utility out there for con-
trolling spyware and adware. Among the others, also included in Chapter 3, are Microsoft’s
Anti-Spyware, and various “lite” versions of packages, the most famous of which is Ad-Aware SE
(www.lavasoft.com). Other programs, such as Computer Associates’ Pest Patrol (www.ca.com) offer
a downloadable trial version, which scans your system but does not fully remove the offenders; for
full functionality, you must purchase it (in other words, like trial versions of pretty much every other
kind of software).
Several sites offer free malware scanning. Computer Associates is one of these; the scan is available
at http://store.ca.com/v2.0-img/operations/safer/site/ab/promo53025.htm. Another is Ewido Networks
(www.ewido.net/en/), which promotes its commercially available ewido Security Suite by providing
an especially strong online scanner (which picked up details missed by the free Yahoo! toolbar scan-
ner in my case). Another is PC Tools Software’s Spyware Doctor (www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor).
However, these services aren’t really online scanners; instead, you download a program to your PC,
install it, and perform the scan that way. This is nowhere near as convenient as the free antivirual scans
available online, although to be fair those services also require a program download and installation —
but as an ActiveX script, its installation is easier.
Spyware utilities are readily available for purchase. In addition to those already mentioned here,
you can obtain the BPS Spyware Adware Remover from BulletSoft (www.bulletproofsoft.com), a
package that includes firewall, phishing, and Trojan/worm protection and an especially useful utility
package in the aforementioned Spyware Doctor from PC Tools. Spyware Doctor includes a pop-up
blocker, a keylogger blocker, phishing and adware protection, and so on. Indeed, most of these
packages guard against — and remove — numerous spyware-type threats.

Firewall Utilities
You have a good range of excellent choices when it comes to firewall protection. In addition to
Symantec, McAfee, and Trend Micro, all mentioned previously, which include firewall protection as
part of their security suites or as standalone products (in the case of Symantec and McAfee), and of
course Microsoft, which has a firewall that ships as part of SP1 and SP2, numerous other vendors
have developed strong firewall products.

Note
All firewall products state that they should be used exclusively, without other firewall software loaded. In
fact, Norton Internet Security, upon installation, is quite insistent that you disable Windows Firewall, going so
far as offering to disable it for you. The principle is that multiple firewalls can conflict with one another, leav-
ing your system either more vulnerable than with one product, or possibly so protected that it becomes
almost nonfunctional. In practice, you’ll do best with a dual-firewall setup: one that comes with your broad-
band or wireless router and one that comes with a software package. But you can certainly have more than
one software firewall running if you wish; just be prepared to deal with numerous messages, warnings, and
configuration information screens as you perform your daily online activities.
50 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Perhaps the best known of the standalone firewall utilities is ZoneAlarm (www.zonealarm.com),
which offers its firewall product as a free product as well as a purchasable product, ZoneAlarm Pro,
with additional features (including email security). In addition, you can get ZoneAlarm as part of the
ZoneAlarm Security Suite, which includes antivirus, anti-phishing, and anti-spam software, and as
part of a wireless security suite as well. ZoneAlarm is highly customizable, warns you continually of
threats and intrusions (unless you configure it for silent protection), and works very well in con-
junction with the firewall capabilities of most popular broadband and wireless routers.
Other firewall products operate similarly to those already mentioned. Kerio Personal Firewall
(www.kerio.com) makes your desktop invisible to outside intruders, blocks pop-up windows and
banner ads, and detects a wealth of hacker intrusions. Kerio specializes in enterprise-level products,
and its desktop firewall products take advantage of that specialization. Tiny Software (www.tiny
software.com) recently acquired by industry giant Computer Associates, offers Tiny Firewall, which
watches all network activity, establishes intrusion protection as you work, and offers a tool called
Track ‘n’ Reverse, which lets you see any changes to your files or your registry and reverse them so
that your system is as it was before. Think of this as a kind of System Restore at the microlevel, and
you have the idea.
Another full-featured product is Sygate Personal Firewall (www.sygate.com), available as a free
download for the Standard version or by purchase for the Pro version. Sygate’s product offers an
especially usable interface and an out-of-the-box configuration that makes it easy for even beginners
to get a firewall established. By all means, try out the Sygate and ZoneAlarm freebies before making
a firewall choice.

Testing Your Setup

How do you know you’re actually safe? To test your firewall, visit Gibson Research Corporation
(www.grc.com) and follow the links to ShieldsUp! This site runs numerous free, fast online tests of
common vulnerabilities. Another free online tester can be found at www.pcflank.com. Testing your
browser’s vulnerabilities is the job of the free Browser Security Test (http://bcheck.scanit.be/bcheck).
GFi will send a free series of email messages to you with attachments intended to expose holes in
your email software (gfi.com/emailsecuritytest).
Microsoft has a free, heavy-duty Baseline Security Analyzer (microsoft.com/MBSA) available for
download. It is intended to “detect common security misconfigurations and missing security updates
on your computer systems.”
 Part II
Avoiding Disaster
Chapter 4
Backing Up Your Data
Chapter 5
Windows Update: Letting Microsoft Protect
Windows XP for You
Chapter 6
Recovering from Windows XP Problems
Part II Utilities
Chapter 4

Backing Up
Your Data

I t’s the great truism of computing: Back up your data. Everybody knows it, yet many ignore it.
Computers work so smoothly most of the time, especially the part about saving files to the hard
disk, that days, weeks, even months go by before people start getting antsy about having all those
files sitting on their drives without a backup anywhere in recent memory. Partly this is the fault of
the hard drive manufacturers because they keep making their products more reliable, but mostly the
fault lies in the emergence of PC as a widespread, commonly used appliance. Except in business set-
tings, where backups tend to occur far more regularly, computers today are partly about convenience
and entertainment, and convenience and entertainment just don’t go well with the forethought that
regular backups demand.
Then again, maybe the computer manufacturers and operating system designers deserve some of
the blame. If backing up files has such great importance, why is it avoidable at all? Why don’t com-
puters come with built-in backup systems that kick in automatically? The answer, of course, is that
such things cost money, and computer makers constantly strive to keep prices as low as possible.
Except in business, once again, people tend to see data backup as optional or as something that
affects everyone else but not them, so they don’t want to pay the extra money for the backup equip-
ment. So, without a federal law — possibly an international one — forced backups won’t likely hap-
pen. Too bad, really.
As the owner of a Windows XP system, you have several backup techniques at your disposal, but
some require the purchase of additional software and, in some cases, additional hardware as well. This
book’s premise lies in the ability to perform important day-to-day functions from within Windows XP
itself, so it covers these other options in the “Utilities” section at the end of Part Two. The more serious
your backup needs, the more you should consider third-party solutions, but you can work very well
with only the techniques available with the operating system. This chapter outlines each of those tech-
niques and shows how you can use them to develop a usable and effective backup strategy.

Backup Basics
There’s nothing magic about backups. Backing up data means, at the very least, making a copy of
that data. In others words, if you have a copy of a file, you have a backup of that file. Knowing this,
however, leads to the three primary questions about backups:
53
54 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Where do I put the copy?

How do I make the copy?
What do I do if I need to recover the copy?

The methods outlined here answer these questions in various ways. No matter which method you
use, the principle of data backups never changes. Having only the original copy of a file is the same
as having only the original copy of your most important legal documents or photograph collection.
To prevent the disaster or disappointment of losing this copy, you make a copy of the item and store
it in a location where (a) you’ll be able to find it, and (b) it will be safe from problems affecting the
original.
The answer to point (b) matters a great deal. If you store your backup files on the same hard drive
partition as the original, you lose both if, for any reason, you reformat or otherwise lose access to the
partition. You’re quite a bit better off storing them on separate partitions of the same hard drive
because most actions affecting one partition have no effect on the other, but you still lose them both
if the hard drive fails. To gain any sense of real security, you should save your backups to a separate
storage device, such as a tape drive, a CD-RW drive, or a DVD burner, or a separate hard drive. You
can even store backup files on floppy disks, amazingly still the default for Microsoft’s own Backup
Utility (covered later in this chapter), but unless you have only really small files to back up, floppies
work only as an emergency backup device.

A Guide to Backup Media

Each storage medium offers advantages and disadvantages, as the following sections demonstrate.

Floppy Disks
Floppy disks are used primarily for backup of small files, such as text files and simple word process-
ing files.

ADVANTAGES
They are inexpensive and readily available, including all those you’ve collected over the years and no
longer need.

DISADVANTAGES
Each floppy stores only 1.4MB of data, so a typical MP3 song would require three or four of them.
Your data files alone, unless you write exclusively text files, likely require dozens of floppies for a
backup. Furthermore, because you must stay at your PC to swap floppies in and out of the drive
during backup, long backups tend to be extremely tedious.

RECOMMENDATION
Not worth bothering with except for backing up only a few small files.
 Chapter 4: Backing Up Your Data 55

Compact Discs
Compact discs (CD-Rs and CD-RWs) are typically used for regular backups of fairly large files and
folders, including multimedia files such as graphics and music.

ADVANTAGES
Almost all new PCs ship with CD-RW drives, and if you don’t have one, you can get a new one for
$100 or less. Discs are also inexpensive. CD backup software is plentiful, and each CD holds roughly
650MB of data. In addition, once you’ve completed your backup, you can easily copy the CDs to
store in another location entirely.

DISADVANTAGES
650MB sounds like a lot until you start backing up hard drives of 60GB or larger, in which case, you
will easily need 80 to 100 of them. Furthermore, CD media tends to deteriorate in quality, so you
shouldn’t rely on only CDs as your backup method. Also, not all CD drives read all CDs correctly.

RECOMMENDATION
Good choice for backup, especially for PCs with an existing CD player but a fairly small hard drive.
Even better if you don’t intend to add another hard drive any time soon.

Digital Video Discs

Digital video discs (DVDs) are typically used for regular backup of fairly large files and folders,
including multimedia files such as graphics and music.

ADVANTAGES
DVDs store much more than CDs, 4.7GB compared with 650MB for CDs. You can create decently
sized limited backups, particularly of important data files and program downloads you need in case
of reinstallation. Software that comes with DVD burners usually includes backup utilities, and DVD
media prices are dropping along with the burners themselves. As with CDs, you can make copies of
DVD backups, providing an easy method of getting a second backup.

DISADVANTAGES
Competing standards (that great computer industry oxymoron) provide the major problem with
considering DVDs as your primary backup technology. DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM: choose
wrong, and you might have a bunch of unusable backups only a year from now. DVD-RAM probably
works best for backup purposes, but not all DVD burners even support DVD-RAM. Price is a current
issue, but it is becoming less important with each passing month. Finally, even though DVDs can
hold 4.7GB of data, a full backup of a new 120GB hard drive requires a couple dozen.

RECOMMENDATION
Very good choice, better than CDs given the storage capacity. However, DVD burners are roughly
twice as expensive as CD burners, and DVD media are about twice as expensive as CDs.
Furthermore, only the most recent backup software recognizes DVDs as backup media.
56 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Separate Hard Drives

Separate hard drives are usually used for regular backup of partial or entire hard drives.

ADVANTAGES
With the price of hard drives dropping (at least in cost per gigabyte), and with the speed and ease of
backup to a hard drive, if you can afford this method, you should adopt it immediately. You can
install an internal drive for this purpose and, in doing so, give yourself the greatest backup speed of
all. For not a great deal more money, however, you can buy a large FireWire or USB 2.0 external
drive and experience not a great deal of speed difference (USB 1.0 or 1.1 is another matter entirely
from a speed standpoint). You can perform regular backups that are easily located when you need to
restore them, and in the case of an external drive, you can take the entire backup to another com-
puter as well. Finally, hard drives offer much greater storage capacity than any other method demon-
strated here, so you can back up entire hard drives in one easy step without the need to monitor the
process.

DISADVANTAGES
Internal hard disks can be difficult to install. Other than that, the only disadvantage to this method
is that fact that, when you need more hard drive space for your system, the temptation arises to use
the backup drive, and in the process you could possibly wipe out the backups.

RECOMMENDATION
This is your best choice for extensive backups, bar none. Hard drives are less expensive than they’ve
ever been, with a 120GB drive typically selling for $100–$130 or so. Put two of these in your system,
and you can back up your entire system nightly if you wish, using any of today’s backup packages.
Give yourself an extra drive for your daily work, and you can back up the main components of your
system to the third drive. And so on. Internal drives are less expensive than external drives, but the
latter are also dropping in price regularly. For example, at the time of this writing, online stores are
selling Maxtor 80GB external drives for $99. At this price, a small business could maintain one inter-
nal drive worth of data and two external drives, each with the same backup data, for a truly secure
system. That same small business, on a network, could back up the primary data from all PCs to one
large hard drive, rendering the cost even lower.

USB Thumb Drives

Also called Pen drives and Flash drives, these USB drives are compact and easy to carry, and they
work extremely well for limited backups.

ADVANTAGES
USB thumb drives are extremely small, they weigh next to nothing, and they offer a surprisingly
large amount of storage (1GB and higher). In most cases, Windows XP recognizes them as soon as
you plug them into your USB port, and you can use them as you would any other folder on your PC.
Many public computers (at universities, for example) have USB ports available for this function, so
it’s easy to take your documents with you, plug the thumb drive into another PC, and keep working.
 Chapter 4: Backing Up Your Data 57

DISADVANTAGES
They store too little data to function as a major backup solution. They work best only as a place to
store backups of important documents, a valuable function to be sure but not the only one you’ll
want to consider.

RECOMMENDATION
Whatever backup system you decide upon, include this as an added component. They’re great when
working on PCs other than your own, so that you can save to the thumb drive instead of the PC’s
own hard drive, and they have become the predominant technology for transporting a limited num-
ber of files from place to place. At $50 or so for a 256MB drive and $80 for 512MB, you really can’t
go wrong.

Tape Drives
Tape drives are typically used for full regular backup of partial or entire hard drives.

ADVANTAGES
Tape drive support is built into all backup software, because backup software over the years has
assumed this method. Tapes are reliable and longlasting, and methods have been well developed
over the years. Furthermore, because tape is used solely for backup purposes, you won’t be tempted,
as you might with a secondary hard drive, to use the tape for other purposes.

DISADVANTAGES
A good tape drive costs between $200–$300, and you might have to install a controller card as well.
Furthermore, you don’t usually find them in the standard computer stores. Media (tapes) can be rel-
atively expensive as well. You must install the tape drive and configure it to get it working. Retrieving
data can be slow because of the frequent need to switch tapes.

RECOMMENDATION
If you have a tape drive already in place, keep it. If not, you’re better off with an extra internal or
external hard drive. Tape drives and media were once the primary backup technology for businesses,
but they have become increasingly costly (compared to other technologies) and even difficult to find.

Network Drives
Network drives provide a wide range of backup functions.

ADVANTAGES
Backing up to a network drive means placing your data in the safest place possible: on another com-
puter entirely. If you control the network completely, this method works much like the secondary
hard drive option. You can schedule regular backups easily, and you can protect them from other
users using network security options. This method is faster than all other methods except secondary
hard drives, as long as the network is fast.
58 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

DISADVANTAGES
If you use both computers, your backups take up space on the network drive. Furthermore, if you
don’t have full access rights on the network computer, your ability to restore backed-up data depends
on the person who does. Also, if the network experiences a slowdown, so will your backup.

RECOMMENDATION
For business purposes, network backups are highly recommended. With them, you can restore your
network’s data quickly and easily, and you have full control over it. For home purposes, network
backup is less useful because it’s usually easier simply to back up each machine locally, but they can
provide a strong option for controlled backup.

Third-Party Backup Options

Because of the importance of data backup, numerous companies produce specialized backup soft-
ware. Backup utilities offers advanced features in the following areas in order to differentiate it from
the Windows Backup utility and from software included with CD and DVD burners:

Support for all current media types, including all DVD formats, Zip disks, Pen storage, and
so on
Highly specific backup selections, combinations of files and folders in any location
On-the-fly compression of files, to provide reduced file sizes in the backup
Automatic comparisons of data after the backup, taking a number of forms
Support for multi-CD or multi-DVD backups, with a single backup spanning as many
discs as necessary
Detailed backup schedulers
Detailed methods of including or excluding file types
Backup from remote computers

In addition, some backup utilities now include the technology known as ghost imaging, or just
plain ghosting. A ghost image captures the entire hard drive, backing it up to the point where you
can restore your entire system from it. This technique represents an important difference from data
backup in that the image can include partitioning information and other files, such as the Master
Boot Record (MBR) that backup utilities do not. If you’re serious about backups, you should com-
bine a backup utility with a ghosting utility; this combination offers as close a guarantee as possible
that you will be able to restore lost data.

Copying Files Manually and Automatically

Nothing substitutes for the ease and reliability of copying files manually. If you have a separate folder
for your most important data files, for example, simply copy the entire folder to a separate hard
 Chapter 4: Backing Up Your Data 59

drive, a CD-RW or DVD, or a network drive. If you want to save a bit of disk space, send the folder
to a compressed folder first and then copy the zipped folder to the backup location.
To copy files for backup purposes, use Windows Explorer by clicking Start, right-clicking on My
Computer, and choosing Explore. In the double-pane interface, locate or create the folder you wish
to copy the files to in the left-hand column; then, in the main window, click the files or folders you
wish to copy. Right-click on the items (you can multiple-select and do this), and drag them to the
backup folder, choosing Copy from the context menu. After Windows has finished copying, click on
the backup folder to ensure that all the files are there.

Tip
If you copy an entire folder, you can perform a quick validity check by right-clicking on each folder in
Windows Explorer and choosing Properties. The Properties dialog box displays not only the size of the folder
in megabytes or gigabytes (5.24GB in this example) but also the number of files and subfolders the folder con-
tains (1,537 files and 22 folders in this example). If the Properties dialog box of both the original and the
backup folders display the same numbers, in all likelihood your backup has worked. To be even more certain,
however, spend a few minutes exploring both folders to check for the same filenames, the number of file
types, and any other comparative feature you want to check. If one or more files or subfolders are of partic-
ular importance, check these diligently, to the extent of opening several backup files to be sure.

Using the Backup Utility

Although Microsoft doesn’t draw much attention to it, Windows XP contains a perfectly useful
backup utility. Although sporting as unimaginative a name as the Windows team could possibly have
dreamed of — it’s called Backup Utility — this program provides enough features that you won’t
likely need to consider third-party backup utilities until you know your specific needs and can shop
for one accordingly. If you own Windows XP Professional Edition, you can find Backup Utility by
clicking the Start button and looking in the All Programs ➝ Accessories ➝ System Tools folder.
Windows XP Home Edition owners have the Backup Utility, but it might not be installed. If it is
not, you can install it manually from the XP installation CD. Put the CD in your CD drive, open
Windows Explorer, and install the utility from the ValueAdd folder.
Like all such programs, Backup Utility contains two major functions: backing up data and restor-
ing it. The wizard opens by having you choose between the two functions and takes you through the
process of your choice. You can switch from Wizard mode to Advanced mode by clicking the
“Advanced Mode” hyperlink on the wizard’s opening screen, and you can switch back again by
choosing the Switch to Wizard Mode option in the Tools menu of the Advanced Mode interface.
Here we’ll work with the Wizard.
In the first step of the Backup Wizard, you select what you want to back up (see Figure 4-1). The
My Documents and Settings option automatically chooses your My Documents folder as well as your
60 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Favorites, Cookies, and Desktop folders. Assuming that you have saved all your data in My
Documents, this selection backs up everything you have created on the PC and, therefore, functions
well for a periodic backup. If your data files reside elsewhere, however, and your email data almost
certainly will (not even Microsoft’s own email programs store their data in these folders), you will
want to customize the backup further. The second choice on the screen, the Everyone’s Documents
and Settings option, simply extends the selection to include the same data from all user accounts.

Figure 4-1: Choosing your backup options.

The last two choices show the two extremes of your backup options. If you choose the All Information
on This Computer option, you instruct Backup to copy everything on your PC to your backup device.
If you have backup media with sufficient space available, you should perform such a backup once, after
which you can add to it. If you have a computer with even one large hard drive, let alone the increas-
ing likelihood today of multiple hard drives, choosing this option takes a great deal of time and, more
importantly, a great deal of media. If you plan to back up to your CD-RW drive, prepare for a long,
drawn-out, and CD-consuming session. Practically speaking, backing up your entire system works
only when you have a second hard drive or a good tape system to work with.
By comparison, the fourth choice, the Let Me Choose What to Back Up option, offers the greatest
flexibility. Choosing it and clicking Next reveals the Items to Back Up window (see Figure 4-2), with
a folder tree of the PC on the left and the items inside the selected folders on the right. Open the
folders on the left, choose the items you wish to copy, and click Next to move to the Backup Type,
Destination, and Name screen. Here, you choose your backup media by clicking the Browse button
and navigating to the device where you want to store the backup. You can also label the backup, an
especially good idea if you intend to keep more than one type of backup. The Backup program auto-
matically time-stamps and date-stamps the backup file, so you don’t need to include the date here
(otherwise an obvious choice), but labeling your backup is still a good idea.
 Chapter 4: Backing Up Your Data 61

Figure 4-2: Selecting the items to copy.

One extremely useful set of options appears unfortunately almost buried beneath the Advanced
button. Clicking this button reveals a drop-down menu consisting of five backup types:

Normal: Copies the selected files into the backup file, marking them as backed up. This is
the standard form of backup, but not necessarily the best for your purposes.
Copy: Copies the files only, without marking them as backed up.
Incremental: This extremely useful option backs up the selected files only if you have cre-
ated or modified them since you last backed them up. In other words, this option saves
time and disk space by examining the current files in the backup and copying only the
files in those same folders that were not there last time or that bear a later date and time.
If you perform regular backups, this is probably your best choice.
Differential: The same as Incremental, but it does not mark them as backed up.
Daily: Not a bad habit to get into, this type backs up any files that were created or modi-
fied today, and only if they reside in the folders chosen for this backup. If you store your
word processing files in My Documents, for example, and you have already backed up
My Documents, running the Daily backup each day (as its name clearly wants you to do)
backs up any new and changed files in My Documents.

The next screen of the wizard gives you three more backup choices. With the Verify Data After
Backup option, you instruct the program to compare the data in the original folders with the data in
the backup file to guarantee the accuracy of the backup. Obviously, this is an excellent choice to
make, but the comparison can increase the length of the backup session by double or more. Also
available on this screen is the Use Hardware Compression, If Available option in which Backup will
62 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

interact with your hardware to compress the files to save space (if your hardware does not support
compression, the option is grayed out). The third choice, the Disable Volume Shadow Copy option,
prevents Backup from copying files if you are currently working with them (for example, a spread-
sheet open on your desktop). Check this option only if you intend to copy the files manually later.
Clicking Next opens the Backup Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 4-3. Here you make a
choice if you already have a backup on your selected backup drive and if Backup finds identical file
names. You can opt to append the new backup to the existing files or to replace the existing files with
the new ones. The safer bet is Append, but Replace consumes less disk space.

Figure 4-3: The Append or Replace option.

Finally, you decide when to run the backup: now or at a later scheduled time. Clicking the Later
option reveals a scheduler; here you can click the Set Schedule button and make a number of selec-
tions. In addition to the date and time, you can click the Show Multiple Schedules box and set a
number of scheduled backups. If you click the Settings button, you can give additional commands
to the backup program (actually to the Windows Task Scheduler), instructing it (see Figure 4-4) to
stop if the task runs longer than a specified number of hours, allowing it to start only if the computer
has been idle for a specified number of minutes, and preventing the backup from starting when the
computer is running on batteries.
Once you have even a single backup saved, you can access its contents by using the Backup
Utility to restore it. You can do so using the Restore Wizard or the full program. Open the full pro-
gram by starting the wizard normally and clicking the Advanced Mode link in the middle of the
Welcome screen. This action yields the Welcome screen of the full program, and clicking the Restore
and Manage Media tab gives you access to the restore process. You can restore the entire backup, but
more typically you need only specific folders or even just certain files. Use the two panes to choose
precisely the items you want.
Next, choose where you want to place the restored files. By default, Backup restores them to their
original location, but by clicking the drop-down menu below the leftmost pane, you can choose to
restore the selected file or folder to an alternate location, or, if you wish, you can restore all selections
 Chapter 4: Backing Up Your Data 63

to a single folder instead (making them easy to keep track of). In the Options dialog box (Tools ➝
Options), you can choose what to do if, during Restore, the Backup Utility finds a file with an iden-
tical name in the restoration folder. By default, Backup does not replace that file, but you can instruct
it to do so, or to do so only if the restored file is newer than the file already there.

Figure 4-4: The Settings dialog in Backup.

Using the Recycle Bin as a Backup Assistant

The Recycle Bin takes its name, of course, from the recycle bins that you use (well, should use) every
day of your life. It stores your unwanted documents, memos, folders, and other items until you
decide to empty it. Your PC’s Recycle Bin on your computer, however, is much more sophisticated
than the real-world bins: It acts as a safety net for your deleted items. Each time you decide to delete
an item from your computer, the item is placed in the Recycle Bin and remains there until you
choose to delete it permanently. If you mistakenly delete your résumé, for example, or an earlier ver-
sion of a report you suddenly discover you need again, you can easily restore them to their original
location as long as you haven’t emptied the bin.

The Recycle Bin as Backup?

How is the Recycle Bin a backup medium? It’s not, of course, at least not in the sense that you would
normally consider one. When you consider, however, that the purpose of backup media is to let you
restore files after the originals no longer exist, the Recycle Bin offers some fascinating possibilities. It
64 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

functions, after all, like a rudimentary backup system, providing a guarantee against loss. By adjust-
ing its characteristics, you can give yourself another way to help you reclaim missing data.
You do so by controlling the size of your recycle bin and the schedule for emptying it. Because items
in the Recycle Bin use up disk space, Windows allows you to configure the size of each Recycle Bin
(Windows assigns one to each hard drive), thereby limiting the amount of disk space that deleted items
can take up. To change the storage capacity of the Recycle Bin, right-click on the Recycle Bin icon on
your desktop and choose Properties. Move the slider to increase or decrease the amount of disk space
that you want to set aside for deleted items. You can also use different Recycle Bin settings for different
drives by clicking Configure drives independently, or you can opt for a single size for all drives by click-
ing Use one setting for all drives.
The first stage in using the Recycle Bin as a backup tool consists of resizing all the hard drives to
make them larger than you would normally want them. While you use extra disk space as a result of
enlarging them, you increase the chances that the Recycle Bin will be able to store all your deleted
files. The size of your Recycle Bin matters for two reasons. First, as a hard drive begins to fill up,
Windows automatically reclaims space for that drive from the Recycle Bin by deleting files from it,
starting from the oldest and moving forward. Second, if a deleted item is larger than the capacity of
the Recycle Bin, that item will be permanently deleted without being saved. To allow the Recycle Bin
to back up your files, you must ensure that it can accommodate a significant amount of data. For
example, if you want the Recycle Bin to keep your Movie Maker files available for restoration once
you’ve deleted those, you’ll need an especially large bin.

Using the Recycle Bin

When you no longer need a specific file or folder because the contents are outdated or you have
already backed the information up to disk, you can move that item to the Recycle Bin. To delete an
item, right-click on the item and choose Delete, or select the item and press the Delete key, or drag
the item to the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop (or in Windows Explorer).
Each time you send an item to the Recycle Bin, Windows displays a confirmation message. You can
prevent these confirmation messages from opening by right-clicking the Recycle Bin icon on the desk-
top, choosing Properties, and clearing the check box labeled Display Delete Confirmation Dialog.
Now here’s where the backup possibilities kick in. Because the Recycle Bin is nothing more than
a folder — albeit a folder with specialized characteristics — you can restore items that you have
placed in it (by dragging or by deleting). When you restore an item from the Recycle Bin, you
instruct the computer to return the item to the location from which you initially deleted it. For
example, if you deleted a folder called Training from the Company Procedures subfolder of your My
Documents folder, when you restore that folder, Windows places it back where it came from.
To restore a deleted item, navigate to the Recycle Bin, right-click the file that you want to restore,
and then choose Restore.

Tip
To restore several deleted items at the same time, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then click
each item that you want to restore. When you have finished selecting all the items, choose File ➝ Restore in
the Recycle Bin. If you restore a file originally located in a folder that you have since deleted, Windows will
recreate that folder in its original location, and restore the file to that folder.
 Chapter 4: Backing Up Your Data 65

When the Recycle Bin is full, you can empty it by double-clicking on the Recycle Bin icon on your
desktop and choosing File ➝ Empty Recycle Bin. But if you wish to use the Recycle Bin as a backup
device, you obviously don’t want to do this. In fact, when using the Recycle Bin as a backup device
you’ll need to monitor it frequently to make sure that you’re not losing files you might need later.
Keep watch on how full the Bin is because if you try to send a file to it that is larger than the space
available, Windows will complain and force you to resize the Bin or delete the file. It’s all too easy to
hit the Delete option and lose the file for good.

Caution
You can permanently delete an item without sending it to the Recycle Bin. If you hold the Shift key down
while deleting an item — by right-clicking on the item and choosing Delete or by holding the Shift key as you
drag it to the Recycle Bin — you bypass the Recycle Bin entirely and delete the item in a way that retrieving
it, if at all possible, requires the use of specialized command-line tools. For obvious reasons, you should
avoid this method of deleting files if you plan to use the Recycle Bin as a secondary backup tool. However, if
you want to ensure that other users do not find your deleted files, by all means permanently delete them.

Summary
Backing up matters. In fact, it matters as much as anything in your computing life. Use the Backup
Utility in Windows XP regularly, and, just as important, make manual backups of important folders
and files at least once a week. Never let yourself get caught in a situation where you have no backup
copies of important files you’re currently working on because that’s just inviting disaster. Your data is
just too important.
Chapter 5

Windows Update:
Letting Microsoft
Protect Windows
XP for You

Y ou can do a great deal of work to protect Windows XP on your own, but Microsoft has a
vested interest in helping you along. Contrary to the image sometimes presented by disgrun-
tled users as well as the computer press, Microsoft really does want its software to work well. (Not
well enough to prevent you from buying the next version, of course, but then, no software company
can afford that much excellence.) Like other companies, but on a huge scale and with more watchful
eyes on it, Microsoft continually offers updates to Windows XP, correcting bugs and plugging secu-
rity holes. Usually, they work. When they don’t, the company posts a further update.
To update, patch, and add to Windows XP, turn to Windows Update. This chapter examines three
essential elements of Windows Update: automatic updates, security patches, and service packs.

Using Windows Update

Windows Update acts as the central resource for software updates to the Windows XP operating sys-
tem. You can still download some of this software and install it manually by visiting the Microsoft
downloads site at www.microsoft.com/downloads, but even if you download everything you can
find on this site related to Windows XP, you still won’t have the most up-to-date version of the oper-
ating system. Windows Update contains not only additional downloads, but also updates and
patches stored nowhere else. Furthermore, Windows Update performs all necessary actions auto-
matically. It scans your Windows installation to collect information about the version numbers and
dates of Windows files and components and then, after you accept its suggestions, starts the down-
load process on your computer and completes the task by installing these items automatically.
To access Windows Update, open Internet Explorer (yes, you must use IE version 5 or higher to
access Windows Update) and go to www.windowsupdate.com. Alternatively, you can choose
Windows Update from IE’s Tools menu. Figure 5-1 shows the result, the front page of the Windows
Update site, with its choice of Express or Custom updates.
67
68 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 5-1: The Windows Update home page opens.

Exploring Privacy Issues

Before choosing an update link, click the Windows Update Privacy Statement link at the bottom of
the screen, and read Microsoft’s statement of what information Windows Update collects during the
updating process. After the reassurance that None of this configuration can be used to identify you,
the privacy statement lists the details about what is collected, including the following:

Operating system version number: The version number of Windows XP itself, indicat-
ing to Windows Update whether, for example, a service pack download should be made
available.
Internet Explorer version number: The version number of Internet Explorer, used to
determine if specific Internet Explorer downloads or service packs need to be included on
the list of available updates.
Version numbers of software for which Windows Update provides updates: The ver-
sion numbers for Windows Messenger, Backup Utility, and numerous other programs cov-
ered by Windows Update.
 Chapter 5: Windows Update: Letting Microsoft Protect Windows XP 69

Plug and Play ID numbers of hardware devices: Identification for hardware devices
connected to your PC, allowing Windows Update to determine which hardware drivers
to include as part of the available updates listing.
Region and language setting: Your geographical location, used by Windows Update to
determine which language options and alternatives to list.
Product ID and Product Key: Information about Windows XP itself, to determine if
you have a legal copy. If you do not, Microsoft retains the information for possible future
action.

According to the privacy statement, Windows Update does not collect names, addresses, email
addresses, or any similar personal information. The process, though, generates a Globally Unique
Identifier (GUID) and stores it on your hard drive (much like a cookie) to track whether the down-
loads and installations succeed. Microsoft compiles much of this information to generate overall sta-
tistics, and the privacy statement continually reassures you that it gathers no information whatsoever
that points to you. Of course, you can choose whether to believe these reassurances.

Note
Many people take exception to the way Windows Update scans their hard drives, not wanting any outside
agent collecting information from their PCs. This is thoroughly understandable; In many ways, Windows
Update provides another example of Internet intrusion. You have two things to consider if you think this way.
First, Microsoft’s market position makes it particularly susceptible to analysis and examination by govern-
ment, the press, and the public. If it does anything weird, questionable, or otherwise untoward with a tool as
ubiquitous and powerful as Windows Update, the company will likely get hammered from many directions.
You can probably feel as assured as you can about anything that Microsoft has no plans to abuse Windows
Update by scanning your hard drive and stealing information from you (the company already knows how to
get your money, after all). Second, Microsoft typically makes its most important updates — those related to
security — available by conventional download as well as through Windows Update, so to keep your
Windows XP installation safe (if not completely up-to-date), you don’t need Windows Update at all.

To have Windows Update do what it deems necessary — scanning your system to see what requires
updating and implementing that analysis automatically — click the Express button. To choose for
yourself which elements to update, click the Custom button.

Scanning for Updates

If you are accessing Windows Update for the first time, you’ll need to install some software from
Microsoft to have the site scan your PC. Figure 5-2 shows the page you’ll be shown when you arrive
at the site, complete with a button for installation of the software.
70 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 5-2: Windows Update accessed for the first time.

To begin the update process, click either the Express or the Custom button. After a minute or more,
Windows completes the scan and presents its results in a statement that Windows has — or has not —
located updates for your system. The Express update locates only critical updates and recommended
updates, while the Custom option (see Figure 5-3) displays, in the pane on the left, the number of
available updates under the categories discussed in the bulleted list below. For both types of Update, if
Windows has determined that updates are available, you can click the Review and Install Updates link
to see precisely what the service has located. As you add items to the update list (using the Custom fea-
ture), the numbers to the right of the Review and Install Updates link increase to reflect the number of
items, the cumulative size of the files, and the time it will take to download them.
The first statement you see tells you what, if any, critical updates are available, and the second
states whether other, noncritical updates are available. The left side of the main screen, as also shown
in Figure 5-3, contains three choices under the Pick Updates to Install link.
The three choices are:

High Priority: By far the most important examine category, these downloads update
Windows to guard against significant possibilities of crashes and other malfunctions and to
provide greater security for your PC. Many critical update downloads consist of patches
designed to correct security flaws discovered because of system break-ins by intruders,
while others plug security holes that Microsoft has discovered through testing. Service
packs, which are High Priority items) are discussed in the “Understanding Service Packs”
section later in this chapter.
 Chapter 5: Windows Update: Letting Microsoft Protect Windows XP 71

Figure 5-3: Windows Update after the Custom scan.

Software, Optional: This is a catchall name for any number of noncritical updates, rang-
ing from new features to changes to programs included with the Windows installation. The
five updates referenced shown in Figure 5-2 covered issues ranging from USB availability
and wireless network security to the Advanced Network Pack — a collection of files pro-
viding compatibility with Internet Protocol version 6 — and a package supporting the new
HighMAT format for creating CDs. None of these can be construed as critical to the opera-
tion of your PC, so they get lumped together under a separate category. You can install as
many or as few of these updates as you want.
Hardware, Optional: Hardware drivers for devices attached to your system, including
video cards, sound cards, removable drives, modems and network cards, printers and
scanners, and so on. These are Windows signed drivers, meaning that they have passed
Microsoft’s approval tests. You can install as many or as few of these as you want.

Selecting Updates
Click any of the links to begin the process of selecting updates from that category. To choose the
Windows Update items to install, scroll through the list and click the Add button for the updates you
want. Windows Update displays the number of updates you’ve chosen at the top of the main win-
dow, beside the Review and Install Updates link, and also on the left with the identically named link.
72 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

You can click either link to see what you’ve selected and to remove any items from your selections,
as shown in Figure 5-4.

Note
Windows Update automatically selects all critical updates for inclusion in your download and installation.
You can remove these if you want, but you have very little reason to do so. Critical updates are important.

When you’re satisfied with your choices for download and installation, click the Review and Install
Updates link, and then click Install Now. Windows presents you with the End User License Agreement
and lists the updates to which it applies. Clicking Accept begins the final process (if you don’t accept
the agreement, Windows Update closes). A dialog box displays the download and install progress for
you. Typically, the Install portion takes longer than the download — in fact, a great deal longer than the
download if you have broadband Internet access. However long it takes, the process often slows other
programs in Windows while it is taking place, so the best approach to completing a Windows Update
with numerous selections is to start the downloads and go make yourself a snack.
After installation, Windows might instruct you to reboot your computer. As always, you can
ignore it if you want, but something on your system might not work right as a result. Remember
that, especially in the case of critical updates, you’ve just altered Windows XP itself.

Figure 5-4: Selecting from the ready to download items.

 Chapter 5: Windows Update: Letting Microsoft Protect Windows XP 73

Setting Up Automatic Updates

In an ideal world, computers would update themselves and not bother you about it. You’d wake up
in the morning to a refreshed and revamped system, and everything would work just a little better
than it did the night before. Of course, you’d have to trust whoever did the updating, and you’d have
to know that the updates would always work to your benefit, but if you could get past those obsta-
cles, automatic updates would represent a kind of technological paradise.
Windows Update provides an automated service, and while not exactly nirvana, it works well,
particularly because of the importance of critical updates. You can set up Windows XP to download
and install updates without any intervention on your part. The automatic update system covers only
Windows itself, not third-party programs or other utilities, and it functions more or less as you’d
hope an automatic update feature would.
To set your configuration, open the System Properties dialog box from the Control Panel (double-
click either System or Automatic Updates) or by right-clicking My Computer and choosing
Properties). Select the Automatic Updates tab (see Figure 5-5).

Figure 5-5: Set up your automatic updates.

To have your PC help you (or not) with automatic updates, check one of the following options:

Automatic (recommended): Windows handles its own updating. At the time you sched-
ule, using the drop-down menus to specify frequency and time of day, Windows connects
to Windows Update, downloads any available updates, and installs them. Only High
Priority updates are acquired in this fashion; to get optional updates, you still need to visit
the Windows Update site.
74 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Download but let me choose: Windows downloads the updates and then asks if you
want to install them.
Notify: Windows checks the Windows Update site for available items and informs you if
it finds any. A dialog box appears identifying the updates and asking if you want to down-
load and install them; you can postpone the process until later if you wish.
Turn off Automatic Updates: Shuts down the Automatic Update feature. You should con-
sider this one only if you have the self-discipline to remember to visit Windows Update
frequently to update your PC manually. Lots of people don’t (me, for instance).

Choosing Automatic provides two benefits. First, it does everything for you. Second, it does not
interfere with your work; as long as you are not actually working at the computer during the sched-
uled update time, you do not experience slowdowns or the sudden appearance of dialog boxes. The
disadvantage, of course, is that you don’t control the process. Of all the options, this one demands
that you trust Microsoft most.

Understanding Security Patches

Windows is the most frequently attacked operating system in the world. Why? Theories proliferate,
but most pundits agree on two major reasons: Windows has too many security holes, and attackers
tend to dislike Microsoft. Whatever the reasons, Microsoft is forced to issue security patches for
Windows with alarming frequency, making them available on the Windows Update site as well as
through download pages and third-party sites. Quite simply, Microsoft wants the patches out there,
readily available in many Internet locations, so that Windows users can download them, install
them, and, in doing so, ward off the intruders.

Note
You can use Windows Update to download and install security patches and service packs automatically. If
you dislike using Windows Update or want to keep manual track of the additions to Windows XP.

Your first stop is the Microsoft site itself (www.microsoft.com). Whenever the company releases
an important patch for Windows, it informs visitors to Web site, either on the home page or on the
Windows front page (www.microsoft.com/windows). If you see a new patch highlighted on one of
these pages, click the link to its download page.
Numerous other sources also provide information about the latest security patches. For example,
the PC Magazine Web site (www.pcmag.com) updates its news stories, and it places news about
important Windows patches at the top of the list. Other computer news sites such as Newslinx
(www.newslinx.com) and eWeek (www.eweek.com) also provide these details, and you can sub-
scribe to them (free) to get the headlines delivered to your inbox. All major newspapers feature patch
stories as well, so subscribe to your favorite (again, the free online version) and read about security
 Chapter 5: Windows Update: Letting Microsoft Protect Windows XP 75

downloads as information about them becomes available. (In the process, you can learn a great many
other things about the world as well — always a nice extra.)
Installing a security patch in this manner differs from installing it using Windows Update. Once
you’ve reached the download site, click the download link to begin the process. When the File
Download dialog box appears, you have two choices: Open or Save. For the greatest ease, click the
Open button. When the download finishes, the file launches automatically and prepares the installa-
tion. If you feel at all unsure about security, save the file to your hard drive, and then locate the file
and double-click it to launch it.

Understanding Service Packs

Microsoft occasionally makes available a full suite of upgrades that are collectively known as a ser-
vice pack. Service packs collect all updates released since either the previous service pack or the
release of the product itself. In the case of Windows XP, Service Pack 1 (SP1) included a huge array
of fixes as well as a few new features, including built-in support for the USB 2.0 hardware specifica-
tion. Since SP1, Service Pack 1a appeared, addressing a few issues only, and Service Pack 2 (see
Figure 5-6) is now available to add an array of security enhancements that Windows users have been
demanding. For more information about SP2, go to www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2.

Figure 5-6: The list of fixes in Windows XP Service Pack 2.

76 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

If you don’t want to engage Windows Update too often, one sensible strategy is to use Windows
Update for Windows XP critical updates only and then wait for the rest of the updates until the next
service pack is released. As with security patches, you can find notices about Windows service packs on
the Microsoft site and all the computer news sites, as well as, frequently enough, the major newspapers.
Whatever update strategy you choose, when a service pack becomes available, you can install it in
two ways. Microsoft makes its service packs available on Windows Update with a one-click down-
load and installation, certainly the most convenient method. If you prefer, either because you don’t
like using Windows Update or because Windows Update does not work well on your system, you
can install the service pack as follows:

1. In Internet Explorer, go to www.microsoft.com/downloads. In the section called Search for

a Download, type service pack 2 for IT professionals in the Keywords field and click Go.
On the resulting page, click the link to Windows XP Service Pack 2 for IT Professionals.
The page for this version of the Service Pack appears (see Figure 5-7).

Figure 5-7: The service pack download page provides information and instructions.

2. Click Download.
3. Save the file to a location of your choice on your hard drive.
4. With the download complete, locate the file and double-click it. The service pack installa-
tion begins.
 Chapter 5: Windows Update: Letting Microsoft Protect Windows XP 77

Microsoft Office Update

Although it is not part of Windows XP, many people associate Microsoft Office (now Microsoft Office
System) with Windows anyway. They have a very good reason for doing so: Office or one of its
components (most often Microsoft Word) frequently ships with new systems. As it turns out, they
have yet another reason for associating the two, because Office has an update site very much like
that of Windows XP. Unlike Windows Update, however, Office Update does not offer an option to
download and update new files automatically. You need to do so manually.
To update your Office software, open Internet Explorer and go to http://office.microsoft.com. Click the
Downloads link on the left, and look on the page for the Check for Updates link (usually at the top
right). Like Windows Update, Office Update then scans your system for Office software. Office
Update lists the available updates in a column on the right side of the browser window, beginning
with any Office service packs. These service packs are entirely unrelated to Windows service packs;
Office service packs contains fixes and patches only for programs in the Office suite of software.
Make your selections, and then click Start Installation. Internet Explorer downloads the software and
runs the update program, applying the components to your Office applications.
One important note here, though: By the time this book is published, Office updates will be included
in Windows Update. There will no longer be a need to look elsewhere for updates to your popular
Microsoft software. However, accessing Office Update directly will still work.

Tip
If you connect to the Internet through a dial-up modem, downloading the service packs can take hours. If you
prefer, you can order the service pack on CD by clicking the link at the bottom of the Service Pack page.

Summary
With your operating systems, you want continual support, and support comes frequently in the form
of fixes, patches, and add-ons. Windows Update provides the easiest method for keeping your
Windows XP installation current, but if you prefer, you can perform certain elements of the update
manually. This is especially true of security patches and service packs, which are downloadable from
the Microsoft Web site and elsewhere. (Third-party software contains its own similar update processes,
some of it Web-based, some of it merely the application contacting the download site, and you owe it
to yourself to keep it as current as possible as well.) While software has always undergone updates and
revisions, the fast and easy Internet connections of today mean that no software is ever truly finished or
completely up to date. In the case of Windows, given its susceptibility to ever more inventive forms of
intrusion and hacking, Microsoft’s recognition that it’s never completely finished is surely a good thing.
Chapter 6

Recovering from
Windows XP Problems

Y ou might get through month after month of Windows XP use without experiencing any diffi-
culties. Don’t bet your house on it, but it could happen. More likely, however, you will
encounter problems with your Windows XP installation once, twice, and perhaps more times during
the course of a few months’ activity, and you might very well need to categorize some of these prob-
lems as serious. This chapter features a wide range of reasonably simple techniques for dealing with
problems as they occur. Reasonably, that is, because any time your computer malfunctions, no mat-
ter what kind of computer it is or which operating system it runs, your life takes a turn for the dis-
tinctly uneasy. Windows XP experiences fewer problems than earlier versions of Windows, but you’ll
still likely experience your share, so these problem-solving techniques can come in handy.

Is Windows Really More Breakable Than Other OSs?

Does Windows really malfunction more than other operating systems? Certainly, listening to Apple
Macintosh owners or Linux users, you would assume the innate fragility and/or unreliability of
Microsoft’s operating systems.
Mac owners have a good point: The Mac breaks down very little, freezes rarely, and generally causes
almost no problems. What they neglect to mention, however, is the reason for this. Although it’s
possible that Microsoft hires programmers inferior to Apple’s, it’s unlikely. So, the reason has to lie
elsewhere, and indeed two major ones come to mind. First, early Windows versions were built on the
MS-DOS operating system, which was never intended for the complexities that Windows demanded of
it. With Windows XP, however, MS-DOS is gone, for all intents and purposes; so, what else might cause
the problems? The answer, predominantly, is the attempt Microsoft has made to provide compatibility
with the many thousands of products released over the years for the PC market. Most Windows
problems at the desktop level result from hardware device conflicts, but the reality of the PC market is
that third-party hardware products will always be with us. By comparison, very few companies
produce hardware for the Macintosh, and Apple maintains a tight control over those that do. Even so,
the Apple community today is experiencing problems with third-party software for its newest operating
systems, so the compatibility argument seems even more appropriate.
Continued
79
80 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Is Windows Really More Breakable Than Other OSs? (Continued)

Linux is also more stable than earlier Windows versions, at least at the server level — or so the
reports indicate (although arguments against this notion definitely exist). On the desktop, today’s
Linux distributions probably show roughly an equal stability with Windows XP, perhaps a little better
than equal. However, what it gains in stability it loses in ease of use, particularly when it comes to
installing software and updating programs (and the operating system itself). Linux has come a long
way, but it still remains harder to use than Windows. And yes, it crashes and, in fact, it will do so as
you install programs from a variety of vendors and programmers.
Without question, however, Windows XP is the most stable Windows to date — far more stable than
Windows 95, 98, or Me — and offers far more software and hardware compatibility than Windows
2000. And that’s the important point.

This chapter covers a variety of methods for recovering from problems with your Windows XP
installation, beginning with the precaution of using System Restore to take a snapshot of your system
in running order.

Using System Restore to Avoid Headaches

If you take only one idea away from this book to apply to your Windows XP experiences, take this:
System Restore can save your sanity. Before installing anything on your computer, hardware and soft-
ware alike, load System Restore and set a restore point in case anything goes wrong. If your com-
puter starts acting strangely afterward, you can open System Restore again and restore your machine
to that point. In fact, train yourself to set a restore point once a week or so, even when your PC
works perfectly because Windows deletes your restore points after 90 days by default. In other
words, if you look up one day and your PC works, capture the moment.

Note
System Restore also deletes restore points when you disable it on your main drive or when you reinstall the
operating system. It also deletes restore points selectively as your hard drive fills up, deleting the oldest
points and leaving the most recent intact as long as possible.

System Restore is so important, in fact, that Microsoft has configured it to set restore points auto-
matically. The utility functions in the background, monitoring your system and waiting for an event
to trigger it. Automatic triggers include the following:

Every 24 hours (configurable)

Whenever you install a software program
Whenever you install a hardware device with an unsigned driver
 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 81

Whenever Automatic Update installs software

Whenever you use the Windows Backup Utility to recover data

This list seems reasonably exhaustive, but a number of events can occur that make adding your
own restore points a very good idea. For example, if you install a new program, Windows XP auto-
matically creates a restore point at the moment you begin the installation. If you later restore your PC
to that moment, that program’s files and registry settings will disappear. Any data files you have cre-
ated remain in place, so that causes no concern. But if you’ve performed other installations in the
meantime, particularly of nonprogram software, such as media files or other add-ons, to get rid of
them using System Restore you might have to back up all the way to the moment before installing
that important application. More important, setting your own restore points lets you restore your
system to precisely the point you want, helping you avoid any unwanted deletions.
To set a restore point, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start ➝ All Programs ➝ Accessories, select the System Tools folder, and click
System Restore.
2. On the Welcome to System Restore screen (shown in Figure 6-1), choose the Create a
Restore Point option and click Next.

Figure 6-1: The opening screen of the System Restore Wizard.

3. On the next screen, type in a descriptive name for the restore point. If you are setting a
restore point to install the program Quicken, for example, you might name it Before
installing Quicken. The instructions on the screen tell you that System Restore will add
the current date and time to the restore point, so you don’t need to include that informa-
tion in the description.
82 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

4. Click Create to set the restore point. Windows responds with a screen confirming the new
restore point and showing you the time, date, and description. Click Close to exit System
Restore.

Restoring to an Earlier Time

Whenever you find Windows performing strangely, particularly if you’ve recently installed new
hardware or software, you can turn back the clock to one of your restore points. Open the System
Restore utility, and on the Welcome screen click the Restore My Computer To An Earlier Time
option. Clicking Next takes you to the Select a Restore Point screen, as shown in Figure 6-2. By
default, System Restore highlights the most recent restore point you’ve set on the current day, and
you can click any date and read the description to see which point you want to use. In fact, Figure
6-2 shows two possible points, the most recent taking place before the installation of the audio soft-
ware and the other an automatically set restore point (roughly three hours before) that Windows
calls a System Checkpoint.

Figure 6-2: The System Restore calendar.

Tip
To determine whether you should use a specific restore point, click on that point and then on each high-
lighted calendar date after that time. If you see an installation of either hardware or software on a date (or
even just a time) later than the selected restore point, you will lose that installation. In the case of hardware,
 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 83

keep in mind that after the system restoration Windows will try to install the drivers automatically. As long as
you have them available, you can quickly reinstall them. If Windows Update has installed software, however
(System Restore notes this activity in the description), you will need to return to Windows Update and rein-
stall the program.

After choosing the restore point you want, click Next. Figure 6-3 shows the resulting screen, with a
warning to close any open programs and save data. It also informs you that it will shut down Windows
and restart with the settings of the time shown in the restore point description. Specifically, it restores
the registry and all necessary system files to their earlier state. Performing these replacements rolls back
any changes made by the new installations, an extremely important point — especially if the changes
were intentionally harmful, as with some viruses, worms, and spyware.

Figure 6-3: Last chance to change your mind about restoring your system.

Tip
If you have trouble loading Windows XP, you can still use System Restore. Following the instructions in the
“Safe Mode and Other Startup Menu Options” section later in this chapter, boot your computer into Safe
Mode. When the interface appears, Windows informs you that you are about to enter Safe Mode and asks if
you wish to launch System Restore to restore Windows to an earlier point instead. If you go past this point,
you can load System Restore from the System Tools menu as well.
84 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Configuring System Restore

You can configure System Restore to work more to your liking. You should consider doing this if you
want to give System Restore more or less hard disk space and if you want to change the default settings
for creating automatic restore points and for deleting saved points. By default, System Restore reserves
12% of each hard drive for its restore points, it sets an automatic restore point (that is, a system check-
point) every 24 hours, and it starts deleting restore points after 90 days. You might decide that you
would rather keep your restore points for 6 months (180 days) instead of 90 days, and you need to give
System Restore more disk space to do so. If you want to keep the disk space as it is, you can achieve the
same goal by increasing the interval between automatic restores to 48 hours instead of 24.
You can configure the amount of reserved disk space via the System Properties dialog box. Open
System Properties from the Control Panel or by right-clicking the My Computer icon and choosing
Properties. Click the System Restore tab to begin your configuration, and the dialog box shown in
Figure 6-4 appears.

Tip
To open the System Properties dialog box from the keyboard, press Winlogo+Break.

Figure 6-4: Configuring the System Restore utility.

By default, System Restore monitors all hard drives, using a specific amount of disk space on
those drives to do its work. If you’d prefer not to use the utility at all, check the box at the top of the
 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 85

dialog box to turn off System Restore for all drives. Alternatively, you can disable System Restore on
each drive individually by highlighting that drive, clicking the Settings button, and checking the
Turn Off System Restore on This Drive option (see Figure 6-5). When you do this, Windows excludes
that drive from the entire process so that you cannot back that drive up to an earlier point. Programs
installed to that drive, however, will still be affected by a restoration if you installed them after the
date on the restore point. Windows resets the registry to that date, and the restored registry will no
longer include information about the application in question.

Figure 6-5: Changing the disk space allotment for restore points.

Figure 6-5 shows not only the disabling option but also the slider for changing the amount of
disk space used for restore points on that drive. Move the slider left to decrease the reserved space
and to the right to increase it. For System Restore to work most effectively, and especially if you
install software or hardware (or both) regularly, set all drives to their maximum disk space allotment
and let the utility back up everything it possibly can.
Changing the default intervals for automatic creation and deletion of restore points is consider-
ably more involved, primarily because it demands that you edit the registry in all its intimidating
glory. If that weren’t enough, you also have to do the multiplication necessary to convert days into
seconds.

Caution
Because editing the registry can cause your system to malfunction, you should always back it up before you
make any changes. To back up the registry, open the Registry Editor by clicking Start ➝ Run and typing
regedit in the Run box. In the Registry Editor dialog box, choose File ➝ Export. Check the All button under the
Export Range heading at the bottom of the dialog box in order to back up the entire registry. If you have a FAT
or FAT32 file system, save the registry file on that drive so that you guarantee access to it if you need to
restore it. Restoring the registry is a matter of loading Windows XP into Safe Mode (see the next section),
opening the Registry Editor, choosing File ➝ Import, and locating and opening the registry file. Then simply
reboot, and Windows should work the way it did before.
86 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

The following steps let you change the intervals for both automatic creation and deletion of
restore points:

1. Click Start and choose Run. Type regedit in the Open field and press Enter to launch the
Registry Editor.
2. Expand the folder called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE by clicking its plus sign (+).
3. Expand the Software folder in the same way, and then scroll down to the Microsoft folder
and expand it as well.
4. Scroll to the Windows NT folder and expand it, and then click the CurrentVersion folder.
5. Scroll to the System Restore folder and click it. Figure 6-6 shows the result, a list of keys in
the right-hand pane.

Figure 6-6: Editing the System Restore registry entries.

6. To change the timing of the automatic restore point setting, right-click the
RPGlobalInterval key and choose Modify.
7. In the resulting Edit DWORD Value dialog box, click the Decimal radio button, revealing
the value as 86400. This is the number of seconds that pass between each automatic
 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 87

restore point: 86,400 seconds equals 24 hours. You can change this value to anything you
like, but bear in mind that the time calculated is based only on when the PC is powered on
and Windows XP is running. For example, if you want to increase the amount of time to
48 hours, type 172800 in the box and click OK. The Edit DWORD Value dialog box
closes, and the Data column in the Registry Editor reflects the change.
8. To change the amount of time that expires before Windows automatically deletes a restore
point, follow the procedure in step 7, but this time, modify the RPLifeInterval key instead.
The default value, 7776000 seconds, equals 90 days. To double this value so that restore
points hang around for six months, type the value 15552000.
9. Reboot to set these values. Note that you do not have to save the Registry Editor itself. As
soon as you make the changes, the registry changes.

With System Restore functioning precisely the way you want, you’re ready to take your system back
in time if negative things start happening. Now you can concentrate on installing your hardware.

Safe Mode and Other Startup Menu Options

The vast majority of the time when you launch Windows XP, you get to the Welcome screen after a
few minutes of loading time. Sometimes, however, you don’t get there at all, and other times you
want to stop the OS to try to repair something before it enters full boot mode. For this reason,
Windows XP offers a Startup menu, an unadorned screen with white text on a black background, no
mouse support, and a series of options designed to let you troubleshoot the OS.

Accessing the Startup Menu

You can access the Startup screen in three different ways: by forcing it to appear, launching it from a
dual-boot menu, or configuring it to appear via the System Configuration utility.
On a system containing a single installation of Windows (that is, most PCs), you must normally
time a key press to force the Startup screen to appear. Specifically, hold the F8 key down as your
computer boots. Before pressing the key at all, however, you should wait until after the PC has run
through its BIOS check and is about to load Windows itself (yes, it takes timing). If you don’t wait,
you could fill up the keyboard buffer, causing the computer to beep; if this happens, release F8, wait
for a couple of seconds, and try again. Furthermore, don’t get frustrated if you miss the opportunity
and Windows starts to load normally. Mistiming has happened to everyone who’s tried this method.
On a dual-boot system (a PC containing at least two Windows installations), accessing the Startup
menu takes much less precision. Wait for the boot menu to appear, use the arrow keys to move the
highlight to the OS you want to launch, and press F8. A list of startup options follows. Select the
Startup mode you want and press Enter, after which you are returned to the first screen. Press Enter
again to launch the selected OS in the selected Startup mode. The only timing issue here is pressing
F8 before the default operating system launches automatically, typically after a 30-second wait.
If you have Windows XP loaded and functioning, you can use the System Configuration utility to
command Windows to restart in one of the Startup modes. To do so, open the utility by clicking Start,
selecting Run, typing msconfig in the Open box, and pressing Enter. When the System Configuration
88 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Utility dialog box opens, click the BOOT.INI tab to access the Boot Options interface (see Figure 6-7).
Here you can force Windows to load in the following different ways, each of which is explained later in
this chapter:

/SAFEBOOT: This option boots Windows XP into Safe Mode, with one of the following
options:
■ MINIMAL: Standard Safe Mode (the default option). It is available on the Startup menu
as Safe Mode.
■ NETWORK: Safe Mode with networking enabled. It is available on the Startup menu as
Safe Mode with Networking.
■ DSREPAIR: On systems with the Active Directory enabled, booting with this option
lets you make repairs to the Active Directory. It is available from the Startup menu as
Directory Service Restore Mode.
■ MINIMAL (ALTERNATESHELL): This rather fancy name simply boots Windows into
Safe Mode with a command-line prompt only, with no graphical interface. It is available
on the Startup menu as Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
/NOGUIBOOT: Windows does not display the Windows XP splash screen during the boot
process. This is useful if you really loathe the Windows logo. It is unavailable on the
Startup menu.
/BOOTLOG: Windows logs every activity during the boot process, creating a file you can
examine for loading errors. It is available on the Startup menu as Enable Boot Logging.
/BASEVIDEO: Boots Windows with the default VGA driver, giving you an unattractive
screen to look at; however, by avoiding your video driver, this method is helpful in sort-
ing out problems with your graphics card. It is available on the Startup menu as Enable
VGA Mode.
/SOS: Windows displays the name of each driver as it loads, helping you determine which
drivers might be causing problems. /SOS slows boot time considerably because it also
checks your hard disk’s file system as Windows loads. It is available from the Startup menu
as Debugging Mode.

In the System Configuration utility, click the option you want and then the Close button. Reboot
your PC, and Windows boots as instructed.

Note
When you’ve finished troubleshooting Windows, return to the System Configuration utility and uncheck your
choices. Until you do so, Windows will continue to load in the specified boot mode.
 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 89

Figure 6-7: The BOOT.INI tab on the System Configuration utility.

Windows provides another way to access Safe Mode, but not a way that you choose. When
Windows attempts to load but fails (even if you manually restart in the middle of a boot-up), a trun-
cated version of the Startup menu appears automatically on the next boot attempt.

Safe Mode
The most common reason for accessing the Startup menu is to launch Windows in Safe Mode. Safe
Mode is exactly what its name indicates — a safe means of starting your Windows XP system. In this
context, the word safe means, more than anything else, certain. You won’t get your full system up
and running, but what you do get will work. From Safe Mode, you can troubleshoot your system,
adjust your configuration, uninstall programs, and, as long as you select the Safe Mode with
Networking Option, access online help over the Internet.

Note
Sometimes your system will not even let you boot into Safe Mode. If this condition persists, often your only
choice is a reinstallation of Windows XP (see Appendix B). Before resorting to such an undertaking, how-
ever, turn your computer off for a couple of hours and try booting again. If it still doesn’t work, and if you have
a boot floppy — even from an earlier Windows version — boot with it and then reboot to try Windows XP
once more. There’s no real technical reason why such techniques work, but sometimes they do. Maybe even
operating systems need a rest.

Safe Mode works by launching Windows with only the files, settings, and drivers necessary for it
to operate. Specifically, it loads the basic Windows files along with standard drivers for keyboard,
mouse, monitor, and devices such as your hard drives. It dispenses with third-party drivers and
90 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

inessential drivers you might have installed after initially setting up the OS, and it also bypasses
many of the settings stored in the Windows registry. In other words, it loads a minimal version of
Windows, one that can function on all standard PCs, largely independent of the hardware and soft-
ware installed in a particular PC.
The effectiveness of Safe Mode lies in the fact that most of the problems affecting the Windows
boot process result from the hardware and software specific to that PC, not from the standard,
unadorned Windows environment. If you’ve installed a new video driver, for example, and you no
longer get an image on your monitors, entering Safe Mode tells Windows to bypass the newly
installed video drivers and revert to the good old SVGA drivers, which are unquestionably boring
but nearly always functional. With Safe Mode running, you can uninstall those drivers and then
install an earlier version of them on restart.
Of course, Safe Mode has a built-in strike against it: If you need it, that means you’re having prob-
lems. As a result, you see it only when you’ve already tried everything you could think of to fix your
system and failed. Because you typically turn to it only in emergency situations, you might consider
working with it regularly just to maintain familiarity with it. Enter Safe Mode periodically, navigate
your way around (especially to the Windows configuration utilities and dialog boxes), and then shut
down and boot normally. That way, when disaster strikes you’ll be ready.

Safe Mode with Networking

To use Safe Mode most effectively, choose the Safe Mode with Networking option. Doing so loads
Windows with the same minimal configuration as standard Safe Mode, except that it loads your net-
working hardware and software. This gives you access to, among other things, the networking pro-
tocol (TCP/IP) that connects you to the Internet. This mode is especially useful for downloading
updated drivers to help you get your system working properly, but it can also be a godsend if Windows
refuses to load normally but you desperately need to check your Internet email or to log on to your
company network. If networking problems led you to Safe Mode in the first place, though, choosing
Safe Mode with Networking obviously stops being a good idea.

Safe Mode with Command Prompt

If you know how to use MS-DOS commands (if you need to ask, you don’t), Windows provides a
startup mode you’ll find useful for certain purposes. Choosing Command Prompt Only from the
Startup menu loads Windows without the graphical user interface (GUI) — or, you might say, with-
out Windows itself. You end up with a minimal system, far fewer drivers and registry instructions
than usual (and thus far fewer potential system conflicts), and a command prompt staring you
straight in the face and waiting for you to type something. You still need to log on — use an
Administrator account for this purpose (see Chapter 24 for details on creating accounts) — but once
there, you can copy files, restore system files, and much more. The problem is that you’ll have no
help system to guide you.

Enable Boot Logging

The Windows XP boot logging option instructs Windows to create a text file that keeps track of the
drivers and system services that load with the OS. If Windows fails to load, you can enter Safe Mode
 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 91

and examine this file to determine where the launch process has been failing. You can load the file
into Notepad or WordPad and scan through it to see any loading exceptions. Most importantly, you
can examine the end of the file to see which driver was the last one that Windows tried to load.
Frequently, this driver is the problem — the one that stopped the OS in its tracks. Using the Device
Manager dialog box in System Properties, you can delete the driver, or, in the case of drivers for older
products, you can edit the system files using the System Configuration Utility (click Start and choose
Run, and then type msconfig and press Enter). By doing so, you can stop the offending driver or
process from loading and, in many cases, allow Windows to launch without it.
After you’ve booted your system with the Enable Boot Logging option, Windows creates a log file
named ntbtlog.txt. You can find this file in the main Windows directory (but again, only after you’ve
used a Boot Logging startup). As you read it, you’ll notice that the vast majority of drivers in the list
are displayed as loading properly. But the log file stops at precisely the spot where Windows stopped
the loading process.

Enable VGA Mode

Sometimes, the latest driver for your graphics card proves not quite ready for everyday use by caus-
ing unwanted video problems. If you’ve recently updated your video driver and Windows is dis-
played badly or not at all, try booting with the Enable VGA Mode feature from the Startup menu. In
this mode, Windows uses the same video driver it uses when it launches in Safe Mode, but Enable
VGA Mode (unlike Safe Mode) keeps all other drivers and registry settings active. You end up with a
Windows that looks bad but performs just fine in every other regard. From here, you can uninstall
the video driver, reboot, and either restore the old one yourself or let Windows attempt to do it for
you automatically as it boots.

Last Known Good Configuration (Your Most Recent Settings

That Worked)
Safe Mode represents the most important diagnostic tool in the Windows XP arsenal, but you have
other startup options at your disposal when booting a malfunctioning Windows XP system. In fact,
before you trying Safe Mode, call up the Startup menu and select the option labeled Last Known
Good Configuration. Each time Windows starts normally, it saves the configuration information in
the registry, updating it once again only when another normal startup takes place followed by a user
login and a clean shutdown. If you install drivers or programs and immediately afterward Windows
does not start properly, choosing Last Known Good Configuration rolls back the changes and, in
many cases, allows Windows to boot properly.
Although Last Known Good Configuration resembles Safe Mode in its ability to help you get
Windows XP running again, they work in considerably different ways. Safe Mode bypasses numer-
ous drivers and registry settings in order to load a bare-bones version of the OS. By comparison, Last
Known Good Configuration loads the full operating system, complete with all the drivers and reg-
istry entries you’ve created since first installing Windows; but instead of the most current version,
Last Known Good Configuration loads the most recent one that booted successfully. Use Safe Mode
when you need to make changes to your system; use Last Known Good Configuration when you
want Windows to attempt to correct itself.
92 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Controlling Your System with Task Manager

Back in the days of MS-DOS, if you wanted to reboot your computer you either pressed the Reset
button on your computer case or, as many people quickly discovered, you gave your PC the three-
fingered salute. This term, oddly enough never officially adopted by Microsoft despite its widespread
use, referred to the Ctrl+Alt+Delete combination that resulted in a restart (called a warm reboot) of
the operating system. Ctrl+Alt+Delete was used, quite simply, when you could do nothing else but
start over.
Ctrl+Alt+Delete lives on in Windows, albeit with a somewhat different function. These days, the
three-fingered salute results in the Windows Task Manager appearing on screen, one of whose func-
tions remains, indeed, to shut down the system when you can’t do so through the Start menu. Rather
than initiating a brute-force, all-or-nothing shutdown, however, the Task Manager lets you shut
down each program individually, indeed even some open windows within a particular program indi-
vidually. Because it interacts directly with the Windows XP system, Task Manager has the capability
to close programs and windows you cannot close through the usual methods, such as clicking the
Exit button or choosing Close or Exit from the File menu.
You can launch the Task Manager by pressing the Ctrl+Alt+Delete key combination or by right-
clicking the Taskbar and choosing Task Manager. Figure 6-8 shows the Task Manager Applications
tab on a system running several programs simultaneously. To close a program in the list, select it and
click the End Task button. If the program is currently busy, a dialog box asks if you want to shut it
down immediately; if the program has been causing problems by acting strangely or running slowly,
say yes to unload it from memory. The Task Manager helps you most by letting you shut down pro-
grams that have crashed; they appear in the window with the status Not responding.

Figure 6-8: The Task Manager Applications window.

 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 93

Figure 6-9 shows the Processes tab of Task Manager. Here you can see the computer processes
currently active in your system. All programs run processes, as do numerous elements in the operat-
ing system itself. As with the Applications tab, you can click on any process shown here and stop it
by clicking the End Process button. One of the main benefits of the Processes tab is that many items
appear here that do not appear as full programs on the Applications tab, and you can learn quite
quickly which processes you can shut down to save memory. If you don’t work regularly with
Acrobat reader, for example, terminate the Acrobat.exe process (near the top of the window in Figure
6-9). Similarly, if you’re not planning to use the DVD drive to play movies, you can terminate cine-
tray.exe. Before doing so, however, check the System Tray to see if the icons for these programs appear
there, and close them normally instead. Ending a process via the Task Manager can result in program
crashes and even complete system crashes. But when all else fails, with your system behaving errati-
cally or extremely slowly, try ending some recognizable services and see if doing so clears up the
problem.

Figure 6-9: The Processes tab in Task Manager.

Sorting Out Problems with Virtual Memory

As your hard drive begins to fill up, Windows frequently starts running more slowly. The reason for
this is quite simple. Windows continually swaps data from the hard drive into system memory and
back again, and it needs part of your hard disk to work with in this manner. Windows calls this disk
space virtual memory, and it calls the file to which it saves and extracts data a paging file. As you
94 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

work with Windows, the paging file expands and shrinks as the operating system requires, but as
you fill up your hard drive, you can render the paging file less and less useful.
Windows rarely tells you when the paging file gets too small. It does, however, inform you when
your hard drive is nearly full, and it tells you if it cannot perform a task because it has run out of
memory. Sometimes these messages are related; your paging file has reached its minimum size
because your hard drive has filled up and Windows needs more memory than the paging file allows
in order to run its programs. When you see this warning, keep in mind that not only will you soon
run out of disk space (usually when you’re trying to save the most important document of your life),
but you are also affecting the performance of everything on your system.
You can help your virtual memory’s cause in a number of ways:

Remove programs from your system by accessing the Add/Remove Programs utility on the
Control Panel.
Remove data from the hard drive to give the paging file more disk space.
Change the default size of the paging file to ensure that you never shortchange Windows.
Move the paging file to a location you won’t touch.
Delete the paging file and let it reconstruct itself.

With the first option, cleaning unneeded items off your hard drive, you help yourself in numer-
ous ways. You get more disk space and so does the paging file. Chapter 22 discusses various meth-
ods of reducing the data on your drives, but nothing replaces the good old Delete key. If you don’t
want to delete the files and folders, and if you have another partition (or another hard drive) with
space available, move the files to that partition. Windows ties the paging file to a specific drive, and
as long as that drive contains enough room for the paging file to act as a memory store, it continues
to work just fine.
To work directly with the paging file, open the System Properties dialog box by right-clicking on
My Computer and choosing Properties (or pressing Winlogo+Break). Click the Advanced tab, fol-
lowed by the Settings button in the Performance area. Click the Advanced tab on the resulting
Performance Options dialog box and look at the Virtual Memory area at the bottom. Here, you see
the current size of the paging file, as well as a Change button if you want to reconfigure it. Clicking
Change yields the Virtual Memory dialog box shown in Figure 6-10.
This dialog box shows all the partitions on your system, as well as an interface for changing the
size of the file. Unless you have a reason to set the initial and maximum size of the file, click the
System Managed Size radio button to let Windows XP control the size of the file on its own, increas-
ing and decreasing it as required by current memory needs. Figure 6-10 shows a paging file set to
768MB as the initial size (roughly 1.5 times the amount of system RAM in the PC), with a maximum
size of twice that amount. The benefit of setting the initial file size is that this size acts as the mini-
mum size as well; when Windows controls the paging file, it will let it get much smaller. But
Windows also uses maximum size to the best possible effect, so if you have plenty of hard disk space,
the System Managed Size option remains the best.
 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 95

Figure 6-10: Configuring the paging file.

If you have a large hard drive, you can deal with the paging file extremely effectively by creating
a separate partition 3–4GBs in size and assigning a system-controlled paging file to that partition
(see Appendix A for details on creating partitions). Unless you install over 2GB of RAM in your sys-
tem (unlikely today but possible by the time the next version of Windows appears), you’ll never
need a larger paging file. Because it’s on a separate partition, and assuming that you can avoid actu-
ally using that partition for data storage, your paging file will work as well as it possibly can in a
Windows XP system. Once you have a partition available for the paging file, you can assign the pag-
ing file to that partition via the Virtual Memory area of the Advanced tab of the Performance Options
dialog box.
If you experience numerous out-of-memory messages or low-virtual-memory messages, your
paging file might have become corrupted. Locate the file named pagefile.sys (typically in the root
folder of C: drive), delete it, and then reboot your PC. Windows automatically generates a new page
file during the boot process, this time without the corruptions.

Using the Automated System

Recovery Wizard
The Windows XP Backup Utility contains a little-known feature called the Automated System
Recovery Wizard. Using this feature, you create a backup of your system files on CD, DVD, or other
backup media of the system partition. If you later experience a major system crash, you can effec-
tively put Windows XP back in working order the way it was, albeit without any programs or data
files you might have lost because of the crash.
96 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

To create this backup, open the Backup Utility from the System Tools folder by clicking Start and
choosing All Folders ➝ Accessories. On the resulting Welcome screen of the wizard, click the
Advanced Mode link. Figure 6-11 shows the Welcome page of the Backup Utility, with the Automated
System Recovery (ASR) Wizard displayed as the third option on the screen. Clicking the ASR Wizard
button takes you into the wizard itself.

Figure 6-11: The choices available in the Backup Utility.

Click Next on the wizard’s Welcome screen and browse for the location where you want to store
your backup — a CD-R or CD-RW disc, an external hard drive, a tape drive, and so on. Click Next
to begin the backup process. The Backup Utility requests media during the backup (CD-ROMs,
DVDs, and so on), so be sure to have them ready.
If your system crashes and you can no longer load Windows, use this backup to make the neces-
sary repairs. Locate the disk you just created, as well as the media for the backup itself. Finally, find
your Windows XP installation CD. Put the Windows installation CD in the CD-ROM drive, turn on
your computer, and press a key when prompted to start the installation from the CD. When you see
the notice on the Setup screen to press F2 for an Automated System Recovery session, do so. Put the
disc in your CD or DVD drive when instructed, and follow the process to recover your system.

Establishing Security with EFS

The Encrypting File System (EFS) offers an exceptional degree of security for your data. While the
Windows XP firewall protects your PC from external intrusion, if someone does manage to break in
 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 97

the EFS renders any stolen data effectively useless. When you encrypt a file, you apply an encryption
algorithm to it — EFS uses both expanded Data Encryption Standard (DESX) and Triple-DES (DES3)
for its encryption — and in order to use that file, it must be decrypted. Once you’ve enabled EFS for
a folder or file, Windows XP performs these actions behind the scenes, encrypting when you save the
file to disk and decrypting when you load the file into a program. If you hold an Administrator
account for a PC (or several PCs), you can enable EFS for the good of everybody without anyone
even noticing it’s there.

Note
The Encrypting File System works only on NTFS formatted disks. In fact, if you copy or move a file from an
NTFS disk to a FAT32 or FAT disk, you remove the encryption entirely. For that reason, it makes little sense to
use a FAT32 partition as a backup location for an NTFS partition that contains EFS-enabled folders and files,
unless you can remove the FAT32 partition from the PC (as in the case of an external hard drive).

The EFS works through a trio of keys. Each file contains its own file encryption key, assigned
when first encrypted and required to decrypt the file later. For further security, EFS encrypts the file
encryption key as well, and anyone wanting to use the file needs the public key of the user who cre-
ated the file or of any other users specifically authorized to do so (not even computer administrators
can access another user’s encrypted files without this authorization). The person who then tries to
decrypt the file can do so only with a private key that matches the public key. In effect, the private
key unlocks the public key, which in turn unlocks the file encryption key. Only with all the locks
removed can the person use the file in an application.

Encrypting and Decrypting Data

To encrypt a file or folder, follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer, and navigate to the file or folder you want to
encrypt.
2. Right-click on the file or folder, and choose Properties.
3. Click the Advanced button on the resulting Properties dialog box.
4. On the Advanced Attributes dialog box, check the Encrypt Contents to Secure Data option
and click OK. See Figure 6-12.
5. Click OK on the Properties dialog box to begin the encryption process.

After clicking OK, another dialog box appears. If you apply the encryption to a folder, you get the
Confirm Attribute Changes dialog box (see Figure 6-13).
98 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 6-12: Enabling encryption for this resource.

Figure 6-13: Choices when encrypting a folder.

This dialog asks if you want to encrypt the folder only or, as a default, the folder and everything
inside it — all files and all subfolders as well. When you apply encryption to a file, the Encryption
Warning dialog box appears (see Figure 6-14), explaining that if you encrypt the file but not the
entire folder, whenever someone modifies that file the encryption could disappear.

Figure 6-14: Choices when encrypting a file.

 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 99

As both dialog boxes make clear, EFS works best when applied to entire folders rather than indi-
vidual files. When you encrypt a folder and all its contents, you instruct Windows to encrypt all files
you place in that folder from that point on, whether by copying them, moving them, or saving them
from a program. By contrast, if you encrypt only a file, you strip the encryption by modifying the file,
and you give up the full control provided by encryption at the folder level. The moral is this: Encrypt
folders, and let the folders encrypt the files for you. For both dialog boxes, therefore, accept the
default selection to encrypt the folder and all its files.
Windows indicates an encrypted folder or file by displaying its name in green. If you encrypt a
folder, it automatically changes the folder name and all filenames to green, making it easy for you to
see, in Windows Explorer or My Computer, which items operate under EFS. If you encrypt only the
file, the folder name itself gives no indication that it contains encrypted files. This is another reason
(albeit a less important one) to choose folder-level encryption.
If for any reason you want to remove the encryption from a resource, right-click on it and choose
Properties, click the Advanced button, and uncheck the encryption option from the Advanced
Attributes dialog box.

Note
You cannot use EFS on compressed folders. For that reason, on the Advanced Attributes dialog box, you can
choose either “Compress contents to save disk space” or “Encrypt contents to secure data,” but not both.
(Of course, from an interface design standpoint an either-or selection always calls for radio buttons rather
than check boxes, so this is one for the “Who designed this?” document.) Furthermore, you cannot encrypt
entire hard drives, nor can you encrypt files bearing the System attribute.

Establishing a Recovery Agent

As you might have guessed by now, the powerful encrypting capabilities of EFS can cause access
problems not just for the bad guys. If an employee encrypts folders and files and then leaves the
company, unless you can access that user’s account, you can’t access the encrypted files and folders.
This danger is especially acute if you lose access to the Windows XP installation entirely. Even if you
reinstall Windows (see Appendix B for details), giving you access to the folders and files in the pre-
vious installation, you still cannot access the encrypted files. For this, you need a Recovery Agent.

Caution
If you do not establish a Recovery Agent and you lose access to the Windows installation, you cannot access
files on that system encrypted through EFS. You might as well delete them (EFS doesn’t stop you from doing
that) because you have no way to access them at all.
100 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Creating a Certificate
To create a certificate for use in adding a Recovery Agent, follow these steps. This process assumes
a username of jones, but, of course, yours probably differs:
1. Open a command box by clicking Start, choosing Run, typing cmd in the Open field, and pressing
Enter.
2. Notice the current folder, which is displayed in the path at the top of the command box. Write
this down so you can locate the certificate once you’ve created it.
3. Engage EFS’s cipher utility by typing cipher /r: jones and pressing Enter.
4. Windows prompts you for a password. Type it and then retype it to confirm, pressing Enter each
time. Windows tells you it has created two files, jones.cer and jones.pfx.
5. Open the MMC (click Start and choose Run, then type mmc into the Open field and press Enter).
6. Choose File ➝ Add/Remove Snap-in.
7. On the Add/Remove Snap-in screen, click Add and click Certificates on the resulting dialog box.
Click Add.
8. Choose My User Account, and click Finish. Click Close on the Snap-in dialog box and OK on the
Add/Remove Snap-in screen.
9. Click OK. The console shows the Certificates – Current User tree. Right-click on the Personal
folder, and choose All Tasks ➝ Import. This starts the Certificate Import Wizard. Click Next.
10. Click the Browse window, and in the Files of Type menu, select Personal Information Exchange.
Double-click the jones.pfx file in the main window, and click Next in the File To Open window.
11. Type the password you decided on in step 4, and click the Mark This Key as Exportable option.
That way, you’ll be able to export the certificate (to another computer, for example) for safe-
keeping.
12. On the Certificate Store screen, choose the top radio button, Automatically Select the
Certificate Store Based on the Type of Certificate, and click Next. Click Finish to complete the
import.
13. Now it’s only a matter of telling Windows to use this key for the Recovery Agent. In the MMC,
choose File ➝ Add/Remove Snap-in, click Add, and choose Group Policy. Click Finish to add the
Group Policy snap-in, and click OK on the Add-Remove Snap-in window.
14. In the MMC, locate the Encrypting File System folder by expanding the following items in
the Console Root tree: Local Computer Policy, Computer Configuration, Windows Settings,
Security Settings, and Public Key Policies. Right-click on Encrypting File System, and choose
Add Data Recovery Agent. Click Next.
15. In the Select Recovery Agents window, click Browse Folders. Locate the jones.cer file you
just created, and double-click it. Click Next and then Finish to complete the process.
 Chapter 6: Recovering from Windows XP Problems 101

When users without authorization try to access an encrypted file, they get a message telling them,
in a rather terse manner, that they cannot do so. Double-clicking on the file icon (even inside an
encrypted folder, the files themselves are clearly visible) results in the message, without letting the
user know why they can’t access it. The user simply knows that it’s not available and can draw on all
the conspiracy theories he or she wishes as a result.
The Recovery Agent can access these files, however. You create a Recovery Agent through the
Group Policy Editor (outlined in Chapter 27). Open the editor (choose Start ➝ Run, type
gpedit.msc, and press Enter), and navigate to the Encrypting File System folder, located inside Local
Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Public Key Policies.
Right-click on the Encrypting File System folder, and select Add Data Recovery Agent. The Add
Recovery Agent Wizard appears, guiding you through the process. If you do not have a certificate,
you can create one using the instructions in the “Creating a Certificate” sidebar in this chapter.
When you have the Recovery Agent in place, that person can access any encrypted files and fold-
ers, as long as the certificates for that user are installed on that machine. For this reason, you should
export the certificates to another location (ideally another computer) for later import should some-
thing go wrong. For example, in the case where you have an inaccessible Windows XP installation
on one partition of your PC and you install Windows XP on a new partition, you can import the
Recovery Agent’s certificates and, once they’re in place, gain access to the encrypted data. You can
encrypt the certificate files on the second computer, but you run the risk of making it inaccessible if,
in turn, you lose the keys for that second PC.
You now have a Recovery Agent in place. You should now back up your certificates by right-
clicking on them, choosing All Tasks ➝ Export, and storing them in a safe location.

Summary
Windows XP provides a number of extremely useful methods for recovering from the problems that
can result from your daily computer use. As long as you have taken a snapshot of your installation
using System Restore, and as long as you have backups of your most important data files, along with
installation media for Windows XP itself and for your most-used programs, you can recover your
system in a variety of ways. But even if you simply need to determine why Windows won’t start or
why you keep getting messages indicating low memory, you have ways to recover. Keeping these
methods in mind gives you a sense of peace, knowing that you can get your PC up and running
again even if the problem does happen — as it is wont to do — on a Sunday evening when all the
computer stores are closed.
Part II

Utilities

G iven the importance of guarding against data loss and system crashes, it makes sense to
explore this group of backup utilities immediately to ensure that your system is protected
against intrusion, viruses, spyware, and other unsavory malware. The products covered here help
you back up your data, back up your entire system, and turn back the clock to a previous version of
your system.
Windows XP itself contains utilities to handle two of these functions: Backup Utility handles data
back up, including backing up important system files. System Restore is a capable time-turner. As
with all other utilities, however, those included in Windows XP have fewer features than dedicated
products, so be sure to check out several of the following. Here, we’ve included information on some
of the more reputable data backup and ghost imaging products. Especially with the data backup
group, however, these are only a few of the many solutions available out there.

Data Backup Utilities

You’ll never run out of data backup utilities; then again, after you discover one you like, you won’t
have much cause to check out any others. As discussed in Chapter 4, the crucial components of data
backup utilities are the capability to use a variety of media and multiple discs, to add incrementally
to existing backups, to back up automatically according to a schedule, and to restore data in a highly
user-friendly way. If you desperately need a folder back, the last thing you want is a clumsy interface.
Tanagra’s Memeo (www.tanagra.com) is certainly a product to consider. For roughly $25, you get
a full-featured backup program that sets itself up to capture the most easily missed files — such as
your Internet Favorites — and lets you customize to include whatever you want. It also lets you
back up to pretty much any kind of media, including not only the usual CDs, DVDs, and internal
and external hard drives but also Internet backup sites such as FTP sites and the company’s own
Internet Disk service. Restoring is particularly user-friendly; hence we highly recommend it.
Other well-regarded products abound. LockStep Systems’ Backup-for-One or Backup-for-
Workgroups (www.lockstep.com), both of which provide a full suite of backup features and focus
extensively on verifying that individual files are fully and reliably recoverable (very good features).

103
104 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

NovaStor’s NovaBackup Professional (www.novastor.com) clocks in a bit high in price (about $80)
but offers support for a huge variety of media and is friendly to use. SimpleTech’s StorageSync (www.
simpletech.com) offers the best price of the bunch — the Standard edition is free — and gives you
all the features you need for regular backups. One of the most respected products for small busi-
nesses in this field is Dantz’s Retrospect Backup, designed for server backup as well as desktop
backup, and with an extremely strong focus on disaster recovery.
And what about online backup services? Well, they’re definitely out there. Xdrive (www.xdrive.
com), Iomega iStorage (www.iomega.com), @Backup (www.backup.com), and more. These services
synchronize with your hard drive and let you send your data to their servers, which store the data for
as long as you have your account. They’re a superb idea for backing up your most important files, but
they’re quite costly for large backups. Xdrive’s price of $5.95 per month for 5GB is the best I found.
That’s not bad, but if you took the $70 you’d spend in one year and doubled it, you’d get a far larger
internal or external hard drive. Still, the benefit of these services is that they keep your data in a highly
secure server environment that won’t be affected by your PC breaking, being stolen, or being caught in
a house fire, and for that reason you might certainly consider it.
For relatively small files, consider Yahoo! Briefcase (briefcase.yahoo.com), which gives you
100MB for absolutely zero dollars and which makes a superb choice for uploading files from your
home that you can later access at work. And it’s a pretty good secondary storage area to boot.

Ghost Imaging Utilities

Ghost imaging software, also called cloning software, creates an image of the contents of a hard drive
(or one of the drive’s partitions if you prefer). Essentially, it captures everything on the hard drive,
and then, when you want to restore the contents of the drive, the software puts it all back in place
exactly as it was before.
Although ghosting can be used to back up your data, and in fact is attractive as a data backup
tool, the main reason to use ghosting software is to back up entire systems. This is especially useful
for companies that want each user to have identical software environments: One PC is fully config-
ured, a ghost image taken of that PC’s drive, and the image is copied onto the drives of all the other
PCs. Some, but not all, ghosting software is capable of restoring the image to PCs that do not have an
operating system currently running, hence its usefulness in this regard. If you need to perform an
installation on a drive that needs formatting and partitioning, be sure to shop for those particular
features.
Ghosting differs from the System Recovery tools in that it does not restore only selected files to
their previous state as, for example, Windows’ System Restore does. System Restore and utilities of
its ilk turn back the clock to delete drivers or programs installed since taking the restore point, leav-
ing data files alone. When you restore a system using a ghost image, you wipe out anything you’ve
done since the image was captured. However, as with data backup products, most ghosting software
lets you take incremental images, modifying the original image so that you don’t need to keep imag-
ing your entire drive.
Norton Ghost (known as Symantec Ghost in the enterprise edition) is one of the best-known ghost-
ing products and is available as a standalone product or as part of Symantec’s Norton SystemWorks
 Part II: Utilities 105

Premier suite (www.symantec.com). Symantec’s acquisition of PowerQuest Corporation put an end to

one of its competitors, PowerQuest DriveImage, but any image created with DriveImage works with
Ghost as of version 9. Ghost does not contain drive-formatting or -partitioning utilities. For that, you’ll
need your own additional utilities, and the company quite naturally, recommends its Partition Magic
program, another acquisition from PowerQuest.
Acronis TrueImage (www.acronis.com) also lets you take incremental images, thereby helping
you save time in backing up your system, but in general it runs faster than Ghost does. It also con-
tains drive-formatting and -partitioning software, giving you considerably more flexibility in estab-
lishing your images on other PCs. TrueImage’s interface is somewhat less user-friendly than Ghost’s
is, and it tends to assume that you have a decent command of PC terminology. Then again, you own
this book, so no problem, obviously.
Both Ghost and TrueImage save the image to a variety of media types, including hard drives, CDs,
DVDs, and external USB and FireWire drives.
Image for Windows (www.terabyteunlimited.com) is an inexpensive ghosting package (less than
$30) that covers the same ground as Ghost and TrueImage do. Also included in the package is Image
for DOS, which lets you perform an image restore on a PC without a working Windows partition.
 Part III
Taming the Internet
Chapter 7
Connecting to the Internet
Chapter 8
Putting the Internet to Work for You
Chapter 9
Tailoring Internet Explorer 6
Chapter 10
Controlling Windows from Afar
Part III Utilities
Chapter 7

Connecting to
the Internet

C onquering the Internet begins with connecting consistently and reliably to the Internet in the
first place. Windows XP embraces the Internet in many ways, and you have numerous options
available to you for connecting, reconnecting, and improving and repairing connections.
This chapter covers a variety of Internet connections, demonstrating how to set up the three most
common types for residential use: dial-up, cable, and DSL. In addition, the chapter looks at the ben-
efits of using a router as well as the Windows XP feature of automatic connections.

Internet Connection Basics

For your PC to be connected to the Internet, it has to meet two criteria. First, it must connect to
other computers on the Internet using TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).
Second, it must bear its own unique IP (Internet Protocol) address.

Note
IP addresses are numeric. For example, the IP address for microsoft.com is 207.46.250.119. Each computer on
the Internet has its own IP number, although a local area network (LAN) can assume a single IP number and
parcel out data to other computers on the LAN, each of which has its own private IP number (this is the basis
of Dynamic Host Consideration Protocol (DHCP) networks, covered in this chapter). From the Internet’s per-
spective, however, only the public IP numbers exist, so the entire local area network (LAN) consists of only
one official address.

You can connect to the Internet through several different methods:

Dialup: The slowest connection, dialup uses a standard telephone modem and transmits
data through the same telephone cable bandwidth as telephone conversations themselves.

109
110 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Its primary selling feature has long been price, but cable and DSL connections have
recently decreased in price to the extent that unlimited dial-up access is now attractive
primarily to those who have no other access type available, rural users in particular.
Dialup remains of strong interest to anyone needing only a few hours of access each
month; in such cases, a limited-hours account is often less than $10 per month.
DSL: An abbreviation for digital subscriber line, DSL increases the speed over standard
modems by 10 times or more, although providers now offer slower DSL connections at
lower prices than full DSL. DSL is one of the two major forms of access (along with cable)
known as broadband or high-speed. DSL comes in several different forms (asymmetric
digital subscriber line (ADSL), High bit-tate Digital Subscriber Line (HDSL), and so on),
but when ordering Internet access, you won’t likely need to know the difference. Indeed,
you won’t likely have a choice because your telephone company (or a third-party company
that essentially sells the phone company’s DSL service) will typically have only one tech-
nology available. DSL’s great potential comes from the fact that it uses the same lines as the
telephone service that comes into your home, so your house needs no additional wiring.
Unlike dial-up access, however, DSL traffic uses a different portion of the connection and
does not interfere with voice traffic, so you can use the Internet and talk on the same
phone line simultaneously.

Note
DSL suffers a disadvantage in requiring filters to eliminate noise stemming from the differences between
data traffic and voice traffic, but because DSL providers typically include several filters in the package, that
disadvantage is small. The chief disadvantage of DSL lies in the overall topography of a DSL networking sys-
tem; to receive DSL service, your home or office must be physically located within a specific distance from
the closest endpoint, with the result that it’s entirely possible for your house not to have service, while your
neighbor’s house down the block does.

Cable: Because cable services already carry TV signals, it makes sense that they could
carry Internet data as well. By connecting a cable modem to your computer, you can
receive cable Internet at a speed similar to DSL, 10 times or greater than the speed of
dial-up service (but as with DSL connections, less expensive limited-speed cable accounts
are available). The benefit of cable is its widespread availability in urban areas, but its dis-
advantage is the reverse: outside of population centers, cable simply doesn’t exist. When
working at its peak, cable Internet tends to exceed DSL in speed, but many users report
that cable speeds slow down during times of peak television use in their immediate area
(Sunday evenings, for instance). Cable Internet providers continually argue against this
viewpoint, but the perception remains. Theoretically, cable connections also suffer from
 Chapter 7: Connecting to the Internet 111

the standpoint of security because they do not shut down (you can set DSL connections to
time out after a specific period of inactivity) and because many users share a single cable
line instead of DSL’s standard of a separate line for each connection. This security point,
too, cable companies deny, and certainly the separation of user accounts through a single
cable has improved significantly since the advent of cable Internet. Cable is the other
major form of broadband or high-speed access (along with DSL).
Satellite: Many satellite television providers offer satellite-based Internet service as well.
They have succeeded in large part because of the geographical limitations of cable and
DSL: Satellites provide TV signals to nonurban areas, and they provide Internet service to
those same areas. Download speeds approach or match those of cable and DSL services,
but upload speeds tend to be slower because in many cases you upload through a dial-up
modem. Satellite connections tend to be considerably more expensive than DSL or cable
connections, but if you don’t have cable or DSL available where you live, your only other
choices are dialup or the emerging broadband wireless.
Wireless: Wireless connections take several forms. You can connect a wireless network to
your wired LAN at home or in the office, enabling mobile users to connect without cables.
The same principle holds for commercial establishments such as coffee shops and book-
stores offering wireless access for their customers. Popularly known as Wi-Fi (wireless
fidelity), these connections make use of networking technologies under the IEEE 802.1x
banner. 802.11b has been the standard, with the newer 802.11a offering higher speeds but
little compatibility with 802.11b. 802.11g offers the best of both. Another form of wireless
Internet connection is the cellular phone system, which lets you connect to the Internet in
a manner similar to dial-up modems without the cables. Cell access tends to be slow, but
because the tiny LCDs so far offer primarily text, speed is of much less concern than with
standard notebook and desktop PCs.
Broadband wireless: The emerging broadband wireless standard combines the best of
satellite Internet service with public Wi-Fi service. Targeted to nonurban areas, broadband
wireless works via a series of antennae that provide a high-speed wireless signal to which
users can connect. To become a force, broadband wireless must solve the twin bugaboos
of Wi-Fi technology: security and reliability. But the promise is significant.
T1 and higher: Larger organizations requiring bandwidth greater than standard DSL
access can turn to a number of technologies, ranging from the venerable but still suitable
T1 through T3, Dedicated Private T3 (DS3), OC3 up to OC48, and more. Prices range
from approximately $300 per month for a fractional T1 connection (a portion of a T1,
shared with other organizations or departments, for example) through approximately
$50,000 per month for an OC3 connection. Higher-speed OC connections run into
several hundred thousand dollars per month.

Table 7-1 shows the relative speeds and approximate prices of the various Internet connections.
All prices are approximate.
112 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Table 7-1 Speeds and Costs of Internet Connection Types

Connection Type Connection Speed Approximate Cost

Dial-up 56 Kbps and higher $10–$22 per month for unlimited use, lower
costs for limited hours. (MSN is $21.95/month.)
DSL 1.5 Mbps through Starts at $30–$50 per month, higher cost and
3 Mbps download higher speeds for business accounts.
speed, 128 Kbps and
higher upload speed
Cable 1.5 Mbps to 3 Mbps and Starts at $30–$50 per month, higher cost and
higher download speed, higher speeds for business accounts.
128 Kbps and higher
upload speed
Satellite 500 Kbps download Starts at $60 per month, plus equipment
speed, with upload purchase or rental (sometimes free with one-
speed determined by year contract). Some satellite services require
additional dial-up the additional purchase of a monthly dial-up
connection if required connection for outgoing data.
Fractional T1, T1, 128 Kbps up to 44 Mbps $300–$20,000 per month plus local loop costs
Fractional T3, T3 up to $3,000 a month.
OC3, OC12, OC48, 155 Mbps–9.6 Gbps $40,000 to more than $100,000 per month plus
OC192 local loop costs up to $10,000 per month. Also
may require additional setup cost.

This book explicitly covers only the first three types of Internet connections: dial-up, DSL, and
cable. Many of the principles of these Internet connections, though, apply to other types as well.
Still, if you work with an OC3 connection or above, you’ll have a professional, dedicated support
staff in charge of overall and local connections, in which case you’re not likely to get involved with
connecting your PC at all. They just won’t let you.
An interesting new type of connection is making its way into test markets as this book goes to
press. Broadband over Power Line (BPL) will make use of existing standard electrical wiring to
deliver broadband services to homes and businesses, especially useful in areas where DSL and cable
services are unavailable. It’s been possible for some years to use your home’s electrical wiring as a
means of sharing an Internet connection, but offering full broadband services over the electrical ser-
vices is of potentially strong value.
Your first step in connecting to the Internet consists of activating the TCP/IP protocol on your PC.
Fortunately, when you install Windows XP in the first place, you install and activate TCP/IP with it.
To confirm its activation, open My Network Places, click the View Network Connections option in
the Network Tasks pane, right-click the dial-up and/or LAN connection icon, and choose Properties.
On the General tab of the Properties dialog box, you should see a check box for Internet Protocol (IP).
By default, this box is checked.
 Chapter 7: Connecting to the Internet 113

If not, click the Install button near the middle of the dialog box, highlight the Protocol item in the
resulting Select Network Component Type dialog box, click Add, and choose Internet Protocol.

Note
In Windows XP, unlike previous versions of Windows, the only reason you’d have to install TCP/IP manually
is if the original setup was a nonstandard installation.

Setting Up Internet Connections

To get an Internet connection, you need an Internet service provider (ISP). Your local telephone
company will almost certainly offer Internet service, both dial-up and DSL (broadband), as will your
local cable provider. Connections are available from other ISPs as well, including MSN, AOL,
NetZero, Juno, and a host of other national, regional, and local companies, who make use of existing
telephone or cable systems in order to provide this service (sometimes with exclusive arrangements
that can limit your choices). If you can’t get satisfaction from your telephone company, see if you can
hook up with a satellite provider.
No matter which service you choose, your ISP will almost certainly provide you with installation
software and setup instructions. With Windows 9x/Me, you often needed the special software to
configure your PC for access. With Windows 2000/XP, you’re frequently better off working directly
with the operating system’s connection utilities instead, unless your service provider makes it
mandatory for the purposes of connecting to its specific services, as is the case with America Online,
for example.
The following sections describe the typical steps for each type of connection under Windows XP.

Establishing Dial-Up Connections

To connect to the Internet through dial-up access, you need a standard modem, a telephone line,
and a telephone cord running from the phone jack on the wall to the telephone line input on the
modem. The modem itself is usually already installed inside the PC, even more frequently as part of
the motherboard itself; in these cases, simply look for the phone port at the back or (with some lap-
tops) the side of the PC. With these ready, do the following:

1. If it’s not internal or already connected, connect the modem to your PC either by installing
it in an available slot on the motherboard inside the case (for an internal modem) or by
using the appropriate cable to connect the modem to the serial port or USB port on your
PC (for an external modem).
2. Open My Network Places, and choose View Network Connections in the Network
Tasks pane.
3. Click the Create a New Connection link in the Network Tasks pane of the Network
Connections window. The New Connection Wizard starts. Click Next.
114 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

4. Select the Connect to the Internet radio button, and click Next.
5. Choose either Set Up My Connection Manually or Use the CD I Got from an ISP on the
Getting Ready window. This book assumes the former, a manual connection. Click Next.
6. Select the Connect Using a Dial-Up Modem radio button.
7. Type a name for your connection. You can use any name you’ll later find memorable.
8. Drawing on the information provided by your ISP, type the local phone number your ISP
has instructed you to use.
9. Again drawing on the ISP’s documentation, type the username and password your ISP
assigned to you. Determine if you want to use the account name you’ve just typed for
everyone who uses your PC to dial in to that ISP (families often use this kind of arrange-
ment), and if you want this connection to be the default Internet connection (see the
“Understanding Automatic Connections and How to Turn Them Off” section later in this
chapter). Finally, decide if you want the built-in Internet Connection Firewall provided
by Windows XP to be turned on automatically for this connection. The firewall increases
Internet security but tends to make some activities, particularly those related to video
cameras and audio transfer (such as talking over the Internet with other users) much
more difficult to configure.

Note
In increasingly rare cases, the username and password will have no effect if entered in the Internet Account
Information window. If your ISP instructs you to dial in first and then establish a terminal window in order to
enter the username and password, leave this window blank and refer to the “Dial-up connections through a
terminal window” sidebar.

10. Click Finish to complete setting up the connection.

11. To connect to the Internet, open the Network Connections folder and launch the icon for
the connection you’ve just created. For added convenience, place a shortcut for the icon
on your desktop or pin it to the Start menu.

Setting Up DSL Connections

DSL connections come in two main types. With the basic connection, you connect the DSL modem
directly to the PC. For added firewall security, however, and to share the DSL connection among sev-
eral computers, you can connect through a DSL router. The following sections examine both types of
connection.
 Chapter 7: Connecting to the Internet 115

Dial-up Connections Through a Terminal Window

Early Internet providers often required you to connect through a combination of dial-up modem and
terminal windows. You rarely find such systems these days, but universities and other research
institutions still sometimes employ this method. To connect through a terminal window, create the
dial-up connection as described in the “Establishing Dial-Up Connections” section, but leave the
username and password fields blank as you encounter them in the wizard.
When you’ve completed the wizard, right-click on the icon for the connection you’ve just created
and choose Properties. You have two choices of terminal windows. If you need to open a terminal
window before the modem connects, click the General tab and then the Configure button under the
modem name. In the resulting Modem Configuration dialog box, check Show terminal window and
click OK until the dialog boxes disappear.
More frequently, you need to open a terminal window after connecting. In this case, click the Security
tab of the Properties dialog box, and check the Show terminal window option in the Interactive logon
and scripting area. If your ISP has provided you with a logon script, specify it in the check box and
field immediately following. Click OK until the dialog box disappears, then launch the connection
icon, following the instructions your ISP gave you when the terminal window appeared.

USING DIRECT DSL CONNECTIONS

For a direct DSL connection, you need to purchase a DSL line from your phone company or other
DSL provider. You also need a DSL modem, which you can usually rent from the phone company at
a monthly rate or purchase from your computer store. Before buying one, however, check with your
DSL provider to make sure that the modem is compatible with its service. Then do the following:

1. Connect the DSL modem to the phone line using a standard telephone cord, and run an
Ethernet cable from the modem’s Ethernet jack to the Ethernet connection in your PC. If
you have a DSL modem with a USB connector, run a USB cable from the modem to a USB
port on your computer. Do not connect both the USB and Ethernet connections simultane-
ously unless your ISP specifically instructs you to do so.
2. Open My Network Places, and choose the View Network Connections item in the Network
Tasks pane.
3. Click Create a New Connection in the Network Tasks pane of the Network Connections
window. The New Connection Wizard starts. Click Next.
4. Select the Connect to the Internet radio button, and click Next.
5. Choose either Set Up My Connection Manually or Use the CD I Got from an ISP on the
Getting Ready window. This book assumes the former, a manual connection.
6. Select the radio button labeled Connect Using a Broadband Connection that Requires a
User Name and Password, and click Next.
7. Type a name for your connection. You can use any name you’ll remember later. Click Next.
116 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

8. Drawing on the ISP’s documentation, type the username and password your ISP assigned
to you. Determine if you want to use the account name you’ve just typed for everyone who
uses your PC to dial in to that ISP (an arrangement often used by families) and if you want
this connection to be the default Internet connection (see the “Understanding Automatic
Connections and How to Turn Them Off” section later in this chapter). Finally, decide if
you want the Internet Connection Firewall that’s built into Windows XP automatically
turned on for this connection. The firewall increases Internet security but, as previously
mentioned, it tends to make some activities, particularly those related to video cameras
and audio transfer (such as talking over the Internet with other users), much more diffi-
cult to configure.
9. Click Finish to complete the procedure, and then double-click the icon you just created to
connect to your ISP.

Tip
Don’t toss away the documentation you received from your ISP. For whatever reasons, some ISPs assign
usernames and passwords that are extremely difficult to remember, and while you can often change the
password, you can rarely change the username. Write down the username in several places, and be sure to
keep the documentation so you’ll have it later if you need to set the connection up again. This is true of all
types of connections, but it seems especially true of DSL connections.

USING DSL CONNECTIONS THROUGH A DSL ROUTER

Using a router with your DSL connection increases both the security and the convenience of the con-
nection. Not only do you get a built-in firewall guarding you against Internet intrusions, you also can
easily share the connection with other computers in your house or office. To use a DSL router, follow
these steps:

1. Connect the DSL modem to the phone line using a standard telephone cord, and run an
Ethernet cable from the modem’s Ethernet port to the DSL input jack on the DSL router.
Run a second Ethernet cable from one of the output ports on the router to the Ethernet
port on your PC.
2. Using your Web browser (or sometimes separately installed software), open the configura-
tion screen for your router. For browser-based configuration screens, this means typing an
IP number into the Address bar of the browser. A fairly typical URL for these settings is
192.168.0.1, but different routers require different numbers. Microsoft’s DSL router, for
example, uses 192.168.2.1. You can find this number in the manual that came with your
router. You can also find it in the support section of the manufacturer’s Web site, but the
Catch-22 here is the need for an Internet connection, which, of course, you don’t have yet.
Another good reason to have friends.
 Chapter 7: Connecting to the Internet 117

3. Locate the section in the configuration screen that lets you configure the PPPoE (Point-
to-Point Protocol over Ethernet). It might also be more simply labeled DSL connection
settings or something similar. In the PPPoE settings fields, type the username and pass-
word that your ISP provided in the documentation.
4. The configuration screen also contains an area, usually close by, where you determine dis-
connection behavior. You can keep your PC connected at all times to your ISP, or you can
have the router automatically disconnect from the ISP at specified intervals. You can also
have the router automatically connect whenever you request Internet traffic, so that you
don’t have to reconnect manually, a feature that’s often called Connect on Demand.

Tip
Having your router automatically disconnect provides a useful level of security. When you’re disconnected,
nobody can hack into your machine. Even if you use the Connect on Demand feature, the router connects
only when it sees traffic coming from the PC, not from the outside.

Establishing Cable Connections Directly or through a Router

Cable ISPs typically provide the easiest method of connecting to the Internet. Connect the coax cable
coming from the wall into the cable modem and run an Ethernet cable from the Ethernet output of the
cable modem to the Ethernet port on your PC. Turn on your PC, and you’re on the Internet. Only in
rare cases do cable ISPs require any form of username and password verification for connection.
Like DSL connections, you can run your cable connection through a router. In this case, connect
the coax cable to the cable modem as before, but run the Ethernet cable from the Ethernet output on
the cable modem to the cable input on the router. Run a second Ethernet cable from one of the out-
put ports on the router to the Ethernet port on your PC. Unlike DSL connections, you don’t need to
set up the PPPoE username and password feature because cable connections do not use the PPPoE
technology. In some cases, however, and increasingly rarely, you might need to load the router’s con-
figuration screen and fill in one or more fields. Check your cable company’s Web site to determine
how to do this, but again, any such adjustment is rarely necessary.

Caution
As you’ve no doubt guessed, the fact that you don’t need a username/password combination with cable con-
nections renders these connections potentially insecure. You should use a firewall for any Internet connection,
but especially with a cable connection. If you do not, whenever you leave your PC on, it is fully connected to the
Internet, and hackers can have a field day. Indeed, they do . . .
118 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Why Use a Router?

You don’t need a router to connect your DSL or cable connection to the Internet. But using a router
gives you two primary advantages over a standard cable/DSL system. First, you can share the
connection with as many computers as your router has Ethernet ports. Many cable/DSL routers have
four ports, so you can have four computers connected to the Internet and perform Internet activities
simultaneously (see Chapter 26 for details on sharing an Internet connection). In fact, you can have
more if you daisy-chain routers.
Second, the router provides greatly enhanced security against intruders from the Internet. Virtually
all routers contain their own firewalls, and if you combine the router’s firewall with the Windows XP
firewall and any third-party firewall you have, you greatly minimize the possibility that intruders will
crack your PC. In today’s intrusion-happy Internet environment, a router is practically a necessity.
However, it is possible to share Internet connections without using a router, by bridging the LAN and
the modem. This book does not cover that possibility (for one thing, it’s a less secure connection), but
you can learn more about bridging connections in Chapter 25.

Understanding Automatic Connections

and How to Turn Them Off
The Internet Options utility in the Control Panel provides a means for establishing an automatic
Internet connection. With the automatic connection enabled, you don’t need to connect to the Internet
manually by using the connection icons created with the New Connection Wizard. Whenever you per-
form an Internet-based task, such as checking for email or opening your Web browser and clicking on
a hyperlink (or simply opening the browser and having it attempt to load your default home page),
Windows connects to the Internet automatically using the default connection.
To establish an automatic connection, launch the Internet Options utility and click the
Connections tab. In the Dial-Up and Virtual Private Network Settings area, you see all the connec-
tions you’ve created. Click on the connection you want to use as your default (you might only have
one, of course), and choose one of the options beside the radio buttons below the window. You can
have Windows dial your default connection every time you use an Internet program or determine
first if the PC is already connected and dial only if not.
If you use a cable connection or a DSL or cable connection with a router, you have no use for the
automatic connection feature. The cable connection is always enabled, while the router enables the
DSL connection for you through the Connect on Demand feature. In both cases, you should disable
XP’s automatic connection feature.
To disable this feature, choose the Never Dial a Connection radio button. This is especially useful
when you have a cable or DSL connection but you have also established a dial-up connection. If you
don’t disable automatic connection, you’ll find yourself having to cancel the dial-up connection
whenever you perform an Internet task and your broadband connection has even a few seconds of
inaccessibility.
 Chapter 7: Connecting to the Internet 119

Proxy Servers
One of the connection settings that sometimes causes connection difficulties is the Proxy Server.
By enabling the Proxy server setting in Internet Options, you instruct Windows to look for a proxy
server when connecting to the Internet. Like a firewall, a proxy server sits between your PC and the
Internet, intercepting requests either to filter them — you can configure a proxy server to disallow
requests to specific Web sites, for example — or to answer the request (if possible) without sending
it through to the PC. While certainly no substitute for a firewall, proxy servers help with the overall
process of guarding your PC, and they perform one other significant function as well: for a specified
amount of time, proxies store frequently requested resources, such as Web pages, in order to speed
up subsequent downloads of those pages.
To enable the proxy server, open Internet Options from the Control Panel, click the Connections tab
and then the LAN Settings tab, and check the Automatically Detect Settings option. If your ISP runs
a proxy server (and the vast majority do), Windows attempts to locate that server, along with other
Internet settings, when you perform an action (such as clicking a hyperlink) that causes a resource
request. If you know the address for the proxy server attached to your LAN, fill in the details in the
Proxy server section of the dialog box.

The problem with enabling the proxy server setting is that often it slows things down, at least
during the first few resource requests. Sometimes in practice, indeed, Windows can’t seem to con-
nect to them at all, in which case you have no choice but to toggle the setting off until later. Still,
until you experience difficulties, by all means run your system through your proxy server.

Tweaking the Registry to

Speed Up Connections
If you believe that you should be getting faster Internet connectivity on your PC, why not go straight
to the heart of the matter and tweak the settings under your computer’s hood? In Windows XP, that
means editing the registry, a task not to be taken lightly. In fact, if you start changing or deleting reg-
istry settings without knowing what you’re doing, you can render Windows partially or wholly inop-
erable, to the degree that you must reinstall it from scratch (in which case, see Appendix B).
But enough with the warnings. You’ve decided that you want the fastest possible connection, and
you’re willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that you have it. Keep a few things in mind, however.
First, the faster your current connection, the less you’ll notice any changes. Second, the speed of the
Internet depends on the speed of the weakest link in the connection chain; if you’re downloading files
from a slow server, or across a slow connection, no amount of tweaking will help you.
Several registry editors are available via download, but Windows XP ships with a perfectly decent
utility of its own. You can load Registry Editor by clicking the Start button, choosing Run, typing
regedit in the Open field, and clicking OK. The Registry Editor opens, ready for, well, editing the
registry.
120 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Caution
Back up the registry before editing even a single character. The best way to do so is by opening Windows’
Backup Utility (found by clicking Start ➝ All Programs ➝ Accessories ➝ System Tools), and clicking the
Advanced Mode link on the wizard’s startup screen. From the resulting Welcome screen, click the Backup
Wizard icon, then the Next button. On the What to Back Up screen, choose Only Back Up the System State
Data. This choice backs up the registry, the boot files, the Windows system files, and more. Another highly
useful thing to do before editing the registry is to set a restore point using System Restore so that you can roll
back your entire system if something goes wrong.

Note
The instructions that follow enable you to experiment with under-the-hood settings for increasing your con-
nection speed. However, there’s a perfectly reasonable chance that you could try everything listed here and
experience no speed increase or indeed discover that you’ve actually decreased your speed. Even if you do
increase your speed, it’s often hard to tell, given the extremely uneven speeds experienced by Internet users
constantly. So have fun playing, but don’t expect magic.

You can tweak the registry in a variety of ways to get your connection to maximum speed. However,
the following list outlines the most typical settings. This list assumes that none of these registry keys
already exist on your system; look for them first and, if they’re already in place, edit them rather than
create them.

1. With Registry Editor open, locate the following registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]

2. Right-click in the pane on the right and choose New ➝ DWORD Value.
3. Create a DWORD Value and give it the following name: TcpWindowSize. Double-click
the name and, in the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, choose Decimal and type 32767
in the Value Data field. If this seems to make no difference in speed, you can edit the
key and try each of the following values instead for TcpWindowSize: 93440, 186880,
and 256960.
4. Following the same procedure, create the following DWORD values shown in Table 7-2.
 Chapter 7: Connecting to the Internet 121

Table 7-2 DWORD Values

DWORD Name Value Description

EnablePMTUDiscovery “1” Enables TCP protocol to attempt to automatically discover
the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) over the path to the
remote computer
EnablePMTUBHDetect “0” Prevents TCP from unnecessarily detecting black hole routers
TcpMaxDupAcks “2” Sets the number of duplicate acknowledgment packets to be
received
SackOpts “1” Toggles on support for Selective Acknowledgment
Tcp1323Opts “1” Enables support for large TCP receive windows (for example,
to receive large amounts of data at one time)

Once you have your DWORD values in place, close Registry Editor and restart Windows. You can
test the speed of your connections using a variety of free tools on the Internet, including such sites as
www.broadbandreports.com. Figure 7-1 shows the results of a scan at this site, with the results spec-
ifying that the connection is in good order.

Figure 7-1: A speed testing site provides a useful service when tweaking your connection.
122 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Summary
Your Internet experience begins with your choice of Internet connection. If you select an inexpensive
dial-up connection, you’ll discover quite quickly that the majority of today’s Web sites are clearly
designed for faster connections, and the volume of email, particularly unsolicited spam, means long
downloads. For efficient use, broadband connections have become almost necessary, and Internet
content designers continue to push the limits of their bandwidth capabilities as well.
Chapter 8

Putting the Internet

to Work for You

W indows XP contains so many Internet features that simply knowing about all of them is a
challenge. In fact, until you start digging through the mountain of configuration dialogs
and setup menus, you’ll miss out on a huge array of possibilities. This chapter outlines many of the
possibilities, but a full description of all of them would require a book of its own.

Setting Your Default Internet Programs

As part of its settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Microsoft added a new utility to
Windows XP with the release of the first service pack (SP1). The Set Program Access and Defaults
(SPAD) utility installs with SP2 (and SP1) on the Start menu. The purpose of the new utility is to
allow you to establish default Internet programs of your choice in place of the Microsoft-only con-
figuration originally assigned by Windows. You can, for instance, set Netscape Navigator or Opera as
your default Web browser and Eudora or Netscape Mail as your default email program.
The utility allows you to customize the following program categories:

Web browser
Email program
Media player
Instant messaging program
Virtual machine for Java

This utility is not necessary, strictly speaking. You have always been able to configure Windows to
use whatever programs you wanted as your default Internet programs. The problem was in what you
had to go through to make these changes happen — and getting the changes to stick after you made
them. To change defaults, you had to open numerous configuration dialogs, sometimes from within
the alternative programs themselves. Set Program Access and Defaults gives you this control from
one dialog box.

123
124 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

The SPAD dialog box consists of three (possibly more if your computer manufacturer has configured
it differently) radio buttons, each of which, when selected, offers a distinctly different view. Figure 8-1
shows the expanded dialog box after the Microsoft Windows option has been clicked. Here, you see all
Internet programs set to their Microsoft defaults, with email the only exception. Because the PC used
for this figure contains both Outlook and Outlook Express, Microsoft lets you choose which one you
want to use as your default. But because Microsoft produces only one Web browser, one media player,
and one instant messaging program, you can’t increase the selections available in those categories. If
you have installed non-Microsoft products in these categories, they show up beneath the category title
against the Enable Access heading. This designation means that you can access all non-Microsoft prod-
ucts (and additional Microsoft products) from the Start menu and All Programs.

Figure 8-1: The default Internet options based on Microsoft products.

Changes start to happen when you click the other two radio button options. Choosing the Non-
Microsoft radio button reveals a similar interface to the Microsoft Windows radio button, but with a
few noticeably different features. First, for each non-Microsoft product installed on your system, you
can choose that product from the drop-down list that accompanies every category. If you install
Eudora, America Online, and Netscape Mail, for example, you can choose any of these from the
drop-down list as your default email program. Programs such as QuickTime, RealPlayer, and iTunes
appear in the Media Player drop-down list, and ICQ, AOL Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger all
appear in the Instant Messaging list.

Tip
The number of programs in the Non-Microsoft and the Custom lists changes as you install and uninstall pro-
grams on your PC. To choose non-Microsoft programs, you must install those programs on your system.
Windows will not install them for you, nor will it tell you how to do so.
 Chapter 8: Putting the Internet to Work for You 125

The most interesting change — and the most obvious demonstration of Microsoft’s fulfilling the
DOJ demands — is the Remove Access line beneath the menu for each category. Here SPAD shows
you which Microsoft programs you can no longer access in the menus of your system. Choosing the
Non-Microsoft option not only tells Windows to use an alternative program as your default software
for that category (see Figure 8-2), it also tells Windows not to let you use the Microsoft counterpart
any longer. You can’t even select the Microsoft counterpart in the drop-down menus.

Note
Excluding the Microsoft counterparts is precisely how SPAD differs from the standard methods of choosing
default programs. With those methods, you choose the program either from the Programs tab of the Internet
utility in Microsoft Windows or from the configuration areas of the individual programs (or you reply Yes
when the program asks, upon launching, if you want to use it as the default for that purpose). In all those
cases, the Microsoft programs are still available. Here, they are not, at least not from the Start menu and All
Programs menu.

The final option, Custom, lets you mix and match Microsoft and non-Microsoft default programs
and also lets you determine which programs will continue to be accessible and which will not. As
Figure 8-3 shows, the Custom option shows each of the categories as a heading, with a radio button
and an Enable Access to This Program check box beside each Internet program installed on your sys-
tem. Click the radio button beside the program you want to use in each category, and check or uncheck
the boxes beside all the others, depending on whether or not you want them to be accessible. Happily,
you can’t set your chosen default program as inaccessible, although it would be fascinating to figure out
how to use the Internet if you could.

Figure 8-2: Setting up the non-Microsoft Internet options.

126 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 8-3: SPAD’s Custom option.

Your system might not display the SPAD choices precisely as outlined here. Much depends on the
computer manufacturer’s configuration as well as the programs installed on your PC.

The Nearly Hidden Features

of Outlook Express
Like Internet Explorer (covered in Chapter 9), Outlook Express (OE) is installed along with
Windows XP. OE is packed with features; although not as complete as some free email programs,
such as Netscape Mail and Mozilla’s Thunderbird program, it still offers a wide array of useful possi-
bilities. Indeed, it has as many basic features as pretty much all other email programs. Many users
prefer Outlook Express over its bigger sibling, Microsoft Outlook, the email component of Microsoft
Office (or, as it’s called with the 2003 release, Microsoft Office System), because Outlook offers infor-
mation management features such as appointment and contact management at a level that few peo-
ple actually need. OE offers one other benefit over Outlook as well: OE handles newsgroups, while
Outlook does not.
Many of OE’s features aren’t apparent when the program is first launched. These range from spe-
cific settings for individual messages to the capability for multiple users and multiple accounts.
 Chapter 8: Putting the Internet to Work for You 127

Outlook Express, for example, offers security options in the form of virus protection, image block-
ing, and email encryption with digital signatures. It also offers the capability to check specific
accounts for messages automatically, to log server messages, and to set up accounts using the IMAP
protocol. Take a look at all the configuration menus of OE and IE as you work with them to get a
sense of how to personalize them for your specific uses.

Working with Identities

With OE’s Identities feature, you establish separate email access and folders for multiple users of the
program. Multiple users can mean more than one person, as in the case of a PC shared by family
members, or, and possibly more useful from a Windows XP standpoint, multiple identities for your-
self in order to separate the messages you receive from different email accounts. For example, if you
have an email address at work and another for private email, you can separate them into two identi-
ties, assigning each identity to one of your accounts.

Tip
Because you’re using Windows XP, you can separate email data among users much more completely by
assigning each user a separate Windows account rather than by creating separate identities in OE.
Windows automatically creates a separate set of folders for each account and a subfolder in that account’s
Documents and Settings folder. Logging on to the account provides access to the email data for that
account. Many people, though, like to use a single account for Windows, and this is where Identities comes
into play to separate one user’s email from another’s.

To set up a new identity, follow these steps:

1. Open Outlook Express.

2. Choose File ➝ Identities ➝ Add New Identity.
3. The New Identity dialog box appears. Type the name you want for the new identity.
4. If you want to password-protect the new identity — this obviously makes more sense
for multiple OE users than for multiple identities of a single user — check the Require
a Password check box. When you do, the Enter Password dialog box appears. Type the
new password and confirm it.
5. Click OK to complete the new identity. A dialog box appears asking if you want to switch
to that new identity immediately. If you indicate that you do, the Internet Connection
Wizard opens, and you can provide the details for the email account, including incoming
and outgoing servers and email password verification.

After you’ve set up your identities, you can switch to them whenever you want. Choosing File ➝
Switch Identities summons the Switch Identities dialog box, from which you choose the identity you
128 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

want to work with, type in the password, and click OK. You can configure OE to start with a specific
identity by opening the Manage Identities dialog box (File ➝ Identities ➝ Manage Identities) and
choosing the identity from the drop-down box under the Use This Identity When Starting a Program
check box.
Windows stores the data for OE identities inside the Documents and Settings folder of the main
hard drive (typically the C: drive). To see these folders, open Windows Explorer or My Computer
and navigate to c:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Identities. You need aware-
ness of these folders only to avoid losing email when reinstalling your system (see Appendix B) or to
get rid of data — such as newsgroup information — you don’t want on your hard drive (see the sec-
tion “Using OE for Newsgroups” later in this chapter).

Using OE for Your Hotmail or MSN Account

Nobody who has used a full-featured email account actually likes Hotmail (although its most recent
revision is certainly better), but many users have Hotmail and MSN accounts anyway. There are rea-
sons for this. They’re free (once you figure out how to make your way past the screens begging you
to sign up for the paid version), you can get to them whenever you have Web access (sometimes
slowly, to be sure, but at least they are there), and, in the case of Hotmail especially, sometimes non-
Hotmail email doesn’t play nicely with Hotmail email, so you have no choice.
If you have a Hotmail or MSN account, however, you don’t have to put up with Hotmail’s inter-
face. You can use OE to work with your Hotmail account, gaining all of OE’s features and still having
Web access to Hotmail and MSN. Here’s how:

1. With OE open, choose Tools ➝ Accounts to open the Internet Accounts dialog box.
2. Click the Add button followed by the Mail option.
3. In the first screen of the resulting Internet Connection Wizard, type the name you want to
appear on your Hotmail or MSN messages and click Next. Note that this is not your
Hotmail address itself, but rather whatever you want to appear in other people’s email pro-
grams beside the address. Your real name is fine if that’s what you want people to see.
4. In the Internet Email Address dialog box, type your full Hotmail or MSN email
address, complete with the hotmail.com or msn.com portion, and click Next. Example:
[email protected].
5. On the resulting Email Server Names screen, choose the HTTP option from the My incom-
ing mail server drop-down menu, and Hotmail or MSN from the My HTTP mail service
provider is drop-down menu. Click Next.
6. Type your Hotmail or MSN password on the Internet Mail Logon screen and verify that the
Hotmail address is correct. Click Next, click Finish, and then close the Accounts dialog box.

OE now asks if you want to download mail from the mail server you’ve just added. Click Yes. This
action causes OE to synchronize with the Hotmail or MSN account. Whenever you access this
account from within OE, synchronization occurs. You can manually synchronize the two accounts
by clicking the Hotmail or MSN entry on the Folders list at the left of the OE interface and clicking
the Synchronize Account button.
 Chapter 8: Putting the Internet to Work for You 129

Configuring OE’s Email Settings

After you have set up an account, you can modify the settings of Outlook Express’s email function so
that it behaves precisely as you require. In fact, OE offers a huge array of configuration options, many
of which are not in place when you first start the program and set up an account. Not only does adjust-
ing these options make OE more useful but doing so can also save you both time and annoyance.
To access the Options dialog box, choose Tools ➝ Options. The dialog box defaults to the General
tab, and even here some of the options are important. The most useful options throughout the vari-
ous tabs are provided in the following list. They are toggled on when the box beside the feature’s
description is checked:

Send and receive messages at startup (General tab): Simply put, turn this one off. If
you don’t, every time OE starts it logs onto your mail server and downloads messages —
and (more significantly) if you have messages in your Outbox, it automatically sends them.
Sometimes you just don’t want that.
Check for new messages every xx minutes (General tab): If you want your messages
downloaded automatically, leave this option checked and specify the frequency by using
the Minutes drop-down box. You can also determine if you want your computer to con-
nect to the Internet automatically in order to do so, usually a consideration only for dial-
up users.
Make Default (General tab): If OE is not your default email program, clicking the Make
Default button will make it so. The default email program is the one that opens when you
click an email link on a Web page. You can also make OE the default when you open it; if
it is not the default program, a dialog box appears asking if you wish to make it the
default. However, that dialog also offers a check box to stop it from automatically appear-
ing, in which case the Make Default button is your only option from within OE itself.
Fonts (Read and Compose tabs): You’re not stuck with OE’s default fonts for either read-
ing or writing messages. At the bottom of the Read tab is a Fonts button; click it to choose
the font for messages that use proportional fonts, messages that use fixed-width fonts, and
the relative size of both (very small through very large). The Compose Font section of the
Compose tab lets you set the defaults for outgoing messages.
Receipts (Receipts tab): The Receipts tab lets you configure OE to request a receipt for all
your outgoing messages. Uncheck this option unless you have a need for annoying all your
contacts to distraction. More usefully, you can tell OE what to do when you receive a mes-
sage that requests a receipt. You can have it never send a receipt, inform you if there’s a
receipt request, and let you determine what to do on a message-by-message basis, or
always send a receipt except for mailing list messages. Generally, the best option is the sec-
ond one, which is also the default; receipts can be important, but too often they’re not.
Save copy of sent messages in the “Sent Items” folder (Send tab): This option auto-
matically saves a copy of all your outgoing messages. It’s useful for keeping track of your
correspondence, but it uses up disk space — especially since attachments are saved with
the messages. Still, saving them is a good idea, especially if you routinely visit the Sent
Items folder to delete what you no longer need.
130 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Send messages immediately (Send tab): Toggle this one off. If it’s on and you compose
a message and click the Send key, the message is gone, with no opportunity for you to
edit or delete it. With the option off, the messages are stored in the Outbox folder until
you click the Send and Receive button.
Empty messages from “Deleted Items” folder on exit (Maintenance tab): When you
delete a message in Outlook Express, you don’t actually delete it. Instead, it transfers to
the Deleted Items folder. You can automate the deletion process by checking this option;
from that point on, when you close OE, the deleted messages disappear. Unless you
know you’ll want to find items in that folder, and unless you have sufficient self-
discipline to empty your Deleted Items folder periodically, consider toggling this
feature on.
Store Folder (Maintenance tab): By default, Windows saves your OE messages deep
inside the Documents and Settings folder. Not only is it difficult to find, but it can get
deleted if you have to reinstall Windows. By clicking the Store Folder tab, you can
change the location where these messages are stored. One useful suggestion is to move
it to My Documents, perhaps in a subfolder called My Mail. That way, you’ll always be
able to find it.
Block images and other external content in HTML email (Security tab): Leave this
option checked if you want only the text of a message to appear when you read a message.
It’s a good option to use because external content can consist not only of pictures you
might not want to display on your screen but also malicious code. You can choose to
display the graphics on a message-by-message basis.
Get Digital ID (Security tab): Clicking this button takes you to the Microsoft Digital ID
Web area, from which you can move to sites that offer Digital ID certificates. Once you
have an ID, you can digitally sign your outgoing messages (one at a time or all automati-
cally), providing security that email otherwise does not have.

Using OE for Newsgroups

Despite problems with spam, hostile postings, and numerous other social and technological plagues,
newsgroups retain some of the popularity they once had on the Internet. At one time, newsgroups
were the forum for group message exchange, and even today you can find a newsgroup for just about
any topic you can think of. If not, you can start one of your own.
OE is a fully featured newsgroup client. Indeed, Windows configures it on installation as its default
newsgroup program. To view newsgroups, either click on any hyperlink you find on a Web site that
refers to a newsgroup (the link starts with news:// rather than the Web’s standard http://), or add a
news account to OE.

ADDING AND WORKING WITH A NEWSGROUP ACCOUNT

To add a newsgroup account to OE, choose Tools ➝ Accounts, click the Add button, and choose
News. Follow the Internet Connection Wizard until you come to the Internet News Server Name
 Chapter 8: Putting the Internet to Work for You 131

screen. Here, you type the name of the news server, as provided on the Web page you were visiting
(many software companies offer newsgroup forums, for example) or by your Internet service
provider. Virtually all ISPs offer newsgroup access, although most are selective about the newsgroups
they actually provide.
In many cases, especially with the newsgroups provided by ISPs, you need username and pass-
word authentication to access the groups. Still on the Internet News Server Name screen, check the
My News Server Requires Me to Log On check box, click Next, and provide the username and pass-
word combination on the resulting screen. Click Next, click Finish, and then close the Accounts dia-
log box to get started with the newsgroups.

Tip
To put this as mildly as possible, you would be unwise to post your real name and email address on some
newsgroups. In these cases, use a completely fake name and a completely fake address (the newsgroup
system doesn’t check for valid email addresses). If you have some newsgroups to which you want your name
posted legitimately and others to which you do not, create separate identities to hold each one, and give
them different properties.

OE starts the process by asking if you want to download newsgroups from the account you just
added. This process can take a bit of time because Usenet (the server system that contains the news-
group system) contains tens of thousands of newsgroups. In this stage, OE downloads the names of
the newsgroups, not the messages themselves, and lists them in a dialog box called Newsgroup
Subscriptions.
As Figure 8-4 shows, you can use this dialog box to subscribe to newsgroups. When you sub-
scribe to a newsgroup, OE keeps the name of that newsgroup in the Folders pane beneath the name
of the news account itself and continually monitors the group to determine if new messages are
available for reading. To see the newsgroups available, either scroll through the list or — this is much
more practical — type a keyword in the Display Newsgroups Which Contain: field and wait until the
list refreshes. To subscribe, highlight one or more lists (hold the Ctrl or Shift key while selecting
newsgroups to include multiple groups) and click the Subscribe button. Once you’ve completed the
subscription request, the newsgroup name appears in the Folders list at the left and the message
headings appear in the main window. Click on any heading to read the message.

Tip
You don’t have to subscribe to a newsgroup. Instead, you can read the current messages to see if you’re
interested. To do so, highlight the newsgroup you want to examine and click the Go To button. When you exit
OE, the newsgroup disappears from the list. This is a very good way to examine newsgroups without anybody
knowing you’ve been examining them — which you may want to be the case with some of the, oh, less uni-
versally accepted topics that Usenet contains.
132 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 8-4: OE’s Newsgroups Subscriptions dialog box.

Here are a few things you can do with OE’s news client:

With your newsgroups active, right-click on messages and group names to explore the
options available to you.
Ignore complete threads (conversations) or mark them to follow their progress.
Mark all messages as read by right-clicking the newsgroup name and choosing Catch Up.
Combine messages in order to decode attachments.
Reply either to the initial sender of a message or to the entire group.

GETTING RID OF NEWSGROUP FILES

When you read messages in newsgroups, OE eventually deletes them from your system. You can set
the schedule for deletions via the Maintenance tab of the Options dialog box, accessible by choosing
Tools ➝ Options. As shown in Figure 8-5, OE deletes newsgroup messages after five days by default,
but you can change this setting to whatever you like.
Even with this feature active, however, OE retains evidence of your newsgroup activity.
Specifically, OE creates a folder for each newsgroup from which you’ve downloaded attachments,
and while you can delete the files using the Options menu, doing so does not delete the folders. The
folders reside in the Identities folders; to see them, open My Computer or Windows Explorer and
navigate to c:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Identities. There you’ll see the
folders you’ve created from your newsgroups. You may delete any or all of them from there.
 Chapter 8: Putting the Internet to Work for You 133

Figure 8-5: The Maintenance tab of OE’s Options dialog box.

Turning to the Command Line

for Quick-and-Dirty Jobs
For its first two decades and more (the Net got its start in 1969), accessing the Internet meant learn-
ing command-line interfaces instead of today’s graphical user interfaces (GUIs). There were no GUI-
based email programs or newsgroup programs; you downloaded files using the character-based FTP
commands, and there was no World Wide Web. As much as things have changed over the past
decade, the command-line utilities remain, and Windows XP contains a good selection of them. You
can still do a great deal of Internet work with these utilities, and sometimes, when everything else
seems to break down, they can become the only Internet programs that actually work.
To use these commands, click Start ➝ Run (or press Winlogo+R), type the command name into
the Open field, and press Enter. Alternatively, you can open a Command window (a.k.a. DOS box)
by typing cmd in the Open box and pressing Enter, then typing the commands at the DOS prompt.
You can close the command window by typing exit at the prompt and pressing Enter.

Note
In virtually all cases, the old Internet commands and protocols bore names in lowercase text only. FTP is
really ftp, Telnet is really telnet, and so on. In some cases this book uses uppercase characters to make read-
ing much clearer, all the while recognizing and even revering the spelling of the original names. At least
nobody used today’s ubiquitous internal uppercase (camel case) system, such as PowerPoint, SystemWorks,
and iTunes, with capitalization designed to stymie anybody’s attempt to get it right. But enough ranting.
134 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Here are some of the command-line utilities you can access in Windows XP:

telnet: Long the most common method of logging into a remote account, Telnet lets
you access a Unix or Linux account on another machine. To start a Telnet session, click
Start and choose Run; in the Open field, type telnet and either the name or IP number
of the server and press Enter. For example, telnet dragon.uwaterloo.edu connects you
to the server named dragon.uwaterloo.edu and opens a command box with a username
prompt. Type your username, press Enter, and type your password and press Enter. You
can now proceed to work inside your remote account from there. Telnet has several more
secure versions, most popularly SSH, but these are not built into Windows.
ftp: Still the fastest downloading and uploading system available, FTP (File Transfer
Protocol) is now built into Web browsers. You can access an FTP site by typing
ftp://server.name/ (replacing server.name with the real Internet name, of course) into
the address bar of a browser and pressing Enter. If the server requires a username and
password, the command will be ftp://[email protected]. The latter option results
in a dialog box asking for your password, after which you enter the FTP site and treat
the browser window as if it were any other My Computer window. You can still access
FTP sites the original way, by choosing Start ➝ Run, typing ftp, and pressing Enter.
In the resulting command box, type open server.name and wait for the User prompt.
Once in the account, you work with the files using the standard Unix-based FTP
commands.
ping: The ping utility lets you see if a resource is online. Actually, it lets you see if it’s
online and accepting ping requests (many addresses no longer do). But even here ping
can be useful because it shows you the IP number of the Internet address you’re trying to
reach. Open a command box (click Start, choose Run, type cmd, and press Enter), type
ping server.name, and press Enter. The first line of the response shows the name of the
server as you typed it, as well as the four-part IP number of that resource. For example,
ping microsoft.com results in
Pinging microsoft.com [207.46.245.214] with 32 bytes of data

You now know the IP address of the server named microsoft.com.

ipconfig: A Microsoft utility rather than a traditional Internet command, ipconfig gives
you a view of your Internet status. To use it, open a command line (click Start and choose
Run), type ipconfig, and press Enter. The resulting command box shows the IP addresses
of your various Ethernet connections. This information is of immense value for trouble-
shooting. If you have trouble with your Internet connection, your ISP will almost certainly
ask you for the details showing in this window.
tracert: A command that lets you trace the route (hence the command’s name) between
Internet servers. For example, typing tracert microsoft.com in a Command box and
pressing Enter yields a list of servers that show the route your command has followed to
reach the Microsoft servers, as well as the time taken to do so.
 Chapter 8: Putting the Internet to Work for You 135

Summary
In addition to the Internet programs discussed in this chapter, you can, of course, download an
enormous amount of additional Internet software for Windows from the Internet, including email
programs, Web browsers, FTP clients, network-monitoring utilities, news readers, chat and messag-
ing programs, search software, games galore, and much more. Indeed, if you’re the type of user who
feels that you can’t ever have enough software, working with Internet packages will make you
extremely happy.
Chapter 9

Tailoring Internet
Explorer 6

W hen you install Windows XP, you also install Internet Explorer (IE) version 6 —
Microsoft’s long-controversial Web browser. And despite the trend of a great many users
toward alternative browsers, especially Mozilla’s Firefox, IE 6 works well. Indeed, it remains the only
browser capable of accessing all the features on virtually all Web sites out there, although certainly
Firefox is closing the gap. As for which browser you should use for your daily browsing, well, that’s
not a difficult question to answer. Why not just use them both? They’re both free, they both have
their positives and negatives, and it looks pretty promising that they’re both here to stay.
Still, this chapter isn’t about reviewing Web browsers. Instead, it’s about tailoring the one you
automatically get with Windows XP — Internet Explorer 6. And, to be sure, it works just fine straight
out of the box. As long as you’ve established your Internet connection, you need only launch IE to
start navigating the World Wide Web. But like pretty well everything else in Windows, you can tai-
lor IE to suit your particular style of Web use, emphasizing the browser’s strengths and avoiding pos-
sible pitfalls.
Indeed, IE comes with almost as extensive a set of configuration options as Windows XP itself.
Strictly speaking, IE is not part of Windows, and you can use the Set Program Access and Defaults
utility to render it (almost) inaccessible if you wish. But most users have IE installed on their sys-
tems, even if they use another Web browser in its place. For many Web designers, moreover, IE has
become the de facto standard, even if — as many critics have pointed out — IE itself strays from the
standards set by organizations such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It makes sense to
configure it to suit your needs precisely.
This chapter covers some of the most important configuration options available in Internet
Explorer, focusing especially on security and program associations.

Internet Explorer 6 and XP Service Pack 2

As discussed in Chapter 1, Windows XP Service Pack 2 adds some important security enhancements
to Internet Explorer 6. To users, the most obvious enhancements are the capability to block pop-up
windows and to provide warnings about possibly dangerous downloads. In addition, however, SP2
helps you control IE add-ons, provides stronger security zones, and stops Web sites from reposition-
ing or maximizing IE’s windows without your permission.
137
138 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

And what’s the big deal about blocking popups? First of all, they’re annoying. They not only inter-
rupt what you’re doing by simply appearing (seemingly) out of nowhere, they also slow down your
browser considerably. Furthermore, if they originate on slow servers, they slow you down even more
as they load their multimedia files (most popups are multimedia-heavy). Finally, they consume some
of your system’s memory, especially those (truly annoying) popups that load behind the windows on
your desktop. You don’t even know they’re there, but they continue to take up memory. If you use
your desktop for designing graphics, video, or sound, they can slow Windows down dramatically.
And what happens if you use SP2’s pop-up blocker with other pop-up blockers? Certainly there’s
no lack of pop-up blockers out there, some of which are free. The Google and Yahoo! toolbars
include pop-up blockers, for instance, as does the software available from numerous ISPs. One of
the questions I’ve been asked repeatedly is whether it’s okay to run two or more pop-up blockers
simultaneously.
The answer is . . . sure. Whatever popup one of them misses might very well be taken care of by
one of the others. The only problem is that each blocker takes up a small portion of memory, so each
can slow down your system slightly while it does its work; but this will rarely be a problem.
The details behind the use and configuration of SP2’s pop-up blocker are covered in Chapter 1.
This chapter is designed to cover IE’s built-in configuration possibilities.

Establishing Security and Privacy

By far the greatest number of configurable IE settings deals with security and privacy. This has always
been the case. But as concerns about data, privacy, and security breaches on the Internet have grown
over the past few years disproportionately to the technology itself, so have Microsoft’s attempts at
providing a means to defeat these breaches. To be sure, the crackers seem to keep winning the bat-
tles, but with a careful application of IE’s security features — especially when combined with fire-
walls and other anti-malware programs — at least you have a fighting chance.

Controlling Cookies
Cookies are small files placed on your hard drive as a result of visiting a Web site. In the vast major-
ity of cases, they are not only harmless but actually helpful; they customize your Web experience so
that you can retain specific settings for specific Web sites. For example, the shopping cart of your
favorite bookseller or electronics store is cookie-based, allowing you to place items in the shopping
cart, leave the site and even turn off your PC, and come back to the site with the items still in the
cart. But despite their relatively benign nature, many people distrust them, so IE lets you control
them. Keep in mind, however, that if you delete or disable cookies, you might very well have to reen-
ter information when you return to a site. Cookie removal can be a double-edged sword.
To manage cookies, open the Internet Options dialog box by choosing Tools ➝ Internet Options.
Click the Privacy tab to reveal the current cookie settings. As you move the slider, the setting
changes, as does the accompanying explanatory text. At the one extreme, IE blocks all cookies from
all Web sites and, furthermore, blocks all sites from reading cookies already stored on your hard
drive (until you readjust the privacy setting). At the other extreme, IE accepts all cookies and all
requests for existing cookie data.
 Chapter 9: Tailoring Internet Explorer 6 139

Except for these two extremes, you can change cookie settings for individual sites. Click the Edit
button near the bottom of the Privacy tab, type in the URL of the site, and click Block or Allow.
These per-site settings are especially useful when you use the High setting, thereby blocking most
cookies. When you encounter a site whose cookie you need in order to move further into the site,
you can manually allow it by editing the per-site privacy.
No matter how you configure the Privacy settings, you can erase all cookies from your hard drive
whenever you wish. Choose the General tab of the Internet Options dialog box and click the Delete
Cookies button. When you do so, IE asks if you wish to delete all cookies in the Temporary Internet
Files folder; but this question is somewhat misleading. IE stores cookies in the Cookies subfolder of
each user folder within Documents and Settings, whereas pointers to these cookies are stored in the
Temporary Internet Files folder (inside the Local Settings folder within each user account folder),
because are cookies applicable to your current IE session (these are called session cookies; those in
the Cookies folder are called persistent cookies). Using the Delete Cookies button gets rid of the
cookies in both folders; clicking the Delete Files button deletes only the cookie information in the
Temporary Internet Files folder, leaving the actual persistent cookies intact.

Tip
If you adjust the Privacy setting to a lower setting in order to receive cookies from which IE has restricted
you, check to see if you have third-party privacy software, such as a firewall, running on your computer.
Firewall utilities such as Zone Labs’ ZoneAlarm provide an additional level of security against cookies, and in
some cases, you have to shut down this software to receive a cookie. This behavior can occur even if you
temporarily disable the cookie settings on the third-party utility, so the best idea is to close the firewall com-
pletely for a short period of time.

Controlling History
The Internet Options dialog box provides control over other areas of privacy as well. One such area
is the History list, a set of URLs maintained by IE and displayed when you click the History button
on the toolbar. The History list is especially useful when you click the History button in the IE tool-
bar; all the site names and corresponding URLs appear in the History pane to the left of IE, segre-
gated by date visited, and you can return to any of them by expanding the folder for the specific day
on which you visited the site and clicking on the site name.
However, the History feature also leaves a trail of URLs that anyone can follow, letting any curious
user know your browsing activities. To clear this list, go to the General tab, and click the Clear
History button. To stop IE from maintaining the list in the first place, use the drop-down menu
beside the Days to Keep Pages in History heading to set the number of days to 0.

Controlling the Browser Cache

Even with the History list cleared or disabled, IE still tracks your activity. The browser cache, known
as Temporary Internet Files, saves the content of visited Web pages on your hard drive. That way,
140 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

when you revisit a Web page, the page doesn’t have to be downloaded again but can be loaded much
more quickly from the hard drive. By default, IE sets aside many megabytes of disk space for this
function (the actual amount depends on the size of your drive), but you can reduce the size of or
even eliminate the cache. To change the default size, click the Settings button in the Temporary
Internet Files section of the General tab. Use the slider or the drop-down menu to decrease the
amount of cache space to its lowest setting or, to be completely safe from prying eyes, to zero. But
because the cache really does save download time — even with high-speed connections — you
should give yourself 25MB or so to work with. If you’re concerned about other users examining your
IE cache, however, set a reminder for yourself to delete the cache every day or at least once every few
days by clicking the Delete Files button in the Temporary Internet Files section of the General tab.

Controlling AutoComplete
Convenience also works against both activity tracking and security with the AutoComplete feature.
This feature works with IE’s Address bar and with Web-based forms, saving you time and typing by
filling in the fields for you (that is, automatically completing them, hence the name). It derives its
information from a store of URLs, usernames, and passwords; as you type, it performs pattern
matching against this store to come up with possible completions. Whenever you type a URL in the
Address field, you add to this store. Whenever you reply Yes to IE’s asking you if you want to save the
username and password for a Web form, you also add to this store. After that, when you type part of
the name in the Address field or select a username in a form field, IE completes the URL or, in the
case of the form, fills in the password field as well.

Caution
This is obviously extremely convenient, but it also means that anyone who uses IE to surf to that site will have
access to your password as well!

To change the AutoComplete settings, click the Content tab on the Internet Options dialog. Now
click the AutoComplete button. The resulting AutoComplete Settings dialog box offers several
adjustments:

Web addresses: By unchecking the Web addresses item, you tell IE to stop filling in the
URL in the Address bar as you type. Note that clearing this box does not stop IE from stor-
ing addresses you visit and from offering them on the Address bar’s drop-down menu; you
must delete the browser history (on the General tab) to do so. But anyone using your
browser will no longer have the address filled in automatically.
Forms: Unchecking the Forms item tells IE to stop listing possible entries in a field on
a Web form. For example, if you’ve typed your postal code in a form with this option
checked, the next time you begin to type it, AutoComplete suggests a completion. Clearing
this button stops that behavior.
 Chapter 9: Tailoring Internet Explorer 6 141

Username and passwords on forms: Here is a major privacy and security concern, with
dangers firmly related to identity theft. It’s extremely convenient to have IE save the user-
names and passwords you enter in Web forms, especially if these identifiers are unusual
(for example, a partially numeric username or a password you did not choose yourself).
But when you store these items on your hard drive, you open yourself to theft, either
directly from the hard drive (in the case of online intruders) or by someone logging in to
your account and using IE to call up the URLs to which those username/password combi-
nations belong. Clearing this check box stops IE from giving you a list of usernames and
from filling in the passwords for those usernames.
Clear Forms and Clear Passwords: These two buttons clear IE’s store of forms informa-
tion and passwords. For obvious reasons, clicking these buttons every so often helps your
security efforts. But it also means that you won’t automatically access some Web sites that
require usernames and passwords, including newspaper sites, blog sites, and discussion
sites. Once cleared, you must reenter the information for these sites.

Configuring Security Zones

Internet Explorer’s Security tab gives you extensive control over IE’s interaction with Web sites.
Applying these configurations takes time and effort, but doing so will most certainly make your Web
activity more secure.
IE offers four distinct security zones, as shown in Figure 9-1.

Figure 9-1: The four IE security zones.

142 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

You can assign specific sites to specific zones in order to control them. As you use IE to navigate
the Web or other online resources, IE checks each URL or resource against your security zone set-
tings. When a site meets the criteria you’ve established for these settings, IE displays it according to
the behavior you’ve set for those criteria and displays the site’s zone in the far-right portion of the
browser’s status bar. The four zones are as follows:

Internet (Default: Medium): Everything else. If a Web site does not meet the Local
Intranet, Trusted Sites, or Restricted Sites criteria, IE treats it as an Internet site.
Local intranet (Default: Medium-Low): This zone includes resources for which security
is relatively unimportant, typically those accessed only through your local network. Your
company’s intranet represents the primary focus of this zone, but it can also include other
network connections. Clicking the Sites button lets you choose which resources to include.

Tip
You can configure IE to bypass the proxy server — a server operated by your ISP that stands between the
Internet and your PC — at all times via the LAN Settings button on the Connections tab. Doing so does not
stop IE from distinguishing between intranet and other zones. It’s a good thing, too, because many users rou-
tinely disable proxy servers because of their tendency to bog down connectivity.

Trusted sites (Default: Low): As you come to trust specific sites, click the Trusted Sites
icon and then the Sites button to add those sites manually to this zone. If you become
extremely concerned about security, you can set your Trusted Sites zone to Low security
and all others to High security, thereby assuring yourself that only the sites in your Trusted
zone will be able to do anything besides present the page for viewing. (You could, for
example, enable sites in your Trusted zone to run scripts.) You can feel safe downloading
files or allowing cookies from your trusted sites, and you need not feel concerned about
what these sites are attempting to do.
Restricted sites (Default: High): This zone represents the opposite of the Trusted zone.
Add URLs to this zone (via the Sites button) when you know you don’t want to allow them
to do anything but display content.

The whole point of assigning resources to zones is to allow you to control the behavior of each zone.
IE assigns a default security level to each zone (as shown in parentheses in the preceding list) and
displays the features of that level in the dialog box when you click the icon for each zone. For exam-
ple, in Medium setting (the default for the Internet zone), IE does not download unsigned ActiveX
controls but prompts you when it encounters signed ActiveX controls. In Medium-Low, IE does not
download the controls but also does not prompt for signed controls. In the High setting, it disables
all ActiveX controls, signed or not.
 Chapter 9: Tailoring Internet Explorer 6 143

To customize the behavior of the security zones, click the Security zone’s icon and then the Custom
Level button. Figure 9-2 shows the file download portion of the resulting Security Settings dialog
box in its default configuration for the High setting. Nearly everything is disabled. Scroll through the
settings and change those you want more or less restricted. In most cases, however, you’ll find that the
preconfigured settings — Low through High — will provide you with all the detail you need. The real
trick in using IE’s security zones is to keep adding URLs to the Trusted and Restricted zones and gain-
ing control as a result.

Figure 9-2: Forget about downloading files with the security setting on High.

Tip
Double-click the globe or the word Internet in the lower-right side of the status bar for quick access to the
zones.

Changing Program Associations

Like all Web browsers, IE has grown increasingly capable of displaying different types of files over
the years. It can’t do everything, though; in fact, by itself, IE can’t handle several important file types
found in hyperlinks on the Web. For example, IE on its own is neither an email nor a newsgroup
reader (although Outlook Express ships and installs with IE and is technically part of the IE pack-
age). Web sites, however, frequently contain mailto:// links, from which you can send email, and
news:// links, which point to a newsgroup on a particular topic. To work with these files, IE must
launch a separate program, and you can establish which programs will handle which file types.
144 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

You have two mechanisms for setting file associations: IE’s Programs tab and the File Types tab in
Windows XP’s Folder Options. We cover both here because changing them comes into play most
readily when launching these files from Internet hyperlinks rather than from standard programs.

Internet Explorer’s Programs Tab

You can configure only a limited number of external programs from within IE itself, but depending
on your uses, you’ll find the possibilities significant nevertheless. With IE open, choose Tools ➝
Internet Options and click the Programs tab. Beside each of the four functions listed next, you can
choose the default program for that function by clicking the down arrow and choosing the program
you want. IE lists all programs installed on your PC that are suitable for that function. The following
list describes the available options:

HTML editor (responds to IE’s Edit command and the Edit toolbar button): While
viewing a Web page in IE, you can load that page into your favorite Web-creation program
for editing. To do so, either click the Edit button (which appears if you have installed
particular Microsoft programs) on IE’s standard toolbar or choose File ➝ Edit. When you
choose File ➝ Edit, you see the full name of the default HTML editor on the Edit com-
mand. Clicking the toolbar button activates the icon for that same default HTML editor
(as long as your default editor is a Microsoft program). Next to the button, IE includes a
drop-down list for other installed HTML editors, letting you choose from among them
on the fly. But you can set the default program — thereby including its name on the File
menu — by selecting it from the drop-down list under the Programs tab. You have to
restart IE for this change to take effect.
E-mail (responds to email mailto:// hyperlinks): When you click an email mailto://
hyperlink on a Web page, IE opens the selected program. The menu lists all email pro-
grams installed on your PC, including those built into AOL, Netscape, Mozilla, and other
multipurpose applications.
Newsgroups (responds to newsgroup news:// hyperlinks): When you click a news-
group news:// hyperlink on a Web page, IE opens the selected program. Unfortunately,
the menu does not include all capable newsgroup programs. AOL, Netscape, and Mozilla
do not automatically appear.
Internet call (responds to callto:// hyperlink): IE loads the selected collaboration
program when you click a callto:// hyperlink. Only Microsoft NetMeeting is fully
supported.

You can also set default programs for calendar and contact functions; but in both cases, IE
responds only to Microsoft Outlook.

Folder Options’ File Types Tab

The File Types tab in My Computer’s Folder Options gives you far more control than IE over which
program opens when launching a specific file type. From this dialog box, you control the file asso-
ciations of all programs in your Windows environment — not simply those that perform Internet
 Chapter 9: Tailoring Internet Explorer 6 145

functions. From here, you decide which program to open when, for example, you double-click a
JPG, .Doc, .Wav, or other file type, which program launches when you click a PDF or an MP3 hyper-
link, and which icon is displayed for a .Zip or TIFF file.
To change or add a file association, go to My Computer or Windows Explorer and choose Tools ➝
Folder Options. Or click the Start menu and choose Settings ➝ Control Panel ➝ Folder Options.
Then in the Folder Options dialog box, click the File Types tab to see the current associations. As
Figure 9-3 shows, the file extensions appear in the left column of the Registered File Types window
of the dialog box, with the associated file type in the column immediately to the right. Below that
window, in the extension details area, the dialog box shows the program currently configured to
open that type of file. You can change the associated program by clicking the Change button (or the
Advanced button if Change is grayed out) and locating the program of your choice in the resulting
Open With folder. If you don’t see the program here, click Browse and find the .exe file for the pro-
gram on your hard drive. Usually, you can find these files in the subfolder named for that program
within the Program Files folder on your main XP drive.

Figure 9-3: The File associations system in Folder Options.

You can change the programs for Internet activities directly from this dialog box instead of using
the Internet Options dialog box in Internet Explorer. Scroll down the list until you see the group of
file types beginning with (NONE) followed by URL (these are near the top of the list); each has a sep-
arate program associated with that protocol when encountered in a Web browser. To configure the
browser’s associated email program, for example, click the URL: Mailto Protocol item and then click
the Advanced tab. In the Actions window, click the Open action and then the Edit button. The
resulting dialog box shows the path for the associated program in the Application Used to Perform
Action field. To effect a change, click the Browse button, navigate to the .exe file of the program you
want in its place, and click Open. Click OK to set the new application in place. You can repeat this
action for each Internet activity, including several not listed on the IE Programs tab, such as Gopher
and Telnet links. If a specific URL is not listed among the file types, you can add it by clicking the
146 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

New button, then clicking the Advanced tab on the resulting Create New Extension dialog box, and
locating the specific URL in the Associated File Type drop-down box (these are in the U’s, near the
bottom of the list).
While you’re at it, you might as well tailor the file associations even further, giving you even more
options when dealing with specific file types, albeit not in Internet Explorer. Specifically, for each file
type, you can tailor the context menu that appears when you right-click on a file of that type in a
Windows XP folder. For example, if you have more than one graphics program (as most people do),
you can give yourself a choice in the context menu of opening the file with any of them.
To do this, locate and click the JPG extension (as an example) in the Registered File Types window
under the Folder Options File Types tab. Click the Advanced tab and then, in the resulting Edit File
Type dialog box, click the New button. Type a name for the action, something like Open with
Photoshop, in the Action field, and click the Browse button to locate the .exe file for that program.
Now when you right-click a JPG file icon, you see two items for launching the file inside a program:
Open (which opens the default graphics program) and Open with Photoshop. You can add as many
of these as you wish for each file type.

Caution
If you make a mistake while changing the default program for Open, you may do yourself more harm than
good by possibly attempting to launch a program incapable of opening that specific file type or choosing a
program that no longer functions on your PC. To get around the problem, instead of using the Change button
to select a new default program, use the Advanced button to add a new program capable of opening that file
type, set it as the default (press the Set Default button), and then, if it doesn’t work properly, return to the
Advanced dialog box to reset the default to the original program.

Summary
Internet Explorer currently remains the most popular Web browser of all, but you have choices if
you want them. The venerable Netscape browser still exists, as does the more experimental client on
which it is based, Mozilla. Opera is yet another choice. In the future, the once-fascinating browser
wars could resurface, with Microsoft no longer offering IE as a separately available download (it will
still ship only with Windows itself). So, it makes sense to give others a try now, in part because they
make your Internet experience different and a bit fresher.
Chapter 10 completes your look at the built-in Internet technologies of Windows XP by examin-
ing the two remote control features, Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance.
Chapter 10

Controlling Windows
from Afar

W indows XP ships with two features designed for remotely controlling one computer from
another. Both allow you to take control over another computer on the network (LAN or
Internet), but they differ in their purpose and their capabilities. Remote Desktop gives you the capa-
bility to work on a remote PC as if it were the machine in front of you. Remote Assistance lets you do
the same thing but expands on this notion by including interaction with the user of the remote
machine. Remote Assistance lets one user help another from a distance with troubleshooting or
training by offering a variety of interactivity options, whereas Remote Desktop is a simple remote
control feature, dispensing with interactivity entirely.
Of these two features, only Remote Assistance is actually new. Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000
already allowed remote control of a networked computer, albeit not as easily, through the separately
installable Terminal Services feature (indeed, both remote features are Terminal Services applications).
The two features have different requirements. For Remote Assistance, both computers must be running
Windows XP Professional; by comparison, Remote Desktop must be initiated by a computer running
Windows XP Professional, but the remote PC simply needs the Remote Desktop client software
installed atop Windows 95 or later. You can install the Remote Desktop client from the Windows XP
installation CD or by downloading the client from the Microsoft Web site at www.microsoft.com/
windowsxp/pro/downloads/rdclientdl.asp.
This chapter compares the features of Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance, outlines how to
get these features up and running, and describes how to use them to their best advantage. Both,
unquestionably, are highly useful features.

Remote Desktop: Being

in Two Places at Once
The Windows XP Remote Desktop feature provides an easy means for people with two or more PCs
to gain access to one of them while working at another. In one classic scenario, you have a desktop
PC at work and another at home, and while working at home you need access to your work
machine. In another, you have a desktop PC in your study and a notebook you carry from room to
room, and while working on the notebook you need access to the desktop.
147
148 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Of course, in the latter scenario you could just walk to the study and do what needs doing, but in
many cases that would be inefficient; in other cases, you actually want two machines at your disposal
rather than just one, especially in the case of testing different configurations or different types of soft-
ware. In both scenarios, you might very well find that using Remote Desktop is easier and more
consistently reliable than the Windows networking features — even for simple tasks such as trading
files.
Microsoft offers two versions of Remote Desktop: the standard version and the Web Connection
version. With the standard version, you can use any version of Windows (Windows 3.1 or later, that
is) to connect to and take control of a PC running Windows XP Professional (not the Home version).
The Web Connection version gives you the same features, but you control the host machine (i.e., the
machine running Windows XP Professional) through Internet Explorer by way of an ActiveX con-
trol, instead of through the separate Remote Desktop client program. Windows XP Professional can
host a Remote Desktop Web Connection, but so can Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4. The Internet
Information Services (IIS) Web server software version 4 or higher must be running on the host PC
for the client PC to connect.
Note that the host computer is simply the PC running Windows XP Professional; the controlling
computer is the one from which you connect to the host.

Note
In this chapter, we look at the standard version of Remote Desktop only because this book is about Windows
XP and we can assume a Windows XP host. In addition, experience with both has shown that the standard
version operates somewhat more speedily than the Web Connection version — even across precisely the
same broadband connection. Furthermore, many users have their PCs configured to deny ActiveX controls,
a configuration that renders the Web Connection version unworkable. But this is not to deny the conve-
nience of an IE-based Remote Desktop or its importance as a remote control program for PCs running
Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000.

Setting Up Remote Desktop

To get Remote Desktop up and running, you need to configure your remote Windows XP machine
as a host. On that machine, open the System Properties dialog box, either from the Control Panel or
by right-clicking the My Computer icon and choosing Properties (or use Winlogo+Break). Click the
Remote tab and then click the Allow Users to Connect Remotely to This Computer check box in the
Remote Desktop section of the dialog box. Figure 10-1 shows the dialog box and the resulting infor-
mation box. This information box explains the need for using passwords on the remote machine in
addition to the requirement for opening the correct port if your remote machine is protected by a
firewall.
The central premise of Remote Desktop is that you log on to the remote PC as a user of that par-
ticular PC. If you don’t have a user account on the remote machine, you can’t access it. But because
this chapter (like the Remote Desktop feature itself) presumes that such an account exists, you can
 Chapter 10: Controlling Windows from Afar 149

work with Remote Desktop as soon as you’ve enabled the feature from the Remote tab of System
Properties. If you wish, however, you can further restrict access by clicking the Select Remote Users
button and choosing the specific user accounts that may use Remote Desktop to access the PC. For
example, if you share your remote PC with multiple users, but you want only yourself and one other
user to be allowed access from home, you can configure the feature to accept only these two users.
In all cases, however, all users belonging to the Administrators group have access as soon as you
enable the feature.
Now that you’ve configured the host PC to accept Remote Desktop connections, leave that com-
puter powered on, move (physically) to your other PC — this will be the client PC — and fire it up. On
the client PC, click the Start button and choose All Programs ➝ Accessories ➝ Communications ➝
Remote Desktop Connection (you’d almost think Microsoft doesn’t want you to find this, wouldn’t
you?). Alternatively, you can press Winlogo+R and type mstsc. In the resulting Remote Desktop
Connection dialog box, type the network name of the computer (its IP number, its name on the local
network, or its URL), and click the Connect button. Windows XP connects to the host PC, opens a sep-
arate window on your local client PC, and displays the host PC inside that window, beginning with the
Log On dialog box. Note that it displays the Log On dialog box even if you have the host PC configured
to use the Windows XP Welcome screen.

Figure 10-1: The Remote Sessions information box.

150 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Tip
If you have the host PC configured to AutoHide the Taskbar, you’ll find Remote Desktop easier to use if you
unselect that option, allowing the Taskbar to be fully visible at all times. Otherwise, accessing the Taskbar
can prove both slow and cumbersome.

To save time with your connection and to configure the connection for other purposes, you can cus-
tomize the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box. Launch Remote Desktop, and click the Options
button in the dialog box. On the General tab, type your username and password (for the remote
machine, not the local machine) and, if applicable, the host’s domain. Click the Display tab, and choose
the desktop size and color quality for the remote display, keeping in mind that the larger and more
colorful the display, the slower the response. You can adjust this response further by clicking the
Experience tab and telling which of the following items you want to allow or disallow:

Desktop background: If you don’t need the background, leave this option turned off.
Show contents of window while dragging: When you drag a window, Windows con-
tinually redraws the screen to display the contents. Turning this feature off (the default
setting) stops the local machine from having to constantly download the redrawn
screen.
Menu and window animation: Again, Windows continually redraws the screen with
these features, so leave them off.
Themes: The fewer the graphics, the faster the connection, but if you get rid of themes,
you also change the way your remote machine looks and feels to you.
Bitmap caching: Toggled on by default, this feature saves images on the remote
machine to your local hard drive so that they are displayed without downloading the
next time they appear on the host.

From this dialog box, you can also choose your connection speed, but all this does is reset the
options. Leave it at modem speed for optimal performance.
You can adjust two other important features. On the Programs tab, you can configure a program
to load automatically when you connect to the remote PC — an option of particular use if you always
load the same program (such as your word processor, spreadsheet program, or Web design tool)
every time you access the host. On the Local Resources tab, you can choose whether you want to
hear the remote PC’s sounds on your local system (useful if you rely on sounds for your interface fea-
tures), as well as whether the Windows keyboard combinations operate on the local machine or the
host machine. Finally, and most important, you can configure Remote Desktop to provide access to
the disk drives, printers, and serial ports of your local PC. This way, you can save data from a remote
program to your local PC, print documents locally, and use serial port–based devices. Figure 10-2
shows this tab.
 Chapter 10: Controlling Windows from Afar 151

Figure 10-2: The Local Resources tab of Remote Desktop.

To save yourself from setting all these options again, click the General tab, click the Save As but-
ton, and save your configuration to a file.

Using Remote Desktop

Figure 10-3 shows a Remote Desktop window on a local PC. The window displays the host PC the
way it would look if you were sitting in front of it, and you can perform precisely the same functions
you would if you were there. You can work in full-screen mode to maximize the experience, or you
can access multiple remote PCs and keep them all in individual windows.

Accessing Remote Desktop from Linux

If you use a Linux machine at home and a Windows XP machine at work — or vice versa — you can
still use the Windows Remote Desktop feature. Because Remote Desktop works with the Remote
Desktop Protocol, other clients can be designed to work with it (as indeed Microsoft’s own clients for
other Windows versions do). One such Linux client is rdesktop (www.rdesktop.org); although it
doesn’t provide quite the same video quality as when you link two Windows XP machines, it still lets
you control the Windows XP host as you would from a Windows XP client. Other utilities designed
for remote control include Symantec’s PCAnywhere (www.symantec.com) and direct file transfer
services such as www.gotomypc.com, although these do not use Windows’ remote connection
software per se.
152 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 10-3: Working with one PC from inside another.

Tip
If you use the TweakUI Desktop Manager utility, you can even set up individual desktops, each with its own
Remote Desktop window, and switch back and forth to control your various PCs (see Chapter 18 for more
information about TweakUI).

Providing Help and Training

through Remote Assistance
As its name suggests, Remote Assistance (RA) gives you a way to provide computer help to a user sit-
ting at a remote computer. Remote Assistance lets you connect to the remote machine over the
 Chapter 10: Controlling Windows from Afar 153

Internet and fix technical problems, demonstrate how to use programs, or simply observe the user’s
actions to help him or her become more proficient.

Using Remote Assistance

In Remote Assistance lingo, the two computers on the connection are called Expert and Novice. The
Expert PC is the computer that can see and take control over the other PC, while the Novice PC
loads only the specific tools that allow the Expert user to communicate with the Novice user. Once
the connection is established, both users can type chat messages back and forth or converse through
a headset, and they can also send files to one another. There are two key differences between the two
computers, however. First, the Expert PC can take full control over the Novice PC. Second, through-
out the session, the Expert user can see every action the Novice user takes on the Novice PC. In
effect, the Expert user is sitting at the Novice user’s desktop, watching, commenting, and, when nec-
essary, demonstrating by taking control of the mouse and keyboard.
On connection, the Remote Assistance interface appears on the Expert’s desktop, while a smaller
window appears on the Novice PC. Both function as chat windows and central controls (see Figure
10-4). Users can chat, or they can initiate activities such as sending a file to the other user, initiating
a talk session using headsets, or disconnecting the session. The Expert sees the Novice’s desktop in
the viewing window of the Remote Assistance interface, and buttons along the top allow the Expert
PC to take control of the Novice PC. In such a case, the Expert’s mouse and keyboard are activated
in the viewing window, allowing the Expert PC full remote control over the Novice PC. The Novice’s
keyboard and mouse are still active, but Microsoft recommends that the two users don’t operate
them simultaneously. The Novice might use them, however, to stop the control, end the session, or
type a chat message.

Figure 10-4: The multiple windows of Remote Assistance.

154 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Interactivity and permission lie at the core of Remote Assistance. A typical session begins with the
Novice requesting remote assistance, at which point the Expert can accept or decline. If the Expert
accepts, the Novice receives a message asking if it’s okay for the Expert to connect to the computer
for the purpose of viewing the screen and chatting. If either party decides to send the other a file or
to invoke voice communication over the network, the other party is presented with a dialog box to
grant or deny permission. Similarly, the Novice must grant permission if the Expert wishes to take
control of the Novice PC and can terminate the remote control by simply clicking the Stop Control
icon in the RA window. At any time, either party can disconnect the session without permission from
the other.

Invoking Remote Assistance

You can start a Remote Assistance session in three ways: through Windows Messenger, via email, or
by sending a file. Messenger offers the easiest way, but it requires that both parties have Windows
Messenger installed. Using Messenger, either party can invoke the Remote Assistance session either
by right-clicking the user’s name in the contact area of the Messenger window or by choosing
Tools ➝ Ask for Remote Assistance. In the latter case, the Novice can request a Remote Assistance
session from anyone on the Messenger contact list or by choosing Other and specifying the email
address of another MSN/Hotmail/Passport user. The Expert can use the Invite menu to ask the
MSN/Hotmail user to allow a Remote Assistance session to begin, use Tools ➝ Send an Invitation to
perform the same task, or send a request to an MSN/Hotmail user not in the contact list.
Invoking Remote Assistance through email or file transfer takes place via the Help and Support
screen, which is accessible by clicking Start ➝ Help and Support or simply by clicking on the desk-
top and pressing F1 (or, from anywhere, Winlogo+F1). Clicking the first item under the Ask for
Assistance heading — Invite a Friend to Connect to Your Computer with Remote Assistance —
begins the process of initiating a Remote Assistance request. When you click this item, you have the
option of inviting someone to help you or, alternatively, checking the status of a previous request. If
you click the former, the next screen (shown in Figure 10-5) gives you a choice of selecting a
Messenger contact, typing an email address and sending the request through your default email pro-
gram (the address book of that program is available from here to help you), or saving the invitation
as a file.
To proceed with the email method, click the Invite This Person link, fill in the email message
form, and click Continue. The final screen lets the Novice set the point at which the invitation is to
expire (it can stay open for up to 99 days). The actual invitation consists of a file attachment named
RAInvitation.msrcincident, followed by an incident number in parentheses. This is precisely the
same file created if the Novice invokes Remote Assistance by saving the invitation as a file, but in the
latter case the Novice must send the file to the Expert in another way — via FTP or on a disk or CD,
for example. In either case, the Expert opens the file in order to launch the Remote Assistance ses-
sion, a procedure that sends a message to the remote PC to accept the connection and thus start the
session.
 Chapter 10: Controlling Windows from Afar 155

Figure 10-5: Using the Help and Support Center to request assistance.

Special Considerations for Remote

Desktop and Remote Assistance
Both remote features work well in Windows XP, and both offer strong capabilities. But together they
generate their share of peculiarities and special considerations, including possible connection diffi-
culties and a sense of user confusion. This section discusses the most important of these issues.

Connections through Firewalls and Network

Address Translation Devices
Increasingly, broadband users who want to share their Internet connection with other computers in
a local area network — a typical situation for small offices or multi-PC homes — do so through
cable/DSL routers. These routers use NAT (Network Address Translation) technology to assign sepa-
rate local IP numbers — usually in the 192.168.x.x. address range — to each of the sharing PCs.
156 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

These separate IP numbers are necessary so that each PC sharing a single cable or DSL account can
be treated as a unique host. NAT combines with Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to
route the responses to Web, email, FTP, and all other communication responses to the PC that made
the request to preserve the illusion in each case of an independent connection to the Net (otherwise,
specific routing would be impossible).

Note
Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) has modified the built-in firewall significantly, but the procedure to open spe-
cific ports remains similar to that described in the following steps. You have greater flexibility in port modifica-
tion with SP2, and indeed upon installation SP2 clears up a number of earlier problems with these connections.
But if you cannot connect after installing SP2, or if you’re still running SP1, open the firewall properties available
from the Control Panel and adjust accordingly, or turn the firewall off.

To use Remote Desktop or Remote Assistance through a firewall, you must open port 3389 on
your host machine. All activities for these two features happen through that port. If you use the
built-in Windows XP firewall to protect your host PC, open the port by following these steps:

1. Open the My Network Places folder. (Alternatively, you can use Winlogo+R, control fire-
wall.cpl to skip the first four steps.)
2. Click the View Network Connections link in the panel on the left. (If you don’t see the
link, click the Folders button to show the task pane.)
3. Right-click the icon representing your Internet connection, and choose Properties.
4. Click the Advanced tab of the resulting Properties dialog box, and then click the Settings
button.
5. Click the Exceptions tab, and in the Programs and Services section (see Figure 10-6),
check the Remote Desktop item.
6. Click OK until you’ve dismissed all the dialog boxes.

This sequence opens port 3389 in the Windows XP firewall (although it doesn’t actually say that
it does so). If you use this firewall in conjunction with another firewall, either hardware or software,
you must open all 3389 ports. However, that port need not be open on your client machine, only on
the machine you want to control remotely (that is, the host).
Neither remote feature functions if both the Expert and the Novice computers are operating behind
a NAT device. Quite simply, it cannot make the connection. If the Novice connects through a NAT
device, however, and the Expert has a direct connection (that is, a non-local IP address), the connection
can be made and Remote Assistance can continue. This is true whether the TCP/IP configuration on the
Expert computer specifies a fixed IP number or, as is the case of many cable and DSL connections,
allows the ISP’s DHCP server to assign that IP. As long as the Expert PC is identified by a non-local IP
 Chapter 10: Controlling Windows from Afar 157

number, the Remote Assistance link can usually be made (ISP proxies and local firewalls can block
this). To determine the current IP address of your Windows XP machine, open a command prompt by
clicking Start and choosing Run (or use Winlogo+R), typing command or cmd in the box, and press-
ing Enter. Then type ipconfig at the prompt and press Enter once more. You’ll see your IP address in
the resulting Ethernet adapter information. If that address begins with 192.168., your PC has been
assigned a local IP by a NAT device and will not be able to act as the Expert machine. You can, how-
ever, still be the Novice.
Another option for getting the connection to work is editing the RAInvitation.msrcincident file
sent from the Novice PC via email or as a separate file. The file consists of XML code that you can
edit in an text editor such as Notepad. If the problem is that one of the parties is operating behind a
NAT device, you can examine the code for the embedded local IP number and change it to the pub-
lic IP number. Depending on the NAT device, the connection might now work. Other factors, how-
ever, such as proxies and firewalls at either end, can still block access.
If you want to experiment with advanced configuration of your cable/DSL router or another net-
work hub, the main point is that Remote Assistance functions through port 3389. Opening this port
on the Expert machine can alleviate problems with establishing RA connections, but even this might
not work on a cable/DSL router. If you’re attempting to establish RA capabilities across the Internet
through your company’s hub, contact your system administrators to see if they’re willing first to
allow RA connections and second to open port 3389 in order to do so.

Figure 10-6: Controlling ports in the Windows XP firewall.

158 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Using These Features with Multiple Monitors

Because each of these remote features runs in its own window, they become especially effective on
systems with multiple monitors. Indeed, they have been designed to fully support Windows’
Multimon feature. When you connect with another computer via either remote feature, the remote
machine automatically appears as a maximized window on the secondary monitor. Such a display
allows you, in effect, to work as if you had two separate computers, one on each monitor. Not only
does this arrangement let you work more easily with your local PC, but it also eases the potential for
confusion that can occur on a single-monitor system with the remote machine appearing as simply
one window among several. In fact, if you use Remote Assistance from a single-monitor system, we
recommend that you close all other windows to prevent such confusion.
You can run multiple instances of Remote Assistance, a situation most effective on a system with
even more than two monitors. Obviously, any potential for confusion increases with each instance,
but this arrangement allows you several useful options. If one Novice PC is connected through a
standard modem, for example, you can assist a second Novice user while you wait for the first to
transfer the necessary data. As another example, if your company tends to configure its users’ com-
puters similarly, and if one Novice user invites you into an RA session, you could, in turn, offer an
RA session to another Novice user, take control over both machines, display each on a separate mon-
itor, and solve the problem by determining how the two PCs differ.
Despite the advantages of using multiple monitors with Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance,
there is one drawback to consider. If you view your remote machine at a different resolution than the
resolution at which it is actually set — for example, you use 1280 × 1024 resolution on that machine,
but you access it using 1024 × 768 resolution on your own PC — you will change window place-
ments and possibly other graphical elements on the remote computer. The remote PC responds pre-
cisely as if you had changed resolutions, even though you haven’t actually done so. So be prepared
to return to your remote PC and see some differences.

Remote Control and Information Technology Policy

The inclusion of the Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop features in Windows XP brings remote
control into the mainstream. If your company has not already developed a policy guiding the use of
remote control by systems administrators or help desk operators, adopting Windows XP demands
that you do so. There’s a fundamental difference between telephone assistance and actually viewing
or taking control over an employee’s computer, and your policies must demonstrate an awareness of
that difference. This is obviously true of Remote Desktop, which allows an administrator to control
a remote machine with or without the permission of that PC’s user, but Remote Assistance, despite
its required granting of permission, raises some interesting issues as well.
The whole point of using RA is to let one user see the desktop of a second user while the second
user is physically at that PC, but this arrangement creates unexpected concerns. For example, if
Clark requests an RA session with help desk employee Lois, and Lois uses the RA session to send
Clark a large file, Lois can watch everything Clark does on his desktop during the file upload,
including multitasking activities. Unless Clark knows how RA works, he might be completely
unaware of this fact, and Lois can, in effect, look over Clark’s shoulder. Even if you discount the pos-
sible issue of Clark using the PC for personal use, there remain issues surrounding the right to mon-
itor an employee’s activities and, more simply, the problem of a help desk employee seeing
documents and email messages that are legitimately private or even classified.
 Chapter 10: Controlling Windows from Afar 159

Note
None of this is to suggest that remote control has not been available before the release of Windows XP.
Remote control packages have been available to IT departments for years, long enough indeed for
Symantec’s PCAnywhere to reach version 10 (and PCAnywhere works with other versions of Windows, too).
But whenever Microsoft adds a feature to Windows itself, the feature suddenly takes center stage.

Summary
With most PC users using some form of Internet connection today, it makes sense for an operating
system to provide a variety of techniques for making use of the fact that remote computers are so
readily accessible. Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance represent two extremely useful examples
of the kinds of tools that have made the Internet more than just a massive information source by
actually letting you control PCs directly in order to configure them, perform tasks on them, repair
them, or train others on them. Use these features even once and you’ll begin to see their potential.
Part III

Utilities

I n no category will you find more utilities available than in anything to do with your Internet life.
A huge array of programs lets you control every aspect of your daily Internet use, from browser
configuration to every email function imaginable. Here, I cover only a smattering, but all of them
useful.

Alternative Browsers
You probably already know that you’re not stuck with Internet Explorer for your Web-surfing needs.
Several other browsers are out there ready for use, and each of them has its own advantages. The pri-
mary advantage over Internet Explorer is simply the fact the IE’s huge market share, as well as a gen-
eral dislike among hackers for everything that has to do with Microsoft, has made this popular
browser the target of seemingly endless security hits. Get a different browser and many of these
problems — although certainly not all — go away. But one of the problems is that Web designers fre-
quently construct Web sites specifically for IE, meaning that some of them might not be fully com-
patible with other browsers. Still, it never hurts to give them a try, especially since most are free. And
you don’t need to uninstall IE in order to try them.
If you’re an America Online customer, you already have an alternative browser, although AOL
seems to change its mind fairly often about exactly what to offer. The latest buzz has them providing
a newly modified version of Internet Explorer, one that loads when you access the Web from within
AOL. For a time, the service wanted to use non-Microsoft products, but the ongoing bugaboo of
Web site compatibility with non-AOL browsers kept rearing its head.
The most popular non-Microsoft browser comes from the Mozilla Project (www.mozilla.org), the
original developers of the first popular browser in Web history, Netscape. Netscape itself is still avail-
able (www.netscape.com), and it uses the Mozilla browser as its core technology. Mozilla, a full suite
of Internet software, including an email program, a newsreader program, and the Mozilla browser,
can be downloaded from www.mozilla.org, as can its even more popular browser, Firefox. Firefox
has come as close as any browser yet to disrupting IE’s hold over the browser market, to the degree
that it, too, has recently been undergoing security hacks. Firefox is regularly touted as being some-
what faster than IE in downloading pages and displaying them, and it has an tabbed interface that

161
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lets you have only one instance of the browser open with each page having its own tab. Whether or
not you intend to use Firefox regularly, you owe it to yourself to download it and give it a try. Firefox
has hundreds of free extensions that add almost any feature you could want to the program. So, the
core program is simple, but with extensions, very powerful. The full Mozilla suite is also free and
similarly worth your while.
Opera Software produces another highly regarded browser alternative, Opera for Windows.
Opera has a free download (www.opera.com), but eventually you’ll have to decide if you want to pay
its $39 price — certainly not exorbitant, but it might very well seem that way given the fact that IE
and Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape are free. Opera’s free version is supported by small ads. Opera’s paid
version includes email. Everything in Opera can be done through the keyboard. It has a truly unique
Zoom In and Out. Opera is an extraordinarily fast browser and uses a fully implemented tabbed
interface. It even contains a voice interface feature that not only lets you control it with your voice
but also reads Web content to you as listen on your headphones or through speakers. As with
Firefox, this one is absolutely worth trying.
If you want to take IE itself to a different level, consider Avant Browser (www.avantbrowser.com).
Avant is a free add-on to IE, providing support for three-button mice, a full-screen mode that dis-
penses with toolbars and displays only the Web content, built-in Google and Yahoo! search engines,
and (very nicely) an automatic restore feature that reloads the Web pages you had open when the
browser or your system crashed. Also included is a Flash animation filter, designed to block Flash
advertising.
Other recommended free browsers include Ace Browser (www.aceexplorer.com), Slim Browser
(www.flashpeak.com), and Maxthon (www.maxthon.com).

Email Programs
You won’t find as many email alternatives as you could six or seven years ago, but there are more
than enough to keep you occupied trying to find the one you like best.
Aside from Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook itself is probably the most popular email client — a
favorite among businesses and with anyone who owns Microsoft Office. It owes its popularity to its
wealth of features, but primarily because it functions not just as an email program but also as a personal
information manager. With it, you can keep contacts, appointment calendars, notebooks and journals,
and much more. The biggest single problem with Outlook, aside from its sheer size as a program (and
such annoyances as the fact that it doesn’t have a standalone mail checker) is the fact that it is the tar-
get of by far the most viruses and other malware. If you use Outlook, you absolutely need a virus-
checker for incoming and outgoing email.
The Mozilla suite (www.mozilla.org) comes with its own email program, which has been spun out
into a standalone program, Thunderbird. While Thunderbird and Mozilla do not function as per-
sonal information managers, they’re correspondingly smaller than Outlook and as fast and reliable as
Outlook Express. Mozilla and Thunderbird import messages and account information directly from
Outlook Express and Outlook, so you can get up and running quickly and with no loss in produc-
tivity. Additionally, Thunderbird has many free extensions. Interestingly, Mozilla (like Outlook
Express) can be used for newsgroup reading, while Firefox cannot, but given the lack of interest in
newsgroups these days, that doesn’t matter unless you still need that capability.
 Part III: Utilities 163

Poco Systems (www.pocosystems.com) offers two useful email programs, Barca and PocoMail.
The former operates as an email reader as well as a personal information manager, so it’s close to
Outlook in functionality, although unlike Outlook it does support newsgroup reading. PocoMail is
simply an email program, but it has an advantage for those concerned about malware by not running
scripts written in JavaScript or VBScript, both of which can be used to distribute viruses.
Qualcomm’s Eudora (www.eudora.com), probably the most used email program early in the
Internet’s popularity, continues development and remains popular. With a strong message-filtering
system and better Outlook import features than it had before, and with its continuing fast email
management capabilities, this program is still worth trying. It’s available in three modes: Paid mode
(you buy it, you get all the features, and you get no ads), Sponsored mode (the full program but with
an ad bar that isn’t nearly as annoying as it sounds), and Light mode (no ads, but not quite as capa-
ble). Start with Light mode and see how you fare.
One of the more popular third-party programs today is RiTLabs’ The Bat (www.ritlabs.com). The
Bat connects with Microsoft Exchange servers, thereby letting you work with it instead of Outlook,
and along with its templates and forms, and its highly sophisticated filtering and sorting systems,
this feature demonstrates its ties to the business community. But it’s also of considerable use on non-
business PCs, particularly if you grow tired of Outlook (or don’t want to buy Outlook).

Password Managers
One of the more important utilities to consider when using the Internet is a password management
tool. Not only can such a utility help you keep track of your passwords but it can also help you cre-
ate passwords that are hard to figure out, simply because you don’t have to remember them yourself.
Password Manager XP (www.cp-lab.com) is about as full-featured as you could ask for in this cat-
egory. You can create multiple databases, each with its own password and with whatever type of
encryption you choose (indeed, multiple algorithms per database if you want), with each database
storing passwords, PINs, credit card info, and any other sensitive data you need to protect. When
you need a password or other code, you can access the database and retrieve it, and you can even
install the utility on removable drives such as thumb drives for easy portability. It never creates unen-
crypted temporary files, it clears out memory immediately after use, and it can be set to turn itself off
after being idle for a specific amount of time.
PassCrypt (www.seamistsoftware.com) offers encrypted databases and links to fill-in forms, help-
ing you keep that data both handy and secure. A similar program is the popular RoboForm
(www.roboform.com), which allows automatic logons to Internet sites again with secured data. Both
programs memorize your passwords and fill in data as you type it the first time, much the way your
browser does but with far greater security.
 Part IV
Letting Windows’ Hair Down:
The Creative and Entertaining
Side of Windows XP
Chapter 11
Imaging Central: Working with Digital Scanners and
Cameras
Chapter 12
Working with Video Files
Chapter 13
Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making Videos
Chapter 14
Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music
Part IV Utilities
Chapter 11

Imaging Central:
Working with
Digital Cameras
and Scanners

O ut of the box, Windows XP lets you work directly with digital cameras and scanners, two of
the most popular types of imaging hardware. The Scanner and Camera Wizard takes you
step by step through the process of scanning documents from your scanner and transferring pho-
tographs from your digital camera to your hard drive. But beneath the hood lies the single most
important element of this support: the automatic recognition of scanners and cameras when you
plug them into a USB port. You don’t even have to keep these items connected to your computer;
just plug them in when you need them, and Windows either sets them up instantly or walks you
through the procedure necessary to get them working.
As with all hardware devices, Windows needs your scanner’s or camera’s drivers in order to work
properly. Even here Windows XP eases the process. The operating system ships with drivers suitable
for an extremely wide selection of hardware, and hardware vendors, along with Microsoft itself, con-
tinually post new drivers to the Windows Update site. If you buy a new device that comes with a CD
containing a driver and you’re in a hurry, plug in the device before even considering the CD; often,
Windows installs a driver that, while possibly not the most recent version, lets you work with the
device immediately. You can always upgrade later.
Quite possibly, however, the drivers and associated software that comes in your imaging product’s
package will support more and different features than the drivers found in Windows XP do, so by all
means give them a try. As always when installing software, use System Restore to create a restore
point, then follow the installation instructions in the package.
This chapter covers the features built into Windows XP for working with digital cameras and
scanners. These features include automatic connection with cameras, controlling cameras from
within the imaging software in Windows XP, and using your scanner effectively in Windows XP.

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168 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

A Thousand Pictures Are

Worth a Gazillion Words
With a digital camera you can take an unlimited number of pictures at any time and for any purpose
whatsoever. At some point, however, either because you run out of memory in the camera itself or
because you want to work with the pictures and view them or print them, you need a way to trans-
fer the pictures from the camera to your PC. Windows XP gives you several alternatives to capture
them to your drive and a range of possibilities for working with them once you do.

Controlling Your Camera from within Windows

When you plug your camera into the PC via the USB port (or, with some cameras, the IEEE 1394
port), Windows recognizes the camera and opens the Removable Disk window (see Figure 11-1).
The window offers several options, the actual number of which depends on the photo viewing, edit-
ing, and collecting software you have installed on your PC. This chapter, however, considers only the
options built into Windows XP, not those of third-party installations.

Figure 11-1: The Removable Disk window offers many choices.

If you want simply to view the pictures on your camera, choose View a Slideshow of the Images
Using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, and click OK. Windows then switches into a full-
screen window showing the first picture in the camera. Click on the screen at any time to move to
the next picture. Right-click to display the context menu (see Figure 11-2) that enables you to rotate
the picture, set it as the desktop background, or load it into a photo editor. At the top right of the
window is a command bar from which you can start the slide show or move to the next or previous
picture.
 Chapter 11: Imaging Central: Working with Digital Cameras and Scanners 169

Figure 11-2: The slideshow feature in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer includes a helpful context menu.

You can also view and work with the pictures on the camera by selecting the Open Folder To View
Files Using Windows Explorer option in the Removable Disk window. Because Windows sees your
camera as simply another storage device, no different from a floppy disk or CD-ROM, you can treat
each picture on the camera as a separate graphics file in Windows Explorer. You can use Explorer’s var-
ious views to see the files, selecting, moving, and copying them as you would any other files.

Tip
Whatever method you choose to transfer pictures from your camera to your computer, pay attention to the
filenames associated with the pictures. Your camera’s proprietary software, like Windows itself, will create
generic filenames, often along the lines of photo-001.jpg, photo-002.jpg, and so on. To work with your pic-
tures, it can help a great deal to change the filenames, using Windows Explorer, as soon as you copy the pic-
tures to your hard drive. That way, when you return to your pictures folders to fine a particular photo, you’ll
be much more likely to locate it.
170 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

One the most useful of these views is the Filmstrip view. Figure 11-3 shows the Filmstrip view of
the pictures on the digital camera. The File and Folder Tasks on the left let you choose the options
you want to perform.

Figure 11-3: The pictures on the camera in Filmstrip view in Explorer.

While you can work with your picture files individually using these methods, transferring them
from the camera to the PC one by one and only as you require them, and deleting them from the
camera one by one as well, you can use the Scanner and Camera Wizard to copy all the pictures at
once to your hard drive (this should be what you do most of the time) and then delete them all from
the camera files unless you want to store them on the camera so that you can copy them to other PCs
as well (or just view them on the camera itself). This wizard is especially useful if you fill up your
camera rapidly. You can offload your pictures, offloading them to the hard drive, and deleting them
from the camera, and then so that you can use the camera again immediately. The wizard’s design
assumes that your primary activity for photographs is to get them off the camera and onto the hard
drive.
After the pictures are copied to your hard drive, unplug the camera and turn it off, to save batter-
ies if nothing else. The pictures are on your hard drive, and you can view them as a slideshow, as
thumbnails, and with the Filmstrip view, and organize and edit them any way you want.
From the Removable Disk window, choose the Copy Pictures to a Folder on My Computer using
the Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard option, and click OK. Click Next on the Welcome screen
of the wizard to reveal the Choose Pictures to Copy window. This window features a check box in
 Chapter 11: Imaging Central: Working with Digital Cameras and Scanners 171

the top-right corner of each photo thumbnail, and by default all pictures are checked. If you want to
copy them all to your hard drive, click Next. Otherwise, uncheck the ones you don’t want to copy.
You can select only a few to copy by clicking Clear All to remove all the check boxes and then check-
ing only the pictures you want to copy. Click Next.
The Picture Name and Destination window (see Figure 11-4) opens. Type a name for this group
of pictures and choose a folder in which to copy them. By default, the wizard displays the folder you
most recently used for this purpose along with a drop-down menu that lists all your recent folder
selections when using the wizard. Once you’ve chosen a destination folder, decide if you want to
delete the pictures from the camera. Click the check box if you do, and then click Next.

Figure 11-4: Decide where to save your pictures.

In the wizard’s final stage, Copying Pictures, Windows transfers the photos to the destination
folder and, after doing so, deletes the pictures from the camera if you so choose. Your pictures are
now stored on your hard drive, ready for editing, printing, or simply viewing.
If you did not choose to delete the pictures from your camera in the wizard, you need to delete
the pictures from your camera now to create room for new pictures. You can delete pictures by using
the software built into your camera or through the imaging feature of Windows XP.
If you use a digital camera to take pictures while traveling, you practically need a notebook com-
puter or a hard drive–based personal digital assistant (PDA) or audio player with you as a place to
store your pictures so you clean them off your camera and prepare to shoot more. Today’s hard
drive–based audio players, for example, frequently double as portable hard drives and are ideal for
this purpose. The drives, however, tend to be significantly smaller than notebook drives.
172 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Tip
Once you have your pictures saved onto your hard drive, you can view them regularly via XP’s My Pictures
Slideshow Screensaver. From Control Panel, launch Display Properties, and click the Screen Saver tab. In
the Screen Saver pull-down menu, choose My Pictures Slideshow. From now on, when your screensaver
kicks in, you get a slideshow of the picture files stored in the My Pictures folder.

Editing and Altering Photographs

Windows XP provides a couple of useful tools for editing photographs. You won’t confuse these tools
with a full-featured photo-editing suite (packages such as Adobe Photoshop, JASC Paint Shop Pro,
or Ulead PhotoImpact) any time soon, but until you acquire one of those — they often come with
printers and digital cameras, even if only in “Lite” versions — you can make do with the utilities
included with Windows.

USING MICROSOFT PAINT

The primary Windows photo-editing tool is Microsoft Paint. This program has accompanied
Windows for more than a decade, and Microsoft has done little to enhance it during that time.
Strangely enough, even with all the advances in third-party software, Paint remains a useful little tool
for minor editing tasks. Paint is in the Accessories folder — on the Start menu, select All Programs ➝
Accessories. Open it, and then load the photograph into it. Alternatively, locate the photograph in
My Computer, right-click it, and choose Edit. Paint opens with the photograph displayed.

Note
You can also open Paint by clicking the Start button, choosing Run, typing mspaint into the Open field, and
clicking OK. You can open it from a Command box by typing mspaint and pressing the Enter key.

You can use Paint to set the photo as your desktop wallpaper, to rotate the image or flip it verti-
cally or horizontally, and to resize it with the Stretch and Skew dialog box (you need to increase each
dimension by precisely the same amount). You can add text and various shapes to the image, provide
a bit of airbrushing, and crop it to avoid printing unwanted areas. To crop, use the Select tool to
frame the area you want to keep, right-click on that area, and choose Copy. Choose File ➝ New and
then Edit ➝ Paste to paste the cropped photo into a new file.

WINDOWS PHOTO-EDITING UTILITIES

You can perform some editing functions directly from a folder, without the need to load a separate
program such as Paint. To do so, open My Computer and navigate to the folder containing your pho-
tos. Right-click on a picture file, and examine the options. From this menu you can rotate the pic-
tures clockwise or counterclockwise, print them, or open them in a specific editing program.
 Chapter 11: Imaging Central: Working with Digital Cameras and Scanners 173

USING MICROSOFT PHOTO EDITOR AND MICROSOFT OFFICE PICTURE MANAGER

However helpful the included Paint program might be, they can’t compare with dedicated editing
software. Indeed, Paint is more useful as a screen capture utility and a graphics file converter than a
photo editor. But if you own any version of Microsoft Office beginning with Microsoft Office 97, you
have at least one built-in picture editor with far more features than Paint. Office 97, 2000, and XP all
contain the highly useful Microsoft Photo Editor, while Office System 2003 features the Microsoft
Office Picture Manager. Because of the popularity of the Microsoft Office suite, and the fact that it
often comes bundled with Windows XP systems, let’s take a quick look at Photo Editor.
To launch Photo Editor, either locate the icon in the Microsoft Office folder (or the Tools folder in
Office XP) or, more easily, right-click on a picture file in My Computer (such as the My Pictures
folder) and choose Microsoft Photo Editor from the Open With submenu. If neither the option nor
the menu item appears, Photo Editor might not be installed on your system. Insert your Office CD,
step through the setup process, and install Photo Editor from the Shared Tools menu.
Inside Photo Editor, you have a significant variety of editing possibilities. You can do the following:

Smudge or sharpen the photo by choosing the desired effect from the Tools menu.
Change the size of the photo precisely to your liking using the Resize dialog box.
Use the Crop dialog box to crop the photo or apply special effects, such as a corner curl
(called Ear, in Photo Editor) to the corners of the cropped picture.
Adjust brightness, contrast, and color using the Balance dialog box.
Apply special effects ranging from giving the picture a stained glass or watercolor look to
creating a negative image of a selected portion of the picture.

If you do get a chance to work with Microsoft Office Picture Manager, the photo-editing compo-
nent of Office System 2003, you’ll discover that it contains fewer features than Photo Editor. It
makes strong use of the task pane of the Office suite to provide easy access to the features as you
work with the pictures. From a user interface standpoint, the Office task panes are modeless, in that
they do not require input (as do many dialog boxes, such as the Save As boxes in Office) for the user
to dismiss them.
Several freeware or shareware photo editors are available if you don’t have access to the Microsoft
utilities discussed here.

Tip
When you determine which graphics programs you want to work with frequently, consider adding them to
My Computer’s Send To menu. To so do, open the Send To folder by clicking Start ➝ Run, typing sendto in the
Open field, and pressing Enter. Now, drag the icon for your desired program from any other folder, or from the
Start menu, Quickstart menu, and so on, into the Send To folder. When you right-click your picture file, you
can choose Send To and your newly added program and have the file load in that program.
174 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Printing and Publishing Your Pictures

No matter which photo-editing program you use, you will be able to print your pictures from it. But
Windows XP includes a printing feature with which you can print quickly and easily without a sep-
arate program. This feature, the Photo Printing Wizard, steps you through the printing task.

PRINTING YOUR PICTURES FROM WINDOWS

To use the wizard, open My Computer, and locate the folder that contains the picture file you want
to print. Select that picture, and click the Print This Picture item in the File and Folder Tasks panel
at the left. Click Next on the Welcome screen of the resulting Photo Printing Wizard. The next screen
shows all of the pictures stored in that folder, with the selected one highlighted and displayed at the
top left of the Picture Selection screen. Check any additional pictures you want to print, and click
Next. The Printing Options screen appears. Choose your printer (or install a new one) and configure
the printing task to suit your needs by clicking the Printing Preferences button. This button leads to
the standard Properties dialog box for that printer from which you can perform any function that
you normally would in that dialog box.

Tip
To print multiple pictures using the same printer and settings, highlight all the files you want to print before
clicking the Print This Picture link. To select all the pictures in the folder, click the link before selecting any
individual pictures; by default, the wizard opens with all of them checked.

ORDERING PRINTS ONLINE

Windows provides a variation on printing your own pictures. Clicking the Order Prints Online link
in the Picture Tasks pane of the folder launches the Online Print Ordering Wizard, which steps you
through the process of sending your picture files (along with your credit card information) to a pro-
fessional printing company to receive high-quality prints. You select the photos from the folder pre-
cisely as you did for printing on your own, but this time clicking Next takes you to the printing
company selection screen, with the choices Microsoft has built into this feature (one assumes the
companies paid a bundle to get there). At this point, the wizard turns into a Web browser, down-
loading a shopping cart and order form from the selected printing company’s site. Figure 11-5 shows
part of this screen, including the price per unit for specific sizes of prints.
The remainder of the wizard consists of the actual ordering form, with form fields for your name,
address, and credit card data.
Of course, you can also take your CDs and memory cards to an increasing number of printing
locations to get good quality prints for a reasonable cost, especially large prints (which are often a
problem with inexpensive home printers). Wal-Mart offers such services, and so do many supermar-
kets. As you’re out shopping, take note of these locations and visit them when you have special
printing needs.
 Chapter 11: Imaging Central: Working with Digital Cameras and Scanners 175

Figure 11-5: You can order prints of your pictures online.

Caution
Apart from sending your credit card information over the Internet, always a somewhat risky venture, be
careful what photos you actually send. No matter how good your prints look on the screen, in many cases
they simply don’t have a high enough resolution, or a rich enough color depth, to make good prints. A good
photograph will look reasonably good even when printed on a monochrome laser printer, so first try printing
a copy yourself. Doing so also gives you a sense of how large the photo will be when you get it back from the
printers. Your first few times, you might very well discover that that full-page photo actually takes up only a
small section of the page. In other words, be careful that you don’t simply waste your money.

PUBLISHING YOUR PICTURES

Of course, what’s the point of taking all those pictures if you can’t show them to your friends, rela-
tives, and anyone else you feel has unlimited time and endless patience? Microsoft has thought of
this need and has included a means of publishing your pictures to an MSN Web site.
Open a picture folder in My Computer, and select the pictures you want to publish. In the File
and Folder Tasks pane at the left of the folder, click the Publish This File to the Web option (in the
case of multiple pictures, this option changes to Publish the Selected Items to the Web). This
launches the Web Publishing Wizard, where you can choose additional pictures from the folder if
you want and then step through the subsequent screens to place them on the MSN servers. You can
176 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

publish them to a private server (and later direct people to the URL so they can view them), or you
can create a new MSN group where you and others can share pictures.
Figure 11-6 shows the screen in the wizard where you can choose to upload documents and/or
pictures to this site, after which you choose whether you want the pictures to appear as small (640 ×
480), medium (800 × 600), or large (1024 × 768). The larger the picture, of course, the longer it
takes to upload, and you have only three megabytes available to you on the MSN servers. The wiz-
ard then initiates the upload and, after it has finished, steps you through the creation of an MSN
account or, if you already have one, lets you log into it and perform the upload.

Figure 11-6: It’s easy to post your pictures to the Web.

Getting the Most from Your Scanner

To Windows, your digital camera and scanner are very much alike. Both fall in the category of imag-
ing hardware, and both are image capture devices. Indeed, Microsoft bundles the two together in the
Scanner and Camera Wizard, with similar functions available to both. Many people buy scanners
and digital cameras for precisely the same reason: to work with photographs. In the case of the cam-
era, you create new pictures; in the case of the scanner, you digitize existing prints.

Scanning Images
With the Scanner and Camera Wizard, you can import pretty much any physical document into
Windows as a graphics file. You can use your scanner as a photocopier in this way, scanning a page
as an image file and then sending it to your printer, or as a fax machine by scanning the document
 Chapter 11: Imaging Central: Working with Digital Cameras and Scanners 177

and sending it to a recipient as a fax. You can also use the scanner to store copies of documents
(typed, handwritten, illustrated, whatever) by scanning them and saving them as graphics files in an
organized folder system.
To scan an image, first place the item in the scanner. After that, you have several options, depend-
ing on the software you’ve installed. First, you can use the Import or Acquire commands in your
graphics software (in MS Paint, this command is on the File menu and it’s called From Scanner or
Camera). Second, you can load the Scanner and Camera Wizard (which in fact many graphics pro-
grams use anyway) by launching it from Start ➝ All Programs ➝ Accessories. Click Next on the Wel-
come screen; the Choose Scanning Preferences dialog box opens. Choose your picture type: color
picture, grayscale picture, black-and-white picture or text, or custom (grayscaling converts color or
black-and-white images to shades of gray, resulting in a smooth image suited for printing in black
and white). Figure 11-7 shows the result of clicking the Preview button, which activates the scanner
and loads the result into the Preview area.

Figure 11-7: Preview your picture before you scan it.

By default, the wizard scans the image at a resolution of 150 dots per inch (dpi). You can increase
or decrease this resolution by clicking the Custom Settings button. In the resulting Properties dialog
box, use the arrows to change the resolution and the sliders to adjust the brightness and contrast.

Note
In a rather questionable decision, Microsoft has provided an image on the Properties dialog on which to
base the brightness and contrast settings (which is a good thing), but not the image you’re actually working
with (a less good thing). Surely, it would have been more useful to show the actual picture.
178 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Click Next. The Picture Name and Destination screen lets you choose the name of the scan (badly
named as “group of pictures” because it’s the same screen used for transferring photos from a digital
camera), the folder in which you want to store it, and the file type. Four file types are available: BMP
(excellent quality but large files), JPG (good quality, much smaller files, the most common type on
the Web), TIF (high quality, larger files, excellent for printing), and PNG (much like JPG, suitable for
the Web). Click Next to perform the scan.
Once you’ve scanned the image and saved it as a file, you can do anything with it you want: print
it, publish it to a Web site, edit it, attach it to an email message, load it into photo album software,
incorporate it into documents, and more. If you use images a great deal, your scanner can quickly
become one of your most important peripheral devices.

Scanning Text
The Scanner and Camera Wizard provides a setting for text, but it captures text as an image without
any provision for converting it into text. It lacks, in other words, Optical Character Recognition
(OCR) capability. If you want to scan paper documents into your PC and convert them into text,
tables, and multicomponent productivity files, you must buy third-party OCR software. Many scan-
ner manufacturers bundle OCR software with their scanners, even if only a reduced-feature version
of their standard OCR software, but if you are buying a scanner for this purpose, instead of the more
common purpose of scanning photographs, illustrations, and images, be sure to look for bundled
OCR software.
To get the most out of OCR software, look for the following features, at the very least:

Accuracy: Even when converting the clearest and most noise-free paper document possi-
ble, OCR software will probably make one or more errors during the conversion. An
accuracy rating of less than 95% renders the process almost unworkable; on a 2,000-
word white paper, 95% means 100 errors, which you have to catch by hand later. Higher
accuracy, indeed, is often what you pay for when you buy more expensive OCR software.
Form and table conversion: When you scan a paper document containing a form or
a table, you want the OCR software to recognize them as such and convert them into
spreadsheet or word processor versions, with formatting intact. All OCR software touts
this feature, but if your goal is to digitize your forms and tables, try it out first to avoid
frustration.
Document component recognition and conversion: While you want your OCR to con-
vert forms and tables, you also want it to recognize other features, such as images and
drawings, and convert them to like elements within your digital documents. An image
should feed into your word processing software as an editable image, a chart, ideally, as
an editable chart.
PDF conversion: The Adobe PDF standard has grown successful precisely because of the
similarity of PDF files to paper documents. But PDFs are difficult to edit, and their infor-
mation is difficult to capture. Your OCR software should be able to perform the conversion
for you, so that you can edit the PDF file with your productivity software.
 Chapter 11: Imaging Central: Working with Digital Cameras and Scanners 179

Fortunately, most OCR software makers provide downloadable trial versions (time-limited rather
than feature-limited) from their Web sites. Microsoft includes OCR software as part of the Microsoft
Office Document Scanning feature of its Office XP product and the Microsoft Office Document
Imaging feature of Office System 2003. If you do not see the software in Start ➝ All Programs ➝
Microsoft Office Tools, you can install it from the Shared Tools section of the Office installation CD.

If Your Camera Doesn’t Work

A number of things can prevent your digital camera from operating correctly in Windows XP. Here is
a simple troubleshooting checklist:

Check the batteries in the camera. If you are not working with your camera through a
power cable, you might simply have lost battery power.
Make sure that the battery is turned on and set to its photo-viewing setting (playback set-
ting), whatever that setting happens to be on your particular camera.
Check that the cable between the camera and the PC has not somehow lost the connec-
tion. Many cameras have tiny USB ports, and they tend to stand up less well to even the
smallest pull on the cord. The easiest thing to do is to unplug the cable and plug it in again
each time you use the camera.
If the Removable Disk window fails to appear, check to see if you have customized third-
party software to handle transfers automatically. Right-click on the Removable Disk icon in
My Computer, and examine the properties. On the Autoplay tab of the Properties dialog
box for the camera, you can also see if AutoPlay for the camera is turned off; if so, toggle it
back on. You can also set up Autoplay by right-clicking the Removable Disk icon in My
Computer and selecting Autoplay.
Ensure that your USB or IEEE 1394 ports work properly. These ports fail, temporarily, far
too often and usually for reasons difficult to trace. If you’ve used your camera (or scanner)
successfully before and suddenly it no longer works, open the Device Manager section of
the System Properties dialog box, locate and expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers
section, and see if any appear as malfunctioning. If so, reboot your computer and see if the
problem fixes itself (despite advances, this procedure remains the best way to repair tem-
porary problems in Windows). If not, follow the guidelines for troubleshooting USB and
IEEE 1394 connections in Chapter 23.

Moving beyond Windows

As you get more serious about working with your photographs, you’ll want to expand beyond
Windows XP itself into additional software packages, ranging from Microsoft’s own Picture-It to
JASC Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop. Third-party photo management packages such as ACD
180 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Systems’ ACDSee, JASC Paint Shop Photo Album, and Adobe Photoshop Album enable you to orga-
nize your photos in a variety of ways, letting you enhance them and share them easily. Two excellent
free packages are Picasa (www.picasa.com), which lets you edit photos and organize them, and
Irfanview (www.irfanview), a powerful image editor.
If you want better results with optical character recognition, you can turn to third-party software
such as IRIS’s Readiris Pro and ScanSoft’s venerable OmniPage Pro.

Summary
Windows XP provides everything you need to use your digital camera and your scanner effectively.
It recognizes cameras and scanners when you plug them in and automatically launches the software
you need to control them. It also provides features in Windows Explorer itself that let you view
images as thumbnails or slideshows, and save them as various graphics file types. Enhanced with
additional software, your Windows XP system can solve even more of your imaging needs.
Chapter 12

Working with
Video Files

I n much the same way that giving people a GUI word processor with fonts turned everybody into
a desktop publisher, the readily available combination of camcorder and video-editing software
has everyone making movies. In both cases, the results rarely get confused with the same work done
by a professional, but in both cases the enjoyment, challenge, and sense of creative freedom com-
pensate more than adequately.
Windows XP contains three programs for use with video:

Windows Media Player: Watch video files; also encode, create, and convert movie files.
Windows Movie Maker: Import and edit video as a means of creating a finished video file
for viewing on a PC, a DVD, or videotape.
Windows Media Encoder: Convert, capture, and broadcast video files.

Together, these three programs demonstrate Windows’ increasing emphasis on multimedia view-
ing and production.
This chapter covers Windows Media Player and the Windows Media Encoder. Chapter 13 fea-
tures Windows Movie Maker and the creation and editing of videos.
Best known as a general-purpose audio listening tool, Windows Media Player also does some rea-
sonably impressive video work. In fact, Windows Media Player Version 10, the most recent version,
contains features that very few people seem to know about, and on which Microsoft doesn’t seem to
place a great deal of emphasis. Then again, even fewer people appear to know about Windows Media
Encoder, so perhaps most Windows XP users listen to or watch multimedia files rather than create
them. For those users who do, and for those who eventually will, both programs are well worth
attention.

Using Windows Media Player

When it comes to video, by far your most common activity in Windows Media Player (WMP) is sim-
ply watching. To this end, Media Player works well, combining a variety of viewing options with

181
182 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

support for numerous types of video files. Open WMP by clicking Start and choosing All
Programs ➝ Accessories ➝ Entertainment ➝ Windows Media Player, or by clicking its icon on the
Quick Launch toolbar. After it’s open, you can load a video file to view.

Choosing Video File Types

You can configure WMP as the default player for specific kinds of video files. To do so, choose
Tools ➝ Options, and then click the File Types tab. Check any video files that you want to associate
with WMP; you can choose from among the following types:

ASF (Advanced System Format): A video format especially suitable for streaming over
the Internet and other high-speed download systems that WMP has, at least in part, been
designed to handle. Covers .asf, .asx, .wm, .wmp, and .wpl extensions.
WMV (Windows Media Video): The standard compressed file format used by WMP and
Movie Maker. Covers .wmv and .wvx extensions.
AVI (Audio Video Interleaved): A cross-platform compressed video file format noted for
high-quality but large files. Covers .avi extensions.
MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group): Cross-platform and extremely common video
file format, noted for the high quality of both video and audio, and efficient and effective
compression. Covers .mpeg, .mpg, .mpe, .mp2, .mpv2, and .mpa extensions. (.mp3 is an
audio format, not a video format).

Watching DVDs
Media Player also works as a DVD player, but not in and of itself. To play DVDs, you need DVD
decoder software, which you can purchase from a number of vendors and install yourself (purchas-
ing and installing practically any standalone DVD-viewing software package will also give you what
you need). If you bought a DVD player with your computer, you almost certainly have a DVD
decoder already installed on your system that Media Player will recognize and use. If not, download
and install a program such as Cyberlink’s PowerDVD or Intervideo’s WinDVD to get the decoding
technology you need.
With the decoder in place, use the View menu to select from a variety of DVD-viewing options,
including playing the movie at different screen sizes (View ➝ Video Size), accessing the Root or Title
menus (View ➝ DVD Features), and changing the camera angle (View ➝ Video Features) for DVDs
that support such features. The control area at the bottom of the Media Player interface lets you per-
form standard DVD operations such as pausing, muting, and skipping forward or backward from
scene to scene. If your video card and your DVD decoder support video mixing rendering (which
you can turn on via Tools ➝ Options ➝ DVD tab ➝ Options button), you can use the View ➝ DVD
Features menu to capture the current frame as a still image. Even so, WMP lacks a number of useful
features provided by dedicated DVD players, including the capability to move ahead in the movie by
tiny increments to watch scenes frame by frame (this feature is extremely useful for teaching pur-
poses), but for the most part it will support your needs.
 Chapter 12: Working with Video Files 183

Other Video Players and Why You Need Them

Despite its obvious strengths, Windows Media Player doesn’t do it all. If you want to play QuickTime
movie files (with a .mov extension), download the free QuickTime player from Apple (www.apple.com).
If you want to play RealVideo files, download the free version of the RealPlayer from Real Networks
(www.real.com). And if you want to play files generated by the specialized software that comes with
your video card, use the video player the manufacturer provides for best effect.
Why do you need these other players? First, WMP doesn’t handle all video files. It handles neither
QuickTime nor Real files, for example. And it sometimes has trouble with certain files for no apparent
reason. If that happens, having a different video player can prove a godsend; try loading the file (an
AVI video file, for example) in QuickTime instead of WMP, and you might well discover that it plays
just fine. In the same way, WMP sometimes plays files that Real or QuickTime has trouble with. You
can’t predict this behavior; it just happens. In the world of computers, you never regret having two
programs that ostensibly perform the same functions. Sooner or later, one of them will work when
the other doesn’t.

Using Windows Media Encoder 9 Series

Much less well known than Windows Media Player, the Windows Media Encoder 9 Series (there is
no Media Encoder version 10 as of this writing) provides a number of highly useful features for
working with video files. Together, the Encoder and its utilities provide a small, but effective, set of
tools to capture, convert, encode, edit, and stream video files.
Media Encoder 9 Series is available as a separate download from Microsoft. The URL is too long for
inclusion here, but you can find the software by going to Microsoft’s home page (www.microsoft.com)
and typing Windows Media Encoder in the Search field at top right. Among the first resulting links
you’ll find the direct link to the download page. Click it; then, from the resulting Encoder 9 page, click
Continue. You need to go through a brief Windows validation sequence in order to proceed to the
Encoder Download page, at which time pressing the Download button starts the downloading and
installation process. Installation also adds a Windows Media menu to your All Programs menu, from
which you can launch Windows Media Encoder and its utilities.
Opening Media Encoder, or choosing File ➝ New, yields the New Session dialog box shown in
Figure 12-1. You can click either the Wizards or the Quick Starts tab to begin your session, choosing
from among the wizards or Quick Starts scripts to perform the function you want.

Converting and Capturing Video

The Convert a File Wizard converts a video file to Windows Media Player format. You can choose
any file that WMP itself can play (AVI, MPEG, etc.) and convert it to WMV format for later use in
WMP. Windows Media Encoder performs the conversion in several passes, displaying the video as it
converts it. You can choose to convert the file for viewing on a PC, a DVD or CD device, a Pocket PC,
or a streaming or progressive download. Each choice leads to its own Encoding Options dialog box
(see Figure 12-2) from which you can further select the quality of video and audio you want in the
converted file.
184 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 12-1: Select either tab in the New Session window.

Figure 12-2: Encoding options for streaming Windows

video conversion.

Using a wizard very similar to the Convert a File Wizard, you can use Media Encoder to capture the
incoming signal from a video device attached to your PC. Click the New Session button, and double-
click the Capture Audio or Video option. On the Device Options screen, specify the video and audio
devices you want to capture; the drop-down menu pertaining to each type of device (that is, video and
audio) lists all installed options available, separated by device. You can customize each device by click-
ing its Configure button. The resulting dialog box gives you control over the input type, input level,
and other relevant properties, including, for TV tuner cards, the input channel from antenna or cable.
 Chapter 12: Working with Video Files 185

Stepping through the wizard, choose the most appropriate quality of the content (depending on
its ultimate purpose), and after that the encoding options for both video and audio. Video-encoding
options range from low-bandwidth video to live-broadcast video and DVD-quality video, while
audio options start with voice-quality radio and proceed through CD-quality sound and higher.
After setting optional author and title information, which viewers can see by enabling the cap-
tions feature in WMP, Media Encoder begins the capture.
In addition to the wizards, Media Encoder provides two Quick Starts for capturing video and a
third for converting it. All are available from the Quick Start tab of the New Session dialog box. The
Capture Live Content for Local Playback Quick Start captures from your attached video device and
saves the file with settings appropriate to viewing it on a PC. The Capture Live Content for Streaming
Quick Start option creates a file best suited for streaming over the Internet for recipients using WMP
or another streaming video viewer. The Convert Film Content to Video Quick Start is specially
designed to capture video recorded on film (such as from a VCR) and rendering its attributes suitably
for recording onto a DVD or a CD.

Capturing Screen Actions

The Screen Capture Wizard lets you capture whatever activities you perform on the screen during
the capture as a video file. While you could create a capture video for many purposes (such as
reminding you later how you accomplished a particular task), the primary purpose of this feature is
to demonstrate how to do things with Windows itself or with a program. You can use the resulting
video in meetings, training sessions, program demos, self-help products, or simply as a means of
showing friends and colleagues how to solve a particular problem.
To create a screen capture video, launch the wizard, and choose whether to capture a specific win-
dow, the entire screen, or a region of the screen that you select for yourself. If you choose the specific
window option, clicking Next opens a screen in which you select from among the currently open
windows. If you choose the region option, clicking Next takes you to the Screen Region dialog box
shown in Figure 12-3. Click the selection button and use the mouse to outline the area you want to
capture, or enter the coordinates of the top-left corner of the desired region and the region’s width
and height. Click Next. The wizard asks for the name of the output file and, after you click Next again,
the quality of the video. Choose low quality for a smaller capture file and high for the best possible
picture.
After filling in the optional title and author information on the next screen, Media Encoder is ready
to capture your screen movements. Click Finish to begin the capture and to minimize the Encoder win-
dow. After you’ve performed the actions you want to capture, restore the Encoder window (from the
Taskbar or via the Alt+Tab menu), and click Stop. Media Encoder displays the results of the encoding
and lets you play the output file in Windows Media Player.

Broadcasting Live
The Broadcast a Live Event option in the Wizards window lets you use video devices attached to
your PC as a means of broadcasting across the Internet. To make the broadcast work, you need
access to a Windows Media server and possibly a Windows Server 2003 system with video stream-
ing already established. This means, of course, that the live broadcasting feature isn’t for everyone,
but if you do have access to the servers, either through your organization or by renting space from a
service provider, you can broadcast meetings, talks, classes, or anything else for which you have
video and/or audio equipment.
186 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 12-3: Select a region to capture.

To broadcast live, either you push the content from Windows Media Encoder or you have the
recipients pull the content to their own encoders. Pushing content, in which you distribute it with-
out a request from a remote machine, provides the closest to an actual broadcasting scenario because
that’s how the broadcasting industry — television and radio — distributes content (that is, they don’t
wait for requests, they just send it out and people tune in as they want to). Pulling content works in
the opposite way; you place the content on a server, and the recipients use their client software to
request it. Pushing works best for large distributions; pulling works best for smaller distributions.
To push, you need to distribute the content from a Windows Server 2003 with Windows Media
Services 9 enabled. Pulling can happen from any server with Internet Information Services (IIS)
enabled, but only five clients can view the content at a time using Windows Media Encoder. If you
are distributing from a Windows 2003 Server environment, you can add a publishing point to the
content, so that the broadcast begins only when the first client connects. That eliminates unneces-
sary traffic between the encoder and the server.
You make the decision to push or pull on the Broadcast Method screen of the wizard. If you
choose Push, clicking Next yields the Server and Publishing Point screen (see Figure 12-4), in which
you enter the name of the server and the publishing point or location.
Click Next, and then set the audio and video bit rates for the content and whether you want to
archive the broadcast as a file for later access. Finally, click Next and you have the choice of adding
up to three files to the broadcast: a welcome file, an intermission file, and a goodbye file. Media
Encoder adds each of these files to the broadcast, and you can switch to them when you’re ready to
do so. Configuring a pull session works much the same way, except that instead of establishing a
server name and publishing point, you simply specify the server URL and port through which the
recipients can access the stream.
 Chapter 12: Working with Video Files 187

Understanding Constant Bit Rate and Variable Bit Rate Encoding

No matter which wizard you use in Windows Media Encoder, you eventually come upon the
Encoding Options screen, where you need to make a choice from a list of video- and audio-encoding
types. The names of the choices in the drop-down menus usually provide enough information to let
you make a good guess, but nowhere does the wizard go out of its way to explain the difference
between CBR and VBR, even though it uses the two terms frequently.
Constant Bit Rate (CBR) encoding assigns essentially the same number of bits to all portions of the
content, without taking into consideration whether the content is complex or simple. The complex
portions, therefore, receive more compression than the simpler portions, resulting in the most
complex portions having lower quality than the simpler portions. Variable Bit Rate (VBR) encoding
is always the preferred type because it works specifically with the dynamics of the data. Complex
portions of the content receive more bits to work with than the simpler portions, so that you compress
complex information less than simple information. The result is a more consistent compression from
a quality standpoint, with the additional nice touch of an output file that is typically much smaller
than one that undergoes CBR encoding. CBR encoding, however, works better than VBR for
streaming, precisely because of the consistency of compression, so for this purpose it is the
recommended method.

You can also engage the push method of broadcasting by using the Broadcast Company Meeting
Quick Start option. This script simply steps you directly into the Windows Media Server Publishing
Point screen of the New Session Wizard and requires that you run the broadcast through a Windows
Media Server with a publishing point already in place.

Figure 12-4: Specify a publishing point.

188 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Summary
Windows Media Player and Windows Media Encoder together offer a significant suite for working
with video. When combined with Windows Movie Maker, the subject of the next chapter, you have
a production suite for decent homemade video, complete with the capability to create simple sound-
tracks or narrations and even to broadcast the video or share it over email, via the Web, or on DVD.
Chapter 13

Unleashing Your
Inner Spielberg:
Making Videos

W indows XP ships with Windows Movie Maker 2.0, Microsoft’s second attempt to create a
general-purpose video creator and editor. Version 1.0, which originally shipped with
Windows XP, suffered from numerous problems ranging from frequent crashes to lack of features,
especially when comparing it with the Mac OS’s classy little iMovie — as Apple Macintosh owners
frequently did. The good news for Windows fans is that Movie Maker 2.0 runs rings around version
1.0 in both features and stability. If you don’t have version 2.0, you can download it from the
Microsoft Web site or though Windows Update. Version 2.1, a minor upgrade from 2.0, is also avail-
able via Windows Update. This chapter deals exclusively with version 2.1.

Tip
If you download Windows XP Service Pack 2, you automatically get Movie Maker 2.1 with it. You don’t need
to install version 2.0 before 2.1; you can upgrade directly from 1.0 to 2.1.

Windows Movie Maker 2.1 (hereafter just Movie Maker) offers all the power you need to get
started making videos. You can import video from a camcorder, VCR, or DVD player; chop it into
individual clips; set transition effects between the clips; add titles and narration; and save it to a vari-
ety of different file types with a variety of different compression algorithms. As an introductory
movie creator with features that dip into the intermediate level, you simply can’t go wrong with this
program. It works, and it works well.
This chapter shows you how to use Movie Maker to construct a complete video. In addition to
editing and compiling video, it covers the various camcorder types available for shooting video, how
to capture video to your PC, and how to add audio tracks.

189
190 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

What You Need to Get Started

First of all, of course, you need Windows Movie Maker 2.1. If you bought a Windows XP machine
recently, launch Windows Movie Maker (usually in Start ➝ All Programs ➝ Accessories or down
another level in the Entertainment menu). After the program loads, choose Help ➝ About. The ver-
sion of the software appears immediately above the paragraph about licensing — don’t confuse it
with the Windows version, which also appears on this window. If the version number does not begin
with 2.0, download the latest version from the Microsoft site (www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/
moviemaker/downloads/moviemaker2.asp) and install it.

Tip
Before installing Movie Maker 2.x, you should manually uninstall version 1.0 by using the Add/Remove
Programs utility in Control Panel. Numerous users have reported problems launching version 2.x when they
simply installed it over 1.0.

Next, you need video, which you can acquire in a number of different ways:

VHS tapes: If you have a bunch of VHS tapes lying around — and many of us do —
you can capture them in Movie Maker, edit them, and either view them from your hard
drive or store them for recording back onto tape. The primary purpose of this kind of cap-
ture is to convert your home movies into edited video files to send to friends, family, or
colleagues, or for storing as DVD videos. Of course, you could also edit all your favorite
Happy Days episodes down into, say, three or four short ones, but because of copyright
law you can’t actually show them to anyone, so there seems little point.
Digital camcorder: Digital camcorders offer enormous advantages over everything else as
a source of video. Movie Maker not only captures from digital camcorders, it also controls
the camcorder’s playback, rewind, and speed-up functions and even finds the start and end
points you specify. The question, though, is which digital camcorder to get. See the
“Which Camcorder?” sidebar for a brief guide.
Analog camcorder: Although Movie Maker prefers digital camcorders, it works perfectly
well with all those good old VHS and 8mm camcorders. The quality of digital recordings
is superior to analog recordings, but besides that the only real difference between the two
in Movie Maker is the need to control the analog camcorder manually. The program’s
play/rewind controls do not appear when you connect an analog camera.
Webcam: For low-quality video at equally low expense, you can’t beat a Webcam. Some
offer surprising results when used as standalone video cameras instead of for real-time
video over the Net, and they definitely provide a way to get started, especially because
many PCs ship with them. But if you want video anyone might actually want to watch,
a Webcam won’t take you very far.
Television: Television provides video 24 hours a day, so why not capture some and learn
Movie Maker with it? The program lets you capture directly from TV tuners, providing a
 Chapter 13: Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making Videos 191

Properties dialog that gives you control over the channel you wish to record, the NTSC or
PAL video standard, and more. One superb way to learn Movie Maker is to edit the com-
mercials out of your favorite sitcom or, as you get more experienced, capture a game by
your favorite sports team and edit it down to a 10-minute highlight video. Copyright laws
forbid you from distributing or sharing these videos, but they work extremely well for self-
training purposes.
Web sites and existing video files: If you have video files stored on your PC, you can
possibly import them into Movie Maker and edit them. The word possibly refers to the
formats Movie Maker can import. It can handle AVI, MPEG, WMV, and ASF, but not other
popular formats such as MOV (an Apple standard). To use other formats, you must first
convert the file to one Movie Maker can work with, and the program itself does not pro-
vide that function. You can also download videos from innumerable locations on the
Internet, but here again, keep in mind that copyright laws forbid almost all distribution
or showing of the content except to yourself.

Which Camcorder?
You can use any camcorder with Windows Movie Maker. As long as the camcorder has a video
output jack (RCA, USB, FireWire, or anything else) and you have the correct cable to run from that
port to the video card, you can import video into Movie Maker. But if you’re in the market for a
camcorder and you intend to use it primarily or even significantly for creating video to edit on your
PC, you should consider the quality of the video you want to create and the ease with which the PC
and the camcorder communicate with one another.
PC-camcorder communication becomes less of an issue with each generation of camcorder. Today’s
camcorders are made with digital video editing in mind, so they offer appropriate interfaces. These
interfaces include not only the ability to control the digital camcorder from within video editing
software such as Movie Maker, but also fast, reliable transfer connections with either or both
FireWire and USB 2.0. If you are buying your first camcorder, however, watch which type of transfer
connection the camcorder supports. At this point, only FireWire provides all the benefits, with USB
2.0 coming along quickly. Older, slower USB 1.1 or 1.0 connections will frustrate you not only with the
poor transfer speed for video but also with the lack of control over the camera from within the
program. Recent USB-connected cameras, however, have offered sophisticated support for USB
streaming, in which the computer imports the video as a stream.
Of greater concern is the video format your camera supports. Two primary digital formats are now
available, DV (and the related MiniDV) — DV stands for Digital Video — and Digital-8 (the latter
introduced by Sony). Older-style VHS and 8mm camcorders still exist, along with the better-
resolution Hi8mm, but DV and Digital-8 record in digital format, with far better preservation of signal
when transferring between camera and PC. DV recorders use either specialized tapes or built-in
disk-based storage, while Digital-8 recorders use Hi8mm or even regular 8mm tapes and record a
digital signal onto them. The benefits of Digital8 are the ability to use less expensive tapes, along
with compatibility for your existing 8mm and Hi8mm tapes. Ultimately, DV gives you better quality,
and if you’re serious about producing digital video you should consider a DV camcorder carefully,
but Digital8 camcorders are also extremely appealing for many reasons.
192 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

In addition to the video itself, you need some items that, in all likelihood, came with your com-
puter if you bought it within the last few years or that you’ve accumulated over time. First, and obvi-
ously, you need a video card, and while you do not need the most expensive or technologically
advanced card, you should aim for a card with a minimum of 64MB of video memory (128MB is
even better) and, ideally, an AGP 2X (or higher) interface. The reason for this is performance: You
can create videos with a less capable video card, but you’ll quickly notice that Movie Maker’s respon-
siveness suffers along with the quality of what you’ve captured. Closely related in terms of perfor-
mance issues is the CPU of your system; here, too, the more powerful the processor, the better your
system’s performance with any video features, not just Movie Maker. At this point, you should count
on a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 processor or above, although certainly you can use Movie Maker with less.
You should also work with at least 500MB of system RAM in order to give Movie Maker the room it
needs to process video, but here, too, you can do with less as long as you’re willing to put up with
slow response. The problem is that the response can get extremely slow, so be prepared if you choose
to go this route.
One thing you must look for in a video card is the ability to import video signals from external
devices. To this end, you need either a video input jack or, if you plan to work with only VCRs or TV
signals, the coaxial jack that TV tuner cards have. Many video cards possess neither and contain only
a monitor port, so be sure that you have input capabilities. If not, you can buy a reasonably good
video card for not much more than $100 that will contain everything you need. Some cards, in fact,
offer an extension component that plugs into the video card and contains jacks for audio, video, and
often USB or FireWire input. You can also buy separate TV tuner cards that fit into a vacant PCI slot
on your motherboard and work in conjunction with the video card to capture TV signals. TV capture
hardware is also available for external attachment via USB, USB 2.0, or FireWire ports.
Unless you plan to produce nothing but silent movies, you also need a sound card. Here, too,
however, you probably already have one because all PCs ship with sound capabilities, either as a sep-
arate peripheral card or built into the motherboard, unless you specifically request that they do not.
You can work with two different audio sources in Movie Maker — the audio captured during the
filming itself, which you cannot separate from the video, and an entirely separate audio track, which
you can create separately using audio- or music-editing programs and import into Movie Maker. You
can use a microphone to narrate the video, but you can’t have both a separate audio track and narra-
tion at the same time. In other words, if you want musical background for your video, the only way
to add narration is to cut the audio track into sections and record narration between them. See the
“More On Audio” sidebar for a way to compensate for this shortcoming.
Finally, you need the cables necessary to connect the video and audio sources to the sound and
video cards. Things can get tricky here because the connections on your sound card frequently dif-
fer from those on the other equipment. For example, to capture video from a VCR, you need both a
video and an audio cable; the video cable has an RCA-style plug at both ends, while the audio cable
has two RCA-style plugs at one end — one for each stereo channel — and a mini-stereo plug at the
other. Other situations demand different kinds of cabling. You can get all the cables you need at your
local computer or electronics store; take the product manuals for your sound and video cards with
you when cable shopping. (For that vast majority of PC users who have no idea where those manu-
als might have disappeared to, you can usually find PDF versions in the support section of the man-
ufacturer’s Web site.) You can also buy a wide array of adapter cables, in case you have one type of
connector on one device and another on the other device. One such adapter cable lets you connect
S-Video connectors to RCA jacks, allowing you greater flexibility in choosing a multimedia card.
 Chapter 13: Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making Videos 193

More On Audio
You can add only one audio track to a Movie Maker video in addition to the audio recorded with the
video file itself (that is, while the recording was taking place). Unfortunately, having only one track
of audio limits your options considerably, especially given the very real fact of the importance of
sound in movies. Movie houses keep investing in better and better sound systems for a reason:
sound and music, they realize, are very nearly as important to the viewing of a movie as the pictures
themselves — in some cases, maybe even more important.
The best way to create a separate audio track is to use third-party multitrack-recording software,
of which numerous packages are available. These programs range in cost from under $100 to over
$800, but you can do almost as much with the cheaper ones as you can with the expensive ones. As
an example, Magix Music Studio 2005 offers a full-featured multitrack recording studio for about
$100, and while Cakewalk’s Sonar 4 Producer Edition offers more features and more precise control,
at roughly six times the price you have to be a serious musician to consider it. Both programs include
video-editing software, however, and Cakewalk 4 Producer Edition has generated considerable
enthusiasm for the way in which its audio- and video-editing capabilities work together.
These programs let you record audio (typically WAV) and MIDI files as a series of tracks. If you are
recording music, for example, you record a drum track first, then a bass track, then a guitar track,
and you follow it up with a main vocal track and some harmony vocal tracks. If you’re not satisfied,
keep adding tracks of various instruments and sounds until you’re finished. You can add numerous
sound effects, ranging from the standard reverb to bizarre items that make it sound extremely
spacey, and you can fiddle with the equalization and settings to your heart’s content.
When you’ve finished your recording, you combine the tracks into one (the term is track bouncing)
and record it as a single audio file, usually in WAV format or MP3 if you want a smaller file. You can
then import the track into Movie Maker’s single audio track and have a full, rich sound on your video.
Of course, the problem then becomes synchronization. Unless you’re providing only some generic
background music or sound effects, where the timing of the sound does not matter, you want to
synchronize the sounds and music in the audio track with the events of the video track. You can do
this in numerous ways:
■ Using your music-recording software, create multiple audio files. Import them all into Movie
Maker as a separate collection called, say, Audio Files, and drag each item onto the audio
track as needed. Use the timeline to split or clip the audio segments in order to synchronize
them with their corresponding video elements.
■ Create a single audio file with your music recording software, import it into Movie Maker, and
drag it to the audio/music track on the timeline. Play the movie to the point where you need to
make adjustments, pause it at that point, and split the audio track. Continue this process until
you have as many splits as you need, and then resize the newly created clips to correspond
with the video elements.
Continued
194 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

More On Audio (continued)

■ Buy music-recording software that includes a video import feature. Create the video in Movie
Maker, and import it into the recording software. Now, create your music and sound tracks
using it as the basis. The benefits to this approach are flexibility and precision; the video track
is only one of a potentially unlimited number of tracks (depending on the recording software),
and you can use the software’s extensive features for audio fading and resizing to match the
audio precisely to the video.

The question, as always, is how much work you want to put into your project. But with a combination
of Movie Maker and good audio software, your videos are certain to be more impressive than ever.

Digital camcorders connect to PCs via FireWire (IEEE 1394) or, increasingly, through USB 2.0
ports. To capture video, you need both the matching connection on your PC and the appropriate
cable to connect the two together. To be safe, buy a PC with both FireWire and USB 2.0 ports, but if
you have only one of the two and your camera requires the other one, you need to purchase a
peripheral board for your desktop PC or a PC card adapter for your notebook. If you’re not sure
whether your computer has the appropriate ports, open Device Manager from the Hardware tab of
the System Properties dialog (you’ll find System Properties in Control Panel, or use Winlogo+Break)
and look for sections labeled IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controllers and Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
Your PC must have these devices installed for them to appear in Device Manager.

Making Your First Movie

The sequence here steps through the process of creating a movie using Movie Maker 2.1 along with
both an older 8mm camcorder — specifically a Sharp ViewCam Hi-Fi Monaural — and a newer dig-
ital camcorder, a Sony Digital-8, connected to an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV video card. As
you can tell by the screen captures, beginning with Figure 13-1 a bit later in this chapter, the video
is nothing fancy, just a home movie of a small wedding shot last year on a hot August day. But that’s
precisely the kind of video that so many people have sitting around waiting to be edited — hence its
inclusion here. The steps are as follows:

1. Plan your video.

2. Collect your tools and resources.
3. Connect the video source to your computer.
4. Launch Movie Maker.
5. Capture the video from the source into Movie Maker.
6. Wait for Movie Maker to create the video clips.
7. Drag the clips to the storyboard in whatever order you wish.
 Chapter 13: Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making Videos 195

8. Edit clips by splitting them and/or altering their duration.

9. Insert transitions between clips.
10. Edit clips for special effects such as fades.
11. Add titles.
12. Import audio files into Movie Maker.
13. Drag the audio clips onto the timeline to create the sound/audio track.
14. Edit the audio clips by splitting them and/or altering their duration.
15. Set audio volume and properties.
16. Create the movie file.

To be sure, this list seems extensive. You’ll quickly discover, though, that the stages quickly become
almost second nature because once you start using Movie Maker the logic of the sequence stands out.
You actually require only a single video track consisting of one or more video clips; you add the rest of
the steps to create a video worth watching (and hearing). Once you get the pattern of dragging clips to
the storyboard or the timeline, then editing the clips and adding effects, titles, and audio to enhance
those clips, the process seems to require fewer steps than those listed here.

Planning Your Video

As with anything else in the world of creativity software, you don’t actually have to plan. You can
simply gather your materials, fire up Movie Maker, and go to town. You’ll end up with a video, and
it might be wonderful, but in all likelihood you’ll find yourself editing further. In fact, video profes-
sionals, like movie professionals, will tell you that a successful product is all about planning. Videos
and movies undergo careful, precise crafting.
Of course, your home videos need much less of this crafting because you already know you’ll
have a mostly sympathetic audience. Even so, you can increase everyone’s enjoyment, including
your own, by following at least some of the planning items listed here. Keep in mind, though, that
these items assume that you already have the video footage, so the list does not include planning and
staging the actual shooting. Storyboarding your shots and directing the production are far beyond
the scope of this book.
Here are the major items to consider when planning your video:

Decide what you want to say. You don’t need an overarching epic story or even a consistent
narrative thread. But even if you decide to show your audience something as simple as
“our wedding was beautiful,” you have a place to start. You want to focus on the events,
people, and places that made it beautiful, and you omit, shorten, or deemphasize the rest
(like Uncle Billy getting drunk and passing out in his food). In a business video covering
new procedures, a production that clearly states how the new procedures will streamline
tasks not only speaks more strongly to the audience but also provides a sharper focus on
what to include.
196 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Watch the video and note the 10 most important moments, keeping in mind your decision
about what you’re trying to say. Watch it again, and cut that number to five. Watch it one
last time, and decide on the three absolutely essential moments. Now you’re ready to build
your video with a sharp focus. All other moments remain important, but you now know
where you wish to direct your audience’s attention through careful use of the Movie Maker
editing capabilities.
With a pencil and paper, storyboard the video. Draw four rows of five boxes, with each
box having enough room for notes, and draw a line beneath each row on which to note
the timing of the boxes. In the first box of the second row, write the name of the first of the
three most important moments you determined beforehand. Write the name of the second
in the first box of the third row, and the third in the first box of the last row. Fill in the first
row with items in the video that lead toward the first moment, fill in the remainder of the
second row with items leading to the second important moment, and so on. By the time
you’ve finished, you’ll have a useful little storyboard to refer to as you edit.
At the end of the line beneath the last row of boxes, write down the endpoint of the video
in minutes. For example, if you want a 30-minute video, write 30. On the line below each
row, note the approximate time at which each box will occur, keeping the total length of
the entire video in mind. This procedure helps you time your important moments and
then, with those decided, the remaining events and sequences.
Write down anything else that comes to mind that you want in your video, including
music, narration, the types of transitions, and titles, text, and credits. Where you can, note
the location of each of these on the timeline.

Obviously, you can plan much more by expanding the number of boxes and specifying numerous
events on the timeline. But even if you follow only the processes in this list, you’ll start your editing
session with an excellent idea of what you’re trying to accomplish.

The Movie Maker Process

Creating a movie consists of two stages: capturing video and editing it. Here are the steps for both
stages, with explanations of how each step proceeds.

STAGE ONE: CAPTURING VIDEO

If you don’t have video, you can’t edit it. Unless you use preexisting video files, which you can sim-
ply import into Movie Maker and edit from there, you have to bring in video from another source.
The steps here assume a capture from a camcorder, but the process from a VCR and other sources is
practically identical.

1. Connect the camcorder to the video card and turn the camcorder on.
2. Load Movie Maker. Click the Capture From Video item in the Movie Tasks pane. The
Video Capture Wizard loads.
 Chapter 13: Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making Videos 197

3. On the Video Capture Device screen, select the appropriate device (you might have only
one). Also set the input source for the video by choosing Composite, TV Tuner, or SVideo
from the drop-down menu. Composite refers to the standard video input jacks on your
video card, but if your card and video device let you work with the higher-quality SVideo
connection, by all means do so.
4. In the Audio section of the screen, shown in Figure 13-1, choose the audio device you
want to use (often your sound card is the only option listed here) and the input source of
the audio data. Usually you select the Line In option because the Line In jack acts as the
primary nonmicrophone input for sound cards. This is most certainly true of camcorders,
VCRs, DVDs, or TVs; to capture the audio portion of the tape, you run your cable from the
output of the camcorder or VCR to the Line In jack on your card. You can, however, create
an audio track entirely separate from the video by choosing a different sound source, such
as your computer’s CD player. In this case, you bring no audio from the video source at all,
so don’t use this separate sound source option unless you know you don’t want the audio
portion. One benefit of this approach is that, in effect, it gives you two audio tracks sepa-
rate from the video: the audio you capture while capturing the video, and the audio you
capture later to place on the audio/music track.

Figure 13-1: Setting the video and audio capture devices.

5. If you wish, you can configure the camera settings, video settings, and TV tuner from this
screen as well, by clicking the Configure button. Of particular note is the Camera Settings
button that appears after you do so, which itself yields the Properties screen, one tab of
198 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

which is shown in Figure 13-2. Under the Video Decoder tab, you can see the number of
lines of resolution detected on your tape (the higher the better), but more important, you
can adjust the way Movie Maker processes the video during the capture. Under the Video
Proc Amp tab, you can adjust the brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation, and with some
input devices other attributes as well, but in doing so keep in mind that you cannot undo
these settings. Still, if you are trying to create a bright, richly contrasted video from a sub-
standard original, experiment with these settings. In addition to the camera settings, you
can adjust the settings for your TV tuner from this screen, setting the television channel
you want to capture (TV Tuner button), the input source if you have more than one (main
screen), and whether you wish to capture in NTSC (North American) or PAL (European)
configuration (Video Decoder tab). Once you’ve made all your selections, click OK for
each of the individual dialogs, to get back to the initial wizard screen, and then click Next
to move to the next stage of the wizard.

Figure 13-2: The video-processing properties.

Caution
Be careful not to overadjust the video-processing settings. Sliding the brightness control even a short dis-
tance to the right increases the picture’s brightness considerably, and sliding it all the way over makes even
a dark video far too light. Even worse, sliding any one of these controls by half the distance to the left or right
can cause Movie Maker to crash, especially with analog camcorders.

6. On the resulting Captured Video File screen, you give the file a name by which Movie Maker
can later refer to it and decide on a location in which to store the file on your hard drive. By
default, Movie Maker uses the My Videos folder, a subfolder within My Documents, but to
keep your projects separate you should click Browse and create a new folder for each project.
Click Next when you’ve finished this step.
 Chapter 13: Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making Videos 199

7. The Video Setting screen (see Figure 13-3) provides a crucial set of options. The Movie
Maker default, the Best Quality for Playback on My Computer option, configures the video
according to the technical capabilities of your PC. In most cases, you end up with a video
with a size of 320 x 240 pixels at 30 frames per second, with a variable bit rate and a rela-
tively low file size. If you intend to distribute the video instead of simply playing it on your
own PC, click the Other Settings radio button and choose one of the numerous options from
the drop-down menu. These options change depending on the video source. Figure 13-3
shows the menu that appears with the Sony Digital-8 camcorder attached to the PC, while
the older Sharp analog camcorder dispenses with the DV-AVI option as well as the two
options for video with local playback (NTSC).

Figure 13-3: Video-editing options.

As you click on each option, the Setting details area of the dialog box shows the display size,
bit rate, and frames per second properties associated with that selection. Simultaneously, the
Video File Size area changes to reflect the amount of disk space required for each minute
of video along with the space available on the hard drive. You will find this information
extremely important because of the speed with which video chews up disk space. This is
especially true if you select the DV-AVI format (click the middle radio button under the
Video Setting heading), which is designed to let you copy the edited video back onto tape.
As Figure 13-4 shows, this setting offers the highest video quality, with a bit rate of 25
Mbps and a display size of 720 × 480 pixels, but it eats a whopping 178MB of your disk
for each minute of video.
8. After you’ve decided on the video setting, click Next to get into the real action. The Capture
Video screen (shown in Figure 13-4) gives you a preview window showing the video,
200 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

along with a Start Capture button, a Stop Capture button, and, in the case of a digital
video camcorder, a set of DV camera controls. The DV camera controls do just that: They
let you control your DV camcorder from the Movie Maker interface instead of from the
camcorder itself. With an analog camcorder, by comparison, you have to use the controls
on the camcorder, with Movie Maker providing only the capture capabilities. The Capture
Video screen also gives you the options of muting the computer’s speakers (Movie Maker
captures the sound, but you don’t hear it during the capture), of automatically splitting the
video into clips (otherwise, it creates a single long clip), and of setting a capture time limit.
Only automatic clip creating appears as a default; for your first movie leave it checked.

Figure 13-4: The Capture Video screen.

9. Click the Start Capture button. If you’re using a non-DV camcorder, press the Play button on
the device. Movie Maker is now capturing your video. If you have a DV camcorder, initiating
the capture opens another screen, as shown in Figure 13-5. This Capture Video screen lets
you choose to capture the entire tape automatically, in which case Movie Maker rewinds the
source video to the beginning and begins the capture, or to capture manually by cueing the
tape yourself and clicking the Start Capture and Stop Capture buttons according to the video
you wish to capture. This screen also provides an option to prevent the video from appearing
in the preview window during capture, a choice that guarantees the best-quality video but
also somewhat lessens the usability of the Capture Video screen (if capturing manually, you
have to view the video on the camcorder). Make your choice, and click Next.
 Chapter 13: Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making Videos 201

Caution
Watch the Size of Video File display for the first few minutes of the video capture. When using an analog
camcorder, Movie Maker sometimes fails to perform the capture, even though the preview window displays
the video in progress. If the video file size does not rise, Movie Maker has probably stopped working prop-
erly. In this case, click Stop Capture and then Finish, or just Finish by itself, which results in a Windows error
message and the loss of your work so far. Even if the video file size does seem to work correctly, test a short
capture before launching into a long one.

Figure 13-5: The DV capture choices.

10. When you’ve captured the video you want, click Stop Capture. If you want to capture
additional video, cue the source video to the desired location and repeat the Capture
process. When you’ve finished capturing, click Stop Capture (if it is not already stopped)
and then the Finish button. Movie Maker takes a few minutes to create the clips and then
displays them in the Collection area of the main Movie Maker window. Figure 13-6 shows
the wedding video with two clips appearing in the Collections area.
202 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 13-6: The result of all that capturing.

STAGE TWO: EDITING THE VIDEO

Editing is the whole reason for Movie Maker’s existence. From this single streamlined interface, you
drag the captured video clips onto the storyboard or the timeline, add a few bells and whistles (liter-
ally, if you want), and tell Movie Maker to create the video file. Here are the steps.

1. Click on the first clip and preview it for a few seconds (or as long as you want) by clicking
the Play button below the preview window.
2. Now get used to the controls. Click the Stop button to halt the video and return to the
beginning. Slide the Seek bar, located just above the controls, to any location in the movie.
Click Play to view the clip from that point. While viewing the video, click the Next Frame
button (fourth in line from the Play button) to pause the video; click it again several times
to move ahead one frame each time. When you’ve reached a frame you like, capture it as a
still image by clicking the Take Picture button. The Save Picture As window opens, letting
you save the still as a JPG file in whatever folder you wish. The photo also appears
instantly in the collection.
3. With the first clip still selected, drag it to the first placeholder on the storyboard (that is,
the square on the far left). The clip now exists both on the storyboard and in the collection.
Clicking on the clip places it in the preview window, from which you can view it as before.
You can also play it by clicking the Play Storyboard button in the storyboard toolbar.
 Chapter 13: Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making Videos 203

4. Drag the second clip to the second storyboard placeholder and the third clip to the third
placeholder. You now have a three-clip movie ready for viewing (see Figure 13-7). Clicking
the Play Storyboard button plays the three clips in succession; the currently playing clip is
highlighted on the storyboard, and this highlight changes as the movie moves to the next
clip. As the movie plays in the preview window, clicking on a clip moves the Seek slider
to the start of that clip and plays the movie from that location; similarly, as you move the
Seek slider, the highlighted clip on the storyboard changes to reflect that move. In part,
this is what makes Movie Maker easy and quite powerful: Its various components interact
so completely.

Figure 13-7: A three-clip movie ready for editing.

5. Split the existing clips into additional clips. This step is unnecessary if you already have a
large number of clips, but if Movie Maker created only a few, you can add more in two
ways. First, you can play the video to the point where you want a new clip to start, then
click the Split button on the preview window’s control bar (the button lies immediately to
the left of the Take Picture button) or choose Clip ➝ Split. This process splits the clip into
two clips and lets you work with each independently. Second, you can have Movie Maker
create additional clips automatically by right-clicking the clip in the Collections area and
choosing Create Clips from the menu. This process gives you many additional clips, and
you essentially start your storyboard over again. If you wish, you can continue to split and
create clips, breaking your footage into smaller and smaller segments.
204 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

6. Edit out unnecessary footage. Much unedited video has a great deal of unnecessary
footage, at least from the standpoint of the intended audience. You can eliminate excess
footage in two primary ways — first, by deleting clips and, second, by decreasing their
duration. You can delete clips from either the storyboard/timeline or the collections
window by right-clicking the appropriate item and choosing Delete; you can decrease their
duration by trimming them. To trim a clip, click the Show Timeline button just above the
storyboard, click the appropriate clip in the timeline, move the pointer over either end of
the clip until it turns into a double red arrow (see Figure 13-8), and drag the clip either
left or right, depending on whether you want to eliminate footage from the beginning or
the end of the clip.

Figure 13-8: The double arrow in the timeline.

7. Add effects to individual clips by right-clicking the clip and choosing Video Effects. Figure
13-9 shows the Add or Remove Video Effects dialog box atop the movie interface, with
only the first clip, at the far left of the storyboard, selected. Click the effect you want, and
then click the Add button. When you’ve finished adding them, click OK to put them into
effect. You can also add effects by choosing Tools ➝ Video Effects, clicking the icon for the
desired effect in the resulting Video Effects window, and dropping it onto the clip. When
you’ve applied a video effect, the Effects icon at the bottom-left corner of the clip (in the
storyboard) becomes highlighted, and you can hover the pointer over that icon to see a list
of the effects for that clip.
 Chapter 13: Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making Videos 205

Figure 13-9: Adding effects.

8. Add transitions between clips, especially when an edit or trim has produced discontinuity.
To add a transition, choose Tools ➝ Video Transitions to display the Transitions area. Click
on the Transition icon you want and drag it to the small square on the storyboard just in
front of the clip into which you wish to transition. The transition creates an artificial link
between the clips, adding a special effect that acknowledges the discontinuity but prevents
jarring the viewer by making it obvious. Movie Maker includes transitions ranging from
upward and downward wipes to page curls, shatters, dissolves, checkerboards, pixelation,
and even a keyhole (see Figure 13-10). The transition appears briefly in the video to help
your audience make the switch from clip to clip easily.

Tip
Transitions can be extremely effective, but if you use too many of them they quickly come to seem amateurish
to an extreme. Use them only when you need to give your viewers’ eyes something to focus on between the
clips. They provide an excellent means of switching from one location to another in your video, such as from
the final scene in the wedding ceremony to the opening scene halfway into the reception later in the day.
206 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 13-10: Transitions in the main window and on the storyboard.

9. Click the Rewind Storyboard icon just above the storyboard to rewind to the beginning of
your video. Click the Play button, and watch the movie all the way through, stopping to
make additional changes as you see fit.
10. Click the Show Timeline button to reveal the timeline. Here, you can see the Audio/
Music track and the Title Overlay track. If you want to add narration to your video, plug
a microphone into your sound card (or whatever audio device you have configured in
Movie Maker), and choose Tools ➝ Narrate Timeline. Click the Start Narration button in
the Narrate Timeline area, perform the narration, and click Stop Narration when you’ve
finished. Movie Maker adds a clip in the Audio/Music track, showing the beginning and
ending of the narration. You can add music clips and other sounds to that track as well.
11. To add titles, credits, and other text overlays, choose Tools ➝ Titles and Credits. Figure
13-11 shows the result: a number of hyperlinks that change the interface once more when
you click them, allowing you to add the textual elements precisely where you wish. To
add an overall title, probably the choice you’ll want most frequently, click Add Title at the
Beginning of the Movie and fill in the cells. To add text between clips or on top of clips,
click the appropriate link and fill in the cells once again. At the bottom of the Enter Text
screens are two important links that let you change the animation for the title, including
 Chapter 13: Unleashing Your Inner Spielberg: Making Videos 207

fading, mirroring, and paint-dripping effects, and that also let you change the font along
with its color, size, and transparency level. Click the Done link to add the text elements to
the video.

Figure 13-11:The interface for textual elements.

12. Save your project in two ways. First, throughout the creation and editing, save it as a
Movie Maker project by choosing Save ➝ Project. When you’ve finished all your editing,
choose File ➝ Save Movie. You have several options for saving a video, ranging from saving
it to a CD to saving it to a DV camera. Saving to a CD means that you can play it on any
compatible video CD player, which includes most newer standalone DVD players. Saving
to the Web requires a hosting location. Saving in order to send by email results in the
smallest possible file and the lowest available quality.

Tip
You can save yourself a great deal of time and effort by using Movie Maker’s AutoMovie feature, accessible
in the Tasks pane. AutoMovie will create a movie with the clips you give it, adding transitions, effects, and
fairly substantial edits. The result is always pretty good, but you’re better off in the long run controlling the
process yourself.
208 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Summary
Congratulations! You’ve completed your first movie from start to finish. Get a bit of practice at this,
and before long you can set up a ticket booth and a concession stand, wait for nobody to show up to
watch it, and then complain bitterly about the prejudice of the movie industry against films that
really matter. More seriously, once you’ve mastered the beginnings of Movie Maker, you can start
digging into its numerous capabilities, such as precision placement of clips, additional special
effects, and downloadable add-ons. Clearly, this program excels at usability, and its results are amaz-
ingly good, so get the most out of it before even considering advanced video software.
Chapter 14

Playing, Ripping, and

Recording Music

W indows XP ships with Windows Media Player. It is best known as a multimedia file player,
but it’s surprisingly adept in other areas as well. Surprisingly, that is, because most people
know Media Player as a music and video player only. Pop an audio CD into your CD drive, and
Media Player starts and plays the music, unless your PC’s manufacturer has changed the Windows
XP default to launch a different program instead. Click on a Windows Media link on a video site, and
Media Player lets you view the video. Even if the program doesn’t actually start when you insert a
CD, it always appears as an option in a menu of choices along with any other music software you’ve
installed on your system. Thanks to its inclusion in Windows, Media Player is all over the place.
But the program does more than just play music and video files. In fact, it offers a range of
advanced features that give you control over numerous multimedia tasks, including: listening to the
radio, burning CDs, transferring playlists to portable devices, and purchasing music online.
This chapter covers the variety of music-related activities possible with Windows Media Player, from
playing songs and acquiring album information to ripping and burning CDs. To follow the details in
this chapter fully, you need version 10 of Windows Media Player. If you don’t have version 10, you can
download and install it via Windows Update or from the Microsoft site at microsoft.com/windows/
windowsmedia/mp10/default.aspx. Alternatively, by installing Service Pack 2 (see Chapter 1), you get
version 10 automatically.
Incidentally, lest you think I’m advocating particularly violent actions in your musical computing,
ripping (in CD-land, anyway) means copying songs from a CD to your hard drive, while burning
means copying data to a CD. Just another couple of charming computer terms, nothing more.

Note
Many who use Media Player recommend against installing version 9 or 10, first citing problems with stability
and then decrying the Digital Rights Management (DRM) features built into it (see the DRM sidebar later in
this chapter). Both issues are valid for certain users, but many users have also reported no stability prob-
lems, and many either do not know about or have no problem with DRM making its way into entertainment
presentation software. This chapter examines version 10 because it offers the latest features, but if either of
these items concern you, feel free to stick with Media Player 8 or earlier, whatever you already have on your
PC. If you do, though, be aware that some of the instructions in this chapter won’t do you a lot of good.
209
210 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Playing Music
In all likelihood, you’ve already discovered that Media Player plays music. It does so very well, auto-
matically, and painlessly. But inside the Media Player interface lies a plethora of features that few
users ever bother to learn. Then again, it also has limitations that many people overlook. As an
example of the former, Media Player contains a built-in graphic equalizer with three different modes
of operation, giving you full control over the tone of your music (see the “Sound Enhancements” sec-
tion later in this chapter). As an example of the latter, Media Player does not, in and of itself, work
completely with two of today’s primary digital formats: MP3 and DVD.
If you want to record MP3 files (Media Player plays them just fine) or watch DVD movies, you
have to install add-ons. In the case of MP3 encoding, this usually means purchasing new software
(often inexpensively, but it’s still a purchase). In the case of DVD viewing, you can also purchase an
add-on, but first check your DVD movie collection. Many DVD movies come with their own DVD
decoder for your PC (insert the DVD into your DVD drive to find out), and this can help you over-
come that limitation. But back to music.
You can play almost all popular music formats in Media Player. A summary of digital music for-
mats appears later in this chapter; but for now, you can assume that Media Player will play whatever
you offer it, including audio CDs, .wav files, MP3 files, .wma files, and more. It cannot, however,
play your RealAudio files (including RA, RM, RPM) or Apple iTunes files (AAC format). So, if you get
your music via iTunes, stick with the iTunes player.
To play a music track in Media Player, you have several choices:

Open Media Player, choose File ➝ Open, use the Open dialog box to navigate to the music
file, select the file, and click Open.
Use My Computer or Windows Explorer to navigate to the music file, right-click on the
filename, choose Open With from the menu, and click on Windows Media Player. If the
file bears the Media Player icon, you can simply double-click it to play it with Media
Player; if you’ve assigned that file type to another music program (some programs, on
installation, make it hard not to do this), the file will have that program’s icon. In this
case, you’ll have to use the right-click method.
Use My Computer to navigate to the music file. Select it and click the Play All item in the
Music Tasks area on the left (this item becomes Play Selection if you choose multiple
tracks).
Launch Media Player and insert a music CD in the CD drive.
Without Media Player or any other music program running, insert a CD in the CD drive
and wait for the Audio CD dialog box to appear. Choose the Play Audio CD using Windows
Media Player option. If you want Media Player to load automatically whenever you insert
a CD, click the Always Do the Selected Action check box and click OK.

In all these cases, the music file begins playing. The Seek bar, located just above the Play controls
at the bottom of the screen, indicates the current location in the track. You can slide the Seek control
forward to jump ahead in the song or backward to rewind it. To see information about the song
itself, click the Now Playing button on the toolbar.
 Chapter 14: Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music 211

Note
Although you can use Media Player without being connected to the Internet, the first time you play a CD you
must have an Internet connection in order for Media Player to download the album and track information for
that CD.

Using the Info Center

By default, this action shows one of a number of possible Info Centers designed to display the infor-
mation about the track such as artist, song title, album title, and more (see Figure 14-1). The Info
Center view that actually appears depends on which music store or information site you’ve selected
via the Choose Online Store button at the top right of the Windows Media Player interface. This
chapter uses MSN Music for the sake of demonstration. But as I discuss later in the chapter, under
the “Using Media Player’s Online Stores” heading, you have a wide range of choices available. Each
online store provides a different Info Center view.

Figure 14-1: MSN Music’s Info Center in Windows Media Player.

212 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Like the view itself, the actual information you get from the Info Center depends on which store
you’ve selected. Figure 14-1 shows the result of clicking the album cover for the currently playing
CD using the MSN Music Info Center. As you can see, the only information here is about the album
itself, how to buy tracks from it, and CDs you might also like (the list on the right). Other Info
Centers (such as Puretracks) give you more information about individual tracks. The Walmart Music
Downloads view of the Info Center provides a short text write-up of the current CD, but nothing else
other than a link to buy it.
All of which brings up the question, “Who thought this was a good idea?” In Windows Media
Player 9, the Info Center was still related to purchasing the product (there was a link to do so), but
it also provided useful links to artist information, lyrics, similar music, and more. In other words, the
Info Center actually had information! Obviously, Microsoft figured it was time to link directly into
the sales of music — commendable in that nobody should be downloading music without paying for
it — but why penalize the potential purchasers by providing even less information than before? The
result is a poorer Media Player than before from an information standpoint, but a richer one for pur-
chasing online. A fair trade-off? No, I don’t think so.

Using Media Player’s Online Stores

Media Player 10 makes it easier than ever to spend your money on music. In addition, you can
spend your money on movies, radio, and even Court TV (I’m not making this up). Figure 14-2
shows the result of clicking the Browse All Online Stores item in the Online Stores drop-down box
at the top right of the Media Player’s interface.

Figure 14-2: Choose your online store.

 Chapter 14: Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music 213

There are several ideas at work here. In the case of music, you purchase either individual songs or
entire albums and download them into Media Player’s library. Then you listen to them on your PC,
make them available via your networked media player, or burn them to a CD. Movies work much
the same way. Radio purchases give you access to multiple stations, while TV access gives you access
to various programs. MLB Baseball, for example, offers a $14.95 package that lets you listen, via
Media Player, to live audio broadcasts of every game on the schedule; for this price, you also get
archives. For $79.95, you can watch televised broadcasts of games taking place outside your local
area (again, with archives); $99.95 gets you both.
When it comes to making purchases, or gleaning information about the products, don’t expect
all the online stores to work the same. Each has its own interface, and each looks like a Web site
rather than part of Media Player itself. In fact, Media Player basically acts as a Web browser for these
stores; the only difference between buying items here and over the Web is that the files download
directly into Media Player’s library and are instantly ready for use. Which, by itself, is obviously a
useful feature.
After selecting a store, click the Now Playing button to get the Info Center view specifically
designed for that store.

Enhancements: Audio and Visual

When you first open Media Player, you see the Now Playing area (the large, central portion of the
window), the All Music list (which becomes the title of the CD if you insert an audio CD) on the
right, and the Mini Player toolbar at the bottom. You don’t actually need any other elements to listen
to music. You can, however, gain much greater control over the actual sound of the music by bring-
ing other elements of the Media Player interface to the screen, especially a set of additional areas
called Enhancements. You’ll quickly find some of the sound-oriented Enhancements indispensable
for a complete listening experience, because they provide methods of adjusting the music file or CD
precisely to match the capabilities of your speakers and your sound card and the vagaries of your lis-
tening moods.
You can access each of the Enhancements separately by choosing View ➝ Enhancements and
choosing the one you want. Alternatively, choose View ➝ Enhancements ➝ Show Enhancements to
reveal the Enhancements pane, and then click the back and forward arrows at the top of the pane to
move among them.

SOUND ENHANCEMENTS
From the standpoint of Media Player as a playback vehicle for your music, the most important
enhancements are those that let you change the sound of the currently loaded track. And make no
mistake, these enhancements do their job. You can thoroughly alter the sound of the song you’re lis-
tening to, in effect creating a different experience each time out.
As with even the cheapest stereo, tone controls provide the greatest single difference in sound
(well, technically volume controls do because you can silence the music completely or blow out your
ears and your windows, but we’ll stick with tone controls here). Media Player goes beyond the stan-
dard bass and treble controls, however. Instead, you get a full 10-band graphic equalizer (see Figure
14-3), giving you pinpoint control over the full range of frequencies. Not only that, but you can con-
trol these frequencies in three different ways. The equalizer represents Media Player’s true tour de
force from a listening standpoint — a true enhancement.
214 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 14-3: The 11-band graphic equalizer.

Choose Graphic View ➝ Enhancements ➝ Equalizer. Activate the equalizer by clicking the Turn
On link near the top of the Enhancements pane (it should be on by default). Now, play some music
and slide the controls up and down. The slider on the far left controls the lowest bass sounds; the
one on the right, the highest treble sounds. Between those two extremes lie the remaining frequen-
cies, with midrange — in which you find the majority of vocals, guitars, and middle-range piano —
occupying the middle three to five bands. If you love bass at the expense of everything else, drag the
treble sliders down and raise the bass; if you want only midrange booming bass, emphasize the sec-
ond and third sliders from the left. If you want to emphasize high-hats, triangles, piccolos, and other
high-end instruments, raise the sliders near the right extreme. And so on.
You have several ways to adjust these settings. The three radio buttons to the left of the sliders
give you the following modes of control (from top to bottom):

Independent: Each slider moves independently of the others, thereby providing precise
control over each frequency range.
Loose Group: Moving one slider affects all the others, but only to a limited extent, with
the frequencies closest to the slider being moved undergoing the greatest change.
Tight Group: Moving one slider moves all the other sliders to a significant degree, with
the cluster of nearby sliders undergoing the greatest change.
 Chapter 14: Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music 215

These options provide an extremely useful variety of methods for adjusting the tone. If you know
precisely which frequency you want to change, click the Independent button. If you have a pretty
good idea, but you want to make sure by adjusting similar frequencies, click the Loose Group but-
ton. Finally, if you want a general change, something closer to the standard Treble and Bass controls
on a stereo, use the Tight Group option.
If you prefer, simply choose the sound you want and let Media Player perform the actual adjust-
ments. This option appears in the form of a menu when you click the Custom link just above the
sliders. From this menu, you can choose from a variety of configurations with the frequency adjust-
ments preset to genres of music such as rock, grunge, opera, classical, blues, and more. Click the one
you want, and watch the sliders readjust.
Also available on the Graphic Equalizer Enhancement pane is the left and right balance control.
The SRS WOW enhancement (not pictured in Figure 14-3) also significantly affects tone. A combi-
nation of technologies, SRS WOW simulates a surround-sound experience, with more powerful bass
and enhanced midrange sounds, especially good for listening to quiet tracks, in quiet environments, or,
on the other extreme, for locations where you need to get additional power from your speakers. Click
the Turn On link to activate this feature, and then click the speaker link beside it to customize the
sound for large speakers, normal speakers (the default), or headphones. Slide the TruBass control to the
right for stronger bass or left for weaker, and the WOW Effect slider to enhance the surround-sound
simulation.
Two additional enhancements change the listening experience (again, not pictured in Figure 14-3).
Quiet Mode helps when you need to keep the volume turned down by evening out the differences in
volume between loud and soft passages in the music (in music lingo, this process is called normaliza-
tion). Turn the feature on and specify the result you want: medium difference for a moderate amount
of normalization or little difference for maximum normalization in which loud and soft passages will
be as close to the same volume as possible. The Crossfading and Auto Volume Leveling Enhancement
pane provides two more controls. Auto Volume Leveling works somewhat like normalization, but
instead of leveling out the volume differences in a single music track, it levels out the volume differ-
ences between tracks, a problem particularly acute when downloading music (purchased albums are
mastered to ensure balanced volume levels). Crossfading makes Media Player sound like a radio sta-
tion by overlapping the end of one track with the beginning of the next. Note that both Auto Volume
Leveling and Crossfading works only with downloaded files or files ripped from audio CDs, not with
audio CDs themselves.

OTHER ENHANCEMENTS
While the sound enhancements affect your listening, you can influence the appearance and perfor-
mance of Media Player in other ways as well:

Skin Mode: Not related in any way to listening to music while unclothed, choosing Skin
Mode shrinks the size of Media Player dramatically, configuring it as a small, stylish-
looking device that’s easier to keep out of the way of other windows. Figure 14-4 shows
the result of clicking the Skin Chooser item on the View menu: Click on each item on the
Skin list to see what each skin looks like. When you’ve decided on one you like, click the
Apply Skin item just above the main windows. From this point on, when you choose
View ➝ Skin Mode in the standard (Full) version of the player, the player will take on the
look of this skin.
216 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 14-4: The Skin Chooser window in Media Player.

In Skin Mode (see Figure 14-5), right-click the player and choose Switch to Full Mode to
return to the standard player. In fact, while in Skin Mode the right-click menu becomes in
many ways your best friend, offering all Media Player options.

Figure 14-5: Media Player using the Canvas skin.

 Chapter 14: Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music 217

Color Chooser: This Enhancement pane lets you set the hue and saturation of the stan-
dard player or choose black as the background color.
Play Speed Settings: This Enhancement pane, available with only downloaded or ripped
tracks, lets you speed up the audio without changing the pitch. Use it when you want to
listen to a track but want to get through it more quickly, or if your offspring want to listen
to music that wouldn’t sound very different when sped up by, say, double.
Video Settings: This Enhancement pane gives you control over hue, saturation, and
brightness/contrast of videos. It works best with downloaded items such as music videos.
Visualizations: On the theory, pushed hard by MTV and its spin-offs, that one cannot
possibly concentrate on music without something to look at simultaneously, you can play
visualizations — primarily colorful animations — in the large Now Playing area of Media
Player. They range from the genuinely pretty to the bizarrely psychedelic.

Tip
While in Skin Mode, the player is much smaller, and it’s quite easy to lose on a crowded desktop. You can
keep it always on top by opening the Options dialog (Tools ➝ Options in the full player, or right-click and
choose Options in Skin Mode). On the Player tab, choose Keep the Player on Top of Other Windows.

Working with the Media Library and Playlists

You can listen to your commercial and burned CDs in Media Player, but it truly comes into its own
as an endlessly flexible music environment with its music organization features: the Media Library
and playlists. Together, they complement one another, with the Media Library encompassing all your
music and each playlist containing a portion of it. Put another way, the Media Library separates your
media files from the rest of the files on your PC, while the playlists divide up the Media Library. Once
you’ve set Media Player loose finding all your media files and have separated some of them into a
half-dozen playlists or so, you have a much greater degree of control over the potentially widely scat-
tered music files on your PC. In fact, you might well discover songs you’d forgotten you’d ever
downloaded or ripped from CDs.
To populate the Media Library, load Media Player and either press the F3 key or choose Tools ➝
Search for Media Files. In the rather clumsily named Add to Media Library By Searching Computer
dialog box (in somewhat less than concise style), you can search all your drives, all folders except
those containing programs, the My Music folder (a subfolder of My Documents), any of the specific
drives on your system, or, by clicking the Browse button, any folder or subfolder on your PC. By
opening the Advanced Options area, you can tell Media Player to ensure that all the tracks added to
the Media Library undergo the volume-leveling procedure so that when you create playlists, all
songs will play at roughly equivalent volumes. If you choose this procedure without significantly
restricting the search and want to compile the Media Library while simultaneously performing vol-
ume leveling, expect a long process.
218 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Tip
You can configure Media Player to add items to the Media Library automatically. Choose File ➝ Add to
Library, select the By Monitoring Folders option, and click the Add button to browse for additional folders to
monitor. Then click OK. By default, Media Player monitors My Music only.

Once you have items in the Media Library (see Figure 14-6), you can start organizing them into
playlists. To do so, you can choose from several different methods. The first method is to right-click
on any file in the Media Library and choose Add to Playlist, an action that opens the Add to Playlist
dialog box, which contains a list of your playlists. Choose the playlist to which you want to add the
file and click OK or create an additional playlist by clicking New. You can select multiple songs in
Media Library and add them all to a playlist with a single action of this type. The second method is
to expand the folder list on the left-hand side of Media Library, and right-click on one of the ele-
ments in the Artist, Album, Genre, or Other Media folders and choose Save as New Playlist. Another
method is to drag songs and albums from the Media Library to the playlist. The final method is to
choose New Playlist from the File menu, create the playlist, and then locate songs in Media Library
to add to it.
When you have created a playlist, you can play the entire collection in sequence by right-clicking
on it and choosing Play. At any time, you can drag and drop the songs in the playlist to have them
play in the order you like.

Figure 14-6: The Media Library filled with songs and playlists.
 Chapter 14: Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music 219

Tip
You can create and populate playlists from any Windows folder, not just from the Media Library in Media
Player. Open a folder on the desktop or inside Windows Explorer, locate the song files and select them, either
individually or as a multiple selection, right-click, and click Add to Playlist. This action opens Media Player
(if it is not already open) and also opens the Add to Playlist dialog box.

A Guide to Digital Music Formats

This section takes you on a tour of digital music formats. Understanding these formats and how to
use them is indispensable for working with music files on a PC. Few things are more frustrating than
downloading a file and discovering that you can’t do anything with it. This section explains why that
happens and what you can do to give yourself the maximum flexibility possible. This section is not
specifically about Windows Media Player, but it is very much about using Windows XP itself. You
will encounter these files around the Internet, and you need to know how to handle them.
Media Player itself can play several of the file types covered here. If you choose Tools ➝ Options
to open the program’s Options dialog box (see Figure 14-7), you can see the list by clicking the File
Types tab. Specifically, Media Player can play the following straight out of the box:

Apple audio file (.aiff)

Audio CD (.cdda)
Microsoft/IBM audio file (.wav)
MIDI (.mid)
MPEG Layer 3 audio (.mp3)
Windows Media Audio (.wma)
Windows Media Video (.wmv)
Windows Media File (.asf)
Sun audio file (.au)

Raw music takes up a great deal of hard disk space. A commercially produced audio CD, for
example, can typically hold 74 minutes of music. Because the same CD could hold roughly 650MB
of data, each minute of music consumes close to 10MB of the CD. If you own music simply to listen
to it, the size of the files poses no problem. Seventy-four minutes of music on a CD is more than
enough for most of us, especially because most musicians seem unable to produce more than 20
minutes of even remotely memorable music with each new release.
220 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 14-7: The File Types tab in the Media

Player Options dialog box.

If you want to store songs on your hard drive, put them on small units that use flash memory, or
send them across the Internet (legally, we mean), 30MB for a three-minute song is far too much data.
For those purposes, you need a compressed format that shrinks the size of the file dramatically, ide-
ally without losing any — or at least not very much — of the sound quality. Different compression
technologies have appeared over the lifetime of the personal computer, each technology claiming
different benefits and many having their 15 minutes or more of fame. The Sun Audio format, for
instance, had a heyday in the Internet’s early years as the only file you could realistically download
over a dial-up modem. In the past couple years, the most famous audio format of them all, MP3, has
fulfilled that same purpose and more.
The following sections briefly describe the major formats.

WAV
By far the most common file format among Windows music developers, WAV (which stands for
Waveform sound), was a joint development of IBM and Microsoft. Although you can run into pro-
grams that don’t play certain types of audio files, every piece of sound software in the Windows
world plays .wav files. It is the standard, bar none.
Like the files on a commercial music CD, .wav files are uncompressed. Because of this, they
sound practically identical to CD audio. Indeed, when you rip a song from a CD with many CD rip-
ping programs, the default result is a .wav file; playing the two back to back reveals no discernable
difference (Media Player rips CD tracks to WMA format, however). Professional recording software
routinely uses WAV as the primary audio format, burning the .wav files directly to CD when the
recording and mastering is completed.
 Chapter 14: Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music 221

.wav files use an average bit rate of 1,411.2 Kbps (that is, 1,411.2 bits per one second of audio).
By comparison, the bit rate of MP3 is 128 Kbps, hence the difference in file size.

WMA
As you can probably guess by its name, Windows Media Audio is a Microsoft design and implemen-
tation and was supported at first only by Windows Media Player. When you consider that everyone
running Windows owned Windows Media Player, however, and that ripping CDs using Media
Player reformatted the tracks as .wma files, it’s no surprise that .wma files began to proliferate on the
Net. Indeed, they have, to the extent that many portable MP3 players now support both MP3 and
.wma files, a trend that will not only continue but also grow.
Fortunately for music buffs, WMA provides a genuine alternative to MP3. WMA promises equiv-
alent sound quality to MP3 files (near CD quality in both cases) at half the file size, by using 64-bit
rather than MP3’s standard 128-bit encoding. However, to get equal quality in the real world, you
should use WMA’s 128-bit encoding, at which point WMA sounds at least as good as MP3, but at
which point the file size is significantly larger. That leaves one major advantage to WMA: Because of
its built-in DRM capabilities, and the resultant deals between Microsoft and entertainment compa-
nies, you’re likely to start finding more WMA than MP3 audio files before long.

AIFF
An acronym for Audio Interchange File Format, AIFF does for the Macintosh what WAV does for the
PC. Uncompressed and of the highest quality, AIFF files are synonymous with Mac music and sound.

MP3
As a perfect example of how technology can become an almost overnight standard, with its name (or
at least its acronym) becoming part of everyday language, look no further than MP3. The full name
for the format is actually MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, but with the possible exception of the engineers of
the Motion Picture Experts Group, nobody calls it that. Today we have MP3 software, portable MP3
players, and MP3 support on standalone CD and DVD players. The MP3 acronym makes the news
regularly because of the fight between the music industry and the zillions of people who convert CD
tracks into MP3 format and trade them over the Internet. MP3 is hot, big time, and shows no sign of
relinquishing its lead.
Actually, MP3 did not spread overnight. Developed by a German research institute, MP3 was
patented way back in 1989, and the Motion Picture Experts Group brought it into its standard a few
years later. So it’s anything but brand new. But only its adoption by Internet users, empowered by
MP3 decoders, brought the format into the mainstream. Then came Napster, whose horribly slow
speed demanded small files, and MP3 became king.

MP3PRO
Developed by Coding Technologies and supported by, among others, Intel, mp3PRO combines MP3
with spectral band replication (SBR) technology. SBR is necessary because in compressing the file to
roughly half the size of standard MP3 files, mp3PRO loses high-frequency sounds. In the mp3PRO
scheme, MP3 technology handles low frequencies, while SBR takes care of the highs. The result is a
music file that sounds as good as — and often better than — the MP3 file itself, but which takes up
less space.
222 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

All You Ever Wanted to Know about MP3s but Were Afraid to Ask
The way MP3 works demonstrates how ingenuity can improve the way we experience technology.
This compression technology (like others) works by acknowledging the way human beings filter out
certain sounds or, in fact, can’t hear them at all. Specifically, the human ear doesn’t hear all the
sound available to it; it either cannot pick it up because the volume is too low or the frequency is out
of hearing range, or it effectively blocks the sound by replacing a softer sound with a louder sound.
This replacement process is known in psychoacoustics research as masking, and it provides the
basis for MP3 compression.
Psychoacoustics research studies the limits of the ear’s ability to perceive sounds. Psychoacoustic
software, of which MP3 compression is an example, excludes sound in the audio signal rendered
unnecessary by the fact that we won’t hear it anyway. It’s the principle we encounter in everyday life
when one sound — talking to someone near an airport, for example — gets drowned out by another
sound — like that of an airplane taking off. A pure digital translation of the event leaves both noises
in the signal. A psychoacoustic translation essentially gets rid of the conversation, as much as it can,
because our ears do not perceive it.
MP3 compresses files according to the following process:
1. It removes sounds with frequencies beyond the range of human hearing (roughly 20 Hz to
20+ KHz).
2. It removes sounds too quiet for humans to hear.
3. It removes masked sounds.

With all these sounds removed, the size of the file shrinks by over 10 times. So, that five-minute
song that clocks in at over 50MB as an uncompressed sound file can be less than 5MB with MP3
compression applied. Other audio formats, such as Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio, compress the
data even further, resulting in a file size roughly half of MP3s. The question then becomes one of
sound quality.
MP3 and WMA use lossy compression; the file shrinks through a loss of data. By comparison, CD
music files (CDDA format) and their counterparts — WAV in the Windows world and AIFF in the
Mac world — provide no compression of this kind at all. Lossless compression technology does exist
in the audio world (it’s well known in the digital image world), such as Free Lossless Audio
Compression (FLAC) and Lossless Predictive Audio Compression (LPAC). But because their file sizes
remain high, they haven’t caught on for Internet audio and we don’t cover them here.

To date, the industry hasn’t exactly jumped on the mp3PRO bandwagon because of the ubiquity
of MP3 itself. But mp3PRO provides a full range of DRM encodings and has the full support of
industry giants such as Intel. So, expect this format to start showing up in large quantities. In fact,
Gracenote, the company that maintains the enormous database of music your player accesses when-
ever you put a music CD in your CD-ROM drive, encourages the use of mp3PRO because of the ease
in which song and album information can be encoded into the audio file itself. This support alone
should guarantee the format’s success.
 Chapter 14: Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music 223

MP4
Developed in the late 1990s by Global Music One, the MP4 file format offers one significant improve-
ment over the MPEG-4 standard on which the format was based. Specifically, MP4 embeds a player
into the audio file so that people downloading an MP4 file don’t have to worry about whether their
audio software can play the song. The company used this format to distribute audio with its Global
Music Outlet service, but today its focus is on wireless applications. Still, you’ll find MP4 files in vari-
ous locations, and you know you’ll have a player for them.

QUICKTIME
At times, you may come across audio files bearing the .qt or .qt3 extension. These are QuickTime
audio files, designed for play in Apple’s free QuickTime player. But QuickTime isn’t a separate audio
format; in fact, these files bear encodings as AIFF or WAV. Most major audio players recognize these
files as QuickTime files, but if you try to play a .wav file, for instance, and your player tells you it has
an invalid file format, try to play it in QuickTime instead. Often, it works.

RA, RAM, RPM

RealNetworks has developed its own proprietary audio format designed specifically for streaming.
Part of RealSystem G2 multimedia technology, the RealAudio format uses lossy compression through
psychoacoustic methods to achieve the best possible size-to-quality ratio and then encodes stream-
ing instructions into the file. You don’t usually find RealAudio files as downloads like MP3 or WMA,
but rather as hyperlinks on Web pages that open the RealPlayer and stream the audio so you can lis-
ten as you download.

MIDI
Unlike all other files listed here, MIDI files contain no audio data at all. Instead, MIDI files, which
bear the .mid extension and are extremely small, contain instructions for your MIDI synthesizer —
either a separate MIDI device (typically a keyboard) or the synthesizer built into most PC sound
cards. Many notebook PCs do not have MIDI synthesis as part of their sound system, so don’t get
frustrated if the MIDI file does not play.

Ogg Vorbis
Originally going by the charming name of Squish, Ogg Vorbis is not the name of a bizarre species in
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but rather an audio format designed to provide a money-free,
license-free, and patent-free technology to music creators and collectors alike. The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy notwithstanding, the name Vorbis does come from a book — Terry Pratchett’s
Small Gods — while Ogg comes from the old network sci-fi game Netrek. In the software itself, how-
ever, Vorbis refers to the compression technology, while Ogg refers to the format.
Ogg files have not yet reached the mainstream, at least not as separate music files. But that’s com-
ing. Electronic Arts has used Ogg files in some of its games, as has Epic Games. Record companies
are paying attention as well because, unlike MP3 and WMA, Ogg Vorbis use does not require licens-
ing fees. The primary drawback for music distribution, however, is Ogg Vorbis’s lack of support for
DRM. Whether this changes remains to be seen, especially given the general contempt of the Open
Source community (of which Ogg Vorbis is proudly a part) for anything protection related. But given
that many people claim Ogg Vorbis files sound better than either MP3 or .wma files, and given the
support for Ogg Vorbis in the growing Linux community, surely some form of DRM will happen
before long.
224 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Copyright means the right to copy. With some exceptions, such as the highly limited use of material
in classrooms, only the holder of the copyright on an item may copy that item. Copyright laws work
well as long as material is difficult to copy (which is why copyrights on printed matter held so
well before photocopiers came along), but they break down when copying — and subsequent
distribution — become easier.
Digital Rights Management (DRM) goes hand in hand with copyright and licensing. Because digital
content is so easy to copy, and copying has become so widespread, industries based on the
ownership of these materials (of which the music and film industries have garnered the most press)
have worked to develop restrictions. DRM technologies cover the identification, copying, and
monitoring of content by letting companies and individuals build licensing, usage restrictions, and
encryption into their files.
Two of today’s major audio formats, WMA and AAC, support a full range of DRM features. Microsoft
has added extensive DRM capabilities to WMA, while the DRM features of Apple’s AAC format
provide the foundation for the company’s iTunes service. You can copy an iTunes file to any iPod you
want, but only to three computers, and each computer must be authorized with your Apple ID and
password and confirmed over the Internet before it will play the song. You can burn to CD a playlist
containing protected AAC files only 10 times, after which you must change the playlist. WMA’s DRM
works similarly and can be encoded directly into digital content by using Windows Media Encoder,
freely downloadable from the Microsoft site.
The major players in DRM right now are the music and film industries, with the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) recently grabbing headlines — and usually not very flattering
ones — for suing people who share music files extensively. As Hollywood films start using the
Internet for distribution (apparently by 2006–2007), expect strong DRM built right into the products.
QuickTime file formats already contain DRM features, and Real Networks, the company behind the
ubiquitous RealPlayer, has introduced DRM for its MPEG-4 and MP3 offerings. Most current MP3
files, however, continue to lack DRM settings, a fact that has the majority of file-sharing services still
choosing MP3 as a dominant format. Not having DRM makes things easier.
Ironically, the computer industry itself was the first to feel the effects of easy copying. In the 1980s,
programs would often ship with dongles, small items that attached to a port on the computer and
controlled whether the program ran. Other forms of copy protection proliferated, including the now
standard CD key. Indeed, Microsoft’s much maligned Product Activation is another form of DRM.

AAC
Short for Advanced Audio Coding, AAC is actually further abbreviated from its full name, MPEG-4
AAC. While three music services have used this format as the basis for protecting and delivering
their content — AT&T, Global Music, and Liquid Audio — AAC has become the single biggest player
in paid music services today as the file format supported by Apple’s famous iTunes. AAC offers
higher quality than MP3 at lower bit rates, and in addition — and this is crucial — it supports a full
range of DRM properties. Apple has also built AAC into its QuickTime software at both the developer
 Chapter 14: Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music 225

and end-user level. So for Macintosh systems, it has become, in effect, the standard audio format.
iTunes for Windows also uses ACC files, and portable players in addition to Apple’s iPod have started
to appear that support the AAC format in addition to MP3 and (in most cases) WMA. In numerous
tests, AAC files have outperformed both MP3 and .wma files from the standpoint of sound quality.
Other tests, however, have shown conflicting results, as these kinds of tests tend to do. The fact is
that as iTunes becomes more successful, AAC might very well become the Internet audio standard.
So, keep your eye on it and watch it grow. For the time being, though, MP3 continues with great
strength, and WMA is the format of choice for services such as Napster and MusicMatch.

ATRAC
The file format used by Sony’s MiniDisc players, ATRAC is a lossy compression algorithm with a stan-
dard bit rate of 285.3 Kbps. From a sound quality standpoint, ATRAC and MP3 are remarkably similar.
Those who own MiniDisc players, however, naturally tend to prefer ATRAC, and it tends to perform a
little better than MP3 and WMA in genres such as classical music with its great dynamic range.

Media Player, CDs, and Portable

Audio Devices
In addition to its role as the center of your music listening experiences, Windows Media Player pro-
vides a solid set of CD ripping and burning capabilities. Specifically, you rip songs from a CD by
clicking the Copy from CD item on the Features toolbar, and you burn songs to writable CDs via the
Copy to CD or Device item. Both areas of Media Player are reasonably straightforward — easy
enough, in fact, that Media Player functions well as everyone’s first CD-creation program.
To rip songs from a CD, click the Rip button at the top of Media Player. As Figure 14-8 shows,
this screen provides a list of songs on the CD with a check box beside each one. Check the songs you
want to store as media files on your PC, and click the Rip Music button, located on the title bar
immediately above the main screen. The first time you copy music in Media Player, a dialog box
appears explaining that you can choose to include copy protection with the copy, or choose not to
include it if you prefer. In either case, you can continue only by checking the box to confirm that you
realize that copyright laws apply.
Once you are past these decisions, you next have to decide to retain your current preferences for
creating the music file or change them via the Options dialog. If the latter, open the Options dialog
from the Tools menu. Here, you can choose to copy protect music you rip, and you can decide to rip
CDs whenever you insert them into the CD drive (although it’s hard to figure out why anyone would
do this) and (more reasonably) to eject a CD once you’ve copied it. You also choose on this dialog
box the default location for your ripped files.

Tip
Consider ripping your music to a shared folder so that everyone on your home network has access to it and
so that you have access to it yourself from a different PC (such as when you’re sitting on the deck with your
notebook and your Wi-Fi connection).
226 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 14-8: Song list in the Rip area.

The most important item on the Options dialog is the Format drop-down menu. By default,
Media Player gives you a choice of three formats. Select each of them in succession and watch the
Audio Quality slider below the menu to see the differences among the three:

Windows Media Audio: Stores an entire CD (depending on the number of minutes of

music) in 50–60MB of hard disk space. Records at 128 Kbps. You can adjust the Kbps
downward to save space, but below 64 Kbps you’ll notice a significant loss in quality.
Windows Media Audio (variable bit rate): Variable bit rate represents the most efficient
means of storing data, so feel free to experiment with this option. If you do, however,
move the slider up for better quality from its default of 40–75 Kbps. You needn’t go too
far up for good results.
Windows Media Audio Lossless: .wma files achieve their small size (as do MP3s)
through lossy data compression. In this compression method, a considerable amount
of data is removed from the file with very little compromise in quality. Media Player’s
third option lets you store files without data loss, but a long CD will consume close to a
gigabyte of hard disk space. For your most important music, however, use this option.

You can add more format types to Media Player’s ripping capabilities through plug-ins. For exam-
ple, if you want to save files in MP3 format (and who doesn’t?), you need MP3 encoder software. On
the Options dialog box, clicking the Learn More About MP3 Format link takes you to the MP3
 Chapter 14: Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music 227

Creation Plug-ins section of the Windows Media Plug-in pages on the Web. From here, you can
order one of three plug-ins, each selling for roughly $10. Buy and install it, and the MP3 option
appears in the Format drop-down menu. You can now rip from CD to MP3. However, since most of
today’s audio players play .wma files, and WMA is free, there’s little reason to do so. Only if you
specifically need MP3 format do you need to install an MP3 creator.
To burn songs onto a CD, click the Burn button at the top of Media Player. Figure 14-9 shows the
two-pane window that lets you perform this action, the left side listing the songs you wish to copy
and the right side showing items already on the CD-R or CD-RW. Fill the left side with the songs you
want on the CD (you can copy .wma, MP3, and .wav files) and then press the Start Burn button.
Media Player shows you the progress of the copying and tells you when you can eject the CD.

Figure 14-9: An album full of songs ready to burn onto a CD.

Copying music to portable audio devices such as MP3 players follows the same process. As long
as Windows recognizes your device as a storage unit, you can copy songs to it. In this case, the Copy
to CD or Device window displays the device on the right-hand side instead of the writable CD. You
simply copy the songs between the two windows.
Now, back to playlists. As useful as your playlists can be when it comes to listening to music on
your computer, they’re even more useful when it comes to burning your own CDs and copying
songs to portable devices such as MP3 players. As Figure 14-10 shows, the drop-down list immedi-
ately below the Start Burn button pane displays your entire Media Library, including any playlists
you’ve created. Choose a playlist from this list, reorder the tracks as you want them, and copy the
228 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

playlist to the CD or device. In the case of a portable player, you can develop an entire series of
playlists, rotating them onto your device, depending on your mood or needs. Media Player can
quickly become a central gathering of music, ready to copy to external devices whenever you want.

Figure 14-10: Creating the Burn list.

Tip
When burning music to CDs, you should consider using a burn speed less than the default or the maximum
for your recorder. Although your own mileage will vary, tests have repeatedly shown that burning at 8X
speed, sometimes even 4X, offers the best possibility of a CD that sounds good and lasts a good long time
(most burned CDs eventually start losing the audio data). You can adjust the speed in Media Player before
you begin the burning process.

Summary
Nothing in the entertainment world has felt the personal computing revolution more profoundly than
digital music. Your options for listening to music, copying it, recording it, modifying it, and carrying it
 Chapter 14: Playing, Ripping, and Recording Music 229

with you are stronger now than at any time before, and those options continue to expand. It would be
nice if the open-mindedness of record companies would expand accordingly so that they would sign
more acts that offered alternatives to the me-too sameness of so much music today. But perhaps digital
music will help in that regard, as well, giving artists greater access to new and specialized audiences.
Whatever happens, rest assured that your PC will be along for the ride, with Windows offering solid,
useful, and well-featured programs like today’s Windows Media Player. But look past Media Player as
well, to players, rippers, and organizers from other companies. If you’re into music, you’ll want to find
the best possible programs for your needs.
Part IV

Utilities

T he utilities covered here include a range of products that install onto Windows XP and give
you a wealth of creative power. I’ve isolated only the products I’ve actually used (as in all the
other Utilities sections), and I fully realize every one of you might have a preferred product in each
of the major categories. I’ve also tried to stick with programs that clock in at under $100, realizing
that the lower the price, the more likely it is that you’ll give them a try. If you haven’t used some of
those described here, you might want to consider them.

Photo Editors/Graphics Programs

Where to start? There are so many excellent graphics packages available that even this list could take
an entire chapter of the book. Adobe Photoshop (www.adobe.com) is, of course, at the top of the
heap, the graphics choice of professionals everywhere, but to my mind amazingly difficult to use.
Then again, I’m not especially good at graphics manipulation beyond the basics, so that could be
why. But there are alternatives, in fact a broad range of them.
Corel’s Paint Shop Pro (formerly by Jasc at www.corel.com) started out as a superb shareware pro-
gram, and in fact the final shareware version, 4.0, is still around and being used by those wanting a
fast, capable little graphics program. Today’s Paint Shop Pro is much larger and much more feature-
laden, but it still works quickly (well, as quickly as graphics programs ever work; they’re pretty slow
as a rule.) It offers a range of useful features for touching up everything from individual artwork to
digital pictures. Noise removal, scratch removal, one-click photo fixes, and a wide array of effects
make this one worth trying.
I’ve mentioned PhotoShop, but Adobe also offers a free program called PhotoShop Album, down-
loadable from the Adobe site. This one performs actions only on photos, and it does it well,although,
it’s not an image editor per se. By the time you get to the point where you need more power than this,
you’ll have manipulated so many photos that you’ll know which features you need to look for. And
free is good, obviously.
Ulead Systems offers a series of photo-, graphics-, and video-editing programs, of which
PhotoImpact is the flagship product (www.ulead.com). This one has a particularly appropriate set of

231
232 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

tools for editing pictures and comes complete with PhotoImpact Album, a picture sorting and orga-
nizing utility. Roxio’s PhotoSuite 7 (www.roxio.com) is a good, if not spectacular, program on its
own, but as part of the still-inexpensive Easy Media Creator suite, which includes CD and DVD cre-
ation programs, a sound editor, and much more, it’s an excellent deal.
Other worthwhile programs that handle many of these same tasks include Amazing Photo Editor
(www.silvereaglesoft.com), PaintBuster (www.softbusters.com), Picture Trail Photo Editor (www
.picturetrail.com), and Focus Photoeditor (www.new-world-software.com). All of these are well worth
downloading in their trial versions and putting through their photo-editing paces.
Some photo-editing programs remain free. Photobie (www.photobie.com) is one of these, a use-
ful editor although with limited features. FastStone Image Viewer (www.faststone.org) is a decent
editor but excels as an image file converter. Brush Strokes Image Editor (www.pabird.supanet.com/
~pabird/freesoftware/brushstrokes) lets you work at the pixel level effectively. The Gimp (gimp.org)
has long been an image editor of choice for the Linux crowd, and it is equally effective as a free
Windows tool, well worth the downloading and more.

Music Players and CD Creators

This is another huge list of possibilities, but again I’ll restrict it to programs that I’ve actually used.
I’ve already mentioned Roxio’s Easy Creator suite, which includes programs to create and burn CDs,
edit sound files, import music from tape and vinyl albums (for which you need a tape player and a
turntable, of course), a CD copier, and a full-featured music player. Real offers its always popular
RealPlayer as part of numerous program installations, including the full Mozilla suite (www.mozilla.
org), and it plays practically every form of music file available. QuickTime (www.apple.com) is an
extremely popular player as well, ubiquitous on the Macintosh platform but an excellent choice for
Windows users as well.
Other players worth considering include Media Center (www.mediajukebox.com), an exception-
ally strong program that offers playlists, full music file organization, and more. Along the same lines
is JetAudio (www.jetaudio.com), the Pro version of which includes an MP3 encoder (usually avail-
able only at extra cost). And then there’s the venerable WinAmp (www.winamp.com), a free player
(basic version) that offers all the music capabilities you’ll ever need.
As for CD burning, you almost certainly have a program that came with your CD burner (or your
PC) — that is, something other than Windows Media Player. Cheetah CD Burner (www.cheetahburner.
com) is a well-focused program that gives you what you need to organize and burn audio and data
CDs, while Nero (www.nero.com), bundled with numerous CD burners but also available as a sepa-
rate product, is the CD burner many people swear by, with an endless array of possible configura-
tions and possible applications. If you want a free CD burner to try out, Instant CD & DVD Burner
(www.albumgalaxy.com) should do the trick. A simple interface and a limited feature set lets you get
the job done without getting mired in options.

DVD Players and Burners

Not to be outdone by the CD player and creator crowd, DVD players and creators have come fully into
their own over the past few years, as DVDs themselves have gained ubiquity. The Cheetah people offer
 Part IV: Utilities 233

a DVD player to go with their CD player, while Burn4free (www.burn4free.com) offers one of the very
few free DVD burners (burns video as well as data DVDs). DVD Wizard Pro (www.dvdwizardpro.com)
provides a relatively easy interface for copying DVDs (including a good interface for converting VHS
tapes to DVD).
DVD players are numerous, and most have a full array of excellent features. PowerDVD (www.
gocyberlink.com) remains among the most popular, with 16:9 display support and the capability to
deinterlace DVDs for better images. DirectDVD (www.orionstudios.com) looks on screen like a physi-
cal DVD player, and it features superb audio tools to get the best sound from your DVDs. NeoPlayer
(www.mediostream.com) supports the displaying of dual subtitles on the screen as well as the capabil-
ity to stretch audio without pitch distortion, letting you play back scenes in slow motion while still
retaining proper sound and voice.
 Part V
Changing the Interface
Chapter 15
Giving Windows a Facelift
Chapter 16
Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and
Folders
Chapter 17
Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel
Chapter 18
Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface
Part V Utilities
Chapter 15

Giving Windows
a Facelift

W hen you look at the desktop of most PCs running Windows XP, you see almost exactly the
same thing. First to strike the eye is the background image, by default the one labeled Bliss
in the Display Properties dialog box. Next you probably notice the icons, sometimes scattered around
the desktop, other times lined up neatly. At the bottom of the screen resides the Taskbar, with its
dark blue background and its somewhat garish green Start button bearing white text and the famous
pastel Windows logo. Nice sky, nice hill, nice icons, nice Taskbar. But what you need is a desktop and
an interface that are all about you.
Of course, nobody is about to suggest that there’s anything particularly wrong with the default
Windows XP desktop. In fact, the only thing that comes to the fore is the surprising lack of individ-
uality displayed by most of its users. The layout, content, and styles of the desktop are almost infi-
nitely changeable, to the degree that every user’s desktop can look completely different from every
other user’s desktop. For some reason, however, few people seem to make any changes at all to the
default desktop, choosing to stick with the one Microsoft gave them. The surprising part about this
is that customizing your Windows XP desktop makes every bit as much sense as customizing your
office or your study, and this operating system offers numerous ways to make it your own.
This chapter focuses on changing the appearance of the Windows XP interface — colors, screen
resolution, fonts, icons, and more — and on how to organize your desktop to make it more effective.
By the end, you’ll have all you need to create a desktop that suits your needs perfectly, and one that
looks as elegant and organized — or for that matter as chaotic and gaudy — as you wish.

Why Fix It? Is It Broken?

Why would you want to change the default configuration of Windows XP? First, you work with XP’s
desktop every single day of your life, often for several hours during that day. Why not, at the very
least, make it more pleasing to look at, more to your aesthetic taste? More importantly, you can alter
it so that it suits your work methods, your preferences, and your needs. The Windows XP desktop
works fine out of the box, but until you customize it precisely to your individual requirements it
won’t reflect your work methods as well as it could. On the default desktop some of the elements
may well be in the wrong place for optimal usability for you, while others can get in your way, and

237
238 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

still others can simply look different from the way you’d like them to. You owe it to yourself to make
the entire desktop better for you.
In all likelihood, you won’t want to make all the changes outlined in this chapter. But, then again,
you might. The most effective Windows interfaces are those in which the user has explored every
possible alteration and in many cases made every one of those alterations. The interesting part is that
once you make your changes, you’ll probably find everyone else’s desktop somewhat clunky to use.

Caution
By definition, customizing your Windows XP desktop means that it’s no longer the standard version. Many
organizations frown on customization, in fact, because of the potential difficulties it creates for IT personnel
and because moving from one machine to another requires readjustment. Some organizations specifically
disable the capability to make certain changes (as you may discover). Unless you frequently move from
machine to machine, however, it makes more sense to tailor your most frequently used environment to your
own needs. Besides, it doesn’t really take all that long to readjust to the default XP desktop.

Figure 15-1 shows the initial XP desktop in all its uncustomized glory. Prepare to say goodbye to it.

Figure 15-1: The ho-hum default Windows XP desktop.

 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 239

Choosing between the Logon Screens

Before you even get to the main XP desktop, you have to pass through the Logon screen (on a
machine with more than one user, unless you use TweakUI to automatically log on). When run for
the first time, XP presents you with the standard blue Welcome screen (see Figure 15-2), with color-
ful icons representing each user account. Click on an account icon, type in the password (if
required), and you’re on your way to that account’s desktop.

Tip
Turning off the Welcome screen option can provide a significant security benefit in that you can configure it
to force users to type in their usernames and passwords in order to log on to the PC. In addition, unlike the
Welcome screen, the old Logon dialog box does not automatically display the already existing user
accounts. When you use the Welcome screen, by contrast, anyone can simply click one of the user icons
and then attempt to guess the password, and if you haven’t enabled passwords for all accounts (an option in
XP), you make it fairly easy for outsiders simply to force their way in. Of course, some degree of security still
exists, but it’s harder to guess both the username and the password than the password alone.

Figure 15-2: XP’s standard blue Welcome screen greets you with icons for each user account.
240 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

But XP’s roots lie in Windows 2000, whose Logon screen looked nothing like Figure 15-2.
Microsoft chose the more colorful desktop screen to make XP more visually appealing — and less
intimidating for newcomers — but the previous Logon screen remains available to you (indeed, if
your PC is part of a network domain, you have no choice: Windows switches to the older Logon
screen automatically). To switch to this screen, do the following:

1. Click Start and then Control Panel to open the Control Panel folder.
2. Double-click the User Accounts icon.
3. Under Pick a Control Panel icon, double-click User Accounts.
4. Under Pick a Task, choose the option Change the Way Users Log On or Off. Figure 15-3
shows the result.

Note
If you uncheck the Welcome screen option, you also automatically disable the fast user switching option.
You can’t use fast user switching with the pre-XP-style Logon screen.

Figure 15-3: Changing the Logon screen option.

 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 241

5. Uncheck the option labeled Use the Welcome Screen.

6. Click Start, click Log Off, and then click the Log Off icon. After logging you off, XP pre-
sents the older Logon dialog box, in which you type your username and password.

Changing the Desktop: Backgrounds,

Resolution, and Color Quality
Once past the Welcome or Logon screen, you come to the desktop itself. This is where you can make
the most noticeable changes to the XP interface because for many users the desktop is the interface,
providing access to programs, files, and more. When you consider that Windows essentially began
(with version 3.0) as nothing but a desktop, a set of clickable icons with no Start button or Taskbar
whatsoever, the tendency to work strictly from the desktop makes sense.
But you don’t have to leave the desktop as you find it. If you want brighter colors or no colors at
all, go for it. If you want huge icons with huge fonts, go for that as well. If you want a background
image showing the Milky Way galaxy, Fenway Park, or Elvis, go right ahead. These options, and
many more, including a completely blank desktop or one displaying your own artwork, are readily
available to you.

Changing Backgrounds
Windows XP backgrounds consist of images displayed on the desktop (this used to be called wall-
paper). All users can have their own settings and background. XP provides a fairly wide variety of
backgrounds, but if you don’t like any of them, or if you just get bored with them all, you can create
your own. If you’re graphically challenged, the way I am, you can head out onto the Web and down-
load as many as you want from any number of sites. Many are free; otherwise, the site charges a (usu-
ally) small fee.
Backgrounds are images. Some are large images, while others are small image files that combine
to create a background pattern through repetition, called tiling. Figure 15-1 shows the default XP
background called Bliss, (although farmers might very well call it Work, and it’s probably entirely
unblissful for hay fever sufferers). The Bliss background consists quite simply of an image, bliss.bmp
(found in the folder \windows\web\wallpaper), that XP loads every time you log on to that account.
You can find all of XP’s large background images in the same folder. You can see the smaller back-
ground images, from which XP creates its background patterns, in the main \windows folder itself
(look for the BMP files). You can use any small image to create your own background. If you choose
not to tile it, it will simply occupy a small square at the center of the desktop. Figure 15-4 shows the
background named Zapotec, a single image tiled to cover the entire screen.
You can change your background image in two fundamental ways: through the Display Properties
dialog box or by assigning any image you find in My Computer, Windows Explorer, or Internet
Explorer as the desktop. Any popular image type will do, with BMP, JPG, GIF, and PNG being the
most common.
242 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 15-4: A small image tiled to cover the desktop.

CHOOSING BACKGROUNDS IN DISPLAY PROPERTIES

To gain the most control over your background selection, use the Display Properties method. You
can open the Display Properties dialog box either by double-clicking the Display icon in Control
Panel or, more easily, by right-clicking on the desktop itself and choosing Properties from the context
menu (or use Winlogo+R, control desk.cpl). Because you need to right-click an unused part of
the desktop, you’ll probably find the Control Panel route easier if open windows already fill your
desktop.

Tip
Whenever you want to see your desktop uncluttered by open program and document windows, click the
Show Desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar on the Taskbar (the blue-edged icon is supposed to look like
a desktop blotter — how nineteenth century). This action minimizes all windows; you can restore them all to
their previous state by clicking the Show Desktop icon a second time. If you don’t see the Quick Launch tool-
bar (it’s disabled by default), right-click an empty area of the Taskbar and choose Toolbars and Quick Launch.
Or use Winlogo+D to display the Desktop (and again to restore previously open windows).
 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 243

With Display Properties open, click the Desktop tab (the Themes tab is discussed a little later in
the section “Saving Your Interface Adjustments as a Theme”). Figure 15-5 shows the result, with the
default Bliss desktop already selected.

Figure 15-5: Preview the background before

choosing it.

Tip
In a nice gesture, XP lets you preview the background before you choose it. The preview area is extremely
useful when choosing all your interface options.

Click each of the icons in the Background area of this dialog box to see which one you want. When
you’ve decided, choose it, and click Apply or OK. Your desktop immediately takes on that image.

Stretch, Tile, and Center

As you click through the selections, take note of one difference between the full images and the pat-
terns. When you choose a full image, such as Autumn, the Position drop-down menu to the right
shows Stretch. When you choose a pattern, Position shows Tile. A third option in the Position menu
is Center, although none of the images defaults to this choice.

Tile: When you choose Tile, you instruct Windows to display multiple copies of the
image, with each copy adjacent to the next, in a pattern of squares or rectangles covering
the screen. You can tile any background image, but Microsoft has designed the pattern
244 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

images specifically with tiling in mind, so they fill the screen properly. Each of the full
background images already fills a screen with a resolution of 800 × 600 pixels (the images
are 800 × 600 in size), and tiling has no apparent effect unless you choose a higher resolu-
tion. Once you do, the tiled image results in four adjacent copies of the image across the
screen, as you can see in Figure 15-6.
Stretch: To compensate for the differences in screen resolution, XP provides the Stretch
option. This option dynamically changes the size of the image to match the resolution
you’ve chosen. You can stretch any image in this way, but if the image is small, stretching
it will cause the image to become pixilated; all images consist of pixels, and when you
display a low-resolution image at a higher resolution, the pixels themselves become visible.
XP uses background images specifically suited to stretching (800 × 600 resolution at
96 dpi), something to keep in mind if you want to create your own backgrounds.
Center: As its name suggests, choosing the Center option centers the background image
on the desktop. As you increase the screen resolution, the image stays the same size as
before and, therefore, covers less of the desktop. Choose Center when you have a back-
ground image that neither tiles nor stretches well.

Figure 15-6: Tiling the Bliss background at a resolution of 1024 × 768.

 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 245

Choosing Your Own Background Image

If you don’t like any of the backgrounds XP provides, or if you simply want to look at something new
when Windows launches, you can choose another image entirely. With the Display Properties dialog
box open, click the Browse button. XP takes you directly to your My Pictures folder, which is located
inside \Documents and Settings\YourUsername. To demonstrate this feature, Microsoft has stored
four possible background pictures, all in JPEG format, inside the folder called Sample Pictures: Blue
Hills, Sunset, Water Lilies, and Winter. Click any of these pictures to bring it into the Background
area of the Display Properties dialog box, and then click Apply or OK to accept it.

Note
The Sample Pictures folder is actually a shortcut to another folder, located in \Documents and Settings\All
Users\Documents\My Pictures. When XP is installed, it creates a shortcut to this folder in the My Pictures
folder of all user accounts so that all users have access to them.

ACQUIRING A BACKGROUND IMAGE FROM

THE WEB ORANOTHER PHOTO PROGRAM
If you find an image on a Web page you want to use as your background, you can do so directly from
your browser. Virtually all modern browsers — such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox,
Netscape Navigator, and Opera — offer a command to make this happen. (Keep copyrights in mind
when you select an image to use. You should never use these images for any purpose other than
enjoyment on your personal machine unless some other use is clearly permissible). When you see
the image you want in your browser, right-click it and choose Set as Background (Internet Explorer)
or Set As Wallpaper (Netscape, Mozilla, and Firefox). The image immediately becomes your back-
ground, and you can stretch, tile, or center it as you can any other background (it is centered by
default). Open Display Properties, click the Desktop tab, highlight the generic name of the image —
Internet Explorer Wallpaper, Netscape Wallpaper, and so on — and choose the options you want.
Figure 15-7 shows the Background list with an image selected in the Firefox browser.
You can also choose background images from some photography software packages. For exam-
ple, XP includes two graphics programs, the venerable Paint and the newer Windows Picture and
Fax Viewer. When you have an image file open in Paint, you can set the image as your background
by choosing File ➝ Set As Background (Tiled) or File ➝ Set As Background (Centered). If you open
an image in the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, the default viewing program in XP, right-click the
image and choose Set as Desktop Background from the context menu.
For the ultimate background toy, go to www.microsoft.com/downloads and search for Wallpaper
Changer. This gives you a link to a free program (wallpapertoy.exe) that automatically changes your
wallpaper at a set period (minutes or hours); you can tell it to use pictures from any folders (such as
your vacation shots in My Pictures).
246 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Where Did My Background Image Go?

One of the questionable design choices in XP is its handling of externally selected background
images. Whether you choose an image from somewhere else on your PC or from a Web site, XP
treats it as a temporary choice. In each case, once you choose the new background image, XP
displays it in the Background area of the Display Properties dialog. If you chose a file from your
PC, XP shows the file’s name; if you chose an image from the Web, XP displays the generic name
Wallpaper, along with the name of the browser you’ve used (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla,
etc.). But as soon as you choose a different background, these images disappear from the list. To
choose them as background images again, you have to go out and find them.
To prevent this disappearance, copy the file into the folder that contains the built-in background
images: \windows\web\wallpaper. This way, you have access to the image whenever you open
Display Properties. If you’ve chosen the background from the Web, you’ll need to give it a unique
filename, so the best idea is to save the image into that folder directly from your browser. If you
don’t give it a new name, it will be overwritten by the next wallpaper image you choose from your
browser. This is a good folder to view using Thumbnails (View ➝ Thumbnails).

Figure 15-7: All options are available for all

background images, no matter where you acquired
them.

Changing Your Screen Resolution

While changing your background image makes the most obvious visible difference to your desktop,
adjusting your display resolution makes an even more dramatic difference to the way you work. Your
 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 247

resolution determines the amount of working area you have on your desktop, to the extent that the
desktop itself effectively changes size. The higher the resolution, the larger the desktop, the more
windows you can have open, and the more you can see inside each window. In order to make this
happen, everything must be smaller to fit the fixed area of the monitor.
Screen resolution is expressed as the number of pixels (short for picture elements — a single dot)
across the display by the number of pixels from top to bottom. A resolution of 640 × 480 (the origi-
nal Windows resolution), therefore, means 640 pixels horizontally by 480 pixels vertically. By com-
parison, today’s graphics cards and monitors routinely support resolutions of 1600 × 1200 pixels,
1920 × 1440 pixels, and even higher. A resolution of 1600 × 1200 packs roughly six times as many
pixels onto the screen as 640 × 480, and 1920 × 1440 gives you close to nine times as many. Because
everything you see on the screen is made up of pixels, the more pixels you crowd into each square
inch of the screen, the denser — and thus the less choppy — the image. The smoothness of images
and fonts depends entirely on the density of the pixels, so a higher resolution means a smoother-
looking desktop.
To see this difference at work, take a look at Figures 15-8, 15-9, and 15-10. All show the same
browser window. They differ, however, in the amount of information available to the user. Figure
15-8, with its resolution of 800 × 600, demonstrates a fully serviceable window. But if you like to
work with numerous programs at the same time, say with multiple windows of a single program or
with programs that function best with multiple interface elements open, a larger monitor with a
higher resolution answers those needs.

Figure 15-8: A window at 800 × 600 resolution.

Clearly, the screen in Figure 15-10 offers considerably more room than the other two screens. It also
provides more information at a glance — that is, without the need for moving the windows or
scrolling them — than any of the others.
248 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 15-9: The same window at 1024 × 768 resolution (more stuff but smaller).

So, why not always choose a high resolution? Well, for several reasons:

In many cases, it’s harder to read text at higher resolutions. A high resolution on a small
monitor means small fonts in documents, in menus, and throughout all interface elements.
Even on a larger monitor, lower resolutions can be much easier on the eyes than higher
resolutions.
The quality of your monitor helps determine the suitability of resolutions: some monitors
are simply made better than others.
Higher resolutions take more processing power to render, so lesser-powered PCs and
graphics cards will slow down when set to these resolutions. In some cases, a higher-
resolution desktop can even look like it’s flickering.

Only by trial and error can you determine which resolution is correct for your system and your
personal preferences. However, when you first install Windows XP, the operating system chooses the
best resolution for your hardware, a choice you can later change via Display Properties.
 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 249

Figure 15-10: The window at 1600 × 1200 resolution.

Follow these steps to change your screen resolution:

1. Open the Control Panel and double-click the Display Properties icon.
2. Click the Settings tab. Notice that this system has two monitors that can be configured
differently.
3. In the area labeled Screen Resolution, move the slider toward the right for a higher resolu-
tion or to the left for a lower resolution. As you move, watch the resolution measurement
below the slider, and watch the view area (the monitor) in the space above. The view area
gives you an idea of how the resolution affects the size and position of the Display
Properties dialog box.
4. Before clicking OK to set the new resolution, click the Advanced button to set the behavior
of XP whenever you change the resolution or color settings. In the compatibility area,
choose one of the three options:
a. Restart the computer before applying the new settings
250 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

b. Apply the new settings without restarting

c. Ask me before applying the new settings
In most cases, the second option (b) works just fine. If you experience problems when
changing resolutions or colors, which typically occurs only with older programs, choose
option (c), which presents you with the dialog box shown in Figure 15-11 every time you
alter these settings. Only if you really enjoy waiting for XP to restart should you choose the
first option.

Figure 15-11: You can check the Don’t Ask

This Question Again check box to tell XP to
revert to option (b) in the Compatibility area
of the main dialog box.

5. Click OK until you exit the Display Properties dialog, at which point the XP desktop
changes to your chosen resolution.

CHANGING COLOR QUALITY

The term color quality, as it appears on the Settings tab of XP’s Display Properties dialog box, is
something of a misnomer. Color quantity would be more accurate, given that the term refers to the
number of colors XP has available for its displays. The greater the number of colors, the richer the
display (the richness is where the term color quality comes in). Just as with screen resolution, how-
ever, the higher the color quality, the slower the rendering. That said, pretty much all recently pur-
chased PCs sport a powerful enough graphics card to support the highest color setting easily, so
you’ll find few reasons not to choose this setting. Then again, unless you work extensively with high-
quality graphics, such as photographs, you’ll find very little visual difference between the 24-bit
color and 32-bit settings. Do some experimenting to determine which works best for you.
To change the number of colors on your display, double-click the Display icon in the Control
Panel and click the Settings tab on the resulting Display Properties dialog box. In the Color Quality
area, choose your preferred setting from the drop-down menu. Depending on your PC’s video sub-
system (graphics card and monitor), you might have two, three, or even four choices. The setting
labeled Medium (16 bit) enables your PC to display roughly 65,000 colors, while High (32 bit) gives
you over 16 million and Highest over 4 billion. Depending on your system, you might also have set-
tings for 256 colors, once considered the standard for PC displays and still very often the quality of
images on the Web, and maybe down as far as 16 colors. If you set your PC to 256 colors or lower,
 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 251

you’ll definitely notice a visual difference on graphics-rich programs, and even on the basic XP dis-
play. Photographs at 256 colors appear blotchy and at 16 colors downright ugly.
One more recommended change in this area, especially if the monitor seems to bother your eyes:
from the Display Properties Settings tab, click the Advanced button; then choose the Monitor tab.
The choice for Screen refresh rate may already be correct. However, some users find increasing the
refresh rate above 60 hertz better for their eyes (be sure the Hide modes box is checked).

CHANGING RESOLUTION AND COLOR SETTINGS TEMPORARILY

The screen resolution and color quality setting on the Settings tab of Display Properties applies to
your entire XP environment: the desktop and all programs. You can, however, set an individual pro-
gram to run at low color quality and low resolution by adjusting the Compatibility settings on its
Properties dialog box. You might need to do so in the case of some older programs (especially games
and graphics or other multimedia programs) or to test designs — particularly for the Web — to see
what your visitors will experience if they use systems set to those settings.
To change the settings of a program, locate the icon that launches that program. You can use an icon
on the Desktop, the Taskbar, the Start menu, the All Programs list, or in My Computer or Windows
Explorer in the folder where the program’s files reside.

1. Right-click the program’s icon.

2. On the resulting Properties dialog box, click the Compatibility tab.
3. In the Display Settings area, check one or both of the options Run in 256 colors and Run
in 640 × 480 screen resolution. Figure 15-12 shows these settings selected.

Figure 15-12: Choosing compatibility options.

252 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

4. Click OK.
5. Launch the program.

When the program starts, XP changes to the color and/or resolution setting you’ve specified. It
retains these settings until you exit the program.
Note that running the program sets the entire XP environment to those temporary specifications,
not just the program itself. If you need to work with two programs with different specifications, you
need to close and reopen the reset program as often as necessary. Still, this feature can come in
extremely handy and tends to be much more convenient than readjusting the entire display.

Tip
If you want to isolate the program even further from all others, check the third option under Display Settings
to disable the visual themes you’ve configured or selected, including changes to menu text, window borders,
and so on. This change, too, lasts only until you close the program.

Setting Up Your Favorite Fonts

Like everything else on the XP interface, Microsoft has optimized the fonts to appeal to the widest pos-
sible audience. Less apparent, however, is the ability to customize the font choices throughout the
interface, beginning with desktop icons and running through the menu bars, window titles, warning
boxes, and other messaging subsystems. Not only that, you can also tailor the font colors and decora-
tions, to the degree that you can render the interface as effective and appealing as you wish.
Your control center for customizing fonts is the Appearance tab on the Display Properties dialog
box. Once there, you can perform a global font change by choosing one of the options from the Font
size drop-down menu. The choices are Normal, Large Fonts, and Extra Large Fonts. In this global
scheme, Normal means 8 point (or 10 point for window titles), Large means 10 point (14 point for
window titles), and Extra Large means 12 point (17 point for window titles). These increases occur
as soon as you click Apply or OK, affecting every font occurrence in the XP interface. The fonts in
the display pane reflect the changes you make. You may find Large or Extra Large more useful after
you increase screen resolution (see the earlier section).
Much of the time, however, you’ll want finer control over your fonts and their sizes. To exercise
that control, click the Advanced button on the Appearance tab, revealing the Advanced Appearance
dialog shown in Figure 15-13. The trick to using this dialog box is to pay attention to the display
pane, which changes to reflect the alterations you make to each interface component. Ultimately, you
have to click OK to accept all the changes and to see what your customized desktop actually looks
like, but while you design it, the display pane helps considerably.
To change fonts, open the drop-down menu by clicking the down arrow, choose the item whose
font you want to change, and make the changes. For example, to change the font of the icon labels
on the desktop, choose Icon from the menu and choose the font name and its size along the bottom
row of menus on the dialog box (see Figure 15-13). On installation, XP sets the icon font to 8 point
 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 253

Tahoma, but you can change it to any font installed in the Fonts folder of the operating system and
any size your system accepts. You can also bold or italicize the font by clicking the appropriate but-
ton beside the icon size menu.

Figure 15-13: The Advanced Appearance

dialog box.

Tip
You can change the size of the icon itself from this dialog box by choosing from the Size drop-down menu
immediately beside the Item menu.

You can choose individual fonts and sizes for the following interface elements:

Active Title Bar: The title of the currently selected window as displayed along the top of
that window.
Icon: The text label of icons on the desktop and in the My Computer and Windows
Explorer folders.
Inactive Title Bar: The titles of all windows except the currently selected window as dis-
played along the top of those windows.
Menu: The text on all menus, including the menus of all programs.
Message Box: The text included in a box containing a system message, including dialog
boxes and warnings.
254 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Palette Title: The title of the small program-specific windows/toolbars known as palettes.
Selected Items: You can assign a separate font and size to the currently selected item in a
list, giving it an even greater distinction from the remaining members of the list.
ToolTip: The explanatory text that appears when you hover the pointer over a button or
icon. Many people appreciate being able to increase the size of this text (or change the font
and color). Unfortunately, we can’t increase the time it lingers on-screen.

Caution
While changing fonts and sizes tailors the appearance of the interface elements however you want them, you
can easily create a fairly ugly-looking system. More important, you can create an interface in which some ele-
ments actually work against other elements. Start by changing one or two of the more obvious fonts — Icon and
Menu, for example — and progress to a completely customized look.

Making Other Interface Adjustments from

the Advanced Appearance Dialog Box
You can do much more with the Advanced Appearance dialog box than simply adjust fonts. The
sizes and colors of the various interface elements are also at your disposal. For example, you can
resize the scrollbars and change the spacing between the icons on the desktop, once again altering
your display and the interface with it. Here are the remaining elements adjustable via this dialog box.
To choose the size of the item, click the arrows of the Size menu to the right of the Item menu. To
choose the color, click the down arrow and choose the color you want.

3D Objects: The size of 3-D objects in the interface.

Active Title Bar: The thickness and color of the strip, along the top of the active window,
which contains the title of the active window.
Active Window Border: The thickness and color of the border surrounding the currently
selected window.
Application Background: The background color of the windows belonging to your pro-
grams. For example, in a Word document, adjusting this color changes the color of the
window into which you type the text.

Note
Be careful not to choose a background of precisely the same color as the text, or you won’t be able to see
what you type.
 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 255

Caption Buttons: The size of the buttons in the title bar of the window that allow you to
minimize, maximize, and close the window.
Desktop: The color of the desktop itself. Background images reside atop the desktop itself.
If you use a background image that fills the whole screen, the only way to see the desktop
color is to shrink the background image (try the Center option) or remove it by choosing
None on the Backgrounds list.
Icon: The size of the icon on the desktop and in XP’s folders.
Icon Spacing (Horizontal): The horizontal spacing between the icons on the desktop and
in XP’s folders. Increasing the size sets the icons at a further width apart from one another;
decreasing the size brings them closer together.
Icon Spacing (Vertical): The vertical distance between the icons on the desktop and in
XP’s folders. Increasing this size moves the icons further apart from each other upward and
downward; decreasing the size brings them closer together.

Note
The closer you move the icons to one another, the greater the chance of abbreviating the icon labels. Moving
them further apart results in your being able to read more or all of the icon labels.

Inactive Title Bar: The thickness and color of the strip along the top of all windows not
currently selected.
Inactive Window Border: The thickness and color of the border surrounding all windows
not currently selected.
Menu: The thickness and color of the bar that acts as a background for the menus at the
top of each window, immediately below the title bar.
Scrollbar: The width of the scrollbar at the right of each window.
Selected Items: The thickness and color of the bar that acts as a background for the cur-
rently selected item in a menu list.
ToolTip: The color of the ToolTips, which appear when you hover the pointer over an
icon or button.
Color: The color of the window itself.

Why change these elements? The reasons, as always, are personal preference and — more
important — usability. You might prefer a wider scrollbar, for example, if you typically have trouble
positioning the pointer inside the scrollbar; you might prefer a narrower one if you decrease the screen
resolution and no longer need the scrollbar’s full width. The same holds true of menus: Increasing the
size of the strip in which the menus reside can help with pointer positioning. Then, too, you might
simply want a different interface experience from time to time.
256 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Saving Your Interface Adjustments as a Theme

Once you’ve finished adjusting the interface elements, you can save them as a group in order to
restore them whenever you wish. Each such collection of interface elements is called a theme. To save
your current selections, click the Themes tab on the Display Properties dialog box, and click the Save
As button beside the Theme drop-down menu. By default, XP targets the My Documents folder as
your save location. Give your theme a name, and click Save to store it on your hard drive.
Once you’ve saved a theme, you can recall it by returning to the Themes tab of the Display
Properties dialog box and then choosing it in the Theme drop-down menu. Because XP looks only in
its system folders and the My Documents folder (for each user), you should always store your
themes in My Documents. XP does not provide a way to browse for a theme.

Tip
You can use themes extremely effectively to build a collection of situational interfaces. If your organization
demands that you create presentations using a particular desktop color, along with specific font sizes and col-
ors for specific elements, you could create such a theme and then store it as a theme called Presentations. You
might create another theme for the most effective use with a newsletter you regularly edit and another for
working on spreadsheets and reports. By creating and storing three separate themes, you can recall the
themes without the need to make individual adjustments each time.

Be Kind to Your Eyes: ClearType

Out of the box, set to a reasonably high resolution (at least 1024 × 768 but perhaps even higher) and
Medium, High, or Highest color quality, Windows XP looks good. It gives you rich colors, smooth
edges to its graphics, easy-to-read menus, and more. But XP contains a built-in feature called ClearType
that makes fonts look even better. Designed specifically for laptop computers and LCD monitors, in
general ClearType makes every bit as much difference to PCs with CRT desktop monitors. Essentially,
ClearType fills in the gaps between the pixels of text characters, resulting in a much smoother display
for typed documents and Web pages.
Figures 15-14 and 15-15 demonstrate the marked difference between a normal display and a
ClearType-enabled display. The fonts on the normal display (see Figure 15-14) look choppy, almost
spindly, when compared with the ClearType-enabled version (Figure 15-15). Look closely at the differ-
ence between the capital C and the lowercase y in the two examples; Figure 15-14 looks more jagged.
On an LCD display, particularly for laptop computers, ClearType makes an even greater difference.
Generally speaking, however, ClearType enhances usability — through increased readability — to an
extremely significant extent.

Figure 15-14: This text lacks the smoothness of ClearType.

 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 257

Figure 15-15: ClearType fills in the gaps between pixels, resulting in a display that looks much closer to the
quality of print.

For reasons probably having to do with Microsoft’s seeming paranoia about making changes that
might not work on older PCs, ClearType is turned off by default when you install XP. Having it turned
off is the safe thing to do, of course, because the non-ClearType display has proven its compatibility and
usefulness over the years. But ClearType provides such an improved text display that the interface
should at least offer to switch to it for you, both when you launch XP for the first time and then peri-
odically as you work in the XP environment. As it stands, many people don’t even know the option
exists, when it could significantly assist them. XP confounds the issue even further by making the
option somewhat difficult to find.
To turn on ClearType, double-click the Display icon in Control Panel. Next, click the Appearance
tab. Once there, click the Effects button. In the drop-down list under the option Use the Following
Method to Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts, choose ClearType. Click OK until Display Properties closes.
XP immediately changes your display to reflect the ClearType technology.

Getting Rid of Desktop Clutter

Like real-world desktops, XP desktops tend to gather clutter. No question, you use many of the items,
but others often have a barely remembered (or no longer relevant) purpose. And also as with real-world
desktops, you can improve the functionality of your XP Desktop by occasionally cleaning it up.
First, you can delete any icon from the desktop by right-clicking it and choosing Delete or by
highlighting the icon with your cursor and either pressing the Delete key or dragging the icon over
the Recycle Bin icon and dropping it in.

Note
All of these options place the icon in the Recycle Bin, where it is available for recall if you later change your
mind. That is, until you empty the Recycle Bin or the system does it for you. Be aware that if the icon is a
shortcut (which runs a program installed elsewhere), deleting that shortcut does not uninstall that program.

Getting an Icon-Free Desktop

The most dramatic way to rid yourself of desktop clutter is to get rid of not just a few of the icons,
but all of them. Early in the development of Windows XP, in fact, Microsoft seemed to want all of us
to do precisely that, focusing attention instead on the revamped Start menu. But as with so many
innovations over the history of Windows, the company made the empty desktop an option instead
of a default. But the option remains in place, and many users find that hiding the desktop icons pro-
vides a cleaner desktop.
258 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

To change to an icon-free desktop, right-click an empty area of the desktop, choose the Arrange
Icons By command, and uncheck Show Desktop Icons. The icons remain in place — the command
doesn’t delete them — but you can no longer see them.

Tip
XP provides ways to use your desktop icons even if you’ve opted not to show them on the desktop. Open
Windows Explorer (Winlogo+E) and the Desktop is at the top of the folder list on the left. You can also right-
click an empty area of the Taskbar and choose Toolbars ➝ Desktop. This action places a Desktop button on
the Taskbar, with a clickable arrow as part of that button. Click on the arrow to see the Desktop icons arrayed
in a list. Choosing any one of these icons opens the program or file associated with the icon.

Arranging Your Icons for Easier Viewing

The Arrange Icons By command offers several other organizational possibilities for your desktop
icons. The easiest choice is Auto Arrange, which allows XP to organize the icons according to its built-
in programming. In fact, Auto Arrange does little more than snap the icons into line according to a
vertical and horizontal grid (think of it as a table or spreadsheet), filling in any empty spaces (cells) by
moving icons into those spaces. If you turn off Auto Arrange, you can still snap the icons to this grid
by choosing Align to Grid, but unlike Auto Arrange this command does not automatically fill in the
empty spaces.
Whether or not you use the Auto Arrange or Align to Grid commands, you can organize your icons
further by choosing the Name, Size, Type, or Modified options:

Name: Organizes the icons alphabetically (in descending order only) according to their
names. If you have folder icons on the desktop, XP places these first, also organized
according to their names.
Size: Organizes the icons according to the size of the files they represent. This feature can
be useful, to cite just one example, if you want to sort graphics or video files by size in
order to determine which ones are suitable for including in email or posting to a Web site.
Type: Organizes the icons alphabetically according to the file extension portion of the name
of the files they represent. All program files sort under .exe (nearly all program files in
Windows bear an .exe filename extension), while icons for Web pages are typically sorted
under the extensions .htm, .html, or .asp. Multimedia files are sorted according to the exten-
sions as well, not according to the multimedia categories we would normally recognize.
XP doesn’t sort the icons into graphics files and video files, for example, but rather accord-
ing to their file extensions: .bmp, .gif, and .jpeg (graphics files) are interspersed with .au,
.mp3, .mid, and .wav (audio files) and .avi, .mpeg, and .mov (video).
Modified: Organizes the icons according to the most recent modification date. Use this
option if you want to determine which file you changed most recently, particularly in the
case of similarly named files.
 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 259

Organizing Icons into Desktop Folders

One of the most useful organizational exercises for the desktop is to create folders for the various cat-
egories of programs and data files and move the icons into these folders. If you wish, you can take
this a step further, creating folders within folders for further organization. For example, you could
name a folder Client Presentations and create a folder for each client — or for each of your products
or services — within that folder.
The trick to successful folder organization, indeed, is making the folders meaningful for the tasks
you perform. If you organize your work according to clients, then create folders with your clients’
names. If you organize your work according to days and months, create folders for the months and
subfolders inside those folders for each week. If you work according to the project type, create fold-
ers with names such as Word Processing Documents, Spreadsheets, and so on. Think about the way
you work and organize accordingly.
The reason you have to do this kind of thinking yourself is that XP doesn’t do it for you. XP doesn’t
organize its desktop icons according to any useful system, and only a few elements of the interface
make any such attempt. The Control Panel offers a category view, intended as a help for newcomers
(but with many users never having accepted the change), and the new Start menu does a very useful
job of organizing the various Windows functions. Windows XP also does a creditable job of organizing
the programs you install with the operating system, into the Start menu folders such as Accessories,
Administrative Tools, and Games (to use three examples). But, for the most part, Windows XP assumes
that you want to work with programs rather than tasks, and it’s up to you to provide whatever organi-
zation you need.
Note that most of what appears on the Desktop is also stored in a folder: c:\Documents and
Settings\your user id\desktop.

Changing Your Display with

Your Graphics Card’s Tools
The Display Properties dialog box provides a comprehensive means of customizing your display. But
many graphics cards, whether included with your system or purchased later, offer software that
makes some of the alterations easier and quite possibly offers additional enhancements. Typically,
graphics card manufacturers place their customization features in three locations in the XP interface:
the System Tray, the Display Properties dialog box, and the Control Panel.
The System Tray resides at the far right of the Taskbar in the bottom-right corner of the display
(unless, of course, you move the Taskbar itself), and it consists of one or more small icons that allow
fast access to the program the icon represents, or at least some portion of the program (such as its
Preferences or Properties dialog boxes).
In the case of graphics cards, you can usually right-click the icon on the System Tray and choose
from a list of screen resolution and color quality settings. This feature eliminates the need to open
the Settings area of the Display Properties dialog box, thereby reflecting the purpose of the System
Tray itself, which exists solely for ease of access to important controls.
260 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Tip
The System Tray is a great idea, and for purposes such as quick adjustment of display settings it works
superbly. But far too many programs consider themselves more important than they should, placing an icon
on the System Tray when you install them. Some even insist on drawing attention to themselves by flashing
little messages to you throughout your work session. Make your System Tray effective by getting rid of any
icons you don’t regularly use. To do so, open the Preferences or Options dialog box in the associated pro-
gram and locate the command or setting to stop the System Tray icon from appearing.

In the Display Properties dialog box, graphics card enhancements appear as part of the features of
the Settings tab. Open Display Properties, click the Settings tab, and then click the Advanced tab. The
graphics card’s installation process adds more tabs to the top of the Advanced dialog box, reflecting the
features of that particular card. Figure 15-16 shows the Advanced dialog box for an ATI 8500DV card.
As you can see, the dialog box offers numerous tabs, each of which offers a display from which you can
change a variety of settings (such as the choice of Open3D or OpenGL as shown).

Figure 15-16: Some of the ATI display options.

 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 261

Other popular graphics cards provide different configuration options. As one example, the NVIDIA
series of cards, most popular for their GeForce name, offers tabs such as 3Deep and GeForce4 Ti 4200
(the name depending on the actual card in use). 3Deep refers to a feature included with NVIDIA cards
that displays 3-D games with accurate lighting and shading. The GeForce Ti 4200 tab provides a menu
with numerous subwindows, all accessible from the same area of the Display Properties dialog box. The
bulleted list that follows highlights a number of these options in order to demonstrate the wealth of
customization options available through a well-developed graphics card. NVIDIA’s primary competitor
in the graphics card industry.

Tip
As with any dialog box, you can get help with the contents of these windows by clicking the question mark
icon beside the exit icon at the top right of the dialog box and then clicking the item you want to know some-
thing about. Or, you can click the right mouse button over the item and choose What’s This? Well-con-
structed dialog boxes offer such help for all items that appear in the dialog box.

The NVIDIA configuration options are:

Technical Details: You might very well find the technical details uninteresting, but they
can be of significant use if you’re troubleshooting your system with Technical Support
representatives.
Multiple Monitors: If you attach more than one monitor to your system, you can adjust
the way the configuration works. This feature is important for NVIDIA cards because the
majority of them have built-in dual display capabilities, with two monitor ports on the card.
Image Smoothing: In this window you can choose between displaying your images at the
highest possible quality or, at the other extreme, at the highest possible speed. The other
two sliders, Antialiasing and Anistropic Filtering, provide additional smoothing effects
for images. In each case, the higher the setting, the higher the quality but the slower the
performance.
DVD and Video Adjustments: The Video window lets you configure how your graphics
card plays DVD and other video. If you have more than one monitor, you can choose
which monitor will actually display the video. Numerous other video settings are available
here as well.
Media Center and Desktop Manager: The Desktop Utilities subwindow lets you display
the icon for the NVIDIA Media Center on the System Tray for easy access to all the sub-
menus of the Display Properties dialog box. You can also enable the Desktop Manager
from here, enabling virtual desktops.
Display Rotation: The NVRotate area lets you rotate your screen 90 degrees in either
direction. While this is useful only for monitors that support rotation, you can give your-
self or your colleagues an experience not quickly forgotten by rotating the display and
figuring out how to deal with it.
262 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Other NVIDIA-specific controls let you configure the display settings when running programs that
use Direct3D or OpenGL. These technologies enhance three-dimensionality in displays, but often
they require tweaking in order to function at their best with a specific graphics card and monitor.
Often the program itself performs best with specific settings, and this subwindow lets you establish
those settings.
Many graphics cards install a further set of interface enhancements on the Control Panel. Both ATI
and NVIDIA, the two most popular manufacturers, provide such features. As an example, NVIDIA
installs an icon called NVIDIA nView Desktop Manager in the Control Panel, and double-clicking it
opens the nView Desktop Manager dialog box. Each of the 10 tabs on the resulting dialog box con-
tains a range of features for customizing the XP interface, and taken together — even without the rest
of the customizability discussed throughout this chapter — the features represent enormous interface
possibilities. For example, under the Effects tab of the nVidia Desktop Manager dialog box, you can
change the XP interface so that you activate windows by simply moving the pointer over them, by
making windows transparent when you drag them, and much more.
The list that follows, outlines a few of the most dramatic interface enhancements available through
the nVidia Desktop Manager. Naturally, depending on your hardware, your mileage is likely to vary.

Collapsible windows: A button on the title bar of all windows makes it possible to col-
lapse that window to show only the title bar on the screen.
Virtual desktops: You can establish up to nine virtual desktops, including the ability to
allow programs to run on all desktops or only a single one. Each desktop can have its own
background image.
Shell extensions: You can add a Windows Explorer and My Computer shell extension
that lets you switch among desktops and drag windows from one desktop to another.
Transparent windows when dragging: You can make the window transparent (to the
degree you specify) when you drag it, so that you can see the other windows and accu-
rately place the one you’re dragging.
Transparent Taskbar: Having a transparent Taskbar eliminates the need to hide it if you
want to expand your applications to cover the full length of the screen.
Window colors: Assign a different color to the title bar of each application and its associ-
ated windows for easy identification.
Hot keys: Assign keystroke combinations to actions ranging from locating the cursor
(useful on desktops) to switching desktops and making windows transparent.
Dialog box positioning: On multiple monitor setups, you can center each dialog box on
the monitor its application occupies.

Every one of these features — and the dialog box offers lots more — changes the Windows XP user
interface. Practice by using them one at a time to get used to them, because they really do make a
substantial difference in how you interact with your desktop and your applications.
 Chapter 15: Giving Windows a Facelift 263

Summary
With your color, font, and resolution adjustments taken care of, and your icons organized in folders to
help you find your way to the resources you need, you’re well on your way to a personally tailored
Windows XP interface. In Chapter 16, you work with two essential interface elements, the Taskbar and
the Start menu, to move your customization along even further. Chapter 17 takes you into the Control
Panel to perform still more adjustments, while Chapter 18 outlines the remaining major methods for
tailoring the interface: the Accessibility Options and TweakUI. Get through all four chapters, and your
Windows XP interface will never again look like the one straight out of the box.
Chapter 16

Taking Control of
Your Start Menu,
Taskbar, and Folders

F or some people, the icons on the desktop serve as the primary interface for Windows XP. But
for the majority, the main interface consists of two elements that, unlike the desktop (which
gets buried under the open windows), can always remain in full view: the Start menu and the
Taskbar. The Taskbar runs along the bottom of the screen (although you can move it elsewhere) and
contains any number of clickable objects, providing an instant overview of what you’re doing and
what you might wish to do. The Start menu, accessible by simply clicking the Start button at the left of
the Taskbar, gives you access to everything else. Together, these two features give you access to almost
anything you wish to do.
This chapter details the numerous options available for configuring the Taskbar and Start menu.
By the time you’ve explored these options and tried out a number of them on your system, you’ll
have the Taskbar and Start menu set up precisely as you need them.

Starting, Not Stalling: Building

a Better Start Menu
The Start button is well named: It provides a starting point for everything you do with Windows XP.
Clicking it opens a collection of items that are collectively called the Start menu, and you can cus-
tomize this menu to include whatever you wish. To make the interface truly your own, you should
add what you need and delete what you don’t.
The Start menu has fronted the Windows OS since its initial appearance in Windows 95, but with
Windows XP, Microsoft has given it a new design. Larger and more inclusive than before, it functions
more as a second desktop than as a menu, with several functions formerly on the desktop now avail-
able as part of a two-column display. In fact, you can think of the Start menu and the Taskbar as pro-
viding, together, a replacement for the desktop, and you can see this possibility at work if you hide
the icons on the desktop. In such a case, the Start menu acts as a pop-up desktop and the Taskbar
acts as a constantly available reference point.
265
266 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

NOTE
Over the years, Microsoft has gained a reputation as an implementer rather than an innovator of technology.
Put another way, they do really well at taking concepts that are already out there and tailoring them to their
own products. The graphical desktop, for example, saw its origins with Xerox PARC and its first popularity on
Apple’s Macintosh (although Commodore’s Amiga computer had a color GUI before the Macintosh adopted
one), but it has achieved its greatest success — from the standpoint of sheer numbers of users — on the var-
ious versions of Microsoft Windows.
With Windows 95, however, Microsoft might well have contributed the one interface element that will
define its legacy. The Start button seems innocuous enough, but when you consider how it has fundamen-
tally changed the way users access their computers’ capabilities, you can see that adding this button to the
interface was indeed an important moment of innovation. Its implementation remains imperfect, but the con-
cept is dead on. Computers are complex, and without a clear and obvious place to start, most people will
never realize what they can accomplish. So tip a glass to the Start button, and hope that Microsoft makes
even one other usability contribution as strong as this one in the future.

What’s in the Start Menu

Clicking the Start button reveals the Start menu (see Figure 16-1). The Start menu consists of three
separate areas. The first two, the Pinned Items List and the Most Frequently Used Programs List
(hereafter, MFU List), occupy the left half of the menu, with the Pinned List above the separator line
and the MFU List below. These areas contain shortcuts that you place in them yourself or that your
recent actions place in them. The right side of the Start menu, which we’ll call the System Area, is
made up of links to important folders within the Windows XP system.
When first installed, Windows populates the Pinned Items List and the System Area with items
deemed (by Microsoft) the most useful to the largest number of users. The Pinned Items List includes
a shortcut to the Internet Explorer browser and to the Outlook Express email program. If you install
Microsoft Office, however, the more fully featured Outlook replaces Outlook Express. The System Area
contains shortcuts to the following folders, most of which are stored under c:\Documents and
Settings\username\ (including the Start Menu itself):

My Documents: The default folder into which Windows expects you to save your data
files. Each user account has its own individual My Documents folder. Note this folder’s
specific location is c:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents.
My Recent Documents: A list of links to the 15 documents you’ve most recently worked
on. You can’t customize how Windows establishes this list, so it’s a bit limited in useful-
ness. Try pressing Winlogo+R (more about this in a second), and typing the word recent
in the Run box (then press Enter) to open a window on c:\Documents and Settings\
username\Recent, where you’ll find many more shortcuts to recently opened documents.
Try sorting these by date (newest at the top) and View, Details or Thumbnails. Leave this
window open when you shutdown, and it will be there when you start up as a quick way
back to these documents (some will see this as a privacy concern).
 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 267

Figure 16-1: Windows XP’s multipart Start menu.

My Pictures: The folder inside My Documents that contains image files. Windows XP
populates this folder with a few pictures by default, and many graphics programs are
configured to use it as the default folder for storing new images.
My Music: The folder inside My Documents that contains music files. Some programs,
including the new Napster 2.0, use the My Music folder by default.
My Computer: A link to the folder called My Computer, from which you can navigate
through all the drives and folders on your system. Clicking the My Computer icon opens
the folder where you can begin navigating among your drives. Right-clicking a drive
reveals several important options, including Explore, which opens Windows Explorer,
and Properties, which opens the System Properties dialog box.
My Network Places: The folder containing icons for computers and folders on your local
area network as well as Web sites on which you’ve recently published documents and FTP
sites to which you’ve recently connected.
Control Panel: The Windows XP Control Panel, from where you can control the behavior
of all aspects of Windows. You may use this often enough to want to try Winlogo+R, con-
trol to open it.
Set Program Access and Defaults: A link to the Set Program Access and Defaults utility,
allowing you to specify the Web browser, email client, and other Internet programs you
wish to use by default.
268 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Printers and Faxes: The Printers and Faxes folder, from which you can add and remove
printers and set up Windows faxing.
Help and Support: The Windows help interface.
Search: A link to the Search folder, from which you can locate files, folders, and other
resources on your system.
Run: A link to the Run dialog box (shown in Figure 16-2), from which you can open a
program or data file without locating the icon. This folder is especially useful for system
programs such as telnet, regedit, and msconfig. You can also open a command prompt
from here with cmd. Be sure to see what happens with each of the following (typed sepa-
rately): recent, sol, calc, and mailto: (that’s a colon right after mailto, no spaces); you’ll
learn others throughout the book. Run keeps a list of recently run commands, which can
be very useful when you want to repeat something (start typing and a list will appear, or
you can click to drop down a list). Convenient and, to some, a privacy concern.

Figure 16-2: Run programs directly from

the Run dialog box.

ADDING TO THE PINNED ITEMS LIST

As the name says, the Pinned Items List consists of items that remain in place; the items are pinned
there, if you will. You can add items to this list that you use regularly and remove those you use
rarely. This way, the list remains constantly useful, reflecting the activities you typically perform.

NOTE
Keeping the Pinned Items List at a manageable level accomplishes another useful purpose as well: if you
lower the screen resolution to 1024 x 768 or below, a heavily populated list will display only some of its items,
but all items will be displayed if you keep the list short.

To add an item to the Pinned Items List, right-click that item’s icon and select Pin to Start menu.
You can perform this action on any icon on the Desktop, in a Folder, or on the list of most frequently
used programs (the MFU List, discussed next). Once you pin an item to the Start menu, that item
will no longer appear in the MFU List, no matter how many times you open it. Nor is there any need
to place it in the MFU List, because you have ready access to it among the Pinned Items List.
 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 269

If you want to remove an icon from the Pinned Items List, right-click the icon and select Remove
From This List or Delete (doing so will not remove the related program). Once you’ve done so, the
item will begin to appear again on the MFU List as soon as you use it.

Tip
One good use of the Pinned Items List is placing programs that do not otherwise exist inside a folder on the
All Programs menu. For example, if you regularly make use of the Windows Registry Editor, you can make it
readily accessible by using Windows Explorer to navigate to your main Windows folder, right-clicking the file
called regedit.exe, and choosing Pin to Start menu. This technique is even more useful for older programs
(such as still useful shareware programs that don’t require installation) that you cannot simply load via the
Run menu (as you can regedit.exe) and that you must launch from within their folders.

CONTROLLING THE MFU LIST

You don’t have to do anything special to add a program to the MFU List. Windows XP does this all by
itself, adding programs you use as you use them. You can delete programs from the list whenever you
wish, however, by clicking Start, right-clicking the program’s icon, and choosing Remove from This
List. The program is still fully accessible from the All Programs menu; it simply no longer appears on
the MFU List.
To remove all the icons from the MFU List, open the Taskbar and Start menu Properties dialog box
either from the Control Panel or by right-clicking the Start button and selecting Properties. Click the
Start menu tab and then the Customize button, and, in the Programs area, click the Clear List button.
Beside the Clear List button is the Number of programs on Start menu option with the default
value of 6. This is the number of icons that appear on the MFU List, and you can change the number
to anything from 0 to 30. Choosing 0 essentially disables the MFU List, while choosing 30 makes the
list extremely long.
You can manually add programs to those the MFU List will not display. To do so, open the
Registry Editor by clicking Start, then Run (or Winlogo+R), and typing regedit in the Open box and
pressing Enter (or Return). Always be careful with regedit — you can make regrettable changes here.
Navigate to the registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications and then to the name of the file
that launches the program you do not wish to appear on the MFU List. Right-click in the Values pane
(the rightmost pane) of the dialog box and choose New ➝ String Value. Name the String Value
NoStartPage; then close the Registry Editor and restart your PC.

Caution
Working with the Registry Editor is always dangerous. Before changing anything in the registry, use the
System Restore dialog box to set a restore point for your PC and back up your registry itself before proceed-
ing. Indeed, you should avoid editing the registry unless you absolutely have to, but for some purposes it
proves the only useful way of performing the task.
270 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Why Some Often-Accessed Programs Don’t Appear On the MFU

Windows XP adds most programs to the MFU List when you open them more than once, but not all.
The goal is to give you quick and easy access to programs you use to get your work done, not to
programs that Windows uses itself or that provide information rather than help you with your tasks.
For this reason, Windows XP never adds the following programs to the list:
■ Installation programs such as setup.exe or install.exe
■ Uninstallation programs such as isuninst.exe, unwise.exe, unwise32.exe, St5unst.exe
■ System files and programs such as rundll32.exe, explorer.exe, sndvol32.exe, realmon.exe,
navwnt.exe, and so on
■ Any item with a shortcut name containing the following text strings:
■ Documentation
■ Help
■ Install
■ More Info
■ Readme (or Read Me or Read First)
■ Setup
■ Support
■ What’s new

Reverting to the Old Windows Start Menu

Much to Microsoft’s dismay, not everybody likes the Windows XP Start menu. Some users prefer the
Start menu they’ve been accustomed to while using Windows 2000, Windows Me, or Windows 9x.
If this describes you, no problem: You can revert to the earlier Start menu style by opening the
Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box from Control Panel, clicking the Start Menu tab, and
choosing the Classic Start Menu radio button. Click OK, and you’ve turned back the clock.

Cross-Reference
The Classic Start menu is covered in greater detail in Chapter 18.

Setting the Start Menu Options

In addition to the number of programs displayed in the MFU List, you can make several other changes
to the Start menu in order to tailor it to your needs. To make these changes, open the Taskbar and
Start Menu Properties dialog box by right-clicking the Start button and choosing Properties (or by
 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 271

double-clicking the relevant icon in Control Panel). Click the Start Menu tab and then the Customize
button. All options are accessible from the two tabs on this dialog box.

Setting General Options

Your first choice on the General tab is whether to display large or small icons. There’s nothing much
to this except that small icons can be extremely helpful when you either reduce the screen resolution
or increase the number of programs on the Start menu. In both cases, small icons let you see more of
the shortcuts on the menu.
Also on the General tab, you can decide whether to display your default Web browser and your
default email program. Check one or both boxes (or neither) to pin these icons immediately to the
menu. When you check a box, you activate the selection menu to the right, from which you can
choose which of the installed programs you want to display on the menu. Windows adds browsers
and email programs to the respective menus as you install them.

SETTING ADVANCED OPTIONS

The Advanced tab of the Customize Start Menu dialog box (see Figure 16-3) consists of two major
parts. The first contains settings for the Start menu and Recent Documents list. The second contains
a lengthy list called Start Menu Items. All options directly affect the Windows interface, and thus you
should consider each one carefully.

Figure 16-3: You can see more items in the middle

area by using the scrollbar.

Mouse Hovering and Recent Documents

You have two choices available in the Start Menu Settings section of the Advanced tab. You can tog-
gle them on or off by checking or unchecking their respective boxes. The Open Submenus When I
Pause On Them with My Mouse gives Windows XP a kind of automation. With this option checked,
each time you hover the pointer over an item that contains a submenu (as signified by a right arrow
272 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

beside the item), you open the submenu associated with that item. You can still click the item if you
wish; you just don’t have to.
To cite a primary example, if you don’t check this option, to see the All Programs menu, you have
to click the Start button and then click the All Programs item. With this option turned on, you can
click the Start button and simply hover on All Programs to summon the menu.

Tip
On desktop computers, enabling hover actions seems like a no-brainer. Why click twice, after all, when you
need only click once? But on notebooks that use a touchpad for a mouse pointer — that is, where you tap the
pad to activate the mouse click — you might very well prefer the feature off. Many users have difficulty with
the touchpad taps, especially when the touchpad software is set to respond extremely sensitively to the
touch of your finger. You can uncheck the Open Submenus option in cases like this.

If you spend significant gobs of your life installing and experimenting with new programs, the
Highlight Newly Installed Programs option will probably appeal to you. When this option is enabled,
Windows does the following:

Highlights (in yellow) the icon for that program’s folder on the All Programs menu.
Highlights (in yellow) the icon for the program itself inside its folder on the All Programs
menu, along with all other launchable elements of the program you have not yet opened.
Places a message on the Start menu alerting you to the fact that you have installed new
programs.

The highlighting and alert message last only until you actually launch the program from the All
Programs menu. Well, actually, they’re supposed to last only that long. Sometimes, however, the high-
lighting hangs around a bit longer, usually until you reboot your computer. Maybe some programs are
just newer than others. . . .
The Recent Documents section of the Advanced tab contains the check box to turn off XP’s listing
of documents you’ve recently opened (it lists them in the My Recent Documents item on the Start
menu). Alternatively, or additionally, you can clear the list of recent documents by clicking the Clear
List button. Why would you want to disable this list? Well, the list can actually be a security or pri-
vacy risk. If you’ve recently worked on a file you don’t want others to see, or if you’ve viewed files
you don’t want other people to know about, turn this feature off. Whether it’s viewing photos, lis-
tening to music, or working on sensitive financial spreadsheets, the My Recent Documents list dis-
plays your activities to anyone who has access to your account. Just remember that even when this is
unchecked, Windows is still storing shortcuts in c:\Documents and Settings\username\Recent.

Tailoring the Start Menu’s System Area

Inside the Start Menu Items pane of the Advanced tab are the items you can add or remove from the
System Area (the right side) of the Start menu. In some cases, you can also instruct XP how to display
these items.
 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 273

In addition, in one instance, Scroll Programs, you can specify how the entire All Programs folder
behaves. Why Microsoft placed this single behavior option inside this list is a complete mystery
because nothing else about the list works similarly, but we’re sure it seemed like a good idea to some-
one at some point in the development of the interface. Then again, one other option, Enable drag-
ging and dropping, controls your own behavior rather than the Start menu’s, so clearly this list is an
example of design by committee. Rather like the camel.
Several items offer a simple on or off check box, so you can toggle these items as you see fit:

Enable dragging and dropping: Allows you to drag and drop items around the Start
menu. Leave it on unless you want to ensure that you don’t accidentally move items with
your mouse. This option is on by default.
Favorites menu: Displays a shortcut to the Favorites Menu from My Computer and
Internet Explorer, with the submenu displaying the Favorites themselves. This option is
off by default.
Help and Support: Displays the link to the Help system. This option is on by default.
My Network Places: Displays a link to the My Network Places folder. This option is on by
default.
Printers and Faxes: Displays a link to the Printers and Faxes folder. This option is on by
default.
Run command: Shows a shortcut to the Run command, from which you can launch pro-
grams without having to locate their icons. Uncheck this command if you don’t want peo-
ple to have easy access to such programs as regedit, msconfig, sol, calc, and text-based
Internet programs such as telnet. This option is on by default. Note that even if you
remove Run from the Start Menu, Winlogo+R will still open the Run dialog box.
Scroll Programs: This somewhat confusing option lets you set up the All Programs menu
as a single scrollable column instead of the default multicolumn list. An arrow appears at
the bottom of the menu providing access to the remainder of the list. This option is off by
default, and it is best kept that way for most users.
Set Program Access and Defaults: Displays a link to the Set Program Access and Defaults
utility. This option is on by default thanks to Microsoft’s settlement of its antitrust trial with
the U.S. Department of Justice and is available only with Windows XP Service Pack 1 and
later.

Other items in the list — My Computer, My Documents, My Music, and My Pictures — provide a
set of three radio buttons, letting you decide how you want the items to behave when you add them
to the Start menu. You can choose from the following:

Display as a link: Provides a single item in the menu, with no associated submenu.
Display as a menu: Displays an arrow to the right of the item, providing access to a sub-
menu of items inside the item’s folder.
Don’t display this item: Keeps the item off the Start menu completely.
274 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

The final two Start menu items in the list offer their own unique options: You can display Network
Connections as a standard link or as a Connect to menu from which you can connect your PC to net-
work locations or Internet providers. You can also display System Administrative Tools as a folder on
the All Programs menu only, on both the All Programs menu and the Start menu, or not at all.

Taking Windows to Task: Building

a Better Taskbar
As you use Windows XP day after day, you’ll find the Taskbar a true workhorse. In fact, you should
get into the habit of looking at the Taskbar the same way you would the rear-view mirror in your car:
Make sure that everything’s there, take a look at anything new that appears, and respond quickly to
whatever demands your attention.
You can configure the Taskbar in two ways: using the Taskbar itself and via the Taskbar and Start
Menu dialog box.
Before you begin, however (and assuming that you’re working with a new Windows XP installa-
tion), you need to unlock the Taskbar. Otherwise, you won’t be able to configure it, and it will
remain in its not especially useful default state. To unlock it, right-click an empty area of the Taskbar
and uncheck the Lock the Taskbar option. You can lock it again later if you feel like it, once you have
everything in place, but to make changes right now you need it unlocked.

Moving the Taskbar

Although most users never use this feature, you can move the Taskbar from its default position at the
bottom of the screen. You can dock it (see the Note that follows) along the top, bottom, left, or right
borders of the screen. To move it from its default position, click the Taskbar in any blank area or on
the clock and drag it to the right, the left, or toward the top of the screen. The Taskbar snaps into
place at the location you’ve chosen.
Figure 16-4 shows the Taskbar positioned against the right side of the screen. Note the significant
differences from the look of the Taskbar in its standard position. Plan to take a few moments to get
used to working with the Taskbar in this location; some of the elements are no longer exactly where
you expect them.

NOTE
From this point onward, this book assumes that you will have the Taskbar in its default position. Any references
to manipulating the Taskbar, such as resizing it or reordering its toolbars, use the default position as the refer-
ence. If you position your Taskbar elsewhere, please make the necessary adjustments to the instructions. For
example, the “Resizing and Hiding the Taskbar” section a bit later in the chapter instructs you to drag upward to
increase the Taskbar’s size. If you dock the Taskbar at the top of the screen, you’ll have to drag downward; if you
dock it on the right side of the screen, you’ll drag to the left, and so on.
 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 275

Figure 16-4: The Taskbar when docked against the side of the screen.

TIP
Docking a toolbar means positioning it against another interface element so that it snaps against that ele-
ment. Most Windows programs offer toolbars you can move from position to position, docking them against
the top, bottom, left, or right sides. Usually, you can choose to float these toolbars instead. A floating toolbar
is detached from all other toolbars, and you can move it freely around the screen as you would any other
window. You cannot float the Taskbar, however. You must dock it against one of the four sides of the screen.

Manipulating the Taskbar

When XP is installed, only the Start button and the System Tray appear on the Taskbar. The Start but-
ton, located at the far left of the Taskbar, opens the Start menu, while the System Tray, at the far right,
holds the clock and a few other icons. As you install programs, both the Start menu and the System
Tray expand, and you can get along reasonably well working only with those two interface elements.
276 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Another part of the Taskbar expands as you work in Windows. When you open a program, the
icon for that program appears on the Taskbar, in the area between the Start button and the System
Tray called the Document Tray. With some programs, such as Microsoft Office XP and 2003, each
open document appears by default as a separate icon on the Document Tray. Clicking an icon in this
area minimizes the document’s window (or restores it if already minimized). Right-clicking an icon
opens a menu with options to Restore, Move, Size, Minimize, Maximize, or Close the document.

Resizing and Hiding the Taskbar

Once you open multiple programs, the Taskbar can start to get crowded. Icons automatically shrink
as you add more to the Taskbar, to the extent, in fact, that you can no longer read them. Obviously,
this pretty much defeats the purpose of the taskbar. This may be why some people move the Taskbar
to one side or the other of a large monitor.
Fortunately, you can increase the size of the Taskbar to give its icons more room to breathe. To do
so, move the pointer to the top of the Taskbar until it turns into a double-sided black arrow. Then
drag away from the edge of the screen. The Taskbar resizes in increments (see Figure 16-5), and you
can continue to increase the size until the Taskbar covers half the screen.

Figure 16-5: The Taskbar at triple its default size.

 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 277

Caution
In another example of questionable interface design, you can easily shrink the Windows XP Taskbar to a size
that’s too small to use or even see. If you can’t see your Taskbar, and if it doesn’t pop up when you move the
pointer to the bottom of the screen (as it would with the auto-hide feature turned on), then quite possibly
you’ve shrunk it to its minimum size. This is remarkably easy to do by accident, and remarkably confusing and
irritating when it happens the first time.
To undo the damage, move the pointer to the bottom of the screen until it turns into a double-sided, verti-
cally pointing arrow. Now drag the Taskbar upward until it comes back into view. Once you know about this
issue, it can actually become a useful tool, a method of temporarily hiding the Taskbar when you’re working
with large windows and you need another half-inch of screen real estate. But the first time it happens, it can
be debilitating, especially because we all depend so heavily on the Taskbar. Note to Microsoft: A ToolTip, a
periodic warning, or some other notification would prove extremely useful here.

Making the Taskbar Go Away

Of course, the more you enlarge the Taskbar, the less room you have on the desktop. Fortunately, XP
offers a solution to continually resizing the Taskbar to move it out of your way. Turning on auto-hide
tells the Taskbar to appear only when you move the pointer to the bottom of the screen, at which
point the Taskbar pops up at whatever size you’ve made it. When you move the mouse away from it,
the Taskbar hides itself once more, giving you back your entire screen.
To turn on auto-hide, right-click the Start button and choose Properties. Click the Taskbar tab,
and check the Auto-hide the taskbar option. Click OK, and click anywhere on the desktop to cause
the Taskbar to slide away.
When you combine an enlarged Taskbar with auto-hide, you create a truly new interface for your-
self. It becomes, in effect, a mini-desktop all its own, filled with icons and toolbars and yet visible only
when you want it to be.

Caution
Auto-hiding the Taskbar is an incredibly useful feature. Plaudits to Microsoft for including it. But brickbats to
Microsoft for countering its usefulness by forcing the Taskbar to become visible automatically at certain
times. When a program demands your attention — such as when a warning box is open — the Taskbar
unhides itself and highlights the program’s icon until you do what it’s demanding of you. This behavior is
extremely disruptive to your work and should never have seen the light of day. But it did, so be ready for it.

Adding More Toolbars to the Taskbar

The Taskbar has far more to offer than even these useful features. You can begin to see the possibilities
by right-clicking the Taskbar at a spot away from any icons, revealing the context menu. Depending on
278 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

where you click, the context menu offers you different options, but one constant option is the Toolbar’s
submenu, and this option can change the Taskbar greatly.
The Taskbar consists of the Start button, the System Tray, the Document Tray, and one or more
toolbars. The toolbars expand the functionality of the Taskbar, giving it an even more central role in
your customized interface. To add a toolbar, right-click the Taskbar (but not on the Start button),
away from any icons, and choose the Toolbars item. From the resulting submenu, choose the toolbar
you want to add. Figure 16-6 shows an enlarged Taskbar with all standard toolbars open.

Tip
If you can’t seem to find a clickable area of the Taskbar, right-click the clock or enlarge the Taskbar until you
see some empty space.

Figure 16-6: Using all the toolbars can make the Taskbar crowded.
 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 279

You can add any of the following toolbars:

Address: The Internet Explorer Address bar. This option lets you type Web addresses
(URLs) directly from the Taskbar. The first address you type opens an Internet Explorer
(IE) window; each subsequent address uses the same IE window, replacing the currently
loaded Web page. This Address bar is precisely the same as the one in IE, so it includes
addresses you’ve already visited; as long as you have the auto-fill feature turned on in IE,
the Address bar on the Taskbar presents you with the same auto-fill possibilities.
Language bar: The Language bar from Microsoft Office XP or 2003. This option appears
only if you have installed Office XP or 2003, and even then only if you’ve installed the
Speech elements of those programs. From this bar, you can activate speech commands and
the Handwriting and Drawing applications that are part of the Office suite.
Links: The Internet Explorer Links bar. This option replicates the Links toolbar on your
Internet Explorer browser. Because you can configure the Links bar to give you access to
frequently visited Web pages, displaying this toolbar on the Taskbar lets you access them
from here instead. As you add items to the Links bar in IE, or delete them, the Links bar
on the Taskbar changes to reflect these changes; the reverse holds true as well.

Tip
One benefit to adding the Address and Links toolbars to the Taskbar is that you can turn them off on IE itself,
giving you a larger window in IE for the Web page itself.

Desktop: The Desktop folder. Adding the Desktop folder to the Taskbar gives you easy
access to all your desktop icons. If you’ve chosen to hide your desktop icons, adding this
folder to the Taskbar effectively replaces what you’ve lost. The benefit to using this toolbar
over the Desktop itself is that the toolbar is readily accessible even when windows cover the
desktop. Compare this toolbar with Winlogo+R, desktop and Winlogo+E; each is different.

Tip
If you open the Desktop toolbar on the Taskbar, you can delete the Desktop icon from the Quick Launch bar.
Its entire purpose is to give you access to the icons on the desktop, so the toolbar renders it unnecessary.

Quick Launch: A collection of icons for programs you frequently use. The Quick Launch
bar should be the first you add to the Taskbar. In fact, Microsoft should have placed it on
the Taskbar by default. It really is that useful. When you first install XP, the Quick Launch
bar includes icons for Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and the desktop. You can
add icons to the Quick Launch bar by dragging their icons onto it, and you should do so
for any program you use frequently. Because the icons on the Quick Launch bar remain
visible at all times, they’re even more convenient than those on the Start menu; you need
280 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

click only once, not twice, to open the program. One program you should consider
adding to the Quick Launch bar immediately is Windows Explorer, the extremely useful
dual-pane file and folder utility. You can find it in All Programs ➝ Accessories. Or use
Winlogo+E anytime for Windows Explorer.

Tip
Many programs automatically add icons to the Quick Launch bar when you install them. You should monitor
Quick Launch regularly and delete any program on it that you don’t use regularly. Like the Pinned Item list on
the Start menu, the Quick Launch bar is far more useful when you keep it efficient, displaying only the items
to which you need ready access.

Tip
The Quick Launch bar gives you quick access to anything you need, not just programs. If you’re currently
working on a project with several data files, for example, you can create shortcuts on the Quick Launch bar
to each of those files so that you can open the file and its associated program with one click of the mouse.
When you’ve finished the project, delete the shortcuts and add new ones reflecting a new project. In other
words, you can use the Quick Launch bar as a primary interface on a day-to-day basis.

Configuration Options for Each Toolbar

When you right-click each toolbar, you see the context menu for that particular toolbar. Many context
menu elements are identical across the toolbars, but some are not. This list outlines the possibilities:

View: The View option contains a submenu that lets you choose between large icons and
small icons. By default, XP has small icons toggled on for all toolbars, but you can opt for
large icons if you wish. Keep in mind, however, that increasing the icon size also decreases
the number of icons visible on that toolbar as well as increasing the height of that toolbar
(and thereby reducing screen real estate). Big icons can be kinder to the eyes, though.
Open Folder: Each toolbar is actually an XP folder. This command opens the folder on the
desktop, where you can work with the icons, add others, and do anything else you can do
with a folder. The Desktop toolbar does not contain this option, even though it too is an
XP folder.
Show Text: With this option off, you see only the item’s icon. With it on, you see the icon
along with a text heading (a title, if you will) to the right of the icon. If you know what the
icons mean, you should turn text off, allowing you to display more icons. In the case of the
Links toolbar, however, turning text off may result in a group of identical Internet Explorer
icons, rendering the toolbar meaningless.
 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 281

Show Title: Choosing the Show Title option causes the toolbar to display a title at the left
side of the icon group. The Desktop toolbar displays the title Desktop, the Links toolbar
displays the title Links, and so on. Once again, if you can do without the title, as you’ll
probably be able to with the Quick Launch and Address toolbars, you save space by not
having it displayed. But the title can most certainly help, especially on a Taskbar with
numerous toolbars open, so in most cases you should probably keep it on.
Close Toolbar: This option removes the toolbar from the Taskbar. You can also close the
toolbar from the Toolbars option, covered in the next bullet.
Toolbars: The submenu for this option lets you open and close toolbars on the Taskbar.
Checked toolbars are open; unchecked ones are closed.
Cascade Windows: This option causes all open windows to cascade neatly from the top left
to the bottom right of the screen. Figure 16-7 shows the windows cascaded in this manner.
Tile Windows Horizontally: This option arranges all open windows adjacent to each
other across the screen. The tiled windows appear as narrow rectangles two rows across by
as many windows down as XP requires in order to fill the screen.

Figure 16-7: After the Cascade Windows command.

282 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Tile Windows Vertically: This option arranges all open windows adjacent to each other
down the screen. The tiled windows appear more or less as squares four rows across by as
many windows down as XP requires in order to fill the screen. Figure 16-8 shows the dif-
ference between horizontally and vertically tiled windows.

Tip
The more windows you have open, the less useful horizontal and vertical tiling becomes. These commands
are most useful when you want to compare windows that have similarities to one another — such as two
graphics files or two Web pages — or if you want to keep one or more windows on one side to use as refer-
ences for the window(s) on the other. You may find it useful to minimize or close those windows you don’t
want to tile before tiling. You can also click one Taskbar item and hold the Ctrl key down as you click others,
then right-click one of these to tile the group (or to close all the selected items at once).

Show the Desktop: This command temporarily minimizes all windows, letting you see
the desktop with its icons. Selecting it a second time restores the windows to their original
position. Show the Desktop works exactly the same as the Show Desktop icon on the
Quick Launch bar. You can execute the Show the Desktop command by using Winlogo+D;
repeat to restore the minimized windows.
Task Manager: This option opens the Windows Task Manager, with which you can close
programs and processes manually and get technical details about the current state of your
system.

Cross-Reference
For more on the Task Manager, see Chapter 6.

Lock the Taskbar: This command locks the Taskbar in place. To move it, you must
choose this option again to unlock it.
Properties: This option opens the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box.

CREATING NEW TOOLBARS

XP provides a number of useful toolbars out of the box, but you can create as many new ones as you
wish. Any folder can act as a toolbar, and placing it on the Taskbar gives it all the organizational and
navigational features of all other toolbars, including the creation of an access arrow if you shrink the
toolbar to the extent that it cannot display all the icons. These features make this method more use-
ful than creating a shortcut for the folder on the Quick Launch bar or the Start menu, where you
need to open the folder to access the items inside it.
 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 283

Figure 16-8: Notice the difference in appearance between horizontally tiled windows (top) and
vertically tiled windows (bottom).
284 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

To create a new folder, right-click the Taskbar, choose the Toolbars option, and click New Toolbar
at the bottom of the submenu. XP opens the New Toolbar dialog box, from which you can navigate
to the folder of your choice. Highlight the folder, and click OK to add it to the Taskbar.
When you create a toolbar, XP adds the name of that toolbar to the Toolbars submenu accessed by
right-clicking the Taskbar. The menu item, however, lasts only as long as you keep the toolbar open.
As soon as you close it, the Toolbars submenu reverts to its original state.

Tip
You can use the Toolbar creation mechanism to add an empty toolbar that you can populate later with related
items. For example, if you’re a musician, you might decide you need a toolbar containing all your audio-
editing programs and utilities so that you can access these programs without having to locate them in the All
Programs menu or their own folders. To create such a toolbar, open the New Toolbar dialog box, highlight a
location on your PC in which you want to create the associated folder, and click Make New Folder. Name the
folder whatever you want the toolbar to be called (“Recording Tools” in this example), and click OK. The new
toolbar appears on the Taskbar. To populate it with programs and other shortcuts, right-click the toolbar’s
name and select Open Folder. Drag any items you wish into the folder and close it. It now appears on the
Taskbar as a fully functioning toolbar. Or just try dragging and dropping any item onto any toolbar and drag-
ging those items to rearrange them.

REORGANIZING THE TASKBAR’S TOOLBARS

You can make the Taskbar even more effective for your specific uses by resizing and moving the var-
ious toolbars. Keep those you don’t readily need smaller and mostly out of sight, with those you use
constantly more visible and closer to one another. As with all of XP’s interface elements, you should
base the configuration on your way of doing things, not on XP’s default structuring and ordering.
The first way to reorganize the Taskbar is to move the toolbars where you want them. To do so,
click the title of any toolbar and drag that toolbar to the new location. From a usability standpoint,
this technique sounds easier than it actually is because moving the toolbars can get tricky fast.
Sliding one taskbar moves others as well, and you won’t necessarily end up with any of them pre-
cisely where you wanted them, at least not on the first try. Furthermore, when you lock the toolbar,
the slider grips disappear and the icons shift slightly, to the degree that you might no longer be able
to see one you want. Be prepared to experiment a few times before getting the organization correct.
The second organizational technique is changing the size of the toolbars. Grasp the left-hand bor-
ders of a toolbar (the borders look like small perforations), and slide the border left or right to
change the toolbar’s size. In doing so, you also increase or decrease the size of bordering toolbars, a
point to keep in mind as you make your adjustments. Enlarge a toolbar if you want more of its icons
visible on the Taskbar; shrink those for which the expansion arrow provides sufficient access.
Moving and resizing taskbars can be extremely effective when you’ve increased the Taskbar
beyond its default one-row size. With two or more rows to work with, you can display more toolbars
and more icons from each of those toolbars. Careful adjustments can give you a thickly populated
 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 285

Taskbar with precisely the icons you need to work with, and with ready access, through the expan-
sion arrows, to numerous other useful programs, folders, and files.

TIP
Once you get your Taskbar fully organized, set it in place by right-clicking it and choosing Lock the Taskbar.
Doing so prevents you from making accidental changes.

Floating the Toolbars

You don’t need to keep the toolbars docked to the Taskbar. If you have a large enough monitor to
maintain an area devoted to toolbars, you can detach any of the toolbars by dragging them from the
Taskbar onto the desktop. You can then use them as individual program and document launchers,
clicking on any item inside them to open it as a new window. Figure 16-9 shows an XP desktop with
two toolbars floated on the right side of the screen. With multiple monitors, you can float or dock
toolbars on different monitors.

Figure 16-9: Floating your most frequently used toolbars gives you ready access to them.
286 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

TIP
If you detach a toolbar containing numerous items, you might need to enlarge the window (by dragging the cor-
ners or the top/bottom) in order to see all the icons. This idea works, but it often makes the toolbar too large. All
such folders automatically create an arrow, at the bottom of the toolbar, that you can click to open the toolbar
further and see all the items. This is one primary reason to create toolbars from frequently used folders. If you
simply open a heavily populated folder on the desktop, you can see all the icons only by scrolling the window. If
you make the folder into a toolbar, XP automatically creates the pop-up arrow for you.

One problem with floating your toolbars is that you can lose them behind other windows. To stop
this from happening, right-click on the toolbar’s title bar and choose Always on Top.

NOTE
You don’t have to float all your toolbars to make them accessible in this way. Instead, float one toolbar — it
doesn’t matter which one — and, when you need the contents of a different toolbar, right-click the toolbar’s
title bar, choose the Toolbars item, and select the toolbar you need. The contents of the floating toolbar
change immediately to reflect the new toolbar’s contents.

Adjusting the Taskbar’s Properties

While you can set some of the Taskbar’s options by right-clicking the Taskbar itself, the Taskbar and
Start Menu Properties control panel presents a few other choices. Right-click the Taskbar, and select
Properties in order to open this control panel (it’s also in the Windows XP Control Panel). The choices
are as follows:

Lock the taskbar: This command sets the Taskbar and its current components in place.
You need to uncheck this option, or uncheck Lock the Taskbar in the Taskbar’s context
menu, to alter the Taskbar.
Auto-hide the taskbar: This is the single most useful option on the Taskbar tab of the
Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box. When you check this option, you cause
the Taskbar to disappear from the screen whenever you click another area of the desktop.
The result is more screen real estate to work with, which is especially important if you
have enlarged the Taskbar to add more icons and toolbars. To use the Taskbar, move the
pointer to the bottom of the screen; the Taskbar reappears exactly as you left it.
Keep the taskbar on top of other windows: By default, the Taskbar is always visible
(unless you auto-hide it) at the bottom of the screen. You can slide windows directly
underneath it, and the Taskbar still remains on top. Disabling this option removes this
 Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Start Menu, Taskbar, and Folders 287

characteristic, allowing windows to cover the Taskbar. In my opinion, the auto-hide fea-
ture is far better at achieving more screen real estate than this option, so you’re better
leaving this option checked.
Group similar taskbar buttons: Here’s another option with major significance for the
interface. Without this option checked, if you have several windows open for a specific
program — numerous Web pages in Internet Explorer, for example — the Taskbar displays
them individually in the Document Tray. For example, with several IE windows, several
Word windows, and several Excel windows open at the same time, the items in the
Document Tray quickly become unreadable as the increasing number of open windows
causes the icons to shrink in size. With this option enabled, once you have more than four
instances of the same application open (you can modify this number using TweakUI, as
shown in Chapter 19), Windows groups them all together so that only one icon appears
for that program; you can then access the individual documents belonging to that program
via an arrow at the bottom of the icon. For example, you see only one Internet Explorer
icon, and clicking on that icon reveals a menu of Web pages you have open. Choose one
of them to switch the display to that document. When windows are grouped like this, you
can right-click the button for the group to act on all at once to close or tile that group.
Show Quick Launch: Check this box if you want the highly useful Quick Launch bar to
be visible at all times. I can’t honestly imagine why you wouldn’t.
Show the clock: By default, XP displays a clock in the System Tray on the bottom right of
the Taskbar. The clock can be useful (including as a place to right-click for Taskbar proper-
ties), but if you don’t need it, you can save some real estate by hiding it. Uncheck this
option to do so.

Reducing Clutter by Hiding Taskbar Icons

Windows XP loves to give you information — whether you want that information or not.
Fortunately, you can reduce the number of alerts and notifications you experience in your day-to-
day work by checking the Hide Inactive Icons option at the bottom of the Taskbar tab of the Taskbar
and Start Menu Properties dialog box. Checking the option and clicking OK will get the job done by
itself, but you can further control these items by clicking the Customize button. Figure 16-10 shows
the resulting Customize Notification dialog box. The idea here is to stop icons from appearing in the
System Tray unless you truly want them there.
First, scroll through the list to see the wide range of items XP keeps track of. Click any one of
them to activate the menu for that item, and click that menu’s down-arrow to choose one of the three
options: Hide When Inactive, Always Hide, and Always Show. The latter two options are obvious,
but Hide When Inactive requires a bit more explanation. When you’re not actually using the item, it
is inactive and removes itself from the System Tray. When XP makes use of that icon by starting the
associated program (your virus checker, for example), the icon reappears. After a further period of
inactivity, it hides itself once more.
288 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 16-10: You can set the behavior of

each of the icons in this list.

Summary
The Start menu and Taskbar serve the important function of keeping your programs and folders read-
ily available even when windows cover the desktop. They also provide a strong organizational function,
to the extent that tailoring the Start menu, adding toolbars to the Taskbar, and adjusting the compo-
nents of both interface elements according to your liking gives you a truly customized interface.
Chapter 17

Changing Your
Interface from
the Control Panel

S o far, I’ve pointed out a variety of ways to alter the Windows XP interface, by doing everything
from changing the appearance of the entire desktop to tailoring the Start menu and Taskbar in
a seemingly endless variety of ways. But your options for customizing the XP interface are far from
depleted. This chapter outlines the numerous interface elements accessible via the utilities in the
Control Panel, from accessibility enhancements to folder options. The Control Panel offers a wealth
of customization features, and you should examine each utility closely to see what it can do for you.

Changing the Way Your Folders Look and Act

Folders lie at the core of the Windows XP experience. No matter what programs you use, no matter
how much you accomplish through the Desktop, the Start menu, and the Taskbar, on numerous
occasions you have no choice but to work with folders and their contents. XP provides workable
folders out of the box; but as with everything else about this operating system’s interface, you can
change the way those folders look and act. You have two primary means for customizing your fold-
ers: the View menu and toolbar in the folders themselves and the Folder Options applet in the
Control Panel.

Folder Views
To open a folder, first open My Computer either from the desktop or the Start menu. When you do
so, you see the contents of the My Computer folder, including the standard XP folders and the drive
icons. Clicking a folder opens that folder so you can see what’s stored inside.

Tip
The fastest way to My Computer: Winlogo+E (for Explorer).

289
290 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

When you open a folder, by default you see a view called Tiles with subfolder icons arrayed in
alphabetical order in the top portion of the window, and the files, each with its own relevant icon,
lined up alphabetically below. Figure 17-1 shows a view of a My Documents folder.
This view is not the standard in all folders. In three of the subfolders within My Documents, XP
automatically sets the default view to Thumbnails rather than Tile. These folders, My Pictures, My
Music, and My Videos, use this view to emphasize the multimedia nature of their contents. XP’s fold-
ers are designed to let you see and play multimedia files, and the Thumbnail view shows, to a certain
degree, what each file contains. Figure 17-2 shows the Thumbnails view for the My Pictures folder.
In the case of My Pictures and My Videos, the Thumbnails view lets you see not only a small ver-
sion of each individual picture (in the case of a video file, it’s the video’s opening frame), but a four-
panel visual preview of the pictures inside the subfolders as well. You can see this useful aspect in
Figure 17-2, with each subfolder showing thumbnails of the first four photos inside that folder.
The View menu of each folder shows the views possible for that particular folder. Each view changes
the look of the folder considerably, and each view offers its own advantages and drawbacks. The
Thumbnails view, for example, offers the obvious benefit of letting you see the pictures themselves —
which is much more useful than seeing the filenames — but it also increases the size of the icons,
thereby restricting the number of icons you can access without scrolling.

Figure 17-1: The standard Tile view in My Documents.

 Chapter 17: Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel 291

Figure 17-2: XP’s Thumbnails view.

The following list details the various views and discusses the positives and negatives of each. The
first five are common to all folders, while the rest are specific to certain folders.

Filmstrip: The Filmstrip view (shown in Figure 17-3) arrays your graphics files as a single
row of thumbnails along the bottom of the window, with the currently selected graphic
displayed at a larger size above the row of thumbnails. As you select each graphic, the
larger image in the middle changes accordingly. Below the larger image are tools for moving
through the images and for rotating the selected image either clockwise or counterclockwise.
Thumbnails: The Thumbnails folder uses large icons and therefore lowers the number of
icons viewable without scrolling. But icons that represent pictures or videos show small
previews of those items, so this is an extremely useful view if you need to locate a specific
photo or video. If not, you’re better off with the Tiles view.
Tiles: The icons in the Tiles view are much smaller than those in Thumbnails, allowing you
to see far more of them in a standard-sized window. As you can see in the Tiles view shown
in Figure 17-1, however, you do not see a representation of photos or videos. So, if you need
to work with images or videos, this view can hinder rather than help. The Tiles view does
offer a limited amount of information about each file — its name, size, and type — offering
a compromise between the Thumbnail view and the more information-rich Details view.
292 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 17-3: The Filmstrip view.

Icons: In the Icons view, the icons get smaller still, and only the name of the icon appears
with it. To get additional information about the icon, hover the pointer over it until the
information ToolTip appears (the same holds true for all views). The primary advantage
of this view is its combination of an uncluttered look and the display of numerous icons.
List: The List view shrinks the icons even further. Once again, hover over an icon to get
details about it. List view works well when the folder holds many icons, and you want to
avoid scrolling as much as possible. Because of its usefulness in this regard, the List view
is standard for the Open and Save windows of Microsoft Office and other productivity
programs.
Details: If you want to see extensive information about your files, choose the Details view.
The Details view gives you the same small icons as the List view, but the icons are arrayed
in a single alphabetical column. Beside the icons you get additional columns, each with
a specific type of information about the file on that line. See the sidebar “Adding More
Columns to the Details View” for information on adding more columns.
 Chapter 17: Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel 293

Adding More Columns to the Details View

By default, the Details view shows the size of the file, its type, and the date it was last modified. You
can add even more columns by right-clicking the columns bar (immediately above the files) and
choosing whichever new columns you want.
■ Date Created: Sometimes you need to know at a glance not only when the file was last modi-
fied but also when it was originally created.
■ Attributes: Here, you can see the attributes for each of the files, including information about
whether the file is read-only (R), hidden (H), or a system file (S). You don’t usually need this
information, but it can help when you are trying to troubleshoot access to the file.
■ Owner: The owner of the file according to the system ownership attributes. Ownership is
determined according to the user account in which the file was originally created and the
groups to which that user account belongs. You need to know the owner only if you have
some reason to attempt to change that owner in order to gain access to the file.
■ Title: Applicable primarily to Office documents, XP takes the title of the document from the
Title field of that program’s Properties dialog box.
■ Comments: Also applicable to Office documents, XP takes the comments from the Comments
field of that program’s Properties dialog box.
■ Date Picture Taken: Available by default only in the My Pictures folder, this column shows the
date the photograph was originally taken, as captured from the information in the digital cam-
era. This date can differ from both the Date Modified and the Date Created.
■ Dimensions: Available by default only in the My Pictures and My Videos folders, this column
shows the dimensions of the picture in pixels.
■ Duration: Available by default only in the My Videos and My Music folders, this column shows
the length of the video or audio file in seconds.
■ Artist, Album Title, Year: Available by default only in the My Music folder, these columns dis-
play the respective information as contained in the Properties dialog box of the audio file.
■ Track Number: Available by default in the My Music folder, this shows the file’s track number
on the CD.

Numerous other columns are available from the context menu as well. These include the bit rate of
the audio file, whether the file is protected, and the model of the camera used to capture digital or
video files. If you want to display even more columns, right-click the column bar and select More.
Check whatever boxes you wish in the resulting Choose Details dialog box, and click OK to add them
to the folder.
You can also change the order and the size of the columns. To change the order, click and hold the
title of the column and drag it until the insertion point is where you want to place the column. To
resize it, move the pointer to the separation between two column titles (it turns into a double-arrow),
and drag the column border to make the column the size you want.
294 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Tip
You can sort the contents of your folders in two main ways. In the Details view, you can click the title of each
column to sort the icons according to the data in those columns — alphabetically in the case of Name, in
order of size in the case of Size, and so on. (You can sort in the opposite direction by clicking on the column
title a second time). You can also sort the icons by right-clicking an empty area within the folder and choos-
ing the Arrange Files By option. The submenu gives you a variety of sorting options, including one — Show in
Groups — that sorts the icons according to groupings. The groupings themselves change as you click the
column titles. Clicking Name sorts alphabetically, with one group for each letter of the alphabet, while click-
ing Size organizes into groups with headings such as Zero, Tiny, Small, and Medium. Experiment to get the
grouping you like best.

Tip
If you like the way your current folder looks, you can set all folders to look the same. With the model folder
open, choose Tools ➝ Folder Options and click the View tab. In the Folder Views area at the top of the result-
ing dialog, click the Apply to All Folders button. Presto! You’ve standardized your folders.

Folder Options
The other primary means of changing your folders is the Folder Properties Control Panel applet. To
open it, double-click the Folder Options icon in Control Panel, or click the Tools menu of My
Computer or Windows Explorer and choose Folder Options.

WARNING
As with desktop, font, and virtually all other interface settings, the settings you choose in the Folder Options
dialog box apply only to the current user account. Each user can set these properties individually. It would be
nice if XP restricted certain options to certain user types — such as administrators — but unless you config-
ure the Group Policies (see Chapter 27 for details on how to do so), you can’t stop users from configuring
their folders in a way that might cause damage.

Two areas on the General tab of the Folder Options dialog box are of particular interest. In the
Tasks area, you can choose between the folder style of older Windows versions (User Windows
Classic Folders) and the newer XP style (Show Common Tasks in Folders). The newer style displays
a task pane on the left side of each folder window; you can see this pane in all the figures shown so
far in this chapter. The Browse Folders area lets you choose what happens when you open two or
 Chapter 17: Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel 295

more folders in succession. By default, XP replaces the contents of the first folder with the contents
of each one you subsequently open, but you might find it more useful to open each folder as a sepa-
rate window completely.
Note that if you choose to open each folder in its own window, your desktop can become clut-
tered extremely quickly. On the other hand, this option makes copying and moving files between
folders easier to accomplish, because you can place the folders side by side and drag files from one
to the other.

Tip
If you need more than one Explorer window open, right-click a folder name and choose Explore (from the
Folder pane) or Open (from the Task Pane). Alternatively, use Winlogo+E.

Tip
Don’t overlook the task pane when you first start working with XP folders. What actually appears on the task
pane depends on the type of folder you open. My Documents shows a different set of tasks from My Pictures,
and My Music, My Videos, and My Computer are different again. My Computer offers a System Tasks area in
the task pane, while My Documents offers a File and Folder Tasks area that includes such activities as pub-
lishing a file to the Web or emailing it to a recipient. My Pictures shows a Picture Tasks area with actions
such as ordering prints online (using one of three built-in services), and My Music includes commands for
playing all the files in Media Player, copying files to an audio CD, and shopping for music online.

The heart of the Folder Options dialog box is the View tab, from which you exercise the greatest
control over your folders. Figure 17-4 shows this pane, with only part of its lengthy Advanced set-
tings list in view. This list provides a broad range of configuration possibilities, each of which affects
the interface with your folders:

Automatically search for network folders and printers: XP goes out onto the network
every few minutes to locate folders and printers accessible through your local network.
The purpose is to add these items to My Network Places as other network users add them.
Display file size information in folder tips: When you hover over an icon in a folder,
XP displays the size of the file in kilobytes or megabytes in a small tip window.
Display simple folder view in Explorer’s Folders list: This option tells Windows
Explorer to expand the folder listings (in the left pane of Explorer) to show subfolders,
when you click on any folder, then contract that folder when you switch to another.
Without this option, you must click on the plus sign to expand the folder, and clicking
on another folder does not automatically contract it.
296 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 17-4: The extensive View tab options.

Display the contents of system folders: By default, with this option turned off, Windows
displays a warning screen in place of the folder contents when you try to open a folder that
contains files needed by XP itself (such as your primary Windows folder). With this tog-
gled on, XP allows you to see these folders without a warning.

TIP
You should keep the display of the contents of system folders toggled off, even if you’re the only person using
the computer. The warning screen is easy enough to get past (all it takes is a single click), and if it prevents
you from accidentally deleting even one important file over the course of a couple years, it’s worth the extra
few seconds.

Display the full path in the address bar/title bar: XP likes to simplify things, one way
being to shorten the location information (the path) shown in the Address field of each
folder (or the title bar of the file you have open). Turn this option off to display only the
name of the current folder (the default); turn it on to display the full location.
Do not cache thumbnails: The first time you turn on the Thumbnail view for a folder, XP
loads each thumbnail into memory, allowing you to view it, and caches the thumbnails
(retains some of their data in memory) so that, when you return to the folder, the images
take less time to load. Caching can cause a few headaches if you change the contents of the
folder because the cache does not match what’s really there (you have to refresh the folder
in such a case).
 Chapter 17: Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel 297

Hidden files and folders: Here, you have the choice whether to show the hidden files and
folders on your system. You can set any file or folder to hidden status by right-clicking the
item, choosing Properties, and checking the Hidden box in the Attributes section on the
General tab of the Properties folder. When you hide a file, you prevent XP from displaying
it in any folder display or via the command line’s DIR command. You can instruct XP to
display the hidden files and folders as a matter of convenience to yourself. If you do so,
the hidden items bear a muted icon color indicating their hidden status.
Hide extensions for known file types: One of the strikes against MS-DOS and Windows
(especially by people accustomed to using the Macintosh) is the use of the file extension,
the characters after the filename that identify the file as belonging to a specific program
(.doc for Word files, .exe for programs, .ppt for PowerPoint files, and so on). With
Windows XP, you can prevent Windows from displaying these extensions, forcing you to
identify files through their associated icons only (the icon reflects the program in which
you created the file). Whether you want to see the extensions is purely a matter of prefer-
ence, so choose as you like.

Note
If the file uses an extension that XP does not recognize, it will display the extension as well as the filename.
Recognition depends on the file association system, which you can see — and set — by clicking the File
Types tab in the Folder Options dialog box. Chapter 19 deals with setting and changing file associations.

Hide protected operating system files: The Folder Options dialog box calls this option
“Recommended,” and you’ll get no argument here. Unless you have a very specific pur-
pose, you do not need to work directly with system files, and keeping them hidden from
view prevents you from accidentally deleting or moving them. Think of this option as an
additional safeguard — hiding the contents of system folders is the other — against damag-
ing your system by altering a critical file.
Launch folder windows in a separate process: This rather obscure feature instructs XP
to load each folder window into a different portion of memory. It’s similar to the option on
the General tab Open Each Folder in its Own Window except that it isolates the folders
from one another for the sake of protection from problems. The feature primarily benefits
developers who might need to experiment with one folder while guaranteeing that others
won’t close down in case another crashes.
Managing pairs of Web pages and folders: You have three options here, all of which are
covered in Chapter 9.
Remember each folder’s view settings: Because you can change the settings of each
folder individually, configuring them according to your needs, you want Windows to
remember what you’ve done so that you don’t have to reconfigure them each time you
reboot. Check this option to have Windows retain the settings.
298 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Restore previous folder windows at logon: Windows XP automatically reloads any fold-
ers you had open on the desktop the last time you logged off, restarted, or shut down.
This option is useful if you constantly work with the same folders, but one of the typical
purposes behind rebooting is starting fresh with a clean desktop and all programs cleared
out of memory, so most users will want to leave this option unchecked. Still, if it helps you
get to work faster, by all means toggle it on. One worthwhile use is to have the My Recent
Documents appear with each boot-up, helping you get up to speed quickly each session.
Show Control Panel in My Computer: This option adds an icon to the Control Panel
in the My Computer folder. Check the option only if you have hidden the Control Panel
from the Start menu and you’ve chosen Windows classic folders on the General tab of the
Folder Options dialog box. In such a case, you have no other Control Panel icon available.
You might consider this procedure if you want to prevent users from opening the Control
Panel and working with its configuration utilities.
Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color: When you use an individual
folder’s Properties dialog box to compress the folder (see the “Working with Compressed
Folders” section later in this chapter) or encrypt it using the Encrypting File System
(see Chapter 6), Windows displays the former in blue and the latter in green. You can’t
choose to color one or the other; it’s either both or neither. NTFS stands for NT File
System; Windows XP uses the file system, although modified, begun in Windows NT and
continued through Windows 2000. The other major file system for PCs is FAT32 (and the
older FAT); FAT is short for File Allocation Table, and is far less customizable than NTFS.
Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items: When you hover over an item
on the desktop or in a folder, Windows displays a small pop-up showing details about the
item. You can turn this feature off if you don’t want to see the pop-ups. Some users find
them annoying. Others find them highly useful.
Use simple file sharing: This is another recommended item, and in most cases you
should just leave it on. Chapter 25 covers the differences between simple file sharing and
standard file sharing.

Setting the Folder Template

and Icon for New Folders
To create a new folder, right-click an unoccupied place in the current folder and choose New ➝
Folder from the context menu. Windows then creates the folder icon and gives the folder the rather
obvious name New Folder. You should rename the folder before doing anything else to make it more
useful to you; after you’ve done that, you can customize the folder significantly.
To customize the new folder, right-click the folder and choose Properties from the context menu.
Click the Customize tab on the resulting Properties dialog box. Begin the customization by clicking
the down-arrow beside the Template menu near the top of the folder. Windows provides the follow-
ing templates, as shown in Figure 17-5:
 Chapter 17: Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel 299

Documents (for any file type)

Pictures (best for many files)
Photo Album (best for fewer titles)
Music (best for audio files and playlists)
Music Artist (best for works by one artist)
Music Album (best for tracks from one album)
Videos

Figure 17-5: The folder template types.

The specialty folders within My Documents — My Pictures, My Music, and My Videos — have
already been configured as templates: Pictures, Music, and Video, respectively. You can’t change
those folders, but you can add your own of each of those types and more to your folder collection.
Once again, customization helps you create a tailored interface.
You can customize these folders in three other ways from the Properties dialog box. If you want to
base all subfolders within this folder on the same folder template, check the Also Apply This
Template to All Subfolders option. Furthermore, at the bottom of the Properties dialog box, you can
choose the folder’s icon by clicking the Change Icon button and scrolling through the resulting icon
collection, as shown in Figure 17-6. (Mind you, it would be nice if Windows would associate spe-
cific icon types with specific template types so that you could give all your Picture folders the same
icon as My Pictures by default, but perhaps that’s asking a bit much.) Finally, you can select a picture
300 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

to appear as the thumbnail graphic for the folder by clicking Choose Pictures in the middle of the
dialog box and selecting the picture you want.

Figure 17-6: You can assign any

icon to each folder.

Tip
The task pane for each folder depends on the template you assign to that folder. Pictures folders, for exam-
ple, assume the same task pane as My Pictures, complete with the feature for running a slide show based on
the images in the folder.

Working with Compressed Folders

Compressing folders or files reduces their size. File compression works by removing bytes that con-
tain no data or, in the case of multimedia files, by eliminating redundant data. The primary function
of file compression is to save disk space, but it has a separate (and for many users an equally impor-
tant) function as a backup system.
In a move that simply seems determined to cause confusion, Microsoft has built two types of file
and folder compression into XP:

Compressed (zipped) Folder: This is accessible from within any Folder window.
Compress contents to save space: This is an option in the Advanced Attributes
sub-dialog-box within an individual folder’s Properties dialog box.
 Chapter 17: Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel 301

Although these options may sound similar, they’re two different things, as I’ll show in the follow-
ing sections.

Compressed (Zipped) Folders

Zip is the primary compression technology for Windows-based computers. You can download and/
or buy several zip utilities, but Windows XP contains its own. Overall, this utility offers significantly
fewer features than a standalone zip program such as WinZip, but it has the benefit of being built
right into the operating system.
To zip a file, open the folder in which it resides, right-click the file’s icon, and choose Send to ➝
Compressed (zipped) Folder. XP copies the file, compresses it, and then creates a folder into which
to place it. The folder icon appears as a standard folder with a rather neat-looking zipper to its left.
Often, it makes sense to zip several files together at once, both to compress them and to store them
in a single folder. To do so, highlight all of them (by holding either the Ctrl or the Shift key while
selecting) and compress them all using a single Send to command.
You can use this as a kind of backup system, storing copies of your important files in a zip folder,
and you can also use it as a convenient method for sending files via email. Instead of attaching multiple
files to an email message, you can zip them together and send the entire compressed folder. All the
recipient needs to open the folder is a zip utility, which most users have either as part of Windows XP
(or Windows Millennium Edition) or as a separate program such as WinZip.

Tip
If you use Compressed Folders as a backup system, you should move or copy the compressed folder to
another location. A CD-ROM is perfect, as is a separate hard drive. Failing that, move it to a separate parti-
tion or even a different folder so that you can access it later if you need it.

Once created, a compressed folder works just like any other folder. You can open it and work
with any of the individual files inside it. To make the files fully functional, however, you need to
uncompress them. You can do this manually by copying or moving the file out of the Compressed
Folder into an uncompressed folder, or you can uncompress all of them at once by clicking the
Extract all files item in the Folder Tasks section of the compressed folder’s task pane. This action
launches the Extraction Wizard, the second stage of which appears in Figure 17-7.
By default, the Extraction Wizard creates a folder named for the first file in the compressed folder.
Before compressing, you can change the location of the compressed files by typing a path or clicking
Browse and choosing an existing folder in the resulting Select a Destination dialog box (where you can
also create a new folder). Once you’ve decided on a folder, click Next to uncompress the files into that
folder.
Kudos to Microsoft for the final screen of the dialog box. By checking the Show Extracted Files
option and clicking the Finish button, you instruct Windows to open the folder into which you’ve
extracted the files. While this feature might seem obvious — why force you to navigate to the new
folder? — earlier zip utilities didn’t offer it.
302 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

To see how the Extraction Wizard can help, here is an example. On the Web, say you come across a
download called clipart.zip that contains several clip art files. Click the download link from within the
browser to begin the download and save the file to your desktop. When the download is complete,
double-click the icon on the desktop. This action opens the zip file as a compressed folder, where you
click the Extract command to start the Extraction Wizard. Because you don’t want the files scattered all
over your desktop, you click Browse and create a new folder for them. Clicking Next extracts them to
that folder, and clicking Next again opens the folder with the clip art files in full view.

Figure 17-7: The Extraction Wizard uncompresses all

files in the zip folder.

Caution
When you download a zip file from the Web, resist the temptation to choose Open instead of Save when the
download begins. While choosing Open removes a step from the extraction process (you don’t have to open
the zip file separately), it also makes you more vulnerable to virus and other malware (that is, malicious soft-
ware) attacks (such as Trojan horses). To be safe, store the file on your drive, run it through your virus
checker, and then extract the files to a new destination. You might have to configure your virus checker to
scan compressed (zip) files, because not all versions do so automatically. Check the Options or Preferences
dialog box for your antivirus software.

If you install another zip utility on your PC (WinZip is an especially popular one), it will take over
XP’s built-in zip functions. You can still send your files to an XP compressed folder by right-clicking
on them and making the standard choice, but when you double-click on saved zip files, they open in
the new utility instead. Other utilities have many more features than XP’s built-in zip, but it’s up to
you to determine if you need those features. If you don’t, uninstall the new utility to have XP resume
its default functioning.
 Chapter 17: Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel 303

Compressing with the Advanced Attributes Dialog BOX

The Compressed Folders feature does not actually save disk space; in fact, it uses more space. The
reason is simple: sending a file to a compressed folder makes a copy of that file — in a compressed
version, admittedly, but still a separate file. Unless you delete the original file from your system,
you’ve used up even more of your hard disk.
XP does, however, provide a way to compress files and folders without first making copies of them.
Right-click the file or folder and select Properties. In the Attributes area of the resulting Properties dia-
log box, click the Advanced button. Figure 17-8 shows the result, the Advanced Attributes dialog box.
Check the option labeled Compress Contents to Save Disk Space, and click OK. XP asks if you want
to compress only that folder or all subfolders as well, and then it compresses the files (it can take a few
minutes, so be patient) and denotes the compression by changing the color of the file icons to blue
so that you can easily recognize them. You can uncompress your files and folders by reversing this
procedure.

Figure 17-8: Compress or encrypt files with

this dialog box.

You can save even more disk space by compressing an entire hard drive. Open My Computer or
Windows Explorer, right-click the drive’s icon, and choose Properties. At the bottom of the
Properties dialog box is a Compress Drive to Save Disk Space check box. Click OK to start the com-
pression process. You can even compress your primary drive (C:) if you want, although this would
likely slow down your computing experience.

Caution
Disk compression used to be an important tool in maximizing space on your hard drive. Today’s storage methods
and the continually lowering prices of hard drives have rendered compression much less useful, however. In
general, you’re better off not compressing an entire drive or even your most frequently used files and folders.
Compressing them removes some possible features from them — notably the Encrypting File System, which
does not work on compressed files and folders — and doesn’t save you all that much space anyhow.
304 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Saving Your Mouse Finger with

the Single-Click Option
Back in the old days of 1984, the creators of the Apple Macintosh decided that, while people needed
a mouse to interact with the interface, they needed a mouse with only one button. Apparently, more
than one button would simply cause confusion among users. To be fair, most users had never used a
mouse, so to some extent this decision had validity. But it resulted in the double-click, one of the
most questionable designs in the history of human-computer interaction. Double-clicking is anything
but intuitive, and for some people it’s downright difficult.
The idea was this: You clicked once to select an icon, after which you could drag it, copy it, do
whatever you wanted to do. What most people wanted to do with icons most of the time, however,
was open their associated files. The double-click provided a solution to selecting the icon and then
choosing the Open procedure. The first click did the selecting; the second-click, performed in rapid
succession, did the launching. You couldn’t allow a single-click to perform the launch because then
you would have no way of selecting without launching.
Along came Windows. From the introduction of its GUI, Microsoft chose a two-button mouse as the
standard rather than a one-button mouse (the Amiga and Atari ST had already used them). By the time
Windows was ready for prime time (version 3.0, released five years after the first Mac, was the first truly
usable version), the double-clicking routine had already become such an unshakeable standard that
Microsoft adopted it. There was no reason to do so, however. With a two-button mouse available, the
designers could have set the interface so that the right button selects and the left button launches, or
some other combination. In the meantime, Unix systems adopted a three-button mouse as the stan-
dard, and users could customize the buttons as they saw fit.
Next came the Web. Here, single-clicking was the norm. You single-clicked on a hyperlink to
open that page; you single-clicked on a file to download it, view it, or play it. If you wanted to select
a file to work with it, you right-clicked it (Mac users needed to press a separate key on the keyboard
while clicking). Everything made sense: the single-click had won.
When Microsoft introduced Windows 98, the first version of Windows to recognize the Web as a
major focus, it also introduced the single-click option for regular desktop use. All icons would act
just like hyperlinks; you clicked on them to open them. In the early beta versions of Windows 98,
the single-click option was turned on by default. Who, the reasoning went, could possibly object to
saving mouse clicks? Well, many people objected, for reasons known only to themselves, and
Windows 98 — along with all subsequent versions of Windows including XP — offered the single-
click interface only as an option.
The single-click interface saves mouse clicks, prevents the frustration of not double-clicking fast
enough, and replicates the most usable interface of all computing history: the Web browser. For that
reason, you should try it for a few days, after which you aren’t likely to want to go back. But it has a
few peculiarities, which are covered in the following sections.
First, turn on the single-click option. To do so, open the Folder Options applet in the Control
Panel or from within a folder (by choosing Tools ➝ Folder Options). On the General tab, select the
Single-Click to Open an Item (Point to Select) radio button. If you want the descriptive text of all
icons underlined (a bit unsightly for many), choose the Underline Icon Titles Consistent with My
Browser suboption. If not, choose the second, which applies an underline only when you point at an
icon. Click OK to apply the changes.
 Chapter 17: Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel 305

Selecting and Opening with the Single-Click Interface

Now, open a folder or view the desktop. Move the mouse pointer to an icon. Windows immediately
highlights the icon label and, after a few seconds, automatically selects the icon and highlights it as
well. This is how you select an item using the single-click interface: you point at it. You can even
change the speed at which Windows makes the selection by using the TweakUI utility (covered in
Chapter 18).
To open the item, click on it (you don’t need to wait), exactly as you would a hyperlink in a Web
browser. To access the context menus, right-click the icon as you would with the original double-
click interface.
Single-clicking becomes tricky only when selecting multiple items. Because selection no longer
depends on clicking, you have to teach yourself how to do this, and it takes a few tries to get it right.
Hover over the first item until XP highlights it. Next, with the Ctrl or Shift key pressed down, as in
all multiple selections, hover over the next item (the subsequent icon if you’re using Ctrl, the final
icon if you’re using Shift). XP performs the selection again. You can now drag the icon group, delete
it, right-click to use the context menu on it, or whatever you would normally do.

Tip
In only one other way does the single-click interface take some getting used to. Often, when you save a file
using the Save As dialog box in your program, it’s convenient to click on a previous file to use its name as a
basis. Choosing this file places the name in the Name field, and you simply edit it to give your new file a dif-
ferent name. With the single-click option turned on, you do the same thing by hovering over the previous file,
not clicking it. If you click it, you initiate the Save, which you then have to cancel (in the subsequent warning
dialog box) to avoid overwriting the previous file. Again, this takes a few tries to get right.

The Single-Click Interface and Laptops

Many laptop computers use a touchpad to replace the mouse. When you first get your laptop, the
touchpad usually simulates both the mouse pointer and the mouse buttons. You use your fingertip
to move the pointer to the desired location on the screen, and then you tap the touchpad to simulate
the mouse click.
You can turn the tapping function off, and many users do in order to avoid accidental mouse
clicks. When using a single-click interface, the tapping function becomes even more difficult to con-
trol. After practicing for a while, the single-click interface actually enhances the tapping experience
because double-tapping causes its own set of hand-eye coordination issues. But you really do need
to practice.
Consider turning the tapping function off (your laptop has software that lets you do so) or
decreasing the sensitivity of the tapping. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself launching programs you had
no intention of launching — not a bad thing, but often annoying. Figure 17-9 shows the options
available for the Synaptics brand of touchpad in use on a wide range of laptops.
306 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 17-9:The Synaptics touchpad tap options.

Configuring Your Keyboard and Your Mouse

Aside from your eyes, your mouse and keyboard provide your primary means for interacting with the
computer interface. Interestingly, however, many users seem unaware that, like the visual interface, you
can also customize how your input devices work. For the most part, the mouse and keyboard work
perfectly well out of the box, so there’s no need to customize them. But a quick look at the options
shows that you might very well want to do so. You can configure both devices from the Control Panel.

Tip
Many keyboards and mice offer special features that you can control using software included with these prod-
ucts. In many cases, the software changes the Mouse and Keyboard dialog boxes, sometimes dramatically. If
you have a mouse with extra buttons or a keyboard with special keys, locate the special software for it either on
floppy disk or CD-ROM, or go to the Support section of the manufacturer’s Web site to see if you can download
the software from there. Here, we deal only with the default Windows XP Mouse and Keyboard dialog boxes.

Setting the Mouse’s Behavior

To configure the mouse, open the Control Panel and choose the Mouse icon. The first option on the
Buttons tab in the Button Configuration section lets you switch the buttons so that the right button
 Chapter 17: Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel 307

performs the selection and launches functions while the left button calls up the context menus.
Obviously, the purpose of this option is to increase usability for left-handed users; but if you want to
see how skilled you’ve become at mousing, switch the buttons one day and try to perform some typ-
ical actions. (Switching buttons also makes for a great practical joke, but you didn’t read that here.)
Many PCs sold today include Microsoft’s Intellimouse software. If your PC has this software, the
Mouse dialog displays different options. Again, to configure the mouse, open the Mouse icon from
the Control Panel. From the Buttons tab, as Figure 17-10 shows, you can choose the primary func-
tions for each button and the wheel button. From the Activities tab, you can set the double-click
speed, a useful feature if you’ve been having trouble double-clicking fast enough to open icons
(many users experience this difficulty, so you’re not alone). The ClickLock option at the bottom of
the Activities tab lets you avoid holding the mouse button while dragging (another activity that
causes difficulty for many people).
Also from the Buttons menu, you can set the double-click speed, a useful feature if you’ve been
having trouble double-clicking fast enough to open icons (many users experience this difficulty, so
you’re not alone). In addition, the ClickLock option at the bottom of the dialog lets you avoid hold-
ing the mouse button while dragging (another activity that causes difficulty for many people).

Figure 17-10: The Buttons tab.

Note
You should choose neither of these last two options if you’ve switched to a singe-click interface, however;
double-click speed is largely irrelevant, and ClickLock does not work.
308 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

The Pointers tab (see Figure 17-11) offers a series of mouse pointers for you to choose from so
that you don’t have to put up with the boring flat white ones Windows uses by default. Click on the
Scheme menu to see the list and then on any of the schemes to see what the pointers for that scheme
look like. Click OK to accept the new pointers. You can also place a shadow under the pointer for
aesthetic purposes and to make the pointer easier to see.

Figure 17-11: The Pointers tab.

On the Pointer Options tab, you can set the speed at which the pointer moves across the screen
when you move the mouse, and you can tell XP whether to hide the pointer while you’re typing.
This option keeps the pointer out of the way while you type, and you need only touch the mouse to
have it reappear.

TIP
Two options on the Pointer Options tab especially suit laptop use. Display pointer trails causes XP to show a
trail behind the pointer as you move the pointer across the screen, thereby preventing the common occur-
rence of losing track of the mouse on a laptop display. Show location of pointer when I press the Ctrl key lets
you use the Ctrl key to find your pointer, again an issue with many laptop users.

On the Wheel tab, you can set what happens when you roll the wheel on a wheel mouse. By
default, rolling the wheel one notch scrolls the active document three lines at a time. You can change
the number of lines to any number from 1 to 100, but keep in mind that scrolling a hundred lines at
 Chapter 17: Changing Your Interface from the Control Panel 309

once is practical only on specialty programs and very large screens. You can also set the wheel to
scroll one full screen with each notch.

Setting the Keyboard’s Behavior

Open the Keyboard dialog box from the Control Panel, and you can see that you have fewer options
for configuring the keyboard than you have with the mouse. You have only two choices: setting the
repeat delay and the repeat rate. You activate the repeat delay when you hold down a key on the key-
board; once the delay has passed, the key types in a repeated fashion at the rate established in the
repeat rate area. In other words, if you want to type a string of Xs in a document, you hold down the
X key until the repetition begins, and the speed at which the Xs appear depends on the repeat rate
setting.
Test your settings by clicking in the Click Here and Hold Down a Key to Test Repeat Rate field
and then pressing a key until it repeats.
A final option on the Keyboard Properties dialog box lets you set the blink rate of the cursor, as
you see it in various types of programs (such as your word processor). Move the slider until the cur-
sor at the left blinks at the rate you want and click OK to set this new rate. If you don’t want the cur-
sor to blink at all, move the slider to None.

Setting the Date and Time

XP provides a clock whose icon resides at the far right of the System Tray. Double-clicking this icon
opens the Date and Time Properties dialog box. From here, you can set the current time and date. To
set the date, choose the month and year from the menus at the top of the Date area and click the cor-
rect day of the month. To set the time, which is expressed here in hours, minutes, and seconds, click
the item you want to change (the hour, for example), and then move the arrow either up or down to
make the change. Click OK when you’ve finished.

Note
No, you can’t just move the hands on the clock to change the time. You should be able to, but you can’t. Ask
Microsoft why.

To set your time zone, click the Time Zone tab and choose a time zone from the drop-down menu
at the top of the dialog box. If you live in a time zone with daylight-saving time, click the option
below the map to have Windows change the time automatically on the appropriate date.

Note
No, you can’t just click on the map to select your time zone. You should be able to, but you can’t. Again, ask
Microsoft why.
310 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 17-12 shows the Internet Time tab of the Date and Time Properties dialog box. Here, you can
configure Windows to connect with a time server on the Internet to set the time and date for you. Time
servers are synchronized to the computers of official time setting organizations, so you can be assured
of having the correct time at all times. XP synchronizes with the selected time server once every week.

Figure 17-12: Let the Internet set your system

time for you.

Summary
The Control Panel gives you what its name suggests — control. Control over your hardware devices,
control over your software programs, control over your network connections, and, just as important,
control over portions of the Windows XP interface. This chapter has demonstrated how to change
the look of the folders and the operation of the primary input devices, the mouse and keyboard.
Chapter 18 concludes the discussion of interface configuration, focusing on accessibility features
and the TweakUI Power Toy.
Chapter 18

Taking Even Greater

Control of Your
Interface

A s extensive as your options are for customizing the Windows XP interface — as you’ve seen so
far — you can do even more to tailor your Windows experience to your needs, work habits,
and preferences. This chapter explores ways you can cut down on the Windows interface rather than
adding to it, and shows you how to set accessibility options for people with disabilities, even minor
ones. Finally, the chapter covers the extensive customizability of the Microsoft downloadable
Control Panel applet called Tweak UI, a utility that lets you change a wide variety of interface
options.

Reverting to the Windows 2000 Interface

If you’ve come to Windows XP having used an earlier version of Windows, as a great many people
do, you’ll notice from your first boot-up that the Windows XP interface differs considerably from the
interface on previous versions of Windows (including Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows 98,
and earlier versions). Microsoft planned it this way. It wanted the XP interface to supplant everything
that went before it without alienating its customers too extensively. But, for people who don’t like to
change interfaces or companies that refuse to do so, the new interface proved alienating anyway. If
you’re one of these people, you’ll be pleased to know that you can customize the XP interface to look
and behave much like earlier Windows interfaces. This is particularly true for Windows 2000 users,
but also to a significant degree, for Window 98/Me users as well. In this section, we look at Windows
2000 only.

Choosing the Classic Start Menu

The single most noticeable change in the Windows XP interface is the revamped Start menu (see
Chapter 16 for complete coverage of this menu). Even though many people find the new Start menu
more useful than the old, many don’t. Fortunately, you can change back to the older style Start menu
at any time. In fact, you can flit back and forth between the two if you like.

311
312 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

To make this change, go to the Control Panel and open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties
Control Panel applet (or right-click the Start button and choose Properties). Click the Start Menu tab,
and then select the Classic Start Menu radio button. Click OK to finalize the change.
The primary difference between the two Start menus is the addition in the new version of the
System Area on the right. In all likelihood, Microsoft designed this component to complement
another new Windows interface option, the icon-free desktop. Many of the items available in the
System Area are traditionally available via desktop icons, so it makes sense to have a Start menu that
acts, to a degree, as a desktop replacement.

Note
Choosing the Classic Start menu for yourself does not change the Start menu in other user accounts. All
users have the choice of the Windows XP Start menu or the Classic version.

Setting the Control Panel Back to Normal

The next step in configuring a retro interface is changing the Control Panel from the Windows XP
Category view to the Classic view. Microsoft changed the Control Panel to help people more easily
locate whatever utility they need to perform the task they’re doing, but many users coming from ear-
lier Control Panels find the new one more confusing than ever.
Open the Control Panel through the Start menu, Windows Explorer, or with Winlogo+R, control.
To switch from the default Category view in Windows XP to the Classic view, click the Switch to
Classic View link at the top of the Control Panel’s task pane at the left of the window. To switch back,
click Switch to Category View in the same location. If you don’t see the task pane on the left, click
the Folders button below the menu (if that still doesn’t show the task pane, keep reading).
The new Control Panel (Category view; shown in Figure 18-1) offers a task-oriented interface
that combines utilities according to what you want to accomplish. In effect, this version works like a
wizard.
When you click a category, you get a new page that offers specific tasks along with icons to launch
the various utilities. The old version (Classic view; shown in Figure 18-2) puts all the utilities in front
of you and lets you choose whichever one you want.
In principle, the Category view is a good idea. Human-computer interaction theory tells us
that any interface that emphasizes tasks rather than programs offers a more usable interface. As
Microsoft and other software manufacturers continue to add utilities to the Control Panel (some
graphics card manufacturers already do, for example), organizing the utilities into categories makes
a lot of sense. However, at this stage, the Control Panel just isn’t crowded enough to justify the extra
step you have to take to get to the utility you want. So, for most people, the Classic view offers the
most value.
 Chapter 18: Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface 313

Figure 18-1: The new category-based Control Panel.

Tip
In one particular case, the Category view does work well — at least once you know enough to click the correct
link in the first place. The Performance and Maintenance link (which probably could use a better name) opens
a window that provides access to numerous useful utilities you can adjust to affect system performance and
take full control over your PC. From here, you can work with your hard drives, set power options, and access the
full suite of Administrative Tools. This window shows how the new Control Panel should work — even if the
items don’t quite fit a single category — but it’s probably the only window that does.

Simplified Folders, ClearType, and More

Beginning with Windows ME (released after Windows 2000), Microsoft added the advanced folder
view that was later adopted for Windows XP. In this view, folders display a task pane from which you
can perform actions specific to the folder type you currently have open. For example, with a Pictures
folder open, you can choose to display the photos in a slide show or publish them to a Web site. All
these commands are accessible from that pane.
314 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 18-2: The original Control Panel.

Windows 2000 uses an older folder view, one without the task pane. To revert to this view, open
the Folder Options dialog box. On the default tab, General, select the Use Windows Classic Folders
radio button. Click OK, and the task pane disappears.

Caution
Unfortunately, when you revert to the old folder view, you lose some of the new features that Windows XP
offers by default. When looking at a Pictures folder, you no longer have access to the View as a slide show or
Order prints online commands. Furthermore, the Filmstrip option disappears from the View menu; the Filmstrip
view shows the selected image file at a large size in the top two-thirds of the window with the remainder of the
images in a row along the bottom. In a Music folder, you can no longer execute the Play all or Shop for music
online commands. You would think these commands would appear in the main menu or the context menu, but
they do not. Unfortunately, if you want a true Windows 2000–like environment, you have no choice but to go
this route.

You’ll need to turn off two other features if you want a true Windows 2000 environment. First, get
rid of ClearType by opening the Display Properties applet in the Control Panel, clicking the
 Chapter 18: Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface 315

Appearance tab, clicking the Effects button, and choosing Standard in the Use the Following Method
to Smooth the Edge of Screen Fonts menu. Next, open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties applet
in the Control Panel and, under the Taskbar tab, uncheck the Group Similar Taskbar Buttons check
box. The first change turns off the font smoothing provided by the ClearType technology, whereas the
second forces the Taskbar to display all icons separately instead of combining icons belonging to the
same program (such as all Internet Explorer windows) under one icon with a selection arrow.
Obviously, you don’t have to turn off all new features. You can make the Windows interface look
mostly like the Windows 2000 interface without sacrificing some of the nicer touches, such as
ClearType and button grouping. But, if you want the added features of Windows XP while working fully
within the look and feel of Windows 2000, you’ll have to sacrifice a few of the additions to Windows XP.

Working with Accessibility Options

Windows XP contains a number of useful adjustments for people with one or more types of disabil-
ities. You can set some of these elements individually by using the Accessibility Options dialog box
in Control Panel (Winlogo+R, control access.cpl), but, for the full range of accessibility possibilities,
you should work your way through the Accessibility Wizard. This wizard combines the accessibility
tools with a variety of other interface alterations to produce the best possible interface for your par-
ticular set of difficulties. The Accessibility Wizard brings together options found scattered through
various Control Panels, including Accessibility, Display, Mouse, and Sound (each of which you may
find yourself visiting instead of or after the wizard).
Even though the accessibility options exist primarily for the sake of people with disabilities, many
people without disabilities find them useful as well, especially in specific circumstances. If you wear
glasses, for instance, you’ve probably already discovered that no two monitors are alike and that
lighting situations can render some monitors — especially notebook displays — extremely difficult
to read. In other cases, you might also find that the desktop’s mouse or the notebook’s touchpad
device doesn’t work properly, rendering even the most rudimentary selecting, dragging, and menu
access difficult and frustrating. In still other instances, your location makes typical actions hard, par-
ticularly if you’re on an airplane. The accessibility options can help in these cases and more.
To launch the Accessibility Wizard, click the Start button and choose All Programs ➝
Accessories ➝ Accessibility ➝ Accessibility Wizard (or Winlogo+R, accwiz). This is an elaborate wiz-
ard that bears a bit of a resemblance to one of those 1980s-style Choose Your Own Adventure nov-
els. As you click through the wizard, you encounter several choices, and, depending on the choice
you make, the wizard continues along a different path. By the time you’ve finished the wizard, you
can have a very different appearance and interface than you started with.
In the first step of the Accessibility Wizard after the Welcome screen, you choose the text size.
The choices are as follows:

Use usual text size for Windows: No change from the default
Use large window titles and menus: Increases the size of the text in the window titles
and on the pull-down menus
Use Microsoft Magnifier and large titles and menus: Increases the size of the text in
window titles and pull-down menus and activates the magnification utility
316 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Caution
Unlike many other wizards, which typically wait until you’ve completed all of their steps before setting your
selections in place, as you make choices in the Accessibility Wizard, your configuration changes immedi-
ately. From a design perspective, the instant changes work well because the person using the Accessibility
Wizard might very well need to activate the alterations in order to complete the wizard, but the instant reac-
tion can be a bit disorienting. You may want to set a restore point with the System Restore utility so that you
can revert to the an earlier configuration if you need to. (See Chapter 6 to learn more about setting a restore
point.)

Clicking Next takes you to the Display Settings stage. Here, you choose from the following
possibilities:

Change the font size: If you didn’t choose to adjust the fonts in the first step of the wiz-
ard, you can do so now.
Switch to a lower screen resolution: This decreases the screen resolution by one major
step. You can also do this manually in the Display Properties dialog box.
Use Microsoft Magnifier: If you didn’t activate the Magnifier earlier, clicking the check
box here activates it immediately.
Disable personalized menus: Personalized menus hide infrequently used menu com-
mands. To access the hidden items, you need to click on the down arrow at the bottom of
the unhidden list. Disabling this feature makes all commands available without the need
for special action.

After selecting these options, the variable section of the Accessibility Wizard comes into play. The
heading titles that follow reproduce the check box labels from this screen of the wizard (see Figure
18-3), and the text under each heading outlines the wizard screens you see if you make that partic-
ular choice.

I Am Blind or Have Difficulty Seeing Things on Screen

Aside from increasing the text size for the menus and window titles, options available earlier in the
wizard, the Accessibility Wizard also presents a series of choices for altering specific interface ele-
ments for easier viewing by those with poor eyesight.
In this section of the Accessibility Wizard, you first choose the width of the scroll bars. Next comes
the icon size with the choices Normal, Large, and Extra Large. Again, because icons represent a cru-
cial element in the interface, you should set these at the most appropriate configurations for you.
In the next window, you have a choice of five color schemes. You can keep your current scheme
or choose from four additional schemes that emphasize strong contrast. Experiment with these, and
choose the one you want. For many people, white text on a black background is much easier to read
than the standard black text on a white background, and here you can make that choice.
 Chapter 18: Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface 317

Figure 18-3: Each of these check boxes corresponds to one of

the following four sections.

Click Next to choose the cursor style and color you want — again with the goal of making the
cursor as visible as possible. Clicking Next again gives you the option of changing the blink rate of
the cursor. In the subsequent stage of the wizard, review what you’ve done and then click Finish to
set everything in place.

Note
The settings available in the various sections of the Accessibility Wizard that pertain to sight are subsets of
the options available in the Display Settings dialog box and the Mouse utility in Control Panel. The wizard
makes these choices easier to make with less need to dig through the configuration utilities and windows
elsewhere in XP. However, you may want to use the Control Panel to fine-tune these and related settings.

I Am Deaf or Have Difficulty Hearing

Sounds from the Computer
The Accessibility Wizard deals with hearing impairment by adding sounds and subtitles — the same
way television does. In the first step of the wizard after you choose this option, you configure
SoundSentry, the XP feature that displays a visual notification whenever the computer makes an
event sound. The visual notification comes in the form of a rather off-putting flash. It’s off-putting
because it’s so fast and abrupt; you might think, understandably, that your computer is slightly mal-
functioning. But, it’s certainly better than nothing.
318 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Tip
You don’t actually need sounds turned on in Windows XP to use the SoundSentry feature. Go into Control
Panel, launch the Sounds and Audio Devices utility, click the Sounds tab, and look at the Sound Schemes
menu. If the menu shows No Sounds, you’re telling XP not to generate sounds, but the SoundSentry feature
continues to flash your title bar, window, or screen.

Clicking Next on the wizard brings you to the ShowSounds dialog box. With this option turned
on, programs with ShowSounds capability display captions for sounds or speech relevant to that
program. The option is useful only if the software designers have programmed the application to
support ShowSounds and developed the captions as part of the package. Because this is hit or miss,
you’ll find that turning ShowSounds on results in an inconsistent interface experience, but, if you
know that the program you bought uses ShowSounds, the feature can help.
After you exit the Accessibility Wizard, you can choose which part of the screen to flash: the
active window’s title bar, the active window itself, or the screen. To make your choice, open the
Accessibility Options dialog box from the Control Panel (use the Start menu or Winlogo+R, control
access.cpl), click the Sound tab, and click the arrow in the Choose the visual warning menu. Make
sure the Use SoundSentry box is checked, and click OK to activate your choice.

Tip
As with other accessibility options, you do not need to be hearing impaired to appreciate SoundSentry and
ShowSounds. In an office with cubicles instead of real doors, the last thing the person besides you wants to
hear is your PC making sounds (to say nothing of speech). The same holds true when you’re working in your
house late at night or in the family room during a quiet movie. Turning these options on at such times can
help.

I Have Difficulty Using the Keyboard or Mouse

XP offers a series of options to help use the primary input devices — the mouse and keyboard. The
design of keyboards and mice, like the design of most technological control devices, thoroughly
reflects the belief among designers in a typical or normal mode of human action. Nothing’s wrong
with that; in fact, it’s probably necessary. Unfortunately, many people don’t fit that standard of nor-
malcy. There is nothing whatsoever intuitive about using a mouse because it’s based on motor ability
skills that people must learn. Just watch anyone who has trouble equating the movement of the
mouse itself on a horizontal surface, such as a mouse pad, with the movement of the pointer on the
vertical surface of the monitor. There is also nothing intuitive about typing, especially when the typ-
ing involves the pressing of multiple keys almost simultaneously, as so many computer commands do.
 Chapter 18: Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface 319

That’s why the keyboard and mouse options in the Windows XP Accessibility Wizard are so wel-
come and why they should not remain so hopelessly buried. They will assist the physically disabled,
and they will also assist anyone else who has trouble manipulating these two crucial interface com-
ponents. You can do yourself a real favor by trying them out and tailoring them to your own needs.
When setting all options in the mouse and keyboard categories, you should work in conjunction
with the Accessibility Options dialog box (see Figure 18-4) available on the Control Panel
(Winlogo+R, control access.cpl). The Accessibility Wizard turns the options on or off, but you can
configure them further in Accessibility Options.

Figure 18-4: One of five tabs of the

Accessibility Options in Control Panel. This
dialog is separate from the Accessibility
Wizard, although clearly they overlap in
function (the wizard combines settings from
numerous separate Control Panels).

Keyboard Accessibility Settings

The keyboard is the primary interface between you and your PC — to the extent that getting any-
thing done in Windows programs very often requires keyboard skills more than anything else. For
this reason, Microsoft has developed accessibility options for the keyboard to render it more usable
for users with disabilities affecting the use of their hands. In addition, as with all other accessibility
options, these features can prove useful to any user under certain circumstances.
320 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Caution
One of the reasons Windows XP lets you turn off the shortcuts to these various keyboard options is that it’s
too easy for people who need some of these features to toggle them on accidentally. If you have difficulty
releasing keys after pressing them, for example, you might turn on ToggleKeys by holding Num Lock down for
five seconds without realizing it. On the other hand, the FilterKeys option for ignoring repeated strokes works
completely against your ability to use the shortcut for StickyKeys (five consecutive Shift key presses). Be
careful, in other words, not to counteract your own choices.

StickyKeys
The first stage along the keyboard and mouse path leads to StickyKeys. Essentially, this feature holds
down some important keys for you — specifically, Shift, Ctrl, or Alt. Whenever a command you need
requires a key combination, such as Shift+F12 to save a document or Windows’ popular Alt+Tab
task-switching feature, StickyKeys lets you press the two keys separately rather than together.
StickyKeys takes some getting used to. Here’s an example of how to use it in conjunction with the
Alt+Tab feature in XP:

1. Enable the StickyKeys feature itself, from either the Accessibility Wizard or the Accessibility
Options dialog box. Alternatively, you can press the Shift key five times in a row to activate
StickyKeys. With the former option, StickyKeys remains turned on; with the latter, you
activate it only when you need it.
2. Press the Alt key twice and release it both times. This key, called the modifier key, is the
single most important component to understanding how StickyKeys work. You have to
press the modifier key twice to make the key “stick.” In a word processor, for example,
you normally press the Shift key along with a specific letter key to create an uppercase ver-
sion of that letter. With StickyKeys, you press Shift twice in succession to turn it on. After
which, you press the letter. In such a case, Shift is the modifier key.
3. Press the Tab key once, and release it to reveal the task-switching menu. Press it repeatedly
until you reach the icon for the task you want to bring to the front of the screen. When
you’ve reached that icon, press and release the Alt tab once again. This action turns off the
StickyKeys action and brings the window to the front.

StickyKeys become tricky in cases in which you need to press two modifier keys to perform the
action. In the good old Ctrl+Alt+Delete combination, for example, you must press the Ctrl key twice
to make it stick, followed by the Alt key twice to make it stick, and then the Delete key to bring up
the Windows Task Manager dialog box. You then need to press the Alt key to turn it off and then
press the Ctrl key to turn it off.
You can configure StickyKeys to your preference through the Accessibility Options Control Panel
applet. Open the Accessibility Options applet in the Control Panel, choose the Keyboard tab, and
click the Settings button in the StickyKeys area. Here, you can choose whether to use the shortcut for
enabling StickyKeys (pressing Shift five times in succession), and you can also choose not to require
 Chapter 18: Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface 321

the double pressing of the modifier key to lock it into place. If you turn the double-pressing off,
every time you press a modifier key (including the much used Shift key, as well as Alt or Ctrl), you
will lock it. This will take considerable practice to work with effectively. You can also turn off the
sounds StickyKeys makes when you press a modifier key.

BounceKeys
Press Next on the Accessibility Wizard to move to the next choice, BounceKeys. If you have difficulty
with repeated keystrokes — for example, you tend to hold keys down too long, which creates repeated
characters across the screen — you can turn repeated keystrokes off completely.

Tip
For a quick adjustment to key repetition, open the Keyboard applet in the Control Panel (Winlogo+R, control
keyboard) and decrease the Repeat Rate. That way, the repeat feature is still on, but you have to hold the key
longer to activate it.

Filterkeys and SlowKeys

The Accessibility Options Control Panel applet gives you detailed control over BounceKeys. In fact,
it’s so detailed that it goes by a different name, FilterKeys (I’ve honestly no idea why). Open the
Keyboard tab of the Accessibility Options Control Panel applet, and click the Settings button in the
FilterKeys area. You can choose whether to use the FilterKeys shortcut (holding the right Shift key
for eight seconds), and you can opt between ignoring repeated keystrokes or ignoring quick key-
strokes. Ignoring repeated keystrokes tells Windows not to act if you press a key more than once in
a specified period of time. Half a second is the default setting, which is, in fact, quite long. You can
change this timing by clicking the Settings button. The Settings button for ignoring quick keystrokes
is much more elaborate, letting you set both the time after which the keyboard starts to repeat and
the rate of repetition.
Here, you can also set an option called SlowKeys in which you instruct Windows to display a key
only after you’ve held the key down for a specific duration. The default is one second — once again,
a good long time.

ToggleKeys
The wizard next takes you to ToggleKeys, an option in which Windows plays a sound when you
press one of the three keyboard lock keys — Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock. This option is
extremely useful for notebook users. You can turn this feature on by holding down the Num Lock
key for five seconds. The Settings button lets you toggle the shortcut off if you wish.

Extra Help
The final keyboard choice is extra keyboard help in programs that support it. This help is designed
for users who have difficulty using a mouse (or who don’t want to use one) but require extra infor-
mation about using the keyboard in those programs. Each program displays this help system in its
own way, so you’ll have to search for it.
322 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

ACCESSIBILITY CHOICES FOR THE MOUSE

The next three screens in the Accessibility Wizard give you added control over your mouse. Actually,
the first screen, MouseKeys, lets you eliminate the need for a mouse completely by enabling the
numeric keypad to simulate the mouse. Clicking Yes results in the following interface changes with
all actions taking place on the numeric keypad:

You use the arrow keys to move the pointer.

You press the minus sign (–) key to switch from the left mouse button to the right mouse
button and the forward slash key (/) to switch back to the left mouse button. The following
keys work regardless of whether you’re emulating the right or left mouse button:
■ You press the 5 key to simulate single-clicking the mouse button.
■ You press the plus sign (+) key to simulate double-clicking the mouse button.
■ You press the Ins key to simulate clicking and holding the mouse button.
■ You press the Del key to simulate releasing the mouse button (after using Ins).

You have further options available on the Mouse tab of the Accessibility Options Control Panel
applet. You can turn on or off the shortcut for using MouseKeys (press the Alt+left Shift+Num Lock
combination; you have to wonder who made that one up), and you can alter the pointer speed. You
can also choose to have MouseKeys available when the Num Lock key is off instead of on. This is a
useful option if you have your computer configured to leave the Num Lock key off when Windows
boots.
The next stage of the wizard lets you choose the cursor you prefer, and the final two stages let you
configure your mouse for right-handed or left-handed use and set the pointer speed as well.

I Want to Set Adminstrative Options

The final option on the opening screen of the Accessibility Wizard (that is, after choosing font size)
is to configure various administrative settings related to the accessibility features. You have only two
options here, but it’s a useful start. First, you can choose to leave the accessibility features on at all
times or turn them off as a group after the PC has detected no activity for a specified period of time.
The default is five minutes, but you can change this to anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes. This setting
affects the following accessibility features:

StickyKeys
FilterKeys
ToggleKeys
High Contrast

Click Next to move to the final screen, which asks if you want to establish the current accessibil-
ity options as the default for yourself and other users’ accounts, including new ones. If you click No,
Windows configures only your account with these options.
 Chapter 18: Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface 323

Tailoring the Interface with PowerToys

Over the years, Microsoft has established a tradition of releasing for each version of Windows a set of
utilities known as PowerToys. These utilities range in function from providing an alternative to the
Alt+Tab task-switching feature to a utility called Tweak UI that lets you alter the Windows interface
dramatically. This section examines the PowerToys for Windows XP in general, with primary atten-
tion on Tweak UI.

Caution
Microsoft makes it perfectly clear on its Web site that it does not officially support PowerToys. It never has,
and it apparently never will. This means that you install them at your own risk and, if something goes wrong,
you’re on your own to figure out what the problem might be. Then again, you’ve quite likely had precisely the
same experience with fully supported software, so you might not notice much difference. At any rate, before
installing the PowerToys, set a restore point with the System Restore utility so that you can revert to the pre-
installation configuration if you need to. (See Chapter 6 to learn more about setting a restore point.)

Installing the PowerToys

To get the Windows XP PowerToys on your system, you must download and install each component
separately. You’ll find them all on the Web at the following address microsoft.com/windowsxp/
downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx.
You have 11 different PowerToys available to you. Each Power Toy has its own .exe file to down-
load. Installing it is a simple matter of clicking the link to the file, choosing Save in the subsequent
File Download dialog box, saving it to your hard drive, and launching it from your hard drive. None
of the downloads takes more than a couple of minutes.

Digging into the Interface with Tweak UI

Even though all the PowerToys have something to offer, the undisputed prince is Tweak UI. With
this utility, you can customize an extremely large array of interface elements, which, when com-
bined with the enhancements covered in this chapter and the previous chapters, enable you to fur-
ther tailor the interface to your needs and likes. The following sections cover the major features of
Tweak UI.
To open Tweak UI, install it and then use the All Programs menu to navigate to the PowerToys for
Windows XP folder. Alternatively, click Start ➝ Run, type tweakui into the Open field, and press
Enter. Figure 18-5 shows a typical view of Tweak UI. You click the plus signs to expand the menus
and then click on the individual element to customize (if you’ve used early versions of Tweak UI,
you’ll notice that the tabs have disappeared from the top of the dialog box). Tweak UI displays a sep-
arate dialog pane for each element. Notice that every element — not just subitems — has one or more
configurable choices. There’s a ton of stuff here.
Ultimately, you should poke through all the screens in TweakUI, even if you don’t change any-
thing. In the following sections, I’ll point out a few of my favorites; you’ll discover your own.
324 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 18-5: The dual-pane look of Tweak UI.

GENERAL CHOICES
Clicking the General item reveals an extensive list of configurable options. Most of these choices —
but not all — affect your system’s resources. Unchecking them reduces the amount of system mem-
ory XP uses. All animation options — window animation, ToolTip animation, menu fading, menu
section fading, and so on — fall into this category.
The other choices have different functions. Unchecking Beep On Errors tells Windows not to play
a beep sound whenever errors happen. Unchecking Optimize Hard Disk When Idle stops Windows
from automatically repositioning the files and folders on your hard drive whenever your PC is on but
not in use (you can perform this function manually by using the built-in Defragmentation tool,
which is covered in Chapter 22).
Two submenus are available form the General menu, as discussed in the following two sections.

Focus
One of the problems with Windows XP is its tendency for some programs to take over from other
programs, even when you’re busy working with the original application. This tendency can cause
problems, particularly when the second program steals focus as you’re in the process of pressing a
key that affects the new program. On the Focus submenu you can tell XP to stop doing this as well
as how you want to be informed that a program needs attention: You can have it flash the Taskbar
button continually or a limited number of times.

Alt+Tab
When you press the Alt+Tab combination while working in Windows, the middle of the screen dis-
plays a temporary window that doesn’t have an official name but that should be called the Task
Switcher. By default, the window is three rows by seven columns in size. You can change those dimen-
sions here.
 Chapter 18: Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface 325

Tip
You can replace the Alt+Tab Task Window entirely by installing the Alt+Tab replacement PowerToy, which is
covered in the “Playing with the Rest of the PowerToys” section later in this chapter.

MOUSE CHOICES
You can adjust mouse behavior in numerous ways. From the primary Mouse menu item, you can set
the amount of delay before submenus appear when you hover the pointer over them. At the fastest set-
ting, they appear immediately. At the slowest, they don’t appear at all. In which case, you have to click
the item to reveal the submenu. From this dialog box, you can also adjust the mouse sensitivity — both
the speed at which Windows reads a double-click and the number of pixels you must drag an item
(such as an icon) before Windows performs the drag action. Both choices help you avoid accidental
actions.
Three submenus are available under the Mouse item:

Hover: You hover the mouse when you hold the pointer over an icon or other item.
Changing the hover sensitivity alters the size of the area in which the pointer activates the
hover effect. Increasing or decreasing the hover time changes the number of milliseconds
you must hover the pointer in that defined area before the hover effect kicks in.
Wheel: Here you can set the scrolling options, precisely as you can in the Mouse utility
from the Control Panel.
X-Mouse: Unix users have long been accustomed to the X-Mouse feature in which you
choose a window by simply moving the pointer onto it without the need to click that
window. The X-Mouse option lets you configure Windows XP to work the same way. By
checking the Auto-raise option, you tell Windows not only to select that window when
you move the pointer over it but to bring it to the front of all the other windows as well.

Caution
Using the X-Mouse option takes extensive practice if you’re used to the standard Windows window selec-
tion method. It’s easy to confuse yourself as you move the mouse around the screen. To minimize the impact,
turn on the activation feature first, practice with it for a while, and then choose the Auto-raise option.

EXPLORER CHOICES
By right, the Explorer item in Tweak UI requires a chapter all its own. A huge array of choices appears
in the main dialog and the Explorer subdialogs (see Figure 18-6). Many of which significantly affect the
user experience.
326 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 18-6: The tip of the iceberg of Explorer tweaks.

With this one part of TweakUI, you can do the following:

Remove several items from the Start menu — Help and Support, Logoff, and Recent
Documents.
Establish whether you allow Web content on the desktop and, if you have such content, if
you want to lock the content into place and not allow content to be added or removed.
Configure Windows to cover your tracks whenever you log off so that nobody else can see
your document history, the commands you’ve typed into the Start ➝ Run feature, or URLs
you’ve typed into the Address bar of Internet Explorer.
Clear the network history to remove items from My Network Places on exit.
Get rid of the option to view other computers on the local network.
Add an Encyrpt command to the context menu of each file or folder.
Change the interface so that pressing the Tab key in a dialog box menu takes you to the
next item on that menu instead of to the next field of the dialog box.

The following sections explain the things you can modify in the subdialog boxes under Explorer.

Shortcut, Colors, Thumbnails, and Slide Show

The Shortcut item lets you change the appearance of the little curving arrow that appears on short-
cut icons or get rid of them completely. Under Colors, you set the colors for compressed and
encrypted files as well as for items you hover (the feature is called Hot-tracking) over if you’ve cho-
sen the single-click interface. Hot-tracking provides a visual cue that clicking the item will launch it.
 Chapter 18: Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface 327

With the Thumbnails option, you choose the image quality of thumbnails that appear in your
folders, as well as the size of the thumbnail in pixels. You can pack smaller thumbnails on the screen
or make them larger to really see what they contain.
The other major display task in image folders, Slide Show, is also open to customization here.
Click the Slide Show item and set the time in milliseconds that each image remains on the screen
before switching to the next one.

Command Keys
If your computer has specialized keys for actions such as launching your Web browser or email pro-
gram, for copying and pasting, for controlling volume, and so on, you can customize the action of
each of these buttons through the Command Keys dialog box. From the list of command keys, choose
the appropriate one from the list (not all keyboards support all the listed keys), and click the Change
button.
You can tell Windows to perform the action displayed on the key’s label or to do nothing (thereby
disabling the key). You can also reprogram the key to perform a different action entirely. To do so,
click the radio button labeled Run a Custom Program When the Key Is Pressed and type the path of
the file you want to launch. The dialog box doesn’t include a Browse button, so you need to know
the full path of the item in order to make it work.

Customizations
When you customize your folders, Windows XP requires considerable resources to store and recall
the customized settings as you open the folders. To free up memory, you can restrict the number of
folder settings Windows remembers. The default is 400, but, because most people open only a lim-
ited number of folders as they work, you can cut this number significantly before noticing any dif-
ference. As you work, the folder customization settings drop off the list in the reverse order of how
often you’ve loaded them into memory.

INTERNET EXPLORER CHOICES

If the Internet Options utility doesn’t offer you enough ways to customize Internet Explorer (see
Chapter 9), Tweak UI offers another wealth of possibilities. From the main link, you have only two
options: one for automatically changing the backslash character to the forward slash and one for
increasing the range of the automatic search function. However, the subitems make this section
worth visiting. These include the following:

Toolbar Background: Tailor the background of the IE toolbar and/or the Windows
Explorer toolbar by checking the appropriate box and clicking the Change button to
choose the background image you want the toolbar to display.
Search: Develop an easy-to-use search system by creating shortcut names for popular
search engines and then typing the shortcut and the search string in the Address bar. This
eliminates the need to go to the search engine site before searching.
View Source: Change the program that launches when you choose the Source command
in IE’s View menu. By default, this program is Notepad, but there are many more capable
editors.
328 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Small Animation and Large Animation: Choose a new icon displayed in the top-right
corner of each IE window to show that activity is under way. The Windows logo is there
by default, but you can choose an Internet Explorer icon or any other image you want. To
create an animated icon, you must develop a sequence of images 26 pixels square for the
small animation and 38 pixels square for the large.
Image Toolbar: Configure the minimum size of the image that will trigger IE to display
the Pictures toolbar when you hover on that image.

LOGON CHOICES
The final major set of configurations rests with the Logon item and its submenus. In the main dialog
box, you can choose which account names to display on the desktop’s Welcome screen, including
the Administrator account, which is hidden by default.

Caution
By default, Windows XP hides the Administrator account from the Welcome screen. This account is built into
Windows during installation and provides complete control over the system. Even though you can password-
protect the Administrator account, for full security, you should let it remain hidden so that other users don’t
become curious about its function. You can access this account by using the User Accounts utility in the
Control Panel. Here, you can change the way users log on and off by reverting to the Windows 2000 logon
screen and typing the account name and password into the older-style logon dialog box.

Autologon: Bypass the Welcome screen entirely by configuring XP to log on to a specific

user account automatically. If you have password-protected the account, click the Set
Password button to include the password in the Autologon.

Caution
The Autologon option is a really, really bad idea from the standpoint of system security. However, it is conve-
nient if you don’t have those security concerns.

Unread Mail: Change the way the Welcome screen displays the number of unread email
messages waiting for each user. Because this number is substantially useless, you can
uncheck the box and eliminate the notice entirely.
Settings: Change the appearance of the Welcome screen by copying your desktop
settings — fonts, colors, smoothing effects, wallpaper, and more — to make it look like
your desktop.
Screen Saver: Configure the number of seconds the screen saver will allow before prompt-
ing you for your password on the Welcome screen when you touch the mouse or keypad.
 Chapter 18: Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface 329

MY COMPUTER, CONTROL PANEL, TEMPLATES

The My Computer item provides a variety of items related specifically to the My Computer folder.
Under the main heading, you establish which of a few items appear in the My Computer folder,
whereas the Drives heading lets you check which drives — floppy, fixed, and removable — you want
the My Computer folder to display. Special Folders lets you change the location of folders, such as
CD Burning, My Documents, Programs, Favorites, and My Pictures, whereas Drive Letters lets you
change how the drive letter and the drive’s labels display.
The Control Panel item displays a lengthy menu of utilities that display in the Control Panel.
Checking an item displays it, and unchecking hides it. By default, most items in the list are dis-
played so the only reason you would typically use this menu is to reduce the number of Control
Panel icons.
In the Templates item, you can choose which file types you want in the submenu that appears
when you right-click the desktop or inside a folder and choose New. Many programs add their own
file type to this list, so feel free to remove items if you don’t typically use them. If you use file types
not in this list, click the Create button to add them yourself. Navigate to the document template for
the program you wish to add, and click Open to complete the addition.

COMMON DIALOGS, DESKTOP, AND REPAIR

These three items contain relatively few options, and, as a result, they are covered together here.
The Common Dialogs item lets you specify if you want to enable the AutoComplete function in all
dialog boxes that let you edit filenames. This item also lets you specify whether you want Open and
Save dialog boxes to display the arrow to the right of the File Name field, which allows you to recall
recently edited names. You can also edit the Places bar, which lets you select frequently accessed fold-
ers easily, or customize it to include the folders you want. You must know the path name if you wish to
include folders not included in the drop-down menu.
With the Desktop item, you can determine which icons you want to include or exclude from
the desktop. You can also specify which icon appears first — My Documents (the default) or My
Computer.
Clicking on the Repair item displays a single menu from which you can command Windows to
rebuild the default icons, the font folder, custom icons for the My Pictures, My Music, and My Video
folders, Regedit, and the unread mail count. Use this feature when Windows displays incorrect icons
or information.

Playing with the Rest of the PowerToys

None of the remaining PowerToys presents anywhere near the complexity of Tweak UI. Each exists
for a specific purpose, either as an enhancement to the XP interface or as a replacement for an exist-
ing interface element. This list outlines uses for the remaining toys:

Alt+Tab Replacement: The taskswitch.exe file replaces the existing Alt+Tab Task Switcher
with a more elaborate version. Figure 18-7 shows the more advanced Task Switcher. The
PowerToys version shows a small thumbnail of the open files as you tab through them. In
addition, clicking an icon immediately brings that window to the front (clicking the stan-
dard Task Switcher causes the utility to disappear).
330 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 18-7: The replacement Alt+Tab Task Switcher.

CD Slide Show Generator: The Slideshow.exe file lets you view the images on a CD as a
slide show.
HTML Slide Show Wizard: The Htmlgen.exe file creates a wizard with which you can put
together slide shows of images for the Web, which is ready for publishing to a site.
Image Resizer: The ImageResizer.exe file gives you a right-click context menu that allows
you to resize images on the fly.
Open Command Window Here: The CmdHere.exe file adds an item to a folder’s right-
click context menu that lets you launch a command window with that folder currently
selected.
Power Calculator: The PowerCalc.exe file gives you a more full-featured calculator than
the one installed by default in XP.
Taskbar Magnifier: The Magnifier.exe file installs an icon on the Taskbar with which you
can magnify a specific portion of the screen.
Virtual Desktop Manager: The Deskman.exe file adds a multiple desktop feature to
Windows XP. You can add folders and icons to each desktop, although you cannot format
each desktop differently as you can in some third-party programs. The Virtual Desktop
Manager is an extremely useful addition to the Windows interface for anyone who works
with numerous open windows that need organization for efficient use of space.
Webcam Timershot: The Timershot.exe file adds a utility that lets you take pictures from
your Webcam at specific intervals. You can save the pictures to any location you like,
including a Web site. This feature is perfect for demonstrating how dull your workday
really is.
 Chapter 18: Taking Even Greater Control of Your Interface 331

Summary
With a look at the Tweak UI interface utility, the Accessibility options of Windows XP, and some
methods of getting Windows XP to look and feel more like Windows 2000, this chapter concludes
the discussion of customizing your Windows interface. By this point, you should have a Windows
XP interface that works exactly the way you want it to, as well as the knowledge necessary to con-
tinue to make changes as you need them. The idea is to take control of this complex operating sys-
tem. Chapter 19 extends this idea with a look at installing programs to make your Windows
installation even more your very own.
Part V

Utilities

I f working through Part V hasn’t caused you to spend way more time than you should customiz-
ing your Windows XP desktop, you can find any number of utilities to help you use the rest of
your precious hours. Some of the utilities that let you customize your desktop do nothing more than
make aesthetic changes, while others let you customize the interface more quickly, easily, and effec-
tively to let you change Windows into whatever you want to make it.

Shells and Interface Customizers

Ever since Windows first appeared, developers of freeware, shareware, and commercial software
have been providing software to let you change its look and feel. In fact, Microsoft itself got into this
game in 1995 with the release of Microsoft Bob, which attempted to make the desktop look like an
actual desktop and the office like an actual office, but despite a certain appeal, it was a little too
cutesy at the time, to say nothing of being extremely slow. But it showed that putting a customization
layer over Windows was not only possible, but potentially dramatic.
Your first stop in the Windows customization field should be Stardock (www.stardock.com),
which offers a fascinating array of products designed specifically to make Windows whatever you
want. WindowBlinds is the major offering here, downloadable as a free trial and then available for
$20. But in a much better deal, it’s also available for $50 as part of Object Desktop, the entire suite
of Stardock products. In addition to WindowBlinds, you get IconPackager and IconDeveloper
(change and create icons), WindowFX (add visual effects to Windows elements), SkinStudio (create
new skins for Windows), Object Bar (replaces the Start bar), Virtual Desktops (create multiple acces-
sible desktops), DesktopX (even greater customizability of the Windows desktop), and more.
WindowBlinds itself gives you the tools to change the look and feel of Windows XP in numerous
ways, including different layouts of icons and windows, much different looks, and different func-
tions for keystroke combinations and mouse clicks. Get WindowBlinds alone and you can play —
uh, create — for hour upon hour. Get it as part of the entire Object Desktop package as a whole, and
it’s probably impossible to run out of customization ideas.

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334 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

3DNA Desktop (www.3dna.net) gives Windows a three-dimensional appearance. Actually, it does

more than that, providing 3-D “worlds” that take over your Windows desktop. You can download a
wealth of worlds and even separate skies for those worlds; the skies can even change as you work.
You can even play with 3-D toys. Most important, though (well, for the worker in us), 3DNA is an
organizer, letting you organize your folders, files, favorites, and much more. After you get your
3DNA desktop up and running, you really do have a completely different environment to work with.
Talisman Desktop (www.lighttek.com) takes interface customization a step further, enabling you
not only to alter the existing Windows desktop as dramatically as you wish but also to replace the
Windows desktop completely with Talisman itself. The result is your ability to build fully customized
user interfaces for special purposes, such as providing a specifically designed interface for public ter-
minals (for businesses, stores, clubs, schools, and so on). You can also use the program to allow each
user to create her/his own interface, or for tailoring the interfaces of the users to your own satisfac-
tion (useful for creating child-friendly interfaces, for example).
A similar program is Aston (www.astonshell.com), which also replaces your existing Windows
interface. Sophisticated scrollbars on the Aston interface give you easier access to your documents
than Windows does, and it also makes it far easier to determine space available on your drives (hard
and removable alike). Another fascinating utility is NextStart (www.winstep.net), which replaces the
Start menu and other menus on your system, complete with a HotSpot feature that lets you apply
links to specific menus from any other interface element. Combined with WinStep’s WorkShelf, which
is a full Windows desktop replacement, NextStart gives you a huge range of possibilities for reconfig-
uration. Both utilities (along with a font browsing utility) are available in the WinStep Full Pack.
Less comprehensive interface tools are also readily available. For example, PaneKiller (www.
maddogsw.com) gives you detailed control over the Start menu as well as the options for the My
Computer and Control Panel and any other folder you’d like to add to the customization mix. Because
it replaces some of the functions of the Internet Explorer toolbars (which adds a Favorites folder to the
Windows interface, for instance), PaneKiller is ideal for users who want to remove IE from their sys-
tems and work with another browser instead.

Virtual Desktop Managers

Virtual Desktop managers give you several different desktops to work with and switch to. For exam-
ple, you might want your main desktop to contain folders and program icons for some home office
uses, while a second contains all the folders and icons you need for a specific work function (graph-
ics creation, let’s say) and a third contains an entertainment/leisure desktop environment. Using a
virtual desktop manager, you can create each of these customized desktops and switch among them
either by using hotkeys or by clicking among the workspace icons created by the manager and
placed (usually) at the bottom of the screen.
Unlike the majority of desktop managers for Linux, which include virtual desktops as part of the
package, Windows requires a separate installation if you want to use one. Microsoft has a virtual
desktop utility as part of the Windows XP PowerToys package. (Go to microsoft.com and search for
Power Toys.) Called the Virtual Desktop Manager (yet another stunningly inventive title), this utility
offers four separate desktops and works, generally, quite well. It has crashed my system more often
than I’d like, though, so I tend to steer clear of it.
 Part V: Utilities 335

Virtual Desktop Toolbox (www.r2d2-software.com) is one such utility, allowing for as many desk-
tops as you want, although as with any program, desktops get extremely impractical once you’re past
six or eight. Virtual Desktop Toolbox includes a variety of useful features such as controlling remote
desktops (in conjunction with Windows Remote Desktop). GoScreen (www.goscreen.info) works
similarly, letting you create up to 40 virtual desktops. An interesting approach to virtual desktops is
MaxiVista (www.maxivista.com), which uses the networking features of Windows XP to allow a sec-
ond, third, and fourth PC (that is entirely separate machines) to function as desktop extensions for
the primary PC. You can drag a window from one to the other, and yet (unlike multiple monitor sup-
port on graphics cards) the other PCs can still be running their own programs.
In addition to these two types of utilities, you can download a wealth of themes, screensavers,
icons, and much, much more, turning your Windows desktop into anything you want it to be.
Microsoft itself offers the Plus! SuperPack for Windows, which gives you a good selection of alterna-
tive themes as well as software for creating slideshows and CD/DVD labels, and a few high-resolution
screensavers. Themes are available for download all over the Web. (Do a quick Google search and
you’ll unearth hundreds of them.) You can often find backgrounds, themes, and screensavers on
entertainment sites as well; most new high-profile movies have them, for example. The trick with all
of these utilities is to experiment until you find something that works for you, or until you’ve satis-
fied yourself that you can, in fact, boot your PC into pretty much any environment you want.
 Part VI
Installing and Removing Software
and Hardware
Chapter 19
Installing Software
Chapter 20
Removing Software
Chapter 21
Installing Hardware
Chapter 22
Hardware Configuration, Maintenance, and
Troubleshooting
Chapter 23
Speeding Up Windows
Part VI Utilities
Chapter 19

Installing Software

N o matter how many programs you already have for your Windows PC, more await you on
store shelves, on download sites, on CDs and DVDs that come with magazines, and as trial
software on corporate sites. In fact, if you buy a PC with anything less than an 80–120GB hard drive
these days, you stand a very real chance of filling it up with programs alone. This is especially true if
you install extremely large programs (computer games are a major culprit here) or programs
designed to create files that themselves become very large. Video creation software, although it fre-
quently takes up relatively little room on its own (today, less than 100MB constitutes “relatively little
room”), creates files that can quickly overrun a small hard drive. Graphic design programs also pro-
duce files that eat up disk space, primarily because designers, especially professionals, create many
versions of the same data file as the editing progresses.
This chapter outlines typical practices and methods for installing new software and examines
issues such as automatic installation and end-user license agreements.

Planning the Installation

First of all, do something you’ll never ever regret. Before installing any program whatsoever, do your-
self a favor and take a snapshot of your system with the System Restore utility. That way, if something
unwanted occurs during the installation, such as a system crash or a previously installed program not
working properly, you can use System Restore again to undo the installation and return Windows to
its previous state.

Cross-Reference
Chapter 6 covers the details of System Restore.

The size of the data files is important when planning the installation of a program. First, before
even starting the installation, check to see that you have enough disk space, especially if you have
only one hard drive with one partition. If you have more than one partition, whether on one hard
339
340 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

drive or several, determine on which partition you want the new program to reside. By default,
Windows installers place each program in its own subfolder within the Program Files folder of the
primary hard drive, usually drive C.

Tip
Many programs detect, during the installation process, whether or not you have sufficient disk space. You
can do this yourself by using Windows Explorer (Winlogo+E) and selecting My Computer, then a drive — free
space will show in a pop-up menu, the status bar or in View ➝ Details. Some even give you a summary of the
space available on all your drives as a means of helping you decide the drive on which you wish to perform
the installation. Don’t be afraid to install on a different hard drive, and in a different folder, from the default
locations offered by the installation program. There’s no real reason to have all your programs in the Program
Files folder on your main hard drive; decide for yourself how you want to organize your disk space.

To find a program’s executable file — the file, almost always with an extension of .exe, loads the
program and its associated files and libraries — you can look in that program’s folder within Program
Files. You can launch the program by double-clicking this executable. But in the majority of cases in
Windows, you launch not from the actual program file, but from a desktop or menu shortcut that
does nothing more than tell Windows to locate the file at the specified location and launch it for you.
Shortcuts simply prevent you from having to find the resource yourself.
But you need not install the program where the Windows installer recommends. When you begin
an installation, the program’s installer asks where you want the program to reside. You can type a
path manually or use the Browse button to locate a preferred folder. If you want to install in a non-
default location, before starting the installation you should use Windows Explorer or My Computer
to create a folder specifically for the new program’s data files. Then you can direct the installation to
that folder or, after the installation is complete, use the Properties or Options dialog box in the pro-
gram to assign data files to your new folder.
Planning to install a program includes two other considerations as well:

Know that you may have to reboot your system after or during installation, so it’s a good
idea to save all open documents and close as many open applications as possible. With
earlier versions of Windows, installing almost any program resulted in a restart. With
Windows XP, programs require a reboot somewhat less often, with even major programs,
such as the Microsoft Office System 2003 suite, not forcing a reboot at all.
Plan what to do if the installation routine asks if you want the new program to serve as the
default programs for specific file types. Many programs do precisely this. For example, if
you install a graphics program, during installation a dialog box will almost certainly rec-
ommend that you make the new program the default for graphics files such as JPG, GIF,
TIF, BMP, and more. You should prepare for this question because in many cases the option
does not arise until near or at the very end of the installation. At that point, you’ll simply
want to get the whole thing over with and start clicking Next whenever you see it. It can
be extremely frustrating, however, to discover later that double-clicking on a file on your
desktop or in a folder launches a different program than the one you want.
 Chapter 19: Installing Software 341

Note
In some cases, programs you install seem to ask constantly for permission to be the default owner of a given
file type. Web browsers are famous for this, as are media players such as QuickTime and RealPlayer, and
email programs such as Outlook Express. In many cases, the only way to get the program to shut up is to go
into its preferences and disable the nag feature, although some programs offer a check box on the nag
screen itself to let you turn the auto-checking off. During installation, the best bet is usually not to let it take
over the file types it offers to own; instead, make that decision only once you know that you definitely want
this program on your system.
If you grant ownership of a specific file type to a program and you later uninstall that program, ownership
does not automatically revert to the original program. Sometimes, in fact, the only way for the original pro-
gram to retake ownership is to reinstall it. Keep this in mind when making your ownership choices during
installation.

What happens when you install a program

If you’ve installed even a half dozen software packages on your Windows XP system, you’ve
undoubtedly come across at least one, and possibly two, installer environments: InstallShield
and Wise. These competing utilities exist for the purpose of helping software developers and
manufacturers get their products to you in a form that allows an almost guaranteed hassle-free
installation. The fact that practically every Windows user can pop a CD into the drive and carry out
the installation proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that these utilities are fulfilling their purpose.
Both programs do essentially the same thing: They produce files for use by the Microsoft Installer
(MSI). These MSI files act as a script, carrying out the steps that the scriptwriter has programmed
into them. Each file contains a database, a directory structure, information about source media and
destination folders, and details on modifying the Windows registry, adding shortcuts to the desktop,
placing icons and their associated image files, storing files such as dynamic link libraries (DLLs),
and more. Microsoft Installer steps through the process one stage at a time, showing you what is
transpiring at any given moment and informing you when the installation has finished. The installation
utility itself provides a set of features designed to help the programmer organize the information
MSI needs.
To see the sheer usefulness of these programs, go to a machine running Linux, even one of the most
recent versions, and try to download and install a half-dozen programs. Over the last year or so,
software installations on Linux have improved dramatically, but there is virtually no comparison in
usability between installing a program on Windows and installing even the same program on Linux.
In fact, when you read a published comparison of the two operating systems in which Windows
receives higher usability marks than Linux, software installation almost certainly rides at the top of
the list of differences. In this regard, Windows still flat out works better.
342 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Performing the Installation

With your planning out of the way, it’s time to proceed with the installation. This can take any of the
following forms:

Insert the CD that came with the software package and wait for AutoPlay to start the instal-
lation procedure automatically. More often than not, this will start the installation.
Insert the CD that came with the software package, open My Computer, locate the icon for
the relevant CD-ROM drive, and double-click on that icon to start the installation procedure.
Insert the CD that came with the software package, open My Computer, and locate the
icon for the relevant CD-ROM drive. Right-click it, and choose Explore from the context
menu. In the main window of the resulting Windows Explorer utility, locate the Setup file
(typically called setup.exe but sometimes install.exe), and double-click it.
Insert the CD that came with the software package, open Control Panel, and double-click
the Add or Remove Programs utility (see Figure 19-1). Wait until the list of items appears
in the Currently Installed Programs area (the more you have, the longer it takes for the list
to appear), and then click the Add New Programs item in the Taskbar on the left. Click the
CD or Floppy button; with the CD in the drive, click Next on the Install Program from
Floppy Disk or CD-ROM Wizard. Add or Remove Programs searches these devices for the
installation file.

Tip
You can use Add or Remove Programs even if you don’t have a CD or floppy disk with the installation file. Step
through the process until the wizard tells you to insert the CD-ROM or floppy disk; when it fails to find one,
click Browse on the Run Installation Program dialog box. Manually locate the installation file, and click Finish
to begin installing the program.

Install the program from a downloaded compressed file, as detailed in the following sec-
tion, “Installing from Compressed Files.”

Installing from Compressed Files

Locate the compressed .exe or compressed (most commonly .zip) file you downloaded to your com-
puter from the download site. Double-click the file. If the file is an uncompressed .exe file, the instal-
lation should start, and you need do nothing extra. If the file is compressed, however, the unzip
utility will be launched. If this happens, click Unzip to uncompress the files and launch the installa-
tion procedure.
If the installation procedure does not begin after double-clicking the executable file, click Unzip
again and watch the utility to see where Windows places the unzipped files. Navigate to that folder
and double-click the setup.exe file to begin the installation.
 Chapter 19: Installing Software 343

Figure 19-1: The Add or Remove Programs utility in Control Panel.

If the downloaded file is a .zip (compressed files) instead of an executable, you’ll need to locate
the .zip file you downloaded from the download site. Double-click the file to open it, and locate the
setup.exe file. You now have two choices:

The most sure-fire process is to click the Extract All Files item in the Folder Tasks area on
the left of the Zip folder (if you don’t see the Task pane on the left, click the Folders button
to display it and then highlight the .zip file). Following the Extraction Wizard, choose a
folder into which to extract the files, or create a new one expressly for this purpose, then
click Next until you reach the Finish button. Click Finish to close the Extraction Wizard
and simultaneously open the folder where the extracted files now reside. Double-click the
setup.exe file from this folder.
If you wish, you can perform the installation directly from the compressed folder by double-
clicking the setup.exe file, but this method can fail because of the compression, and the
process typically takes considerably longer (up to double the amount of time) even if
it does work. The better idea is to extract the files and then, once the installation is com-
plete, delete both the compressed folder and the uncompressed files to reclaim your hard
disk space.
344 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Removing the highlighting from new programs on the Start menu

When you install a program, Windows XP highlights that program on the Start menu in two ways.
First, hovering over the Start button reveals a ToolTip (the New Program notification) stating that new
programs exist. Second, the folder for that program and the shortcuts inside that folder bear a yellow
background color — that is, the traditional color of a highlighter. When you launch the new program
from within the All Programs menu, the highlight disappears.
Well, the highlighting is supposed to disappear, at least. In practice, sometimes the highlight stays
around through multiple reboots, becoming increasingly annoying. Furthermore, because the New
Program notification pops up when you hover over the Start button, depending on the current screen
resolution it can hide the Log Off and Turn Off Computer buttons. Without question, on a crowded
system highlighting new installations helps locate them (especially when the folder name does not
match the program name), but sometimes you just want to turn the feature off.
To turn off the highlighting, open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box by right-clicking
the Taskbar and selecting Properties. Click the Start Menu tab, click the Start Menu radio button, and
then click the Customize button. Click the Advanced tab of the resulting Customize Start Menu dialog
box and, under the Start Menu Settings heading, uncheck the Highlight Newly Installed Programs
option. Click OK until the dialog boxes all disappear.

Other Installation Types

The installation methods outlined so far represent, by far, the most common forms of installation.
Over the course of your Windows XP travels, however, you might encounter additional installation
procedures. These procedures tend to dispense with either the InstallShield or Wise Wizards in favor
of a range of other methods that ensure the various files end up in the right place on your hard drive
and the registry entries undergo the appropriate changes.
Actually, in one increasingly rare case, no installation process of any kind takes place. In the days of
MS-DOS, installing a program frequently consisted of copying the files for that program to a folder (it
was called a directory back then) of your choice, including the executable file that runs the program. If
you have one of these programs — many users still work with WordPerfect 4.1, for example — you
need only ensure that the files end up together and that you can locate the .exe file. You can create a
shortcut to run this program or simply navigate to the correct folder and double-click the .exe file.
Some early Windows programs, especially simple games and utilities, worked this way, and these are
sometimes still available.
You can also install some programs from .inf files, typically used for information about hardware
or software settings. The primary source of installable .inf files has been Microsoft, which until
recently distributed its popular set of Windows utilities called PowerToys as .inf files. In fact, right-
clicking any .inf file yields the Install command in the context menu, so .inf is clearly an option for
program distribution. In the majority of cases, however, the .inf file represents only a small portion
of the full program. So, not only is there no point in installing it, but you may also cause difficulties
with other programs if you do so.
 Chapter 19: Installing Software 345

Cross-Reference
To find out more about PowerToys, see Chapter 18.

As the World Wide Web continues to grow, so do the number of ways in which developers, both
beneficent and malevolent, exploit the capability of users to make things happen with a simple
mouse click. ActiveX installation routines provide one significant example of this trend. Microsoft,
Macromedia, and many other major companies make use of ActiveX to simplify installation by pop-
ping up a dialog box when the installation is required (see Figure 19-2).When the browser encoun-
ters a Macromedia Flash object, for example, but the system does not have the correct version of
Flash installed, an ActiveX dialog box asks if you want to install it. At least, you’ll get this question-
ing dialog box if you leave Internet Explorer’s security settings in their default locations. You can
completely override those settings and allow all ActiveX installations to proceed unchecked, but
doing so would allow all sorts of intrusions and malicious code into your machine. So, it’s best to
leave the settings as they are.

Figure 19-2: This Security Warning dialog box begins

the ActiveX installation process.

Even more installation procedures exist in the Windows XP world. Windows Update provides a
primary example. Although I covered Windows Update in full in Chapter 5, it bears mention here
because its basis lies in new and updated installations. Windows Update provides a means for
Windows XP owners to keep their PCs up to date according to the criteria Microsoft has established.
If you go to the Windows Update site and allow your computer to be scanned, you can select any
updates from the three areas — Critical Updates and Service Packs, Windows, and Driver Updates —
and click the Review and Install Updates link to begin the installation procedure. Figure 19-3 shows
the results of clicking this link: the Install Now button leading to the Microsoft Windows Update dia-
log box in which you accept or reject the license agreement (see the “Inside a license agreement” side-
bar). Clicking the Accept button initiates the installation.
Other programs offer similar means of automatic updating. Probably the most common programs
of this type are virus checkers, which depend on frequently updated definition files — files that con-
tain the details the program needs to recognize each virus — to do their job. Every antivirus program
346 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

lets you manually update it either by downloading the virus definition files and applying them to the
program or by connecting to the manufacturer’s site from within the program itself, an easier process
because you don’t have to apply the definition files yourself. Other programs that depend on frequent
file updates for their usefulness, particular security-related programs such as anti-spam, anti-spyware,
anti-malware, and firewall software, all offer similar updating methods. In addition, many programs
provide a feature, typically called Check for Updates, that connects to the manufacturer’s site and
downloads and installs program patches and changes, in some cases replacing the original program
completely and installing a new version from scratch.
If you prefer, you can configure Windows Update and other programs to perform the installations
automatically (see Chapter 5 for details on doing this with Windows Update). In an automatic instal-
lation, a program connects to the Internet and downloads and installs files; all of this activity occurs
in the background and without action on your part. Actually, that’s not quite true — at one point,
either during initial setup or through a separate configuration dialog box, you have to configure the
program to perform this sequence of actions periodically. But once automatic installations are in
place, only when they have occurred do you know they happened. Microsoft’s Windows Update and
Symantec’s Norton AntiVirus, for example, perform either the download or the installation (you can
specify the degree of automation) in the background and inform you, through a small pop-up box,
that they have completed the activity. Other programs use similar techniques.

Figure 19-3: Installing from Windows Update.

 Chapter 19: Installing Software 347

Inside a License Agreement

Whenever you install a program and in many cases a software update, the installation procedure
shows you a license agreement, or at least a link to a license agreement, that you must accept in
order to continue with the installation (see the following figure). Sometimes this process takes the
form of clicking an Accept button; other times it’s a check box. In rare cases, to force you to pay
attention to the license, you must manually scroll to the bottom of the agreement before the Accept
button becomes active. In most cases, you don’t have to read the agreement, but you must
acknowledge that you accept it.
License agreements go by several names, with Software License Agreement (SLA) and End-User
License Agreement (EULA) being the most common (see the following figure). In the Windows world,
EULA seems the most common by far, in part because Microsoft uses that terminology. You don’t get
anything from Microsoft (not even the tiniest Windows Update file) without a EULA tagging along.

The EULA provides information on some or all of the following:

■ Making an archival copy of the software
■ Installing your software on more than one computer
■ Selling your software to another person
■ Using components of the programs (including data files) in commercially available products
■ What the manufacturer is responsible for, including situations in which you suffer damage as
a result of software failure (the answer is almost always nothing at all)

Continued
348 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Inside a License Agreement (Continued)

The important point about the EULA is that it is a legal document. By accepting it, you bind yourself
to its conditions and to the possibility that you can be penalized for using the software illegally (such
as putting a copy on each of your home machines). You should definitely read the license before
proceeding with the installation, but the fact remains that very few people do. The EULA holds the
same awe over computer owners as the FBI warning at the beginning of videotapes and DVDs has
always held over VCR owners. Obviously, you’ll do whatever you want, but don’t dismiss the EULA
without understanding the possible — though unlikely — legal ramifications.

You should allow automatic installations only if you are completely confident in the company and
the process. On the other hand, if you purchase a program that requires frequent updates in order to
work effectively, don’t go out of your way to deny it the right to update itself. If you get nailed by a
new virus because you don’t like the idea of your virus checker performing automatic installations,
you end up doing the suffering.

Note
One of the problems with automatic updating is precisely its background operation. Some virus checkers, for
example, check for new definition files whenever you power on your computer. Often this activity slows
down your computer, to the extent that, in the case of Norton Antivirus, you can get frustrated because
Windows responds to your mouse actions so slowly, and you end up clicking numerous icons. A few seconds
later, up pops the Norton notification window, and then an entire series of frustration-driven program
launches. You can stop this behavior only by shutting off the automatic updating feature in Norton AntiVirus,
but do so only if you can remember to perform a manual check for definition files regularly.

Summary
By installing software programs, you (hopefully) add more functionality or entertainment to your
PC. You can install programs that help you get your work done, that keep your system in good
repair, that give you a creative outlet, or that let you fritter away untold numbers of hours in blissful
amusement. Most programs install in much the same way, and they all take advantage of the broad
range of technologies that underlie Windows XP. They provide the building blocks of a Windows
system that works the way you need it to work.
Of course, the counterpart to installing software is removing it, and as you’ll see in the next chap-
ter, Windows XP offers a number of methods to accomplish this task as well.
Chapter 20

Removing Software

Y ou’d think that removing software would be easy — nothing more than a few mouse clicks to
take care of everything. And, to be sure, often a few clicks are all it takes. But, in far too many
situations, uninstalling the software on your system causes more headaches than installing it. In this
sense, you could argue that software is a little like termites and speeding tickets — much easier to get
than to get out of — but software is supposed to be much simpler to deal with. Install, use, uninstall,
done. Nobody wants it to be any more involved than that — with the possible exception of the soft-
ware vendors themselves. But, they’re not in charge. You are.
Back in the days of MS-DOS, uninstalling a program typically meant one thing only. Delete the
folder in which the program’s files resided. Sometimes, but not usually, you had to go to the extreme
of deleting a line or two in the system’s configuration files. However, with the release of Windows
3.x, system files suddenly took on a new importance. Even though program removal remained rela-
tively easy, the need to delete lines manually from the system files (system.ini and win.ini) grew more
important. Installing a program meant adding lines to one or both of these files — sometimes entire
sections in fact — and these lines provided instructions for Windows that, once the programs were
removed, sometimes resulted in system errors. If the program called for Windows to load a specific
file during the boot process, for example, and you deleted the file when you manually deleted that
program’s folder, Windows could stutter or even hang as it started up.
The release of Windows 95 saw the importance of the system files reduced in favor of a new and
more all-encompassing technology: the Windows registry. Less open to manual editing, if only
because its contents are obscure to all but the most technically inclined, the registry has given new
focus to installation and removal. Both actions modify the registry when initiated by a Windows pro-
cedure, and, in some cases, you cannot completely remove a program without editing the registry on
your own. After several months of use, with software actively installed and removed, the registry in
most Windows systems is cluttered with entries no longer relevant to the PC’s operation. Usually
these entries can simply remain in the registry without affecting the performance of Windows, but
they sometimes make a very real and, unfortunately, negative difference.
This chapter shows you how to delete programs from your computer by outlining a variety of
methods and techniques for making sure the job gets done completely.

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Note
This chapter refers to getting rid of programs by using the following interchangeable terms: uninstall,
remove, and delete.

The Easy Way: Add or Remove

Programs, Built-In and Third-Party
Uninstallers, and System Restore
The three methods outlined in this section represent the easiest — and usually the most — effective
means of removing programs from your PC. However, in difficult cases, they do not perform the
uninstallation to the most complete extent; in those cases, you should refer to the section later in this
chapter titled “The Harder Way: Mnaual Installs.” Most of the time, the easier methods discussed
here will do the job just fine.

Caution
See Chapter 4 on backing up your data. If there is any chance you’ll change your mind, be sure that you have
the original program installer.

Add or Remove Programs

The Add or Remove Programs utility in the Control Panel provides the easiest and most consistent
way to remove software from your system. In fact, you can help your chances of keeping your PC in
better working order by opening Add or Remove Programs regularly — at least once a month, for
example — and carefully examining the list of installed programs. Often, you’ll find programs you
haven’t used for a while. At other times, you’ll find programs you’ve forgotten you’d even installed.
You might also see programs in the list you can’t identify at all. All three types need your attention.
Figure 20-1 shows the Add or Remove Programs utility. Installed programs appear in the main
window and, in this case, one of them has been selected. One or two buttons appear to the right of
the program’s name. If you installed the program but did not include one or more separately listed
components, both the Change and Remove buttons appear. Click Change to remove specific com-
ponents or to install additional ones. If you have installed a program that cannot be altered but only
removed, you see only a Remove button. The majority of programs offer a combined Change/
Remove button, which opens to a separate dialog box in which you can typically modify, repair, or
remove the program.
 Chapter 20: Removing Software 351

Figure 20-1: The Add or Remove Programs utility.

Figure 20-2 shows this dialog box for a program called Partition Magic 8.0 (from PowerQuest
Corporation). If you want to reinstall the program precisely as you installed it initially, choose Repair.
This option is especially useful if the program has — for any reason — stopped performing the way
it did initially. The Modify option lets you add or remove individual components of this multipart
utility. The Remove option, as its name implies, uninstalls the program from your hard drive by
deleting the files in the program’s folder, associated files in other folders, and registry entries relevant
to that program.
Many uninstallations remove the majority of the files from a program’s folder but not necessarily
all of them. For numerous reasons, among them the use of one of the program’s files at the time you
attempt removal, files can remain in the folder, and the folder can continue to exist on your hard
drive. In some cases, the folder remains in order to hold the data files. The uninstall procedure
assumes (usually correctly) that you want to get rid of the program but not its associated data.
Leaving the data files in place allows you to reinstall the program later and still use these files. Data
files are, after all, the most important files in any program.

Third-Party Uninstallers
You don’t need to restrict yourself to the uninstallation procedures already on your machine. You can
add third-party utilities to help you keep track of programs and their uninstallation demands, and
you can also perform the removals manually.
352 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 20-2: The options for Partition Magic’s uninstallation

process.

If you install a great deal of software, you should consider buying and installing one of several utili-
ties designed expressly for this purpose. These utilities can help you locate and get rid of programs
already installed on your system, but they work best when you use them during the installation as well.
Essentially, these programs monitor your PC; as you install programs, they create a database of details
about what the installation actually does.
For example, the database contains complete information about the files installed and their loca-
tions, files replaced and their locations, registry entries created and modified, shortcuts and their
locations, and more. When you want to uninstall the program, you launch this utility instead of (or,
in some cases, in addition to) the Add or Remove Programs utility in Control Panel. The program
reverses all additions and changes originally put in place by that program’s installation process and,
in some cases, asks if you want to remove associated installations as well.
Figure 20-3 displays one of the better known uninstall utilities: Norton CleanSweep. Part of the
Norton SystemWorks suite of utilities, CleanSweep provides a monitoring feature and also lets you
search for programs to uninstall. This figure shows the result of a search for programs on all drives
with a list appearing in the main window. Clicking any of the programs yields a brief description of
the program that helps you decide if you should consider deleting it.
Clicking OK for this file opens the CleanSweep Uninstall Wizard. The first stage of the wizard
asks where you want to store the backup. Immediately, the difference between CleanSweep and Add
or Remove Programs becomes apparent. In addition to removing the program, CleanSweep backs it
up in case you realize you made a mistake and want to reverse the uninstallation.
Furthermore, the rest of the wizard shows the additional power of the program as it asks you if you
want to confirm the deletion of each item. Figure 20-4 shows the result of answering Yes and moving
past the next step. That step contains a View button to let you see (and possibly modify) the list of
items CleanSweep will uninstall along with the main program. The list shows what CleanSweep has
determined it should remove, but you can uncheck items you don’t want removed for whatever
reason. The Links button is an extremely powerful tool. It opens to reveal two lists: one consisting of
 Chapter 20: Removing Software 353

programs or files that use the program you have slated for removal and the other showing programs
or files that the currently selected program uses. These lists let you determine if removing the program
might cause a ripple effect by rendering other programs suddenly nonfunctional because they depend
on this one. Click OK and then Finish to remove the program.

Figure 20-3: Norton’s CleanSweep utility.

Figure 20-4: CleanSweep’s interface for determining program

dependencies.
354 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Third-party uninstallation utilities typically do more than just help you remove programs. They
also do the following:

Monitor your system cache, your browser cache, history, cookies, and more
Provide an endless amount of information about what’s going on under the hood of
your PC
Help you decide what to keep and what to remove

As you can see, uninstallation utilities are very useful, and most users would do well to have one.
However, for maximum effectiveness, configure their options to have them load automatically with
Windows so that if you begin an installation, the utility is sure to track it. Otherwise, you largely
defeat the purpose of these programs.

The Desperate Way: System Restore

Although a little bit along the lines of overkill, you can remove a program by using the System
Restore utility found in the System Tools subfolder of the Accessories folder. By setting a restore
point before installing a program, you ensure that you are able to turn Windows back to the moment
immediately before the installation changed your registry, your Windows System folders, and more.
Figure 20-5 shows the System Restore utility with several restore points highlighted on the calendar
portion of the interface.

Figure 20-5: System Restore showing a range of restore points.

 Chapter 20: Removing Software 355

Chapter 6 covers the use of the System Restore utility in detail. Here, the important thing to keep in
mind is to be sure to create a restore point whenever you install anything on your PC: hardware and
software alike. The only problem comes when you want to turn back the clock more than one instal-
lation ago. For example, if you install Program A on September 15 and Program B on October 30
and set a restore point before installing each program, restoring your PC to its state on September 15
wipes out the installation you performed on October 30. Because System Restore leaves all data files
entirely intact, as long as you have the installation media or the downloaded file for the software
installed in October, you can reinstall that program.

The Harder Way: Manual Uninstalls

When all else fails, do it yourself. Great dictum, of course, but it’s not always practical. When it comes
to computers, unless you’re willing to learn a great deal about the underlying principles and processes
that govern your software and its interaction with the Windows XP operating system, you can quickly
get yourself into a fair bit of trouble doing everything manually. But, sometimes you have no choice. So,
here’s a rundown of how to get rid of a program or the pieces an uninstaller leaves behind.
Figure 20-6 shows the Windows registry after the uninstallation of a game. This particular uninstall
did not delete all the registry entries; although, in most cases, it will do so. With the vast majority of
software, leaving entries in the registry won’t cause any problems; but if you find Windows continually
searching for files or data that once belonged to a program you have uninstalled, you might consider
removing these registry entries. However, there are two major problems with this idea:

A single misstep while editing the registry can cause irreparable harm to your Windows XP
system.
Some programs place so many entries into the registry that tracking them all down can
take hours. To find them, expand all items, and look for the name of the vendor and the
name of the program as well as the file type if the program works with a specific data file
extension. In addition, perform a search (Edit ➝ Find) on the vendor and program name
(or on a specific filename if you know of a file used exclusively by that program).

To remove a program manually, perform the following steps:

1. Use the System Restore utility to set a restore point for your system in case anything with
this process goes wrong. See Chapter 6 if you need a refresher on setting a restore point.
2. Ensure that you can’t remove the program with Add or Remove Programs by opening the
Add or Remove Programs utility and examining the list. Also look in the Add or Remove
Windows Components list by clicking that button on the utility.
3. Look in the program’s folders for an uninstall utility, such as unwise.exe or an icon with a
filename beginning with Uninst or just Un. Again, if you can do the job this way, you’ll
save yourself time and possible trouble. Assuming that neither step 1 nor 2 gets you any-
where, you can begin the manual removal.
356 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 20-6: The registry after the incomplete uninstallation of a game.

4. Locate the program’s folders and files. Typically, these reside inside the Program Files folder
on your primary Windows drive (usually your C: drive). If you can’t locate the program
because the name doesn’t appear, right-click the program’s icon, and choose Properties to
locate the file this way. Alternatively, you can open the program and choose About to see
who manufactures it and then look in Program Files to see if Windows has stored it in a
folder of that name instead.
5. Examine the folders carefully for data files you created yourself. If you find some files, but
you’re not sure if they’re yours, open the program and use the File Open dialog box to load
the files into memory. In any event, if you find data files and want to keep those data files,
copy or move them into another folder on your hard drive. Sorting files by date may help.
6. Delete the folders containing the program and its files and subfolders. Be careful not to
delete the entire Program Files folder by accident. It’s been done before.
7. Reboot your computer and see if anything fails to work. If you run into problems, open
System Restore and bring the program back by choosing the restore point you created in
step 1.
8. If everything works, edit the registry with the Regedit program. (Click the Start
button, choose Run, type redgedit, and press Enter.) In the Software section called
 Chapter 20: Removing Software 357

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, locate the keys for the software you just removed. Programs
are listed by vendor. If you have more than one program from the same manufacturer, drill
down through the items to make sure that you delete only the keys for the program you
want to remove. Right-click each entry, and choose Delete.
9. Perform the same function for the HKEY_CURRENT_USER section of the Registry Editor.
10. Reboot to ensure that everything works. If it doesn’t, use System Restore to turn back the
clock.
11. Open the System Configuration utility (click the Start button, choose Run, type msconfig,
and press Enter), and click the Startup tab. If your program appears in the list, uncheck it,
and click OK until the utility closes.
12. Reboot Windows.

Tip
If you manually remove a program from your PC, the name of the program remains in the Add/Remove
Programs list. You can remove it in two ways. First, if you try to uninstall it, Windows tells you it cannot do so
and asks if you want to remove the name from the list. Click Yes. Second, you can remove the program from
the list by installing the TweakUI PowerToy (see Chapter 18 for details on TweakUI) and using its option to
remove items from the Add/Remove list.
There is actually a third way to manually remove a program — one that the first two methods accomplish
in a friendlier way. Open the registry using the Windows Registry Editor (click Start, choose Run, type regedit
in the Open box, and press Enter) and navigate to the key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall. Scrolling down this list reveals the names of the programs on the Add or
Remove Programs utility. With the utility open so that you can double-check what you’re doing (the registry
does not offer a particularly user-friendly appearance), right-click in the registry on the items you wish to
remove from the list and choose Delete. The next time you open Add or Remove Programs, you will no longer
see the item.

Summary
When everything behaves as it should, removing software is a piece of cake. Unfortunately, and for
various reasons, perfect behavior isn’t nearly as common as it should be. So, besides the Add or
Remove Programs utility of Windows XP, you may need additional techniques to get the job done.
With the range of proactive through protective techniques covered in this chapter, you should have
very few problems getting rid of programs you don’t want — even those that don’t seem to want to
leave.
Chapter 21

Installing Hardware

E ven a heavily discounted computer in today’s market contains a decent collection of hardware.
You get lots of RAM, a fairly fast processor, a large hard drive, and built-in audio and graphics
capabilities at a reasonably high level. You also get a CD-ROM drive at the very least or — more
frequently now — a CD-RW drive. Moreover, many machines now ship with combo DVD/CD-RW
drives and, increasingly, DVD burners. Most PCs come with several USB 2.0 ports, and many also
have FireWire ports. When you buy one of these machines, you plug it in, boot it up, and glory in
your newfound power.
For a while, anyway.
This chapter covers hardware installation in your Windows XP machine, including physical
installation of the hardware itself and, once you have your new device in place, how to locate and
install the necessary drivers.

Why You’ll Want to Install Hardware

Sooner or later, you’ll want to upgrade your PC. Here are just a few examples:

Your computer has trouble running that new graphics program you bought, so you decide
you need more system memory and/or a new video card.
You want a second (or third) monitor to increase workspace (XP supports up to 9).
You start running out of disk space, so you decide one of those new whopping hard drives
would solve the problem.
A new printer catches your eye.
You want to start creating video more seriously.
You get a new mobile audio player (such as an iPod) for your birthday.
You want a second mouse, trackball, or pen (XP supports multiples of each).

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You need more USB connections for all these other devices (or you’re tired of crawling
under your desk to plug in a flash drive — get a USB hub).
You wake up one morning with your sights set on buying yourself a new and faster
processor and then discover that, in order to use it, you have to install an entirely new
motherboard.

All these cases deal with installing hardware, an often intimidating and too often frustrating (even
infuriating) process. Adding software to a computer seems much less complex. Adding software is a
bit like adding the pictures of your latest vacation to your photograph album — the pictures improve
the album, but they don’t fundamentally change it. When you add hardware, you alter the machine
itself — either by appending another device to it (adding external hardware) or popping the hood
and inserting a device inside it. As a result, in addition to the device itself, you need to install a soft-
ware driver, a set of software instructions that tell Windows how to interact with and utilize the
device. In addition, you have to concern yourself with plugging the wires in correctly, not an incon-
siderable point when it comes to installing hardware inside the box (and sometimes a bit tricky even
outside the box).
Nobody really minds plugging in a new printer or scanner and getting it up and running. Add-
ing a new video card, networking card, hard drive, or memory module, however, can make anyone
nervous — and for good reason. When you install software, or external hardware, you have little
chance of actually damaging something. With hardware, you can actually cause physical problems or
even render your computer processor dead.
All of that said, as long as you work even reasonably carefully, don’t let the warnings stop you
from trying. You can improve your PC noticeably by adding new memory, a new hard drive, or a new
video card, and neither one of these tasks takes more than (at most) an hour of your time. In fact,
with some PCs, the most significant challenge for all three might very well be getting the case apart.
Once inside, a bit of planning, a bit of maneuvering, and a bit of gentle persuasion can get the job
done quickly.

Hardware Basics
Computer hardware comes in two basic types: external and internal. Printers, scanners, and digital
cameras are always external devices; system memory (RAM), hard drive controllers, and mother-
boards are always internal. Hard drives themselves, along with CD-RW drives, network cards, and
USB or FireWire adapters, can be either. You will always find it easier to install an external device
than an internal device — primarily because you don’t have to open the computer case.
For this reason, computer vendors have been pushing external devices increasingly over the past
few years. They know that very few users feel comfortable opening their computer cases. With note-
book computers, doing so sometimes even voids the warranty. However, if you ultimately want to
upgrade your computer rather than buy a new one, and if you don’t want to pay your local shop to
do the work for you, you’ll end up getting your hands dirty (figuratively speaking only — computer
cases shouldn’t have any real dirt in them) and opening the case.
Whichever type of device you choose to install, Windows XP handles all hardware installations
according to the same basic principle. You must connect the hardware to the computer, and you
must install a hardware driver to allow Windows to communicate with the new hardware. Without
 Chapter 21: Installing Hardware 361

the driver, the hardware does not work. From the operating system’s perspective, it doesn’t even
exist. Where do you get drivers? Three sources, mostly:

The manufacturer: When you buy a new hardware device, the manufacturer includes a
CD or (rarely today) a floppy disk containing a set of drivers or, more typically, the drivers
and other software. A typical scanner package, for example, contains one or more CDs
containing the software drivers, scanning software, and often a full, trial, or limited version
(often called a lite version) of both photo-editing software and optical character recogni-
tion (OCR) software — the latter for converting scanned text documents to word process-
ing files. Buying a portable MP3 audio player gets you the necessary drivers, along with
software to rip songs from music CDs and copy them to the player.
Windows XP: Windows XP ships with hundreds of hardware drivers on the installation
CD and has proven more capable than any other Windows version to date at recognizing
hardware and installing drivers automatically. Sometimes, you might not get the most up-
to-date driver available, but you’ll often be able to use the device minutes after plugging it
in. In fact, this feature of Windows XP has proven one of the most important features of
all. For the first time, even computer novices can buy a hardware device for their computer
and install it with a reasonable degree of confidence, even nonchalance. For users who
have worked with earlier versions of Windows with hardware installations that resembled
arcane cult rituals combined with advanced automobile repair, adding hardware to
Windows XP has proven extremely agreeable. Imagine, you plug it in . . . it works! Oh,
brave new world!
Internet download areas: You can acquire and upgrade software and hardware drivers
from the Internet, which is applicable with newly acquired hardware when you didn’t
receive a driver disk or CD with it (as often happens when you buy a hardware device from
a friend). However, if this is your situation, you should see if you can find the driver on the
Internet. Your first destination should be the manufacturer’s Web site, usually the support or
download section (you might have to drill through product lists to get to it). Failing that,
you can get good results by visiting a paid driver service such as www.drivershq.com or
www.windrivers.com. Other sites, such as www.Driverzone.com, provide links to a wide
range of manufacturer sites for drivers. Windows Update will offer device drivers if it recog-
nizes them upon scanning your PC, but often these aren’t the absolute latest versions. They
are, however, usually very safe.

Installing External Devices

When you add external devices to your system, you don’t need to open the computer case. For this
reason, the process is fairly easy because all you have to do is attach the cables and install the drivers.
If you are installing a printer using the parallel port or any device using the serial port (rare) or
mouse or keyboard ports, you must turn the computer off before attaching the device. In the case of
USB, USB 2.0, FireWire (IEEE 1394), or PC Card (PCMCIA) devices, you don’t even need to do that
much. Just plug them in and watch Windows do the rest.
362 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Actually, it might not prove quite that easy. Especially in the case of devices that connect through
a USB port; read the installation instructions to determine if you should install the driver first or the
device first. Most manufacturers specify that the driver comes first so that Windows can load that
driver automatically when it recognizes the device. If you do not follow this sequence, it could take
you two or three tries to get the hardware device to function.
One other element can come into play with external devices: power supplies. Hardware devices
installed inside the PC draw electrical power from the power supply inside the PC itself. External
devices, with a very few exceptions, require power from an electrical outlet in your building. The
devices come with their own power supplies, and you must plug them into the wall socket or a
power bar (which itself plugs into a wall socket). By itself, this isn’t a problem because the manufac-
turers supply the necessary items. Unfortunately, many manufactures use the type of connection in
which the connectors for the wall socket emerge from the large transformer itself. This results in gar-
gantuan plugs that can make it nearly impossible to plug in even two devices. In fact, some users
have even let the type of connector stand as the final decision point between one piece of hardware
or another when considering the two for purchase.

Tip
If you have a computer with multiple devices installed internally and multiple devices attached externally, con-
sider having an electrician install a separate electrical line for your computing use only. Otherwise, once you
start using all your hardware devices, you might notice power fluctuations, and fluctuations can damage a PC
very quickly. You should also consider using a high-quality surge suppressor (not the $4.95 item that claims to
suppress surges), or, better yet, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). A good surge suppressor costs $30 or
more, with a good UPS closer to $100. But if they protect you from even one power surge, you will most defi-
nitely not mind having spent the money. UPS hardware goes so far as to keep your computer running when the
power goes out completely, which is long enough for you to shut down all your programs and then the PC itself.
The better UPSs even perform the shutdown for you in case you’re away from the machine.

Installing Internal Devices

Installing an internal hardware device means opening your computer case and rooting around
inside. To do so, you usually need to remove a few screws from the back of the machine and slide or
jiggle the cover away from the case itself. Often, you remove only one side of the case, but the case
sometimes slides off the sides and the top. In some cases, especially with older cases, you must
remove the front cover as well by prying it away from the case.
Some general rules apply to installing hardware in a PC:

Take your time: Internal hardware installations seem designed for Murphy’s Law, and
Murphy seems to sit in wait of people who are in a hurry. When everything goes perfectly,
the installation can take as little as five minutes. But you should count on at least an hour
 Chapter 21: Installing Hardware 363

for any single piece of hardware you want to install, and entire evenings for more com-
plex jobs.
If you have an important deadline approaching, don’t open your computer case if
you can continue working without doing so: The installation might fail. Worse, it might
render the system unusable or even just wonky. Neither outcome is likely, but you must
remember our friend Murphy.
Be awake and alert: It really does help.
Always power the machine down before beginning and unplug the power cord.
Touch the metal side of the case to discharge static electricity from your hands before
touching anything inside the case: If you have a plastic case, touch something else that’s
metal.
If anything metal falls into the computer (a loose screw, for instance), don’t even
consider turning on the machine until you get it out. If you can’t find it, take every-
thing apart until you do. Otherwise, you can short out your entire system.
Perform one hardware installation at a time: Restart your computer each time to make
sure that everything works. Then, go through the installation procedure all over again for
the next device.
Have a screwdriver, preferably a screwdriver set with two or more sizes of Philips
(star-shaped) heads at hand. You might need flat heads as well.

The process itself depends on what hardware device you want to install. However, before you can
begin, you need a sense of what you’re looking at. The first thing you’re likely to see is a disarray of
cables with one end attached to a device and the other leading to the rectangular circuit board cov-
ering much of the bottom of the case. This board is known as the motherboard, or mainboard.
Ultimately, every hardware device in your PC attaches to this board. Some devices are built into the
board, whereas others connect through wires. You connect others by plugging them into slots placed
at various locations on the board — the processor and RAM modules attach this way, as do, very
often, the video and sound boards, the USB and FireWire ports, and the network cards. However,
manufacturers often build one or more of these devices into the motherboard. At which point, they
take on the term integrated.
RAM modules are long, narrow circuit boards arrayed perpendicularly to the motherboard and
attached to the system in slots, which is usually near one edge of the board (often the edge closest to
the power supply — the large, cube-shaped item to the side of the motherboard). Each end of the
slot has a plastic connector that resembles a clip. To remove the RAM module, you pull the clips
away from the module. To install a module, you press the module into the slot until the clips hold it
in place. Again, see the instructions that came with your specific PC.
At right angles to the back of the PC, you’ll see the peripherals in their slots. Most computers have
two kinds of slots: PCI and AGP. Typically, motherboards have one AGP slot and 3–8 PCI slots. In most
PCs, the AGP slot, which is usually located close to the RAM modules, already contains the video card.
If not, the video system is probably built into the motherboard. You can tell by locating the connector
the monitor is plugged into. On older PCs, your video card might plug into a PCI slot instead, but PCI
364 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

video cards have become rare. Unless you have an integrated video system, you can replace the video
board by removing the old one (you must undo the screw holding the card to the case first) and insert-
ing the new one. In the case of integrated video, you can install a video card and either use the two
together in a dual-monitor system or enter the BIOS setup program and disable the onboard video.
Installing any other peripheral card (sound board, network card, or FireWire card) follows much the
same procedure. Find an empty slot or remove an existing board, push the card firmly into the slot,
and attach it to the computer case via the screw and the notch at the board’s top.
To add an internal drive of any kind, you must physically insert the drive into one of the drive bays
(one of several possible openings designed to hold a 3.5-inch or 5.25-inch drive), screw it into place,
and connect at least two cables from the device to the motherboard. The first cable gives the unit
power. Take one of the unused female power connectors (most PCs have two or three available), and
plug it into the power connector at the back of the device. The second cable handles data transfer and
plugs into the back of the drive and onto the controller ports on the motherboard. Use the instructions
that came with your hardware for this procedure. Sometimes, you need to set “jumpers” or pins on the
board, and each device can be different. The procedure is not difficult, but read all instructions thor-
oughly and be prepared to redo it if it doesn’t work correctly the first time you turn on your PC.
With the hardware installed, ensure that all screws are in place and then close the case. Plug in the
power cord and anything else (such as the mouse, keyboard, or monitor) that you might have
unplugged, and power the PC on. Watch the boot sequence to see if the PC has any trouble recog-
nizing any of the new hardware. If it does, reopen the case to make sure you’ve attached everything
correctly.
As Windows boots, it attempts to install the drivers for the newly installed hardware. See the fol-
lowing “Installing Drivers” section.
When Windows finishes loading, use Device Manager to ensure that all new components appear
as part of the system. Chapter 22 covers all the elements of Device Manager. For now, you should
determine if your system displays the correct amount of RAM and the correct hard disk size if you
installed one or both of those devices. If not, reboot your PC once or a few times to let the machine’s
BIOS fully recognize all components and report them correctly. Sometimes, the initial boot doesn’t
do the trick.

Installing Drivers
In an ideal world, Windows XP would take care of all drivers for all hardware so that you could sim-
ply plug the item in, boot your PC, and start working with your new device. Sometimes indeed,
given the large number of drivers included with the Windows XP installation, that’s precisely what
happens. However, brand-new products usually ship with new drivers to allow Windows to use all
the features of that device, and you must install this particular driver for the new hardware to work.

Cross-Reference
For details on installing drivers, see Chapter 22, which covers the issue of locating drivers more specifically
than the general guidelines examined here.
 Chapter 21: Installing Hardware 365

Unless your hardware manufacturer specifies when to install the driver, you can install the driver
for your hardware devices at either of these two times:

Before installing the device: With Windows XP running, place the driver installation CD
in the CD drive, and install the driver by launching the Setup file located on the CD. After
completing the installation, connect the device and, either by rebooting or simply waiting,
let Windows recognize the device and load the driver. If no Setup file exists, you must
install or connect the hardware first. You can also use this method if you download the
driver from the Internet.
After installing the device: You should use this method for all internal hardware installa-
tions to ensure that Windows recognizes the hardware properly. Many non-USB printers
also install more easily this way. With the PC powered down, install the device and restart
the computer. As it boots, Windows prompts you for the driver. Put the driver CD in the
CD-ROM drive and either let Windows XP find it on its own (it automatically attempts to
do so) or browse the CD to point Windows to the file it needs to find.

If Windows boots and does not notify you that it has found new hardware, go ahead and try to
use your hardware to see if it works. In some cases, such as mass storage devices — a category into
which Windows XP places external hard drives, digital cameras, hard disk–based audio players, and
more — you might not need the manufacturer’s included driver at all. As long as Windows can use it
without asking, just go along for the ride.

Summary
Some hardware installations proceed flawlessly. Others result in annoyance and headaches.
Windows XP offers the best installation assistance of any Windows version to date, but difficulties
remain. The secret, as difficult as this might seem when you can’t wait to get started with that new
device, is to perform the installation of the device and its driver slowly, methodically, and carefully.
This is especially true for internal installations, but it is true as well for the easier task of adding
external hardware. After all, the goal isn’t just getting hardware that functions but getting hardware
that functions properly. This chapter has focused on installing hardware. Chapter 22 examines the
process of troubleshooting and updating it once you have it installed.
Chapter 22

Hardware
Configuration,
Maintenance, and
Troubleshooting

I deally, once you have installed your hardware, you can use it repeatedly and constantly, never need-
ing to dig into the multitude of Windows XP settings and make changes. Unfortunately, all too
often this ideal falls somewhat short of what actually happens. Sometimes, you have to reconfigure
your hardware. Other times, you must reinstall it in order to get it to work. At still other times, you may
simply want to upgrade the software components to take advantage of new or improved features.
Windows XP offers a host of wizards and dialog boxes to help you work with your hardware’s drivers
and settings, but the most important tool, Device Manager, provides the central focus for this chapter.
Windows XP also contains a number of tools for maintaining your system. Because your hard
drives constitute the single most important hardware component to maintain, this chapter also cov-
ers hard disk maintenance tools. Between Device Manager and the hard drive utilities, you can keep
the hardware on your system humming along smoothly.

Working with Device Manager

Without question, Device Manager serves as your best friend in uncovering and solving hardware
problems. As Figure 22-1 shows, Device Manager displays a list of all your hardware arranged in cate-
gories with each item accessible by locating the correct category and expanding it by clicking the plus
sign (+) to its left. This figure displays the list of three hard drives in this particular system, as well as
the display adapter (that is, the graphics card), the DVD/CD-ROM drive, the imaging device (that is,
the scanner), and the mouse. You can expand the other categories to detail additional specific items.
Device Manager’s usefulness comes to the fore when a device malfunctions. Figure 22-2 shows very
much the same list as Figure 22-1, but from a different system with a few problems. Here, the icons for
three of the devices are flagged to indicate different kinds of problems. The highlighted floppy disk

367
368 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

shows an X, actually in red, which denotes a completely malfunctioning device (in this case, it was
deliberately disabled). The HID-complaint device (HID stands for Human Interface Device — in this
case, a pen tablet) bears a yellow warning icon, indicating that Windows XP detects a problem with the
device (in this case, it was abruptly unplugged). Finally, the Unsupported Device shows a yellow ques-
tion mark, a signal that XP needs additional information in order to have it function properly (in this
case, the device needs a driver, which we will discuss later in this chapter).

Figure 22-1: Device Manager with several expanded categories.

Even if a device is flagged in one of these ways, it may not be a real problem if, as far as you can
tell, the device seems to function. If you agree with XP that there is a problem, you might try dis-
connecting the device and reconnecting it. If this doesn’t fix anything, read on.
To open Device Manager, right-click My Computer and choose Properties (or Winlogo+Break).
From the resulting System Properties dialog, click the Hardware tab. In the Device Manager section of
the dialog box, click the Device Manager button. After a brief delay, the Device Manager utility opens.
Your first survey of hardware status takes place immediately, according to the following views:

If all categories display as closed, with no individual devices showing, Device Manager
does not know of any malfunctioning hardware. The device still might not work, but
from the standpoint of Windows XP, it works just fine.
If Windows XP sees any device as malfunctioning, Device Manager opens with that
device’s category automatically expanded to reveal the problem hardware. After upgrading
to Windows XP or installing it for the first time, you should expect one or more devices to
be displayed as nonfunctioning, awaiting drivers.
 Chapter 22: Hardware Configuration, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting 369

Figure 22-2: Three devices are flagged for

different kinds of problems.

Repairing Hardware Devices

Device Manager gives you two major options for configuring your hardware devices: configuring the
resources it uses and changing the drivers associated with it. Of these two, you’ll find yourself updating
drivers more frequently than configuring resources because Windows XP has proven itself notably
adept at managing system resources. Still, if you must, you can adjust system resource conflicts manu-
ally. In this way, you can solve virtually all hardware problems from within Device Manager, except
those in which the hardware itself does not work because of mechanical malfunction.

Tip
If a hardware device stops working completely and you can’t solve the problem in just a few minutes, you
might have a mechanical problem instead of an electronic one. Consider removing the hardware device and
installing it in another PC if one is available. If the hardware still doesn’t work, and you still get no response
from it, you can assume that it has bitten the dust and can be discarded. In the case of expensive hardware
devices such as printers or monitors, you might consider sending it to a repair shop.
370 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

CONFIGURING SYSTEM RESOURCES

To adjust the resources a hardware device uses, open Device Manager, locate the item you want to
configure, right-click its icon, and choose Properties. Click the Resources tab and uncheck the Use
Automatic Settings option. In many cases, this option has been grayed out, which indicates that you
cannot change the resources this item uses. However, if you can make changes, choose an item from
the Setting Based On drop-down list, highlight the resource you want to modify, and click the Change
Setting button.
Figure 22-3 shows the Edit Interrupt Request dialog box for configuring a specific hardware
device (here, a communications/serial port). Initially, the interrupt request (IRQ) setting of 7 resulted
in a hardware conflict with the floppy disk controller. If this user never used the floppy drive, the
conflict would probably cause no problems, but the function of the Conflict Information window is
to help you avoid all conflicts completely. Click the up and down arrow boxes at the right end of the
Value field until you see the notice No devices are conflicting, check the hardware manual to
make sure your device can function with that IRQ, and click OK.

Figure 22-3: Setting the interrupt request.

Several hardware Properties dialog boxes offer tabs containing settings specific to a particular
device type. For example, communications and parallel ports, which are typically used by modems
and printers, respectively, feature a Port Settings tab leading to a dialog box where you can configure
how that port should operate. Figure 22-4 shows the Communications Port Properties dialog box,
along with the Advanced Settings dialog box, that results from clicking the Advanced tab on the Port
Settings tab. Similarly, opening the Properties sheet for an IDE channel (the motherboard’s connec-
tion to disk drives, including hard disks, CDs and DVDs) provides you with an Advanced Settings
tab in which you can set the DMA mode required by some CD and DVD applications (DMA stands
for Direct Memory Access and can speed up disk connections, if the device supports DMA).
 Chapter 22: Hardware Configuration, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting 371

Figure 22-4: Configuring a serial port.

INSTALLING AND CHANGING DRIVERS

By far, most of the time you spend in Device Manager will be to install or change device drivers. To
access driver information, locate the device in Device Manager, right-click its icon, choose Properties,
and then click the Drivers tab on the resulting Properties dialog box. To see the specific details about
the driver, including the files this driver uses to do its job, click the Driver Details button.
Figure 22-5 shows the Drivers tab for a video driver, as well as the Driver File Details information
screen. Both screens display the version of the driver. This is extremely important information when
you are considering performing an upgrade or a rollback. Before doing either, examine the driver
version to make sure that the action will provide you with either the newer or the older driver you
want. Otherwise, your system might behave differently from what you had in mind.

Figure 22-5: Everything you could

possibly want to know about a video driver.
372 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

If you experience problems after installing a video driver, or if the driver manufacturer’s Web site
informs you that the driver contains bugs and should be uninstalled, click the Roll Back Driver but-
ton. This highly useful feature offers a one-click method for uninstalling the current driver and rein-
stalling the most recent one, which is typically an excellent solution for misbehaving hardware. Of
course, if the previous driver also caused problems, a complete removal is a better idea. In this latter
case, you can click the Uninstall button.

Note
You can also uninstall some drivers via the Add or Remove Programs utility in Control Panel.

To install a new version of a driver, click the Update Driver button. This launches the Hardware
Update Wizard. Because you are supplying the driver on your own, choose the Install From a List or
a Specific Location (Advanced) option on the Welcome screen and decide whether you want
Windows to search for the driver on the subsequent screen. If you do, help Windows by narrowing
the search. Click the Browse button to locate the folder to which you downloaded the new driver,
and uncheck the option to search removable media.
If you know the driver you want Windows to use for this device, click the Don’t Search radio but-
ton, and click Next. This yields a list of compatible drivers from which you can make your choice. If
you want to search for still more already installed drivers, uncheck the Show Compatible Hardware
option and drill through the Manufacturer and Model lists.

Caution
If you decide to choose a driver manually, pay attention if Windows tells you it won’t work with your hard-
ware. In the vast majority of cases, Windows is absolutely right; you risk negatively affecting your system
performance by going ahead with the installation.

GETTING NEW DRIVERS

Sometimes, the hardest part about installing new drivers is finding them in the first place (see
Chapter 21 for a basic list of possible locations). Windows Update offers some drivers after they
become available, but only those it has approved by digitally signing them (see the “Settings for
Unsigned Drivers” section next). To update your drivers without the help of Windows Update, and,
therefore several months before they acquire the official Windows XP stamp, you need to do some
digging.
As you probably expect, the digging starts and ends on the Internet. Perhaps in no way has the
Internet helped PC owners more directly than in the ready availability of software updates with
hardware drivers. Hardware manufacturers routinely place new drivers in the Support or Downloads
section of their Web sites, which lets you acquire them easily and keep your hardware up to date.
To locate a driver, do the following:
 Chapter 22: Hardware Configuration, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting 373

1. Open your Web browser, and go to the manufacturer’s Web site.

2. Look for the Support (Software Support, Technical Support) or Downloads (Software
Downloads, Driver Downloads) section of the site, and click the link.
3. Find the product you want to upgrade. Depending on the company, this can be a tricky
prospect. For ATI video cards, for example, drivers are listed in a number of ways with
some drivers available in a package called Catalyst. You need to work through the hard-
ware identification process to end up at the download site. Numerous manufacturers’ sites
work the same way even though some offer a more direct route to the goal. Figure 22-6
shows the resulting download location for a particular video card, which was made more
difficult by the fact that it was a discontinued product and thus was in a separate place on
the site (several mouse clicks were required in total).

Figure 22-6: Downloading a driver from ATI.

Figure 22-7 shows the location for a different manufacturer. This one required only three
mouse clicks.
4. Click the download link and when the Download dialog box appears, click Save to store
the driver on your hard drive.
5. Navigate to the folder in which you downloaded the driver and read the instructions,
which are often contained in a Readme file. In the case of a zip or .exe file with no other
files, launch the file, extract the files, and proceed from there.
374 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 22-7: The Matrox download page.

Caution
Many manufacturers offer the most recent hardware drivers in an unfinished state. Called beta drivers, this
software has progressed in the company’s estimation to the point where it invites the public to experiment
with the drivers on their own systems. Unless you want a specific feature on the latest beta drivers, don’t
install a beta driver; until they undergo further testing, you risk malfunctions of various kinds. If you decide to
install them anyway, make absolutely sure that you create a restore point by using the System Restore utility
(described in Chapter 6) so that you can back out of the process if Windows starts misbehaving.

SETTINGS FOR UNSIGNED DRIVERS

Microsoft has strict criteria for deeming whether drivers are fully compatible with Windows XP. To
this end, it has created a process called Driver Signing in which the company digitally signs a device
driver to provide confirmation that the driver has passed the necessary tests for its inclusion. If you
install a driver that bears a Microsoft digital signature, Windows XP installs the driver with no ques-
tions asked. If the driver does not bear a digital signature, Windows responds with the Unsigned
Driver dialog box that explains the situation and asks if you want to continue with the installation.
 Chapter 22: Hardware Configuration, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting 375

If you click the Continue Anyway button, Windows automatically sets a restore point that you
can use in conjunction with the System Restore utility if the installation causes problems (see Chap-
ter 6) and then proceeds to install the driver.
Even though Microsoft offers no assurances that unsigned drivers will work, if you download the
driver from the Web site of a reputable company, which includes any major hardware manufacturer,
you rarely need to worry about unsigned drivers causing problems for your system. Because
Windows creates the restore point, the worry decreases even more. Generally speaking, you should
feel free to click Continue Anyway if you want the latest driver on your system.
You can change what Windows does when it encounters an unsigned driver during the installa-
tion process. On the Hardware tab of the System Properties dialog box, click the Driver Signing but-
ton and choose one of the following options:

Ignore: Windows lets you install all the unsigned drivers you want — neither informing
you nor warning you. Obviously, you take some chances with this option.
Warn: Windows displays a dialog box each time you begin an unsigned driver installation
that asks if you want to continue. This is the default option.
Block: Windows never asks you about the unsigned driver. Instead, it blocks the installa-
tion, which completely prevents you from installing unsigned drivers.

If you have an Administrator account, you can specify that the selection option apply to all users
on the PC who attempt to install unsigned drivers. To do so, check the Make This Action the System
Default option in the bottom section of the Driver Signing Options dialog box.

Establishing Hardware Profiles

Sometimes, you need specific hardware for specific purposes, and you want the capability to load
the drivers for that hardware into your system while excluding other drivers when you boot
Windows. The Hardware Profiles feature allows you to configure your system in multiple profiles
with each profile loading only a portion of the available hardware.
For example, if you use your PC for sound recording, you might discover that your external
professional-quality sound card can conflict with the internal sound card when it comes to interact-
ing with your recording software. You might also discover that you need the internal sound card to
capture video from your digital camera. One solution is to let Windows load normally and then open
Device Manager and disable the unwanted device. However, if you find yourself doing this regularly,
you can save time by creating a separate hardware profile for each use.
When you create a second hardware profile (Windows creates a default profile on installation),
you add a step to the boot process. Early in the startup, Windows asks which profile you want to
use. Highlighting that profile on the list and pressing Enter instructs Windows to continue the boot
process and load only the hardware drivers included in the profile. This disables the others and
thereby avoids conflicts. You can create as many profiles as you like.
To create a profile, follow these steps:

1. Open the System Properties dialog box by right-clicking My Computer and choosing
Properties (or pressing Winlogo+Break).
376 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

2. Click the Hardware tab and then the Hardware Profiles button.
3. In the Hardware Profiles dialog box (see Figure 22-8), highlight the current profile (called
Profile 1 by default), and click the Copy button. This action creates an identical copy of
the default profile for you to change by excluding specific devices.
4. Highlight the new profiles (labeled Profile 2 by default), and click Rename. Give the profile
a name you’ll remember (renamed to External sound card profile in Figure 22-8). Click
OK to exit the dialog box.

Figure 22-8: Creating a new hardware profile.

5. Reboot your PC. Watch for the profiles screen, and choose the new profile. Press Enter to
continue the reboot.
6. Open System Properties again, and click the Hardware tab. Click the Hardware Profiles
button, and check to see that the new profile is indeed the current profile. Assuming that it
is, close the dialog box.
7. Click the Device Manager button to open Device Manager.
8. Locate the hardware device you want to exclude from this profile, right-click it, and
choose Properties.
9. At the bottom of the resulting Properties dialog box for that device, click the down arrow
beside the Device Usage menu. Choose the Do Not Use This Device in the Current
Hardware Profile (Disable) option.
10. Click OK to exit this dialog box, and click OK again to exit Device Manager.
11. Reboot your PC, and select this new profile again. This time, Windows boots with that
device disabled.
 Chapter 22: Hardware Configuration, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting 377

Tip
You can edit a profile as many times as you like and make it increasingly specific to your needs.

If you decide you no longer need a profile, open the Hardware Profiles dialog box, highlight that
profile, and click the Delete key.

Maintaining Your Hard Drive

Windows XP provides several tools for keeping your hard drive in good working order. By opening
the Properties dialog box for a specific hard drive, you can check the drive for errors, defragment its
files for greater efficiency, or back up the data to a separate location. This section covers the first two
options; data backup is covered in Chapter 4.
To perform these two important maintenance activities, open My Computer and right-click the
hard drive you want to maintain. Choose Properties from the pop-up menu and click the Tools tab
to reveal the options. Figure 22-9 shows the result.

Figure 22-9: The hard disk maintenance

tools in Windows XP.

All of these tools are perfectly safe to use. Still, many people back up critical files as the first step
in this routine maintenance (see Chapter 4).
378 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Using the Error Checking Utility

As its name suggests, the Error-checking option scans your hard drive for errors. (In earlier versions
of Windows, the tool bears the name ScanDisk). You should use this tool whenever saving a docu-
ment or copying files seems to take longer than usual or once every other month or so. This utility
ensures that the surface of your hard drives bear no signs of damage.
Clicking the Check Now button opens the Check Disk dialog box for the selected drive. You can
choose either or both of the following options:

Automatically fix file system errors: This option instructs Windows to make repairs to
the file system if it finds any during the scan. Windows needs to take complete control
over the drive in order to start this process. If the drive is currently in use, Windows asks if
you want to schedule the disk scan for the next time you start the PC. If you don’t say Yes,
the disk check won’t happen at all, so the choice is really between scheduling the scan or
canceling it.
Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors: As you use your hard drive, it can develop
bad locations known as bad sectors. Bad sectors tend to spread as Windows tries to write
data to them with the result that your drive eventually slows down and sometimes renders
data writing (such as file saving) difficult or even impossible. If you suspect that your hard
drive contains errors, check this option to allow Windows to locate the errors and block
them off permanently by moving whatever data they contain to a good sector on the disk.
Once again, Windows needs complete control over your hard drive to execute this com-
mand. If the drive is currently in use, a dialog box asks if you want to schedule the repair
for the next time you boot your PC. If you do choose this option, the next time you start
the computer, you will have a few seconds to cancel the scan; if you let it proceed (as you
will probably want to do), be prepared for a wait while it does its job before Windows
loads.

Note that you don’t need to select both options. If you choose the second option, Scan For and
Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors, Windows automatically enacts the check for file system errors as
well. Consider the bad sector check the complete maintenance package when it comes to repairing
errors on the hard drive.

Using the Defragmentation Utility

The second hard disk tool, Defragmentation, speeds up hard disk access by moving all the parts of a
file to contiguous sectors. When you save files to a hard drive on a brand new PC, all components of
the file stay together in one place. However, when you delete a file, you make additional areas on the
hard drive available by, in effect, opening a hole in the middle of other data. When you save the next
file to the drive, that file fragments and stores as much as it can in the newly emptied location. The
rest is saved on the next available location on the drive. The more you use a hard drive by adding
and deleting data, the more fragmented the files become.
The Defragmentation utility (more commonly called defrag) rearranges the files to locate all their
parts in contiguous areas. To defrag your drive, right-click the drive in My Computer and choose
 Chapter 22: Hardware Configuration, Maintenance, and Troubleshooting 379

Properties to open its Properties dialog box. Click the Tools tab and click Defragment Now. In the
resulting Disk Defragmenter utility, highlight the drive in question and click Analyze. Figure 22-10
shows the report provided by Windows with the suggestion that Defragmentation isn’t necessary. It
never hurts to defrag, so you may want to skip Analyze and just go straight to the Defragment button.

Figure 22-10: The defragmentation analysis report.

Figure 22-11 shows the result of clicking the Defragment button, either on the Report screen or
the main Disk Defragment window. The progress bar at the bottom of the window shows the length
of time remaining while the Estimated Disk Usage After Defragmentation area changes during the
process to reflect the reduced fragmentation visually.

Tip
As with most other types of system utilities, third-party manufacturers such as Symantec and Executive
Software offer improvements on the Defragmentation utility found in Windows XP. Symantec’s venerable
Norton Utilities suite features a fast and fully capable defragmenter called SpeedDisk. Executive Software’s
Diskkeeper gives you an even faster and more powerful utility for this purpose. Whenever you’re dealing
with system enhancement software, it’s a good idea to check what’s available beyond the Windows XP pack-
age itself.
380 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 22-11: Defragmentation in progress.

Summary
Windows XP provides a number of tools for ensuring that your hardware works correctly and effi-
ciently. By far, the most significant such tool for the hardware itself is Device Manager; but when it
comes to the proper maintenance of your hard drives, the error-checking and defragmentation tools
can help significantly. You can buy third-party tools with additional options for both error correction
and defrag purposes, and as you get increasingly serious about your system, you should certainly
consider their purchase. But the tools provided in Windows XP itself can help you a great deal. The
trick with disk maintenance is not to forget about it until after the damage has been done. The trick
with Device Manager is to become comfortable using it to check on your hardware and to update
your drivers whenever you install something new or when something old breaks.
Chapter 23

Speeding Up
Windows

A s operating systems go, Windows XP is neither particularly fast nor particularly slow. If you
want pure speed, run good old MS-DOS on that souped-up Pentium IV on your desk; add
Windows 3.1 if you need a graphical shell. If you want something truly slow, try Windows NT Server
on an old notebook. Windows XP lies somewhere in between, with the speed of your processor and
bus systems, hard drive(s), graphics card, and system memory determining how fast it can actually
go. Then again, even the fastest system from a technical hardware standpoint is no good if you’re
clogging your system with unnecessary elements.
This chapter offers nothing fancy, just a set of point-by-point guidelines on how to speed up
Windows XP. I figured the last thing you needed was an extensive amount of text accompanying a
chapter that was about speed, defeating the entire purpose before you even started. So here we go.

From Zero to Sixty . . .

You install a new program on your Windows XP machine, and the installation program tells you a
restart is necessary. You sigh, press the OK button, and prepare yourself to waste yet another five
minutes of your life as Windows shuts itself down and then trudges, agonizingly, through the startup
sequence. Had you known a restart would be required, you wouldn’t have bothered.
Following is a list of considerations for decreasing the time XP takes to go from powering on the
PC to displaying a fully functional desktop. I say “fully functional” because far too commonly the
desktop is in full view, with everything seemingly accessible, but a quick look at your hard drive’s
indicator light, along with a click on even something as simple as the Start button, reveals that there’s
so much happening on your system that you can’t really use it yet. More waiting, more sighing, more
rolling your eyes and thinking of taking a sledge hammer to the entire shebang — who needs it?

Say no to automatic program loads: Without a doubt, the single most time-consuming
part of the startup process, especially for a PC on which you’ve loaded several software
programs since getting the machine in the first place, is the loading of programs con-
figured to launch with Windows itself. The installation sequences of many programs ask
if you want to have the program (or a portion of it) load with the operating system. Most
users simply say yes and let it go at that, thinking it will save time when using the program
381
382 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

if it is already at least partially in memory. And that’s true, it will. But this means that these
programs will load even if you don’t intend to work with them. And in many cases, even if
you do plan to use the program, preloading saves no more than a few seconds. It’s far bet-
ter to load them when you need them. In a few cases — but only a very few — preloading
is a good idea. This includes a program that schedules your automatic backups (helping
you not forget to do so) and, most important, antivirus and anti-malware utilities. Other
than that, however, don’t let anything load if you can do without it.
Get rid of automatic program loads: Most of us already have programs auto-loading on
our systems (indeed, PCs ship this way). To make changes, you have a number of options:
■ Most programs that auto-load place an icon on the System Tray on the bottom right
of your screen. You may be able to right-click each of them to access their Options or
Preferences areas; if not, look for the program under the Start menu. Through the pro-
gram’s Options or Preferences, specify that the program is not supposed to load with
Windows. For example, if you open Windows Messenger and choose Options from the
Tools menu, you can prevent WM from auto-loading by clicking the Preferences tab
and unchecking the top option, Run Windows Messenger When Windows Starts. To
make sure it that it doesn’t appear, also uncheck Allow Windows Messenger to Run in
the Background. Presto — it’s gone.
■ If you know a program auto-loads but an icon for it doesn’t appear in the System Tray,
locate the program from the All Programs menu (Start button), open it, and disable
auto-starting from the Options or Preferences dialog area.
■ Under the Start menu ➝ All Programs, you’ll find a submenu called Startup (commonly
called the Startup group). These are shortcuts to programs that load automatically at
startup. Right click Startup on the menu and choose Open. You can either delete these
shortcuts or drag them out of there and onto the Desktop (so you can drag them back
if you change your mind).
■ If you still have programs auto-loading, but you can’t seem to stop them from doing
so, Windows offers a brute force method. Click Start ➝ Run (or Winlogo+R), and type
msconfig in the Open field. Press Enter and the System Configuration Utility loads.
Click the Startup tab, where you can see all the items that load when Windows boots.
Figure 23-1 shows this screen, with check marks beside all the displayed items (there
are more, as the scrollbar on the right clearly shows). To stop a program from auto-
loading, uncheck it in this screen and click OK. Next time Windows starts, a warning
message alerts you to the fact that you have made manual changes to startup. If you’re
not sure if a program should or should not auto-start, examine the Command column
to see if you can figure out what the program actually is; if necessary, search the Web
for an explanation. Many auto-loading programs simply aren’t necessary. Note that
msconfig is a troubleshooting tool that can help you determine what you can live
without loading. The solution will involve one of these other steps.
■ Stop services from running at startup. Windows XP loads numerous services at startup.
Services are components of the operating system that allow specific things to happen: for
example, the Windows Security Center (available with Service Pack 2) is an auto-loading
service, allowing the Security Center to monitor your system immediately upon loading.
 Chapter 23: Speeding Up Windows 383

Another one is the Plug and Play service, which allows Windows to recognize devices
when you plug them in. But not all services are necessary, including many that are
installed with third-party software. To view the services installed on your system, open the
Services console by clicking Start ➝ Run (or Winlogo+R), typing services.msc in the Open
field, and pressing Enter. Figure 23-2 shows the result of clicking on a specific service
(Remote Registry in this case) and the explanation that appears in the column on the left.
The Startup Type column shows that it loads automatically. To stop a service from load-
ing automatically, right-click its name and choose Properties. In the Startup Type drop-
down list, choose Manual or Disabled (as Figure 23-3 shows) and click OK. The next
time Windows starts, this service will not start with it.
Add system memory: Everything in Windows XP can be improved if you up the system
RAM to at least 512MB. Most systems today ship with that much; if you don’t have that
much RAM, consider running out to buy some. Even in older machines with slower
processors, system RAM can make a major difference in startup time and the capability to
run programs after startup. If you have a newer machine, 1GB of system RAM will improve
startup speed slightly, but you won’t really notice the difference until you start running
graphics-intensive programs (as long as the programs have been written to take efficient
advantage of the extra RAM). Go with a gigabyte if you can afford it.
Add hard disk space: Like system memory, adding hard disk space doesn’t affect only
startup time — indeed, it affects startup even less than more RAM does. However, ensuring
that you have plenty of free hard drive space means that Windows can more efficiently
swap data in and out of memory and make better use of the system’s virtual memory, that
is, the paging file. This file (adjustable via the Advanced tab on the System Properties dia-
log box) operates as system RAM from Windows’ perspective, but, in fact, is hard disk
space allocated for that purpose. Windows uses it, even during initial startup, to swap data
in and out of memory more quickly.

Figure 23-1: Examining auto-loading programs in the System

Configuration tool.
384 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 23-2: The Services configuration screen.

Figure 23-3: Changing a service from automatic

start to manual start.
 Chapter 23: Speeding Up Windows 385

Lowering the Wind Resistance

After it’s loaded, Windows tends to coast along fairly well. But once in a while it sputters, stumbles,
and seems in need of a pit stop. This is particularly true of some Windows programs and certain
actions within those programs. For example, if you copy elements of a Web page and paste them into
a Word document, you’ll notice a substantial delay if the Web material contains graphics and/or
tables. If you work on high-resolution graphics, especially large files (and this is true, it seems, of
every graphics program out there), you can expect major delays and even crashes when you start
manipulating the images in a variety of ways. But even relatively simple activities can cause slow-
downs, and you can help the speed overall in the following ways.

Increase system memory and hard disk space: These are covered in the two bullets in
the preceding section. The fact is that there is no substitute for increasing memory and
disk space; the last thing you want is for Windows to start choking on too little disk space.
So, be sure you have several gigabytes (yep, gigabytes) freely available — especially on the
drive on which Windows itself is installed. If your available disk space ever falls below
one 1GB on your Windows drive, you can expect significant delays.
Upgrade your graphics card: Today’s computer environments are increasingly graphics-
intensive, and you need the hardware to do the job properly. If you bought your PC more
than a couple years ago, its graphics subsystem is quite likely inadequate for recent pro-
grams. Graphics cards take much of the burden of graphics processing away from your
PC’s main processor. And the more memory and speed your graphics card has, the faster
the graphics processing. Buy the best graphics card you can afford, focusing on the mem-
ory available on the card and the purposes for which you intend to use the card. For
example, if you need to work with graphics programs, buy a card designed primarily for
that purpose. If you want to play games, buy a card designed specifically for games. And
so on. Consider a new graphics card that supports two monitors (or leave the old card in
for another monitor; XP support up to nine monitors). You might find, however, that the
graphics card you buy is actually better than your system can handle. This may be true
especially if, for example, it’s designed for AGP 4x but you have only an older AGP 2x
peripheral slot available.
Upgrade your PC’s guts: You don’t need to buy a whole new PC to get a major perfor-
mance boost. Many computer shops offer upgrades; they take your PC and keep what
you want (such as the hard drives), replacing the motherboard, processor, and possibly
the system RAM with newer and faster components. You can do all of this yourself, but it’s
tedious, time-consuming, and rather intimidating (it’s also fun, in its own way). A trusted
shop can do it much more quickly and often nearly as cheaply as you can do it yourself.
You come out with a much more capable PC, and you’ll notice the speed difference
immediately.
Shut down unnecessary programs: It’s so easy to switch from program to program, using
the Windows Alt+Tab key combination or the Windows Taskbar, that we tend to forget
how many programs we have loaded. This is especially true of programs that load multiple
386 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Windows — Microsoft Office programs, for example — and the greatest culprit, Internet
Explorer. Pay attention to how many windows you have open, and start closing them
when you don’t need them. Conversely, if you open and close a particular program such as
email or a browser repeatedly throughout the day, consider just minimizing it to save the
time opening and closing take. In particular, get rid of Internet Explorer windows that load
without your knowledge (usually they’re ads, and often they appear last on the Alt+Tab
window), and any that have animation or other multimedia displayed, including high-res
graphics. All of that stuff takes system memory and clogs Windows with irrelevance. In
fact, if you don’t need graphics showing at all for the work you’re currently doing, toggle
them off in the Internet Options dialog box (accessible from Control Panel).
Shut down auto-loaded programs: Even if you don’t stop programs from auto-loading
with Windows itself (see “From Zero to Sixty” at the beginning of this chapter), you should
close any programs that have automatically loaded that you don’t currently need. For
example, if you don’t need Windows Messenger, shut it down. The same goes for items
such as the QuickTime quick-start utility, the Microsoft Office quick-start utility, and much
more. Check your System Tray to find out what’s running.
Get rid of eye candy: This item is somewhat related to doing away with graphics in
Internet Explorer. You can help your system’s speed by dispensing with other memory-
hogging graphics. In particular, some people don’t need the system running at 32-bit color
(versus 24-bit or 16-bit; you’ll never want lower than that) and a high screen resolution
(less than 800 width by 600 height in pixels will ruin your Web experience). Open the
Display Properties dialog box from Control Panel (or Winlogo+R, control desk.cpl, click
the Settings tab, and drop Screen resolution or Color quality one step (test these sepa-
rately); apply the change. While there, click the Appearance tab, click the Effects button,
and then uncheck the boxes for the transition effect, showing shadows under menus, and
showing window contents while dragging. Your computer is now faster because it’s some-
what less visually stunning and demands less of your graphics card (the better your card,
the less useful some of these tweaks are).

Slamming on the Brakes

Windows XP takes an often frustratingly long time to shut down. Sometimes, you need to get off
your PC quickly, but you also want to make sure the machine does, in fact, turn itself off. You can
end up sitting there for several minutes waiting for Windows to gather the information it needs,
check all your settings, stop various processes and resources, and finally give up the ghost for that
session. Here are some possibilities to help speed up the shutdown process:

Shut the PC off manually: I’m dealing with this first because more and more people tell
me it’s what they do. They press the Power button on their computer cases, holding it in
for six seconds or so if necessary, and stop the PC without letting Windows go through its
 Chapter 23: Speeding Up Windows 387

shutdown procedure. Furthermore, these people never seem to have problems with their
systems (or at least they don’t call me about them). So yes, this is one way, and unques-
tionably the fastest way, to power off. But the shutdown process closes services one by one,
and allows a specific number of seconds (20 by default) for background applications to
close themselves. During a normal shutdown, you’ll be prompted to save files you haven’t
already saved; you’ll lose those in an abrupt power off. So, the safest shutdown is one in
which you do not go for the brute force power cut off.
Shut down your backgrounds apps more quickly: You can change the time Windows
allows background programs to shut themselves down. To do so, you need to edit the reg-
istry (as always, back up your registry before doing so, and be extremely careful). Click
Start ➝ Run, type regedit in the Open field, and press Enter. With Regedit open, in the
left-hand pane expand the HKEY_CURRENT_USER entry by clicking the plus sign beside
it. Then expand the Control Panel entry and, within it, the Desktop entry. In the main
panel (see Figure 23-4), locate the key called WaitToKillAppTimeout. Double-click and
change the default value (20000) to half or even one-quarter this figure. This changes the
time allowed for shutdown of background Windows applications from 20 seconds to 10
seconds or less. Most apps will shutdown in this time period with no difficulty.

Figure 23-4: Editing the Registry to restrict the time allowed for background apps to shut down.
388 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Hibernate: In many cases, there’s no need to shut down at all. Instead, you can set your
PC to enter hibernation state automatically whenever you leave it for any length of time
or go into hibernation mode when you press the Power button for only a second or so
(instead of the 4–6 seconds it takes to shut down the machine entirely). By default,
Hibernation is disabled on older machines but enabled on newer ones. You can check
the status and change the setting, if necessary, by opening the Control Panel and double-
clicking the Power Options icon (or Winlogo+R, control powercfg.cpl). Click the
Hibernation tab, and make sure that there is a check mark in the Enable Hibernation
box (shown in Figure 23-5). If there is no Hibernation tab, Windows doesn’t support
Hibernation on your machine. With Hibernation enabled, Windows stores everything that
is open in a giant file so that when you next start up, not only will the PC take less time
to come to life, but your workspace will also be precisely as you left it — every program,
every window. It takes far less time to Hibernate than shut down and far less time to start
from Hibernation than normal shutdown. If Hibernation is enabled, you can hibernate
several different ways: when you shut down, on the screen that shows Standby, Turn
off or Restart, hold the Shift key down and Standby morphs into Hibernate. Or use
Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up the Task Manager and use the Shutdown menu. Also on the
Power Options dialog box, under the Advanced tab, you can specify that the PC is to enter
Standby mode rather than shutting itself down when you press the Power button. You can
exit Standby mode simply by moving your mouse. Desktop users rarely need Standby (it
may save battery power for laptop users). The crucial difference between Standby and
Hibernation is that in Standby the machine is still on (and a power failure may cause you
to lose data); in Hibernation, the machine is really off.

Figure 23-5: Setting the hibernate option.

 Chapter 23: Speeding Up Windows 389

Get rid of malfunctioning programs: If Windows XP can’t shut down a background

application within the 20-second time limit (or whatever limit you’ve set manually using
HungAppTimeout — see the earlier discussion about WaitToKillAppTimeout for guidance
on where to change this), it displays a dialog box asking if you want to Wait, End Task, or
Cancel. Keep track of what programs cause this to occur. More often than not, they are
proprietary applications such as printer control utilities (which seem to offer numerous
problems in general), and you can eliminate the problem by preventing the programs from
loading in the first place.
Load multiple operating systems sooner: If you have more than one operating system
available on your PC (including XP and Linux or multiple instances of Windows XP), you
can change the amount of time Windows displays the operating systems at bootup so that
you can choose which one you want to load. By changing the display time from 30 sec-
onds to, say, 10 seconds or even less, you save yourself that much time whenever you boot
or reboot your PC.

Summary
That’s it. You now have a faster Windows. So, go use it for a while before coming back to read Chap-
ter 24, where you learn about adding users, groups, and permissions to your Windows environment.
Part VI

Utilities

A n enormous variety of utilities fit into the category of tasks outlined in Part VI. Here, I provide
a short write-up of some of the more popular, all of which I’ve used recently to varying
degrees of effectiveness. Most of the utilities here assume that there’s something about your Windows
installation you’re not especially happy with and that you have added features that Microsoft has
deemed unnecessary or has simply neglected to avoid legal problems.

Uninstallers
Obviously, the Add/Remove Programs utility in Control Panel handles installation and uninstallation
of programs, as do uninstallers included with the programs themselves. However, not all uninstalla-
tions are complete; files remain behind, program keys remain in the registry, and files such as DLLs
(Direct Link Libraries) stay in the Windows folder. Uninstallers attempt to do a better job, removing
all traces, not just merely the necessary ones.
Advanced Uninstaller Pro ( innovative-sol.com) demonstrates how these programs tend to work. It
keeps complete track of the programs you install on your PC, not only the files installed or changed by
the software but also the registry settings and any other details caused by the installation. It comes with
a database of well over 4000 programs, scans your system to see which of these programs are already
installed, and makes them available for uninstallation as well. When you uninstall a program, Advanced
Uninstaller cleans out every trace of the installation, including desktop and tray shortcuts. Other very
good programs that perform these same functions include Uninstall Plus (www.uninstallplus.com),
Ashampoo Uninstaller (www.ashampoo.com), and WUninstaller (www.wuninstaller.com), each of
which keeps track of what’s been installed and lets you completely delete programs you no longer want.
If you want full recovery from installation, consider one of these.

System Repair Utilities

If you’ve determined that you want to start working directly with the Windows registry, Regedit can
certainly do the job. But Regedit is anything but intuitive, and it doesn’t help you determine which
391
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registry keys work together (and therefore which ones you should manipulate if you’re trying to
unload a specific program). Nor does it give you any hints about what the registry keys actually do.
Registry Mechanic (www.pctools.com) is basically a registry cleaner. It scans your hard drive and
removes registry entries that refer to nothing (and therefore are probably left in the registry from a
program you’ve since uninstalled), and it repairs invalid registry entries to help guard against system
problems. It also backs up anything it does change, so that the change can be reversed if the system
starts misbehaving as a result of the clean-up. WinASO Registry Optimizer (www.winaso.com) per-
forms many of the same tasks and walks you through a system tune-up to help you see what registry
entries are causing problems. Registry Repair Pro (www.pc-test.net) works similarly to both of these
programs, offering a strong graphical interface to help you decide what entries you want repaired.
On a somewhat different track, several programs help you repair your system. Norton SystemWorks
(www.symantec.com) comes with System Doctor and Norton WinDoctor, which together help you
determine where your system is encountering problems and how to tune your system so that the prob-
lems disappear. Error Nuker (www.errornuker.com) is designed to locate system errors caused by
incorrect registry entries, functioning much like the registry checkers mentioned previously. PC Doc
Pro (www.neurosoftcorp.com) includes a free online scanner and then, if you discover numerous errors
in the registry, you can download it and correct them. RegRestore PC Tuneup (www.maxionsoftware.
com) is another such program and discovers and repairs many of the same errors.

Windows Speed-Up Utilities

Of course, clean registries and efficient use of system resources matter a lot, but when it comes right
down to it, what you really want is a faster system. Cleaning and repairing the registry is certainly
part of this process, but other tools perform a variety of other tweaks — or let you perform them as
you want them — to speed the system as much as possible.
WinXP Manager (www.winxp-manager.com) is one such program, but in fact this is a suite of
utilities that lets you perform several useful tweaks. It helps you delete unneeded files from your
hard drives, it provides a wealth of system information, and it even optimizes your Internet connec-
tion speed through yet another set of registry adjustments. At its core, it optimizes system startup
and shutdown, speeding up both significantly, it helps you adjust your hardware settings for peak
performance, and it helps you learn about little-known system settings. It also contains security util-
ities to help you encrypt, shred, and hide files.
Similarly, another utilities suite, SuperUtilities (www.superlogix.net), provides a system cleaner
that gets rid of spyware as well as bad registry entries, helps tweak and maintain the Windows sys-
tem, and offers very useful privacy tools as well. AusLogics BoostSpeed (www.boost-speed.com)
contains mechanisms to tweak Windows settings to boost performance, clean out your registry, and
maximize your Internet connection speed. Intelli Hyperspeed (www.iobit.com) works primarily at
tweaking your system for system performance, analyzing the system for settings that slow it down
and offering to reconfigure them accordingly.
If you want an even more comprehensive look at what’s going on under the hood, try SiSoftware’s
Sandra (www.sisoftware.co.uk), a benchmarking and testing utility that helps you understand the
problems your system is encountering, although you’ll need other utilities to help repair those prob-
lems. Useful and informative, it’s designed for those who already know a fair bit about what’s hap-
pening inside their PCs.
 Part VII
Who Owns What: Setting Up Users,
Permissions, and Policies
Chapter 24
Adding Users and Groups to Your System
Chapter 25
Controlling User Access with Permissions
Chapter 26
Locating and Migrating User Data
Chapter 27
Configuring Group Policies
Part VII Utilities
Chapter 24

Adding Users and

Groups to Your System
by Neil Randall and Michelle MacLean

W indows XP offers a new approach among popular Windows versions for creating and
maintaining user accounts. Windows 2000 and Windows NT featured a similar approach,
in user properties if not in the user creation interface. But consumer versions of Windows —
Windows 9x/Me — all provided a much less professional user creation and management system. In
these consumer versions, users can log on to create their own look and feel for the PC, along with a
few other niceties, such as a separate inbox for Outlook Express and a separate Favorites folder in
Internet Explorer. But these user accounts are not truly distinct from one another from a security
perspective. For one thing, you can log on to Windows 9x/Me without using a username at all, by
clicking Cancel at the logon screen — obviously an insecure situation and an impossible feat with
Windows NT/2000 and Windows XP. The difference nowadays is that Windows XP ships with all
PCs, so everybody buying a Windows PC is working with an operating system that provides full sep-
aration between users; each user must have an individual user account (whether an individual one
or a guest account) in order to log on.
This chapter covers the different types of accounts available in Windows XP and shows you how
to add new user accounts by using both the Control Panel and the Computer Management Tool, dis-
able and delete accounts, create and modify passwords, and switch from one account to another. The
chapter also covers the creation and management of user groups.

Why Use User Accounts?

User accounts provide privacy, security, and convenience. With passwords protecting their accounts,
users know that other people can’t read their documents, their email, or other sensitive files. They
also know that they have at least some protection from outside intrusion because their accounts,
unlike those on some older Windows platforms, aren’t simply wide open to anyone. Furthermore,
they know that when they configure their PCs to look and work in specific ways, they can leave the
PC and be assured that the configurations will not change when they return to it.

395
396 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Sharing can cause problems, after all. With different people accessing a single machine with a
shared user account, files get deleted, documents get overwritten, and folders get rearranged. Even
the carefully constructed interface can take a beating because everybody using the PC wants differ-
ent colors, different icon locations, different toolbars, and different defaults. Password-protected user
accounts provide numerous conveniences, including a consistency from day to day that promotes
greater productivity.
As with virtually all computer systems, however, one type of account takes precedence over all
others: the Computer Administrator account (commonly abbreviated to just Administrator). Anyone
with an Administrator-level account on a Windows XP system has complete control over the entire
PC, with full access to the resources of all other accounts, including other Administrators. As a user
with an individual account, it’s important to remember that your files and resources are not com-
pletely private; the only user with this degree of privacy is the person holding the Administrator
account on a single-Administrator system.

Caution
Even when you make an Administrator’s folders private (see Chapter 25), other Administrators can gain
access either by adjusting the permissions settings using the standard file-sharing method (also described in
Chapter 25) or by removing the password from that person’s account.

If your PC has limited hard disk space, you might understandably be concerned about the effect of
multiple accounts on storage. Each account, when created, occupies only about 5MB of your hard disk.
Unless you have been seriously pushing the limit of your storage capacity (in which case Windows XP
itself will have problems with day-to-day activity), don’t hesitate to add new users for that reason.
Even if your system has only one user, you may find a value in Start ➝ Log Off (or Winlogo+L).
Using this to log off will leave your system with the Welcome screen showing. When you return, you
won’t have to wait the full time a complete system start would take but, if you use a password, you’ve
made it harder for someone else to use your machine.
If your system does have multiple users, you may find a use in Fast User Switching. Using Start ➝
Log Off (or Winlogo+L), Fast User Switching lets you switch between users without first logging off.
Perhaps two family members share a machine and your spouse needs access to his or her files right
this minute. With Fast User Switching, you make the switch and then switch back to find all your
stuff still up and running. Be sure to save any open files before you try this.

Adding Users with the Control Panel

You can quickly and easily add users to your Windows XP machine by opening Control Panel and dou-
ble-clicking the User Accounts icon to open the User Accounts utility (see Figure 24-1). If you are
using the new Category view, double-click User Accounts on the Task screen. This utility shows you
the accounts currently established on the PC, along with options to create new accounts, change exist-
ing accounts, and alter the logon procedure. Another major utility for account creation and manage-
ment exists in Windows XP: the Computer Management tool. This utility, with its greater complexity, is
covered later in the chapter.
 Chapter 24: Adding Users and Groups to Your System 397

Figure 24-1: The User Accounts utility for creating and managing users.

Follow these steps to add a new user account:

1. Choose Start ➝ Control Panel and open the User Accounts utility (or Winlogo+R, control
userpasswords).
2. Click the Create a New Account item.
3. Type a name for the account, and click Next.
4. Select the appropriate account type. Figure 24-2 shows the selection screen.
5. Click the Create Account button. Windows creates the new account and adds it to the
User Accounts dialog box.

Note
The name that you give to the account appears on both the Welcome screen and the Start menu.
398 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 24-2: Selecting an account type.

Follow these steps to add a password to a specific account:

1. Choose Start ➝ Control Panel and open the User Accounts utility.
2. Click the account for which you would like to add a password.
3. Click the Create a Password option.
4. In the appropriate fields (see Figure 24-3), type the password and then confirm that
password by retyping it.
5. If you want to, type a phrase or word to use as a password hint. For example, if you
typed Buffy1Slayer as your password, you may want to type best show ever as your
password hint.
6. When you’re finished, click the Create Password button.

Note
Password hints are visible to everyone who uses the computer, so try not to make your password hints so
obvious that others can guess your password. If you suspect someone has guessed your password, change
it immediately! In fact, change it regularly whether or not you suspect that anyone has figured it out.
 Chapter 24: Adding Users and Groups to Your System 399

Figure 24-3: Creating a password.

Caution
Figure 24-3 spells out, at the top of the dialog box, the danger of applying passwords to other people’s
accounts. If that person has already created and stored passwords to use in Web sites or has saved Internet
certificates, they will no longer be available after you add a password. The same holds true for user-
encrypted files or folders that use the Encrypting File System. To avoid the problem, have the user create the
password and simultaneously produce a password reset disk by opening the User Accounts utility and click-
ing the Prevent a Forgotten Password item in the Related Tasks area. The password reset disk stores the
information necessary to enter the account with full access to encrypted information and other passwords.
Be sure to keep all password reset disks safe, however; they allow anyone to access the user’s account
without knowing the password.

If you want to change a password, open the User Accounts utility and choose the Change My
Password option. If you change a password and leave the field blank, Windows does not ask you for
a password when logging on.
When you add a user account, some important things happen. Primarily, Windows creates a
folder, named identically to the username, inside the Documents and Settings folder on your main
Windows drive (C: by default). Inside that user’s main folder Windows places the folders outlined in
the list that follows. Note again that each user has this folder group; this structure allows Windows
400 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

to keep each user’s data separate and, through the creation of passwords and the setting of permis-
sions, private. Windows creates these folders within each user folder:

Application Data: Includes data files belonging to specific programs. On installation,

Windows XP creates two subfolders here: Identities and Microsoft. The Identities folder
contains subfolders that segregate different profiles in the Outlook Express email pro-
gram. As you install programs, the Application Data folder expands as the programs
create relevant subfolders.
Cookies: Cookies collected from Web sites.

Tip
When you instruct a privacy utility to erase the cookies on your system, it deletes the entries in the Cookies
subfolder. You can do so yourself by navigating to this folder and deleting all or some of them manually.

Desktop: Shortcuts on the desktop. Having separate Desktop folders for each user allows
all users to have their own customized desktop.
Favorites: Favorites stored in Internet Explorer. Again, all users have their own individ-
ual favorites, allowing the Favorites menu to display different Web locations as each user
logs on.
Local Settings: More application data, as well as the History file (in Internet Explorer) and
Temporary files. Microsoft Outlook stores your email files (PST files) inside Local Settings\
Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.
My Documents (or the username may appear instead of My): The document space for
that user, including subfolders My Pictures, My Music, My Videos, and My Received Files.
My Received Files is the default folder for the Save As dialog in Microsoft programs and
others.
My Recent Documents: Shortcuts for recently opened or saved files (accessible from the
Start menu). For quick access to this folder, use Winlogo+R, recent. This is much more
useful than the Start menu’s paltry list. Try sorting these shortcuts by date and using
View ➝ Arrange ➝ Show in groups.
NetHood: Shortcuts to network resources as displayed in My Network Places.
PrintHood: Items in printer folders.
SendTo: Items in the SendTo menu accessible by right-clicking inside a folder. SendTo is
a way to copy, move, or open a file. You may want to remove shortcuts from this folder for
destinations or programs you never use; you may also want to add shortcuts to programs
you do frequently use to open more than one type of file (a shortcut to Notepad can be
very handy for opening all kinds of files, for example).
 Chapter 24: Adding Users and Groups to Your System 401

Start Menu: Items on the Start menu.

Templates: Shortcuts to program templates. This relates to another context menu item
(when you right-click in a folder): New. When you hover over New on the context menu,
some of the choices (but not all) correspond to files in this Templates folder. Unfortunately,
this isn’t as straightforward to alter as SentTo.

In addition to creating individual folders for that user, Windows creates icons for shared pro-
grams. For example, if you have Microsoft Word installed on your PC, when you create a user account
you also create the capability for that user to use the Word program. Windows places an icon for that
program in the All Programs menu.
Windows XP offers four types of user accounts: Computer Administrator, Limited, Standard, and
Guest. Most users, however, encounter only the first two of these types, with the Standard account
restricted to PCs configured as members of a networked domain and with the Guest account dis-
abled by default during the initial Windows XP installation.

Computer Administrator Accounts

The most powerful account type on a Windows XP machine is the Computer Administrator account.
Computer Administrators can perform advanced functions, such as the following:

Installing programs and hardware

Making systemwide changes
Accessing and reading all files, including private files
Creating and deleting user accounts
Changing other people’s accounts
Changing their own account names or type

This last item comes with a restriction: Computer Administrators can change their own account
types from Administrator to Limited or Standard only if at least one other Computer Administrator
account exists. That is, you can’t have a Windows XP system without an Administrator. To that end,
during installation Windows creates a Computer Administrator account bearing the username
Administrator. In fact, when the setup process asks you for a password for the main account, this is
the account it is referring to. By default, Windows does not display the primary Administrator
account on the Welcome screen, and many users, indeed, don’t even know it exists.
In other words, when you install Windows XP, you automatically create two accounts: the hidden
Administrator account and the account Windows asks you to create during the installation. Computer
manufacturers sometimes rename the automatic Administrator account, but the principle remains the
same. You can eliminate all user accounts except the original Administrator account if you like, but in
that case you can no longer log in from the Welcome screen unless you use the Tweak UI utility (see
Chapter 18) to show the original Administrator account on the Welcome screen.
402 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Limited Accounts
Limited accounts enable users to perform basic functions, such as the following:

Changing or removing their password

Changing their account picture
Creating a password reset disk, setting up a .NET Passport password account (for accessing
Microsoft Web services such as Hotmail), or managing network passwords
Using installed software that supports multiple users

When configuring Windows XP for new users, you should establish Limited accounts unless you
have a specific reason to add another Administrator account. The primary reason for giving users
Administrator privileges is to allow them to install their own software, which they usually cannot do
with Limited account privileges. In a business setting, you will rarely want to do this; in such a case
controlling the software on the system becomes critical, and you can establish a policy of, for exam-
ple, one Administrator account per PC.
On a home system, it can be impractical to disallow software installation because of the tendency
of many users to buy or download new software and install it. Unless you want to make yourself
available, as the person with the Administrator account, every time someone in the family wants to
install a new program (and for antivirus and anti-spyware purposes that’s not a bad idea, just incon-
venient), you should consider giving at least one other person Administrator status. (Besides, some-
times in a home environment it’s much harder to explain to someone why they can’t have full access;
statements about lack of trust often produce behavior such as pouting.)
What Windows XP needs in a typical household environment, of course, is another account type,
one halfway between Administrator and Limited. In fact, that’s what the Standard account type pro-
vides, but you can establish it only on a networked domain. That said, some programs install just
fine with a Limited account. So, by all means try the installation before changing the account type.

Standard Accounts
If you have a networked domain, you can create Standard accounts. These accounts provide pre-
cisely the same degree of control as a Limited account, with one primary exception: the capability to
install and remove software. They cannot do so in a way that would affect a holder of a Computer
Administrator account, so they could not uninstall a program such as Microsoft Word, which ties
itself to all user accounts (including Administrators) on installation. They can, however, install pro-
grams that do not alter such settings, as is the case with older programs such as shareware versions
of graphics software (Paint Shop Pro 4 and earlier, for example) and Internet utilities (such as WS-
FTP). In addition, installation wizards designed with Windows XP in mind frequently ask if you
want the software available for all users or just the current user; choosing the latter option prevents
it from affecting other user accounts.

Guest Account
As you’ve probably already determined, the Guest account provides access to anyone who does
not have a regular account. Guest account holders have no access to settings of any kind or to
 Chapter 24: Adding Users and Groups to Your System 403

password-protected files, but they can use multiuser software and — the reason for this account
type’s existence — the Internet.
By default, the Guest account is turned off when you install Windows XP. To turn it on, open the
User Accounts utility in the Control Panel and click the Guest icon in the Or Pick an Account to
Change section. You then see the screen shown in Figure 24-4.

Figure 24-4: Turning on the Guest account.

Tip
Before enabling the Guest account, be sure to establish passwords for all other user accounts on the sys-
tem. By doing so, you prevent anyone who is using the Guest account from accessing files and folders in
password-protected areas such as each user’s My Documents folder.

Adding Users with the Computer

Management Tool
The Computer Management tool enables you to manage local or remote computers via a console
tree. As Figure 24-5 demonstrates, this tool (officially called the Microsoft Management Console, or
404 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

MMC), consists of a hierarchical organization of utilities in the leftmost pane, known as the console
tree. Details about the selected utility appear in the rightmost pane. Because the console tree lists var-
ious administrative functions in a single window, the tool makes it faster for you to create or modify
user accounts. With this convenience, however, comes a rise in potential confusion and even dam-
age: the former because you have far more choices available to you, the latter because you have
access to powerful, system-changing tools from the MMC. For adding and maintaining users
and groups, however, and for system management in general, you might quickly find the MMC
indispensable.
XP Home Users will be perplexed to find they have MMC and the Computer Management con-
sole, but are not allowed to use the User setup snap-in (as Microsoft calls it). The following steps
largely apply to XP Professional users. However, both XP Home and Pro users can access some of
these features through Winlogo+R, control passwords2 (yes, that’s a 2 at the end; control passwords
without a 2 bring up the Users Control Panel).

Figure 24-5: Details on user accounts displayed in the MMC.

Follow these steps to add a new user with the Computer Management tool:

1. Open the Control Panel from the Start menu.

2. Click Performance and Maintenance.
3. Double-click the Administrative Tools icon, and choose Computer Management. (Note you
can skip all three of the preceding steps by using Winlogo+R, compmgmt.msc. XP Home
users: you may want to do this to see the other good stuff that is here, but you won’t be
able to do the next step; you are expected to use Control Panel ➝ Users Groups).
 Chapter 24: Adding Users and Groups to Your System 405

4. In the System Tools tree, click the + symbol to open the Local Users and Groups tree.
5. Right-click the Users folder and choose New User.
6. In the New User dialog box (see Figure 24-6), type the user information in the appropriate
fields.

Figure 24-6: The New User dialog from the MMC.

7. Select the appropriate password option.

8. When you’re finished, click Create to add the new user.

Password Options
When you create a new user account with the Computer Management tool, you can choose from
three different password options:

User must change password at next logon: When the user next logs on to the PC, a dia-
log box appears, requiring the change of password. The user has no choice in the matter;
the logon will not continue until the change is made. An administrator might use this to
assign you a temporary password that you are required to replace with your own choice.
User cannot change password: You set the password and give it to the user, who cannot
change it afterward.
Password never expires: Using the MMC, you can configure each account in numerous
ways, including a password expiration date. To keep your system secure, establish a fairly
frequent change of passwords. Checking the Password Never Expires item, however, sets
the password for good.
406 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Note
Remember that a good password should be difficult for anyone besides the owner to use. Avoid passwords
based on the names of pets, spouses, or any other kind of personal information, and also avoid passwords
that spell real words. For the best possible password security, create a password at least eight characters in
length, with at least one number, one letter, and one other type of symbol (such as punctuation). Split multi-
syllabic passwords at unexpected places with unexpected characters, and do not use easily identifiable
number strings such as 4567. It’s also a good idea to change your password at least once a month.

Disabling Accounts
If you want to prevent specific users from accessing their accounts, you can disable that account.
When you disable an account, you do not delete the information associated with that account; you
simply hide the account information. Disabled accounts are not displayed on the Welcome page.
Follow these steps to disable a user account:

1. Open the Control Panel from the Start menu.

2. Click Performance and Maintenance.
3. Double-click the Administrative Tools icon, and choose Computer Management. (Or use
Winlogo+R, compmgmt.msc to skip these three steps.)
4. In the System Tools tree, click the + symbol to open the Local Users and Groups tree.
5. Open the Users folder by double-clicking on the folder name.
6. In the right pane of the page, double-click the user account that you want to disable.
7. Click the General tab, and then select the Account is Disabled check box.
8. Click OK.

Deleting User Accounts

User accounts no longer being used should be deleted from the computer. When you delete a user
account, you have the option of saving the contents of the user’s desktop and My Documents folder
to a folder on your desktop called username. You cannot save a user’s email messages, Internet
favorites, or other user settings (see Figure 24-7).
To delete a user account, log on as an Administrator and open User Accounts from the Control
Panel. Click the account you want to delete, and select the Delete the Account option from the
resulting page. Decide whether to retain that user’s files, and click either Keep Files or Delete Files.
Finally, click the Delete Account button to remove it from the PC.
 Chapter 24: Adding Users and Groups to Your System 407

Figure 24-7: Choices to make when deleting an account. The popup for the
Keep Files button reminds you these files will be saved to the desktop of the
current user (in a folder with the name of the deleted user).

Combining Users into Groups with

the Computer Management Tool
You can establish properties for each individual user, but if your system or network contains numer-
ous users, you can create groups of users with all the members of a group sharing the same proper-
ties and permissions. You can place each user in multiple groups if you like, or you can carefully
segregate them without any overlapping.
Windows XP creates 10 different user groups automatically (see Figure 24-8). You can assign each
user to one or more of these groups, depending on your specific needs:

Administrators: Have unrestricted access to the entire domain

Backup Operators: Have the capability to override security restrictions to back up or
restore files
Guests: Have basic access to the computer
Network Configuration Operators: Have minimal administrative privileges to manage
the configuration of networking features
408 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Power Users: Have most administrator privileges and can run legacy applications and cer-
tified applications
Remote Desktop Users: Have permissions to remotely log on to the computer
Replicator: Can replicate files in a specific domain
Users: Can run certified applications but cannot make systemwide changes or work with
most legacy applications
Debugger Users: Can debug processes on the computer, both locally and remotely
HelpServicesGroup: Are part of the Microsoft Help and Support Center (Remote
Assistance)

Figure 24-8: Groups and their explanations in the Computer

Management console.

Follow these steps to assign a user to a group:

1. Open the Control Panel from the Start menu.

2. Click Performance and Maintenance.
3. Double-click the Administrative Tools icon, and choose Computer Management.
(Winlogo+R, compmgmt.msc).
4. Click the + symbol to expand the Local Users and Groups tree.
5. Click the Users folder and then right-click on the desired username and choose Properties.
 Chapter 24: Adding Users and Groups to Your System 409

6. Click the Member Of tab to see the current group assignments for that user; then click the
Add button to establish the new assignment.
7. Ensure that Group is selected in the object type field and the specific computer or domain
is selected in the location field.
8. If you know the name of the group to which you want to add the user, type it in the text
field at the bottom of the page and click OK.
9. If you do not know the name of the group to which you want to add the user, click the
Advanced button and then click the Find Now button. A list of all the different groups is
displayed in the bottom portion of the page (see Figure 24-9). Select a group name, and
then click the OK button to add that user to the selected group.
10. Click the OK button when you’re finished.

Figure 24-9: The list of available groups.

Tip
To select multiple groups, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and select the various groups to which
you want to add the user.
410 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Summary
Creating separate accounts for each user on a single PC solves a great many problems, ranging from
privacy and security to the much more mundane issue of unintentional modification or deletion of
data files. Even on a single user PC, however, you might well find that an extra account or two comes
in handy. For example, if you use your PC to experiment with software, create a separate Computer
Administrator account solely for that purpose. If you play games, you can make an addictive game
inaccessible from your main account, which can prove a blessing when it comes to productivity.
Even though you can gain access simply by switching users, sometimes merely having to do that is
enough to keep yourself away from it.
Chapter 25

Controlling User
Access with
Permissions
by Neil Randall and Michelle MacLean

W indows XP user accounts work effectively as a tool for privacy and security only if you
segregate each user’s files and folders. In some programs, you can do so with a password
generated specifically for that program’s data files. For example, you can password-protect your
Microsoft Outlook data, forcing users (including yourself) to type a password completely separate
from your Windows password in order to view your email messages, calendar, contact information,
and everything else you’ve created in Outlook. To protect your files on a systemwide basis, however,
you need a systemwide method of denying access, something that Windows XP provides in its pro-
cedures for making files private and for setting file and folder permissions.
This chapter covers the methods for making your Windows XP files and folders inaccessible or
only partly accessible to other users of the PC and to those accessing your PC over the local network.
In this chapter, you learn how to make folders private, set folder permissions, work with security
options, and gain access to protected files and folders.

Note
File-sharing and permissions features on a Windows XP system function only on hard drives formatted with
the NTFS file system. Drives formatted in FAT or FAT32, the file systems used by Windows 9x/Me (and by
many users of Windows 2000 and Windows XP) do not have these capabilities. For that reason alone, you
should seriously consider converting all your drives to NTFS once you’ve decided to use Windows XP and
not go back to earlier versions of Windows.

411
412 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Simple versus Standard File Sharing

When first installed, Windows XP configures itself to use Simple File Sharing, a method of setting
permissions designed to make the process suitable for less technical users. In fact, if you use
Windows XP Home Edition as opposed to the more feature-rich Windows XP Professional Edition,
you have no choice but to use Simple File Sharing. The OS offers no alternative. With Windows XP
Professional, however, you can toggle this feature off in favor of the more advanced Standard File
Sharing, with which you can establish much more specific access to resources.
To choose between the two file-sharing methods, follow these steps:

1. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer.

2. From the Tools menu, choose Folder Options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the Advanced Settings listing (see Figure 25-1). Check or uncheck
the Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended) item, depending on whether you want it on
or off.

Figure 25-1: Enabling and disabling Simple

File Sharing.
 Chapter 25: Controlling User Access with Permissions 413

5. Click OK or Apply to make the change. The process can take a few minutes if you have a
system with many hundreds of files.

Tip
To launch Windows Explorer quickly, you can press and hold down the Windows Logo key and press the let-
ter E. The Windows Logo key is the one with an image of the Microsoft “Windows “flag” and is usually
located in the lower left-hand corner of the keyboard, between the Ctrl and Alt keys (on North American
keyboards).

The difference between the Simple and Standard File Sharing becomes apparent when you exam-
ine the Properties dialog box for any folder. Figures 25-2 and 25-3 show the Properties dialog box
for the same folder. In Figure 25-2, Simple File Sharing is on, while in Figure 25-3 it is off. Turning
off Simple File Sharing adds the Security tab to the dialog box and provides a significantly changed
Shared tab. Between these two tabs, you have extensive control over file and folder permissions. If
you run Windows XP Professional in a network setting with several users, this is the method you
should use to restrict access to resources; in fact, Windows disables the Simple File Sharing feature
entirely on computers networked through a domain.

Figure 25-2: A folder’s Properties dialog box

with Simple File Sharing enabled.
414 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 25-3: The same folder’s Properties

dialog box with Simple File Sharing disabled.

Working with Simple File Sharing

How simple is Simple File Sharing? Any type of file sharing has its complexities, but Simple File
Sharing succeeds by putting a much less intimidating interface on the process of establishing pre-
cisely who gets access to what. At its simplest, the feature lets you set the items in your own My
Documents folder to private status so that only you and the primary Administrator can work with
them. You have other options as well with Simple File Sharing turned on, including the capability to
share files and folders with other users on the local network.

The Windows XP Privacy Levels

Simple File Sharing provides three levels of access to local users and two levels of access to users on
the local network:

Level 1: If you make either My Documents or one of its subfolders private, you prevent
access to all other users, including those with Computer Administrator account types.
Anyone trying to access the folder receives the dialog box shown in Figure 25-4.
 Chapter 25: Controlling User Access with Permissions 415

Caution
Even though no other user can directly access the private folder, your files and folders still aren’t safe from
other users’ eyes. Anyone with a Computer Administrator account can change the password of any other
accounts on the system (including those of other Computer Administrators) and gain access to those files.
Somewhat astonishingly, Computer Administrators can even change the password of the initial Administrator
account and gain access to files and settings. Once again, be careful to whom you give Administrator
privileges.

Figure 25-4: Windows XP denies access to

private folders.

Level 2: When you create an account of any type, that account’s My Documents folder
and all its subfolders assume a Level 2 privacy setting. Only the owner of the account,
along with all Computer Administrator account holders, can access the folders. Holders of
Limited accounts cannot access them at all. This is a primary reason for giving all users
(except a single Administrator) Limited accounts; they automatically cannot look at each
other’s My Documents folders.
Level 3: The third level really has nothing to do with setting folder permissions or making
them private. It pertains, instead, to the Shared Documents folder on the PC, which
Windows automatically restricts to users of that PC. Administrators have full control over
the files in Shared Documents, while holders of Limited accounts can read the documents
but not write to or delete them. Shared Documents serves precisely the purpose its name
suggests: it lets everybody on a multiuser PC share files.
Level 4: The bottom half of Figure 25-2 shows the Network Sharing and Security area of
the Properties dialog box for the selected folder (that is, not just the Shared Documents
folder from Level 3). If you check the Share This Folder on the Network option, you estab-
lish Level 4 privacy. This setting allows users on the network to read the files but not mod-
ify them.
Level 5: If you check both the Share This Folder on the Network and Allow Network
Users to Change My Files options, you establish the weakest privacy, Level 5. This level
functions essentially as an open invitation to anyone to read and change your files, so use
it carefully if at all.
416 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Making Folders Private

You can increase the security and privacy of your Windows XP user account by using the Simple File
Sharing interface to make your folders and files private. Private, according to Windows XP, means
that only the current user and a Computer Administrator can access these files to read, change, or
delete them.
Follow these steps to make your My Documents folder or other folders private:

1. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer (Winlogo+E).

2. Right-click the folder you want to make private, and choose Properties (or Sharing and
Security).
3. Click the Sharing tab.
4. Select the Make This Folder Private check box, as shown in Figure 25-2.
5. Click OK.

In addition, the first time you create a password for your account (from within the User Accounts
utility in Control Panel), you can set your entire My Documents folder to Private status. After adding
a password, the User Accounts Wizard offers a button with the option to make the folders private
(see Figure 25-5). Click the button and then OK to render everything in My Documents private.

Figure 25-5: Making a folder private.

If, at any time, you want to remove the privacy on your files, open the Properties dialog box for
that folder and uncheck the Make This Folder Private option.
 Chapter 25: Controlling User Access with Permissions 417

Caution
You should consider unchecking the privacy option for your own folders if you decide to reinstall Windows
XP but keep the files from the initial installation available. On a new installation, you will not have access to
private folders because you are not actually a user on that system. Nor can you access the User Accounts
dialog boxes in order to change passwords. See the “Gaining Access to Protected Files and Folders” section
later in this chapter for information on gaining access to restricted folders.

6. Click the Add button to apply permissions to a group or user that does not appear in the
Group or usernames list, and then type the name of the group or user that you want to
apply permissions to. Alternatively, you can select the name of the user or group in the
Group or usernames list.
7. Select the appropriate check boxes to grant that user or group the capability to perform the
actions described, or clear the check boxes to prevent the selected user or group from per-
forming the actions described.
8. Click OK when you’re finished.

Working with Standard File Sharing

The Standard File Sharing option gives you far more precise control over file and folder access on
your PC. For most users, this level of control is likely unnecessary, but if you share your PC in a
larger office setting or on a larger network, you should use this option to set restrictions. If your
computer is part of a network, you have no choice; in that case, Simple File Sharing is not a selec-
table option.
Standard File Sharing offers a number of advanced options. For one, you can control the number
of users who can access the folder at any one time. For another, you can establish precisely what
each user group, or each individual user for that matter, can do with the files in the selected folder.
In the case of your Shared Documents folder, for example, which by default does not allow holders
of Limited accounts to change files, you can manually configure the permissions so that a specific
Limited account can change files while still retaining Limited account status. Also, if as an
Administrator you deem it necessary, you can take ownership of a folder so that you can access it but
the original owner no longer can. The options are numerous.
The items covered here assume that you have turned on Standard File Sharing. If not, and if you
want to follow along, open the Folder Options dialog box and choose Standard File Sharing now.

Sharing versus Security

As you already know, enabling the Standard File Sharing feature changes the Properties dialog box of
the selected folder to include two tabs: Sharing and Security. The Sharing tab applies only to network
418 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

use. Unlike the Sharing tab of the Simple File Sharing dialog box, it does not allow you to restrict
access to users on the same PC as the shared folders themselves. To perform those functions, click
the Security tab. A blizzard of initially confusing options allows you to control precisely which user
on your PC, as well as users logging in to your PC locally or remotely via technologies that simulate
local use (such as Virtual Private Networking and Remote Desktop), can access which resources.
If you’re just getting started working with these concepts, you can make life relatively easy by con-
figuring your PC with Simple File Sharing and then switching to Standard File Sharing when you’re
ready to make more precise distinctions in user access. When you make the switch, Windows retains
the permissions established with Simple File Sharing, and you need only fine-tune from there.
To see this switch in action, examine Figures 25-6 and 25-7. Figure 25-6 shows the Security tab
for a folder in the My Documents folder of an Administrator’s account. Only two users have access:
the user and the default System account (System has access to all accounts). As the Permissions list
demonstrates, the user has Allow permissions for everything in the account and Deny permissions
for nothing. This means that the user can do anything allowed to the files in those folders, including
read, write, list contents, and execute programs. You can tell that this folder belongs to a user with a
Computer Administrator account because users in the Administrators group, which is made up of
other Administrators, do not have permission to do anything in the folder.

Figure 25-6: Administrator account Security tab.

By comparison, Figure 25-7 shows a folder in the My Documents folder of a Limited account.
Here, three users are listed: the user, the System, and the Administrators group. By definition, as dis-
cussed earlier in this chapter, Limited accounts are controlled by the user, but all Computer
Administrators have access. This screen shot clearly demonstrates that principle.
 Chapter 25: Controlling User Access with Permissions 419

Figure 25-7: Limited account Security tab.

Limiting the Number of Users

For any number of reasons, you have the option of restricting the number of users who can access a
particular resource at the same time. For example, in the case of shared folders with extremely large
files, you might want to limit user access considerably to avoid bottlenecks and bandwidth loss
caused by too many users opening, working with, and downloading too many files. You might also
want to restrict users as a means of more easily monitoring file use in order to determine patterns
among users and the files they choose. Whatever the reasons you need this feature, Windows makes
it easy to configure.
Follow these steps to set a specific number of users who can access the shared folder:

1. In My Computer, navigate to the folder you want to restrict.

2. Right-click on the folder, and then choose Sharing and Security.
3. If the folder is not already being shared, select the Share This Folder radio button.
4. Select the Allow This Number of Users radio button, and then select a number using the
arrows.
5. Click OK when you’re finished.

SETTING SHARE PERMISSIONS

You can set specific Share permissions on a shared folder for users who access the files over the net-
work. For example, you can grant a specific user Full Control to the folder, enabling that user to
420 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

modify the folder and even delete it. You can also grant Change permissions to a specific user,
enabling that user to modify the folder; or Read permissions, allowing the user to read the contents
of that folder. Generally, network administrators grant Read permissions to large groups of users and
Change permissions only to those authorized to make changes to the folder or its documents. Only
network administrators get Full Control of the resource, and only selected administrators at that.
Allowing Full Control to large numbers of people can cause a wide range of obvious problems.

Caution
If you grant a specific user or group Full Control permissions to a folder, that user or group can delete any
files in that folder regardless of the permissions protecting the files.

Follow these steps to set Share permissions on a folder accessed over the network:

1. Navigate to the shared folder.

2. Right-click on the folder, and choose Sharing and Security.
3. If the folder is not already being shared, select the Share This Folder radio button.
4. Click the Permissions button. By default, the group called Everyone has permission to
read this folder. For better control, remove the Everyone account and replace it with spe-
cific users or groups. But keep in mind that doing so prevents blanket access and, there-
fore, could result in even more work for yourself in assigning large numbers of specific
permissions.
5. To set Share permissions for a specific user, click the Add button.
6. In the text field, type the name of the user to whom you want to give permissions and then
click OK. Alternatively, click the Advanced button, followed by the Find Now button, to
display the users and groups already established on your system (see Figure 25-8).
7. In the Permissions for <user> section, grant the permissions that you want to apply to the
selected user.
8. Click OK when you’re finished.

Note
Deny permissions take precedence over Allow permissions. When you set Deny permissions for a specific
user who belongs to two groups — one that is allowed a permission and another that is denied the same
permission — then the user is denied that permission.
 Chapter 25: Controlling User Access with Permissions 421

Figure 25-8: Finding specific users.

Caching Files
Enabling the features in Windows XP that allow users to work with offline files provides a means for
users to create and change files in a folder as if they were online, with the same file and folder per-
missions in place, and then have Windows synchronize any changes with the network versions of
the files when the users go back online. This might be useful to a laptop user who connects to the
network for only a limited time but needs to work on files stored on the network.
The Windows XP Offline Files feature creates a data cache on each user’s hard drive. In this cache,
Windows stores any files shared over the network that have been configured as offline files. The
Caching button gives you control over the behavior of these cached files, with the three cache set-
tings shown in Figure 25-9:

Manual caching of documents: Users can specify which files from a network folder they
want to be able to work with when offline. The manual setting, the default for shared fold-
ers, instructs Windows to cache only those specific documents.
Automatic caching of documents: This setting caches all documents in the shared folder
whether or not the user specified them for this purpose. If the shared folder contains a
more recent copy of the document, the cached version is automatically deleted and replaced
by the newer version. Only files the user has opened online can become available offline
using this setting.
422 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Automatic caching of programs and documents: This setting is similar to automatic

caching of documents, except that other types of files are also available for caching.
Possibilities include program files and items with read-only data. Again, the user does
not make the choice of what resources to cache.

Figure 25-9: Establishing the cache for a shared

offline folder.

Follow these steps to enable caching of files in a shared folder:

1. Navigate to the shared folder for which you would like to enable caching.
2. Right-click on the folder, and then choose Sharing and Security.
3. Select the Sharing tab.
4. If the folder is not already being shared, select the Share This Folder radio button.
5. Click the Caching button.
6. Check the Allow Caching of Files in This Shared Folder check box.
7. Select the type of cache setting you want to apply to the shared folder from the Setting
drop-down list, and click OK.

Setting Folder Permissions

from My Computer
If your computer is connected to a network domain, which by definition requires Standard, not
Simple, File Sharing, you can prevent others from accessing your folders and the files they contain
by setting permissions on those folders.
 Chapter 25: Controlling User Access with Permissions 423

Follow these steps to set permissions on a folder:

1. Open Windows Explorer.

2. Navigate to the folder for which you would like to apply permissions.
3. Right-click the folder and choose Properties.
4. Select the Security tab.

Gaining Access to Protected

Files and Folders
With a Computer Administrator account, you can gain access to almost any file or folder on the PC,
no matter which users have been granted permissions to it and even if the Windows XP installation
to which it originally belonged no longer functions. As an example, suppose that your system expe-
riences a crippling crash and you can no longer boot into Windows XP, but you have important files
in private folders on the now dead system. You can install a fresh instance of Windows XP and take
control of the folders anyway. The process is tedious, to be sure, but if the files matter, it’s worth it.
Follow these steps to perform this task most effectively, which means to take ownership of the
inaccessible items:

1. Log on to your Administrator account, and use My Computer or Windows Explorer to

locate the folder in question.
2. Right-click the folder, choose Sharing and Security, and select the Security tab.
3. Click the Advanced button to reveal the Permissions tab of the Advanced Security Settings
dialog box (see Figure 25-10).
4. Grant your new account permission to access the resource by clicking Add and then select-
ing the Advanced tab on the resulting dialog box.
5. Click Find Now and locate your username in the list; then click OK twice to add yourself
to the list. The result is the Permission Entry dialog box shown in Figure 25-11, in which
you specify precisely what permissions you will hold.
6. Choose Full Control. Clicking this check box automatically fills in the rest of the boxes in
the Allow column.
7. Click OK to return to the Advanced Security Settings box, where your username now
appears.
8. Check the Replace Permission Entries on All Child Objects check box to gain access not
just to the folder but to all subfolders as well.
9. Click Apply to set everything in motion.
424 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 25-10: Setting permissions in Advanced Security Settings.

Figure 25-11: Giving a user Full Control

over a resource.

10. Select the Owner tab (see Figure 25-12), and click your username in the Change Owner
To window.
 Chapter 25: Controlling User Access with Permissions 425

Figure 25-12: Taking ownership of the folder and subfolders.

11. Check the Replace Owner on Subcontainers and Objects check box immediately below
the window to apply the changes to the folder and subfolders; then click Apply to take
ownership.

You should now be able to access the folder. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer, locate the
folder, and copy the files you need from it.

Summary
Setting permissions enables you to establish who has access to which resources on your PC. For pri-
vacy, security, and even legal reasons, it might well be the most important Windows XP configuration
you perform. Unlimited access can quickly lead to abuse or innocent, but nevertheless destructive,
carelessness. Fortunately, Windows XP provides you with a variety of means to control access, and
this chapter has covered several important ones. For further details on controlling your system, turn
to Chapter 27 to explore Group Policies. For details on locating, migrating, and accessing user data,
see Chapter 26.
Chapter 26

Locating and
Migrating User Data
by Neil Randall and Michelle MacLean

C onsider the following two scenarios.

Scenario #1: You’ve purchased a new PC with all the latest bells and whistles.
Windows XP Professional hums along nicely; you’ve spent numerous hours per-
forming mandatory testing on the subwoofers, the digital camcorder, the DVD
burner, and all those other essential items. You’ve updated the virus definition
files and added everything that Windows Update has to offer. Everything seems
ready to go. Only one problem: your documents, work files, and email are still
sitting on the old machine.
Scenario #2: You’ve finally committed the time necessary to perform that long-
awaited backup — the one you should have been doing regularly but somehow
never managed to get around to. You fire up your backup software, step through
its wizard, and suddenly realize that backing up your nearly full 80GB hard
drive will require more than 100 CDs and roughly a gazillion hours. Backing up
to a DVD burner would improve the picture, but you’d still need 15–20 discs.
So, you decide to back up only your most important files: word processing
documents, spreadsheet files, scanned photos, edited videos, and, of course,
your email. Your backup software lets you choose this kind of limited backup,
but you quickly discover that these files are scattered all over your PC. You can
find some, but not all. And you don’t want to complete the whole thing only to
launch Internet Explorer and realize that all your favorites have disappeared
because you’ve forgotten to back up the appropriate folder.

In both scenarios, you need to know where your user data resides. In the case of user-created doc-
uments, you probably won’t have to look far for the answer because users tend to save files in three
major locations:

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428 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

In the Event of System Failure

Sometimes a Windows XP installation can fail to the point where you can do nothing to save it.
Maybe you can’t get as far as the Welcome screen, and maybe you can’t even get into Safe Mode.
For whatever reason, your Windows installation is toast.
You have a number of options, such as attempting to repair the installation or, at the other extreme,
reformatting all your hard drives and starting over (see Appendix B). Often, the easiest approach is to
install a fresh instance of Windows XP on a new hard disk partition (see Appendix A) and then work
from the new installation to recover data from the old installation.
The trick here is the separate partition. When you install Windows XP, you install a number of folders
along with it — all on the same partition as Windows itself. If you perform a fresh installation on the
same partition, you overwrite these folders. By contrast, installing to a separate partition keeps those
folders in place (Windows creates new ones on the new partition), letting you access that separate
partition later and reclaim your files. (See Appendix B for details on reinstalling Windows XP to a
separate partition.)
If your system currently has only one partition, the nonfunctioning Windows XP is on that partition.
You can’t use the old DOS-oriented FDISK to create the new partition in this case because FDISK
knows how to make and delete partitions, not split existing partitions into two or more. To divide
your partition, you need a third-party disk-partitioning package such as Symantec’s Partition Magic
or V Communications’ Partition Commander. These programs work superbly, but they require an
operating system to function. Because you can’t get into Windows in the first place, you can’t use
these programs.
In such a situation, your only real choice is to install a second hard drive. You don’t need a large
drive — in fact, an old 20GB drive will do the job — but because this drive will hold your operating
system, you might as well get the fastest and largest drive you can afford. Install it in your PC —
much less difficult than it might seem — and install Windows XP on it. When you’ve finished, you can
begin retrieving your data files from the Documents and Settings folder (and other relevant folders)
on the old drive.
Yes, this method costs a bit of money. And yes, it takes a great deal of time. But if you need your data
files, you’re probably willing to invest the time and money. If only you had made a thorough backup
(see Chapter 4).

My Documents folders and subfolders

The Desktop and subfolders
Inside the folders containing the programs used to create the files
A separate folder (or folders) created by the user to hold only data files

By default, most Microsoft software and increasing numbers of third-party software use My
Documents for this purpose, with the software frequently creating a subfolder to segregate the files
belonging to that specific program. For several reasons, though, some of them having to do with
 Chaper 26: Locating and Migrating User Data 429

old habits dying hard, many users create separate folders in which they store all — or at least the
majority — of the data files they produce.
For other user data, however, you often need to look harder. Simply put, it could be almost any-
where. This chapter examines the most likely places to find folders, files, and other items you want
to make sure you save when it comes to moving data from one Windows XP installation to another.

Copying from Documents and Settings

The Documents and Settings folder contains data files and personal settings for each user who has an
account on the computer. Windows XP checks this folder to determine things like which programs
show up on a specific user’s Start menu, the list of favorites to show when the user launches Internet
Explorer, the various documents that are accessible by that user, and so on. Think of your account
subfolder inside the main Documents and Settings folder as your personal identity on the computer.
You have some choice over its contents, such as whether to store your word processing files in My
Documents or somewhere else and the photographs from your digital camera in My Pictures or a dif-
ferent folder entirely, but Windows and other programs store many files in your Documents and
Settings area without asking your permission.

Note
This chapter discusses some files and folders that Windows hides by default. To navigate to the folders, you
must first make them accessible. To unhide hidden files and folders, open My Computer and choose Folder
Options from the Tools menu. Click the View tab in the Folder Options dialog box, and scroll to find the Hidden
Files and Folders item. Click to check the Show Hidden Files and Folders radio button, and click OK. When you
return to the folder you were viewing, all files and folders — including hidden ones — now appear. If you don’t
enable this feature, you could easily miss a folder that the user, for whatever reason, has designated as hidden.

The first step in migrating user data from one Windows XP system to another is to copy the files
from that user’s Documents and Settings subfolder from the old Windows XP installation to the new.
If the new installation resides on a different partition of the same computer as the old one, your job
is quite easy. As long as you have access to the user’s folder (see Chapter 25 if you do not), simply use
Windows Explorer to display your old and new user folders and copy the files from the former to the
latter.

Caution
To avoid all possible problems, refrain from copying subfolders created by Windows in case the folder has been
tied to your user account by the system-created Security Identifier (SID). The SID controls the full working of
your main folder inside Documents and Settings to the extent that copying the old Documents and Settings\
UserName folder from the old machine to the new might result in an inability to work with the Windows XP pri-
vacy and security settings in that folder. Leave the original folder where it was, and copy the files instead.
430 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

If the new installation resides on a different machine, the task doesn’t change but the time needed
to complete it increases. Copying data between machines always takes longer than copying it from
hard drive to hard drive inside the same machine. An external USB hard drive or a network connec-
tion can make this much easier.

Copying Other User-Specific Files

After transferring the Documents and Settings subfolder for your user account, the rest is a matter of
remembering where you put all your files or, if you’re performing the migration for other users,
working with those people to locate all the files they want to preserve. This process can take, quite
literally, days — especially when migrating from a PC with one or more large hard drives filled with
programs and data. For some programs, finding these files can prove exceptionally difficult, even to
the extent that different versions of the same program might very well save the data files in different
locations. If possible, erase absolutely nothing from the old installation until you (and any other
users affected by the change) have had time to work with the system and discover missing elements.
In particular, look for the following:

Data files for productivity programs such as word processors, spreadsheets, graphics soft-
ware, presentation software, database — anything not saved to the user’s My Documents
folder but rather in a separate data folder.
Back up data files, copies of other data files, with the backup folders possibly containing
additional documents.
Data files saved in the same folder as the program that created them or to a subfolder of
that program — which means searching the Program Files folder on the old Windows
installation as well as any other folder to which programs are installed.
Documents of any kind bearing CD keys, registration codes, and anything else required to
reinstall programs.
Downloads of programs no longer available, at least in the version the user prefers — older
shareware programs, for example, or software for which the user has a registration key and
does not wish to upgrade.
Address books (and email) from email programs or any other type of program.
Documents containing personal information including insurance policy numbers, student
numbers, logon information for other sites, and so on.
Files to which other documents make reference, in the form of a hyperlink or a Direct
Data Exchange (DDE) object. If an important Word document contains an embedded
Excel spreadsheet object, for example, and the actual spreadsheet resides in another folder,
you must find both to keep the document complete.
Web site files, in the case of software, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft
FrontPage, that synchronizes files between the remote server and the local machine —
otherwise the synchronization process must be recreated, an often lengthy procedure.
 Chaper 26: Locating and Migrating User Data 431

Temp files for software that creates these files as a means of recovering the main files.
Word is a classic example: It saves the main file, with the most recent changes you’ve
made, plus a Temp file that contains the changes immediately following the Save action.
You often have to search for these files, but you should do so for the best possible backup.
Files that track progress in games — hey, if the person has spent 200 hours getting to a cer-
tain point in the game, you don’t want her spending another 200 getting back to the same
point.

Migrating Your Email

No matter which email program you use on your PC, the program stores your email messages on
your hard drive. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to determine where. In fact, Microsoft’s two email
clients, Outlook and Outlook Express, store email in different locations and in different formats,
with neither of them easy to locate. Other email clients — Eudora, Netscape Mail, Mozilla Mail,
Pegasus Mail, and all the others — store their associated data files in still other locations and in still
different formats. While the protocols used for sending and receiving mail reflect a great deal of stan-
dardization, the files that make up your inbox, address book, and other mail folders show anything
but. In fact, the only thing consistent about email inboxes today is their willingness to collect spam.
To locate your email files, follow this procedure.

1. Open your email program and locate the option that allows you to configure preferences
or data files. In Microsoft Outlook, choose Tools ➝ Options, and click the Mail Setup tab.
Click the Data Files button, and then double-click the Personal Folders item in the result-
ing Outlook Data Files dialog box. This action reveals the properties dialog box for that
data file (see Figure 26-1), with the path name for the data file displayed in the Filename
field.

Tip
To see the full filename in the Outlook properties dialog box, click inside the Filename field and use the
arrows to move right and left.

2. Using My Computer or Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder and examine the way in
which your email program stores your mail. Figure 26-2 shows a folder containing Outlook
Express mail files, each in DBX format. As you add folders, Outlook Express adds DBX
files for each of those folders. Some email programs store messages as running text files;
others, such as Outlook Express, as small databases.
3. Copy the files and folders containing the email to the new Windows installation. Be sure to
copy subfolders as well, in case they also contain relevant files.
432 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 26-1: The Data Files properties

dialog box in Outlook.

Figure 26-2: Outlook mail files.

 Chaper 26: Locating and Migrating User Data 433

4. In the new Windows installation, open the email program and determine how to import
files from other locations. Perform these actions, keeping in mind where you stored the
copied files and folders from the old installation. For example, Figure 26-3 shows the
Import Personal Folders dialog box in Outlook. Migrating from one Outlook-enabled PC
to another requires this kind of importing in order to rebuild the user’s previous mailboxes
and folders.

Figure 26-3: The Import Wizard in Outlook.

Note
Outlook Express stores its email data in the following folder within Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\IdentityNumber.
Outlook stores its email data in the following folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Microsoft\Outlook.

Migrating Favorites and Cookies

Each user account on a Windows XP installation has a folder called Favorites inside that user’s main
folder in Documents and Settings. Typically, the Favorites folder houses URLs collected during Web
travels and bookmarked with the Add to Favorites command in Internet Explorer. Because Favorites
is merely another folder, you can house anything from links to music to documents in your Favorites
folder and organize your data accordingly. For the most part, though, Favorites functions as a Web
bookmarking tool, and Internet Explorer uses this folder to let you navigate to stored Web addresses
quickly.
434 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Also inside each user’s main Documents and Settings folder is the Cookies folder. Here, Windows
stores the cookies Internet Explorer has accepted while the user navigated the Web. When you visit
a Web site, information is saved on your hard disk so that the Web site remembers your information
the next time you visit that Web site. Because each request for a Web page is independent of all other
requests, the Web page server has no memory of what pages it has previously sent to your computer.
Cookies, the term for small files used by Internet sites to keep track of user preferences and informa-
tion, have developed a reputation as being dangerous from a security standpoint. In fact, they’re
quite harmless. Still, you can prevent users from using their stored cookies by not migrating them to
the new PC, keeping in mind that they will begin to collect cookies again as soon as they launch
Internet Explorer (unless you’ve configured Internet Explorer not to allow cookies).
Even a Cookies folder that’s only a few months old is likely to have hundreds or even thousands
of cookie files in it (see Figure 26-4). Quite simply, these things proliferate. If you open a cookie file,
however (which you can do in the Windows built-in text editor, Notepad), don’t expect to make
much sense of it. They contain code for the server to use, and typically the only detail you’ll get by
reading the file is the name of the organization that generated the cookie in the first place. Because
cookies tend to store such information directly in their name, however, opening the file serves no
real purpose.

Figure 26-4: A typically packed Cookies folder.

 Chaper 26: Locating and Migrating User Data 435

Tip
If you don’t want other users who access the computer to see a trail of the Web sites you have visited, it’s not
a bad idea to clean out your list of cookies on a fairly regular basis. You can do so using the Internet Options
dialog box available in Internet Explorer and in Control Panel or by opening your Cookies folder and getting
rid of cookies whose names provide too much information about your Web navigation habits.

In the cases of both favorites and cookies, migrating data is considered optional by many; that is,
you don’t need them even if you may want them. Certainly that’s true of the Cookies folder, but some
users want to keep their cookies for a variety of reasons, many of them legitimate. Favorites are a dif-
ferent story, however. If you’ve spent numerous hours — weeks and months, in fact — building up a
list of favorites that let you work more effectively and locate the information you need, you should,
by all means, migrate the Favorites folder. Actually, you don’t need to migrate the entire folder at all.
As long as you store the Favorites files somewhere, you merely have to copy them to the Favorites
folder of the new installation to make full use of them again.

The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard

To help make the transition from one machine to another as painless as possible, Windows XP comes
with a feature called the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. When you use the Files and Settings
Transfer Wizard to move data files and personal settings from one computer to the next, you eliminate
the need to configure a wide range of options on the new computer. Furthermore, this wizard gives
you the option of transferring many items discussed during this chapter; for example, you can move
entire folders — such as Favorites — or specific files to your new computer. You access this wizard by
choosing Start ➝ All Programs ➝ Accessories ➝ System Tools ➝ Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.
Microsoft strongly recommends connecting your new and old computers via a serial cable (Direct
Cable Connection) or by using home networking to make the most out of the Files and Settings
Transfer Wizard. You can also transfer via floppy disks, but you need several of them to carry out the
transition. This method can be painful if you have a lot of files. If you choose to transfer only settings
instead of files, however, the wizard transfers primarily small files. So neither floppy disks, with their
extremely limited capacity, nor Direct Cable Connection, with its extremely limited speed, actually
presents any major difficulty.

Note
The major problem with Direct Cable Connection is the fact that very few people have an appropriate serial
cable. You can get one at your local electronics store (and some computer stores), but unless you’re a com-
puter veteran with many years’ service (in olden times, collecting a variety of cables simply came with the
computing territory), you are unlikely to have one sitting around.
436 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 26-5 shows the first stage of the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. The Old computer
represents the PC that currently holds the desired files and settings, whereas the New computer rep-
resents the PC to which you want to transfer these files and settings. You begin by running the wiz-
ard on the Old computer to gather the files and settings you want. Any PC running Windows 95 or
later can act as the Old computer. But in order to perform this step with anything other than a
Windows XP machine, you need to use the Windows XP installation CD (which contains the pro-
gram for older Windows versions to use) or run the wizard first as the New computer and create a
floppy disk with the Transfer Wizard for the Old computer.

Figure 26-5: Deciding on the Old versus New computer.

Next, decide among the four transfer methods: Direct Cable, Home or Small Office network,
Floppy Drive or Other Removable Drive, or Other (removable drive or network drive). Using Other,
you can store files and settings on any location on your PC, making them ready for transfer to the
new machine. With this choice made, the wizard asks what items you want to transfer. As Figure
26-6 shows, you can transfer only settings or only files, or you can combine them. To be precise
about your choices, check the Let Me Select a Custom List of Files and Settings box, or simply let the
wizard decide for itself.
The wizard divides the possible transfer items into three main sections:

Settings: The settings of your existing programs and configurations, ranging from Windows
accessibility settings and the settings in the Display Properties dialog box to settings for
Outlook Express, Windows Media Player, and your networks.
Specific folders: The folders that contain your preferences, such as Desktop, Favorites, My
Pictures, and more. Keep in mind that transferring My Pictures and My Documents could
result in a very large amount of data, given the size of some graphics and document files.
File types: A huge array of file types, everything from PDF to JPG. Again, because of the
size of many of these file types, the transfer might be huge.
 Chaper 26: Locating and Migrating User Data 437

Figure 26-6: Deciding what to transfer.

With your choices made, the wizard compiles information about the settings and files you’ve
selected. Depending on those choices, this process could take several minutes or longer, even on a
fast computer. Figure 26-7 shows the last stage of the wizard on the Old computer, instructing you
to move to the new one and perform the transfer.

Figure 26-7: The initial collection stage completed.

On the New computer, run the wizard again, instructing it where to find the stored files and set-
tings, and watch as it applies the data to the new PC. Your migration is complete.
438 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Summary
All users change computers at some point. When they do, they sometimes experience the problems
of setting everything up anew. Careful migration of user data, however, can help speed the transition,
and in some cases only migration makes the transition possible at all. Ultimately, to migrate user data
you must copy files and folders, and to copy them you must locate them; both processes can take a
great deal of time. You can help yourself by performing regular backups of your important files and
by investing in data-imaging software (also called ghosting software), designed specifically to let you
back up your installation completely and restore it on the new PC exactly as it was. Most likely, you’ll
find yourself using several migration methods as you move from PC to PC, and getting used to all of
them can only be a good idea.
Chapter 27

Configuring
Group Policies
by Neil Randall and Michelle MacLean

O ut of the box, Windows XP provides wide-ranging flexibility in how users can configure the
operating system’s many options, in effect allowing them to build their own personalized
interfaces. Sometimes, however, this much flexibility hinders rather than helps usability and pro-
ductivity. If you are in charge of an office full of 10 PCs or more (and certainly once that number rises
to 50 or more), standardizing the PCs starts to make a great deal of sense. For one thing, training
becomes easier because everyone sees the same desktop and works with the same interface. Also,
helping users with day-to-day PC-based activities and problems becomes easier because the people
designated to give this help (whether or not you have an official help desk) don’t have to spend the
first 15–30 minutes figuring out how each user has configured the various elements of the interface.
Windows XP Professional (not the Home edition) contains precisely the tool you need to stan-
dardize the interface and other elements of the user experience: the Group Policy Editor. This tool
enables you to assign specific properties to specific users and specific PCs, configuring them the way
you want them to look and function. This chapter takes you through the process of installing the
Group Policy Editor and working with it to achieve the standardization results you want.

Installing the Group Policy Editor

Before you can use the Group Policy Editor, you must install it in the Microsoft Management Console
(MMC). To do so, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button, and choose Run.

2. Type mmc in the Open box and press Enter to launch the Management Console.
3. Choose File ➝ Add/Remove Snap-in.

439
440 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

4. On the Standalone tab of the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box, click the Add button.
5. Scroll down the list of snap-ins until you see Group Policy (see Figure 27-1). Select it, and
click the Add button.

Figure 27-1: Installing the Group Policy Editor.

6. The resulting Group Policy Wizard shows the Local Computer as the object of the Group
Policy. If you want to set a Group Policy on a different computer, click the Browse button
and locate the other computer on the network. This chapter assumes you want to work
with the local PC, so simply click Finish.
7. With Local Computer Policy now displayed under the Standalone tab of the Add/Remove
Snap-in dialog box, click OK. The Console Root window now shows the policy (or poli-
cies) you’ve added.

If you need to set Group Policy for more than one computer, add them at the same time by
repeating the procedure starting with step 5 in this list, locating the networked PC, and clicking
Add. Figure 27-2 shows the result of adding two computers to the Group Policy Editor.
 Chapter 27: Configuring Group Policies 441

Figure 27-2: The Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box

with two Group Policy objects (GPOs) added.

Configuring Policies
You can establish and revise your Group Policies either directly from the Management Console or
from a separately loaded Group Policy Editor application. To open the separate editor, choose
Start ➝ Run and type gpedit.msc in the Open field. Press the Enter key to launch the program. The
two show the same information, so we work with it in this chapter primarily because the separate
editor is dedicated to Group Policy configuration only. Feel free, however, to edit Group Policies
whichever way you want.
As Figure 27-3 shows, the editor is divided into three main areas: the Folders pane on the left, the
Details pane on the right, and, between the two of them, the Help pane. You can get rid of the Help
pane by clicking the Standard tab at the bottom of the window, but for the first set of users you’ll
undoubtedly find the Help pane worth leaving visible. Whenever you click on an item in the Details
pane, the Help pane offers either a brief description only — when you click on a folder — or a
much lengthier description — when you click on a nonfolder item. The nonfolder items are called
policies and are phrased in a way that reflects that terminology.
442 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 27-3: The Group Policy Editor.

Look at the example in Figure 27-3. The Remove and Prevent Access to the Shut Down Command
policy located in the User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar folder lets
you alter the Windows user interface so that clicking on the Start button no longer reveals the Turn Off
Computer icon (see Figure 27-4), thereby preventing users from shutting Windows down. As the Help
pane explains, setting this policy also disables the Shut Down button on the Windows Task Manager,
the dialog box that appears when you press Ctrl+Alt+Delete (or select Task Manager from the menu by
right-clicking the Taskbar). The full text of the Help pane shows the usefulness of the explanations,
hence the suggestion to keep the pane open. Even without it being open, you can access the Help text
(and in somewhat more readable form) by double-clicking on the policy and clicking the Explain but-
ton. But the Help pane works well when moving through the list policy by policy, trying to determine
which one does what you want.
When you find a policy you want to configure, double-click it (or right-click and choose
Properties) to open its Properties dialog box. As Figure 27-5 demonstrates, this dialog box shows the
name of the policy at the top (and in the title bar) and offers the options Not Configured, Enabled,
and Disabled. The bottom of the dialog box displays a field labeled Support On, which briefly out-
lines the Windows versions (or client software within Windows) that support this policy setting. For
example, the majority of the Start menu and Taskbar policies require At least Windows 2000 while
the policies in the Terminal Services folder state At least Microsoft Windows XP Terminal
Services.
 Chapter 27: Configuring Group Policies 443

Figure 27-4: The Start menu without all of its shutdown capabilities.

Figure 27-5: A Group Policy Properties dialog box.

444 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Configuring a policy means making changes to the Windows registry. These three options change
the registry as follows:

Not Configured: No changes to the registry. The option retains the default behavior as
established with the initial Windows installation.
Enabled: The registry changes to show that the policy has been toggled on.
Disabled: The registry changes to show that the policy has been toggled off.

For many policies, those are the only possibilities. However, in numerous other cases, the Properties
dialog allows additional settings, depending on the function of the feature to which it refers. In fact,
you can look at the Group Policy Editor as a graphical interface that lets you dig into the registry with-
out actually opening it and trying to figure out what goes where (the Registry Editor — regedit — can
be brutally user hostile).
Figure 27-6 shows a more elaborate Properties dialog box that’s designed to control the behavior
of the user’s PC when it disconnects, for whatever reason, from the network server on which it
depends. Clicking the Enabled button gives you access to the drop-down menu in the middle win-
dow with an explanation of each choice. Other customized Properties dialog boxes in the Network
window let you specify options for activity logging, determine which files and folders are always
available offline, and set the number of seconds between each appearance of the balloon that
reminds users about the status of offline files and folders. Again, each of these changes alters an entry
in the registry.

Figure 27-6: A customized Properties interface.

 Chapter 27: Configuring Group Policies 445

Still other Properties dialog boxes offer an entirely different kind of interface. Instead of the Not
Configured, Enabled, and Disabled radio buttons, these interfaces give you a range of options specif-
ically relevant to the object you want to change. To cite two typical examples, you can use the
Important URLs Properties dialog box to configure the Web pages your employees will open when
they click the Home button, the Search button, and the Help ➝ Online Support menu item in their
browsers (see Figure 27-7). Similarly, a customized interface appears when you open the Properties
dialog box for Browser Toolbar Customizations. Here, you can customize the background image for
the Internet Explorer toolbar and even add custom toolbar buttons. When you choose to add a but-
ton, a secondary dialog box appears in which you set the caption for the button as well as the script
or program file defining the button’s action (so that the button actually does something). You must
also specify the color and grayscale icons for that button so that Internet Explorer can display the
button properly.

Figure 27-7: Setting the default URLs.

Understanding the Policy Hierarchy

As long as you have the administrative permissions to do so, you can configure Group Policies at any
level of the network, — from the local computer all the way up to the network domain and beyond.
If you have Administrator privileges for your particular machine or local network, but the machine
is part of a larger network or the local network part of a domain, you will quickly find that the pol-
icy modifications you make seem to have no effect. That’s not the case, in fact, but it’s very true that
your changes might well be temporary. Group Policy works under a specific hierarchy, and it’s
important to understand how this hierarchy works.
From top to bottom, the Group Policy hierarchy looks like this:

1. Organizational unit policy

2. Domain policy
446 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

3. Site policy
4. Local PC policy

In other words, the higher up the chain you set the policy, the greater the chance it has of taking
effect. If you modify a policy at the domain level, every PC on that domain adheres to it, even if a
conflicting policy is set on a local PC. If you set the Internet Explorer home page to one URL for all
users on the local machine, for instance, and Joe in the corporate office changes that policy for the
entire organizational unit, Joe’s URL wins. If you change the home page after that, your changes take
effect temporarily, but only until the next time the Group Policy settings are refreshed. By default,
refreshes occur every 5 minutes on a domain controller and every 90 minutes on a server or work-
station. In practical terms, therefore, and assuming that you have nothing better to do with your day,
you can keep changing the Group Policy settings immediately after each refresh and enjoy a few
minutes of boundless freedom.
This hierarchy means, quite simply, that if you want to apply a policy, you should determine the
level at which you want to configure it. Practically, of course, you might not have any choice; your
level of IT permission in the organization dictates what you can actually accomplish with policy
modifications. Yet even if you have charge over only a small office network, you need to consider the
effect of configuring a policy. Do you want a policy setting to apply to a specific machine, for exam-
ple, or to all the machines on the network?

Tip
If you modify the Group Policy settings for an office network, be sure to explain to employees what they’ll find
different from before and how to work with the changes. Many people find any changes to their PCs discon-
certing and possibly even stress-inducing; you can lessen this reaction by letting them know exactly what to
expect when they log on. You might very well still get complaints (because that’s what people do about com-
puters), but complaints are much easier to deal with if you’ve already addressed those complaints in a
proactive way.

Examples of Policy Configuration

Because configuring Group Policies can seem rather obscure, the remainder of this chapter consists
of examples to demonstrate how policies work. Outlined in the following sections are two groups of
policy changes that could fairly easily reflect viable possibilities on a PC shared by multiple users or
on a small network.

Example 1: Setting Password Policies

One of the easiest and most effective forms of control you can take over the security of a PC or net-
work lies in password requirements. Under the Windows Settings\Password Policy folder of the
Group Policy Editor, you can configure the following settings:
 Chapter 27: Configuring Group Policies 447

Enforce password history: Sets the number of passwords that Windows remembers for
each user. When changing passwords, the user cannot reuse a password before creating
this number of unique passwords. This setting prevents the time-honored and security-
destroying method advanced by users over the decades of switching between two pass-
words when the system forces a password change. The default setting is 0.
Maximum password age: Sets the maximum number of days that each new password
remains in effect before it must be changed. The default setting is 42. (Honest, that’s what
it says! One wonders if the Microsoft programmers had the fabled computer Deep
Thought in mind when designing this option.)
Minimum password age: Sets the minimum number of days that each new password
remains in effect before the user can change it. This setting represents another way of
defeating time-honored and security-destroying user practices, this time changing a pass-
word and then changing it right back again. The default setting is 0 (see Figure 27-8).

Figure 27-8: Setting the number of days a

password may remain unchanged.

Minimum password length: Sets the minimum number of characters in each password.
The number can be anything between 0 and 14, with 0 meaning that users require no
password at all — obviously not a good idea. The default setting is 0.
Password must meet complexity requirements: The greatest bugaboo of computer
security is still, after all the ink that’s been spent on it, bad passwords. Many people use
their street name, a family member’s name, a pet’s name, or even just their own first name
because they want to make the password easy to remember. But if a password is easy
for a user to remember, it’s also easy for an intruder to crack. So, the Group Policy system
includes a built-in password complexity feature that you can enable if you want better
passwords. This policy forces users to create passwords with the following requirements.
Combined with the minimum password age policy, these requirements result is passwords
that are substantially more difficult to crack:
448 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

■ At least six characters long

■ Containing three different types of characters, chosen from four categories: numeral
from 0 to 9, uppercase alphabetic character, lowercase alphabetic character, and a sym-
bol (such as punctuation)
■ Doesn’t replicate all or part of the user’s account name
Store password using reversible encryption for all users in the domain: Reversible
encryption means, in practice, no encryption at all. Unless you absolutely need plaintext
passwords, avoid this policy completely.

Clearly, a password policy that includes complexity, history, and minimum and maximum aging
results in a consistent use of passwords that should do their job well. Furthermore, while these poli-
cies might seem restrictive, most users fully recognize the need for strong password protection.
Indeed, most also realize that they should change their passwords regularly, just as they know they
should back up their data files regularly. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to have computers enforcing
good ideas.

Example 2: Setting Windows Explorer Policies

Through the Windows Explorer item in Group Policy Editor, users control a great deal of what goes
on in their systems. It lets you configure a full range of options, and in configuring these policies you
substantially alter the Windows XP interface. Policies include the following:

Removes the Folder Options menu item from the Tools menu: The Folder Options dia-
log box offers control over many options, including displaying hidden files, turning on
Simple File Sharing, and associating file types with specific programs. This policy removes
the item from the Tools menu in Windows Explorer and My Computer (and indeed from
any folder), and it also removes it from Control Panel window.
Remove the Search Button from Windows Explorer: Deletes the Search button from
the toolbar of all folders. Enabling this policy has no effect on the Search button in
Internet Explorer or the Search item on the Start Menu. You can remove the latter, how-
ever, by enabling one of the policies in the Start menu and Taskbar area of the Group
Policy Editor.
Remove Windows Explorer’s default context menu: Eliminates the menu that appears
when you right-click on an object.
Hide these specified drives in My Computer: Causes the icons for the specified drive
combination to disappear from My Computer, Windows Explorer, and the Open and Save
dialog boxes. You can still access these drives via methods such as typing the path in the
Address field of an open folder. Figure 27-9 shows the dialog box for this policy.
Remove Security tab: Gets rid of the Security tab from the Properties menu of an object
(such as a folder or drive) in Windows Explorer or My Computer. Enabling this policy
prevents users from changing security settings for that object and also from seeing the
 Chapter 27: Configuring Group Policies 449

list of users with access to that object. Because the Security tab does not appear on these
dialog boxes when Simple File Sharing has been toggled on, the policy has no effect in that
instance.

Figure 27-9: Hiding specific drive icons.

Remove CD burning features: Disables the built-in CD-burning capabilities of Windows

XP. However, third-party CD-burning software still works. So, if as an administrator you’re
trying to prevent CD burning, remember to search for additional programs as well.
Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin: Results in the permanent removal of files
instead of having them placed in the Recycle Bin when you delete them using the Delete
command. As a result, delete means delete, with no way to bring them back (except for
some fairly esoteric command-line utilities). You can still manually drag files to the Recycle
Bin, however.
Items displayed in Places Bar: Located inside the Common Open File Dialog folder, this
policy lets you add items to the Places Bar in the Open and Save dialog boxes. The Places
bar, located along the left side of these dialog boxes, contains shortcuts to specific resources.
You can add icons pointing to folders on your local PC, to computers on the network, and
to the numerous items called Common Shell Folders: for example, My Documents, My
Pictures, and Program Files. Figure 27-10 shows the formlike interface for configuring
these places.

Making any one of these changes alters the way in which users of your PC or network interact
with Windows. Change them all, and you create significant differences. But if your company policies
require specific methods of interaction, by all means make the necessary changes.
450 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 27-10: Adding to the Places bar under the

Common Open File dialog.

Caution
Before making any changes to the Windows Explorer policies, run some usability tests to ensure that you
don’t lose in productivity what you hope to gain in security. You can run formal tests in a usability testing lab,
but you can also design your own tests quite easily. A good method of testing is to determine several tasks
your users typically perform and observe them on a modified PC (without assisting them) while they perform
these tasks. Listen to what they have to say, and assess the policy changes accordingly. And remember that
you’re testing the interface, not the users; if they have trouble performing a task because their computer
functions differently, don’t make the common testing mistake of placing blame on the user, especially if more
than one person encounters the same difficulties.

Summary
The Group Policy Editor gives you an enormous degree of control over how each user’s PC functions,
looks, and behaves. When combined with all other aspects of user restrictions and permissions, poli-
cies help you ensure that nobody has access to resources they shouldn’t and that the resources they
can access are the resources deemed appropriate by the organization. With consistent interfaces and
consistent interactions, training becomes more streamlined and assistance more immediate. Of
course, if you get carried away with configuring policies you also run the risk of becoming restrictive
to the point of limiting the users’ ability to actually get anything accomplished, so be sure to test your
changes thoroughly.
Part VII

Utilities

I n this section, you take a look at some of the utilities available for working with user accounts and
for increasing your account security even more than Windows does. These utilities are useful pri-
marily for business users, but there’s certainly no reason you can’t use some of them on a home system
if you need that additional security. However, if you’re using Windows XP Home Edition, by far the
most valuable single step you can take, before trying anything else, is to upgrade to XP Professional.

Password and Password Recovery Utilities

There’s nothing better than having a great password, and there’s nothing worse than not remember-
ing what it was. One class of utilities helps you establish, keep track of, and transport your pass-
words, whereas another class gives you help in recovering passwords for your documents and email
message stores.
Password Office Deluxe (www.compelson.com) is an example of a password manager program.
The program helps you generate passwords that others will be highly unlikely to guess and then
stores them so that you don’t have to. It works with login passwords for your system, for Web forms,
and for other programs as well. If offers strong encryption and Trojan protection for what it calls
“secure notes,” a system whereby you can store anything that requires secrecy and assign protection
to it (credit card numbers are a prime example of this). You can store your passwords on a smart card
or flash drive, both secured, for when you need to take them with you.
Network Password Manager (www.sowsoft.com) is another feature-rich password manager.
Designed for business use, this product keeps a multiuser database of all the users on your network,
helps you (and them) create effective passwords, manages the passwords for whatever network func-
tions you choose, and offers a centralized backup feature to let you keep track of all passwords and
fill-in fields for your network users. Billeo Password Manager (www.billeo.com) also keeps track of
passwords, including login passwords and Web site passwords (such as banking and credit card
details), protecting the data using strong encryption.
For examples of the password recovery category, you can start with Intelore (www.intelore.
com). Here, you’ll find a series of programs under the general name Password Recovery, one each for
Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, Project, Outlook Express, and the compression utility RAR. If you’ve

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password-protected any documents in any of these programs, or email data files in the case of the
two Outlooks, these utilities can recover those passwords for you. They’re extremely handy for gain-
ing access to documents you might have forgotten about, but obviously they make the password
protection for these programs rather suspect. In fact, numerous password recovery programs are
available for Microsoft Office products, so you can rest assured that Microsoft hasn’t provided a par-
ticularly secure password environment.

Account Utilities and Biometric Solutions

Windows XP Professional has its own user and domain administration features, but once again,
except for the standard user configurations, the tools lack user-friendliness. Ideal Administrator
(www.pointdev.com) gathers all the Windows account and domain functions together into one inter-
face, allowing you to add, delete, or change any configurations more easily than with XP itself. User
Account Manager (www.it-direct.co.nz) lets you quickly create user accounts with specified drive
shares, group membership, and more, and includes the ability to move accounts between Windows
XP, NT, and 2000 servers.
One solution for controlling users and their accounts is to purchase biometric access products.
These products usually work with fingerprints, although some use Webcams to take facial images
and unlock Windows from there. Fingerprint solutions include a fingerprint reader of some kind,
either a standalone unit on which users place their fingertips or a mouse whose button includes a
fingerprint reader. As an example of the latter type of solution, American Power Conversion (APC at
www.apc.com), best known for its uninterrupted power supply (UPS) solutions for business and
home users, has announced the production of a biometric mouse that will determine which user is
attempting to access the PC and whether to allow it. The user does not type a password (usually) but
instead relies on the biometric reading to determine access validity instead.
Another fingerprint access product is Kanguru’s Biometrics USB 2.0 Flash Drive (www.kanguru.
com), a 256MB thumb drive that contains a fingerprint scanner with storage space for five finger-
print images. The idea is to use as much of the drive as you want (all of it, half of it, whatever) as a
secure data storage device, unlocking the secure area by letting it scan and recognize your finger-
print. Microsoft offers a standalone fingerprint reader for use with all versions of Windows XP
(www.windowsmarketplace.com). DigitalPersona (www.digitalpersona.com) sells a variety of bio-
metric products for consumer and business users. Each of them works with fingerprint analysis as a
means of accessing Windows user accounts.
 Part VIII
Networking Your Home or Business
Chapter 28
Planning Your Network
Chapter 29
Connecting Your PCs in a Small Workgroup
Chapter 30
Using Windows XP as an Internet Server
Part VIII Utilities
Chapter 28

Planning Your
Network

Y our Windows XP machine works very well as a standalone PC, but it begins to show its true
potential when you make it part of a network. Whether that network consists of the two PCs
you use at home or dozens of machines in an office, the network expands the computing experience,
with shared resources providing a main focal point of computing activity from the moment the net-
work exists.
With each successive version of Windows, connecting PCs to a network has become easier. Even
so, Windows XP raises the standard considerably, to the degree that, after setting up the necessary
hardware, developing a network typically takes only a few mouse clicks. Furthermore, sharing an
Internet connection with Windows XP is not only easy to implement, it’s also expected. This is an
operating system built for networks. Even so, you can’t just plug one computer into another (well,
you can with an unusual cross-over cable); networks involve more than that.
This chapter outlines the major considerations in planning a small network. Chapter 29 covers
the various methods of establishing that network. By the time you’ve finished both chapters, you’ll
have a good grasp of what a network entails, what to do with one, and how to set one up.

Why Plan?
Many Windows networks, especially in small offices and many homes, undergo almost no planning
at all. People buy new computers as needed, using them as independent workstations until the real-
ities of sharing files, printers, and the Internet kick in. Then someone figures out that everyone could
work more efficiently if they combined their computers into a network, to share printers, an Internet
connection, and files such as those for photos and music. So the hookups begin. Within a short
while, the network is in place, with everybody more or less trained on at least a few of the functions
networking provides.
Even a small network can benefit from planning, however. By determining in advance the ele-
ments you need, you also figure out what you might not need. For example, perhaps you have
decided that you do not need wireless network access. But in observing your employees, you dis-
cover that they frequently hold impromptu design sessions with their laptop computers in the

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lunchroom. So, you might want to reconsider your decision, providing wireless access as a way to
encourage this type of productive impromptu meeting. Similarly, perhaps you currently have small
printers for each employee. But in observing them, you find that only two or three people use their
printers extensively. So, you might consider setting up a single networked printer for the others to
share.

Peer-to-Peer versus Client-Server Networks

When planning a network, you must first decide which basic type of network you want: peer-to-peer
or client-server. The difference, as the names suggest, lies in the relationships among the network’s
machines.
On a client-server network, at least one of the computers acts as a central resource, making pro-
grams and data available to the other machines on the network. These machines are called servers,
with the connected workstations called clients. Clients have the power and capabilities necessary to
provide their users with their many computing needs, while the server stores and delivers data and
other resources, such as programs themselves, to the client machines. A client requests information
from a server, and if the client possesses the proper authorization to receive that information, the
server fulfills it. A client-server network requires a network operating system (NOS) to provide ser-
vices such as file sharing, email, and telecommunications. Windows XP Professional has certain
server capabilities, but businesses and organizations typically use Windows 2000 Server or the more
recently introduced Windows Server 2003 as the Windows server OS. Many organizations, indeed,
go outside the Windows family entirely for their server needs, preferring Linux or Unix. The Internet
is the biggest client-server network, largely founded on Unix.
A peer-to-peer network considers all machines as equals — that is, peers — with no central com-
puter operating as a server. Workstations (no longer called clients) connect directly to other work-
stations, at varying levels of security, to exchange information. Windows XP offers extensive built-in
peer-to-peer networking features, and this chapter assumes that you want to create a peer-to-peer
network.
A peer-to-peer network works well in homes, in small offices, and as a subnetwork in larger set-
tings. It functions primarily as a means of sharing specific resources, particularly Internet connec-
tions, files, and printers. People can collaborate on documents by storing them in a single location
on the network rather than on their own local hard drives, and they can all use a printer connected
either to one of the peers or, in the case of Ethernet-equipped printers, directly to the network itself
(making the printer yet another peer despite its limited capabilities). In addition, all peers on the
network can share a single Internet connection, preferably by using a router in order to track which
machines initiate requests for data and route the data to the correct PC. Whether you only have dial-
up access in a home network, or an ultra-high-speed dedicated Internet connection in a larger office
network, you share the connection in much the same way.
Furthermore, although a peer-to-peer network has no server, you can improve the security, man-
ageability, and efficiency of resource sharing by casting one of the peers in a serverlike role. If you
have a little-used machine, perhaps one less powerful than the others but that still supports a
Windows XP installation (even a 500 MHz Celeron processor will do so in a pinch), why not put it
in an out-of-the-way location (preferably a locked room), clean off its hard drives, and configure it to
 Chapter 28: Planning Your Network 457

store files to be shared among the other peers? You can connect the primary printer to it and share it
as well. You might even consider buying a large hard drive for it (160MB or so) and using it as the
networked backup store. Technically, the machine remains a peer, rather than a server, but for all
intents and purposes it functions as a server. (See Chapter 29 for details on setting up a peer-to-peer
local area network — LAN).
Next, you look at different technologies for connecting machine to a network. As you read on,
keep in mind that much of the discussion applies to either client-server or peer-to-peer networks.

Ethernet Networks
Most wired LANS (still the most common network type) use the tried-and-true technology known as
Ethernet. Now approaching its 33-year anniversary, Ethernet has developed into a high-speed, ubiqui-
tous network architecture that provides endless flexibility and easy connectivity. Part of the reason for
its success has been its inclusion as a primary network type in all operating systems, with even con-
sumer level OSs such as Windows 95 and low-end Macintoshes supporting Ethernet right out of the
box. Today, virtually all PCs ship with built-in Ethernet ports, ready for connection to an Ethernet LAN.
A number of speeds of Ethernet connectivity (measured in megabits per second — Mbps) are avail-
able today. The following are the most common. Over three decades, Ethernet has gotten markedly
faster. Three speeds are common today. Many devices support more than one of these speeds:

10 Mbps (10Base-T): The original Ethernet, and still the maximum speed for Internet
connections except for the most expensive high-speed variety. If you have a 10-Mbps
Ethernet card in your PC and you upgrade to a 100-Mbps version, you will notice no
difference in the speed of data transfer over the Internet.
100 Mbps (100Base-T): The most popular speed for office LANs. It is often combined on
a single card with 10Base-T, resulting in the designation 10/100.
1000 Mbps (Gigabit Ethernet): The most recent, widely available enhancement to
Ethernet, providing 1GB per second transfer speeds. With prices for Gigabit Ethernet
cards coming down, you might even consider building your network such that all PCs
have one, although for most networks 100-Mbps Ethernet remains more than sufficient.
At this speed, however, the PC itself becomes a bottleneck because the card can take data
faster than the PC can provide it.

Chapter 30 provides details on setting up an Ethernet-based network.

Wired versus Wireless Networks

While wired networks remain the most common type of network, particularly within organizations,
wireless networks have grown rapidly and show no signs of slowing down. With two protocols in
widespread use — 802.11b and 802.11g — and another out there making itself known — 802.11a —
wireless networking, or Wi-Fi as it’s commonly called, promises in the near future to change the way
458 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

we all do our Internet work. Having no wires means having mobility, and for the computer industry at
this stage in its history, mobility is one of the biggest buzzwords of all.
Following are a few facts about wired versus wireless networks:

Wired network connections represent the fastest possible means of transferring data from
one computer to another. At some point in the future, after physical connections reach
their theoretical limits for performing data transfer functions, wireless connections might
catch up, but for now, the difference in speed remains profound.
On a small peer-to-peer network, and even on many larger ones, few activities actually
require the speeds available with even a 100-Mbps network card, let alone the capabilities
of today’s Gigabit Ethernet speeds. Except when transferring extremely large files, few
users will notice the difference between a wired and wireless network.
Wireless networks offer the convenience of mobility, untethering employees and home
users from their desks and enabling them to take their notebook PCs into any room for
any purpose. Furthermore, with a wireless network, you eliminate the aggravation of
stringing, hiding, and replacing wires, a special convenience in a home office or an office
in an older building.
Wired networks offer much greater reliability than wireless networks because wires
connect more consistently and lose connections less frequently than wireless systems.
Furthermore, wireless appliances do not interfere with a wired signal. Wires can be fairly
easily located above a false ceiling, which also provides benefits in soundproofing in an
open concept office.
Wireless networks pose a greater security concern because information is being broadcast
over the air. It is far easier to tap into a wireless network undetected than into a wired one;
people often do this just to use someone else’s Internet connection. Unfortunately, to make
wireless devices easier to connect, default settings are often the least secure.

Unquestionably, wireless networks have gained glory recently, with coffee shops and burger joints
(okay, restaurants) offering Wi-Fi access to customers who want to eat, drink, and get on the Internet
all at the same time. Many university campuses have installed an array of wireless networks to let
students access the Internet while doing research in an empty classroom or the library (and appar-
ently for engaging in instant messaging sessions with their friends during lectures). Corporations
have begun to espouse wireless networks as a means of providing always-on, always-available
Internet access to employees in any office or conference room and even to clients waiting in the
foyer. And wireless networks have become popular in home networks as well, getting rid of that
unsightly cable hanging out the back of the laptop computer in the family room and allowing, finally,
even the deck and the bathroom to become places of work.
Windows XP offers built-in support for wireless networking. Most wireless network adapters
released today automatically interact with the operating system, allowing Windows to search the air-
waves for available networks using the IEEE 802.11b or 802.11g protocols. If it finds the necessary
signal, it connects to the network immediately, establishing itself as a client in an infrastructure net-
work or a peer in an ad-hoc network.
 Chapter 28: Planning Your Network 459

Ad-Hoc Networks (Peer-to-Peer)

If you want a simple, effective, and quickly assembled wireless network, an ad-hoc network should
do the trick. To build one, you need a minimum of two computers, each with a wireless network
adapter in the form of a PC card for your notebook, a PCI card for your desktop machine, or a USB
device that works with either (USB is probably the easiest option).

Note
Some network adapter Properties dialogs term ad-hoc networks peer-to-peer. Technically correct, the term
nevertheless suffers from being indistinguishable from the prevailing uses of the term peer-to-peer in tradi-
tionally describing non-server–based wired networking, and more recently to describe non-server–based
Internet connectivity.

Ad-hoc wireless networks appeal for two main reasons: they cost less than a network with an
access point, and they can be set up quickly and easily. By contrast, they have two significant disad-
vantages: the inability to connect to a larger wired network and a greater difficulty in sharing an
Internet connection. This latter difficulty is a function of the Internet Connection Sharing features
built into Windows XP. Although ad-hoc networks are not overly challenging to set up, they don’t
come close to the ease of setting up a cable/DSL router or an access point (the details of which are
covered in the next chapter), nor do they have the later convenience that comes with such a setup.
As with all wireless networking connections, getting an ad-hoc network functioning depends on
how you configure the settings. Follow these steps to configure the network successfully:

1. Open Network Connections from the Start menu or from My Computer.

2. Click the link on the left of the window to view your network connections.
3. Right-click the icon for the wireless network adapter, and select Properties.
4. In the resulting Wireless Network Connections Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
5. If it is selected, clear the Automatically Connect to Non-Preferred Networks check box to
tell Windows to connect only to the ad-hoc network instead of any available infrastructure
networks.
6. Click the Wireless Networks tab, and click the Add button.
7. In the resulting Wireless Network Properties box, type a name for your network in the
Network Name (SSID, for Service Set IDentifier) field. Click OK.
8. The new network (labeled with your chosen SSID) now appears in the Available Networks
window.
9. Install a wireless adapter in the second PC, and open the same Wireless Network
Connection Properties dialog box.
10. In the Available Networks window, click the icon for the newly created network, and click
OK. The two PCs are now connected to one another.
460 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Note
Different wireless adapters have different properties and settings dialog boxes. If you have trouble connect-
ing, make sure the SSID names are identical, and also look in the configuration dialogs for a channel number
setting. Set the channels on all connecting PCs to the same number to allow them to connect.

Infrastructure Networks (Access Point)

Infrastructure networks differ from ad-hoc networks in one crucial respect: the inclusion of an access
point. Access points do what the name says: they provide a point of access for all PCs connecting to
the wireless network. As long as you have a wireless adapter installed in your PC, you need only con-
figure it to see the access point and then you can connect to that network. Windows XP configures
some wireless adapters automatically to find access points. But if you have a wireless adapter that
does not use these automatic configuration features, you just need to set the SSID and channel num-
bers to match the access point and you can connect immediately.
Access points provide numerous benefits:

Access points can communicate with other access points, so you can daisy-chain them
together for greater wireless range.
Access points can bridge with wired networks to provide you with access to both (see the
next section).
Access points can remain powered on at all times, allowing you to connect whenever you
want. By comparison, if you turn off the host machine in an ad-hoc network, the network
ceases to exist until you turn it back on.
Access points are frequently built into Ethernet routers to provide both a multi-PC wired
connector and a wireless station.
Access points can share an Internet connection with all wireless adapters attached to it
without requiring the setup of the Internet Connection Sharing feature of Windows XP.
Access points give you built-in encryption technology, helping you make your wireless
network as secure as possible.

The only disadvantages of access points are the cost — they add at least an extra $100 or more to
even a small network’s cost — and, in some cases, the difficulty in configuration and management.
Typically, you configure an access point through a browser-based utility such as the one shown in
Figure 28-1. At times it becomes difficult to access the settings, at which point you might need to
reset the access point and start the setup all over again. As access points develop, though, these
inconveniences become increasingly rare. Even more importantly, if you have any concerns about
security (which you should) and expandability (which you will), then by all means go for a network
based on access points.
 Chapter 28: Planning Your Network 461

Figure 28-1: Configuring an access point.

Dealing with interference

One problem confronting wireless networking is the possibility of radio interference. Because
802.11b and 802.11g operate in the 2.4 GHz frequency range, the same range as microwave ovens,
many cordless phones, and other wireless devices (such as remote video transmitters), interference
can and does happen. To minimize interference, however, Wi-Fi uses a technology known as Direct
Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), which spreads the signal across 30 MHz of the 2.4-GHz range.
In practical terms, this means you have 11 channels to work with, and by carefully setting your
channels you can cut the vast majority of interference. If you set two or more access points near
one another, however, you should try to spread out their channels, setting them at least five channels
apart to avoid interference. For example, you could set one access point to channel 11 and the
second to channel 3.
You can further avoid interference by using 802.11a, which operates in the 5-GHz frequency. But this
protocol is rapidly losing ground to 802.11g.
462 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

When you have your wireless network up and running, the crucial element becomes the strength
of the signal. The properties or settings dialog boxes of all wireless adapters show the quality of the
setting; even at low setting, the network tends to work at least close to the same speed as at high set-
ting. You can lose the setting completely, though, if something blocks the signal, and these blockages
can come from items ranging from walls and ceilings to books, coffee mugs, and even people. As you
set up your network, experiment with both the placement of the access points and the settings of the
antennae for the best possible signals you can achieve. And try to minimize the number of floors
between the access points and the network adapters. You’ll also have to work the signal around con-
crete walls, office partitions, and other similar blockages.

Hybrid Wired/Wireless Networks

Despite the growth of wireless networking in small offices, large offices, and homes alike, the move-
ment is toward hybrid networks, with both wired and wireless doing their parts. As a rule , you
should wire the desktop PCs, while providing both wired and wireless options for notebook PCs.
You’ll find many router/access point combination units on the market today that provide a bridged
hybrid network with very little hassle, and for most users such devices are definitely the way to go.
You have two ways to create a hybrid wired/wireless network. Most commonly, you begin with the
wired LAN and connect a wireless component to it. Alternatively, you can begin with a wireless LAN
and connect Ethernet-enabled devices to it. From the standpoint of Windows XP, the only thing that
matters is the existence of the LAN itself. A Windows XP machine makes no distinction between the
types of network adapter (except, of course, for the technology it uses to make each one work); it sees
only that it is part of a network and can take advantage of the networking features built into the oper-
ating system. The advantages one network type has over another network type have nothing to do with
how Windows XP uses the network, nor can Windows XP compensate, in any great part, for whatever
disadvantages either network type brings with it. For example, 802.11x networks are famous for suf-
fering from security problems, but Windows XP does not compensate for those problems specifically.
You can create complex passwords and develop access restrictions, and you can load the Internet
Connection Firewall on each Windows XP machine, but those features can apply to any network and,
indeed, to standalone Windows PCs as well. To Windows XP, a network is a network is a network.
Whether you begin with a wired or a wireless network (and again purely apart from Windows XP
itself), you need a mechanism that allows the two network types to communicate with one another.
Specifically, you need a network bridge. If you’re setting up a small office network or a home net-
work, you’re in luck: Practically all available cable or DSL routers that you’ll likely use to share your
Internet connection contain bridging software. If you plan to build a larger network, you might need
a separate hardware bridge to go with a hardware switch, but the principle is the same. The bridging
software recognizes the existence of the two network types and bridges them together so that data
from one network can travel along the other, all without the user being aware of any of it. Windows
XP displays the network bridge in the Network Connections window, as shown in Figure 28-2.
You can also manually bridge two network adapters together in Windows XP by highlighting the
two connections in the Network Connections window, right-clicking, and choosing Bridge Connec-
tions. Once these connections are in place, you can add still more adapters by right-clicking on their
icons and choosing Add to Bridge. The Windows XP network bridge ties all networks together in a sin-
gle logical network, allowing them all to talk to one another. Typically, however, connecting a wireless
and wired network through a router creates the bridge for you, so you need to use the manual bridging
feature only if you want to connect two networks that do not automatically see each other.
 Chapter 28: Planning Your Network 463

Figure 28-2: The network bridge appears at the bottom of the window.

Summary
With the network planned and the hardware in place, you need only to connect the PCs to make it
work. Chapter 29 looks at the details of getting the PCs working together to share information and
resources.
Even with your network up and running, however, you’ll probably find it necessary to continue
planning. If you need to add PCs to the network, for example, use that occasion as a reason to recon-
sider the entire network, adding routers and access points to accommodate even further growth.
Think about upgrading network printers, fax devices, and other shared equipment as new technolo-
gies emerge that suit your particular needs. As your need for shared resources grows, so will your
network.
Chapter 29

Connecting Your PCs

in a Small Workgroup

C hapter 28 covered network basics and the planning of networks. This chapter steps you
through the process of connecting PCs through a small workgroup. The process begins with
a single Windows XP desktop PC and a direct Internet connection and ends with two Windows XP
machines sharing a broadband Internet connection, a shared documents folder, and a printer — all
across a hybrid wired/wireless network with the capacity for extensive expansion. The wonderful
thing about networks, after all, is that once you’ve established them, you can just keep adding to
them; and Windows XP makes it remarkably easy to do so.

Beginnings: A PC and an
Internet Connection
This chapter takes you through a scenario. In it, you’re the owner of a one-person business, which
(because it’s you, of course) begins to succeed to the point where you have to add one employee,
then another, and so on. This discussion is just as relevant to a home with different machines in var-
ious rooms.
You start out with a single computer that connects to the Internet through a DSL or Cable broad-
band connection. As the sole employee of the business, you need nothing besides your PC and
Internet connection. You conduct business primarily from your two-room office and meet your
clients at their locations rather than your own. But then your business picks up, and you hire your
first employee. This person, too, requires a PC with an Internet connection. You decide to buy a
notebook, to save room and to provide the greatest possible flexibility.
The desktop PC has an internal Ethernet card (sometimes called a NIC, network interface card),
with a category-5 Ethernet cable running from the Ethernet port on the network adapter to the
Ethernet port on the DSL modem. The notebook sports a built-in Ethernet adapter, and your first
idea is to share the Internet connection between the two PCs using the Internet Connection Sharing
system built into Windows XP. You do your homework, however, and realize that you will achieve
better expandability and numerous other conveniences by purchasing a four-port cable/DSL router

465
466 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

that will let you connect the two PCs in a LAN and share the Internet connection seamlessly. The
greatest single benefit of the router at this stage in the growth of the network is that you don’t have
to leave your PC turned on for your employee to have access to the Internet. With the Internet
Connection Sharing feature and without the router, this is precisely what you would have to do.

Expansion 1: The Broadband

Router with Access Point
Broadband routers, also called cable/DSL routers, come in several shapes and sizes. Among the most
popular configurations are:

Four 10-Mbps Ethernet ports

Four 10/100-Mbps Ethernet ports
Four Gigabit Ethernet ports
One 10-Mbps Ethernet port and an 802.11b access point
One 10/100-Mbps Ethernet port and an 802.11b access point
One 10/100-Mbps Ethernet port and an 802.11g access point
Four 10/100 Ethernet ports and an 802.11b access point
Four 10/100 Ethernet ports and an 802.11g access point

Other configurations exist as well. As Ethernet has gotten faster, Gigabit Ethernet capabilities
have become more popular. And as wireless technology has improved, the venerable 802.11b has
begun to fade away. The point here, for your business, is that you need to make a choice between a
cable/DSL router with an access point or without. If you can afford the few extra dollars for the
access point, by all means get it. You don’t lose any wired capabilities (unless you choose an access
point with only one port), and you gain the capability, either now or in the future, to add wireless
devices to your network. These devices can include notebook PCs, PDAs, 802.11x-enabled tele-
phones, and even game consoles.
Even with some exceptionally good bargains on four-port routers without access points, you
decide to plan for expansion and spring for a router with four 10/100-Mbps Ethernet ports and an
802.11g access point. Even if you could find an 802.11b version, there’s no point bothering with it.
802.11g has become the standard (besides, g supports older b devices, if any turn up).
For various reasons, you decide to go with the well-known LinkSys brand name, purchasing their
AirPlus Xtreme High-Speed DI-624 wireless router. Like numerous other products from other rep-
utable companies, the DI-624 gives you the Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity you need for the net-
work. Then, because you got a good deal, you purchase a Microsoft MN-720 Wireless Notebook
Adapter. This card gives you 802.11g wireless connections at a good price.
 Chapter 29: Connecting Your PCs in a Small Workgroup 467

With new products in hand for under a couple of hundred dollars, you’re ready to give the con-
nections a go.

Connecting the Router to the PC

The DI-624 comes with a series of cables. Your first step is to plug the power cord into the unit and
into the wall receptacle. Next, plug one end of the included Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port on
the DI-624 and the other end into the Ethernet card of the PC. The cable from the DSL modem
already occupies that port, however, so unplug it first. With the router/access point now connected
to the Ethernet card, plug the original cable from the DSL modem into the port on the router marked
WAN (short for wide area network).

Tip
The port into which you plug the Ethernet cable from the broadband modem goes by several different names,
depending on the router manufacturer’s preference. Typical examples include Cable/DSL, Broadband, and To
Modem.

With the router powered on and connected to the PC, it’s time to test the connection by opening
the configuration utility. Doing so requires a Web browser and the IP address of the router itself. The
router’s manual includes the IP address needed to access the utility, but to make sure that you have
access to this information whenever you need it, write it down elsewhere (on paper) and also store it
in a text file on your PC. Once past the first two components of the IP number, always 192.168 to
designate locally reserved IPs, the remainder of the four-part number differs from manufacturer to
manufacturer. Some routers use the address 192.168.1.1, others 192.168.2.1. Some insist on a sig-
nificantly more esoteric number altogether. D-Link uses 192.168.0.1 for its broadband routers, and
this is the one you type now (the http:// prefix can be omitted, but even today browsers sometimes
respond with it more quickly if you include it).
Figure 29-1 shows the opening screen of the DI-624 configuration interface. As with all such
tools, the first task is to type a username and password. A router always has a default password
(Linksys routers sensibly use admin for their default), but for the sake of security you should always
create one for yourself. These things can be hacked.
The router installation has passed the first test. Because the configuration pages appeared, the PC
and the router have established communication. On to the Internet.

Connecting to the Internet

Connecting to the Internet through a broadband router might require no additional actions. By
default, manufacturers set their routers to obtain an IP address automatically from the Internet ser-
vice provider (ISP), by far the most common configuration with commercial ISPs today. If you con-
nect through a cable modem, in fact, you have a very good chance of already being on the Internet
because cable ISPs typically forgo any special configuration, including a username and password.
DSL providers, however, use a protocol called Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE), which
almost always requires authentication.
468 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 29-1: The password screen of the configuration screen.

To connect to the Internet, configure your router as follows:

1. Locate the Internet connection settings section or page on your router’s configuration pages.
2. For cable modems, choose the Dynamic IP option to receive an IP address from the ISP.
For DSL modems, choose the PPPoE option because you need to connect to the ISP
servers using a username and password.
3. If your ISP requires a Host or Service name, enter that name in the appropriate location on
the configuration screen. If you’re not sure, leave this blank.
4. If you connect via DSL, fill in the username and password in the appropriate fields. You
can also typically set the number of seconds of idle time allowed before automatic dis-
connection and whether or not you want the router to connect on demand — that is, as
soon as it sees a request for the Internet.
5. If you connect via DSL, locate the Connect button and click it to make sure that it will
perform the connection.
6. With the configuration utility still open, launch another browser window and navigate the
Web. In addition, check your email. If everything works, close the configuration utility,
saving the settings.
 Chapter 29: Connecting Your PCs in a Small Workgroup 469

Tip
Despite the recent proliferation of broadband routers, many cable and DSL service providers refuse to pro-
vide technical assistance for their users when they connect through one of these devices. If you have trou-
ble with your Internet connection, you should disconnect the router and plug the broadband modem directly
into the PC as it was before and attempt a connection before calling the ISP.

Figure 29-2 shows the completed configuration screen for the Wide Area Networking settings of
the DI-624 configuration interface, complete with the necessary PPPoE settings.
After you’ve connected to the Internet, go back to the information page and examine your Internet
settings. You’ll notice two things. First, the router has acquired an IP number from the ISP. Second,
your PC has a local IP address provided by the router’s built-in DHCP server (see Figure 29-3). The
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol takes a single IP number from an ISP and shares this number
among all the devices connected to the router. DHCP provides the basis of Internet Connection
Sharing built into Windows XP, and the same technology allows you to share a single Internet con-
nection among several computers from a router as well. The magic of Internet Connection Sharing lies
in the ability of the DHCP server to keep track of which machine made each request so that the
response can find its way to the originating PC.

Figure 29-2: Configuring the router for Internet access.

470 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 29-3: The Internet information screen.

Expansion 2: The Notebook

PC with Wireless Adapter
Now that you have successfully connected to the Internet, it’s time to turn your attention to the wire-
less portion of your network. You slide the Microsoft adapter into the PC Card slot on the side of the
notebook PC and install the software driver as instructed. You now need to configure the wireless
adapter so that it communicates with the DI-624 access point. Opening the configuration utility
again, click the Wireless menu item and notice that the access point uses a default channel of 6. Give
your wireless network the name (SSID) unwired (any name will suffice), as shown in Figure 29-4,
and click Apply to set this configuration in place.
After you establish the wireless settings on the router, you must configure all wireless network
adapters to show the same SSID and channel number. Windows XP takes control of an increasing
number of wireless adapters and can, therefore, see access points automatically. But some cards, includ-
ing brand-new ones and several older models, contain their own configuration utility. Referring to the
product manual, change your card’s settings to match your access point, restarting Windows if neces-
sary to get the data communication flowing.
 Chapter 29: Connecting Your PCs in a Small Workgroup 471

Figure 29-4: Wireless network settings.

Tip
You can tell in two different ways when you’ve successfully established communication between the wire-
less adapter and the access point. First, you should be able to access the Internet from the PC on which
you’ve installed the wireless adapter. Second, you should be able to call up the router’s configuration
screens. If you can do the latter but not the former, recheck your Internet connections.

Creating the LAN

You now have two PCs sharing an Internet connection, but so far they can’t see each other. To create
the local area network itself, you need to open the My Network Places folder and click the link to set
up a home or small office network.
The resulting Network Setup Wizard takes much of the traditional pain out of establishing a small
LAN. You need to make several decisions as you work through this LAN, but by the time you finish,
the PCs can see each other, and mutually shared folders are in place and ready for use.
472 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Click Next on the wizard until you reach the third screen, where you decide whether to share the
Internet connection. Check the default radio button (Yes), and click Next again. The next screen asks
if you want Windows to determine the appropriate network connections. Here, too, the answer
should be Yes unless you have a reason to disallow specific network bridging processes from occur-
ring. Typically, you want all available connections bridged on a small LAN. On the subsequent
screen, type a description for your PC and verify the computer name; then click Next and choose a
name for the workgroup. HOME or OFFICE are the names that Microsoft suggests here, but like the
computer description on the previous screen, this name can be whatever you want.
Figure 29-5 shows the final stage of the wizard, a summation of all the choices. Click Next to
begin the process of creating the network. When you’ve finished, open My Network Places to see if
you can see the other PCs on the LAN. Then open My Network Places on each PC and determine if
they can see your PC as well. If not, run the Network Setup Wizard on each PC until all computers
can see each other.

Figure 29-5: The Network Setup Wizard is ready to initiate

the LAN.

Tip
After creating the network, the wizard asks if you want to create a network diskette. If you plan to include
any Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Millennium Edition PCs on your network, create the diskette and
run the setup wizard as instructed on those PCs. Earlier versions of Windows need this help to partake in a
Windows XP network.
 Chapter 29: Connecting Your PCs in a Small Workgroup 473

Sharing Resources on the Network

When you establish a network using Windows XP, Windows automatically creates a shared resource
for each connected machine. The Shared Documents folder becomes available to each computer on
the LAN, with each renamed SharedDocs with a reference to the PC on which it resides. The easiest
and safest way to share files is to copy them into this folder so that everyone else can get at them.
To take advantage of this LAN, you’ll want to share folders, even printers, for other LAN members
to use. You can even share entire hard drives, but Windows XP warns you against it when you open
the Sharing tab of the Properties dialog box for that drive. A successful network shares a limited
number of resources from PC to PC. As the network grows, it further restricts certain resources to
specific users. See Chapter 25 for details on granting access permissions.

Caution
Sharing files and folders can cause problems if those resources contain sensitive data. Part of planning your
network consists of deciding precisely what you can safely share and, for each resource, which users can
safely share it. Some folders can safely be shared among all network users, while you might grant access for
another folder to only two people. For details on sharing resources on both a single PC and over the network,
see Chapter 25.

The final task for this small network lies in sharing a printer among the PCs. Open the Printers
and Faxes folder on the PC to which the printer is attached. Right-click the printer’s icon and choose
Sharing. A Properties dialog box opens with a Sharing tab. Click the radio button labeled Share This
Printer, and give the printer a recognizable name (or use the name Windows supplies). Click OK to
share the printer across the LAN. Before doing so, if your network contains PCs running other ver-
sions of Windows besides Windows XP, click the Additional Drivers button and select the operating
system for which you want to install drivers (see Figure 29-6).

Figure 29-6: Adding drivers to a shared printer.

474 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

You can wait for your shared printer to be discovered by the network (it takes awhile) or you can
go to other computers on the network and use Add a Printer. Use the network printer option.
Finally, print a document or a test page from each of the PCs sharing the printer to make sure that
the printer works from each one.

Summary
Peer-to-peer networks form the backbone of many small businesses and also add valuable conve-
nience and enhanced productivity for home users. Although not especially difficult to set up, creat-
ing a peer-to-peer network may require both patience and careful attention to details. You want to
ensure that you share folders and so forth properly, maintaining security while aiding the activities of
users working with the various resources on the network. A peer-to-peer network can save you
money by letting you share hardware such as printers, backup drives, and Internet connections, and
it can save you aggravation by letting users gain access to a document or other resource without hav-
ing to sit down at another PC and work from there. Using the Internet-sharing capabilities of a
router, the wireless capabilities of an access point in conjunction with Windows XP, and the ease of
LAN creation provided by the Network Setup Wizard, you can have a fully functioning hybrid
wired/wireless LAN up and running in only a short time.
Chapter 30

Using Windows XP
as an Internet Server

W indows XP contains several built-in Internet server functions. Although you won’t want to
bet your company’s future on using Windows XP as your primary server environment,
you can most certainly configure this OS as a decent low-level server for specific purposes, including
one major function: hosting Web sites. To build a full Internet server environment, you should look
to Windows Server 2003 or the Small Business Server 2003. But for small office and home office use,
as well as for developmental and experimental purposes, Windows XP works well.
Windows XP includes two server types of particular interest for these purposes: File Transfer ser-
vices (FTP) and Web services (HTTP, HyperText Transfer Protocol). These FTP and HTTP services
(known to some as daemons, from Unix) provide the highly useful services of hosting downloading
(and uploading) sites and Web sites. This chapter focuses on installing and configuring these two
server types.

What is a Server?
In the computing world, two major types of networking dominate: peer-to-peer and client-server.
You can tell the difference between the two by their names. In a peer-to-peer network, each
computer has equal status; each computer makes requests of other computers and has requests
made of it. The much-discussed MP3 file-sharing systems, such as Kazaa and Morpheus, as well as
fascinating projects such as the extraterrestrial life-seeking SETI home initiative, work with peer-to-
peer architectures. By contrast, the World Wide Web, like the vast majority of Internet technologies,
operates as a client-server architecture. In a client-server arrangement, one computer contains data
that it makes available to computers that connect to it and request that data. The computer with the
data is the server; the computers connecting to it are the clients.
A simple restaurant analogy might help make this point. When you take your family to a restaurant,
you are the clients. The person who comes to your table to take your order and then brings you your
food is the server (waiters and waitresses in traditional terminology). The clients make requests of
the server who processes the request, and, a few minutes or a couple hours later (depending on
how posh the restaurant is), delivers the food. Each server serves a relatively defined number of
clients. In a large restaurant, several servers are at work, each serving a certain number of clients.
Continued 475
476 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

What is a Server? (Continued)

The PC from which you connect to the Internet is called a client. The programs you use to do most of
your useful tasks on the Internet are called client software, or just clients. Clients on your PC include
your Web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Opera, and so on), your email program
(Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, Eudora), your newsreader (Agent, Outlook Express,
Netscape Mail,), and your FTP program (WS-FTP, AbsoluteFTP, CuteFTP), among others.
The salient feature about a client is that, to be functional, it must connect to a server. In the case of
client PCs, they connect, along with other client PCs, to a server computer. Similarly, your software
clients need software servers. Every time you use your client software to interact with the Internet,
you send a request to the corresponding server software and wait for the server to respond. Clicking
on a hyperlink in your browser sends a request to a computer running Web server software — more
precisely, software that can read and respond to requests with the HTTP protocol). Pressing the
Send/Receive button in Outlook and Outlook Express sends two types of requests to a computer
running mail server software — or, more precisely again, software that can respond to requests
issued through the POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) (or IMAP [Internet Message Access Protocol]) and
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) protocols. FTP clients use the FTP protocol, news readers use
the NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) protocol, and so on, to accomplish data transactions in
much the same fundamental way: The client requests, the server responds, ad infinitum.
P2P has drawn attention precisely because it doesn’t work this way: It eliminates the server from
the data transfer process. On first consideration, you might conclude that, because P2P gets rid of
the server portion of the client-server-client relationship, it could have been called client-to-client,
or C2C. But in computer networking lingo you can’t have a client without a server, so the equally
traditional peer-to-peer terminology kicked in. Peer-to-peer networking has been part of the personal
computer since pretty well its beginnings, with the term meaning, in essence, two or more computers
linked together for the purpose of sharing data. Your home network is probably a peer-to-peer
network, with no server needed to send information between them.

Note
To use Windows XP as a server with Microsoft’s own server software, you need Windows XP Professional,
not Windows XP Home Edition. You can purchase server software for other Windows environments (as well
as for Windows XP) from third-party vendors.

Installing and Starting FTP

and Web Services
To use Windows XP as a server, you must install the server software. Microsoft calls its Web server
software Internet Information Services (IIS), and it includes both HTTP and FTP servers. For this
 Chapter 30: Using Windows XP as an Internet Server 477

procedure, you need your Windows XP installation CD (or access to the installation files, if you
copied them to your hard drive).

1. Place the Windows XP installation CD in your CD-ROM drive.

2. When the Welcome screen appears, click the Install Optional Windows Components link.
If the Welcome screen does not automatically appear, open My Computer or Windows
Explorer, navigate to the CD-ROM drive, and double-click the Setup icon.
3. In the Windows components dialog box (shown in Figure 30-1), click the check box
beside Internet Information Services.
4. With Internet Information Services highlighted, click the Details button. In the resulting
Internet Information Services dialog box (also shown in Figure 30-1), check the box beside
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Services. World Wide Web Service (HTTP) should be checked.
You can probably uncheck SMTP (used for mail services; this will not affect your email
program). Leave all other boxes as they are by default. Click OK to exit this dialog box.
5. Click Next to begin the installation. By checking the FTP box, you install both the FTP and
Web server software at the same time.

Figure 30-1: The Windows components dialog box and the IIS dialog box.
478 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Starting and Stopping the Services

A service must be started in order to work. By default, IIS and the FTP service start as soon as you
install them, but you have full control over this process if you want from that point on. To configure
your services, open the Services utility, accessible via the Administrative Tools folder in the Start
menu (which is visible only if you have configured the Start menu settings to display it) or via the
Control Panel. To open the utility via the Control Panel, open the Control Panel, double-click the
Performance and Maintenance icon, and then double-click Administrative Tools. Launch the
Services utility from the resulting window (Winlogo+R, compmgmt.msc).
Figure 30-2 shows the Services utility, with the World Wide Web Publishing service (that is, IIS)
highlighted at the bottom. In a somewhat intimidating display, you have access to all the services dis-
played in this window. As you can tell by the length of the scrollbar, numerous other services await
your perusal above the part of the list you can see. This chapter covers only two — World Wide Web
Publishing and FTP Publishing — but you can see the range of possibilities for Windows XP services
(along with the potential complexity) simply by reading the entries in the Description column beside
each service name.
The Services window has a column labeled Status, in which it displays Started or, if stopped,
nothing at all. Besides the Status column, the window also displays the startup type.

Figure 30-2: The Windows XP Services utility.

 Chapter 30: Using Windows XP as an Internet Server 479

To configure any of these services, right-click on the item and choose Properties. As Figure 30-3
demonstrates, the Properties dialog box provides information that includes the name of the service,
its description, the path to its program file, and the service’s status. The status area contains one of
two notifications: Started or Stopped.

Figure 30-3: The Web Services Properties sheet.

You control the status in the following ways:

If the service is currently Stopped, you can start it by clicking the Start button.
If the service is currently Started, you can stop it with the Stop button.

In both cases, however, you change the status only until you reboot Windows XP. When you do
so, the service reverts to its default Startup mode.
To change the Startup mode, use the drop-down list beside the Startup Type label. You have three
options:

Automatic: This option starts the service automatically whenever you start your computer.
If you plan to use the service frequently, and if you do not have access to the server
machine at all times (if it’s in a remote location, for example), choose Automatic to ensure
the service is running when you need it.
Manual: A user or another service — one that depends on this service — can start the ser-
vice when required. The service remains Stopped until that time, however, including when
Windows boots.
480 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Disabled: This option disables the service entirely. If another service requires this service
in order to start, it will not start. To start the service, an Administrator must first change
the mode to Manual or Automatic.

Be careful about changing the Startup type. If a service is disabled, a dependent service or pro-
gram cannot start (see the Dependencies tab under Properties for more guidance). Remember what
you change here in case you have to change it back.
To configure the remainder of the items available in the Service Properties dialog box, see the spe-
cific sections on Web services and FTP services later in this chapter.

Caution
Stop your services, and even disable them, if you do not intend to use them. Your services invite traffic from
the Internet, and if you leave them on, you will almost certainly get traffic you don’t want. Intruders have long
targeted unused but open server software, and you will become a target if you leave this situation unat-
tended. It really is that bad.

Allowing Server Traffic through the Firewall

Before going any further in configuring your servers, make sure that your users can access them. If
you run a firewall — and you should — you need to configure the firewall to admit traffic for those
servers into the PC itself. The procedure here applies to the Windows XP Firewall. But if you run a
different firewall, you must perform similar procedures in order to open the ports necessary to let the
traffic flow.
Follow these steps to configure your firewall to admit traffic:

1. From the Control Panel, choose Windows Firewall (or Winlogo+R, control firewall.cpl).
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Under Network Connection Settings, click the Settings button.
4. In the Services tab of the Advanced Settings dialog box, check the services whose traffic
you want to allow. In the case of this chapter, check Web Server (HTTP) and FTP Server.
5. As you make each selection, Windows displays the Service Settings dialog box for that
service. Figure 30-4 shows the Service Settings dialog box for the FTP service, with the
name of the host PC the only possible modification.
Do not randomly choose a name; the name or IP address must match the name or IP of the
computer on which the server software resides along with the files you want it to serve. In
most cases, simply accept the default and press OK. When you’ve finished, the Advanced
Settings dialog box will contained two checked services, as shown in Figure 30-5.
 Chapter 30: Using Windows XP as an Internet Server 481

Figure 30-4: Identifying the serving computer.

Figure 30-5: The Advanced Settings dialog

configured to allow HTTP and FTP traffic.

In the case of third-party firewalls, such as those included in broadband routers, open your
router’s configuration utility (usually a Web-based utility — see your product manual) and navigate
to the area in which you can allow specific types of traffic or open specific ports. In the case of Web
traffic, you must open port 80; for FTP traffic, port 21.

Serving Up a Web
With all the preliminaries out of the way, you can begin setting up your Web. First, start the Web
server — if it’s not already started — by opening the Services utility, double-clicking on the World
Wide Web Services item, and clicking the Start button. You now have a Web server running.
482 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Note
This chapter discusses setting up a Web server on a local machine only. For that reason, it will use the Web
address http://localhost and the FTP address ftp://localhost. Localhost refers to the machine at which you
are currently logged on; if you prefer, you can use the localhost numeric IP, 127.0.0.1. The procedures for set-
ting up a Web site on a public server are the same as those used here, but the varieties of public and private
IP addresses are too broad for this book to cover. Moreover, establishing a localhost server is a common
practice for testing purposes. One other note here: If your computer already has its own dedicated IP
address (you can check by opening a command box and entering ipconfig at the prompt), your localhost
server and your public server are one and the same. In other words, whatever you put on your site and can
access via http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 (or, indeed, http://computername), anyone on the Web who
knows your IP address can also see.

To see the server, open your Web browser, and enter one of the following in the address bar:

http://localhost
http://127.0.0.1
http://computername (replace computername with the network name of your PC)

Any of these addresses leads to the same place: the Web site on your local PC. When you first
view it, your browser loads the default home page, as shown in Figure 30-6. Until you alter the con-
tents of the home page, this page is displayed whenever you access your site.
From this point on, you can create whatever content you like in your Web site. This book does
not cover the creation of Web content because for even reasonably decent coverage the topic requires
a book of at least the same size. The following steps, however, will get you started with basic Web
site creation:

1. Using Notepad, Microsoft Word, Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, or any

combination of dozens of Web design packages, create your pages. If you use Notepad and
you want to get started quickly, search the Web for tutorials on writing HTML (HyperText
Markup Language) files.
2. When you’ve created a single Web page or a basic set of files linked together via hyperlinks
(that is, when you’ve created a Web site), store the files in the following folder: C:\Inetpub\
wwwroot. This is the folder Windows XP creates as the root folder for your Web site. This
folder contains the default Web site you saw when you first accessed http://localhost.
3. Using your Web browser, open your home page — typically default.htm or index.htm, but
you can configure this as well — and examine your files. Edit them to make changes, resav-
ing them in the same location. If you include graphics or other files on your site, copy them
into a subfolder of Inetpub\wwwroot so that you can always access them easily. You can
 Chapter 30: Using Windows XP as an Internet Server 483

change the default location by configuring Internet Information Services (covered immedi-
ately following this list). The Read permissions extended to the Inetpub folder do not extend
to the rest of the PC.

Note
For more information on Web design, a couple of good books are Web Design For Dummies by Lisa Lopuck or
the HTML 4 Bible, 2nd Edition, by Bryan Pfaffenberger and Bill Karow (both published by Wiley).

You can set the specifics of your Web site, and create additional sites, by using the Computer
Management utility in Administrative Tools. Open Control Panel, click Performance and
Maintenance, and open Administrative Tools. Open the Computer Management tool (or Winlogo+R,
compmgmt.msc) and expand the Services and Applications item in the leftmost pane, and then
expand Internet Information Services, Web Sites, and Default Web Site in that order. As Figure 30-7
shows, you can now see the files and folders that constitute the default site. Note that you can get
just the Internet Information Services tools by using Winlogo+R, inetmgr.

Figure 30-6: The default home page for your new Web site.
484 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Figure 30-7: The default Web site in Computer Management.

You can edit the properties of the Web site by right-clicking on the Default Web Site folder in the
leftmost pane and choosing Properties. Figure 30-8 shows the first screen of the multitabbed
Properties dialog box. You can change the Description and assign a new IP Address from here, and
you can alter the port if you want to do so. You can also set the number of seconds after which any
idle connections automatically disconnect and whether you want to enable the technology known as
HTTP Keep-Alive (whereby the Web browser can signal the server to keep the connection open).
Finally, you can decide whether to create a log file for your server. A log file is always a good idea
because you can track usage and errors. Clicking the Properties button in the Enable Logging area
lets you schedule the log and configure it in numerous ways, including the specific server activities
you wish to capture.

Tip
Assigning a nonstandard port number to your Web site renders it inaccessible to anyone who does not know
the port number. For this reason, you can use this technique effectively in creating an internal or private site,
giving the URL with the port number to those you want to visit it. If you do so, the port number appears after
the base URL, in the form http://www.mycompany.com:pn (replace pn with the port number).
 Chapter 30: Using Windows XP as an Internet Server 485

Figure 30-8: The Web Site tab of the site’s Properties

dialog box.

Each of the other tabs in the Properties dialog box offers its own selection of configurable ele-
ments. On the Home Directory tab, for example, you can choose if the content for the site should
come from a specific directory on the local PC, from a network share, or from a remote Web server
to which this site connects through a redirection command. In other words, you can configure the
Web site to take material from another folder or machine entirely, an excellent technique for the sake
of managing the site and developing security. Remember that C:\Inetpub\wwwroot automatically han-
dles access privileges. If you change the Home Directory, you will need permissions for that folder
(and you may be prompted to login); this is why most users are best served by leaving the default
and putting their Web site files in that default folder.
Under the Documents tab, you can establish which document serves as the default document,
listing a number of them in the order you choose (the Web server can serve the document according
to the characteristics of the connecting browser). While most of you won’t need this, someone work-
ing with PHP (P HyperText Preprocessor, a Web development scripting language), might add the
PHP extension to the list (as well as PHP services, a topic beyond this coverage). Each file within the
Web site has its own similar but smaller Properties dialog box, complete with a supplementary dia-
log box to set security issues such as whether the page requires a password for access.
Obviously, configuring a Web site can become extremely technical, and as the scope and purpose
of the site grow, so must your attention to these details. The good news, though, is that the default
Web site works perfectly well without configuring it at all. Add the content you want and make it
available to others; or just test it for yourself, and you needn’t go any further unless you are a profes-
sional Web developer.
486 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Note
If you want to establish a Web server for access from outside your network, you should acquire a dedicated
IP number. To get one, contact your ISP and explain your needs. Most ISPs offer business services and can
set you up with a dedicated, unique number, along with the full control necessary to set up your own range
of servers. You’ll probably pay an additional monthly fee for the dedicated address.

Uploads and Downloads via FTP Services

The File Transfer Protocol is one of the oldest on the Internet, with FTP clients predating Web
browsers by roughly two decades. FTP sites offer a convenient way for people to upload and down-
load files, with the FTP server storing the files and allowing access from the outside. If you want an
easy way to set up a file-sharing service for a small group of users or simply a way to access your files
on a remote machine, an FTP site works well.
Before starting the FTP service, however, keep one extremely important point in mind. By default,
Windows XP configures the FTP server for anonymous access; in other words, anybody can get into
it. You need anonymous access if you set up a download site for public use on the Internet, but
unless you have this specific need, you should disable anonymous access immediately. To do so, fol-
low the steps outlined here:

1. Open the Computer Management tool from the Administrative Options utility in Control
Panel.
2. Expand the Services and Applications item in the leftmost pane by clicking on the plus
(+) sign.
3. Expand the FTP Sites folder.
4. Right-click on the Default FTP Site item and choose Properties.
5. In the resulting Properties dialog box, click the Security Accounts tab (see Figure 30-9).
6. Uncheck the Allow Anonymous Connections item at the top of the dialog and click the Yes
button on the Internet Service Manager warning box that appears. You have now turned
off the anonymous access feature.

When a user logs in to your FTP site, the FTP service automatically grants him or her access to a
specific folder and to only that folder and its subfolders. Click the Home Directory tab on the FTP
Sites Properties dialog box to configure that folder. For maximum control and maximum security,
you should create a new folder (using My Computer or Windows Explorer), copy any shareable files
into that folder, and then establish that folder as your FTP default using this Properties sheet. Click
the Browse button and search for the folder to establish it as the site directory (ideally, the folder is
on a partition or hard drive different from Windows XP and your most important data folders). Now,
when anyone connects to the site via FTP, he or she has access to that folder for uploading and down-
loading but to no other folder on your system.
 Chapter 30: Using Windows XP as an Internet Server 487

Figure 30-9: The Security Accounts options in FTP configuration.

Tip
With anonymous access disabled, only people with user accounts on your Windows XP machine can access
the FTP site. If you want to grant access to more users, you can create a separate user account for FTP pur-
poses only, giving that account name and password to anyone you want. Add this account using the User
Accounts utility in Control Panel.

To access your FTP site, use a dedicated FTP client program (you can find many that can be
downloaded from the Internet). If you don’t have such a program, use your Web browser. You can
access your default FTP site by opening your Web browser and typing the following in the address
bar: ftp://username@localhost or ftp://[email protected] — replacing username with the name
of your Windows XP user account for that computer. Windows responds with a Password box. After
successfully logging in with your password, you can copy files to and from the browser window.

Summary
In addition to using your Windows XP Professional installation as a Web server and FTP server, you
can purchase or download software to make it into a mail server, file server, application server, and
more. All these possibilities require additional configuration, and few functions with as little effort
on your part as Web and FTP servers. With HTTP services to host a Web site, publicly or locally, and
FTP services to transfer files to and from another Windows XP machine quickly and easily, you’ve
already made good use of the operating system’s server features.
Part VIII

Utilities

H ere, you look at software available to make your Windows XP machine into an Internet
server. Chapter 30 covers a few of the tools available in Windows XP itself, but you’ll find a
far wider range of choices if you move into third-party offerings instead.

Web and FTP Server Software

Yes, Internet Information Services has everything you need to set up Windows XP as a Web and FTP
server, but to make it a server with the power to serve a large audience, you need to upgrade to
Windows 2003 Server (or its Small Business Server edition) or look elsewhere.
Abyss Web Server (www.aprelium.com) is an example of a small Web server that runs on versions
of Windows other than Windows XP and Windows 2000. The free Personal edition offers almost all
the features of the inexpensive Professional edition, so by all means give it a try to decide if you want
to work with it. The server supports Perl, Python, ASP scripts, and more and offers strong access
control, so it’s certainly not something to dismiss without a look. On the other side of the coin,
Xeneo Web Server (www.northernsolutions.com) supports multiple domains, all popular Internet
scripts and technologies, unlimited virtual hosts, and the latest version of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
security, and you then use Windows XP’s full multithreading capabilities.
Two of the most interesting Web servers available are also open source projects and, therefore,
free. The World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org), the organization created by the originator of
the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, offers Jigsaw, a server implemented in the Java programming language
designed not only to serve Web sites but also to demonstrate upcoming new features available to the
Web community. But the primary Web server out there anywhere, and the one you should certainly
try as soon as you want to establish a serious server, is Apache (www.apache.org). Well over half of
all Web servers on the Internet use Apache, primarily because it’s the software of choice for Linux
servers but more recently popular with Windows servers as well (despite the ubiquity of Microsoft’s
IIS). Mind you, there’s nothing particularly easy about using Apache, and everything from its down-
load page to its configuration screens practically screams “Geek!” but it’s powerful, full-featured,
highly reliable, and free. You can’t ask much more than that.

489
490 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

A number of easy-to-use FTP servers are available, perhaps the easiest being, well, Quick & Easy
FTP Server (www.pablosoftwaresolutions.com). You set up your FTP server using the built-in wizard,
and you can add users and folders anytime you want through the graphical interface environment.
Each user is assigned a home folder and permissions in that folder and other folders to download,
upload, delete, create directories, and so on. Each user can also have a disk quota for storage and for
data transfers. GlobalScape (www.cuteftp.com), the maker of the well-known FTP client CuteFTP, has
a server of its own — Secure FTP Server — with a somewhat less user-friendly graphical interface, but
with a wide range of administrative options for its virtual disk system and a direct linkage to Windows
XP user accounts (optional but useful) to help you create your FTP accounts.
If you want a tiny FTP server, in the sense that is uses as little system memory as you’re likely to
find anywhere, give Xlight FTP Server (www.xlightftpd.com) a try. This server offers a clearly
designed graphical interface and incorporates features such as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and
remote database connectivity. TurboSoft’s Turbo FTP (www.turboftp.com) also features these proto-
cols, provides firewall and proxy server support, and in an interesting feature, allows automatic
updates of any files copied or saved to the user’s home folder, obviating the need to connect to the
FTP site for uploading purposes.

Mail Servers
Windows XP does not include mail server software. If you want an email server, you have to install a
Linux box and activate one of its built-in servers, or use a third-party product designed for Windows.
Ability Mail Server (www.code-crafters.com) provides support for all major Internet mail proto-
cols, including SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol), POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3),
IMAP4 (Internet Message Access Protocol), and LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). It
also offers strong 128-bit security, built-in virus protection, built-in spam protection, filtering of mail
content, and the use of mailing lists. MailMax (www.smartmax.com) offers similar features along
with extensive user mailbox configurations for full control over your mail system’s users. Ipswitch’s
well-known iMail Server (www.ipswitch.com), highly regarded over the last several years, has now
been packaged with a number of other server programs in the Ipswitch Collaboration Suite. In addi-
tion to its established email server, the suite offers email collaboration services, instant messaging
services with built-in security, workgroup collaboration features such as shared calendars and con-
tacts, and spam and virus protection.
 Part IX
Appendixes
Appendix A
Installing Windows XP
Appendix B
Reinstalling Windows XP
Appendix A

Installing
Windows XP

I f you’ve never installed an operating system before, you can rest assured that no matter how
complex the process seems with Windows XP, it doesn’t hold a candle to the confusion and the
sheer number of possible problems engendered by Windows installations of the past. Installing
Windows 95 meant figuring out a way to get the CD-ROM drive working with the setup procedure
using a start-up floppy disk, or, for the truly patient, installing the OS from roughly 20 floppy disks,
one of which (usually in the #15– #17 range) would almost certainly malfunction and stop the instal-
lation cold. Windows 98 solved some of the CD-ROM problems, but as with Windows 95, finding
and installing hardware drivers tended to bog things down. Windows 2000 proved itself the most
stable Microsoft OS release until (and some still argue including) Windows XP. But for desktop users, it
suffered from compatibility problems with both hardware and software. Windows Millennium Edition
took the first real step toward recognizing hardware during the installation, but mysteriously it still
often failed to make that hardware function until you found the drivers.
Windows XP, from its initial release, pointed to the future of OS installation, recognizing a wide
range of hardware and configuring itself to take advantage of each individual PC. It’s not perfect, but
it has demonstrated that pain-free Windows installations might actually occur one day.
No two PCs are identical (well, few that you’ll likely deal with as a home user anyway), so the num-
ber of possible installation scenarios is high. This chapter outlines a range of scenarios and steps you
through the process of installing Windows XP. The next appendix is about reinstalling Windows XP.

Notes on Dual Booting

If you’re installing Windows on a system that includes Linux, be very careful how you perform the
installation. If you have installed Linux onto your PC in a dual-boot configuration with Windows XP
and you boot from one of the Linux boot managers — LILO or GRUB — installing Windows XP will
delete that boot manager in favor of Microsoft’s bare-bones boot manager that (naturally) recognizes
only Windows XP. Before installing Windows XP, boot into Linux and create a boot disk using the
appropriate utility in your Linux system. After installing the new instance of Windows XP, boot into
Linux from your boot floppy and reestablish LILO or GRUB as your bootloader.
Continued

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Notes on Dual Booting (Continued)

Note, however, that you should perform multiple installations in a specific order. If you install
Windows 95, 98, or Me (collectively know as Windows 9x), do that installation before installing
Windows XP. Otherwise, installing Windows 9x will render Windows XP inaccessible. If you plan to
run Linux, have all your Windows versions installed, including Windows XP, before installing Linux.
Also notice that when you install Linux, which you do on separate Linux partitions, you must make
absolutely sure that you don’t wipe out a Windows partition in the process. Many users have
installed Linux only to discover they had destroyed the boot partition for Windows or even erased
Windows altogether.

Setting the CD-ROM as the Primary

Boot Device before You Install
In order to boot directly from the Windows XP installation CD, you must configure your CD-ROM
as the primary boot device. On many systems today, this configuration already exists, so before start-
ing the configuration process put the installation CD in the CD-ROM drive and reboot the PC. If you
get the message Press any key to boot from CD-ROM, you don’t need to change the configuration.
If you don’t get this message, you have to do a bit of digging inside your system’s more esoteric
software, specifically the BIOS settings. Also sometimes called Setup, the means of entering the basic
input/output system (BIOS) settings area appears when you turn on your PC (just restarting may not
give you this option; turn your computer off and on again). Look for a notice similar to Press Delete
to enter Settings or Press F10 for Configuration. On most PCs today, you enter the BIOS
menus by pressing the Delete key while that notice is on the screen, but other methods (such as
pressing a function key) still occur. Whatever the case, as long as you time it correctly (don’t wait too
long), you will find yourself looking at a list of configuration possibilities related to your hard drives,
system memory, PCI and USB settings, and much more.
You can ignore everything on the Setup list of configuration possibilities except one: boot order.
Each BIOS manufacturer places this setting in a different place, so navigate around the menus (usually
with the keyboard) to find it. With this setting, you instruct your PC which drives to look for, and in
which order, when you boot or reboot your PC. Often, PCs are configured to look for the floppy drive
first, then the primary hard drive, and then the CD-ROM, in order to find a bootable operating sys-
tem. You need to use the BIOS interface to change the boot order so that your system looks for the
CD-ROM before it looks for the hard drives. While not strictly necessary, you should also put the
CD-ROM ahead of the floppy disk, in case you leave a floppy disk in the drive accidentally.
With the configuration changed, save the settings, put the installation CD in the CD-ROM drive,
and reboot the computer. You will now boot from the CD-ROM. After you’ve completed the installa-
tion, you can change the boot order back if you wish, instructing the PC to boot from the hard drive
first, to make booting faster.
 Appendix A: Installing Windows XP 495

Installation Scenarios
The one size fits all mantra does not apply to operating system installation, although manufacturers
have started doing everything in their power to try to force it to fit. The fact remains, however, that
different users have different needs, and a successful installation depends on whether the outcome
satisfies those needs. Here are some installation scenarios reflecting several possible situations.

Scenario 1: Installing Windows XP on a New Computer

or New Hard Drive (PC with One Drive)
The process for putting Windows XP on a brand new computer and on a new hard drive in a one-drive
system is precisely the same. Known as a clean install, this process requires only the Windows XP
installation CD and, possibly, your CD-ROM drive set up as the primary boot device (see the preceding
section). Possibly, that is, because if you have no other operating systems on your hard drives, and no
boot disk in the floppy drive, your PC automatically looks to the CD-ROM as the next possible location
from which it can start. It needs an operating system, and it searches your drives until it finds one.
Before you begin, make sure that you have the CD Product Key (it’s a long mix of letters and num-
bers on the back of the case); without it, you won’t be able to install Windows.
To start Windows Setup, place the installation CD in the CD-ROM drive and start (or reboot)
your PC. Watch the screen for the notification Press any key to boot from the CD-ROM and, as it
says, press a key (anything on the keyboard will do). Setup begins:

1. On the first blue screen, choose the To Set Up Windows XP Now, Press ENTER option and
press the Enter key.
2. On the next screen, press the F8 key on your keyboard to accept the Windows XP
Licensing Agreement.
3. Work begins on the third blue screen. Setup lists your PC’s hard drives and the partitions
on each of them. Because this scenario assumes a single-drive system, only one hard drive
appears. Because the hard drive is new, it has either one partition only or nothing but
unpartitioned space. Either way, because the scenario assumes that you have no data on
the drive you want to save, you should start from scratch. If you have an existing partition,
proceed to step 4; if you have only unpartitioned space, proceed to step 5.

Note
You have probably heard the phrase formatting the hard drive, sometimes in a negative way because format-
ting a drive wipes out existing data. In fact, however, formatting works on partitions, not drives. For a hard
drive to be useful, it needs partitioning first and formatting next.

4. Delete the existing partition by highlighting it and pressing the D key on your keyboard.
Windows responds by asking if you want to proceed with the deletion. Confirm the dele-
tion by pressing the L key. The partition is now gone, replaced by unpartitioned space.
496 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

5. Highlight the unpartitioned space, and press either Enter or the C key. Pressing the Enter
key instructs Windows to use the entire hard drive for the installation, with your entire
hard drive serving as a single partition. Pressing C tells Windows that you want to divide
your hard drive into more than one partition. If you have a large hard drive (over 60GB),
you should consider creating more than one partition. This gives you a partition to use in
case your Windows installation stops working, as a backup partition away from the main
partition, or for future installation of a second instance of Windows XP or a different oper-
ating system entirely (such as Linux) in a dual-boot system. If you press the Enter key,
proceed to step 7. If you press the C key, go to step 6.
6. By default, Windows configures itself to use the entire hard drive for a single partition,
exactly as if you had pressed the Enter key in step 5 instead of C. To give yourself the
versatility partitions offer, you may want to divide the hard drive into two or more parti-
tions. At this stage, however, you need define only one partition and leave enough unfor-
matted space to use later (including immediately after Windows has finished installing).
Jot down the number currently displayed in the partition size area (so that you remember
the default), and chop that number in half, one-third, or two-thirds — any size you like.
For example, on a 60GB hard drive, you could create a 30GB partition for Windows and
leave the other 30GB as unformatted space. Create the partition now by entering the size
you want for the first partition in the space provided. This first partition is called the pri-
mary partition (C:); others are known as extended partitions (D:, and so on.). You don’t
have to use more than one single full-sized partition.

Note
The partitioning screen uses megabytes rather than gigabytes as its measure. When specifying the size of
the partitions, create a 30GB drive by typing the number 30000 because 1GB equals (roughly) 1000MB.
Actually, 1GB equals 1024MB, so the numbers never work out quite evenly; but at this level, working in 1000s
is fine. For a 40GB drive, type 40000.

7. When you have finished creating your partitions, Windows returns you to the partition
selection screen. Highlight the partition you have just created (it shows up first in the list),
and press Enter to instruct Windows to install itself on that partition.
8. You now arrive at the formatting screen. Here, Windows asks you how you want to format
your partition. To take full advantage of the advanced file-sharing and user permissions
features of Windows XP and to have a far more secure PC, choose the Format The Partition
Using the NTFS File System option. To speed up the process, select the Quick option,
which takes much less time but (in theory at least) can run into difficulties. Reports of
such difficulties are few and far between, so save yourself some time and use the Quick
format.
9. On the next three screens, wait while Setup formats the partition, copies the setup files
from the installation CD to your hard drive, and reboots your computer.
 Appendix A: Installing Windows XP 497

10. After the reboot, the graphical Setup program appears. Stay by your computer for the first
part of the graphical installation because Setup requires your interaction in the following
stages of installation:
a. After approximately five minutes, the Regional and Language Options dialog box
appears. You can keep the defaults, which depend on where you bought the software
(U.S. English and a U.S. English keyboard layout for U.S. purchases), or click Customize
for the standards and formats or Details for the keyboard and change the defaults.
Assuming that you want to keep them as they are, click Next.
b. Shortly afterward, the Personalize Your Software dialog box appears. Type in your name
and organization. Windows specifies no formats for either, so type in whatever you
want here, and click Next.
c. Immediately afterward, the dialog box titled Your Product Key appears. You can find the
product key on the back of the CD case. Type it in carefully and click Next; if Setup
says you’ve made a mistake (as it does with stunning regularity), compare the original
with what you’ve typed and make the necessary changes. If you don’t have a product
key, you cannot continue the installation. Once Setup accepts it, click Next.

Tip
You don’t have to use uppercase letters when entering the product key; the letters on the product key printed
on the CD case are uppercase for clarity only.

d. Shortly afterward you enter the product key, the Computer Name and Administrator
Password dialog box appears. You can name your computer whatever you want: DELL
SYSTEM, WORK MACHINE, THE OSBOURNES’ PC, SUPERBEAST, or just plain
JOHNNY. It’s your choice. Next, type in a password for the primary Administrator
account, the one named, in fact, Administrator. Write this password down for safe-
keeping, but keep it safe from prying eyes. With the Administrator account, you have
virtually full control over the PC. Make the password something that only you could
possibly know, and include numbers and punctuation characters if you feel that you
can remember them. When you’ve finished, click Next.
e. Immediately after you enter your password, the Date and Time Settings dialog box
appears. Set the date and time here, and specify which time zone you are in. If you live
in an area with daylight-saving time, click the appropriate check box. Then click Next.
f. At this point, Setup seems to be doing well on its own, and the temptation to go have
lunch often becomes irresistible. Resist it, however. After four or five minutes Setup
displays the Network Settings dialog box, asking if you want typical settings or custom
settings. Unless you have a local area network that you now want to configure, always
stick with the default typical settings, and click Next. Why Microsoft did not design this
dialog box to accept the typical settings after a specified time, five minutes perhaps, is
mystifying. Many users have left their PCs after configuring the Date and Time Settings
498 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

dialog box. When they return an hour or so later, assuming that Setup has been com-
pleted, they discover the Network Settings dialog box waiting stupidly for them to click
Next and proceed with the remaining 30–50 minutes of the installation.
g. From this point on, Setup takes whatever time it needs to complete the installation. At
the end of the process, Setup reboots your PC and Windows is launched for the first
time. Setup’s final task is to ask your permission to adjust your screen resolution (click
OK), after which the desktop appears with its bright photograph and the Start menu
open for action. You have to wade through Windows asking if you want a tour of the
operating system (just say Yes, or it will never go away) and if you want to set up a
.NET Passport account (for use with Hotmail, Windows Messenger, and an increasing
number of Microsoft-based services). This is your choice entirely.

Scenario 2: Installing Windows XP on a Multiple-Drive

PC with a New Primary Drive
Things start to get a bit more complex when you have more than one hard drive in your system. As
in Scenario 1, when you reach the partition screen you have to instruct Setup as to which partition
you want to use for the installation. But here you have more choices because you can divide each of
your drives into multiple partitions. Scenario 2 has become common in recent years as people buy
inexpensive new hard drives and add them to their systems, installing Windows on the new drive
after it is in place. In all cases, the new drive contains neither data nor partitions, but in many cases
important data remains on the original drive.
If one or more of your drives contain data that you want to keep, you must either back up the
data before installing the operating system or avoid installing the OS on the partition where the data
resides. To do so, make sure that you know which drive and which partition contain that data, and
configure Setup to use a different drive or partition. Once you have chosen the drive that will house
the installation, follow steps 3 through 10 in Scenario 1’s numbered list to partition and format the
drive and install the OS. With the installation completed, load My Computer or Windows Explorer
and navigate to your other drives and partitions.

Caution
Windows starts numbering hard drives with 0 (zero), not 1. The primary hard drive is Disk 0, the second Disk 1,
and so forth. The partition containing C:\, therefore, is almost always located on Disk 0. Keep this in mind when
determining the partition on which to install Windows.

Scenario 3: Upgrading a Previous Windows Version

You can upgrade to Windows XP from an earlier Windows version under a variety of different cir-
cumstances. Table A-1 covers the various upgrade possibilities. Keep in mind, though, that many
users have a great deal more trouble after an upgrade than after a clean install. So, use the upgrade
installation only if you have no real choice — for example, if you no longer have the CDs for the pro-
grams currently installed.
 Appendix A: Installing Windows XP 499

Table A-1 Upgrading to Windows XP

Existing Version Possible Windows XP Edition

Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 None
Windows 98, Windows 98/SE, or Windows Millennium Windows XP Home and Professional
Edition
Windows NT Workstation 4.0, Windows 2000 Windows XP Professional
Professional
Windows XP Home Edition Windows XP Professional

To upgrade from your existing Windows version, assuming that you have the correct Windows
XP edition according to the table, follow these steps:

1. With your current version of Windows running, place the Windows XP installation CD in
the CD-ROM drive.
2. When the Welcome screen appears, click the Install Windows XP option. If the Welcome
screen does not appear on its own, use My Computer or Windows Explorer to navigate to
your CD drive and double-click the Setup program.
3. In a few seconds, the Welcome to Windows Setup screen appears. In the Installation Type
menu, make sure the Upgrade (Recommended) option is selected. Click Next to continue.
4. On the resulting License Agreement screen, click the I Accept This Agreement radio button
and click Next.
5. Follow steps 10(c) through 10(g) in the numbered list under Scenario 1 earlier in this
chapter.

When this process has finished, you have a new version of Windows. Try it out to ensure that
everything works: your programs, especially non-Microsoft programs and older programs, and your
hardware, especially very old or extremely new hardware. In either case, if the items do not function
properly, head for the Web sites of the product manufacturers and download and install patches and
drivers as required.
If you’ve upgraded from Windows 98 or Windows Me, you can upgrade further by changing the
file system from the current FAT or FAT32 to NTFS, the native file system of Windows XP. NTFS
gives you several security advantages over FAT32. You will be able to convert to NTFS anytime after
the installation. Search Windows Help (Winlogo+F1) for “convert FAT to NTFS.”

Scenario 4: Dual-Booting Windows XP on a

System with Another Windows Installation
One of the more fascinating possibilities with Windows XP is a dual-boot setup. When you install
Windows XP on a PC that currently contains a Microsoft operating system (anything from MS-DOS
500 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

and Windows 3.1 up through Windows XP itself), by performing a new installation (called a clean
install) instead of an upgrade, you end up with both Windows versions available for use. You must,
however, install each version on a separate hard disk partition; this is one of the reasons I suggest in
step 6 under Scenario 1 that you leave unpartitioned space available for other uses. When you boot
your PC, Microsoft’s boot manager presents you with a list of operating systems to choose from. You
simply move the cursor to the one you want and press Enter to launch it.
Why would anybody want two operating systems or more? First of all, if you enjoy computers,
having two OSs can be just plain fun. More important, if all the software and hardware on your cur-
rent operating system works flawlessly, you can leave that OS in place while you install Windows XP
and get everything up and running equally well on it (anyone with numerous games installed will be
particularly grateful for this because some games work better on older Windows versions). You can
also move to other operating systems if one of them fails to load. Finally, Windows XP creates a new
installation faster than an upgrade installation — in fact, frequently over twice as fast. If you have the
disk space, why not?
As long as you have room on your hard disk for a second partition, creating a dual-boot system is
remarkably easy. Just follow steps 1–6 in the numbered list in Scenario 1. In step 6, choose the
unformatted space item and create a new partition here. Format it as an NTFS partition, and instruct
Setup to install Windows on it. Continue the process until Setup has been completed, and then
reboot to see the Microsoft boot manager screen. Choose the operating system you want to run, pre-
sumably Windows XP, and press Enter to load it.
If you’re reading closely, you’ll note that in the previous upgrade scenario, I said you can convert
from FAT to NTFS anytime. That’s true, and it is appropriate in an upgrade without formatting. In
this case, you’re formatting the partition and might as well use NTFS from the start.
If you have only one partition on your drive, you need to create another. Unfortunately, Windows
Setup will not let you do so, and neither will Windows itself. You can either install a second hard
drive and create the partition on it, or purchase disk-partitioning software such as PowerQuest’s
Partition Magic or V Communications’ Partition Commander. These utilities let you resize a partition
(as long as it’s not completely full of data) in a manner known as nondestructive, meaning that you
lose no data. With your current partition decreased in size, you now have unformatted space to work
with, and you can continue your Windows XP installation at that point.

Note
PCs on which you can boot to two or more operating system installations are typically called dual-boot sys-
tems, but by all rights they should be known as multiboot systems. There’s nothing whatsoever stopping you
from building a PC that allows you to boot into Windows 98, Windows 2000, two installations of Windows XP
Home, three installations of Windows XP Professional, and at least one version of Linux. As long as you have
enough hard disk space, and as long as you’ve created enough partitions, go to it. In fact, having more than
one installation of an OS offers an excellent way to test new hardware and software, especially prerelease
software (beta versions).
 Appendix A: Installing Windows XP 501

What to Do About SP2

Let’s say that you have your original Windows XP CD, along with the CD installation key and every-
thing else you need to install the OS. You also know that Windows XP Service Pack 2 upgrades the
OS to a significantly more secure version, so you want to be sure to end up with an SP2 installation.
The question is: do you install the original XP and upgrade over the Internet using Windows Update,
or do you get yourself either a CD that contains SP2 only or one that includes XP with SP2 built in.
Obviously, if you have no intention of replacing your CD, you simply do the former. Install
Windows and, as soon as you get it running, use Internet Explorer to access the Microsoft site and let
Windows Update do all the upgrading for you. For the vast majority of home users, this is a perfectly
valid process.
For security-conscious businesses and home users with permanent Internet connections, how-
ever, the better answer is to install from a CD that contains SP2. Why? SP2 offers enhanced security,
to be sure, but only once you have it installed. Between installing and running Windows XP the first
time and downloading SP2 and performing the upgrade, your PC can be hacked to the extent that
you end up with a compromised system even with SP2 installed.
Here are the possible methods for obtaining SP2 before installing XP:

Order the SP2 CD: Microsoft will ship you (free) a CD with Service Pack 2 on it. In this
case, disconnect your PC from the Internet and install Windows XP; then install SP2
from the new CD. Only then should you connect to the Internet in order to register and
validate your copy of XP. You can order the CD by going to Microsoft’s Windows page
(www.microsoft.com/windows) and following the links to the security page and the Service
Pack downloads. At the time of this writing, the order page was http://www.microsoft.com/
windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx.
Download SP2 and burn a CD: If you have access to a second PC, preferably one that
already has SP2 installed (or one that runs an OS other than Windows), this method can
work. You can download the SP2 file from the Windows Update site without actually
installing it. Do so, and then burn this 266MB file to a CD. Take the CD to the PC on
which you want to install SP2, perform a virus check on the file, and then launch it by
double-clicking it in My Computer.
Buy a new copy of Windows XP: If you’re financially flush, you might want to purchase a
recently manufactured copy of Windows XP that already contains SP2. Check on the box
to ensure that it does; otherwise, you’re right back where you started. Actually, this method
is a very good one if you plan to upgrade from Windows XP Home to Windows XP
Professional because it gives you everything you need in one package.

Summary
The installation process for Windows XP offers one of the best ways to get to know your way around
computers. If you can put a second partition on your system (ask for two partitions when you order
the system from your vendor), you can repeat the installation as often as you want on the second
502 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

partition without affecting the original installation. By doing so, you become experienced at installing
your OS, to the degree that working with the secondary partitions becomes second nature and per-
forming installations for friends and colleagues becomes possible. You also get used to the process of
searching for and installing software patches and hardware drivers, something that, again, gives you
a way of helping others with their system problems.
Do you need to do all this work? No, of course not. Windows XP runs just fine, as you already
know. But enhancing your knowledge of how your system works gives you a set of skills that are not
only helpful to others but also valuable in the employment marketplace. Keep upgrading this knowl-
edge, and you might find yourself taking over IT duties at very small offices (where people routinely
wear multiple hats) or doing training sessions for other employees. Of course, you also end up get-
ting phone calls from friends and neighbors who have managed to mangle their Windows systems to
the point of nonfunctionality, but this, too, can have its rewards. You might, for instance, get the
snow shoveled out of your driveway come winter. It certainly worked for this author.
Appendix B

Reinstalling
Windows XP

S ometimes, the fastest and most effective way to deal with problems in Windows XP is to rein-
stall the operating system. But reinstalling it requires preparation. Performing the actual rein-
stallation isn’t difficult at all — just pop in the CD, let Setup begin, and walk your way through the
steps. But you can save yourself a great deal of time and prevent possible disaster by performing a
number of additional tasks before you begin.
One point here, however. This chapter assumes that you want to reinstall Windows XP and preserve
your existing data. If you want to start over with a completely clean slate and you have no need to save
any current data, your life gets much easier: just pop in the Windows XP installation CD, tell it to refor-
mat your hard drives, and let it do its thing (see Appendix A for details, including what to do about
Service Pack 2). When the purpose of the reinstallation is to come away with a functioning operating
system in which you can make use of your existing data, the task becomes significantly more arduous.
You can perform the reinstallation in one of two ways, depending entirely on your needs and your
intended result:

In-Place Reinstallation: Also called a repair install, this method installs Windows XP
on the same partition and in the same folder as the original, in effect functioning as an
upgrade. In the process, it overwrites numerous folders and files and overwrites the origi-
nal installation. Although it does not necessarily overwrite the Documents and Settings
folder, it creates a new one and can render the old one inaccessible. Have a backup of at
least your data, if not the entire system (see Chapter 4).
Clean Reinstallation: Doing this to a system with a single partition involves wiping that
partition clean; be certain you have a working backup of all your latest data (an external
hard drive is very handy here). An alternative method involves preserving the existing data
on one drive partition and installing Windows XP to a separate partition, but if you don’t
already have these partitions set up, you risk losing any data you haven’t backed up. In
effect, this counts as a reinstallation only because you’re using the same installation CD
and product activation code. Functionally, the method results in a completely new installa-
tion to which you can restore the data stored on the original partition.

503
504 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

For the best performance results, choose a clean reinstallation by formatting the hard drive. You
will lose everything on that drive (that’s what makes it “clean”). Before you begin, see Chapter 4 on
backups and make certain you have tested restoring data from that backup; this is a case where a full
backup of the entire computer may make sense.

Caution
If you have installed Windows XP service packs, you might have difficulties with compatibility if you perform
an in-place reinstallation with the original (pre-service pack) CD. If you purchased Windows XP recently, the
installation CD likely already contains the most recent service pack(s).
However, if you don’t have Service Pack 2 on CD, you may want to order it before you proceed with this chap-
ter (see Chapter 1 about SP 2). Having the SP2 CD (or a copy of XP so new that it has SP2 included) will save
you a lot of time you will otherwise spend at the Windows Update Web site.

Performing an In-Place Reinstallation

Without a doubt, the in-place reinstallation takes less time, effort, and sheer work than the clean
reinstallation. Unfortunately, you have less control over the results. If all goes well, after the in-place
reinstall you have access to all your files, folders, and programs. Sometimes, however, things go
wrong, with loss of data, programs, and more. Still, in-place installations can work miracles; so if
you have backup files of your most important documents stored on another hard drive or on remov-
able media, go ahead and give it a try.

Caution
Do not reinstall Windows XP to correct problems with third-party programs, Documents and Settings folders,
or other data locations. In the case of programs, uninstall them and reinstall them, using the Add or Remove
Programs utility in the Control Panel. In the case of problems with a user’s folders in Documents and Settings,
create a new account with a similar name (acceptable to the user), copy the old files and folders to the new
account’s folders, and see if the problems continue. If not, you can then delete the original account, reboot,
create a new account with the original name, and copy the files and folders into that account.

In-place reinstalls come in two forms: Update and Repair. Of these two, Update is the most
straightforward because it installs from inside Windows (that is, Windows must be working at least
well enough to allow you to perform tasks in it). But in both, the principle is the same.

Note
You cannot perform a reinstallation from Safe Mode.
 Appendix B: Reinstalling Windows XP 505

To perform an Update in-place reinstallation, follow these steps:

1. If you can access your folders, back up all important files and folders to another hard
drive, another partition on your main Windows hard drive, a network drive, or removable
media such as CD, DVD, tape, or floppy disks.
2. If you can access Add or Remove Programs, for maximum compatibility consider removing
any Windows XP service packs you have installed. You can find these service packs in the
Add or Remove Programs utility in the Control Panel. Scroll toward the bottom of the list
until you see Windows XP Hotfixes with an SP1 or SP3 in parentheses. Uninstalling the
service pack elements can help but doing so takes a long time.
3. Place your Windows XP installation CD in your CD or DVD drive and wait for the opening
screen. Choose the Install Windows XP option.

Caution
If you have installed the Linux operating system on your computer in a dual-boot or multiboot arrangement, and
you use one of the two Linux bootloader programs — LILO or GRUB — to select your operating system when
your PC boots, you have an additional consideration. Installing Windows XP deletes the Linux bootloader and
renders Linux inaccessible unless you’ve made a boot floppy for your Linux installation. If you do not have such
a disk, stop the installation, boot into Linux, use its utilities to create a boot floppy, and then continue reinstalling
Windows. After installing Windows, you’ll have to restore the Linux bootloader using the boot floppy.

4. Wait for the second installation screen to appear (it can take several seconds), and choose
the Upgrade option in the Installation Type drop-down menu. Click Next to continue, and
follow the Setup Wizard from here. Within 30–60 minutes, you have replaced Windows.
5. Spend some time with your PC to ensure that everything works: Documents and Settings
files, programs, and so on. One thing you do lose with any such upgrade is the capability
to use the restore points you established with the System Restore utility. You can, however,
start creating new restore points immediately (indeed, Windows already has).
6. Before performing any other functions, install your antivirus software, and then to ensure
maximum security, install SP2 from the CD. Once you have SP2 safely installed, you can
launch Windows Update (see Chapter 5) to install all other critical and optional updates.

Caution
Remember, you run a considerable security risk if you go online with your newly reinstalled Windows XP
before you have installed SP2. And your safest bet for installing SP2 is to order the free CD from Microsoft
and install from the CD. In the time it takes to install and run Windows XP the first time, download SP2, and
perform the upgrade, your PC can be hacked to the extent that you end up with a compromised system even
with SP2 installed.
506 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

To perform a Repair install, do the following:

1. Turn on your computer and immediately insert the Windows XP Installation CD into the
CD or DVD drive. Wait for the Welcome to Setup screen to appear in all its white-text-on-
blue-background, old-style glory.
2. Select the To Set Up Windows XP Now, Press ENTER option by pressing the Enter key.

Caution
Even though you’re performing a Repair Install, do not select the To Repair a Windows XP Installation using
Recovery Console, press R option. The Recovery Console offers specialized tools for various types of repair,
and it won’t help you here.

3. At the subsequent screen (the End-User License Agreement), press the F8 key.
4. At this stage, Setup searches for existing installations of Windows XP. When it locates your
installation (the one that no longer works properly), it identifies it by the hard drive letter
and primary folder (usually C:\WINDOWS). If you have more than one installation on a
dual-boot or multiboot drive, choose the one you want to repair by using the arrow keys
to scroll the list. If Windows does not find an existing version, continuing the installation
will destroy all the files on the selected hard disk. Be careful.
5. When you’ve selected the installation you want to fix, press R. Windows begins copying
files, and you can sit back and watch the reinstallation take place, entering the CD key
when required, along with other interactions.
6. When Windows completes its tasks, and before performing any other functions, install
SP2, then install your antivirus software and then launch Windows Update (see Chapter 5)
to install the latest service packs and all other critical and optional updates.
7. Test your reinstalled Windows.

Performing a Clean Reinstallation

A clean reinstallation of Windows XP lets you start all over with a clean slate, that is, a blank hard
drive or partition. This method works particularly well for systems that have bogged down over the
course of months or years of use, with programs installed and removed, utilities launching when
Windows launches, and slowdowns and strange behavior you can’t trace or don’t want to bother try-
ing to deal with. Many users make a point of reinstalling Windows in this way once a year or so, pre-
cisely to flush it out and give it a chance to work without encumbrances.
 Appendix B: Reinstalling Windows XP 507

One thing you’ll notice immediately when you reinstall: Windows runs more smoothly, snaps to
attention, and loads far more quickly. The trick then is to avoid installing everything you put on the
last version, leaving yourself with a less cluttered system in general.

Tip
Reinstallation is useful in a related way. If you have two good-sized hard drive partitions (20–30GB each),
why not install Windows XP twice, once on each partition (Appendix A covers the details surrounding dual-
booting or multibooting)? This way, you can establish one installation as a work version and the other as
more of an entertainment version. Not only do you keep some tempting entertainment programs away from
yourself when you’re working, but you also have a place to test programs without committing them to the pri-
mary version.

Preparing for the Clean Reinstallation

Again, this chapter assumes that you want to reinstall Windows without losing your previous data.
To do so requires preparation, including all or some of the following steps. Begin with a current
backup of at least your data, if not the entire system (see Chapter 4).

Sorting Out Your Disk Partitions

If you are going to try to reinstall Windows without having to reinstall your data from a backup, you
need a separate hard disk partition (and you still need a good backup). To see your partitions, open
the Computer Management console (click Start and choose All Programs ➝ Administrative Tools to
find it, or use Winlogo+R, compmgmt.msc), and click on the Disk Management item on the left.
The drive letters appear with each partition, as does the partition type: NTFS, FAT32, FAT, or other
(Windows XP does not identify the Linux partitions on the far right of Disk 1). Examine your parti-
tions and write down the names, sizes, and file system types of all the partitions.

Note
Like all good computers, Windows starts numbering at 0 (zero), not 1. The primary partition, C:, is located on
Disk 0, not Disk 1. If you’ve traveled to England and used their elevators — uh, lifts — you’ll feel quite at home
with this numbering system.

Ideally, you’ll have enough free space (roughly 15–20GB minimum, although you actually need
less) for a fresh XP installation. If you own a disk-partitioning package such as PowerQuest’s
Partition Magic or V Communications’ Partition Commander, you can resize the current partitions to
create this space. Otherwise, you’ll have to delete — or at least reformat — a current partition to cre-
ate the necessary room. If you have only one partition, you cannot use the clean reinstallation
method without also wiping out data, which you can restore from a backup after the clean installa-
tion. The best arrangement is to buy and install a second hard drive (external USB will work great).
A second hard drive automatically gives you another.
508 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Preparations for Reinstalling Programs and Drivers

Reinstalling Windows XP means reinstalling your programs and hardware drivers as well. This isn’t
a problem if you have your installation CDs available, but in many cases these days, installations pro-
ceed from downloads rather than from external media. Locate your downloaded programs and have
them accessible when you reinstall the OS. In all cases, be sure to have the program keys (CD keys,
unlock keys, activation keys) available as well. If you have your keys stored in email files, Word doc-
uments, or downloaded Web pages, save them to a floppy or CD, or print them out.
With Windows XP, hardware drivers are less of a concern than with older versions of Windows.
The operating system ships with many, many drivers, and it recognizes your hardware extremely
well. On the chance XP won’t recognize one of your devices (especially the oldest), locate driver
disks if you can, or, if you can access the Internet, go to the manufacturers’ Web sites and download
the latest versions.

Saving Email Stores and Other User Data

Windows XP creates a separate set of data folders for each user, collecting them all under the
umbrella folder called Documents and Settings, located under the root folder on XP’s partition (usu-
ally C:\Documents and Settings). In addition, every email program stores your messages in data files.
If you have access to the existing Windows installation, even if it works only a fraction as well as it
should, you can save yourself time with the reinstallation process by locating all these files and copy-
ing them to external media or a second partition or hard drive. In the case of Microsoft Outlook,
you’ll find the program’s data file, outlook.pst, in the Documents and Settings folder. But keep in mind
that Outlook creates a separate outlook.pst file for each user. To see the file, use the Folder Options
dialog box (View tab) to show hidden files and folders; then use My Computer to navigate to the fol-
lowing folder inside each user’s folder within Documents and Settings: Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook. Copy each outlook.pst file to a separate folder on a different partition or
disk, or rename them all to reflect their content (but be sure to keep the .pst extension). Files for
Outlook Express are also located in each user’s folder beneath Documents and Settings, but this time
in the Local Setting\Identities folder.
You’ll find at least two other useful folders in each user’s folder under Documents and Settings:
Favorites and Cookies. Copy both to the second partition or drive, renaming the folders to reflect
what they are — for example, Old-Favorites and Stale-Cookies. If you want to start over with either
or both, don’t bother copying them.

Resetting User Permissions

One of the most powerful features of the Windows XP file system (NTFS) is its capability to assign
permissions to specific users. As an example, when a user creates a password for his or her account,
Windows asks if the user wants to make the My Documents folder (and subfolders) private. From a
privacy standpoint, doing so is an excellent idea, but it can make reinstallations more difficult.
Before beginning the reinstallation, open the Documents and Settings folder, click on the folder for
your username, and uncheck the Make This Folder Private option under the View tab. Otherwise,
you’ll have to manually — and laboriously — reset all the ownership attributes once you’ve completed
the reinstallation. See Chapter 25 for details on user permissions.
 Appendix B: Reinstalling Windows XP 509

Completing the Reinstallation

With a second partition or hard drive in place, and with as many folders, files, email data, and user
permissions looked after as you can possibly manage (or a full system backup you’ve tested restoring
files from), it’s time to perform the reinstallation. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Turn on your computer, and immediately insert the Windows XP Installation CD into the
CD or DVD drive. Wait for the Welcome to Setup screen to appear.
2. Select the To Set Up Windows XP Now, Press ENTER option by pressing the Enter key.
3. At the subsequent screen (the End-User License Agreement), press the F8 key.
4. At this stage, Setup searches for existing installations of Windows XP. When it locates your
installation (the one that no longer works properly), it identifies it by the hard drive letter
and primary folder (usually C:\WINDOWS). Because you want a clean reinstallation,
however, ignore the first bullet point, which refers to repairing the selected installation,
and choose the To Continue Installing a Fresh Copy of Windows XP Without Repairing,
Press ESC option. After pressing the Escape key, Windows proceeds with the installation,
as covered in Appendix A. Your primary step is to ensure that you choose the correct
partition on which to locate the installation. Again, see Appendix A for details.
5. When Windows completes its tasks, before performing any other functions, install SP2
from CD, then install your antivirus software, and then launch Windows Update (see
Chapter 5) to install the latest service packs and all other critical and optional updates.
6. Test your reinstalled Windows program.

Product Activation
When you install Windows XP, you must activate it using Microsoft’s anti-piracy technology: Product
Activation. If you reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows, you must activate it again. If you
reinstall it on a drive you have not formatted, you need to reactivate it only if you have changed
numerous other hardware components of your system.
Windows examines 10 different hardware components, ranging from the CPU to hard drives to
network and video cards, and creates a unique identifier for your machine upon activation. If you
change the hardware components significantly and reinstall Windows, you will need to reactivate it.
The term significantly means changing 6 of the 10 hardware items, although even this isn’t strictly
adhered to. Furthermore, you can change any single component as often as you want, and it still
counts as only one change.
On reinstallation, if you require reactivation, try to do so over the Internet. If your request is con-
fused, the Product Activation Wizard provides a telephone number along with a lengthy numeric
code. Call the number, and punch in the code when so instructed by the automated attendant. In the
vast majority of cases, the activation will proceed without incident. If not, and if you do, in fact, have
a pirated version of Windows XP, you will probably have to buy a legal copy.
510 PC Magazine — Windows XP Solutions, 2nd Edition

Tip
Windows XP stores its activation database file, wpa.dbl, as well as its counterpart, wpa.bak, in the folder
c:\windows\system32. You can avoid reactivation when reinstalling Windows on the same PC by copying
these two files to a disk, performing the reinstallation, navigating to c:\windows\system32, copying the
copied files over the new files, and then rebooting.

Summary
Reinstalling Windows is sometimes necessary, sometimes just a good idea, and always time-
consuming. But as long as you plan your reinstallation, you should experience a minimum of difficul-
ties. Moreover, once you’ve completed the task once, the next time you’ll find it considerably easier and
almost completely stress-free (or as much as anything computer-related can be). In subsequent rein-
stallations, simply keep in mind that your two purposes are a Windows installation that works the way
it should and full access to all the programs and data files you had on your system before.
Index
A antivirus utilities, 21–24, 47–48
Application Data folder, 400
AAC files, 223–225
ASF (Advanced System Format), 182
access points, 460–462
ATRAC files, 225
accessibility options
audio tracks and Windows Movie Maker, 193
Accessibility Wizard, 315–322
Automated System Recovery Wizard, 95–96
administrative options, 322
automatic caching
for blindness or difficulty seeing things on screen,
of documents, 421, 422
316–317
of programs, 422
BounceKeys, 321
automatic installations, 346, 348
Control Panel, 315
automatic Internet connections, 118–119
for deafness or difficulty hearing sounds on
automatic program loads, changing, 381–383
computer, 317–318
automatic updates, 3, 70, 73–74
display settings, 316
AVI (Audio Video Interleaved), 182
extra keyboard help option, 321
FilterKeys, 321
for input devices, 318–322 B
keyboard options, 318–321 background applications, shutting down, 387
mouse options, 322 backgrounds
overview, 315–316 Center option, 244
SlowKeys, 321 customization of, 241–246
StickyKeys, 320–321 disappearance of background image, preventing, 246
text size, 315 Display Properties used to choose, 242–245
ToggleKeys, 321 images for, choosing your own, 245
Accessibility Wizard, 315–322 overview, 241
account utilities, 452 photo program, acquiring background image
ActiveX installations, 345 from, 245
Add or Remove Programs utility used for software previewing, 243
removal, 350–351 Stretch option, 244
additional programs installed by Kazaa, 42 Tile option, 243–244
ad-hoc networks, 459 Web, acquiring background image from, 245
administrative options, 322 Backup Operators group, 407
Administrators group, 407 Backup Utility
Advanced Appearance dialog box, 242–255 Automated System Recovery Wizard, 95–96
Advanced Attributes dialog box used to compress copy only backup, 61
folders, 303 daily backup, 61
Advanced System Format (ASF), 182 differential backup, 61
adware, 33–40 incremental backup, 61
AIFF files, 221 installation, 59
alerts, 12 normal backup, 61
Allow permissions, 420 options for, 59–62
alternative browser utilities, 161–162 overview, 59
anti-spyware utilities, 35–40, 48–49 using, 59–63
511
512 Index

backups Service Pack 2 installation, 4

automatically copying files, 59 software installation and use of, 342
Backup Utility, 59–63 Change permissions, 420
on compact disks (CDs), 55 Classic Start menu, choosing, 270, 311–312
on digital video disks (DVDs), 55 clean reinstallation
on floppy disks, 54 disk partitions, sorting, 507
ghosting, 58 email data, saving, 508
manually copying files, 58–59 overview, 503–504, 506–507
on network drives, 57–58 preparation for, 507–508
overview, 53–54 programs and drivers, preparation for reinstalling, 508
pre-installation of SP2 and, 4 steps for, 509
Recycle Bin used for, 63–65 user data, saving, 508
registry, 85 user permissions, resetting, 508
on separate hard drives, 56 ClearType, 256–257, 314–315
storage media, list of, 54–58 client computer, 149
on tape drives, 57 client-server networks, 456, 475–476
third-party backups, 58 clutter, removing desktop, 257–259
on USB thumb drives, 56–57 command keys, 327
bad sectors, 378 command-line utilities
beta drivers, 374 ftp (file transfer protocol), 134, 477
biometric solutions, 452 ipconfig, 134
blindness or difficulty seeing things on screen, overview, 133
accessibility options for, 316–317 ping, 134
Bluetooth standard, 9 Telnet, 134
bombs, 19–20 tracert, 134
boot sector viruses, 18, 19 Compact Disks. See CDs
BounceKeys, 321 compressed files, installing from, 342–343
broadband access, 110 compressed folders
broadband wireless access, 111 Advanced Attributes dialog box used to compress
broadcasting live, 185–187 folders, 303
browser cache, controlling, 139–140 Extraction Wizard, 301–302
browsers, alternative, 161–162 overview, 300–301
burning music with Windows Media Player, 227 zipped folders, 301–302
Computer Administrator account, 401
C Computer Management tool
cable access groups created with, 407–409
firewalls, 117 overview, 483
overview, 110–111 and passwords, 405–406
security, 117 users added with, 403–406
setting up, 117 configuration options
caching files, 421–422 Norton AntiVirus (NAV), 28–31
CBR (Constant Bit Rate), 187 Outlook Express (OE), 129–130
CDs (Compact Disks) policies, 441–446
backups on, 55 System Restore, 84–87
creator utilities, 232 for toolbars, 280–282
 Index 513

Constant Bit Rate (CBR), 187 overview, 237

Control Panel passwords, 239
accessibility options, 315 reasons for, 237–238
Classic view, setting, 312 screen resolution, changing, 246–252
date, setting, 309 Scrollbar element, 255
and folders, 294–298 Selected Items element, 255
keyboard configuration, 309 themes, 256
mouse configuration, 306–309 3D Objects element, 254
passwords, adding, 398–399 ToolTip element, 255
single-click mouse option, 304–305 Welcome screen, 239
time, setting, 309–310
Tweak UI and, 329 D
used to add users, 396–403 daily backup, 61
cookies, 34, 138–139 data backup utilities, 103–104
Cookies folder, 400, 434–435 Data Encryption Standard (DESX), 97
copy only backup, 61 date, setting, 309
copyright laws and digital music, 225 deafness or difficulty hearing sounds on computer,
cost of Internet connection, 112 accessibility options for, 317–318
custom updates, 70–71 decrypting data, 99
customization dedicated IP numbers, 486
folder customization, 327 default Internet programs, setting, 123–126
Remote Desktop, 150–151 default owner of file type, request for permission
customization of Windows XP to be, 341
Active Title Bar element, 254 Defragmentation utility, 378–380
Active Window Border element, 254 Deny permissions, 420
Advanced Appearance dialog box, 242–255 DES3 (Triple-DES), 97
Application Background element, 254 Desktop folder, 279, 400
backgrounds, changing, 241–246 DESX (Data Encryption Standard), 97
Caption Buttons element, 255 Device Manager
ClearType, 256–257 drivers, installing and changing, 371–372
clutter, removing desktop, 257–259 Edit Interrupt Request dialog box, 370
Color element, 255 hardware profiles, 375–377
Desktop element, 255 new drivers, obtaining, 372–374
desktop folders, organizing icons into, 259 opening, 368
fonts, 252–254 overview, 367–368
graphics card and, 259–262 repairing hardware devices, 369–375
Icon element, 255 system resources, configuring, 370
icon-free desktop, 257–258 unsigned drivers, settings for, 374–375
icons, arranging, 258–259 DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), 156
Inactive Title Bar element, 255 dialup connection
Inactive Window Border element, 255 overview, 109–110
interface elements, 254–256 setting up, 113–114
Logon screens, choosing, 239–241 through terminal window, 115
Menu element, 255 differential backup, 61
514 Index

digital cameras list of, 219

editing pictures, 172–173 lossless compression, 222
filenames associated with pictures, 169 lossy compression, 222
Microsoft Office Picture Manager used to edit MIDI files, 223
pictures, 173 MP3 files, 221, 222
Microsoft Paint used to edit pictures, 172 MP4 files, 223
overview, 167 mp3PRO files, 221–222
Photo Editor used to edit pictures, 173 Ogg Vorbis files, 223
printing pictures, 174 overview, 219–220
publishing pictures, 175–176 QuickTime files, 223
third-party software for working with photographs, RealAudio files, 223
179–180 WAV files, 220–221
transferring pictures from camera to computer, WMA files, 221
169–171 Digital Rights Management (DRM), 209, 224
troubleshooting, 179 digital scanners
viewing pictures, 168–170 images, scanning, 176–178
Windows, controlling your camera from within, OCR software and, 178–179
168–171 overview, 167
digital music and Windows Media Player text, scanning, 178–179
burning music, 227 digital video disks (DVDs)
Color Chooser, 217 backups on, 55
copyright laws, 225 players and burners, 232–233
digital music formats, 219–225 Direct Cable Connection, 435
Digital Rights Management (DRM), 224 direct DSL connection, 115–116
enhancements, 213–217 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), 461
equalizer, 213–215 direct-action viruses, 21
Info Center, 211–212 disk partitions, sorting, 507
Media Library, 217–218 Display Properties dialog box
MP3 files, 210, 226–227 backgrounds, used to choose, 242–245
Online Stores, 212–213 graphics card, 260
overview, 209 display settings and accessibility options, 316
Play Speed Settings, 217 DLLs (dynamic link libraries), 341
playing music, 210–225 docking toolbars, 275
playlists, 218–219, 227–228 Documents and Settings subfolder, copying data from,
ripping music, 225–227 429–430
Skin Mode, 213–216 domain policy, 445
sound enhancements, 213–215 downloads
Video Settings, 217 driver obtained from Internet download areas, 361
Visualizations, 217 and Internet Explorer (IE), 7–8
Windows Media Audio format, 226 and Outlook Express (OE), 8
digital music formats Service Pack 2 (SP2), 4
AAC files, 223–225 drivers
AIFF files, 221 beta drivers, 374
ATRAC files, 225 changing, 371–372
 Index 515

installation of, 364–365, 371–372 Ethernet networks, 457

new drivers, obtaining, 372–374 EULA (End-User License Agreement), 347–348
unsigned drivers, settings for, 374–375 external devices, installation of, 361–362
DRM (Digital Rights Management), 209, 224 Extraction Wizard, 301–302
droppers, 18, 19
DSL connection F
direct DSL connection, 115–116 Favorites folder, 400, 435
Internet connection, 110 file encryption key, 97
overview, 110 file system errors, automatically fixing, 378
setting up, 114–117 file transfer protocol (ftp), 134, 477
DSL router, using DSL connection through, 116–117 files
DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum), 461 backups for, 58–59
dual-boot system, 87, 493–494, 499–500 caching files, 421–422
DVDs (digital video disks) encrypting, 97–99
backups on, 55 paging files, 93–95
players and burners, 232–233 permanently deleting, 65
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), 156 protected files and folders, gaining access to,
dynamic link libraries (DLLs), 341 423–425
temporary files, 40
E Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, 435–437
earlier time, restoring to, 82–83 FilterKeys, 321
EFS. See Encrypting File System Firefox, 161–162
email firewalls
data, saving, 508 allowing server traffic through, 480–481
functions of Service Pack 2 (SP2), 7–8 cable access and, 117
hyperlinks in Internet Explorer, 144 Remote Assistance, 155
migration, 431–433 Remote Desktop, 155
Remote Assistance started through, 154 Security Center, 13–16
utilities, 162–163 testing, 50
viruses, 18, 19 utilities, 49–50
encrypting data, 97–99 floating toolbars, 275, 285–286
Encrypting File System (EFS) floppy disks, backups on, 54
certificate created to add a Recovery Agent, 100 Folder Options dialog box, 294–298
Data Encryption Standard (DESX), 97 folders
decrypting data, 99 Application Data folder, 400
encrypting data, 97–99 backups for, 59
file encryption key, 97 compressed folders, 300–303
overview, 96–97 Control Panel and, 294–298
private key, 97 Cookies folder, 400
public key, 97 customization, 327
Recovery Agent, 99–101 Desktop folder, 400
Triple-DES (DES3), 97 Details view of, 292–293
equalizer, 213–215 encrypting, 97–99
errors on hard disk, checking for, 5 Favorites folder, 400
continued
516 Index

folders continued hierarchy of group policies, 445–446

Filmstrip view of, 291 installation of, 439–440
Folder Options dialog box, 294–298 local PC policy, 446
Icons view of, 292 organizational unit policy, 445
List view of, 292 password policies, 446–448
Local Settings folder, 400 site policy, 446
My Documents folder, 400 Windows Explorer policies, 448–450
My Recent Documents folder, 400 groups
NetHood folder, 400 Administrators group, 407
new folders, creating, 298–300 assigning user to, 408–409
opening, 289–290 Backup Operators group, 407
options for, 294–298 Computer Management tool used to create,
organizing icons into, 259 407–409
overview, 289 Debugger Users group, 408
PrintHood folder, 400 Guests group, 407
private, steps to making, 416–417 HelpServicesGroup, 408
SendTo folder, 400 Network Configuration Operators group, 407
standardizing, 294 overview, 407
Start Menu folder, 401 Power Users group, 408
Templates folder, 401 Remote Desktop Users group, 408
Thumbnail view of, 290–291 Replicator group, 408
Tiles view of, 290, 291 Users group, 408
views, 289–294 Guest account, 402–403
fonts, 252–254 Guests group, 407
formatting hard drive, 496
forms, AutoComplete feature and, 140–141 H
ftp (file transfer protocol), 134, 477 hard disk space, adding, 383, 385
FTP server, 486–487, 489–490 hard drive maintenance
bad sectors, 378
G Defragmentation utility, 378–380
ghost imaging utilities, 104–105 Error Checking utility, 378
ghosting, 58 file system errors, automatically fixing, 378
Google toolbar history, erasing, 39 overview, 377
graphics card hard drives, backups on separate, 56
customization of Windows XP and, 259–262 hardware
Display Properties dialog box, 260 basics, 360–361
NVIDIA configuration options, 261–262 devices’ identification numbers collected by
overview, 259–260 Windows Update, 69
System Tray, 259–260 optional updates, 71
upgrading, 385 profiles, 375–377
graphics, removing, 386 Windows Movie Maker requirements, 192, 194
Group Policy Editor hardware installation
configuring policies, 441–446 drivers, 364–365
domain policy, 445 external devices, 361–362
examples of policy configuration, 446–450 internal devices, 362–364
 Index 517

Internet download areas, driver obtained from, 361 installation. See also hardware installation; software
mainboard, 363 installation
manufacturer, driver obtained from, 361 Backup Utility, 59
motherboard, 363 of Group Policy Editor, 439–440
overview, 359–361 Norton AntiVirus (NAV), 25
RAM modules, 363 PowerToys, 323
surge suppressors, 362 of security patches, 75
uninterruptible power supply (UPS), 362 of Service Pack 2 (SP2), 5–6
Windows XP, driver obtained from, 361 installation of Windows XP
Help and Support utility, 268 dual-boot system, 493–494, 499–500
hibernation mode, 388 formatting hard drive, 496
hierarchy of group policies, 445–446 Linux, on system with, 493–494
high priority updates, 70 multiple-drive PC with new primary drive,
highlighting new programs on Start menu, removing, 344 installation on, 498
high-speed access, 110 new computer or hard drive, installation on,
History list, controlling, 139 495–498
home directory, 485 overview, 493
host computer, 148 partitioning hard drive, 495–496
Hotmail account used with Outlook Express (OE), 128 primary boot device, setting Windows XP
HTML Slide Show Wizard, 330 installation CD as, 494
HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) services, scenarios for, 495–500
installation of, 477 Service Pack 2 and, 501
hybrid wired/wireless networks, 462 upgrading a previous Windows version, 498–499
interface elements, 254–256
I internal devices
icon-free desktop, 257–258 installation of, 362–364
icons upgrading, 385
arranging, 258–259 Internet connection
automatic program loads, icons for, 382 automatic connections, 118–119
in Taskbar, hiding, 287 BPL access, 112
ICQ chat sessions, erasing, 40 broadband access, 110
identity theft, 141 broadband wireless access, 111
IE. See Internet Explorer cable access, 110–111, 117
IIS (Internet Information Services), installation of, cost of, 112
476–477 dialup connection, 109–110, 113–114
images. See also pictures DSL connection, 110, 114–117
for backgrounds, choosing your own, 245 high-speed access, 110
scanning, 176–178 IP addresses, 109
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), 476 methods for, 109–112
incremental backup, 61 OC3 access, 111
.inf files, installing programs from, 344 overview, 109
infrastructure networks, 460–462 proxy servers, 119
in-place reinstallation, 503, 504–506 registry and, 119–121
input devices, 318–322 routers and, 116–118, 467–469
continued
518 Index

Internet connection continued Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), 476

satellite access, 111 Internet server
setting up, 113–117 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) services, installation
speed of, 112, 119–121 of, 477
TCP/IP protocol, 112 firewalls, allowing server traffic through, 480–481
T1 access, 111 FTP server, 486–487
wireless access, 111 HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) services,
Internet Explorer (IE). See also Internet Explorer (IE) installation of, 477
version 6 Internet Information Services (IIS), installation of,
add-ons, control of, 8 476–477
Address bar added to Taskbar, 279 overview, 475–476
automatic forms history, erasing, 40 Services utility, 478–480
downloads, protection from, 7–8 Web server, 481–486
history, erasing, 40 IP addresses, 109
Links bar added to Taskbar, 279 ISP (Internet Service Provider), 467
options with Tweak UI, 327–328
popups, blocking, 8 K
resizing of windows, protection from, 8 Kazaa, 41–45
Service Pack 2 (SP2), improvements with, 7–8 keyboard
version number collected by Windows Update, 68 accessibility options, 318–321
Internet Explorer (IE) version 6 configuration, 309
AutoComplete feature, 140–141
browser cache, controlling, 139–140
collaboration program hyperlinks, 144
L
LAN, creation of, 471–472
cookies, controlling, 138–139
laptops
email hyperlinks, 144
power cord use for notebook PC and pre-
file associations, 144–146
installation of Service Pack 2 (SP2), 5
File Types tab, 144–146
single-click interface and, 305
History list, controlling, 139
with wireless adapter, 470–474
HTML editor, 144
Last Known Good Configuration option
Internet zone, 142
(Startup menu), 91
Local intranet zone, 142
license agreements, 347–348
newsgroups hyperlinks, 144
Limited account, 402
overview, 137
Linux
popups, blocking, 137–138
accessing Remote Desktop from, 151
privacy and, 138–143
dual-boot system and, 493–494
program associations, changing, 143–146
overview, 80
Programs tab, 144
List view of folders, 292
proxy servers, bypassing, 142
local PC policy, 446
restricted sites zone, 142
Local Settings folder, 400
security and, 138–143
log files, 91
security zones, configuring, 141–143
logon options, 328
and SP2, 137–138
Logon screens, choosing, 239–241
trusted sites zone, 142
Internet Information Services (IIS), installation of, 476–477
 Index 519

M My Documents folder, 266, 400

My Music folder, 267
macro viruses, 18, 19
My Network Places folder, 267
macros, 19
My Pictures folder, 267
mail servers, 490
My Recent Documents folder, 266, 400
mainboard, 363
malfunctioning programs, removing, 389
malware, 19, 33 N
manual caching of documents, 421 NAT (Network Address Translation), 155–157
manual shutdown of PC, 386–387 NAV. See Norton Antivirus
manual uninstalls, 355–357 NetHood folder, 400
manually copying files for backups, 58–59 Network Configuration Operators group, 407
manufacturer, driver obtained from, 361 network drives, backups on, 57–58
MFU List, 269–270 Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP), 476
Microsoft Network Password Manager, 451
innovation and Start button, 266 networks. See also workgroups
Security Center used to obtain latest security and access points, 460–462
virus information from, 11 ad-hoc networks, 459
Microsoft AntiSpyware, 37–40, 49 client-server network, 456
Microsoft Installer (MSI), 341 Ethernet networks, 457
MIDI files, 223 hybrid wired/wireless networks, 462
MMC (Microsoft Management Console), 439 infrastructure networks, 460–462
modifier key, 320 overview, 455–456
motherboard, 363 peer-to-peer network, 456–457, 475–476
mouse sharing resources on network, 473–474
accessibility options, 322 wired networks, 457–458
Control Panel and mouse configuration, 306–309 wireless networks, 457–458
single-click mouse option, 304–305 new computer or hard drive, installation on, 495–498
Tweak UI and options for, 325 new folders, creating, 298–300
mouse hovering, 271–272, 325 new identity in OE, setting up, 127
MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group), 182 new programs, Start menu link to, 272
MP3 files newsgroups, 130–131, 144
digital music and Windows Media Player, 210 NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol), 476
overview, 221, 222 non-Microsoft programs, 124–125
saving music as, 226–227 normal backup, 61
MP4 files, 223 Norton AntiVirus (NAV)
mp3PRO files, 221–222 acquiring, 24
msconfig command, 91 Auto-Protect feature, 29–30
MSI (Microsoft Installer), 341 configuring, 28–31
MSN account used with Outlook Express (OE), 128 control panel, 26–28
multiple monitors, 158 Email feature, 30
multiple operating systems, 389 installation of, 25
multiple-drive PC with new primary drive, installation Instant Messenger feature, 30
on, 498 Internet Worm Protection feature, 30
music player utilities, 232 LiveUpdate feature, 25–26
My Computer folder, 267 continued
520 Index

Norton AntiVirus (NAV) continued Save copy of sent messages in the “Sent Items”
Manual Scan feature, 30 folder option, 129
Options dialog box, 29–31 Send and receive messages at startup option, 129
overview, 24–26, 47 Send messages immediately option, 130
Script Blocking feature, 30 Service Pack 2 (SP2), improvements with, 8
Threat Detection Categories dialog box, 31 settings, 129–130
Trojan horse protection, 30, 31 Store Folder option, 130
Norton CleanSweep used for software removal, 352–353
Norton Ghost, 104–105 P
notebooks paging files, 93–95
power cord use for notebook PC and parasitic viruses, 18
pre-installation of Service Pack 2 (SP2), 5 partitioning hard drive, 495–496
single-click interface and, 305 passwords
with wireless adapter, 470–474 adding, 398–399
ntbtlog.txt file, 91 changing, 405–406
number of users, limiting, 419–422 Computer Management tool and, 405–406
NVIDIA configuration options, 261–262 customization of Windows XP, 239
expiration of, 405
O options for, 405–406
Object Desktop, 333 policies, 446–448
OC3 access, 111 utilities, 163, 451–452
OCR software and digital scanners, 178–179 peer-to-peer networks, 456–457, 475–476
OE. See Outlook Express persistent cookies, 139
old Windows Start menu, reverting to, 270, 311–312 photo editors/graphics programs, 231–232
organizational unit policy, 445 photo program, acquiring background image from, 245
Outlook Express (OE) pictures
Block images and other external content in HTML editing pictures, 172–173
email option, 130 filenames associated with pictures, 169
Check for new messages every xx minutes Microsoft Office Picture Manager used to edit
option, 129 pictures, 173
configuring, 129–130 Microsoft Paint used to edit pictures, 172
downloads, protection from, 8 Photo Editor used to edit pictures, 173
Empty messages from “Deleted Items” folder on printing pictures, 174
exit option, 130 publishing pictures, 175–176
Fonts option, 129 third-party software for working with photographs,
Get Digital ID option, 130 179–180
Hotmail account used with, 128 transferring pictures from camera to computer,
Identities feature, 127–128 169–171
Make Default option, 129 viewing pictures, 168–170
MSN account used with, 128 ping, 134
new identity, setting up, 127 Pinned Items List, 268–269
newsgroups and, 130–132 playing music, 210–225
Options dialog box, 129–130 playlists, 218–219, 227–228
overview, 126–127 Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE), 467
Receipts option, 129 policy on remote control, 158
 Index 521

polymorphic viruses, 20
R
POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3), 476
radio interference and wireless networks, 461
popups, blocking, 8, 137–138
RAM modules, 363
port numbers, 484
Read permissions, 420
Power Users group, 408
RealAudio files, 223
PowerToys
RealPlayer, 232
CD Slide Show Generator, 330
recent documents, erasing information on, 40
HTML Slide Show Wizard, 330
recent documents list, disabling, 272
Image Resizer, 330
Recycle Bin, 63–65
installation, 323
Regedit, 119, 391–392
Open Command Window Here, 330
region and language setting collected by Windows
overview, 323
Update, 69
Power Calculator, 330
registry
Taskbar Magnifier, 330
backups, 85
Tweak UI, 323–329
editing, 85
Virtual Desktop Manager, 330
and Internet connection, 119–121
Webcam Timershot, 330
Registry Editor, 269
PPPoE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet), 467
reinstallation of Windows XP
primary boot device, setting Windows XP installation
clean reinstallation, 503–504, 506–509
CD as, 494
in-place reinstallation, 503, 504–506
Printers and Faxes folder, 268
overview, 503–504
PrintHood folder, 400
Product Activation, 500
privacy
repair install, 503, 504–506
and Internet Explorer (IE) version 6, 138–143
Remote Assistance
Simple File Sharing and privacy levels, 414–415
through firewalls, 155
Windows Update and, 68–69
multiple monitors and, 158
private key, 97
through NAT devices, 155–157
Product Activation, 500
overview, 152–153
product identification collected by Windows
policy on remote control and, 158
Update, 69
Remote Desktop compared, 147
product key collected by Windows Update, 69
starting, 154
program associations in IE, changing, 143–146
using, 153–154
program virus, 18
Remote Desktop
programs and drivers, preparation for reinstalling, 508
Bitmap caching option, 150
protected files and folders, gaining access to, 423–425
client computer, 149
proxy servers
controlling computer, 148
bypassing, 142
customization of, 150–151
and Internet connection, 119
Desktop background option, 150
public key, 97
through firewalls, 155
pulling content, 186
host computer, 148
pushing content, 186
Linux, accessing Remote Desktop from, 151
Menu and window animation option, 150
Q multiple monitors and, 158
QuickTime, 183, 223, 232 continued
522 Index

Remote Desktop continued Encrypting File System (EFS), 96–101

through NAT devices, 155–157 and Internet Explorer (IE) version 6, 138–143
overview, 147–148 patches, 74–75
policy on remote control and, 158 Service Pack 2 (SP2), security improvements with, 7
Remote Assistance compared, 147 updates, conventional download of, 69
setting up, 148–151 zones, 141–143
Show contents of window while dragging option, 150 Security Center
Themes option, 150 alerts, options for, 12
using, 151–152 Automatic Updates area, 16
Remote Desktop Users group, 408 Firewall area, 13–16
repair install, 503, 504–506 help system for, 12
repairing hardware devices, 369–375 Manage Security Settings area, 16
Replicator group, 408 Microsoft, latest security and virus information
resident viruses, 21 from, 11
resizing overview, 10
Taskbar, 276–277 Resources area, 11–12
toolbars, 284–285 SP2 and, 10–16
of windows, protection from, 8 support for security-related issues and, 12
restore points, setting, 81–82 Virus Protection Settings area, 16
ripping music, 225–227 Windows Update, checking for latest updates from, 11
rootkits, 20–21 Security Identifier (SID), 429
routers SendTo folder, 400
advantages of, 118 servers, 456, 475–476
broadband router with access point, 466–469 Service Pack 1 (SP1), 7
Internet connection and, 116–118, 467–469 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
PC connection, 467 acquiring, 3–4
automatic update setting for Windows used to
S acquire, 3
Bluetooth standard and, 9
Safe Mode, 89–90
CD installation, advantages of, 4
satellite access, 111
downloading, 4
scanning for updates, 69–71
email functions, 7–8
screen actions, capturing, 185
free CD, ordering, 3–4
screen resolution
installation of, 5–6
changing, 249–250
and installation of Windows XP, 501
color quality, changing, 250–251
and Internet Explorer (IE) version 6, 137–138
customization of, 246–252
overview, 6
high resolution, 248
pre-installation, 4–5
overview, 246–248
reasons to install, 6–10
pixels, 247
Security Center and, 10–16
temporary change of resolution and color settings,
security improvements with, 7
251–252
Web functions, 7–8
Search folder, 268
Wi-Fi capabilities and, 9
security. See also spyware; virus protection
Windows Media Player and, 9–10, 209
adware, 33–40
Windows Update used to acquire, 3
cable access and, 117
 Index 523

service packs, 75–76 software removal

Services utility, 478–480 Add or Remove Programs utility used for, 350–351
session cookies, 139 manual uninstalls, 355–357
Set Program Access and Defaults (SPAD) utility, Norton CleanSweep used for, 352–353
123–126, 267 overview, 349
Share permissions, 419–420 System Restore used for, 354–355
sharing resources on network, 473–474 third-party uninstallers used for, 351–354
shells and interface customizers, 333–334 sound cards, 192
SID (Security Identifier), 429 sound enhancements and Windows Media Player,
Simple File Sharing 213–215
choosing, 412–413 SP2. See Service Pack 2
folders, steps to making private, 416–417 SP1 (Service Pack 1), 7
Level 1, 414 SPAD (Set Program Access and Defaults) utility,
Level 2, 415 123–126, 267
Level 3, 415 speed of Internet connection, 112, 119–121
Level 4, 415 speeding up windows
Level 5, 415 auto-loaded programs, shutting down, 386
switching from, 418 automatic program loads, changing, 381–383
single-click mouse option, 304–305 background applications, shutting down, 387
site policy, 446 graphics card, upgrading, 385
SLA (Software License Agreement), 347 graphics, removing, 386
SlowKeys, 321 hard disk space, adding, 383, 385
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), 476 hibernation mode, 388
software installation internal devices, upgrading, 385
ActiveX installations, 345 malfunctioning programs, removing, 389
automatic installations, 346, 348 manual shutdown of PC, 386–387
CD, use of, 342 multiple operating systems and, 389
compressed files, installing from, 342–343 overview, 381
default owner of file type, request for permission to system memory, adding, 383, 385
be, 341 unnecessary programs, shutting down, 385–386
highlighting new programs on Start menu, utilities for, 392
removing, 344 spyware
.inf files, installing programs from, 344 anti-spyware programs, 35–40
InstallShield utility, 341 cookies, 34
license agreements, 347–348 Kazaa, 41–45
Microsoft Installer (MSI), 341 Microsoft AntiSpyware used to remove, 37–40
overview, 339–341 overview, 33–34
planning for, 339–341 pre-installation of SP2 and check for, 5
procedure for, 342–348 Spybot Search & Destroy (SS&D) used to remove,
System Restore and, 339 35–37, 49
Windows Update and, 345–346 standalone antispyware programs, 35–37
Wise utility, 341 Yahoo! toolbar used to remove, 40
zipped files, installing from, 343 SS&D (Spybot Search & Destroy), 35–37, 49
Software License Agreement (SLA), 347 stability of Windows XP, 79–80
software, optional updates, 71 Standard account, 402
524 Index

Standard File Sharing dual-boot system, accessing Startup menu on, 87

Allow permissions, 420 Enable Boot Logging option, 90–91
automatic caching of documents, 421, 422 Enable VGA Mode option, 91
automatic caching of programs, 422 Last Known Good Configuration option, 91
caching files, 421–422 /NOGUIBOOT option, 88
Change permissions, 420 Safe Mode, launching Windows in, 89–90
Deny permissions, 420 /SAFEBOOT option, 88
manual caching of documents, 421 /SOS option, 88
number of users, limiting, 419–422 System Configuration utility used to access, 87–88
Read permissions, 420 troubleshooting and, 87–91
Security tab, 417–418 stealth viruses, 20
Share permissions, 419–420 StickyKeys, 320–321
Sharing tab, 417–418 storage media, list of, 54–58
Simple File Sharing compared, 413 surge suppressors, 362
standardizing folders, 294 System Configuration utility used to access Startup
Start menu menu, 87–88
Advanced tab, 271–274 system failure, 428
Control Panel, 267 system memory, adding, 383, 385
elements in, 266–268 system repair utilities
General tab, 271 Error Nuker, 392
Help and Support utility, 268 Norton SystemWorks, 392
MFU List, 269–270 PC Doc Pro, 392
mouse hovering, 271–272 Regedit, 391–392
My Computer folder, 267 Registry Mechanic, 392
My Documents folder, 266 Registry Repair Pro, 392
My Music folder, 267 RegRestore PC Tuneup, 392
My Network Places folder, 267 WinASO Registry Optimizer, 392
My Pictures folder, 267 system resources, configuring, 370
My Recent Documents folder, 266 System Restore
new programs, 272 automatic triggers to set restore points, 80–81
old Windows Start menu, reverting to, 270, 311–312 configuring, 84–87
options, setting, 270–274 disabling, 85
overview, 265 earlier time, restoring to, 82–83
Pinned Items List, adding to, 268–269 ghosting compared, 104
Printers and Faxes folder, 268 overview, 80–81
recent documents list, disabling, 272 setting restore points, 81–82
Run dialog box, 268 software installation, 339
Search folder, 268 software removal, 354–355
Set Program Access and Defaults utility, 267 System Tray, 259–260, 382
System area, 272–274
Start Menu folder, 401 T
Startup menu tape drives, backups on, 57
accessing, 87–89 Task Manager
/BASEVIDEO option, 88 option for toolbars, 282
/BOOTLOG option, 88 troubleshooting with, 92–93
 Index 525

Taskbar configuration options for, 280–282

Auto-hide the taskbar option, 286 floating, 285–286
configuration options for each toolbar, 280–282 Lock the Taskbar option for, 282
Desktop folder, adding, 279 moving, 284–285
Group similar taskbar buttons option, 287 new toolbars, creating, 282–284
hiding, 277 Open Folder option for, 280
icons, hiding, 287 Properties option for, 282
Internet Explorer Address bar, adding, 279 reorganizing toolbars on Taskbar, 284–286
Internet Explorer Links bar, adding, 279 resizing, 284–285
Keep the taskbar on top of other windows option, Show Text option for, 280
286–287 Show the Desktop command for, 282
Language bar, adding, 279 Show Title option for, 281
Lock the taskbar command, 286 Task Manager option for, 282
moving, 274–275 Tile Windows Horizontally option for, 281
new toolbars, creating, 282–284 Tile Windows Vertically option for, 282
overview, 274–276 View option for, 280
properties of, adjusting, 286–287 tracert, 134
quick Launch bar, adding, 279–280 Triple-DES (DES3), 97
reorganizing toolbars on, 284–286 Trojan horses
resizing, 276–277 described, 18, 19
Show Quick Launch option, 287 protection with Norton AntiVirus, 30, 31
Show the clock option, 287 troubleshooting
toolbars added to, 277–280 Automated System Recovery Wizard, 95–96
Taskbar Magnifier, 330 digital cameras, 179
TCP/IP protocol, 112 Encrypting File System (EFS) used to establish
Telnet, 134 security, 96–101
Templates folder, 401 Startup menu options, 87–91
temporary files, 40 with System Restore, 80–87
terminal window, dialup connection through, 115 with Task Manager, 92–93
text with virtual memory, 93–95
scanning, 178–179 warm reboot, 92
size, 315 Tweak UI
themes, 256 command keys, 327
third-party backups, 58 Common Dialogs item, 329
third-party software Control Panel item, 329
and malfunctions in operating system, 79–80 Desktop item, 329Explorer options, 325–327
for working with photographs, 179–180 Focus submenu, 324
Tile option for backgrounds, 243–244 folder customization, 327
time, setting, 309–310 General menu, 324
ToggleKeys, 321 Internet Explorer options, 327–328
T1 access, 111 logon options, 328
toolbars mouse options, 325
added to Taskbar, 277–280 My Computer item, 329
Cascade Windows option for, 281 overview, 323
Close Toolbar option for, 281 continued
526 Index

Tweak UI continued Security Identifier (SID), 429

PowerToys, 323–329 SendTo folder, 400
Repair item, 329 Standard account, 402
Shortcut item, 326 Start Menu folder, 401
Slide Show item, 327 Templates folder, 401
Templates item, 329 types of, 401
Thumbnails option, 327 user data migration
X-Mouse option, 325 Cookies folder, moving, 434–435
Direct Cable Connection, 435
U Documents and Settings subfolder, copying data
from, 429–430
uninstallers, 391
email migration, 431–433
unnecessary programs, shutting down, 385–386
Favorites folder, moving, 435
upgrading a previous Windows version, 498–499
Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, 435–437
UPS (uninterruptible power supply), 362
overview, 427–429
USB thumb drives, backups on, 56–57
system failure and, 428
user access
user-specific files, copying, 430–431
My Computer, setting folder permissions from,
user data, saving, 508
422–423
user permissions, resetting, 508
protected files and folders, gaining access to,
Users group, 408
423–425
user-specific files, copying, 430–431
Simple File Sharing, 412–417
utilities
Standard File Sharing, 417–422
account utilities, 452
User Account Manager, 452
alternative browser utilities, 161–162
user accounts
anti-spyware utilities, 48–49
Application Data folder, 400
antivirus utilities, 47–48
Computer Administrator account, 401
biometric solutions, 452
Computer Management tool used to add users,
CD creators, 232
403–406
data backup utilities, 103–104
Control Panel used to add users, 396–403
DVD players and burners, 232–233
Cookies folder, 400
email utilities, 162–163
deleting, 406–407
firewall utilities, 49–50
Desktop folder, 400
ghost imaging utilities, 104–105
disabling, 406
mail servers, 490
Favorites folder, 400
music players, 232
FTP site, access to, 487
password and password recovery utilities,
Guest account, 402–403
163, 451–452
Limited account, 402
photo editors/graphics programs, 231–232
Local Settings folder, 400
shells and interface customizers, 333–334
My Documents folder, 400
system repair utilities, 391–392
My Recent Documents folder, 400
uninstallers, 391
NetHood folder, 400
virtual desktop managers, 334–335
overview, 395–396
Web and FTP server software, 489–490
passwords, 398–399, 405–406
windows speed-up utilities, 392
PrintHood folder, 400
 Index 527

V types of, 18–20

worms, 18, 19
VBR (Variable Bit Rate), 187
version numbers
of software updates collected by Windows W
Update, 68 warm reboot, 92
of Windows Movie Maker, 190 WAV files, 220–221
video cards, 192 Web, acquiring background image from, 245
video files. See also Windows Movie Maker Web addresses, AutoComplete feature and, 140
ASF (Advanced System Format), 182 Web server
AVI (Audio Video Interleaved), 182 Computer Management utility, 483
MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group), 182 dedicated IP numbers, 486
overview, 181 Default Web Site Properties dialog box, 484–485
QuickTime movie files, 183 home directory, 485
RealVideo files, 183 overview, 481–482
types of, 182 port numbers, 484
Windows Media Encoder 9 Series and, 183–187 software, 489–490
Windows Media Player and, 181–182 viewing, 482
WMV (Windows Media Video), 182 Web site creation, 482–483
virtual desktop managers, 330, 334–335 Web sites
virtual memory, 93–95 acquiring video from, 191
virus protection creation, 482–483
antivirus programs, 21–31 for security patches, 74
innovations in viruses, 20–21 Web-based antivirus scans, 22–24
overview, 17 Welcome screen, 239
rootkits, detecting, 20–21 Wi-Fi, 457–458
saying “no” to messages on your computer asking Windows 2000 interface
you to download something, 17 Classic Start menu, choosing, 311–312
viruses ClearType, removing, 314–315
bombs, 19–20 Control Panel to Classic view, setting, 312
boot sector viruses, 18, 19 folder view, setting older, 314
direct-action viruses, 21 overview, 311
droppers, 18, 19 recreating, 311–315
email viruses, 18, 19 Windows Explorer policies, 448–450
file infectors, 18 Windows Media Encoder 9 Series
file virus, 18 broadcasting live, 185–187
how it works, 21 capturing video, 184–185
innovations in, 20–21 converting video, 183, 185
macro viruses, 18, 19 overview, 183
overview, 18 Quick Start options, 185
parasitic viruses, 18 screen actions, capturing, 185
polymorphic viruses, 20 Windows Media Player (WMP). See also digital music
program virus, 18 and Windows Media Player
resident viruses, 21 DVD viewing and, 182, 210
stealth viruses, 20 overview, 181–182
Trojan horses, 18, 19 continued
528 Index

Windows Media Player (WMP) continued Microsoft Office update, 77

and Service Pack 2 (SP2), 9–10 Notify option for, 74
video file types, choosing, 182 operating system version number collected by, 68
Windows Media Video (WMV), 182 overview, 67
Windows Movie Maker pre-installation of Service Pack 2 (SP2), 5
acquiring video, 190–191 privacy issues, 68–69
analog camcorder, acquiring video from, 190 product identification collected by, 69
audio tracks and, 193 product key collected by, 69
camcorders and, 190, 191 region and language setting collected by, 69
capturing video, 196–201 scanning for updates, 69–71
creating a movie, 194–208 Security Center used to check for latest updates
credits, adding, 206 from, 11
digital camcorder, acquiring video from, 190 security patches, 74–75
editing video, 202–207 security updates downloaded conventionally
effects, adding, 204 instead of using, 69
existing video files, acquiring video from, 191 selecting updates, 71–72
hardware requirements for, 192, 194 Service Pack 2 (SP2) acquired through, 3
overview, 189 service packs, 75–76
planning your video, 195–196 and software installation, 345–346
saving project, 207 software, optional updates, 71
sound cards, 192 Turn off Automatic Updates option for, 74
storyboard the video, 196 version numbers of software updates collected by, 68
synchronization of audio and video, 193–194 wired networks, 457–458
television, acquiring video from, 190–191 wireless networks, 457–458
titles, adding, 206–207 WMA files, 221
transitions, 205 WMP. See Windows Media Player
unnecessary footage, editing out, 204 WMV (Windows Media Video), 182
version number of, 190 workgroups. See also networks
VHS tapes, acquiring video from, 190 broadband router with access point, 466–469
Video Capture Wizard, 196–201 computer and Internet connection as beginning of,
video cards, 192 465–466
Web sites, acquiring video from, 191 Internet connection and router, 467–469
Webcam, acquiring video from, 190 LAN, creation of, 471–472
Windows Update notebook PC with wireless adapter, 470–474
accessing, 67 PC, connecting router to, 467
Automatic option for, 73 sharing resources on network, 473–474
automatic updates, 70, 73–74 worms, 18, 19
custom updates, 70–71
Download but let me choose option for, 74 X
hardware devices’ identification numbers collected X-Mouse option, 325
by, 69
hardware, optional updates, 71
high priority updates, 70
Z
zipped files, installing from, 343
Internet Explorer version number collected by, 68
zipped folders, 301–302