Windows Xp

Windows ® XP
FOR

DUMmIES by Andy Rathbone

®

HUNGRY MINDS, INC. New York, NY N Cleveland, OH N Indianapolis, IN N Foster City, CA

Windows ® XP For Dummies® Published by Hungry Minds, Inc. 909 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 www.hungryminds.com www.dummies.com Copyright © 2001 Hungry Minds, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book, including interior design, cover design, and icons, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 2001092737 ISBN: 0-7645-0893-8 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/TQ/QY/QR/IN Distributed in the United States by Hungry Minds, Inc. Distributed by CDG Books Canada Inc. for Canada; by Transworld Publishers Limited in the United Kingdom; by IDG Norge Books for Norway; by IDG Sweden Books for Sweden; by IDG Books Australia Publishing Corporation Pty. Ltd. for Australia and New Zealand; by TransQuest Publishers Pte Ltd. for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Hong Kong; by Gotop Information Inc. for Taiwan; by ICG Muse, Inc. for Japan; by Intersoft for South Africa; by Eyrolles for France; by International Thomson Publishing for Germany, Austria and Switzerland; by Distribuidora Cuspide for Argentina; by LR International for Brazil; by Galileo Libros for Chile; by Ediciones ZETA S.C.R. Ltda. for Peru; by WS Computer Publishing Corporation, Inc., for the Philippines; by Contemporanea de Ediciones for Venezuela; by Express Computer Distributors for the Caribbean and West Indies; by Micronesia Media Distributor, Inc. for Micronesia; by Chips Computadoras S.A. de C.V. for Mexico; by Editorial Norma de Panama S.A. for Panama; by American Bookshops for Finland. For general information on Hungry Minds’ products and services please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993 or fax 317-572-4002. For sales inquiries and reseller information, including discounts, premium and bulk quantity sales, and foreign-language translations, please contact our Customer Care Department at 800-434-3422, fax 317-572-4002, or write to Hungry Minds, Inc., Attn: Customer Care Department, 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard, Indianapolis, IN 46256. For information on licensing foreign or domestic rights, please contact our Sub-Rights Customer Care Department at 650-653-7098. For information on using Hungry Minds’ products and services in the classroom or for ordering examination copies, please contact our Educational Sales department at 800-434-2086 or fax 317-572-4005. Please contact our Public Relations Department at 212-884-5163 for press review copies or 212-884-5000 for author interviews and other publicity information or fax 212-884-5400. For authorization to photocopy items for corporate, personal, or educational use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, or fax 978-750-4470. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVE USED THEIR BEST EFFORTS IN PREPARING THIS BOOK. THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES WHICH EXTEND BEYOND THE DESCRIPTIONS CONTAINED IN THIS PARAGRAPH. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES REPRESENTATIVES OR WRITTEN SALES MATERIALS. THE ACCURACY AND COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN AND THE OPINIONS STATED HEREIN ARE NOT GUARANTEED OR WARRANTED TO PRODUCE ANY PARTICULAR RESULTS, AND THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY INDIVIDUAL. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGES. Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. IDG Books Worldwide is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. is a trademark of Hungry Minds, Inc.

About the Author
Andy Rathbone started geeking around with computers in 1985 when he bought a boxy CP/M Kaypro 2X with lime-green letters. Like other budding nerds, he soon began playing with null-modem adapters, dialing up computer bulletin boards, and working part-time at Radio Shack. In between playing computer games, he served as editor of the Daily Aztec newspaper at San Diego State University. After graduating with a comparative literature degree, he went to work for a bizarre underground coffee-table magazine that sort of disappeared. Andy began combining his two main interests, words and computers, by selling articles to a local computer magazine. During the next few years, he started ghostwriting computer books for more-famous computer authors, as well as writing several hundred articles about computers for technoid publications like Supercomputing Review, CompuServe Magazine, ID Systems, DataPro, and Shareware. In 1992, Andy and DOS For Dummies author/legend Dan Gookin teamed up to write PCs For Dummies. Andy subsequently wrote the award-winning Windows For Dummies series, Upgrading & Fixing PCs For Dummies,MP3 For Dummies, and many other For Dummies books. Today, he has more than 15 million copies of his books in print, which have been translated into more than 30 languages. Andy lives with his most-excellent wife, Tina, and their cat in Southern California. He wants a new LCD panel monitor for his main computer, but then the cat wouldn’t have anyplace to sleep. Feel free to drop by his Web site at www.andyrathbone.com.

Dedication
To my wife, parents, sister, and cat.

Author’s Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Dan Gookin and his wife, Sandy Gookin, Matt Wagner, the Kleskes, the Tragesers, Steve Hayes, Nicole Haims, Kim Darosett, and Jerelind Charles.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Hungry Minds Online Registration Form located at www.dummies.com. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Senior Project Editor: Nicole Haims (Previous Edition: Darren Meiss) Senior Acquisitions Editor: Steve Hayes Senior Copy Editor: Kim Darosett Copy Editor: Jerelind Charles Technical Editor: Lee Musick Editorial Manager: Leah Cameron Permissions Editors: Carmen Krikorian, Laura Moss Media Development Coordinator: Marisa Pearman Media Development Supervisor: Richard Graves Editorial Assistant: Jean Rogers Production Project Coordinator: Dale White Special Help Teresa Artman, Amy Pettinella, Rebecca Senninger

General and Administrative Hungry Minds, Inc.: John Kilcullen, CEO; Bill Barry, President and COO; John Ball, Executive VP, Operations & Administration; John Harris, Executive VP and CFO Hungry Minds Technology Publishing Group: Richard Swadley, Senior Vice President and Publisher; Mary Bednarek, Vice President and Publisher, Networking and Certiﬁcation; Walter R. Bruce III, Vice President and Publisher, General User and Design Professional; Joseph Wikert, Vice President and Publisher, Programming; Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director, Branded Technology Editorial; Andy Cummings, Publishing Director, General User and Design Professional; Barry Pruett, Publishing Director, Visual Hungry Minds Manufacturing: Ivor Parker, Vice President, Manufacturing Hungry Minds Marketing: John Helmus, Assistant Vice President, Director of Marketing Hungry Minds Production for Branded Press: Debbie Stailey, Production Director Hungry Minds Sales: Michael Violano, Vice President, International Sales and Sub Rights ♦ The publisher would like to give special thanks to Patrick J. McGovern, without whom this book would not have been possible. ♦

Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................. 1
About This Bookl.............................................................................................. 1 How to Use This Bookl .................................................................................... 2 And What about You?l..................................................................................... 3 How This Book Is Organizedl.......................................................................... 4 Part I: Bare-Bones Windows XP Stuffl .................................................. 4 Part II: Making Windows XP Do Somethingl........................................ 4 Part III: Using Windows XP Applications (And Surfing the Web)l.... 5 Part IV: Help!l .......................................................................................... 5 Part V: The Part of Tensl ....................................................................... 5 Icons Used in This Bookl................................................................................. 5 Where to Go from Herel .................................................................................. 6

Part I: Bare-Bones Windows XP Stuff ............................ 8
Chapter 1: What Is Windows XP? .............................................................10
What Are Windows and Windows XP?l ....................................................... 10 What Does Windows Do?l ............................................................................. 11 How Does Windows XP Affect My Older Programs?l ................................ 14 Should I Bother Using Windows XP?l .......................................................... 15 Bracing Yourself (And Your Computer) for Windows XPl........................ 16

Chapter 2: Ignore This Chapter on Computer Parts ................................17
The Computerl................................................................................................ 17 The Microprocessor (CPU)l.......................................................................... 19 Disks and Disk Drivesl ................................................................................... 20 Floppy disksl ......................................................................................... 20 Compact discs (CD-ROM drive stuff)l................................................ 21 DVD discsl ............................................................................................. 23 Iomega drivesl....................................................................................... 23 Hard disksl ............................................................................................ 24 What does write-protected mean?l .................................................... 24 The Mouse and That Double-Click Stuffl..................................................... 25 Video Cards and Monitorsl ........................................................................... 29 Keyboardsl ...................................................................................................... 31 Groups of keysl ..................................................................................... 31 More key principlesl ............................................................................ 33 Modems and the Internetl............................................................................. 35

_____________________________________________________ Table of Contents
Printersl ...........................................................................................................37 Networksl.........................................................................................................38 Sound Cards (Making Barfing Noises)l ........................................................38 Portsl ................................................................................................................39 Parts Required by Windows XPl ...................................................................41

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Chapter 3: Windows XP Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know .............................................................................................................. 45
Activationl .......................................................................................................45 Backing Up a Diskl ..........................................................................................47 Clickingl............................................................................................................48 The Cursorl......................................................................................................49 Defaults (And the Any Key)l..........................................................................49 Desktop (And Changing Its Background)l ...................................................50 Double-Clickingl ..............................................................................................51 Dragging and Droppingl .................................................................................51 Driversl.............................................................................................................52 Filesl .................................................................................................................53 Folders (Directories)l.....................................................................................54 Graphical User Interfacesl .............................................................................54 Hardware and Softwarel ................................................................................55 Iconsl ................................................................................................................56 The Internetl....................................................................................................56 Kilobytes, Megabytes, and So Onl ................................................................57 Loading, Running, Executing, and Launchingl ............................................59 Memoryl ...........................................................................................................59 The Mousel ......................................................................................................60 Networksl.........................................................................................................61 Pointers/Arrowsl.............................................................................................62 Plug and Playl..................................................................................................62 Quitting or Exitingl .........................................................................................63 Save Commandl...............................................................................................64 Save As Commandl .........................................................................................65 ScanDiskl..........................................................................................................66 Shortcutsl ........................................................................................................66 Temp Filesl ......................................................................................................67 The Windowsl..................................................................................................67 The World Wide Webl ....................................................................................68

Part II: Making Windows XP Do Something ..................69
Chapter 4: Starting Windows XP ............................................................... 71
Logging On to Windows XPl ..........................................................................72

_____________________________________________________ Table of Contents
It wants me to enter a password!l.......................................................73 Starting your favorite program with the Start buttonl.....................76 Pull-Down Menusl ...........................................................................................78 Loading a filel ........................................................................................79 Putting two programs on-screen simultaneouslyl............................81 Printing Your Workl........................................................................................82 Saving Your Workl ..........................................................................................83 Logging Off of Windows XPl ..........................................................................84

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Chapter 5: Field Guide to Buttons, Bars, Boxes, Folders, and Files .... 86
A Typical Windowl..........................................................................................87 Barsl..................................................................................................................88 Moving windows with the title barl ....................................................88 Bossing around windows with the menu barl...................................89 Moving inside your window with the scroll barl ..............................91 Switching windows with the taskbarl.................................................93 Bordersl ...........................................................................................................94 The Button Familyl .........................................................................................94 Sending commands with command buttonsl ....................................94 Choosing between option buttonsl ....................................................96 Changing a window’s size with Minimize and Maximize buttonsl............................................................................97 The Useless Control-Menu Buttonl...............................................................99 Filling Out Bothersome Forms in Dialog Boxesl .........................................99 Typing into text boxesl ......................................................................100 Choosing options from list boxesl ....................................................100 Drop-down list boxesl ........................................................................101 Check boxesl........................................................................................103 Sliding controlsl ..................................................................................104 Just Tell Me How to Open a File!l................................................................105 Hey! When Do I Click, and When Do I Double-Click?l ..............................108 When Do I Use the Left Mouse Button, and When Do I Use the Right One?l................................................................................................109

Chapter 6: Moving Windows Around ..................................................... 111
Moving a Window to the Top of the Pilel ..................................................111 Moving a Window from Here to Therel......................................................112 Making a Window Bigger or Smallerl .........................................................113 Making a Window Fill the Whole Screenl...................................................115

Chapter 7: I Can’t Find It! ........................................................................... 117
Finding Lost Windows on the Desktopl .....................................................117 Plucking a lost window from the Task Managerl ............................118 Tiling and cascading windows (The “deal all the windows in front of me” approach)l ..........................................................................119

_____________________________________________________ Table of Contents
Finding Lost Files, Folders, Music, Photos, Videos, People, or Computersl...........................................................................................122 Finding any lost files or foldersl........................................................123 Finding lost pictures, music, or videol.............................................126 Finding lost documentsl.....................................................................127 Finding computers or peoplel ...........................................................128 Searching the Internetl.......................................................................128

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Chapter 8: That “Cut and Paste” Stuff (Moving Around Words, Pictures, and Sounds) .............................................................................. 130
Examining the Cut and Paste Concept (And Copy, Too)l........................131 Highlighting the Important Stuffl ................................................................132 Cutting, Copying, or Deleting What You Highlightedl..............................134 Cutting the informationl.....................................................................134 Copying the informationl ...................................................................135 Deleting the informationl ...................................................................136 Finding out more about cutting, copying, and deletingl................137 Pasting Information into Another Windowl...............................................137 Leaving Scraps on the Desktop Deliberatelyl ...........................................138

Chapter 9: Sharing It All on the Network ............................................... 140
Fiddling with User Accountsl ......................................................................141 Changing a user account’s picturel ..................................................142 Switching quickly between usersl.....................................................144 Creating, deleting, or changing a user accountl .............................146 Skip the Rest of This Unless You Have or Want a Networkl ...................148 Can I get in trouble for looking into the wrong computer?l .........149 How do I access other networked computers?l..............................150 Sharing your own computer’s stuff with the networkl ..................151 Sharing a printer on the networkl.....................................................153 How Do I Create My Own Computer Network?l........................................155 Buying a network’s partsl ..................................................................155 Installing the network’s partsl...........................................................157 Letting the Network Setup Wizard Set Up Your Networkl.......................159

Part III: Using Windows XP Applications ...................162
Chapter 10: Your Desktop, Start Button, and Taskbar (And Free Programs) .......................................................................................... 164
Rolling Objects along the Windows XP Desktopl .....................................165 Arranging icons on the desktopl.......................................................168 Using the Recycle Binl........................................................................169 Making a shortcutl ..............................................................................170

_____________________________________________________ Table of Contents
Uh, what’s the difference between a shortcut and the actual program?l.............................................................................173 Shutting down Windows XPl .............................................................174 The Way-Cool Taskbarl................................................................................175 Shrinking windows to the taskbar and retrieving theml................177 Clicking the taskbar’s sensitive areasl .............................................178 Customizing the taskbarl ...................................................................180 Controlling the Printerl ................................................................................182 The Start Button’s Reason to Livel.............................................................184 Starting a program from the Start buttonl.......................................185 Adding a program’s icon to the Start menul ...................................187 Making Windows start programs automaticallyl ............................189 The Start Menu’s Free Programsl ...............................................................190 The Start menu’s first-tier programsl...............................................190 The Start menu’s All Programs areal................................................191 My Version of Windows XP Doesn’t Have the Right Freebie Programs!l ...................................................................................200

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Chapter 11: That Scary My Computer Program ..................................... 202
Why Is the My Computer Program So Frightening?l ................................203 Getting the Lowdown on Foldersl...............................................................206 Peering into Your Drives and Foldersl.......................................................207 Seeing the files on a disk drivel.........................................................207 Seeing what’s inside foldersl .............................................................209 Loading a Program or Filel ..........................................................................211 Deleting and Undeleting Files, Folders, and Iconsl...................................212 Getting rid of a file or folderl .............................................................213 How to undelete a filel........................................................................213 Copying or Moving a File, Folder, or Iconl.................................................215 Selecting More Than One File or Folderl ...................................................218 Renaming a File, Folder, or Iconl ................................................................219 Using Legal Folder Names and Filenamesl ................................................220 Copying a Complete Floppy Diskl...............................................................221 Creating a Folderl .........................................................................................222 Seeing More Information about Files and Foldersl...................................224 What’s That Windows Explorer Thing?l ....................................................227 How Do I Make the Network Work?l...........................................................229 Making My Computer and Windows Explorer List Missing Filesl ..........231 Formatting a Diskl.........................................................................................232

Chapter 12: Cruising the Web, Sending E-Mail, and Using Newsgroups ............................................................................................... 234
What’s the Difference between the Internet, the World Wide Web, and a Web Browser?l.......................................................................................235 Who Can Use the Internet and World Wide Web?l...................................236

_____________________________________________________ Table of Contents
What’s an ISP, and Do I Need One?l............................................................237 What Do I Need to Access the World Wide Web?l....................................239 Setting Up Your Internet Account with the Internet Connection Wizardl .................................................................................240 What is a Web Browser?l .............................................................................244 How Do I Navigate the Web with Internet Explorer?l...............................246 What’s a home page?l.........................................................................246 How do I move from Web page to Web page?l................................248 How can I revisit my favorite places?l..............................................249 What’s an index or search engine?l ..................................................250 But How Do I Do This?l ................................................................................252 I can’t get it to install!l ........................................................................252 How do I install the firewall?l ............................................................253 I keep getting busy signals!l...............................................................254 The Web page says it needs [insert name of weird plug-in thing here]!l.....................................................................................254 How do I copy a picture from the Internet?l ...................................255 Little boxes keep popping up on the Web pages!l ..........................256 Managing E-mail with Outlook Expressl ....................................................256 Setting up Outlook Express 6.0 to send and receive e-maill .........257 Getting ready to send e-maill.............................................................260 Composing a letterl.............................................................................261 Reading a received letterl ..................................................................263 What does the News area do?l ..........................................................266 Finding and reading a newsgroupl....................................................267

xii

Chapter 13: Sound! Movies! Media Player! .......................................... 270
Understanding Media Playerl......................................................................270 Using Media Guide to Find Videos, Music, and Movie Trailers on the Internetl ..............................................................................................273 Finding and Playing Internet Radio Stationsl ............................................276 Finding Media on Your Computer and Putting It into the Media Libraryl ..........................................................................................279 Creating Playlistsl .........................................................................................280 Playing CDsl...................................................................................................281 Playing DVDsl ................................................................................................283 Playing MP3s and WMAsl ............................................................................284 Creating WMAs or MP3sl .............................................................................285 Storing Files in Your My Music and Shared Music Foldersl....................288 Playing Videosl..............................................................................................290 Moving Music or Video to an MP3 Player or Pocket PCl .........................291 Burning Your Own CDsl ...............................................................................294 Adding Skins to Media Playerl ....................................................................296 Fixing Media Player Muckupsl ....................................................................297 It just doesn’t work!l ...........................................................................298

_____________________________________________________ Table of Contents
Does it have to be so huge?l ..............................................................299 Bizarre Multimedia Wordsl..........................................................................299

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Part IV: Help! ..........................................................302
Chapter 14: Customizing Windows XP (Fiddling with the Control Panel) .......................................................................................................... 304
Finding the Right Control Panel Optionl....................................................305 Appearance and Themesl ............................................................................313 Changing the display’s background, screen saver, and resolutionl................................................................................313 Making Windows display folders differentlyl ..................................320 Adjusting your taskbar and Start menul ..........................................322 Viewing your computer’s fontsl ........................................................323 Network and Internet Connectionsl ...........................................................324 Add or Remove Programsl ..........................................................................324 Removing programsl ..........................................................................324 Installing a new programl ..................................................................326 Adding or removing Windows componentsl ...................................326 Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devicesl .........................................................327 Changing Windows’ volume and playing with its soundsl ............327 Letting Windows talk to youl.............................................................328 Performance and Maintenancel ..................................................................328 Seeing information about your computerl ......................................329 Turning on or off visual effectsl ........................................................330 Freeing up space on your hard diskl ................................................330 Rearranging your hard disk to speed it up (defragmenting)l ......331 Other Performance and Maintenance iconsl...................................332 Printers and Other Hardwarel.....................................................................332 Adding new hardwarel .......................................................................332 Fiddling with printers and faxesl ......................................................334 Game controllersl ...............................................................................336 Scanners and camerasl ......................................................................336 Making Windows XP recognize your double-clickl.........................337 Phone and modem optionsl...............................................................339 User Accountsl ..............................................................................................339 Date, Time, Language, and Regional Optionsl ..........................................339 Regional and language optionsl ........................................................340 Setting the computer’s date and timel .............................................340

Chapter 15: The Case of the Broken Window ....................................... 341
Restoring Calm with System Restorel ........................................................342 My Mouse Doesn’t Work Rightl...................................................................343

_____________________________________________________ Table of Contents
Making Older Programs Run under Windows XPl....................................344 It Says I Need to Be an Administrator!l ......................................................345 I’m Stuck in Menu Landl...............................................................................346 Keeping Windows Up-to-Datel.....................................................................346 All My Desktop Icons Vanishedl .................................................................347 I’m Supposed to Install a New Driverl ........................................................347 His Version of Windows XP Has More Programs Than Mine!l ................348 I Clicked the Wrong Button (But Haven’t Lifted My Finger Yet)l ...........349 My Computer Is Frozen Up Solidl ...............................................................349 The Printer Isn’t Working Rightl .................................................................350 My Double-Clicks Are Now Single Clicks!l .................................................351

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Chapter 16: Figuring Out Those Annoying Pop-Up Messages ........... 352
Access Is Deniedl ..........................................................................................353 AutoCompletel ..............................................................................................353 Click Here to Activate Nowl.........................................................................354 Connect To . . .l .............................................................................................355 Error Connecting To . . .l..............................................................................355 File Name Warningl.......................................................................................356 Found New Hardwarel..................................................................................356 Hiding Your Inactive Notification Iconsl....................................................357 If You Remove This File, You Will No Longer Be Able to Run This Programl ...........................................................................................358 Missing Shortcutl ..........................................................................................358 New Programs Installedl ..............................................................................359 New Updates Are Ready to Installl .............................................................360 Open With . . .l...............................................................................................360 Privacy Alert — Saving Cookiesl.................................................................361 Renamel .........................................................................................................362 Safe to Remove Hardwarel ..........................................................................363 Stay Current with Automatic Updatesl ......................................................363 There Are Unused Icons on Your Desktopl...............................................364 When You Send Information to the Internetl ............................................365 You Have Files Waiting to Be Written to the CDl......................................366

Chapter 17: Help on the Windows XP Help System ............................. 367
Get Me Some Help, and Fast!l ......................................................................367 Press F1l ...............................................................................................368 Click the right mouse button on the confusing partl .....................368 Choose Help from the main menul ...................................................369 Sending in the Troubleshootersl ......................................................369 Search — letting Windows do the workl..........................................371 Consulting a Program’s Built-In Computer Gurul .....................................372 Finding Help for your exact probleml ..............................................374 Using Windows Help and Support Centerl ................................................375

_____________________________________________________ Table of Contents

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Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................379
Chapter 18: Ten Exciting New Windows XP Features ........................ 381
Way Cool Foldersl.........................................................................................381 Remote Assistancel ......................................................................................383 Burning (Writing Information onto) CDsl ..................................................384 Files and Settings Transfer Wizardl............................................................384 User Accountsl ..............................................................................................385 Increased Stabilityl .......................................................................................385 Built-in Firewall against Internet Hackersl.................................................386 Automatically Sets Clockl ............................................................................387 Windows XP Must Be Activatedl.................................................................387 Making Windows XP Run Like Your Old Version of Windowsl...............387

Chapter 19: Ten Aggravating Things about Windows XP (And How to Fix Them) ................................................................................................ 389
How Do I Change the Volume?l ...................................................................389 What Version of Windows Do I Have?l.......................................................390 I Want to Click Instead of Double-Click (Or Vice Versa)!l........................391 My Bar Full of Buttons Just Fell Off!l ..........................................................391 Keeping Track of All Those Windows Is Too Hardl..................................392 The Taskbar Keeps Disappearing!l.............................................................392 My Print Screen Key Doesn’t Workl ...........................................................393 Lining Up Two Windows on the Screen Is Too Hardl...............................394 The Folder Lists the Wrong Stuff on My Floppy Diskl..............................394 It Won’t Let Me Do Something Unless I’m An Administrator!l ................394

Chapter 20: Ten (Or So) Windows XP Icons and What They Do ........ 396 Chapter 21: Ten Most Frequently Asked Windows Questions .......... 400
How Do I Remember All the Stuff I Can Do to a File?l ..............................400 Should I Upgrade to the Windows XP Home or Professional Version?l .............................................................................402 How Do I Add a Picture of My Face to My User Account?l.....................403 Why Can’t Windows XP Play My DVDs?l ...................................................404 Why Can’t Windows XP Create MP3 Files?l...............................................405 How Do I Get Rid of the Welcome Screen?l ...............................................405 How Can I See Previews of My Pictures?l ..................................................406 How Can I Make All My Web Pages Open in a Full-Screen Window?l.....407 What Will I Miss If I Don’t Use the Internet with Windows XP?l .............407

Appendix: Glossary..................................................................................... 409

Introduction

W

elcome to Windows XP For Dummies!

This book boils down to this simple fact: Some people want to be Windows wizards. They love interacting with dialog boxes. While sitting in front of their computers, they randomly press keys on their keyboards, hoping to stumble onto a hidden, undocumented feature. They memorize long strings of computer commands while washing their hair. Some don’t even wash their hair. And you? Well, you’re no dummy, that’s for sure. In fact, you’re much more developed than most computer nerds. You can make casual conversation with a neighbor without mumbling about ordering pizzas over the Internet, for example. But when it comes to Windows and computers, the fascination just isn’t there. You just want to get your work done, stop, and relax for a while. You have no intention of changing, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s where this book comes in handy. It won’t try to turn you into a Windows wizard, but you’ll pick up a few chunks of useful computing information while reading it. Instead of becoming a Windows XP expert, you’ll know just enough to get by quickly, cleanly, and with a minimum of pain so that you can move on to the more pleasant things in life.

About This Book
Don’t try to read this book in one sitting; there’s no need. Instead, treat this book like a dictionary or an encyclopedia. Turn to the page with the information you need and say, “Ah, so that’s what they’re talking about.” Then put down the book and move on. Don’t bother trying to remember all the Windows XP buzzwords, such as “Select the menu item from the drop-down list box.” Leave that stuff for the computer gurus. In fact, if anything technical comes up in a chapter, a road sign warns you well in advance. That way, you can either slow down to read it or speed on around it.

__________________________________________________Introduction
You won’t ﬁnd any fancy computer jargon in this book. Instead, you’ll ﬁnd subjects like these, discussed in plain old English: A Why did they choose a weird name like “Windows XP”? A Finding the ﬁle you saved or downloaded yesterday A Moving those little windows around on the screen with the mouse A Making Windows XP run like your older versions of Windows A Starting and closing programs by clicking the mouse button A Making Windows XP work again when it’s misbehaving There’s nothing to memorize and nothing to learn. Just turn to the right page, read the brief explanation, and get back to work. Unlike other books, this one enables you to bypass the technical hoopla and still get your work done.

2

How to Use This Book
Something in Windows XP will eventually leave you scratching your head. No other program brings so many buttons, bars, and babble to the screen. When something in Windows XP has you stumped, use this book as a reference. Look for the troublesome topic in this book’s table of contents or index. The table of contents lists chapter and section titles and page numbers. The index lists topics and page numbers. Page through the table of contents or index to the spot that deals with that particular bit of computer obscurity, read only what you have to, close the book, and apply what you’ve read. If you’re feeling spunky and want to learn something, read a little further. You can ﬁnd a few completely voluntary extra details or some cross-references to check out. There’s no pressure, though. You won’t be forced to learn anything that you don’t want to or that you simply don’t have time for. If you have to type something into the computer, you’ll see easy-to-follow text like this: www.vw.com

__________________________________________________Introduction
In the preceding example, you type the cryptic string of letters www.vw.com and then press the keyboard’s Enter key. Typing words into a computer can be confusing, so a description of what you’re supposed to type usually follows. That way, you can type the words exactly as they’re supposed to be typed. Whenever I describe a message or information that you see on-screen, I present it this way:
This is a message on-screen.

3

This book doesn’t wimp out by saying, “For further information, consult your manual.” Windows XP doesn’t even come with a manual. You won’t ﬁnd information about running speciﬁc Windows software packages, such as Microsoft Ofﬁce. Windows XP is complicated enough on its own! Luckily, other For Dummies books mercifully explain most popular software packages. Don’t feel abandoned, though. This book covers Windows in plenty of detail for you to get the job done. Plus, if you have questions or comments about Windows XP For Dummies, feel free to drop me a line on my Web site at www.andyrathbone.com. Finally, keep in mind that this book is a reference. It’s not designed to teach you how to use Windows XP like an expert, heaven forbid. Instead, this book dishes out enough bite-sized chunks of information so that you don’t have to learn Windows. When you’re ready for some more-advanced Windows XP information, pick up a copy of Windows XP Secrets. Written by longtime computer nerd Brian Livingston, the thick book leads you safely through some of the Windows XP program’s more tumultuous ground.

And What about You?
Well, chances are that you have a computer. You have Windows XP or are thinking about picking up a copy. You know what you want to do with your computer. The problem lies in making the computer do what you want it to do. You’ve gotten by one way or another, hopefully with the help of a computer guru—either a friend at the ofﬁce, somebody down the street, or your fourth-grader. Unfortunately, though, that computer guru isn’t always around. This book can be a substitute during

__________________________________________________Introduction your times of need. Keep a doughnut or Pokémon card nearby, however, just in case you need a quick bribe.

4

How This Book Is Organized
The information in this book has been well sifted. This book contains ﬁve parts, and I divided each part into chapters relating to the part’s theme. With an even ﬁner knife, I divided each chapter into short sections to help you ﬁgure out a bit of Windows XP’s weirdness. Sometimes, you may ﬁnd what you’re looking for in a small, boxed tip. Other times, you may need to cruise through an entire section or chapter. It’s up to you and the particular task at hand. Here are the categories (the envelope, please):

Part I: Bare-Bones Windows XP Stuff
This book starts out with the basics. You ﬁnd out how to turn on your computer and how to examine your computer’s parts and what Windows XP does to them. It explains all the Windows XP stuff that everybody thinks that you already know. It explains the new features in Windows XP, separating the wheat from the chaff while leaving out any thick, technical oatmeal. You discover whether your computer has enough oomph to run Windows XP. And you end this part (with great relief) by turning off your computer.

Part II: Making Windows XP Do Something
Windows XP leaps onto the screen with a snappy beat and overly excited videos. But how do you make the darn thing do something useful? Here, you ﬁnd ways to overcome the frustratingly playful tendencies of Windows XP and force it to sweep leaves off the driveway or empty the dishwasher.

__________________________________________________Introduction

5

Part III: Using Windows XP Applications (And Surﬁng the Web)
Windows XP comes with bunches of exciting free programs. Finding and starting the programs, however, is quite a chore. This part dissects the Windows XP backbone: Its annoying “Welcome” screen and User Name buttons, the mammoth Start button menu that hides all the important stuff, and your computer’s desktop—the background your running programs rest upon. This part of the book explains how to store your ﬁles so you can ﬁnd them again. It shows how to send e-mail and play with that World Wide Web thing everyone talks about. Turn here for information on playing music CDs and MP3s and movies. As a bonus, you discover why your computer screen looks like a blinking billboard for Microsoft products. (And how to turn those ads off.)

Part IV: Help!
Although glass doesn’t shatter when Windows XP crashes, it still hurts. In this part, you ﬁnd some soothing salves for the most painful irritations. Plus, you ﬁnd ways to unleash the Windows XP program’s wise new team of powerful Troubleshooting Wizards. Imagine: A computer that can ﬁnally wave a wand and ﬁx itself!

Part V: The Part of Tens
Everybody loves lists (except during tax time). This part contains lists of Windows-related trivia—ten aggravating things about Windows XP (and how to ﬁx them), ten confusing Windows XP icons and what they mean, ten ways to make Windows XP start working again, and other shoulder-rubbing solutions for tense problems.

Icons Used in This Book
Already seen Windows? Then you’ve probably noticed its icons, which are little pictures for starting various programs. The icons in this book ﬁt right in. They’re even a little easier to ﬁgure out:

__________________________________________________Introduction

6

Watch out! This signpost warns you that pointless technical information is coming around the bend. Swerve away from this icon, and you’ll be safe from the awful technical drivel.

This icon alerts you about juicy information that makes computing easier: A tried and true method for keeping the cat from sleeping on top of the monitor, for instance.

Don’t forget to remember these important points. (Or at least dog-ear the pages so that you can look them up again a few days later.)

The computer won’t explode while you’re performing the delicate operations associated with this icon. Still, wearing gloves and proceeding with caution is a good idea when this icon is near.

Already familiar with Windows Me, Windows 98, or another version of Windows? This icon marks information that can ease your transition from old to new.

Some PCs may vary
If Windows XP came already installed on your PC, be forewarned: PC manufacturers love to customize their PCs’ versions of Windows. Some toss in oodles of extra software; some simply toss an America Online icon onto the desktop. Still other manufacturers strip Windows XP of some of its programs. If you think your version of Windows XP lacks some features, check out Chapter 15. It describes what to do if somebody else’s version of Windows has more fun stuff than your own.

Where to Go from Here
Now, you’re ready for action. Give the pages a quick ﬂip and maybe scan through a few sections that you know you’ll need later. Please remember, this is your book—your weapon against the computer criminals who’ve inﬂicted this whole complicated computer concept on you.

__________________________________________________Introduction
So pretend you’re back in grade school, and you can’t get caught: Circle any paragraphs you ﬁnd useful, highlight key concepts, cover up the technical drivel with sticky notes, and draw gothic gargoyles in the margins next to the complicated stuff. The more you mark up your book, the easier it will be for you to ﬁnd all the good stuff again.

7

Getting great Windows XP information online
The geeks at Microsoft are always complicating their products in the name of perfection, and Windows XP is no exception. Fortunately, your friends at Dummies.com have found a way to keep you informed as changes are made to Windows XP (and as your questions change). Visit www.dummies.com/windowsxp to ﬁnd answers to your questions, updates to the book, and ﬁnd out how to receive Windows tips on a daily basis.

Part I

Bare-Bones Windows XP Stuff

In this part…

M

ost people are dragged into Windows XP without a choice. Their new computer probably came with a version of Windows XP already installed; or maybe you had Windows XP installed at the ofﬁce, where everyone has to learn it except for Jerry, who moved over to the Art Department and got his own Macintosh; or perhaps the latest version of your favorite program requires Windows XP, so you’ve had to learn to live with the darn thing. No matter how you were introduced, you can adjust to Windows XP, just like you eventually learned to live comfortably with that funky college roommate who kept leaving hair clogs in the shower. Whatever your situation, this part keeps things safe and sane, with the water ﬂowing smoothly. If you’re new to computers, the ﬁrst chapter answers the question you’ve been afraid to ask around the lunchroom: “Just what is this Windows XP thing, anyway?”

Chapter 1

What Is Windows XP?
In This Chapter
B Understanding what Windows XP is and what it does B Finding out how Windows XP affects your current programs B Deciding whether you should upgrade to Windows XP

ne way or another, you’ve probably already heard about Windows, created by the Microsoft company and owned by one of the richest men in the world. Windows posters line the walls of computer stores. Everybody who’s anybody talks breezily about Windows, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. Weird code words, such as www.vw.com, stare out cryptically from magazines, newspapers, bus stops, and blimps. To help you play catch-up in the world of Windows, this chapter ﬁlls you in on the basics of the newest version of Windows, called Windows XP. The chapter discusses what Windows XP is and what it can do. This chapter also shows how Windows XP works with older Windows programs you may have on your shelf. Because Windows XP comes preinstalled on most new computers, this chapter also answers that question nagging away at owners of older computers: Should I bother upgrading to Windows XP?

O

What Are Windows and Windows XP?
Windows is just another piece of software, like the zillions of others lining the store shelves. But it’s not a program in the normal sense—something that lets you write letters or lets your coworkers play Bozark the

_________________________________ Chapter 1: What Is Windows XP?
Destroyer over the ofﬁce network after everybody else goes home. Rather, Windows controls the way you work with your computer. Years ago, computers looked like typewriters connected to TV sets. Just as on a typewriter, people typed letters and numbers onto the computer’s keyboard. The computer listened and then placed those letters and numbers onto the screen. But it was ever-so-boring. The method was boring because only computer engineers used computers. Nobody expected normal people to use computers—especially not in their ofﬁces, their dens, or even in their kitchens. Windows changed all that in several ways. A Windows software dumps the typewriter analogy and updates the look of computers. Windows replaces the old-style words and numbers with colorful pictures and fun buttons. It’s fun and ﬂashy, like a Versace necktie. A Windows XP is the most powerful of Microsoft’s Windows software—software that’s been updated many times since starting to breathe in January 1985. XP is short for Experience, but Microsoft calls it Windows XP to make it sound hip, as if Jimi Hendrix would have used it. A Programmer types say Windows software is big enough and powerful enough to be called an operating system. That’s because Windows “operates” your computer. Other programs tell Windows what to do, and Windows makes your computer carry out those commands. A Microsoft built Windows XP on the shoulders of Windows 2000, an older but powerful version of Windows designed for business users. That means Windows XP is much more difﬁcult to crash than Windows Me or Windows 98. Unfortunately, it also means Windows XP is more difﬁcult for beginners to use.

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What Does Windows Do?
Like the mother with the whistle in the lunch court, Windows controls all the parts of your computer. You turn on your computer, start Windows, and start running programs. Each program runs in its own little

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What version of Windows XP do I need?
Windows XPcomes in two basic versions: Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional. Chances are, you’ll use Windows XP Home, the version designed for homes and small businesses. Like its predecessor, Windows Me, Windows XP Home supports networking, modem sharing, and other fancy tricks. You can install Windows XP Home over Windows 98 and Windows Me (but not Windows 95, Windows NT, or Windows 2000). Larger businesses need the more advanced version, Windows XP Professional, to handle their more powerful computing needs. It includes hohum things, such as corporate security, advanced group policy settings, roaming user proﬁles, Kerberos Extended Errors facility, and other indigestible buzzwords. The Professional version can be installed over Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP Home. Strangely enough, Windows XP Professional works better on laptops than Windows XP Home does. The Professional version contains better battery-management features and works better with wireless Internet connections. Microsoft also sells Windows XP Server edition, but nobody needs that version—except people who take advanced computer courses that explain why they need it.

window on-screen, as shown in Figure 1-1. Yet Windows keeps things safe, even if the programs start throwing food at each other.

Figure 1-1: Programs run inside little windows on the Windows XP desktop.

_________________________________ Chapter 1: What Is Windows XP?
Windows gets its name from all the cute little windows it places on your monitor. Each window shows information, such as a picture, a program that you’re running, or a bafﬂing technical reprimand. You can put several windows on-screen at the same time and jump from window to window, visiting different programs. You can even enlarge a window to ﬁll the entire screen. Some people say that colorful windows, pictures, and music make Windows easier to use; others say that Windows is a little too artsy. To write a letter in Windows XP, for example, do you select the picture of the notepad, the ballpoint pen, or the folder marked Communications? A A computer environment that uses little pictures and symbols is called a graphical user interface, or GUI. (It’s pronounced gooey, believe it or not.) Pictures require more computing horsepower than letters and numbers, so Windows XP requires a relatively powerful computer. (You can ﬁnd a list of the requirements in Chapter 2.) A When the word Windows starts with a capital letter, it refers to the Windows program. When the word windows starts with a lowercase letter, it refers to windows you see on-screen. When the word Windows ends with the letters XP, it refers to the latest version of the Windows software, Windows XP. A Because Windows uses graphics, it’s much easier to use than to describe. To tell someone how to view the next page in a Windows document you say, “Click in the vertical scroll bar beneath the scroll box.” Those directions sound weird, but after you’ve done it, you’ll say, “Oh, is that all? Golly!” (Plus, you can still press the PgDn key in Windows. You don’t have to “click in the vertical scroll bar beneath the scroll box” if you don’t want to.) A With Windows XP, your desktop doesn’t have to look like a typewritten page or a desktop. It can look like an Internet Web page, as shown in Figure 1-2. (You can ﬁnd more about Web pages and the Internet in Chapter 12.) In fact, the chameleon-like Windows XP can run like a Web page, resemble earlier Windows versions, or let you customize it to your own fancy, which introduces many more ways for things to go wrong.

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Figure 1-2: Windows XP enables Web surfers to ﬁll their desktops with pages from the Internet.

How Does Windows XP Affect My Older Programs?
Windows XP can still run most of your older Windows programs, thank goodness. So after upgrading to Windows XP, you won’t have to buy expensive new software immediately. It runs almost any program that worked under Windows Me, Windows 98, and Windows 95. A Because Windows XP is based on the big-business-based Windows NT and Windows 2000 software, Windows XP runs most of those types of programs as well. A You can’t install Windows XP on your ﬁve-year-old computer and expect it to run well. Windows XP is a big operating system for a big computer. You’ll probably have to buy a new computer or add bigger shoulders to your older one. (In computer language, “big

_________________________________ Chapter 1: What Is Windows XP? shoulders” translates to a faster CPU chip, more memory, a larger hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive.) Unfortunately, adding bigger shoulders often costs more than buying a new PC. (Chapter 2 explains what type of computer Windows XP demands.) A Windows XP prefers Plug and Play hardware. That means that it prefers devices that come on PCI cards. If your computer uses mostly ISA cards, you’ll probably want a new computer. A If one of your older programs has trouble running or installing on Windows XP, use the Compatibility Mode described in Chapter 15. A When people say that Windows XP is backward compatible, they just mean that it can run software that was written for older versions of Windows. (Don’t even think about running Macintosh software, though.)

15

Should I Bother Using Windows XP?
Windows users are elbowing each other nervously by the water cooler and whispering the Big Question: Why bother buying Windows XP, going through the hassle of installing it, and learning all its new features? Well, many people are just stuck with it: Windows XP comes preinstalled on most new computers. Other people prefer Windows XP for its sturdiness. Microsoft took its strong business version of Windows, tweaked it, and called it Windows XP. That means it’s better for running networks. Better yet, it won’t crash as often. If one program stops working, you simply shut down that program. Your computer will keep running, as will your other programs. Basically, the upgrade question boils down to this answer: If your computer crashes a lot when using your current version of Windows, it may be time to upgrade. But if you’re happy with your current computer setup, don’t bother. After all, why buy new tires if your old ones still have some life left?

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Bracing Yourself (And Your Computer) for Windows XP
With Windows, everything happens at the same time. Its many different parts run around like hamsters with an open cage door. Programs cover up each other on-screen. They overlap corners, hiding each other’s important parts. Occasionally, they simply disappear. Be prepared for a bit of frustration when things don’t behave properly. You may be tempted to stand up, bellow, and toss a nearby stapler across the room. After that, calmly pick up this book, ﬁnd the trouble spot listed in the index, and turn to the page with the answer. A Windows software may be accommodating, but that can cause problems, too. For example, Windows XP often offers more than three different ways for you to perform the same computing task. Don’t bother memorizing each command. Just choose one method that works for you and stick with it. For example, Andrew and Deirdre Kleske use scissors to cut their freshly delivered pizza into slices. It stupeﬁes most of their houseguests, but it gets the job done. A Windows XP runs best on a powerful new computer with the key words Pentium III, Pentium 4, AMD Athlon, or testosterone somewhere in the description. Look for as much RAM (random access memory) and as many gigabytes as you can afford. You can ﬁnd the detailed rundown of the Windows XP ﬁnicky computer requirements in Chapter 2.

Chapter 2

Ignore This Chapter on Computer Parts
In This Chapter
B Finding out the names for the gizmos and gadgets on your computer B Understanding what all those things do B Finding out what stuff your computer needs in order to use Windows XP

T

his chapter introduces computer gizmos and gadgets. Go ahead and ignore it. Who cares what all your PC gadgetry is called? Unless your PC’s beeping at you like a car alarm (or not beeping when it’s supposed to beep), don’t bother messing with it. Just dog-ear the top of this page, say, “So, that’s where all that stuff is explained,” and keep going. In Windows XP, you just press the buttons. Windows XP does the dirty work, scooting over to the right part of your computer and kick-starting the action. In case Windows XP stubs a toe, this chapter explains where you may need to put the bandages. And, as always, the foulest-smelling technical chunks are clearly marked; just hold your nose while stepping over them gingerly.

The Computer
The computer is that box, usually beige, with all the cables poking out its back. Ofﬁcially, it probably answers to one of two names: IBM (often called True Blue when people try to dump their old ones in the classiﬁeds) or an IBM compatible or clone. Today, most people just call their computers PCs because that’s what IBM called its ﬁrst personal computer back in 1981. In fact, IBM’s ﬁrst PC

____________________Chapter 2: Ignore This Chapter on Computer Parts started this whole personal computing craze, although some people lay the blame on video games. The concept of a small computer that could be pecked on in an ofﬁce or den caught on well with the average Joe, and IBM made gobs of money—so much money, in fact, that other companies immediately ripped off the IBM design. They cloned, or copied, IBM’s handiwork to make a computer that worked just like it. These computers, made by companies such as Dell, Gateway, and others, are compatible with IBM’s own PC. They can all use the same software as an IBM PC without spitting up. IBM-compatible computers generally cost less than IBM’s ofﬁcial brand of PCs, and they usually work just as well (or better) than IBM’s own line of computers. In fact, more people own compatibles than own IBM’s own line of personal computers. A Windows XP runs equally well on IBM-compatible computers and on IBM’s own brand of computers; the key word is IBM. Computers from other planets, like the Macintosh, don’t run Windows XP, but their owners don’t care. They just smile pleasantly when you try to ﬁgure out how to create a Windows XP ﬁle association. A Okay, so a Macintosh can run some versions of Windows software, but they require special (and expensive) Windows-emulating software. (Head for www.connectix.com.) These days, you’re probably better off sticking with either a Mac or a PC—don’t try to interbreed their brands of software. A As other companies built compatible computers, they strayed from the original IBM design. They added sound, color, and dozens of exciting new internal parts. Luckily, Windows XP usually identiﬁes what computer parts it’s dealing with, so it knows what tone of voice to use when speaking with them. A Laptop and notebook computers can run Windows XP with no problems—as long as they buy a separateversion of Windows XP for each of them. (That’s because Windows XP includes Microsoft’s irritating new copy-protection scheme called Activation; it’s covered in Chapter 3.)

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A Different brands of computers often tweak Windows subtly, adding different programs and sticking extra buttons on their keyboards. Don’t be surprised to see some slight differences between the instructions in this book and the computer in front of you. A Palmtops and other handheld computers can’t run Windows XP. They use an itty-bitty version of Windows called Windows CE. (Windows CE Version 3.0 powers Microsoft’s new Pocket PCs, designed to compete with the Palm handhelds.)

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The Microprocessor (CPU)
The computer’s brain is a chunk of silicon buried deep inside the computer’s case. Over the years, the CPU has grown from the size of a cracker to a mammoth chocolate bar. This ﬂat computer chip is the microprocessor, but nerds tend to call it a central processing unit, or CPU. (You may have seen ﬂashy microprocessor TV commercials that say “Intel Inside.” Intel is a leading CPU developer.) The computer’s microprocessor determines how quickly and powerfully the computer can toss information around. Windows XP isn’t happy unless it rides on a Pentium III microprocessor or an even faster one. You can also use Intel’s speedier Pentium 4 and Itanium microprocessors, as well as a speedy AMD Athlon. Yep, if you’re looking to use Windows XP, you’ll probably want a new computer. A A microprocessor is the current evolution of the gadget that powered those little 1970s pocket calculators. It performs all the computer’s background calculations, from juggling spreadsheets to swapping dirty jokes through ofﬁce e-mail. A Microprocessors are described by several numbers. Generally, the bigger the numbers, the faster and more powerful the chip. A Don’t know what microprocessor lives inside your computer? Right-click on the Start menu’s My Computer button and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. When the System Properties window appears, the processor’s name appears near the bottom. If the numbers still look confusing, Intel offers free software to identify your Intel CPU at www.intel.com.

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A Don’t be afraid to buy a fast AMD Athlon microprocessor for your new computer. It’s just as fast, cheaper, and just as good as Intel’s. (Disclosure: I have stock in Intel, but I’m considering a trade to AMD.) A CPU manufacturers assign several numbers to their chips. Intel usually places a number after the chip’s name: Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4. A CPU’s processing speed is measured in megahertz, or MHz. The cache size (pronounced “cash”) is measured in kilobytes, like 512K. When comparing microprocessors, just remember that the bigger the number, the faster Windows performs.

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Disks and Disk Drives
The computer’s disk drive, that thin slot in its front side, is like the drawer at the bank’s drive-up teller window. That disk drive enables you to send and retrieve information from the computer. Instead of making you drop information into a cashier’s drawer, the computer makes you send and receive your information from disks. The most popular types—the ﬂoppy disk, the compact disc, the DVD, the Zip disk, and the hard disk—appear in the next ﬁve sections. Not sure what kilobyte (K), megabyte (MB), and gigabyte (GB) mean? Head for that section in Chapter 3.

Floppy disks
You can shove anything that’s ﬂat into a ﬂoppy drive, but the computer recognizes only one thing: ﬂoppy disks. Things get a little weird here, so hang on tight. See, by some bizarre bit of mechanical wizardry, computers store information on disks as a stream of magnetic impulses. A disk drive spits those little magnetic impulses onto the ﬂoppy disk for safe storage. The drive can slurp the information back up, too. You just push the disk into the disk drive and tell Windows whether to spit or slurp information. That’s known as copy to or copy from in computer parlance.

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Floppy disks are sturdy 3 1/2-inch squares that are losing popularity in favor of the compact disc, or CD, which I describe in the next section. A A disk drive automatically grabs the 3 1/2-inch disk when you push it in far enough. You hear it clunk, and the disk sinks down into the drive. If it doesn’t, you’re putting it in the wrong way. (The disk’s silver edge goes in ﬁrst, with the little round silver thing in the middle facing down.) To retrieve the disk, push the button protruding from around the drive’s slot and then grab the disk when the drive kicks it out. A Computer stores sell blank ﬂoppy disks so that you can copy your work onto them. Unless your new box of blank disks has the words preformatted or IBM formatted, you can’t use the disks straight out of the box. They must be formatted ﬁrst. I cover this merry little chore in Chapter 11. A Computers love to copy things. When you’re copying a ﬁle from one disk to another, you aren’t moving the ﬁle. You’re just placing a copy of that ﬁle onto that other disk. (Of course, you can move the ﬁles over there, if you want, as I describe in Chapter 11.)

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Compact discs (CD-ROM drive stuff)
Computer technicians snapped up compact disc technology pretty quickly when they realized that the shiny discs store music in the form of numbers. Today, most companies sell their programs and information on compact discs. A single compact disc holds more information than hundreds of ﬂoppy disks. To use a disc, your computer needs its own compact disc drive. The CD player with your stereo won’t cut it. (The CD player with your computer will play music, however, provided your PC has speakers.) CDs enter your computer in a more digniﬁed way than a ﬂoppy disk. Push a button on your compact disc drive, and the drive spits out a little platter. Place the CD on the platter, label side up, and push the little

____________________Chapter 2: Ignore This Chapter on Computer Parts button again. The computer grabs the CD, ready for action. (If the button’s too hard to reach, just nudge the platter, and it’ll retreat.) A For years, you couldn’t copy ﬁles onto a compact disc—you could only read information from it. Only the people at the CD factory could copy ﬁles to CDs, and that’s because they had a whoppingly expensive machine. Now, many cheap compact disc drives let you read and copy ﬁles and music to your own discs. In fact, copyright attorneys are holding international conferences to make sure that nobody can create copies of their favorite Pearl Jam albums and give them to their friends. A Windows XP comes with software for writing information to blank CDs. To create copies of your favorite Pearl Jam albums, head for Chapter 13. A A CD that stores information until it’s full is known as a CD-R. A CD that can read, write, erase, and then write more information is called a CD-RW. Naturally, the CD-RW discs cost much more than their limited cousins. A Compact disc is spelled with a c to confuse people accustomed to seeing disk ending with a k. A Multimedia computers need a sound card as well as a compact drive; the drive alone isn’t enough to make music. This requirement is the computer industry’s special way of making people spend more money. (Most of today’s computers come with a builtin CD-ROM drive and sound card.) A Windows XP’s Media Player can play MP3 ﬁles—tiny ﬁles containing songs from your CDs. For the latest information about MP3, pick up my book, MP3 For Dummies, 2nd Edition, published by, er, Hungry Minds, Inc. (Hey, I didn’t choose the name.) A The latest compact disc drives play both CDs and DVD discs—the discs with movies on them. DVD players get their own section coming up next.

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A Windows XP offers technology called Autoplay. Just pop the CD into the CD-ROM drive, and Windows XP automatically revs it up, whether the disc contains music, programs, or trendy videos of glassblowers in Italy. Autoplay is one more step toward eliminating installation hassles.

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DVD discs
Although it’s hard to tell the difference between a DVD disc and a compact disc by looking, the computer certainly knows. A DVD disc can hold up to 25 times more information than a CD—enough information to hold an entire movie in several languages and extra perks, such as a director’s voiceover explaining why a certain actress giggled during certain shots. DVD drives cost a bit more, but they play back music CDs as well as DVDs (the kind you rent or buy in video stores). Most DVD drives can’t write to CDs, though, although writeable DVD drives are starting to appear on souped-up multimedia PCs. DVD drives are great for computer nerds who love watching movies on a 15-inch computer monitor with tiny speakers. Nearly everybody else prefers watching DVDs on their living room TV or home theater. Although nearly every sound card works with a DVD player, only special DVD-compatible sound cards can play the extra surround sound stored on a DVD.

Iomega drives
Tired of the void between ﬂoppies and CDs, the Iomega company created its own breed of disks and drives. The robotic-sounding Zip and Jaz are plastic disks that hold up to 2GB of information, making them convenient for backing up garage-sized boxes of data. The company’s latest disk, the shirt-pocket-sized PocketZip, holds 40 to 100MB of data, usually music stored as MP3 ﬁles for the HipZip MP3 player.

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Iomega’s drives are very convenient—not only for people who always run out of data space, but also for people who’ve been burned a few times and always like to keep plenty of backups. A Iomega’s Zip drives are the small, portable gadgets that look sort of like Sony Walkmans. PocketZip disks store music and data, letting the HipZip MP3 player double as a ﬁle transporter: Spreadsheets hold hands with Britney Spears. A Zip, Jaz, and PocketZip disks provide an easy way to move data from the ofﬁce to home and back—if you’re forced to even consider such a thing.

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Hard disks
Not every computer has a compact disc drive, Iomega drive, or even a ﬂoppy drive, but just about everybody has a hard disk: little spinning donuts inside the computer that can hold thousands of times more information than ﬂoppy disks. Hard disks are also much quicker at reading and writing information. (They’re a great deal quieter, too, thank goodness.) Windows XP insists on a hard disk because it’s such a huge program. It grabs more than a gigabyte of space for itself. A The point? Buy the largest hard disk you can afford. A 20GB drive certainly isn’t excessive. A If a program has a lot of multimedia —sounds, graphics, or movies—you need an even bigger hard disk or perhaps a second one. That type of information eats up the most space on a hard disk.

What does write-protected mean?
Write protection is supposed to be a helpful safety feature, but most people discover it through an abrupt bit of computer rudeness: Windows XP stops them short with the threatening message shown in Figure 2-1 while they are trying to copy a ﬁle to a ﬂoppy disk or CD. A write-protected disk has simply been tweaked so that nobody can copy to it or delete the ﬁles it contains. Write protection is a simple procedure, surprisingly enough, requiring no government registration. You

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25

Figure 2-1: Windows XP sends an error message if a disk is write-protected.

can write-protect and unwrite-protect disks in the privacy of your own home. A To write-protect a 3 1/2-inch ﬂoppy disk, look for a tiny black sliding tab in a square hole in the disk’s corner. Slide the tab with a pencil or your thumbnail so that the hole is uncovered. The disk is now write-protected. A To remove the write protection on a 3 1/2-inch ﬂoppy disk, slide the little black plastic thingy so that the hole is covered up. A All CDs come write-protected. That’s why you must use Windows XP’s special CD writing tool that prepares the CD and writes the information. (Copying information to a CD is covered in Chapter 18.) A If you encounter the write-protect error shown in Figure 2-1, wait until the ﬂoppy drive stops making noise. Remove the disk, unwrite-protect the disk, and put it back in the drive. Then repeat what you were doing before you were so rudely interrupted. A Write-protection messages are different than Access Denied messages. If Windows XP denies you access to something, head to Chapter 9 to understand its reasoning for your slap in the face.

The Mouse and That Double-Click Stuff
The mouse is that rounded plastic thing that looks like a child’s toy. Marketing people thought that the word mouse sounded like fun, so the

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26

Disk do’s and doughnuts
A Do label your disks so that you know what’s on them. (You can write on the top side of compact discs with a permanent felt-tip pen.)

A Do copy important ﬁles from your hard disk to ﬂoppy disks or compact discs on a regular basis. (This routine is called backing up in computer lingo.)

A Do at least make a valiant effort to peel off a ﬂoppy disk’s old label before sticking on a new one. (After a while, those stacks of old labels make the disk too fat to ﬁt into the drive.)

A Do not leave ﬂoppy disks lying in the sun. A Do not place 3 1/2-inch disks next to magnets. Don’t place them next to magnets disguised as paper clip holders, either, or next to other common magnetized desktop items, such as older telephones.

A Do feel free to write on the label after it has been placed on the disk.

A Do not write on the disk’s sleeve instead of the label. Disks always end up in each other’s sleeves, leading to mistaken identities and faux pas.

A Do handle compact discs and DVDs by their edges, not their surfaces. Keep the backside of the discs as clean as possible, and place them in their cases when you’re not using them. Don’t use them for coasters unless they’re in their cases.

name stuck. Actually, think of your mouse as your electronic ﬁnger, because you use it in Windows to point at stuff on-screen. Most mice have little rollers, or mouse balls, embedded in their bellies. (Where were the animal-rights people?) When you push the mouse across your desktop, the ball rubs against electronic sensor gizmos. The gizmos record the mouse’s movements and send the information down the mouse’s tail, which connects to the back of the computer. As you move the mouse across your desktop’s rubber mousepad, you see an arrow, or pointer, move simultaneously across the computer screen. Here’s where your electronic ﬁnger comes in: When the arrow points at a picture of a button on-screen, you press and release, or click, the left button on the mouse. The Windows button is selected, just as if you’d pressed it with your ﬁnger. It’s a cool bit of 3-D computer graphics that makes you want to click buttons again and again. A You control just about everything in Windows XP by pointing at it with the mouse and clicking the mouse button. (The mouse pitches in with a helpful clicking noise when you press its button.) Sometimes you need to click twice in rapid succession. The last sections in Chapter 5 explain mouse-click mechanics.

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A The plural of mouse is mice, just like the ones cats chew on. It’s not mouses. A Some laptops come with a touch pad—a little square thing for you to slide your ﬁnger over. As you move the tip of your ﬁnger across the pad, you move the mouse pointer across the screen. Other laptops, like IBM’s suave black ThinkPads, have a TrackPoint, a little pencil eraser that sticks up out of the keyboard, wedged above the B key and below the G and H. Just push the eraser in the direction you want the mouse to move, and the mouse pointer scurries. A Microsoft’s IntelliMouse has what looks like a tiny waterwheel protruding from the mouse’s neck. By slowly rolling the waterwheel back and forth with your index ﬁnger, you can scroll up or down in your current work, line by line. Fun! Plus, pushing down once on the waterwheel creates an automatic double-click, depending on how the mouse is set up. A Not all mice roll atop balls. Some use little light sensors to track their movement. Dave Chapman sent me a letter about his optical mouse that worked intermittently. A replacement mouse worked similarly, sometimes behaving properly, other times uncontrollably. The problem worsened as spring approached. At his wits’ end, he noticed his computer-illiterate wife sitting at the desk, holding a piece of printer paper over the mouse as she worked. “You won’t believe this,” she said. “But when the sun shines in the window and onto the mouse, it won’t work.” Dave ﬁxed the mouse by pulling down the window shade when he worked. The mouse arrow changes shape, depending on what it’s pointing at in Windows XP. When it changes shape, you know that it’s ready to perform a new task. Table 2-1 is a handy reference for the different uniforms the mouse pointer wears for different jobs. Don’t worry about memorizing all the various shapes that the pointer takes on. The pointer changes shape automatically at the appropriate times. I describe the shapes here so that you won’t think that your pointer’s gooﬁng off when it changes shape.

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Table 2-1
Shape

The Various Shapes of the Mouse Pointer
What It Points At Just about anything What to Do when You See It Use this pointer for moving from place to place on-screen. Then click to bring that place to Windows’ attention. Uh-oh. You’ve somehow selected the annoying size or move option from the Control menu. Pressing the keyboard’s little arrow keys now make the current window bigger or smaller. Press Enter when you ﬁnish, or press Esc if you want to get away from this uncomfortable bit of weirdness. Hold down the mouse button and move the mouse back and forth to make the window grow taller or shorter. Let go when you like the window’s new size. Hold down the mouse button and move the mouse back and forth to make the window fatter or skinnier. Let go when you like the window’s new size. Hold down the mouse button and move the mouse anywhere to make the window fat, skinny, tall, or short. Let go when you’re through playing. Put the pointer where you want words to appear, click the button, and start typing the letters or numbers. This only works in areas that accept words, though, like word processors or forms. Click the mouse, and Windows XP trots out some more helpful information about that particular subject.

A single window

The top or bottom edge of a window

The left or right side of a window

The corner of a window

A program or box that accepts text (this pointer is called an Ibeam)

A word with a hidden meaning in Windows or the Internet

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Table 2-1
Shape

The Various Shapes of the Mouse Pointer (Continued)
What It Points At Nothing (Windows is busy ignoring you) What to Do when You See It Move the mouse in wild circles and watch the hourglass spin around until Windows catches up and lets you do something constructive. The hourglass often appears when you are loading ﬁles or copying stuff to a ﬂoppy disk. Keep working. This pointer means that Windows XP is doing something in the background, so it may work a little more slowly. By clicking the little question mark found in the top-right corner of some boxes, you create this pointer. Click confusing onscreen areas for helpful informational handouts. Press the Esc key, let go of the mouse button, and start over. (You’re trying to drag something to a place where it doesn’t belong.)

Anything

Anything

Something forbidden

Video Cards and Monitors
The monitor is the thing you stare at all day until you go home to watch TV. The front of the monitor, called the screen or display, is where all the Windows XP action takes place. The screen is where you can watch the windows as they bump around, cover each other up, and generally behave like nine people eyeing a recently delivered eight-slice pizza. Monitors have two cords so they won’t be mistaken for a mouse. One cord plugs into the electrical outlet; the other heads for the video card, a special piece of electronics poking out from the computer’s back. The computer tells the video card what it’s doing; the card translates the events into graphics information and shoots the pictures up the cable into the monitor, where they appear on-screen.

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Ignore these awful graphics terms
Some people describe their monitors as ‘boxy’ or ‘covered with cat hair’; others use the following strange scientiﬁc terms:

A Pixel: A pixel is a fancy name for an individual dot on-screen. Everything on-screen is made up of bunches of dots, or pixels. Each pixel can be a different shade or color, which creates the image. (Squint up close, and you may be able to make out an individual pixel.) If your thin new LCD monitor has a tiny dot that doesn’t match the colors on the rest of your screen, that pixel is “out.” Complain, loudly, when you ﬁrst take it out of the box. It occasionally results in a replacement.

small monitors usually use 800 x 600 resolution. People with normal-to-larger-sized monitors often switch to 1024 x 768 resolution so that they can ﬁt more windows onscreen.

A Color: This term describes the number of colors the card and monitor display onscreen. Today’s speedy video cards can easily display Windows XP in millions of colors.

A Mode: A predetermined combination of pixels, resolution, and colors is described as a graphics mode. Right out of the box, Windows XP uses a mode that works for just about everybody. You don’t need to know any of this stuff. If you’re feeling particularly modular, however, you can change the Windows XP graphics modes after reading the “Appearance and Themes” section of Chapter 14.

A Resolution: The resolution is the number of pixels on a screen—speciﬁcally, the number of pixels across (horizontal) and down (vertical). More pixels mean greater resolution: smaller letters and more information packed onto the same-sized screen. People with

A Like herbivores and cellulose-digesting gut microorganisms, monitors and video cards depend upon each other. Neither can function without the other. In fact, your monitor only displays pictures as nicely as your video card can dish them out. Also, LCD monitors require special cards capable of feeding them the right signals. A Unlike other parts of the computer, the video card and monitor don’t require any special care and feeding. Just wipe the dust off the screen every once in a while. (And at least try to keep the cat off the monitor.) A Spray plain old glass cleaner on a rag and then wipe off the dust with the newly dampened rag. If you spray glass cleaner directly on the screen, it drips down into the monitor’s casing, annoying the trolls who sleep under the bridge.

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A Some glass cleaners contain alcohol, which can cloud the antiglare screens found on some fancy new monitors. When in doubt, check your monitor’s manual to see if glass cleaner is allowed. My Nanao monitor came with its own special rag for wiping off the glass. A When Windows XP ﬁrst installs itself on your computer, it interrogates the video card and monitor until they reveal their brand name and orientation. Windows XP almost always gets the correct answer from them and sets itself up automatically so that everything works ﬁne the ﬁrst time. A Windows XP may be dominating, but it’s accommodating, too. It can handle a wide variety of monitors and cards. In fact, most monitors and cards can switch to different modes, putting more or fewer colors on-screen and shrinking the text so that you can cram more information onto the screen. Windows XP enables you to play around with all sorts of different video settings, if you’re in that sort of mood. (If you are, check out Chapter 14.)

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Keyboards
Computer keyboards look pretty much like typewriter keyboards with a few dark growths around the perimeter. In the center lie the familiar white typewriter keys. The grayish keys with obtuse code words live along the outside edges. They’re described next.

Groups of keys
Obtuse code-word sorters divvy those outside-edge keys into key groups: Function keys: These keys either sit along the top of the keyboard in one long row or clump together in two short rows along the keyboard’s left side. Function keys boss around programs. For example, you can press F1 to demand help whenever you’re stumped in Windows XP. Numeric keypad: Zippy-ﬁngered bankers like this thingy: a square, calculator-like pad of numbers along the right edge of most keyboards. (You might have to press a key called Num Lock above those numbers, though, before they’ll work. Otherwise, they’re cursor-controlkeys, which I describe next.)

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Cursor-control keys: If you haven’t pressed the magical Num Lock key, the keys on that square, calculator-like pad of numbers are usually the cursor-control keys. These keys have little arrows that show which direction the cursor moves on-screen. (The arrowless 5 key doesn’t do anything except try to overcome its low self-esteem.) Some keyboards have a second set of cursor-control keys next to the numeric keypad. Both sets do the same thing. Additional cursor-control keys are Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn (or Page Up and Page Down). To move down a page in a word-processing program, for example, you press the PgDn key. Pressing the cursor keys doesn’t move the little mouse-pointer arrow around on the screen. Instead, cursor keys control your position inside a program, letting you type information in the right place. The Windows key: Eager to make money from selling keyboards and software, Microsoft came out with a bold new design: the Microsoft Natural Keyboard, which includes special Windows keys. (The keys, which straddle your spacebar, boast a little Windows icon like the icon on your Start button.) Pressing the Windows key opens the Start menu, which can be done at the click of a mouse, anyway. Ho hum. A little key next to the Windows key—the one with the little mouse pointer and menu—quickly opens menus. Table 2-2 shows more things the Windows key can do—if you can remember them.

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Table 2-2
To Do This

Windows Key Shortcuts
Press This +F1 +Tab +E +F Ctrl++F +D Shift++M

Display Windows XP Help Display the Start menu Cycle through the taskbar’s buttons Display Windows Explorer Find ﬁles Find other computers on the network Minimize or restore all windows Undo minimize all windows

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More key principles
These keyboard keys may sound confusing, but Windows still makes you use them a lot: Shift: Just as on a typewriter, this key creates uppercase letters or the symbols %#@$—the traditional G-rated swear words. Alt: Watch out for this one! When you press Alt (which stands for Alternate), Windows does one of two bothersome things: It moves the cursor to the little menus at the top of the current window, or it underlines a single letter in your menus. To go back to normal, press Alt again. Num Lock: Pressing this key toggles your numeric keypad (described in the preceding section) from displaying numbers to controlling the cursor. Ctrl: This key (which stands for Control) works like the Shift key, but it’s for weird computer combinations. For example, holding down the Ctrl key while pressing Esc (described next) brings up the Windows XP Start menu. Esc: This key (which stands for Escape) was a pipe dream of the computer’s creators. They added Esc as an escape hatch from malfunctioning computers. By pressing Esc, the user was supposed to be able to escape from whatever inner turmoil the computer was currently going through. Esc doesn’t always work that way, but give it a try. It sometimes enables you to escape when you’re trapped in a menu or a dastardly dialog box. (Those traps are described in Chapter 5.) Scroll Lock: This one’s too weird to bother with. Ignore it. (It’s no relation to a scroll bar, either.) If a little keyboard light glows next to your Scroll Lock key, press the Scroll Lock key to turn it off. (The key’s often labeled Scrl Lk or something equally obnoxious.) Delete: Press the Delete key (sometimes labeled Del), and the unlucky character sitting to the right of the cursor disappears. Any highlighted information disappears as well. Poof. Backspace: Press the Backspace key, and the unlucky character to the left of the cursor disappears. The Backspace key is on the top row, near the right side of the keyboard; it has a left-pointing arrow on it. Oh, and the Backspace key deletes any highlighted information, too.

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If you’ve goofed, hold down Alt and press the Backspace key. This action undoes your last mistake in most Windows XP programs. (Holding down Ctrl and pressing Z does the same thing.) Insert: Pressing Insert (sometimes labeled Ins) puts you in Insert mode. As you type, any existing words are scooted to the right, letting you add stuff. The opposite of Insert mode is Overwrite mode, where everything you type replaces any text in its way. Press Insert to toggle between these two modes. Ugly disclaimer: Some Windows XP programs—Notepad, for example— are always in Insert mode. There’s simply no way to move to Overwrite mode, no matter how hard you pound the Insert key. Enter: This key works pretty much like a typewriter’s Return key, but with a big exception: Don’t press Enter at the end of each line when typing documents. A word processor can sense when you’re about to type off the edge of the screen. It herds your words down to the next line automatically. So just press Enter at the end of each paragraph. You’ll also want to press Enter when Windows XP asks you to type something—the name of a ﬁle, for example, or the number of pages you want to print—into a special box. (Clicking a nearby OK button often performs the same task.) Caps Lock: If you’ve mastered the Shift Lock key on a typewriter, you’ll be pleased to ﬁnd no surprises here. (Okay, there’s one surprise: Caps Lock affects only your letters. It has no effect on punctuation symbols or the numbers along the top row.) Tab: There are no surprises here, either, except that Tab is equal to ﬁve spaces in some word processors and eight spaces in others. Still, other word processors enable you to set Tab to whatever number you want. Plus, a startling Tab Tip follows. Press Tab to move from one box to the next when ﬁlling out a form in Windows XP. (Sometimes these forms are called dialog boxes.) PrtScrn/SysRq: Press this key, and Windows snaps a picture of your desktop, ready to be pasted into a graphics program like Paint. Hold down Alt and press PrtScrn, and Windows snaps a picture of only the currently active window. Use the Paste function, described in Chapter 8,

____________________Chapter 2: Ignore This Chapter on Computer Parts to copy the snapped picture to another program. (SysRq doesn’t do anything.) Ctrl+Alt+Delete: Pressing all three of these keys at the same time brings up the Windows XP Task Manager. Described in Chapter 7, the Task Manager lets you switch from window to window and oust any misbehaving programs. A If you don’t own a mouse or a trackball, you can control Windows XP exclusively with a keyboard. But it’s awkward, like when Darth Vader tries to ﬂoss his back molars. A The Scroll Lock and Pause/Break keys don’t do anything worthwhile in Windows. However, if you hold down the Windows key and press Break, Windows’ System Properties window appears, displaying lots of technical mish-mash about your computer. A Finally, some keyboards come with special keys installed by the manufacturer. My Gateway’s keyboard lets me adjust the sound, log on to the Internet, control my CD or DVD, or make the computer go to sleep. Information about these keys lives in my computer’s Control Panel under an icon named Multi-function Keyboard.

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Modems and the Internet
I admit it. I used my modem the other night to order Thai food from the restaurant across town. How? My wife and I dialed up Food.com (www.food.com) through the Internet, chose our items from the onscreen menu, and punched in our address and phone number. An hour or so later, we stuffed ourselves with Mee Krob and other unpronounceable bits of yumminess. Modems are little mechanical gadgets that translate a computer’s information into squealing sounds that can be sent and received over plain, ordinary phone lines. We clicked the check box next to Mee Krob on our computer, a modem at the credit card company tabulated the whole process, and the electric registers started ringing. Most new computers include built-in modems for dialing up the Internet’s World Wide Web. In fact, if you bought a new computer, you probably already have all the parts you need to jump on the Internet

____________________Chapter 2: Ignore This Chapter on Computer Parts bandwagon. Windows XP comes with the software you need to power those parts: Internet Explorer. With Internet Explorer, you can browse the Web, or blanket your desktop with Web pages, as shown in Figure 2-2. Elaborate Web site art will ﬁll your desktop like posters along the walls of Parisian streets.

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Figure 2-2: Windows XP enables you to spread Web pages across your desktop.

A Even if you already have a modem and Internet Explorer, you must pay monthly fees to an Internet service provider (ISP). The ISP gives you a special name and password that let you access the Internet. A Chapter 12 covers the Internet and the Web. It doesn’t say what Mee Krob tastes like, though. A The computers on both ends of the phone lines need modems in order to talk to each other. Luckily, most online services have hundreds, or even thousands, of modems for your computer’s modem to talk to over the phone lines.

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A Some speedy modems don’t use phone lines—they ride on special cables installed by your cable TV company or phone company. A Internet access is two-way—you can talk to other people, and they can talk to you. To ﬁlter out evil people who take advantage of this and try to break into your computer, Windows XP includes a ﬁrewall. Chapter 12 shows how to install it. A Your computer doesn’t have a modem? You’ll ﬁnd complete installation instructions in one of my other books, Upgrading and Fixing PCs For Dummies, 5th Edition (IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.).

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Printers
Realizing that the paperless ofﬁce still lies several years down the road, Microsoft made sure that Windows XP can shake hands and send friendly smoke signals to hundreds of different types of printers. In fact, Windows XP often recognizes new printers as soon as you plug their cables into your computer. If Windows XP doesn’t notice your efforts, Chapter 14 shows you how to choose the name and manufacturer of your printer from Windows XP’s massive list. Windows checks its dossiers, ﬁnds your printer information, and immediately begins speaking to it in its native language. That’s all there is to it—unless, of course, your printer happens to be one of the several hundred printers left off the Windows XP master list. In that case, cross your ﬁngers that your printer’s manufacturer is still in business. You may need to get a driver from the manufacturer (see Chapter 15) before your prose can hit the printed page. A Printers must be turned on before Windows XP can print to them. (You’d be surprised how easily you can forget this little fact.) A Windows XP prints in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) format, which means that what you see on-screen is reasonably close to what you’ll see on the printed page.

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Networks
Networks connect PCs so that people can share information. They can all send stuff to a single printer, for example, share a modem, or send messages to each other asking whether Marilyn has passed out the paychecks yet. Some networks are relatively small—less than ﬁve computers in a home or small ofﬁce, for example. Other networks span the world. In fact, the Internet runs on a huge computer network that sprawls through nearly every country. A Microsoft created Windows XP on the shoulders of its Big Business version of Windows. That means Windows XP handles networks with ﬁnesse and delicacy. That also means it offers dozens of bothersome, difﬁcult-to-understand details about local area connections and user names. Chapter 9 holds the full scoop. A Windows XP Home version contains enough networking gusto that it lets several different computers share a single printer, modem, and ﬁles. Windows XP Professional version adds more-advanced networking features that placate system administrators. Home and small-business users will do ﬁne with Windows XP Home version.

Sound Cards (Making Barﬁng Noises)
For years, PC owners looked enviously at Macintosh owners—especially when their Macs ejected a disk. The Macintosh would simultaneously eject a ﬂoppy disk from its drive and make a cute barﬁng sound. Macs come with sound built in; they can barf, giggle, and make really disgusting noises that I won’t mention here. But the tight shirts at IBM decided there was no place for sound on a Serious Business Machine. The industry soon wised up, however, and now nearly every PC comes with a sound card. Plug a pair of speakers into the sound cards speaker outlet, and the accounting department’s

____________________Chapter 2: Ignore This Chapter on Computer Parts computers can barf as loudly as the ones in the art department down the hall. A A sound card looks just like a video card. In fact, all cards look alike: long green or brown ﬂat things that nestle into long ﬂat slots inside the computer. Speakers plug into sound cards like monitors plug into video cards, only the speakers have smaller plugs. A Although most new computers come with sound cards already installed, most companies constantly release new software for making them work better. (Chapter 15’s section on installing a new driver can help knock a miscreant sound card back into action.) A Windows XP comes with a wide variety of noises, but it doesn’t have any barf noises. Windows Media Player, described in Chapter 13, lets you listen to music CDs, Internet radio stations, DVD soundtracks, MP3 ﬁles, and just about anything else that makes sounds. A The latest, fanciest computers come with DVD drives, special sound cards, software, and extra speakers so that you can hear surround sound when watching DVD movies. Better clear off your desk for the big woofer and extra speakers that go with it. A Just like the Macintosh, Windows enables you to assign cool sounds to various Windows XP functions. For example, you can make your computer scream louder than you do when it crashes. For more information, refer to the section in Chapter 14 on making cool sounds with multimedia.

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Ports
The back of your computer contains lots of connections for pushing out and pulling in information. The deeper you fall into the Windows lifestyle, the more likely you’ll hear the following words bantered about. Plus, when something falls out of the back of your computer, Table 2-3 shows you where it should plug back in.

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Table 2-3
This Port . . .
New Style

What Part Plugs into What Port?
. . . Looks Like This . . . Keyboard . . . And Accepts This Your keyboard. (Some laptops let a mouse plug into the new style keyboard ports, too.) Your mouse. (Known as a PS/2 port, some laptops also let a keyboard plug into it.) Your monitor’s smallest cable. (The monitor’s biggest cable plugs into the power outlet.) External modems.

Mouse

Video

Old Style (Pre-1994)

Serial (COM)

New Style

Parallel (LPT) USB

Your printer. Universal Serial Bus (USB) gadgets. (Used by digital cameras, gamepads, printers, MP3 players, and more.) A sound card has at least three of these ports for these tiny plugs: one for headphones, one for the microphone, and the other for an external sound source like a radio, tape recorder, camcorder, TV card, and so on. TV cards accept your TV cable here; some cable modems use an identical port. Run a telephone line from the wall to here on a modem. (The modem’s second jack lets you plug in the telephone. Look closely for a label.)

Sound

Cable TV

Telephone

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Table 2-3
This Port . . .

What Part Plugs into What Port? (Continued)
. . . Looks Like This . . . Network . . . And Accepts This Networks use one of two connector styles. 10BaseT looks like a telephone line, but slightly thicker. Thin Coax is a rounded metal cup that pushes over a rounded metal cylinder.

Parts Required by Windows XP
Table 2-4 compares what Windows XP asks for on the side of the box with what you really need before it will work well.

Table 2-4
Requirements Politely Touted by Microsoft A Pentium 300 MHz microprocessor

What Windows XP Requires
What You Really Want A Pentium III or Athlon running at 500 MHz Why?

While at the store, compare Windows XP running on different Pentium III computers. The faster the computer, the less time you spend waiting for Windows XP to do something exciting. Windows XP crawls across the screen with only 64MB and moves much more comfortably with 128MB. RAM is cheap; if you plan to run programs like Microsoft Ofﬁce and multimedia tools, quickly bump that to 256MB or more.

64MB of memory (RAM)

At least 128MB of memory

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Table 2-4
Requirements Politely Touted by Microsoft 2GB of free hard disk space

What Windows XP Requires (Continued)
What You Really Want At least 20GB Why?

A full installation of Windows XP could consume an entire gigabyte; Windows programs quickly rope off their own sections of the hard drive, too. Plus, all that sound and video you’re going to be grabbing off the Internet and your digital camera will take up a whole lotta space. Don’t be afraid to buy a hard disk that’s 40GB (40 gigabytes) or larger so your computer will be useful for a long time. However, an occasional Windows program still comes packaged on high-density, 3 1/2-inch ﬂoppy disks. Plus, ﬂoppy disks are a handy way to move your ﬁles to other computers. For viewing videos, look for these qualiﬁcations on the video card box or the computer speciﬁcations sheet: 32MB or more of memory, AGP support, motion compensation support for DVD playback, and support for DVI, S-Video, and composite video output. You’ll want a CD-ROM drive to install Windows XP. (A DVD drive can read normal CDs, so it’ll work ﬁne.) For the ﬁrst time, Windows XP supports drives that write to CDs as well.

A 3 1/2-inch highdensity disk drive

Not needed for installing or using Windows XP

Color SVGA card

Same

12x or faster CDROM or DVD drive

Same

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Table 2-4
Requirements Politely Touted by Microsoft Internet access

What Windows XP Requires (Continued)
What You Really Want 56K modem or faster Why?

Windows XP relies extensively on Internet communication for everything from product registration, automatic updates, off-site computer ﬁx-ups, and game playing. The faster your modem, the less time you’ll spend twiddling your thumbs. Microsoft makes some darn good mice, with much better warranties than Microsoft’s software. I prefer the IntelliMouse—the kind with the little spinning wheel on its back. The bigger your monitor, the bigger your desktop: Your windows won’t overlap so much. Unfortunately, superlarge LCD monitors are super-expensive.

Any PS/2-compatible mouse

Same

A 15-inch monitor or larger

An LCD monitor

What do I install on my laptop computer?
Microsoft designed Windows XP Professional, not Windows XP Home, to run on laptop or notebook computers. The Professional version works better with battery-driven computers and offers more wireless Internet connection options. Laptops should be beefed up with the following in order to run Windows XP Professional:

A 600 MHz or faster processor with 128MB
RAM

A 20GB ATA/66 hard drive A 8MB AGP graphics adapter and 3D hardware acceleration

A DVD player or CD-RW/DVD player A Built-in speakers A Built-in 56K modem A Two USB ports A Port replicator for easy connection to external keyboard, mouse, and monitor

A A separate copy of Windows XP. Remember, each copy of Windows XP may be installed on only a single computer. No longer can you install the same copy on both your desktop and laptop computers.

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Other computer parts you’ll probably need
Can your computer handle the requirements in Table 2-4? Unfortunately, there’s more. Windows XP will work at its most basic level with that type of muscle, but it needs more before it will reach full capacity. For instance, in order to hear anything from your computer, you need a sound card and ampliﬁed stereo speakers with a subwoofer. (If you choose USB speakers, your computer needs USB ports.) Headphones are great for late-night listening. Planning on connecting several computers with a network so they can share ﬁles, printers, and a modem? You’ll need a network adapter card for each computer, as well as their corresponding cables, which I explain in Chapter 9. To watch TV on your monitor, you need a compatible TV tuner card. (Check your cable TV connection, too. Most TV tuner cards don’t pick up much without cable TV.) Planning on watching DVDs? Then you’ll need your own DVD-playing software before Windows XP’s Media Player will be able to show the DVDs. Yes, it’s weird, and it’s covered in Chapter 13. To dump pictures from your digital video camcorder into Windows XP’s Movie Maker, you need an IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port.

Chapter 3

Windows XP Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know
In This Chapter
B Explanations of the strange terms used in Windows XP B Information on where to look for more details on these strange terms

W

hen Microsoft Windows ﬁrst hit the market in 1985, it failed miserably. Windows’ weak attempts at fancy graphics choked the equally weak computers of the day. Even when it did run, Windows was slow, awkward, and downright ugly. Today’s powerful computers easily whip Windows into shape. After 15 years on the market, Windows has turned into a trendy bestseller that’s preinstalled on nearly every new PC. Because Windows has been around for so long, a lot of people have had a head start. Many kids learned about Windows in grade school. Even today’s major corporations seem to take it for granted that you can successfully navigate their Web pages. To help you catch up, this chapter is a tourist’s guidebook to those weird Windows words that everybody else thinks you already know.

Activation
Here’s a big secret: You don’t really own Windows XP. Even when you buy Windows at the store, or it comes preinstalled on your new computer, it’s not yours. No, the ﬁne print says that only Microsoft owns Windows. You only own a license—permission—to run Windows on

______ Chapter 3: Windows XP Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know your computer. Worse than that, you’re only granted permission to run Windows on a single computer. In the past, many people bought one version of Windows—one for their desktop computer and one for their laptop. And why not? They either used their desktop computer or their laptop—they never used them both at the same time. Windows XP changes that with its new Activation feature. When you install Windows XP, an annoying window pops up, asking you to “activate” your version of Windows. When you click the Activate button, Windows XP takes a “picture” of your computer’s components, links them to the serial number on your copy of Windows XP, and sends that information to Microsoft over the Internet. Then, if you or anybody else ever tries to install that same version of Windows on a different computer, Windows XP says you’re using somebody else’s version of Windows XP, and it won’t work. A Okay, what happens if you don’t bother to “activate” a copy of Windows XP? It simply stops working after 30 days. The new Activation feature ensures that each copy of Windows XP will only work on a single computer. Even if Windows XP came preinstalled on your new computer, you can’t take the bundled Windows XP CD and install it on another computer. A No Internet connection? Then you must call Microsoft’s toll-free number, talk to a customer service representative, and activate your copy of Windows by typing in a 25-number password. A If you want to install Windows XP on several computers, it might be cheaper to purchase a special multi-version license, called a Microsoft License Pak. A If you upgrade your computer—adding lots of new parts—Windows XP might think it’s been installed on a new computer and stop working. The solution? You must call Microsoft’s toll-free number and convince those folks that you’re not trying to steal their software. A Welcome to Windows XP!

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Backing Up a Disk
Computers store bunches of ﬁles on their hard drives. And that multitude of ﬁles can be a problem. When the computer’s hard drive eventually dies (nothing lives forever), it takes all your ﬁles down with it. Pffffft. Nothing left. Computer users who don’t like anguished pffffft sounds back up their hard drives religiously. They do so in three main ways. Some people copy all their ﬁles from the hard disk to a bunch of ﬂoppy disks or CDs. Although backup programs make this task easier, it’s still a time-consuming chore. Who wants to spend half an hour backing up computer ﬁles after ﬁnishing work? Other people buy a tape backup unit. This special computerized tape recorder either lives inside your computer like a ﬂoppy disk or plugs into the computer’s rear. Either way, the gizmo tape-records all the information on your hard disk. Then, when your hard disk dies, you still have all your ﬁles. The faithful tape backup unit plays back all your information onto the new hard drive. No scrounging for ﬂoppy disks. Finally, some people buy special cartridge storage units. These mechanisms work like hard drives you can slide in and out of your computer. Iomega’s Jaz drives, for example, can store up to 2GB (gigabytes) of information on a single cartridge. (The Peerless cartridges hold 10 or 20GBs.) A single cartridge is much easier to store than hundreds of ﬂoppies. (More information about Iomega’s drives lurks in Chapter 2.) A Don’t use old backup programs with Windows XP. Unless the backup software speciﬁcally states that it’s compatible with Windows XP, the backup might not be reliable. (Windows XP Professional comes with a simple backup program included; Windows XP Home does not.) A The average cost of a backup unit runs from $150–$400, depending on the size of your computer’s hard drive. Some people back up their work every day, using a new tape or backup disk for each day of the week. If they discover on Thursday that last Monday’s report had all the best stuff, they can pop Monday’s backup into the unit and grab the report.

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A Windows XP lets you copy ﬁles to CDs, which hold around 600MB. To copy a ﬁle to a writable CD drive, put a writable CD in your computer’s writable CD drive. Then right-click on the ﬁle you want to copy, choose Send To, and select your writeable CD drive from the menu.

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Clicking
Computers make plenty of clicking sounds, but one click counts the most: the one that occurs when you press a button on a mouse. You’ll ﬁnd yourself clicking the mouse hundreds of times in Windows XP. For example, to push the on-screen button marked Push Me, you move the mouse across your desk until the little on-screen arrow rests over the Push Me button, and then click the mouse button. A When you hear people say, “Press the button on the mouse,” they leave out an important detail: Release the button after you press it. Press the button with your index ﬁnger and release it, just as you press a button on an elevator. A Most mice have 2 buttons; some have 3, and some esoteric models for trafﬁc engineers have more than 12. Windows XP listens mostly to clicks coming from the button on the left side of your mouse. It’s the one under your index ﬁnger if you’re right-handed. (Windows XP also lets left-handed folks swap their left and right mouse button controls.) The Windows XP Control Panel, covered in Chapter 14, lets you tweak many mouse settings. A Windows XP listens to clicks coming from both the left and right buttons on your mouse. In fact, if you’re ever confused about what you can do with something in Windows, right-click on it. A little menu appears, listing the things you can do with that confusing thingy. A Don’t confuse a click with a double-click. For more rodent details, see the sections “The Mouse,” “Double-Clicking,” and “Pointers/ Arrows,” later in this chapter. The insatiably curious can ﬁnd even more mouse stuff in Chapter 2, including the Microsoft IntelliMouse with the little spinning wheel doohickey.

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The Cursor
Typewriters have a little mechanical arm that strikes the page, creating the desired letter. Computers don’t have little mechanical arms (except in science ﬁction movies), so they have cursors: little blinking lines that show where that next letter will appear in the text. You can distinguish between the cursor and the mouse pointer with one look: Cursors always blink steadily; mouse pointers never blink. For more information, check out the section “Pointers/Arrows” in this chapter or Table 2-1 in Chapter 2. Or, keep reading the neatly aligned items in the following list: A Cursors appear only when Windows XP is ready for you to type text, numbers, or symbols—usually when you write letters or reports or ﬁll out forms. A The cursor and the mouse pointer are different things that perform different tasks. When you start typing, text appears at the cursor’s location, not at the pointer’s location. A You can move the cursor to a new place in the document by using the keyboard’s cursor-control keys (the keys with little arrows). Or you can point to a spot with the mouse pointer and click the button. The cursor leaps to that new spot. A Filling out a form? Here’s a trick for the lazy: Press Tab after ﬁlling out each blank. At each press, the Tab key kicks the cursor to the next line on the form. Pressing Tab saves a lot of pointing and clicking to get the cursor to the right place. Hold down Shift while pressing Tab to move in reverse.

Defaults (And the Any Key)
Finally, a computer term that you can safely ignore. Clap your hands and square dance with a neighbor! Here’s the lowdown on the, er, hoedown: Some programs present a terse list of inexplicable choices and casually suggest that you select the only option that’s not listed: the default option. Don’t chew your tongue in despair. Just press Enter.

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Those wily programmers have predetermined what option works best for 99 percent of the people using the program. So, if people just press Enter, the program automatically makes the right choice and moves on to the next complicated question. A The default option is similar to the oft-mentioned Any key because neither of them appears on your keyboard (or on anybody else’s, either—no matter how much money they paid). A Default can also be taken to mean standard option or what to select when you’re completely stumped. For example, strangers riding together in elevators stare at their shoes by default. A When a program says to press any key, simply press the spacebar. (The Shift keys don’t do the trick, by the way.)

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Desktop (And Changing Its Background)
To keep from reverting to revolting computer terms, Windows XP uses familiar ofﬁce lingo. For example, all the action in Windows XP takes place on the Windows XP desktop. The desktop is the background area of the screen where all the windows pile up. To jazz things up, Windows covers the desktop with pretty pictures known as the background. (Earlier versions called it wallpaper.) Windows XP’s standard desktop background shows a Teletubbies-green hillside. Not into Teletubbies? Windows XP comes with several arty pictures you can use as replacement backgrounds (and Chapter 10 can help you hang them up). You can customize the background to ﬁt your own personality: pictures of kittens, for example, or centipedes. You can draw your own background with the built-in Windows XP Paint program, which saves your work in one of the special background formats. Internet Explorer and other Internet browsers let you automatically grab any picture you ﬁnd on a Web site and turn it into your desktop’s background. Right-click on the cool picture and choose the Set As Background option.

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Double-Clicking
Windows XP places a great signiﬁcance on something pretty simple: pressing a button on the mouse and releasing it. Pressing and releasing the button once is known as a click. Pressing and releasing the button twice in rapid succession is a double-click. Windows XP watches carefully to see whether you’ve clicked or doubleclicked its more sensitive parts. The two actions are completely different. Clicking usually selects something. Double-clicking usually makes something jump into action. I clarify this confusion at the end of Chapter 5. A A double-click can take some practice to master, even if you have ﬁngers. If you click too slowly, Windows XP thinks that you’re simply clicking twice—not double-clicking. Try clicking a little faster next time, and Windows XP will probably catch on. A Can’t click fast enough for Windows XP to tell the difference between a mere click and a rapid-ﬁre double-click? Grab the ofﬁce computer guru and say that you need to have your Control Panel called up and your clicks ﬁxed. If the guru is at the computer store, tiptoe to the “Mouse” section in Chapter 14, where I discuss the Windows Control Panel.

Dragging and Dropping
Although the term drag and drop sounds as if it’s straight out of a Sopranos episode, it’s really a nonviolent mouse trick in Windows XP. Dragging and dropping is a way of moving something—say, a picture of an egg—from one part of your screen to another. To drag, put the mouse pointer over the egg and hold down the left or right mouse button. (I prefer the right mouse button.) As you move the mouse across your desk, the pointer drags the egg across the screen.

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Put the pointer/egg where you want it and release the mouse button. The egg drops, uncracked. A Big Tip Dept.: If you hold down the right mouse button while dragging, Windows XP tosses a little menu in your face when you let go, asking if you’re sure that you want to move that egg across the screen. Always hold down your right mouse button when dragging. A For more mouse fun, see the sections, “Clicking,” “Double-Clicking,” “The Mouse,” and “Pointers/Arrows” in this chapter and, if you’re not yet weak at the knees, the information on the parts of your computer in Chapter 2. A Started dragging something and realized in midstream that you’re dragging the wrong thing? Breathe deeply like a yoga instructor and press Esc. Then let go of your mouse button. Whew! (If you’ve dragged with your right mouse button and already let go of the button, there’s another option: Choose Cancel from the pop-up menu.)

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Drivers
Although Windows XP performs plenty of work, it hires help when necessary. When Windows XP needs to talk to unfamiliar parts of your computer, it lets special drivers do the translating. A driver is a piece of software that enables Windows XP to communicate with parts of your computer. Hundreds of computer companies sell computer attachables, from printers to sound cards to sprinkler systems. Microsoft requires these companies to write drivers for their products so that Windows XP knows the polite way to address them. A Sometimes computer nerds say that your mouse driver is all messed up. They’re not talking about your swerving hand movements. They’re talking about the piece of software that helps Windows XP talk and listen to the mouse. A Computer products often require new, improved drivers. The best way to get these new drivers is from the Web, usually on the Web site of the company that made the gadget. Sometimes, the Microsoft Web page itself will have the proper driver, too.

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A No Internet connection? If you send a begging letter to the company that made your mouse, the company may mail you a new, updated driver on a ﬂoppy disk. Occasionally, you can get these new drivers from the wild-haired teenager who sold you your computer. Find a computer guru to install the driver, however, or check out the section on installing drivers in Chapter 15. A Windows XP comes with an aptly named program called Automatic Update. Described in Chapter 14, the program dials a special spot on the Internet, where a stethoscope examines your computer’s internal parts and inserts updated software where needed.

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Files
A ﬁle is a collection of information in a form that the computer can play with. A program ﬁle contains instructions telling the computer to do something useful, like adding up the number of quarters the kids spent on SweeTARTS last month. A data ﬁle contains information you’ve created, like a picture of an obelisk you drew in the Windows XP Paint program. A Files can’t be touched or handled; they’re invisible, unearthly things. Somebody ﬁgured out how to store ﬁles as little magnetic impulses on a round piece of specially coated plastic, or disk. (Yep, these are the disks I cover in Chapter 2.) A A ﬁle is referred to by its ﬁlename. Windows lets you call ﬁles by a descriptive phrase, as long as it doesn’t total more than 255 characters. A Many ﬁlenames have optional extensions of up to three letters that usually refer to the program that created them. For example, the Windows XP Paint program automatically saves ﬁles with the extension BMP. Microsoft realized that most people don’t care about ﬁle extensions, so Windows XP normally hides them when it’s displaying ﬁlenames. A Filenames have more rules and regulations than the Jacuzzi at the condo’s clubhouse. For more information than you’ll ever want to know about ﬁlenames, ﬂip to Chapter 11.

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Folders (Directories)
Nobody would ever confuse a computer with an ofﬁce. Yet, Windows XP tries awfully hard to extend the common ofﬁce metaphor to your computer. Your monitor’s screen, for instance, is called a desktop. And, just like an ofﬁce, Windows XP stores your ﬁles in folders. No matter how hard Windows tries, though, storing ﬁles is never as easy. You can’t just open a ﬁle drawer and slide in last year’s tax returns. Trying to maneuver ﬁles into folders in Windows is like trying to snag the stuffed bear using the crane machine at the fair. Because ﬁles and folders are such painful experiences, they’re explained fully in Chapter 11. In the meantime, just think of folders as separate work areas to keep ﬁles organized. Different folders hold different projects; you move from folder to folder as you work on different things with your computer. A A ﬁle cabinet’s Vegetables folder could have an Asparagus folder nested inside it for organizing material further. In fact, most folders contain several other folders in order to organize information even more. You need to be pretty fastidious around computers; that’s the easiest way of ﬁnding your work again. A Technically, a folder in a folder is a nested subfolder that keeps related ﬁles from getting lost. For example, you can have folders for Steamed Asparagus and Raw Asparagus in the Asparagus folder, which lives in the Vegetables folder.

Graphical User Interfaces
The way people communicate with computers is called an interface. For example, the Enterprise’s computer used a verbalinterface. Captain Kirk just told it what to do. Windows XP uses a graphical user interface. People talk to the computer through graphical symbols, or pictures. A graphical user interface works kind of like travel kiosks at airports—you select some little but-

______ Chapter 3: Windows XP Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know ton symbols right on the screen to ﬁnd out which hotels offer free airport shuttles. A A graphical user interface is called a GUI, pronounced “gooey,” as in “Huey, Dewey, Louie, and GUI.” A Despite what you read in the Microsoft full-page ads, Windows XP isn’t the only GUI for a personal computer. The Apple Macintosh has used a graphical user interface for years. A You’ll eventually hear people raving about an operating system called Linux (usually pronounced LINE-uhx, after Linus, the operating system’s creator). Programmers and computer tweakers love Linux, but this new operating system can’t run nearly as many programs as Windows. Don’t buy a new PC with Linux installed unless you’re an advanced computer user or married to a friendly one. A The little graphical symbols or buttons in a graphical user interface are called icons. Chapter 20 displays most of Windows’ built-in icons and what they mean. A When combined with other software, like Microsoft Word XP, Windows XP can talk to us using its built-in speech generator. (Check out the Control Panel’s Speech button for a preview.)

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Hardware and Software
Alert! Alert! Fasten your seat belt so that you don’t slump forward when reading about these two particularly boring terms: hardware and software. Your CD player is hardware; so are the stereo ampliﬁer, speakers, and batteries in the boom box. By itself, the CD player doesn’t do anything but hum. It needs music to disturb the neighbors. The music is the software, or the information processed by the CD player. A Now you can unfasten your seat belt and relax for a bit. Computer hardware refers to anything you can touch, including hard things like a printer, a monitor, disks, and disk drives.

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A Software is the ethereal stuff that makes the hardware do something fun. A piece of software is called a program. Programs come on disks or CDs, or they can be copied to your computer from the Internet. A When somber technical nerds (STNs) say, “It must be a hardware problem,” they mean that something must be wrong with the computer itself: its disk drive, keyboard, or central processing unit (CPU). When they say, “It must be a software problem,” they mean that something is wrong with the program you’re trying to run. Here’s how to earn points with your computer gurus: When they ask you the riddle, “How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb?” pretend that you don’t know this answer: “None; that’s a hardware problem.”

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Icons
An icon is a little picture, like the one in the margin. Windows XP ﬁlls the screen with little pictures, or icons. You choose among them to make Windows XP do different things. For example, you’d choose the Printer icon, the little picture of the printer, to make your computer print something. Icons are just fancy names for cute buttons. A Windows XP relies on icons for nearly everything from opening ﬁles to releasing the winged monkeys. A Some icons have explanatory titles, like Open File or Terrorize Dorothy. Others make you guess; for example, the Little Juggling Man icon opens the network mail system. A For more icon stuff, see the section “Graphical User Interfaces,” earlier in this chapter.

The Internet
In the late 1960s, the U.S. government worried that enemies could drop bombs on its main cluster of Department of Defense computers, quickly turning circuits into slosh. So, the scientists moved the computers

______ Chapter 3: Windows XP Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know away from each other, connecting them globally with high-speed phone lines and a unique system of information forwarding. If a computer in San Diego blew up, for example, the data chain from surrounding computers wouldn’t simply stop there. The other computers would automatically reroute their information to other computers in the network, and everybody would still have e-mail waiting the next morning (except for the folks in San Diego, of course). With this sprawling chain of new networks running automatically in the background, enemies no longer have a single target to destroy. The system has proven quite durable, and thousands of other networks have hopped on for a ride. Many academic institutions climbed aboard as well, helping the system grow to gigantic proportions. Now known as the Internet, the information chain’s built-in independence keeps it uncontrollable, uncensored, and rampantly random in quality. Anybody can use the Internet and its trendy World Wide Web to sample the information strewn about the globe. Windows XP includes most of the tools you need to jump aboard. A In fact, Windows XP relies heavily on the Internet. It includes software for cruising the Web, watching video clips, listening to worldwide Internet radio stations, and downloading software. A There’s one problem. In order to use Windows XP’s tools and visit the Web, you need to sign up with an Internet service provider (ISP). These businesses usually charge a monthly fee, just like any other utility company. A For more Internet fun, see Chapter 12.

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Kilobytes, Megabytes, and So On
Figuring out the size of a real ﬁle folder is easy: Just look at the thickness of the papers stuffed in and around it. But computer ﬁles are invisible, so their size is measured in bytes (which is pronounced like what Dracula does). A byte is pretty much like a character or letter in a word. For example, the word sodium-free contains 11 bytes. (The hyphen counts as a byte.) Computer nerds picked up the metric system much more quickly than

______ Chapter 3: Windows XP Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know the rest of us, so bytes are measured in kilos (1,000), megas (1,000,000), and gigas (way huge). A page of double-spaced text in Notepad is about 1,000 bytes, known as 1 kilobyte, which is often abbreviated as 1K. Approximately 1,000 of those kilobytes is a megabyte, or 1MB. About 1,000 megabytes is a gigabyte, which brings us to your computer’s sales slip: Most new hard drives sold today are 20GB (gigabytes) or larger. A Just about all ﬂoppy disks these days can hold 1.44MB. Today’s programs are huge, so they usually come on compact discs, which hold more than 600MB. A All ﬁles are measured in bytes, regardless of whether they contain text. For example, the green hillside background that Windows XP often places on the desktop takes up 1,440,054 bytes. (For information on placing backgrounds on your desktop, see Chapter 10.) A A page of double-spaced text in Notepad takes up about 1K, but that same page in Microsoft Word consumes much more space. That’s because Word sticks in lots more information: the font size, the author’s name, bookmarks, spell-check results, and just about anything else you can think of. A The Windows XP My Computer and Explorer programs tell you how many bytes each of your ﬁles consumes. To ﬁnd out more, check out the information in Chapter 11. (Hint for anxious users: Right-click on any ﬁle’s name and choose Properties from the menu that pops up; you will ﬁnd more information about a ﬁle than you want to know.) One kilobyte doesn’t really equal 1,000 bytes. That would be too easy. Instead, this byte stuff is based on the number two. (Computers love mathematical details, especially when a two is involved.) One kilobyte is really 1,024 bytes, which is two raised to the 10th power, or 210. That means the 1,440,054-byte green hillside background adds up to 1.37MB. For more byte-size information, see Table 3-1.

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Table 3-1
Term Byte Kilobyte Megabyte Gigabyte

Ultra-Precise Details from the Slide-Rule Crowd
Abbreviation byte K or KB M or MB G or GB Rough Size 1 byte 1,000 bytes 1,000 kilobytes 1,000 megabytes Ultra-Precise Size 1 byte 1,024 bytes 1,048,576 bytes 1,073,741,824 bytes

Loading, Running, Executing, and Launching
Files are yanked from a ﬁle cabinet and placed onto a desk for easy reference. On a computer, ﬁles are loaded from a disk and placed into the computer’s memory so that you can do important stuff with them. You can’t work with a ﬁle or program until it has been loaded into the computer’s memory. When you run,execute, or launch a program, you’re merely starting it up so that you can use it. Load means pretty much the same thing, but some people ﬁne-tune its meaning to describe when a program ﬁle brings in a data ﬁle. Picture lovers can start programs by double-clicking pictures—icons— on the Windows XP desktop. Word-oriented people can start programs by double-clicking names in a list with My Computer (although those programs let you double-click icons, too, if you prefer).

Memory
Whoa! How did this complicated memory stuff creep in here? Luckily, it all boils down to one key sentence:

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The more memory a computer has available, the more pleasantly Windows XP behaves. A Memory is measured in bytes, just like a ﬁle. The computer at the garage sale probably came with 640 kilobytes, or 640K, of memory. Last year’s computer models usually came with at least 64MB of memory. Today’s computers often come with at least 128MB of memory installed. A Windows XP requires computers to have at least 128 megabytes, or 128MB, of memory, or it won’t even bother to come out of the box. Memory and hard disk space are both measured in bytes, but they’re two different things: Memory is what the computer uses for quick, onthe-ﬂy calculations when programs are up and running on-screen. Hard disk space is what the computer uses to store unused ﬁles and programs. Everybody’s computer contains much more hard disk space than memory because hard disks—also known as hard drives—are so much cheaper. Also, a hard disk remembers things even when the computer is turned off. A computer’s memory, on the other hand, is washed completely clean whenever someone turns it off or pokes its reset button. Not sure about all that kilobyte and megabyte stuff? Skip a few pages back to the “Kilobytes, Megabytes, and So On” section.

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The Mouse
A mouse is a smooth little plastic thing with a tail coming out of its head. Most mice rest on a little roller, or ball. The tail plugs into the back of the PC. When you push the mouse across your desk, the mouse sends its current location through its tail to the PC. By moving the mouse around on the desk, you move a corresponding arrow across the screen. You can wiggle the mouse in circles and watch the arrow make spirals. Or, to be practical, you can position the on-screen arrow over an onscreen button and click the mouse button to boss Windows XP around. (Refer to the sections “Clicking,” “Double-Clicking,” and “Pointers/

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Arrows,” and, if you haven’t run out of steam, turn to Chapter 2 for information on the parts of your computer.)

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Multitasking and task switching
Windows XP can run two or more programs at the same time, but computer nerds take overly tedious steps to describe the process. So skip this section because you’ll never need to know it. Even though the words task switching and multitasking often have an exclamation point in computer ads, there’s nothing really exciting about them. When you run two programs, yet switch back and forth between them, you’re task switching. For example, if Jeff calls while you’re reading a book, you put down the book and talk to Jeff. You are task switching: stopping one task and starting another. The process is similar to running your word processor and then stopping to look up a phone number in your handy business card database program. But when you run two programs simultaneously, you’re multitasking. For example, if you continue reading your book while listening to Jeff talk about the Natural History Museum’s new Grecian urns, you’re multitasking: performing two tasks at the same time. In Windows XP, multitasking can be playing a solitaire game or adding a huge spreadsheet while you’re downloading a ﬁle in the background and watching the stock ticker on the Internet. These two concepts differ only subtly, and yet computer nerds make a big deal out of the difference. Everybody else shrugs and says, “So what?”

Networks
Networks connect PCs so that people can share equipment and information. Every computer on the network can send stuff to one printer, for example, or people can send messages back and forth talking about Jane’s new hairstyle. You, as a Windows XP beginner, are safely absolved from knowing anything about networks. Leave network stuff to that poor person in charge. A Unless you’re working on a computer in an ofﬁce, you probably won’t have to worry about networks. If you ﬁnd yourself worrying about them, Chapter 9 holds the answers, including how to set one up in your own home or ofﬁce. A For information about dial-up networks, like connecting to the Internet through the Windows XP Internet Explorer, head for Chapter 12.

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Pointers/Arrows
This idea sounds easy at ﬁrst. When you roll the mouse around on your desk, you see a little arrow move around on-screen. That arrow is your pointer, and it is also called an arrow. (Almost everything in Windows XP has at least two names.) The pointer serves as your electronic index ﬁnger. Instead of pushing an on-screen button with your ﬁnger, you move the pointer over that button and click the left button on the mouse. So what’s the hard part? Well, that pointer doesn’t always stay an arrow. Depending on where the pointer is located on the Windows XP screen, it can turn into a straight line, a two-headed arrow, a four-sided arrow, an hourglass, a little pillar, or a zillion other things. Each of the symbols makes the mouse do something slightly different. Luckily, I cover these and other arrowheads in Chapter 2.

Plug and Play
Historically, installing new computer devices has required substantial technical expertise to conﬁgure and load hardware and software. Basically, that means that only geeks could ﬁgure out how to ﬁx their computers and add new gadgets to them. So, a bunch of computer vendors hunched together around a table and came up with Plug andPlay —a way for Windows XP to set up new gadgets for your computer automatically, with little or no human intervention. You plug in your latest gadget, and Windows XP “interviews” it, checking to see what special settings it needs. Then Windows XP automatically ﬂips the right switches. Because Windows XP keeps track of which switches are ﬂipped, none of the parts argues over who got the best settings. Better yet, users don’t

______ Chapter 3: Windows XP Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know have to do anything but plug the darn thing into their computers and ﬂip the On switch. A Of course, the process couldn’t be that simple. Only gadgets that say “Plug and Play” on the box allow for this automatic switch ﬂipping. With the others, you probably need to ﬂip the switches yourself. (But at least they still work when the right switches are ﬂipped.) A Some people call Plug and Play “PnP.” Other, more skeptical, people refer to Plug and Play as “Plug and Pray.” Windows XP can’t recognize everything, particularly older computer parts. A For the best chance of success, install only new gadgets that say Plug and Play and Windows XP compatible on the box. And never install a second gadget before you’re sure the ﬁrst gadget is working correctly.

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Quitting or Exiting
When you’re ready to throw in the computing towel and head for greener pastures, you need to stop, or quit, any programs you’ve been using. The terms quit and exit mean pretty much the same thing: making the current program on-screen stop running so that you can go away and do something a little more rewarding. Luckily, exiting Windows XP programs is fairly easy because all of them are supposed to use the same special exit command. You simply click the little X in the upper-right corner of the program’s window. (You’ll ﬁnd an example in the margin.) Never quit a program by just ﬂicking off your computer’s power switch. Doing so can foul up your computer’s innards. Instead, you must leave the program responsibly so that it has time to perform its housekeeping chores before it shuts down.

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A When you press Alt+F4 or click the little X in the upper-right corner, the program asks whether you want to save any changes you’ve made to the ﬁle. Normally, you click the button that says something like, “Yes, by all means, save the work I’ve spent the last three hours trying to create.” (If you’ve muffed things up horribly, click the No button. Windows XP disregards any work you’ve done and lets you start over from scratch.) A If, by some broad stretch of your ﬁngers, you press Alt+F4 by accident, click the button that says Cancel, and the program pretends that you never tried to leave it. You can continue as if nothing happened. A Windows XP still lets you close most Windows programs by double-clicking the icons in their uppermost left corners. However, it’s usually easier to single-click the X in the program’s uppermost right corner. But either action tells the program that you want to close it down. A Save your work before exiting a program or turning off your computer. Computers aren’t always smart enough to save it automatically.

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Save Command
Save means to send the work you’ve just created on your computer to a disk for safekeeping. Unless you speciﬁcally save your work, your computer thinks that you’ve just been ﬁddling around for the past four hours. You need to speciﬁcally tell the computer to save your work before it will safely store the work on a disk. Thanks to Microsoft’s snapping leather whips, all Windows XP programs use the same Save command, no matter what company wrote them. Press and release the Alt, F, and S keys in any Windows XP program, and the computer saves your work.

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If you’re saving something for the ﬁrst time, Windows XP asks you to think up a ﬁlename for the work and pick a folder to stuff the new ﬁle into. Luckily, I cover this stuff in Chapter 4. A You can save ﬁles to a hard disk or a ﬂoppy disk; some people save ﬁles on Zip drives or on writable compact discs. (Check out Chapter 2 for more drive speciﬁcs.) Or if you’re working in a networked ofﬁce, you can often save ﬁles onto other computers. A If you prefer using the mouse to save ﬁles, click the word File from the row of words along the top of the program. After a menu drops down, choose Save. Some programs even have a little picture of a ﬂoppy disk along their top edge; clicking the picture saves the ﬁle. A Choose descriptive ﬁlenames for your work. Windows XP gives you 255 characters to work with, so a ﬁle named June Report on Squeegee Sales is easier to relocate than one named Stuff. A Some programs, such as Microsoft Word for Windows, have an autosave feature that automatically saves your work every ﬁve minutes or so.

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Save As Command
Huh? Save as what? A chemical compound? Naw, the Save As command just gives you a chance to save your work with a different name and in a different location. Suppose that you open the Random Musings ﬁle in your Miscellaneous Stuff directory and change a few sentences around. You want to save the changes, but you don’t want to lose the original stuff. So you select Save As and type the new name, Additional Random Musings. A The Save As command is identical to the Save command when you’re ﬁrst trying to save something new: You can choose a fresh name and location for your work. A The world’s biggest clams can weigh up to 500 pounds.

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ScanDisk
You’ve probably seen this program, usually abruptly, and at the worst times. When your computer crashes, the ScanDisk program hops onto the big blue screen. Greet it with relief. ScanDisk is a disk detective that examines your hard drive for errors and then repairs them before allowing Windows XP to reappear on the screen.

Shortcuts
The shortcut concept is familiar to most people: Why bother walking around the block to get to school when a shortcut through Mr. McGurdy’s backyard can get you there twice as fast? It’s the same with Windows XP. Instead of wading through a bunch of menus to get somewhere, you can create a shortcut and assign an icon to it. Then, when you double-click the shortcut icon, Windows XP immediately takes you to that location. You can create a shortcut to the letter you’re currently working on, for example, and leave the shortcut icon sitting on your desktop within easy reach. Double-click the letter’s shortcut icon, and Windows XP automatically wades through your computer’s folders and ﬁles, grabs the word processor, and throws your letter onto the screen. A shortcut is simply a push button that loads a ﬁle or program. You can even make shortcuts for accessing your printer or a favorite folder. To create a desktop shortcut to a special ﬁle, folder, or program, open My Computer (or Explorer) and right-click on your coveted item’s icon. Choose Send To from the pop-up menu, and select Desktop (Create Shortcut). A shortcut to that item appears on your desktop. Fun! A Internet-crazy Windows XP even lets you create shortcuts to your favorite spots on the Internet and sprinkle them around your desktop for easy access. Just point at the icon next to the Internet site’s address in Internet Explorer and drag it to the desktop.

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A The ever-helpful Start button automatically makes shortcuts to the programs you use most often. Click the Start button, and you see shortcuts waiting for you. To adjust the number of listed shortcuts, right-click on the Start button, click Properties, click the Start Menu tab, and click the Customize button. That lets you adjust the number of stored shortcuts from 0 to 30. (Hit the Clear button to wipe the list clean and start over.) A A shortcut isn’t a program. It’s a push button that starts a program. If you delete a shortcut, you haven’t deleted the program; you’ve just removed a button that pointed to that program. You can still access the program through My Computer or Windows Explorer.

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Temp Files
Like children who don’t put away the peanut butter jar, Windows XP also leaves things lying around. They’re called temp ﬁles—secret ﬁles that Windows XP creates to store stuff in while it’s running. Windows XP normally deletes them automatically when you leave the program. It occasionally forgets, however, and leaves them cluttering up your hard drive. Stern lectures leave very little impression. A Temp ﬁles usually (but not always) end with the letters TMP. Filenames resemble words, such as ~DOC0D37.TMP, ~WRI3F0E.TMP , ~$DIBLCA.ASD, and similar-looking ﬁles that usually start with the wavy ~ thing. (Typographically correct people call it a tilde.) A To free up wasted disk space, use Windows XP’s Disk Cleanup option. Open My Computer from the Start menu, right-click on a disk drive, choose Properties, and click the Disk Cleanup button. It lets you delete bunches of old, unnecessary maintenance ﬁles, including temporary ﬁles.

The Windows
Windows XP enables you to run several programs at the same time by placing them in windows. A window is just a little on-screen box. You can move the boxes around. You can make them bigger or smaller. You can make them ﬁll your entire screen. You can make them turn into

______ Chapter 3: Windows XP Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know little icons at the bottom of your screen. You can spend hours playing with windows. In fact, most frustrated new Windows XP users do. A You can put as many windows on-screen as you want, peeping at all of them at the same time or just looking into each one individually. This activity appeals to the voyeur in all of us. Remember, though, the more windows you have open, the slower Windows will operate. A For instructions on how to move windows or resize them, head to Chapter 6. To retrieve lost windows from the pile, head immediately to Chapter 7.

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The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web, known simply as the Web, is merely a way for sending and receiving pictures, sound, and other information on the Internet network. (See the section “The Internet,” earlier in this chapter, or see Chapter 12 if you’re really interested.)

Part II

Making Windows XP Do Something

In this part…

W

indows XP is more fun than cheap tattoos from the bottom of a Cracker Jack box. You can play with its built-in pinball game, play backgammon with unknown opponents through the Internet, and edit your home movies to e-mail to friends. Unfortunately, some spoilsport friend will eventually mutter the words that bring everything back to Earth: “Let’s see Windows XP do something useful, like balance a checkbook or teach the kids to rinse off their plates and put them in the dishwasher.” Toss this eminently practical part at them to quiet ’em down.

Chapter 4

Starting Windows XP
In This Chapter
B Starting Windows XP and logging off B Starting a program B Finding the secret pull-down menus B Loading a ﬁle B Putting two programs on the screen B Printing and saving your work

M

icrosoft designed Windows XP to link large chains of computers in a corporation. Yet, it’s equally suited to run on a single computer in a living room. But whether your computer lives in solitude or mingles with other computers, Windows XP looks and acts pretty much the same, and that’s where this chapter comes in. Here you ﬁnd a crash course in opening Windows XP, doing some work, and closing down when you’re through. You discover how to make Windows XP not only recognize you, but also make you feel at home, as it changes its colors to meet your personal preferences. This chapter explains where your Windows XP programs live and how to address them properly. You discover how to coax Windows XP into running two or more programs simultaneously without complaining. You ﬁnd out how to send your work to the printer so you can convince doubting coworkers that you are, indeed, capable of making Windows XP do something useful. Finally, you discover how to log off Windows XP—a required method of bidding your computer adieu until you meet again—if you can get the kids off the computer, that is.

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Logging On to Windows XP
If your new PC came with Windows XP already installed (most do), Windows XP probably leaps to your screen automatically when you ﬁrst turn on the computer. But before you can do anything, Windows XP throws you a fastball with its brilliant blue Welcome screen: Windows wants you to log on, as shown in Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1: Windows XP wants all users to log on so it knows who’s using the computer at all times.

See, Windows XP allows bunches of people to work on the same computer, yet it keeps everybody’s work separate. To do that, it needs to know who’s currently sitting in front of the keyboard. The solution? It makes you log on—introduce yourself—by clicking your user name, as shown in Figure 4-1. A few seconds after you click, Windows XP shows you your desktop, ready for you to make a mess. When you’re through working or just feel like taking a break, log off (explained at the end of this chapter) so somebody else can use the

_________________________________ Chapter 4: Starting Windows XP computer. Later, when you log back on, your newly created mess will be waiting for you, just as you left it. A Although the desktop might be a mess, it’s your own mess. When you come back to the computer, your letters will all be where you saved them. Jerry hasn’t accidentally deleted your ﬁles or folders while playing Widget Squash. Or, if you left your desktop tidy, it will be just as tidy when you return. A By doling out a separate account to each computer user, Windows XP makes it seem like every person in the house has his or her own computer, set up the way he or she likes it. Jerry’s desktop is packed with icons that load his favorite games. Tina’s desktop contains Internet links to her favorite quilting and watercolor Web sites. And all of Melissa’s favorite MP3 ﬁles stay in her own personalized Music folder. A If you’re the only person using your computer, Windows XP skips the Welcome screen. There’s no need to log in. A Of course, the big question boils down to this: How do you put cute pictures by your user name, like in Figure 4-1? I cover that in detail in Chapter 9. A Don’t see a user name listed for you? Then you have three options. If you just bought the computer, look for one named Owner or Administrator, and use that one. If you’re not the owner but you spot the word Guest, click it to log on using the computer owner’s gracious Guest account. Or, ﬁnd out who owns the computer—that person probably set herself up as the computer’s administrator. Only the almighty administrator can create an account especially for you.

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It wants me to enter a password!
Windows XP lets bunches of people use the same computer without messing up each other’s work. But how do you make sure Josh doesn’t read Grace’s love letters to Henry Rollins? How can you set up your computer so that nobody accidentally deletes your letters? How can Josh make sure Grace’s pink background doesn’t replace his spaceships when he logs onto the computer? A password solves some of those problems.

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Running Windows XP for the ﬁrst time
Just installed Windows XP or turned on your new computer for the ﬁrst time? Then you’re treated to a few extra Windows XP chores. Depending on how your computer was conﬁgured at the shop, some of these forms might vary, but here’s a sampler of what you might encounter. (Click Next after ﬁlling out each form.) Regional and Language Options: Windows XP guesses as to your language and location, so it can display the correct words, dialects, currency format, and other information. If you’re not using a keyboard to enter text, use the mouse to tell Windows about your device. Personalize Your Software: Type your name and organization’s name. Your Product Key: Type the number/letter code that’s on the CD’s case. (Without this number, Windows doesn’t work.) Name Your Computer: Choose a name for your computer, and type it into the box. (This helps people identify your computer on networks.) Modem Dialing Information: Type your country, area code, and other telephone information. Date and Time: Windows usually guesses the correct date and time. Networking Settings: Unless you’re a guru, choose Typical Settings. Next, Windows XP “asks you to spend a few minutes setting up your computer.” Internet Connection: Will your computer connect to the Internet through a network or directly using its attached modem? Click Yes or No and then click the Next button. (I cover this more in Chapter 12.) Activate Windows: Feel free to activate Windows now. You’ll need to within the next 30 days, or Windows won’t work anymore. Registration: If you want junk mail from Microsoft, click Yes. Otherwise click No for this optional item. Users: Type the names of people who will be using your computer, starting with your own name at the top. Nobody else using it? Then just type your own name and click Next. If you’re confused about any of these items, click the Help button at the screen’s bottom. You’re through! And if you’ve made a mistake with any of these options, you can change them by using the Control Panel, described in Chapter 14.

By typing in a secret password when logging on, as shown in Figure 4-2, you enable your computer to recognize you and nobody else. If you protect your user name with a password, nobody can access your ﬁles (except for the computer’s administrator, who can peek into anything— and even wipe out your account). A Depending on your network’s size and level of security, a password can let you do many things. Sometimes, entering the password merely lets you use your own computer. Other times, it lets you share ﬁles on a network of linked computers.

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Figure 4-2: By using a password, you ensure that nobody else can access your ﬁles.

A Because networks can be notoriously difﬁcult to set up and ﬁgure out, most networked ofﬁces have a full-time network administrator who tries to make the darn thing work. (That’s the person to bug if something goes wrong.) A Windows XP needs at least one person to act as administrator even if your computer isn’t connected to other computers. Only an administrator may set up new accounts for new users, install programs, and access all the ﬁles on the computer—even those of other users. Head to Chapter 9 if you care about this stuff. A Don’t have a password? After you log on, click the lime-green Start button, click Control Panel, and click the User Accounts icon. Click the words Create a Password and type in a password that will be easy for you—and nobody else—to remember. Type the password again in the second box, and, in the third box, type a hint that reminds you of your password. Click the Create Password button, and Windows XP will ask for your password the next time you try to log on. (If you’re the administrator, you must ﬁrst choose an account and then select the Create a Password option.) A Have you forgotten your password already? Click the little question mark shown in Figure 4-2 that appears whenever you click your user name. A hint will appear, reminding you of your password. (That’s why it’s important to type a good hint when creating your password.) And beware—anybody else can read your hint, so make sure it’s something that only makes sense to you. A Keep your password short and sweet: the name of your favorite vegetable, for example, or the brand of your dental ﬂoss. (See your network administrator if Windows XP doesn’t accept your password. He or she can always let you back in.)

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A Passwords are case-sensitive. That means that the password caviar is different from Caviar. The computer notices the capital C, and considers caviar and Caviar to be two different words.

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Make Windows stop asking me for a password!
Windows asks for your name and password only when it needs to know who’s tapping on its keys. And it needs that information for any of these three reasons: she logs on. If you’re not working on a network, disable the network password request by double-clicking the Control Panel’s User Accounts icon and choosing Remove My Password. Now, Windows XP will never ask for a password again. However, anybody can now log onto the computer using your name and access (or destroy) your ﬁles. If you’re working in an ofﬁce setting, this lack of security can get you into some serious trouble. If you’ve been assigned a password, it’s better to simply get used to it.

A Your computer is part of a network, and your identity determines what goodies you can access.

A The computer’s owner wants to limit what you can do on the computer.

A You share your computer with other people, and each person wants to customize how Windows XP looks and behaves when he or

Starting your favorite program with the Start button
When Windows XP ﬁrst takes over your computer, it turns your screen into a pseudo-desktop: a fancy name for a plate of buttons with labels beneath them. Click a button, and the program assigned to that button hops to the screen in its own little window. Click the Start button in the bottom-left corner of the screen, and you’ll have even more buttons to choose from, as shown in Figure 4-3. Because the buttons have little pictures on them, they’re called icons. Icons offer clues to the programs they represent. Click an icon, and its program pops to the screen, ready for work. Click the icon of the stamped envelope, for instance, to launch Outlook Express, a program that lets people send and receive electronic mail on their computers. Click the big blue “e,” and Internet Explorer arrives, ready to prowl the Internet. The programs used most often (the list changes as your program usage changes) usually appear below the Internet Explorer and Email icons.

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Figure 4-3: The Start button in Windows XP hides dozens of menus for starting programs.

To ﬁnd the majority of your programs, however, click the words All Programs. A menu pops out, listing bunches and bunches of programs. These are programs you haven’t used often enough for Windows to turn them into big icons and put them on the Big List below Internet Explorer and E-mail. (Chapter 10 explains how to access those programs in its complete exposé of the Start menu.) A The Start button is just a big panel of buttons. When you press one of the buttons by pointing at it and clicking with the mouse, the program assigned to that button heads for the top of the screen and appears in a little window. A If you’re kind of sketchy about all this mouse click and double-click stuff, head to Chapter 3. You’re not alone. A Not sure what an icon does? Hold your mouse button over it, and Windows usually sends a helpful explanatory message or additional menu. A The Start button can be customized in bunches of different ways, so yours might look a little different than what you’ve read here. Chapter 10 shows how to customize your Start button.

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Pull-Down Menus
Windows XP, bless its heart, makes an honest effort toward making computing easier. For example, the Start button puts a bunch of options on the screen in front of you. You just choose the one you want, and Windows XP takes it from there. But if Windows XP put all its options on the screen at the same time, it would look more crowded than a 14-page menu at the Siam Thai restaurant. To avoid resorting to ﬁne print, Windows XP hides some menus in special locations on the screen. When you click the mouse in the right place, more options leap toward you. For example, begin loading Windows’ simple word-processing program, WordPad. If you spot the WordPad icon on the big menu, go ahead and click it. If it’s not there, you need to dig a little deeper. Start by clicking the Start button. When the Start menu pops up, click the words All Programs at the screen’s bottom. Wham! A new menu appears. Click Accessories from the new menu, and yet another menu appears. Finally, click WordPad to bring it to the screen. Don’t worry if you don’t quite understand all this yet—this is a quick run-through. I cover the Start menu in its own chapter, Chapter 10. See the row of words beginning with File that rests along the top edge of WordPad? You ﬁnd a row of words across the top of just about every Windows XP program. Move your mouse pointer over the word File and click. A menu opens from beneath File. This menu is called a pull-down menu, if you’re interested, and it looks somewhat like what you see in Figure 44. A Pull-down menus open from any of those key words along the top of a window. Just click the mouse on the word, and the menu tumbles down like shoeboxes falling off a closet shelf. A To close the menu, click the mouse again, but click it someplace away from the menu.

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Figure 4-4: Click a word along the top of any window to reveal a secret pulldown menu.

A Different Windows XP programs have different words across the menu bar, but almost all the bars begin with the word File. The File pull-down menu contains ﬁle-related options, like Open, Save, Print, and Push Back Cuticles. A You ﬁnd pull-down menus sprinkled liberally throughout Windows XP.

Loading a ﬁle
First, here’s the bad news: Loading a ﬁle into a Windows XP program can be a mite bit complicated sometimes. Also, loading a ﬁle means the same thing as opening a ﬁle. Now that those triﬂes have been dispensed with, here’s the good news: All Windows XP programs load ﬁles in the exact same way. So after you know the proper etiquette for one program, you’re prepared for all the others! Here’s the scoop: To open a ﬁle in any Windows XP program, look for the program’s menu bar, that row of important-looking words along its top. Because you’re after a ﬁle, click File, as described in the preceding section. A most-welcome pull-down menu descends from the word File. The menu has a list of important-looking words. Because you’re trying to open a ﬁle, move the mouse to the word Open and click once again.

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Yet another box hops onto the screen, as shown in Figure 4-5. You see this box named Open appear over and over again in Windows XP.

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Figure 4-5: Almost every Windows XP program tosses a box like this at you when you load or save a ﬁle.

See the list of ﬁlenames inside the box? Point at one of them with the mouse, click the button on the mouse, and that ﬁle’s name shows up in the box called File Name. Click the Open button, and WordPad opens the ﬁle and displays it on the screen. You’ve done it! You’ve loaded a ﬁle into a program! Those are the same stone steps you walk across in any Windows XP program, whether it was written by Microsoft or by the teenager down the street. They all work the same way. A Sometimes, you won’t immediately spot the ﬁle you’re after. It’s just not listed in that little box. That means that you’ll have to do a little spelunking. Just as most people store their underwear and Tshirts in different dresser drawers, most computers store their ﬁles in different places called folders. (Double-click a folder to see what’s stored inside.) If you’re having trouble ﬁnding a ﬁle for your program to open, head for the section on folders in Chapter 11. A See the ﬁle you want to open? You can speed things up by simply double-clicking the ﬁle’s name; that action tells Windows XP to load the ﬁle immediately.

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A Whenever you open a ﬁle and change it, even by an accidental press of the spacebar, Windows XP assumes that you’ve consciously changed the ﬁle for the better. If you try to open another ﬁle into that program, Windows XP cautiously asks whether you want to save the changes you’ve made to the current ﬁle. Click the No button unless you do, indeed, want to save that version you’ve haphazardly changed. A The Open box has a bunch of options in it. You can open ﬁles that are stored in different folders or on other disk drives. You can also call up ﬁles that were created by certain programs, ﬁltering out the ones you don’t need. Chapter 5 explains all this in the “Just Tell Me How to Open a File!” section. A Don’t know what those little icons along the top and side are supposed to do? Let the mouse pointer rest over them, and a box will appear, announcing their occupations. A If you’re still a little murky on the concepts of ﬁles, folders, directories, or drives, ﬂip to Chapter 11 for an explanation of the My Computer Program.

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Putting two programs on-screen simultaneously
After spending all your money for Windows XP and a computer powerful enough to cart it around, you’re not going to be content with only one program on your screen. You want to ﬁll the screen with programs, all running in their own little windows. How do you put a second program on the screen? Well, if you’ve opened WordPad by clicking its icon in the Start button’s Accessories area (that area’s listed under the Programs area), you’re probably already itching to load Pinball, Windows’ electronic pinball game. Simply click the Start button and start moving through the menus, as I describe in the “Starting your favorite program with the Start button” section, earlier in this chapter.

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Here goes: Click the Start button, click All Programs, click Games, and click Pinball. Pinball rushes to the screen. A This section is intentionally short. When working in Windows XP, you almost always have two or more programs on the screen at the same time. There’s nothing really special about it, so there’s no need to belabor the point here. A If you want to move multiple windows around on the screen, move yourself to Chapter 6. A If you’ve started up Pinball, you’re probably wondering where the WordPad window disappeared to. It’s now hidden behind the Pinball window. To get it back, check out the information on retrieving lost windows in Chapter 7. (Or, if you see a button called WordPad along the bottom of your screen, click it to put WordPad back in front.) A The special part comes when you move information between the two programs, which is explained in Chapter 8. (Moving information between windows is known as cutting and pasting in Windows parlance.) A To switch between windows, just click them. When you click a window, it immediately becomes the active window—the window where all the activity takes place. For more information on switching between windows, switch to Chapter 6.

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Printing Your Work
Eventually, you’ll want to transfer a copy of your ﬁnely honed work to the printed page so that you can pass it around. Printing something from any Windows XP program (or application, or applet, whatever you want to call it) takes only two clicks. Click the word File from along the program’s top, and then, when the menu drops down, click Print. Yet another menu appears, this time asking how you’d like your work to be printed. If you have more than one printer, for example, it’s time to choose which one. Do you want all the pages printed, or just some? How many copies? Answer the questions and click the Print button. (Or, if you want everything printed in a single copy to the same printer as always, just click the Print button and ignore the questions.)

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What you see on your screen is whisked to your printer. A If nothing comes out of the printer after a few minutes, try putting paper in your printer and making sure that it’s turned on. If it still doesn’t work, cautiously tiptoe to Chapter 15. A When you print something in Windows XP, you’re actually activating yet another program, which sits around and feeds stuff to your printer. You may see the program as a little printer icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen. A Many programs, such as WordPad, have little pictures of a printer along their tops. Clicking that printer icon is a quick way of telling the program to shufﬂe your work to the printer.

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Saving Your Work
Anytime you create something in a Windows XP program, be it a picture of a spoon or a letter to The New York Times begging for a decent comics page, you’ll want to save it to disk. Saving your work means placing a copy of it onto a disk, either the mysterious hard disk inside your computer, a ﬂoppy disk, or a CD. Luckily, Windows XP makes it easy for you to save your work. Click File from the menu bar along the top of your program. When the secret pulldown menu appears, click Save. Your mouse pointer turns into an hourglass, asking you to hold your horses while Windows XP shufﬂes your work from the program to your chosen disk for safekeeping. A If you’re saving your work for the ﬁrst time, you see a familiar-looking box: It’s the same box you see when opening a ﬁle. See how the letters in the File Name box are highlighted? The computer is always paying attention to the highlighted areas, so anything you type appears in that box. Type in a name for the ﬁle and press Enter. A If Windows XP throws a box in your face saying something like The above filename is invalid, you haven’t adhered to the ridiculously strict ﬁlename guidelines spelled out in Chapter 11.

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A Just as ﬁles can be loaded from different folders and disk drives, they can be saved to them as well. You can locate different folders, drives, and other storage places by clicking various parts of the Save box. (In fact, the most common storage locations appear as icons along the box’s left edge.) All this stuff is explained in the “Just Tell Me How to Open a File!” section of Chapter 5.

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Logging Off of Windows XP
Ah! The most pleasant thing you’ll do with Windows XP all day could very well be to stop using it. And you do that the same way you started: by using the Start button, that friendly little helper that popped up the ﬁrst time you started Windows XP. There, along the bottom of the Start menu, are two options: Log Off and Turn Off Computer. Other Windows XP programs come and go, but the Start button is always on your screen somewhere. (And if it’s hiding, hold down Ctrl and press Esc to bring it back from behind the trees.) Which should you choose? Here’s the scoop: Log Off: Choose this option when you’re done working with Windows XP for the time being. Windows then asks if you want to Switch User or Log Off, as shown in Figure 4-6. Which option do you choose?
Figure 4-6: Under normal circumstances, choose Log Off to save your work and let somebody else use the computer.

If you’re really through with the computer, choose Log Off. Windows saves your work and your settings, and returns to the Welcome screen for the next user.

_________________________________ Chapter 4: Starting Windows XP
If somebody else just wants to borrow the computer for a few minutes, choose Switch User. The Welcome screen appears, but Windows keeps your open programs waiting in the background. When you switch back, everything’s just as you left it. Turn Off Computer: Choose this when nobody else will be using the computer until the next morning. Windows XP saves everything and tells you when it’s okay to turn off your computer. A Be sure to shut down Windows XP through its ofﬁcial Shut Down program before turning off your computer. Otherwise, Windows XP can’t properly prepare your computer for the event, leading to future troubles. A When you tell Windows XP that you want to quit, it searches through all your open windows to see whether you’ve saved all your work. If it ﬁnds any work you’ve forgotten to save, it tosses a box your way, letting you click the OK button to save it. Whew! A You don’t have to shut down Windows XP. In fact, some people leave their computers on all the time. Just be sure to turn off your monitor; those things like to cool down when they’re not being used.

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Chapter 5

Field Guide to Buttons, Bars, Boxes, Folders, and Files
In This Chapter
B Looking at a typical window B Getting into bars B Changing borders B Getting to know the button family B Disregarding the dopey Control-menu button B Exploring dialog box stuff: Text boxes, drop-down list boxes, list boxes, and

other gibberish
B Finding out how to open a ﬁle B Changing your folder viewing options B Knowing when to click and when to double-click B Knowing when to use the left mouse button and when to use the right mouse

button

A

s children, just about all of us played with elevator buttons until our parents told us to knock it off. An elevator gives such an awesome feeling of power: Push a little button, watch the mammoth doors slide shut, and feel the responsive push as the spaceship ﬂoor begins to surge upward. . . . What fun! Part of an elevator’s attraction still comes from its simplicity. To stop at the third ﬂoor, you merely press the button marked 3. No problems there. Windows XP takes the elevator button concept to an extreme, unfortunately, and it loses something in the process. First, some of the Windows XP buttons don’t even look like buttons. Most of the Windows XP buttons have ambiguous little pictures on them rather than clearly

_______ Chapter 5: Field Guide to Buttons, Bars, Boxes, Folders, and Files marked labels. And the worst part is the Windows XP terminology: The phrase “push the button” becomes “click the scroll bar above or below the scroll box on the vertical scroll bars.” Yuck! When braving your way through Windows XP, don’t bother learning all these dorky terms. Instead, treat this chapter as a ﬁeld guide, something you can grab when you stumble across a confusing new button or box that you’ve never encountered before. Just page through until you ﬁnd its picture. Read the description to ﬁnd out whether that particular creature is deadly or just mildly poisonous. Then read to ﬁnd out where you’re supposed to poke it with the mouse pointer. You’ll get used to the critter after you’ve clicked it a few times. Just don’t bother remembering the scientiﬁc name vertical scroll bar, and you’ll be ﬁne.

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A Typical Window
Nobody wants a ﬁeld guide without pictures, so Figure 5-1 shows a typical window with its most important parts labeled (all 11 of them, unfortunately).
Close button Control menu Figure 5-1: Here’s how the everprecise computer nerds address the different parts of a window. Title bar Maximize button Minimize button

Scroll arrow Scroll box Vertical scroll bar Window corner Workspace Border

Just as boxers grimace differently depending on where they’ve been punched, windows behave differently depending on where they’ve been

_______ Chapter 5: Field Guide to Buttons, Bars, Boxes, Folders, and Files clicked. The following sections describe the correct places to click and, if that doesn’t work, the best places to punch. A Windows XP is full of little weird-shaped buttons, borders, and boxes. You don’t have to remember their Latin or Greek etymologies. The important part is just ﬁnding out what part you’re supposed to click. Then you can start worrying about whether you’re supposed to single-click or double-click. (And that little dilemma is explained near the end of this chapter.) A Not sure whether you should single-click or double-click? This trick always works: Click cautiously once. If that doesn’t do the trick — the click doesn’t prod your program into action, for instance — then double-click by clicking twice in rapid succession. A After you click a few windows a few times, you realize how easy it really is to boss them around. The hard part is ﬁnding out everything for the ﬁrst time, just like when you stalled the car while learning how to use the stick shift.

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Bars
Windows XP is ﬁlled with bars; perhaps that’s why some of its programs seem a bit groggy and hung over. Bars are thick stripes along the edges of a window. You ﬁnd several different types of bars in Windows XP.

Moving windows with the title bar
The title bar is that topmost strip in any window (see Figure 5-2). It lists the name of the program, as well as the name of any open ﬁle. For example, the title bar in Figure 5-2 comes from the Windows XP Notepad. It contains an untitled ﬁle because you haven’t had a chance to save the ﬁle yet. (For example, the ﬁle may be full of notes you’ve jotted down from an energetic phone conversation with Ed McMahon.)
Figure 5-2: A title bar lists the program’s name.

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Windows XP often chooses the name New Text Document for untitled Notepad ﬁles; you choose a more descriptive name for that ﬁle when you save it for the ﬁrst time. That new ﬁlename then replaces the admittedly vague New Text Document in the title bar. A In addition to displaying the name of your work, the title bar serves as a handle for moving a window around on-screen. Point at the title bar, hold down the mouse button, and move the mouse around. An outline of the window moves as you move the mouse. When you’ve placed the outline in a convenient spot for working, let go of the mouse button. The window leaps to that new spot and sets up camp. A When you’re working on a window, its title bar is highlighted, meaning that it’s a different color from the title bar of any other open window. By glancing at all the title bars on-screen, you can quickly tell which window is currently being used. To enlarge a window so that it completely ﬁlls the screen, double-click its title bar. The window expands to full size, making it easier to read and covering up everything else on the desktop. Maximized windows can’t be moved, however; double-click their title bars once again to return them to window size. Then they can be moved once again.

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Bossing around windows with the menu bar
Windows XP has menus everywhere. But if menus appeared all at once, everybody would think about deep-fried appetizers rather than computer commands. So Windows XP hides its menus in something called a menu bar (see Figure 5-3).
Figure 5-3: Windows XP hides choices in a menu bar.

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Lying beneath the title bar, the menu bar keeps those little menus hidden behind little words. To reveal secret options associated with those words, click one of those words. For example, to see the entrees under Edit, click your mouse button on Edit. A secret menu tumbles down from a trap door, as shown in Figure 5-4, presenting all sorts of edit-related options.

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Figure 5-4: Click any word in a menu bar to reveal its secret hidden menu.

Keep the following points in mind when using menus: A When you click a word in a menu bar, a menu comes tumbling down. The menu contains options related to that particular key word. A Just as restaurants sometimes run out of specials, a window sometimes isn’t capable of offering all its menu items. Any unavailable options are grayed out, as the Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete options are in Figure 5-4. A If you accidentally click the wrong word, causing the wrong menu to jump down, just sigh complacently. (S-i-i-i-i-igh.) Then click the word you really wanted. The ﬁrst menu disappears, and the new one appears below the new word. A If you want out of a program’s Menu Land completely, click the mouse pointer back down on your work in the window’s workspace — usually the area where you’ve been typing stuff.

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If you used earlier versions of Windows, you might miss the underlined shortcut keys that appeared in menus. Windows XP doesn’t show them automatically. If you miss them, I reveal how to turn them back on in Chapter 18.

Moving inside your window with the scroll bar
The scroll bar, which looks like an elevator shaft, is along the edge of a window (see Figure 5-5). Inside the shaft, a little freight elevator (the scroll box) travels up and down as you page through your work. In fact, by glancing at the little elevator, you can tell whether you’re near the top, the middle, or the bottom of a document.

Figure 5-5: Scroll bars enable you to page through everything that’s in a window.

For example, if you’re looking at stuff near the top of a document, the elevator box is near the top of its little shaft. If you’re working on the bottom portion of your work, the elevator box dangles near the bottom. You can watch the little box travel up or down as you press the PgUp or PgDn key. (Yes, it’s easy to get distracted in Windows XP.) Here’s where the little box in the scroll bar comes into play: By clicking in various places on that scroll bar, you can quickly move around in a document without pressing the PgUp or PgDn key. A Instead of pressing the PgUp key, click in the elevator shaft above the little elevator (the scroll box). The box jumps up the shaft a little bit, and the document moves up one page, too. Click below the scroll box, and your view moves down, just as with the PgDn key.

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A To move your view up line by line, click the boxed-in arrow(the scroll arrow) at the top of the scroll bar. If you hold down the mouse button while the mouse pointer is over that arrow, more and more of your document appears, line by line, as it moves you closer to its top. (Holding down the mouse button while the pointer is on the bottom arrow moves you closer to the bottom, line by line.) A Scroll bars that run along the bottom of a window can move your view from side to side rather than up and down. They’re handy for viewing spreadsheets that extend off the right side of your screen. A If the scroll bars don’t have a little scroll box inside them, then you’re already seeing everything on the screen. There’s no little elevator to play with. Sniff. Sniff. A Want to move around in a hurry? Then put the mouse pointer on the little elevator box, hold down the mouse button, and drag the little elevator box up or down inside the shaft. For example, if you drag the box up toward the top of its shaft and release it, you can view the top of the document. Dragging it and releasing it down low takes you near the end. A Windows XP adds another dimension to some scroll bars: the little elevator’s size. If the elevator is swollen up so big that it’s practically ﬁlling the scroll bar, the window is currently displaying practically all the information the ﬁle has to offer. But if the elevator is a tiny box in a huge scroll bar, you’re only viewing a tiny amount of the information contained in the ﬁle. Don’t be surprised to see the scroll box change size when you add or remove information from a ﬁle. A Clicking or double-clicking the little elevator box itself doesn’t do anything, but that doesn’t stop most people from trying it anyway. A If you don’t have a mouse, you can’t play on the elevator. To view the top of your document, hold down Ctrl and press Home. To see the bottom, hold down Ctrl and press End. Or press the PgUp or PgDn key to move one page at a time.

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Undoing what you’ve just done
Windows XP offers a zillion different ways for you to do the same thing. Here are four ways to access the Undo option, which unspills the milk you’ve just spilled: is undone, saving you from any damage.

A Press and release the Alt key, press the letter E (from Edit), and then press the letter U (from Undo). Your last bungle is unbungled, reversing any grievous penalties. Don’t bother learning all four methods. For example, if you can remember the Ctrl+Z key combination, you can forget about the menu method or the Alt key method. Best yet, just write Ctrl+Z on the cover of the book. (The publisher’s marketing people wouldn’t let me put it there.)

A Hold down the Ctrl key and press the Z key.
The last mistake you made is reversed, sparing you from further shame.

A Hold down the Alt key and press the Backspace key. Nobody but you and the computer know of your now-rectiﬁed error.

A Click Edit and then click Undo from the menu that falls down. The last command you made

Switching windows with the taskbar
Windows XP converts your computer monitor’s screen into a desktop. But because your newly computerized desktop is probably only 15 inches wide, all your programs and windows cover each other up like memos tossed onto a spike. To keep track of the action, Windows XP introduces the taskbar. It usually clings to the bottom of your screen and simply lists what windows are currently open. If you’ve found the Start button, you’ve found the taskbar — the Start button lives on the taskbar’s left or top end. A Whenever you open a window, Windows XP tosses that window’s name onto a button on the taskbar. If you open a lot of windows, the taskbar automatically shrinks all its buttons so they’ll ﬁt. A To switch from one window to another, just click the desired window’s name from its button on the taskbar. Wham! That window shoots to the top of the pile. A Are all those open windows looking too crowded? Click a blank part of the taskbar with your right mouse button and choose the Minimize All Windows option. All your currently open windows turn into buttons on the taskbar. Or, click the little desktop icon near the Start button. Your desktop is instantly cleared.

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A You can ﬁnd loads more information about the taskbar — including what to do if it vanishes — in Chapter 10.

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Borders
A border is that thin edge enclosing a window. Compared with a bar, it’s really tiny. A You drag borders from side to side to change a window’s size. I discuss how to do that in Chapter 6. A You can’t use a mouse to change a window’s size if the window doesn’t have a border. A few unruly borders keep the window locked at its current size, no matter how much you ﬁddle. A Except for dragging them, you won’t be using borders much.

The Button Family
Three basic species of buttons ﬂourish throughout the Windows XP environment: command buttons, option buttons, and minimize/maximize buttons. All three species are closely related, and yet they look and act quite differently.

Sending commands with command buttons
Command buttons may be the simplest to ﬁgure out — Microsoft labeled them! Command buttons are most commonly found in dialog boxes, which are little pop-up forms that Windows XP makes you ﬁll out before it will work for you. For example, when you ask Windows XP to open a ﬁle, it sends out a form in a dialog box. You have to ﬁll out the form, telling Windows XP what ﬁle you’re after, where it’s located, and other equally cumbersome details. Table 5-1 identiﬁes some of the more common command buttons that you encounter in Windows XP.

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Table 5-1
Command Button

Common Windows XP Command Buttons
Description Found in nearly every pop-up dialog box Habitat A click on this button says, “I’m done ﬁlling out the form, and I’m ready to move on.” Windows XP then reads what you’ve typed into the form and processes your request. (Pressing the Enter key does the same thing as clicking the OK button.) If you’ve somehow loused things up when ﬁlling out a form, click the Cancel button. The pop-up box disappears, and everything returns to normal. Whew! (The Esc key does the same thing.) Boy, would this have come in handy in elementary school! By clicking the Back button, Windows returns you to the previous window so that you can change your answer. Click the Next button to move to the next window’s question; click Finish in the ﬁnal window when you’re conﬁdent that you’ve correctly ﬁlled out the form. If you encounter a button with ellipsis dots ( . . . ) after the word, brace yourself: Clicking that button brings yet another box to the screen. From there, you must choose even more settings, options, or toppings. Windows XP adopted much of the Internet Web world, where buttons no longer look like buttons. Just about anything can be a button. The clues? When your mouse pointer turns into a little hand, it’s hovering over a button. (Little pictures that waver on the screen are telltale signs, too.)

Found in nearly every pop-up dialog box

Found when you must answer a string of questions as you ﬁll out a form

Found less often in pop-up dialog boxes

Found sprinkled nearly everywhere

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A By clicking a command button, you’re telling Windows XP to carry out the command that’s written on the button. (Luckily, no command buttons are labeled Explode.) A See how the OK button in Table 5-1 has a slightly darker border than the others? That darker border means that the button is highlighted. Anything in Windows XP that’s highlighted takes effect as soon as you press the Enter key; you don’t have to select it. A Instead of scooting your mouse to the Cancel button when you’ve goofed in a dialog box, just press your Esc key. It does the same thing. If you’ve clicked the wrong command button but haven’t yet lifted your ﬁnger from the mouse button, stop! There’s still hope. Command buttons take effect only after you’ve lifted your ﬁnger from the mouse button. Keep your ﬁnger pressed on the button and scoot the mouse pointer away from the button. When the pointer no longer rests on the button, gently lift your ﬁnger. Whew! Try that trick on any elevator. Did you stumble across a box that contains a confusing command button or two? Click the question mark in the box’s upper-right corner. (If there is a question mark, it will look like the one in the margin.) Then, when you click the confusing command button, a helpful comment appears to explain that button’s function in life. Also, try merely resting your mouse pointer over the button. Sometimes, Windows takes pity and sends a helpful caption to explain matters.

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Choosing between option buttons
Sometimes, Windows XP gets ornery and forces you to select just a single option. For example, you can elect to eat your Brussels sprouts or not eat your Brussels sprouts. You can’t select both, so Windows XP doesn’t let you select both of the options. Windows XP handles this situation with an option button. When you select one option, the little dot hops over to it. If you select the other option, the little dot hops over to it instead. You ﬁnd option buttons in many dialog boxes. Figure 5-6 shows an example.

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Figure 5-6: When you select an option, the dot hops to it.

A Although Windows XP tempts you with several choices in an option box, it lets you select only one of them. It moves the dot (and little dotted border line) back and forth between the options as your decision wavers. Click the OK button when you’ve reached a decision. The dotted option then takes effect. A If you can select more than one option, Windows XP won’t present you with option buttons. Instead, it offers the more liberal check boxes, which are described in the “Check boxes” section later in this chapter. A Some folks will quickly notice that option buttons are always round. Command buttons, described earlier, are rectangular. Some old-time computer engineers refer to option buttons as radio buttons, after those push buttons on car radios that switch from station to station, one station at a time.

Changing a window’s size with Minimize and Maximize buttons
All the little windows in Windows XP often cover each other up like pages of the morning newspaper on the breakfast island. To restore order, you can separate the windows by using their Minimize/Maximize buttons. These buttons enable you to enlarge a particular window you want to play with, or shrink all the others so they’re out of the way. Here’s the scoop. The Minimize button is one of three buttons in the upper-right corner of almost every window. It looks like that little button in the margin next to this paragraph.

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A click on the Minimize button makes its window disappear, although the program lives on. In fact, its little button still lives on the taskbar along the bottom of your screen. (Click the window’s taskbar button, described in Chapter 10, to return the window to its normal size.) A Minimizing a window doesn’t destroy its contents; it just transforms the window into a little button on the bar that runs along the bottom of the screen. A To make the button turn back into an on-screen window, click the button on the taskbar along the bottom of your screen. The program reverts to a window in the same size and location as before you shrank it. A Closing a window and minimizing a window are two different things. Closing a window purges the program from the computer’s memory. To reopen it, you need to load it from your hard drive again. Turning a window into a taskbar button, by contrast, keeps it handy, loaded into memory, and ready to be used at an instant’s notice. The Maximize button is in the upper-right corner of every window. It looks like the button in the margin. A click on the Maximize button makes the window swell up something ﬁerce, taking up as much space on-screen as possible. A If you’re frustrated with all those windows that are overlapping each other, click your current window’s Maximize button. The window muscles its way to the top, ﬁlling the screen like a real program. A Immediately after you maximize a window, its little Maximize button turns into a Restore button (described momentarily). The restore button lets you shrink the window back down when you’re through giving it the whole playing ﬁeld. You don’t have to click the Maximize button to maximize a window. Just double-click its title bar, the thick strip along the window’s top bearing its name. That double-click does the same thing as clicking the Maximize button, and the title bar is much easier to aim for.

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In the upper-right corner of every maximized window is the Restore button, which looks like the button in the margin. After a window is maximized, clicking this button returns the window to the size it was before you maximized it. A Restore buttons appear only in windows that ﬁll the entire screen (which is no great loss because you need a Restore button only when the window is maximized). A To close a window, click the little X in its top-right corner (shown in the margin).

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The Useless Control-Menu Button
Just as all houses have circuit breakers, all windows have Control-menu buttons, and the buttons look different on each program. However, the buttons always perch in the top-left corner of a window. (Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the Control-menu button is actually a miniature icon representing the program.) If you click the Control-menu button, a secret hidden menu appears, but it’s pretty useless. It just provides methods to manipulate windows using your keyboard in case your mouse should fail. (It contains commands to Move, Minimize, Maximize, Close and a few others.) So ignore it, unless your mouse freezes.

Filling Out Bothersome Forms in Dialog Boxes
Sooner or later, you have to sit down and tell Windows XP something personal — the name of a ﬁle to open, for example, or the name of a ﬁle to print. To handle this personal chatter, Windows XP sends out a dialog box. A dialog box is merely another little window. But instead of containing a program, it contains a little form or checklist for you to ﬁll out. These forms can have bunches of different parts, which are discussed in the following sections. Don’t bother trying to remember the names of the parts, however. It’s more important to ﬁgure out how they work.

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Typing into text boxes
A text box works like a ﬁll-in-the-blanks test in history class. You can type anything you want into a text box — words, numbers, passwords, or epithets. For example, Figure 5-7 shows a dialog box that pops up when you want to search for some words or characters in WordPad.
Figure 5-7: This dialog box from WordPad contains a text box.

When you type words or characters into this box and press the Enter key, WordPad searches for them. If it ﬁnds them, WordPad shows them to you on the page. If it doesn’t ﬁnd them, WordPad sends out a robotic dialog box saying it’s ﬁnished searching. A Two clues let you know whether a text box is active — that is, ready for you to start typing stuff into it: The box’s current information is highlighted, or a cursor is blinking inside it. In either case, just start typing the new stuff. (The older, highlighted information disappears as the new stuff replaces it.) A If the text box isn’t highlighted or there isn’t a blinking cursor inside it, it’s not ready for you to start typing. To announce your presence, click inside it. Then start typing. Or press Tab until the box becomes highlighted or contains a cursor. A If you click inside a text box that already contains words, delete the information with the Delete or Backspace key before you start typing in new information. If the old text is already highlighted, just start typing: Your incoming text will automatically delete the old words. (Tip: If the old information isn’t highlighted, double-click it; then, the incoming text automatically replaces the old text.)

Choosing options from list boxes
Some boxes don’t let you type stuff into them. They already contain information. Boxes containing lists of information are called, appropri-

_______ Chapter 5: Field Guide to Buttons, Bars, Boxes, Folders, and Files ately enough, list boxes. For example, WordPad brings up a list box if you’re inspired enough to want to change its font — the way the letters look (see Figure 5-8).
Figure 5-8: You can select a font from the list box to change the way letters look in WordPad.

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A See how the Comic Sans MS font is highlighted? It’s the currently selected font. Press Enter (or click the OK command button), and WordPad begins using that font when you start typing. A See the scroll bar along the side of the list box? It works just as it does anywhere else: Click the little scroll arrows (or press the up or down arrow) to move the list up or down so you can see any names that don’t ﬁt in the box. A Many list boxes have a text box above them. When you click a name in the list box, that name hops into the text box. Sure, you could type the name into the text box yourself, but it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. A When confronted with zillions of names in a list box, type the ﬁrst letter of the name you’re after. Windows XP immediately hops down the list to the ﬁrst name beginning with that letter.

Drop-down list boxes
List boxes are convenient, but they take up a great deal of room. So, Windows XP sometimes hides list boxes, just as it hides pull-down menus. When you click in the right place, the list box appears, ready for your perusal.

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When one just isn’t enough
Some list boxes, like those in Windows Explorer, let you select a bunch of items simultaneously. Here’s how: the ﬁrst item, last item, and every item in between. Pretty sneaky, huh?

A To select more than one item, hold down the
Ctrl key and click each item you want. Each item stays highlighted.

A Finally, when grabbing bunches of icons, try using the “rubber band” trick: Point at an area of the screen next to one icon, and, while holding down the mouse button, move the mouse until you’ve drawn a lasso around all the icons. After you’ve highlighted the icons you want, let go of the mouse button, and they remain highlighted. Fun!

A To select a bunch of adjacent items from a list box, click the ﬁrst item you want. Then hold down Shift and click the last item you want. Windows XP immediately highlights

So, where’s the right place? It’s that downward-pointing arrow button, just like the one shown next to the box beside the Font option in Figure 5-9. (The mouse pointer is pointing to it.)

Figure 5-9: Click the downwardpointing arrow next to the Font box to make a dropdown list box display available fonts.

Figure 5-10 shows the drop-down list box, after being clicked by the mouse. A Unlike regular list boxes, drop-down list boxes don’t have a text box above them. (That thing that looks like a text box just shows the currently selected item from the list; you can’t type anything in there.)

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Figure 5-10: A list box drops down to display all the fonts that are available.

A To scoot around quickly in a long drop-down list box, press the ﬁrst letter of the item you’re after. The ﬁrst item beginning with that letter is instantly highlighted. You can press the up- or downarrow key to see the words and phrases nearby. A Another way to scoot around quickly in a drop-down list box is to click the scroll bar to its right. (Scroll bars are discussed earlier in this chapter, if you need a refresher.) A You can choose only one item from the list of a drop-down list box. A The program in Figure 5-10 is called Character Map, and it’s a handy way for adding characters that don’t appear on your keyboard: 1/2, ®, ©, and the rest. To play with Character Map, click the Start button and click the All Programs area. Click System Tools from the Accessories area, and click Character Map.

Check boxes
Sometimes you can choose from a whopping number of options in a dialog box. A check box is next to each option, and if you want that option, you click in the box. If you don’t want it, you leave the box blank. For example, with the check boxes in the dialog box shown in Figure 5-11, you pick and choose options in FreeCell.

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Figure 5-11: A check mark appears in each check box that you choose.

A By clicking in a check box, you change its setting. Clicking in an empty square turns on that option. If the square already has a check mark in it, a click turns off that option, removing the check mark. A You can click next to as many check boxes as you want. With option buttons — those things that look the same but are round — you can select only one option from the pack.

Sliding controls
Rich Microsoft programmers, impressed by track lights and sliding light switches in their luxurious new homes, added sliding controls to Windows XP as well. These virtual light switches are easy to use and don’t wear out nearly as quickly as the real ones do. To slide a control in Windows XP — to adjust the volume level, for example — just drag and release the sliding lever, like the one shown in Figure 5-12.
Figure 5-12: To slide a lever, point at it, hold down the mouse button, and move your mouse.

Point at the lever with the mouse and, while holding down the mouse button, move the mouse in the direction you want the sliding lever to move. As you move the mouse, the lever moves, too. When you’ve

_______ Chapter 5: Field Guide to Buttons, Bars, Boxes, Folders, and Files moved the lever to a comfortable spot, let go of the mouse button, and Windows XP leaves the lever at its new position. That’s it. A Some levers slide to the left and right; others move up and down. None of them move diagonally. A To change the volume in Windows XP, click the little speaker near the clock in the desktop’s bottom-right corner. A sliding volume control appears, ready to be dragged up or down. If the little speaker near the clock is missing, click the Start button and open the Control Panel. Choose the Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices option, and select Adjust the System Volume. Finally, click to put a check mark in the box next to the words Place Volume Icon in the Taskbar. A Mouse died and you’re frantic to turn down the volume? Press Tab until a little box appears over the sliding lever. Then press your arrow keys in the direction you want the lever to slide. If your keyboard comes with built-in volume control buttons, try those, too (although Windows XP often ignores them until you install their own special drivers; check the discs that came with your PC or keyboard).

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Just Tell Me How to Open a File!
Enough with the labels and terms. Forget the buttons and bars. How do you load a ﬁle into a program? This section gives you the scoop. You follow these steps every time you load a ﬁle into a program. (Chapter 4 contains more general information about loading a program, opening a ﬁle, saving the ﬁle, and closing the program.) Opening a ﬁle is a ﬁle-related activity, so start by ﬁnding the word File in the window’s menu bar (see Figure 5-13). Then simply do the following: 1. Click File to knock down that word’s hidden little menu. Figure 5-14 shows the File pull-down menu.

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Figure 5-13: To open a ﬁle, you ﬁrst choose the word File in the window’s menu bar.

Figure 5-14: When you click File, the File pulldown menu appears.

2. Click Open to bring up the Open dialog box. You can predict that Open will call up a dialog box because of the trailing . . . things beside Open on-screen. (Those . . . things are called an ellipsis, or three dots, depending on the tightness of your English teacher’s hair bun.) Figure 5-15 shows the Open dialog box that leaps to the front of the screen. A similar dialog box appears when you mess with the File pulldown menu in many programs. A If you ﬁnd your ﬁlename listed in the ﬁrst list box (in this case, the one listing the Beer Cheese ﬁle), you’re in luck. Double-click the ﬁle’s name, and it automatically jumps into the program. Or click the ﬁle’s name once and click the Open button. A If you don’t ﬁnd the ﬁle’s name, it’s probably in a different folder. Windows XP often lists places to look along the window’s left side, as shown in Figure 5-15. Click History to see the names of recently opened ﬁles. Click Desktop if the ﬁle is located on your desktop. My Documents lets you peek into the My Documents area, a convenient storage space. Head for My Computer to scour the entire computer from the top down, or click My Network Places to scour other computers, should you have a network.

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Figure 5-15: This Open dialog box often appears when you open a ﬁle in a Windows program.

A Click the little box along the top that is labeled Look In, and Windows XP displays a bunch of other folders to rummage through. Each time you click a different folder, that folder’s contents appear in the ﬁrst list box. A Still can’t ﬁnd the correct folder? Perhaps that ﬁle is on a different drive. Click one of the other drive icons listed in the Look In box to search in a different drive. Drive icons are those little gray box things; folder icons, well, look like folders. A Could the ﬁle be named something strange? Click the Files of Type drop-down list box to select a different ﬁle type. To see all the ﬁles in a folder, select the All Files (*.*) option. Then all the ﬁles in that folder show up. A Don’t know what those little icons along the top and sides are supposed to do? Rest your mouse pointer over the one that has you stumped. After a second or so, the increasingly polite Windows XP brings a box of explanatory information to the screen. For example, rest the mouse pointer over the folder with the explosion in its corner, and Windows XP tells you that clicking that icon creates a new folder. A This stuff is incredibly mind numbing, of course, if you’ve never been exposed to drives, folders, wild cards, or other equally painful computer terms. For a more rigorous explanation of this scary ﬁle-management stuff, troop to Chapter 11.

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A If the ﬁle is still lost, make Windows ﬁnd it. Click the Start menu’s Search button and choose the option that describes what you’re searching for. (The All File Types option is always a good bet.) Type in the name of your ﬁle and choose My Computer in the Look In box. (Chapter 7 offers more information about Search because that chapter is dedicated to helping you ﬁnd lost things in Windows.)

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Hey! When Do I Click, and When Do I Double-Click?
That’s certainly a legitimate question, but Microsoft only coughs up a vague answer. Microsoft says that you should click when you’re selecting something in Windows XP and you should double-click when you’re choosing something. And even that’s not for certain. Huh? Well, you’re selecting something when you’re highlighting it. For example, you may select a check box, an option button, or a ﬁlename. You click any of the three to select it, and then you look at it to make sure that it looks okay. If you’re satisﬁed with your selection, you click the OK button to complete the job. To select something is to set it up for later use. When you choose something, however, the response is more immediate. Choosing a ﬁle immediately loads it into your program. Microsoft’s “choose” lingo says, “I’m choosing this ﬁle, and I want it now, buster.” You choose something you want to have carried out immediately. A All right, this explanation is still vague. So always start off by trying a single-click. If clicking once doesn’t do the job, try a doubleclick. It’s usually much safer than double-clicking ﬁrst and asking questions later. A And even this isn’t always true. See, Windows XP can be set up so it chooses ﬁles when you perform a single-click or a double-click. The software enables you to select a ﬁle or program by simply resting your pointer over it and then clicking to prod it into action. That’s the way the Internet’s World Wide Web works, so Windows XP lets you set it up that way, too.

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A If you accidentally double-click rather than single-click, it usually doesn’t matter. You can usually just close a runaway program with a few clicks. But if something terrible happens, hold down the Ctrl key and press the letter Z. You can usually undo any damage. A Prefer to always single-click instead of double-click? Then choose Folder Options from the Control Panel’s Appearance and Themes area, and choose the single-click option: Single-Click to Open an Item (Point to Select). Prefer the traditional double-click way? Then go to the same place and choose the other option: DoubleClick to Open an Item (Single-Click to Select). A If Windows XP keeps mistaking your purposeful double-click as two disjointed single-clicks, head for the section in Chapter 14 on tinkering with the Control Panel. Adjusting Windows XP so that it recognizes a double-click when you make one is pretty easy.

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When Do I Use the Left Mouse Button, and When Do I Use the Right One?
This one’s easy. Always right-click unless you’re positive that a singleclick will do the trick. See, when you right-click on an item, Windows XP presents a helpful menu listing all the things you can do with that particular item: Open, Explore, Search, Share, Send to someplace, Cut, Copy, Create Shortcut, Delete, Rename, examine its Properties, or Offer Breakfast Cereal. Seeing those choices is much handier than when you single-click an item, and Windows assumes you know what you’re doing. For instance, hold down your right mouse button while dragging an item across the desktop. When you release the button, Windows XP brings up a menu, asking you to choose what you want to do with that

_______ Chapter 5: Field Guide to Buttons, Bars, Boxes, Folders, and Files item. If you drag the item while holding down your left mouse button, Windows XP doesn’t ask; it does whatever it wants. A The right mouse button is designed more for beginning users or people with bad memories like me. When you’re sure you know what you’re doing in Windows — if anybody ever does — feel free to left-click instead. A Confused about something on the screen? Try clicking it with your right mouse button, just for kicks. The result may be unexpectedly helpful.

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Chapter 6

Moving Windows Around
In This Chapter
B Moving a window to the top of the pile B Switching from window to window B Moving a window from here to there B Making windows bigger or smaller

A

h, the power of Windows XP. Using separate windows, you can put a spreadsheet, a drawing program, an Internet Web page, and a word processor on-screen at the same time. You can copy a hot-looking graphic from your drawing program and toss it into your memo. You can stick a chunk of your spreadsheet into your memo, too. In the background, the Web can display a constantly running news update. And why not? All four windows can be on-screen at the same time. You have only one problem: With so many windows on-screen at the same time, you can’t see anything but a confusing jumble of programs. This chapter shows how to move those darn windows around onscreen so that you can see at least one of them.

Moving a Window to the Top of the Pile
Take a good look at the mixture of windows on-screen. Sometimes you can recognize a tiny portion of the window you’re after. If so, you’re in luck. Move the mouse pointer until it hovers over that tiny portion of the window and click the mouse button. Shazam! Windows XP immediately brings the clicked-on window to the front of the screen.

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That newly enlarged window probably covers up strategic parts of other windows. But at least you’ll be able to get some work ﬁnished, one window at a time. A Windows XP places a lot of windows on-screen simultaneously. But unless you have two heads, you’ll probably use just one window at a time, leaving the remaining programs to wait patiently in the background. The window that’s on top, ready to be used, is called the active window. A As soon as you click any part of a window, it becomes the activewindow. All your subsequent keystrokes and mouse movements will affect that window. (The active window’s title bar is a brighter color than all the others.) A Some programs can run in the background, even if they’re not in the currently active window. Internet Explorer can download a ﬁle in the background, for example, and Media Player can play a CD, unconcerned with whether they’re the currently active window. Imagine! Although many windows may be on-screen, you can enter information into only one of them at a time: the active window. To make a window active, click any part of it. It rises to the top, ready to do your bidding. (The Internet and a computer’s TV Card can stick information into background windows, but that’s not you doing it.) Another way to move to a window is by clicking its name displayed in the Windows XP taskbar — that bar that runs along the bottom of your screen. I describe the taskbar in Chapter 10.

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Moving a Window from Here to There
Sometimes you want to move a window to a different place on-screen (known in Windows XP parlance as the desktop). Maybe part of the window hangs off the edge of the desktop, and you want it centered. Or maybe you want to put two windows on-screen side by side so that you can compare their contents.

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In any of those cases, you can move a window by grabbing its title bar, that thick bar along its top. Put the mouse pointer over the window’s title bar and hold down the mouse button. Now use the title bar as the window’s handle. When you move the mouse around, you tug the window along with it. When you’ve moved the window to where you want it to stay, release the mouse button to release the window. The window stays put and on top of the pile. A The process of holding down the mouse button while moving the mouse is called dragging. When you let go of the mouse button, you’re dropping what you’ve dragged. A Sometimes part of a window hangs off the screen’s visible edge, making it difﬁcult — if not impossible — to work on it. To move it back onto the center of the screen, grab the window’s title bar and hold down the mouse button. When you drag the title bar back toward the center of the screen, you can see the whole window once again. A When positioning two windows next to each other on-screen, you usually need to change their sizes as well as their locations. The very next section tells how to change a window’s size. (I also explain how to make Windows line up everything on the screen automatically so you don’t have to spend time ﬁddling around.) A To position windows next to each other quickly and easily, use the Tile or Cascade commands: Right-click on a blank part of the taskbar that runs along the bottom of your desktop. (If the taskbar is full, you can right-click on the little digital clock.) Choose Tile to tile the open windows evenly across the screen, or Cascade to deal them out like cards. I explain this technique more fully in Chapter 7, because it’s a handy way to ﬁnd covered-up windows.

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Making a Window Bigger or Smaller
Sometimes, moving the windows around isn’t enough. They still cover each other up. Luckily, you don’t need any special hardware to make them bigger or smaller. See that thin little border running around the edge of the window? Use the mouse to yank on a window’s corner border, and you can change its size.

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First, point at the corner with the mouse arrow. When it’s positioned over the corner, the arrow turns into a two-headed arrow. Now hold down the mouse button and drag the corner in or out to make the window smaller or bigger. The window expands or contracts as you tug on it with the mouse so you can see what you’re doing. When you’re done yanking and the window looks about the right size, let go of the mouse button. As the yoga master says, the window assumes the new position. Here’s the procedure, step by step: 1. Point the mouse pointer at the edge of the corner. It turns into a two-headed arrow, as shown in Figure 6-1.
Figure 6-1: The arrow grows a second head, as shown in the bottomright corner.

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2. Hold down the mouse button and move the two-headed arrow in or out to make the window bigger or smaller. Figure 6-2 shows how the window becomes smaller as the mouse drags its corner inward.
Figure 6-2: As you move the mouse, the window’s size changes to reﬂect its new shape.

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3. Release the mouse button. The window shapes itself to ﬁt into the border you’ve just created (see Figure 6-3).

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Figure 6-3: Let go of the mouse button, and the window stays at its new size.

A This procedure may seem vaguely familiar, because it is. You’re just dragging and dropping the window’s corner to a new size. That drag-and-drop concept works throughout Windows XP. For example, you can drag and drop a title bar to move an entire window to a new location on-screen. A You can grab a window’s side border and move it in or out to make the window fatter or skinnier. You can grab the top or bottom of a window and move it up or down to make the window taller or shorter. But grabbing for a corner is always easiest because then you can make a window fatter, skinnier, taller, or shorter, all with one quick ﬂick of the wrist.

Making a Window Fill the Whole Screen
Sooner or later, you get tired of all this New Age, multiwindow mumbo jumbo. Why can’t you just put one huge window on-screen? Well, you can. To make any window grow as big as it can get, double-click its title bar, that topmost bar along the top of the window. The window leaps up to ﬁll the screen, covering up all the other windows.

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To bring the pumped-up window back to its former size, double-click its title bar once again. The window quickly shrinks, and you can see everything that it was covering up. A When a window ﬁlls the entire screen, it loses its borders. That means that you can no longer change its size by tugging on its title bar or dragging its borders. Those borders just aren’t there anymore. A If you’re morally opposed to double-clicking a window’s title bar to expand it, you can expand it another way. Click the window’s Maximize button, the middle-most of the three little boxes in its topright corner. (It’s shown in the margin.) The window hastily ﬁlls the entire screen. At the same time, the Maximize button turns into a Restore button; click the Restore button when you want the window to return to its previous size. (Refer to Chapter 5 for more information on the Maximize, Minimize, and Restore buttons.)

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Chapter 7

I Can’t Find It!
In This Chapter
B Finding lost windows B Finding lost ﬁles B Finding downloaded ﬁles B Finding misplaced snippets of information B Finding lost things on the Internet

S

ooner or later, Windows XP gives you that head-scratching feeling. “Golly,” you say, as you frantically tug on your mouse cord, “that stuff was right there a second ago. Where did it go?” When Windows XP starts playing hide-and-seek with your information, this chapter tells you where to search and how to make it stop playing foolish games. Then, when you ﬁnd your Solitaire window, you can get back to work.

Finding Lost Windows on the Desktop
Forget about that huge, 1940s roll-top mahogany desk in the resale shop window. The Windows XP peewee desktop isn’t any bigger than the size of your monitor. In a way, Windows XP works more like a spike memo holder than an actual desktop. Every time you open a new window, you’re tossing another piece of information onto the spike. The window on top is relatively easy to see, but what’s lying directly underneath it? If you can see a window’s ragged edge protruding from any part of the pile, click it. The window magically rushes to the top of the pile. But

________________________________________Chapter 7: I Can’t Find It! what if you can’t see any part of the window at all? How do you know that it’s even on the desktop? The following two procedures help extricate windows when they’re lost from sight.

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Plucking a lost window from the Task Manager
Windows’ built-in Task Manager keeps a master list of everything that’s happening on your screen (even the invisible stuff), making it a prime detective for locating hidden windows. The Task Manager hides until you call it up by pressing the Magic Key Sequence: Simultaneously press the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys. (Most people use two hands for this.) Then the Task Manager appears, as shown in Figure 7-1.

Figure 7-1: Pressing Ctrl, Alt, and Delete simultaneously brings up the Task Manager, which lists all open windows when you click the Applications tab.

Click the Applications tab, shown in Figure 7-1, and the Task Manager lists all the currently running programs. Your missing window is somewhere on the list. When you spot your runaway window, click its name, and click the Switch To button along the Task Manager’s bottom.

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Your wayward window whisks itself to the forefront. A In previous versions, pressing Ctrl, Alt, and Delete simultaneously brought up a wimpy version of Task Manager. Windows XP’s more manly version handles bunches more tasks, including some so complicated that they’re only discussed in more complicated books. A Sometimes you see your missing program listed on the taskbar, and you click its name to dredge it from the depths. But even though the taskbar brings the missing program to the top, you still can’t ﬁnd it on your desktop. The program may be hanging off the edge of your desktop. In the next section, I explain how to make Windows reposition all your open windows so they’re easy to ﬁnd.

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Tiling and cascading windows (The “deal all the windows in front of me” approach)
When you’re facing a pile of windows that looks like a pile of dropped playing cards, it’s time to turn Windows XP into a personal card dealer. It will gather up all your haphazardly tossed windows and deal them out neatly on the desktop in front of you. That’s often an easy way to locate a window buried deep within your pile. To turn Windows into a card dealer, right-click in the bottom-right corner of your screen. A quick right-click near the clock, for example, brings up the menu shown in Figure 7-2.
Figure 7-2: Right-click near the clock in the bottom-right corner of your screen to bring up the Tile or Cascade menu.

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Click the Cascade Windows option, and the taskbar gathers all your open windows and deals them out in front of you, just like in a game of blackjack. (Blackjack fans won’t need to glance at Figure 7-3.) Each window’s title bar is neatly exposed, ready to be risen from the pile with a quick click of the mouse.

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Figure 7-3: The taskbar’s Cascade command piles all the open windows neatly across the screen. It’s a favorite command of blackjack players.

Or, choose Tile Windows Horizontally or Tile Windows Vertically from the Task Manager’s Windows menu. Windows XPpositions all the windows so that they ﬁt on the screen, as shown in Figure 7-4. They’re usually tiny, but hey, at least you can see most of them. A If the missing window doesn’t appear in the stack of neatly dealt windows, perhaps it’s not open on the screen. The Cascade Windows command gathers and deals only the open windows; it leaves the minimized windows resting as buttons along the taskbar on the desktop’s bottom. The solution? Retrieve the missing window using the Task Manager before cascading the windows across the screen. A The Tile Windows Vertically command arranges the windows vertically, like socks hanging from a clothesline. Tile Windows Horizontally arranges the windows horizontally, like a stack of folded sweatshirts. The difference is the most pronounced when you’re tiling only a few windows, however.

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Figure 7-4: The taskbar’s Tile commands organize the open windows like tiles on the shower ﬂoor. You can see them all, but they’re often too small to be of much use.

A The high-and-mighty Task Manager, described in the preceding section, also tiles and cascades windows, but with a twist. When it shows you the list of currently open windows, as shown back in Figure 7-1, hold down Ctrl and click the windows you want the command to affect. Then, when you choose Tile or Cascade from the Task Manager’s own Windows menu, those commands affect only your selected windows. That lets you position only two important windows side by side when your desktop’s crowded with open windows. A If you have only two open windows, the Tile commands arrange them side by side, making it easy for you to compare their contents. The Tile Windows Vertically command places them side by side vertically, which makes them useless for comparing text: You can see only the ﬁrst few words of each sentence. Choose the Tile Windows Horizontally command if you want to see complete sentences.

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Finding Lost Files, Folders, Music, Photos, Videos, People, or Computers
Windows XP has gotten much better at ﬁnding things. And it should; after all, it’s the one who’s hiding everything. When one of your ﬁles, folders, or just about anything else disappears into the depths of your computer, make Windows XP do the work in getting the darn thing back. In almost all cases, the Windows XP Search Companion retrieves your lost goods. To rev it up, click the brilliant green Start button — that button in the screen’s bottom-left corner — and click Search from the menu, as shown in Figure 7-5. (I cover the Start button with more detail in Chapter 10.)

Figure 7-5: Click the Start button and click Search in the window that pops up.

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A When you open the Search Companion for the ﬁrst time, Windows XP asks whether you’d like to search with or without an “animated character.” Cartoon lovers should choose the character option: a little doggy, a gal in a spaceship, a surﬁng alien, or Merlin the Wizard. The joyful little character subsequently watches your moves, blinking, barking, or twitching when you click. (It doesn’t do anything more helpful than that.) A When you tire of the barks, blinks, and twitches, turn off the animated character by choosing the Change Preferences option. When that menu appears, choose Without an Animated Screen Character to purge the little goofball. (Or choose another character from the same page.) A To do more constructive things than play with your Windows cartoons, check out the next sections.

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Finding any lost ﬁles or folders
This is it. By following these steps, you can locate any ﬁle that you’ve lost somewhere inside your computer. (You can even ﬁnd that ﬁle somebody sent you through America Online, Mom!) For example, suppose that your ﬁle called HYDRATOR INSPECTION disappeared over the weekend. To make matters worse, you’re not even sure you spelled the words Hydrator or inspection correctly when saving the ﬁle. You don’t even remember what program you used to save your ﬁle. Word? WordPad? Notepad? Who knows? All you know is that the hydrator was dirty — so the word dirty appears somewhere in the missing ﬁle. The easiest way to ﬁnd missing ﬁles — even those misplaced ﬁles that are just “somewhere inside the computer” — is to open the Search Companion from the Start button’s menu. Click the Start button, click Search, and the Search Companion appears, as shown in Figure 7-6. Because you’re not sure what type of ﬁle you’re looking for, click the words All File Types, and a new window appears, as shown in Figure 7-7. If you know part of the ﬁle’s name, enter it in the ﬁrst box. For instance, you don’t know how to spell hydrator, but you remember how to spell inspection. So enter the word inspection in the ﬁrst box. (Or leave it blank if you don’t know the ﬁle’s name.)

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Figure 7-6: The Windows Search Companion ﬁnds ﬁles, folders, and other items lost inside your computer.

Figure 7-7: Enter part of the ﬁle’s name — if you know it — or just enter a word or phrase appearing in your missing ﬁle.

In the second box, enter a word that appears in the ﬁle. In this case, enter the word dirty. The menu will look like the one in Figure 7-7. Next, you need to tell the computer where to look. Because you don’t know where the missing ﬁle’s hiding, click the downward arrow in the box marked Look In, and choose My Computer. That tells the Search Companion to search your entire computer. Messed up on any of your choices? Just click the Back button at the bottom of the menu. That takes you back one step to the previous choices, letting you ﬁx your mistake. Or, keep pressing Back until you arrive at the original menu, where you can start over.

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When you’re satisﬁed you’re made your choices correctly, click the Search button. As the little doggy wags its tail, the Search Companion searches according to your command: It ﬁnds and displays any ﬁle or folder with a name that contains inspection, and that includes the word dirty somewhere inside. Figure 7-8 shows the results.

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Figure 7-8: The Search Companion searches the entire computer and retrieves any ﬁle containing the word you’ve designated.

A The retrieved ﬁle or folder appears on the screen’s right side, as shown in Figure 7-8. Double-click the ﬁle or folder to open it and begin working. (To translate the computerese information shown beneath the In Folder area — the part that supposedly shows where the ﬁle is located — head for Chapter 11.) A Do you remember the time and date you created a missing ﬁle or folder? Click the little black arrow next to the words When Was It Modiﬁed?, as shown back in Figure 7-7. A new menu appears, letting you narrow down the search to the following times: the past week, the past month, within the last year, don’t remember, or on a speciﬁc day.

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A The Search Companion question “When Was It Modiﬁed” really means “When Was It Last Saved.” That could mean the date you dumped it into your computer, the date you last called it up in a program and changed it somehow, or the date you last changed its name. A For tips on speeding up your searches, check out the sidebar, “Finding ﬁles faster.”

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Finding ﬁles faster
The more information you give the Search Companion, the faster it ﬁnds your ﬁles. Although telling it to search the entire computer for a single ﬁle containing a single word is very efﬁcient, it’s also excruciatingly slow. The computer must read all of its ﬁles from beginning to end. To speed things up, try following some of these tips when possible:

A CD-ROM discs take a long time to search, and when you tell Search Companion to search My Computer, it also searches any CD you’ve inserted in your drive. Remove CDs before clicking My Computer for searches.

A Search for words least likely to turn up in other ﬁles. For example, the words dirty and hydrator are more unique than like, an, or the. That means they’re much more likely to bring up the ﬁle you’re searching for.

A Try to type in at least part of the missing ﬁle or folder’s name. That keeps the Search Companion from searching through every ﬁle.

A Remember a folder you stored the ﬁle in? Tell the computer to search there. Search Companion will search inside that folder and inside any folders stored inside that folder. Try searching in My Documents before searching My Computer. Many programs automatically save your information in that folder.

A When a search turns up too many ﬁles, narrow down your search. Be more precise about when the missing ﬁle was created or downloaded, for example, or add a larger portion of its name.

A If you have a large hard drive with lots of space, choose Change Preferences from the Search Companion’s main menu, and then select With Indexing Service. Your computer then makes an index of your computer’s ﬁles, speeding up searches dramatically. (Unfortunately, the index can consume quite a bit of room.)

A Remember when you last saved, created, or edited that ﬁle or folder? If you remember that you created it within the past week, for instance, the search becomes faster still.

Finding lost pictures, music, or video
When you don’t remember much about a ﬁle — but gosh darn it, you want to ﬁnd it anyway — the preceding section shows how to route it out of your computer’s innards. But sometimes you know a little bit

________________________________________Chapter 7: I Can’t Find It! more about your missing ﬁle. You can’t ﬁnd that digital picture you transferred yesterday from the camera, for instance, or that MP3 song you pulled off a CD last week. Perhaps you’re missing a short video you downloaded from the Internet. The Search Companion can easily extract these types of missing ﬁles from your computer’s digital jowls. Click the lime-green Start button and click Search. When the menu appears, choose the option marked Pictures, Music, or Video. Yet another menu appears, offering three search options: 1) Pictures and Photos, 2) Music and Sound, or 3) Video. Click in the box next to what you’re searching for, and type any part of the ﬁle’s name in the second box. Click Search, and the Search Companion ﬁnds all the ﬁles meeting your speciﬁcations. A Unfortunately, unless you remember at least a portion of your ﬁle’s name (which is very difﬁcult to do with digital photos), the overeager Search Companion will ﬁnd all of your pictures, music, or videos. To increase your odds of a match, click Use More Advanced Options. When that menu appears, add more clues: where your ﬁle is located inside your computer, when it was saved, or its approximate size. A Check out the “Finding ﬁles fast” sidebar for more tips on quicker searches.

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Finding lost documents
Lost a key Word or Excel document? Search Companion’s ready to help out here, too. Because you know it was a Word or Excel document, this search is fairly easy. Click the lime-green Start button, click Search, and click Documents (Word, Excel, etc.). When the box appears, type in the missing document’s name. Click the round button next to the time the ﬁle was last changed or saved. Click Search, and the Search Companion ferrets out your ﬁle.

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Note: Quick-witted readers will wonder how this search differs from the Find Any File search described earlier in this chapter. Well, Search Companion can tell which program created your ﬁles. So it limits its search to Word or Excel ﬁles, speeding up the search.

Finding computers or people
Like a teenager who’s watched too many sci-ﬁ ﬂicks, Windows XP lumps computers and people in the same category. Neither is all that exciting, unfortunately, but here goes.

Finding computers
The computer search is for people working only on networks, mysteriously bundled bunches of computers, covered in Chapter 9. Don’t know if you’re on a network? Click the Start button, click Search, and choose the Computers or People option. Finally, choose the A Computer on the Network option to begin. Normally, Windows XP wants you to search for a computer by name. But what if you don’t know the computer’s name? Here’s a trick: Just click the Search button. A list of computers connected to your own computer appears. (If just one computer appears, don’t get excited. It’s probably just your own.)

Finding people
The people search isn’t nearly as exciting as it sounds, even for singles. It only searches for people you’ve already entered in your Outlook Express address book. Ho hum. There’s a little trick, however, but even that’s pretty boring: When the Find People box appears, click the downward-pointing arrow next to the words Address Book. That lets you choose between several Internet services that list people’s e-mail addresses. None of the services is very complete, and most are loaded with fake names.

Searching the Internet
This one’s kind of dumb, too. When you choose the Search Companion’s Search the Internet option, a little box pops up for you to type in

________________________________________Chapter 7: I Can’t Find It! your question. Then it races over to Internet Explorer, your Web browser (covered in Chapter 12), and uses that program to ﬁnd your answer. To save time, load Internet Explorer and click the little Search button along the top of its menu. That brings up the Search Companion, too. Because both programs involve Internet Explorer, they’re covered in Chapter 12. When you type in your question, Internet Explorer automatically uses Microsoft’s own search program, MSN Search, to ﬁnd answers. For better results, use Google at www.google.com. Feel free to check out Surfwax (www.surfwax.com), too. Dozens of different search programs, called search engines, are available, and everybody has a favorite. To change to your own favorite search engine, choose Change Preferences from the Search program’s main menu, and then select Change Internet Search Behavior from the following menu to see the available search engines.

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Chapter 8

That “Cut and Paste” Stuff (Moving Around Words, Pictures, and Sounds)
In This Chapter
B Understanding cutting, copying, and pasting B Highlighting what you need B Cutting, copying, deleting, and pasting what you’ve highlighted B Making the best use of the Clipboard B Putting scraps on the desktop

ntil Windows came along, PCs had a terrible time sharing anything. Their programs were rigid, egotistical things, with no sense of community. Information created by one program couldn’t always be shared with another program. Older versions of programs passed down this selﬁsh system to newer versions, enforcing the segregation with proprietary ﬁle formats and compatibility tests. To counter this bad trip, Windows programmers created a communal workplace where all the programs could groove together peacefully. In the harmonious tribal village of Windows, programs share their information openly in order to make a more beautiful environment for all. In the Windows co-op, all the windows can beam their vibes to each other freely, without fear of rejection. Work created by one Windows program is accepted totally and lovingly by any other Windows program. Windows programs treat each other equally, even if one program is wearing some pretty freaky threads or, in some gatherings, no threads at all.

U

Chapter 8: That “Cut and Paste” Stuff (Moving Around Words, Pictures, and
This chapter shows you how easily you can move those good vibes from one window to another.

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Examining the Cut and Paste Concept (And Copy, Too)
Windows XP took a tip from the kindergartners and made cut and paste an integral part of all its programs. Information can be electronically cut or copied from one window and then pasted into another window with little fuss and even less mess. Just about any part of a window is up for grabs, and the process takes three steps: highlight, cut or copy, and paste. For instance, you might have an exceptionally well-written paragraph in your word processor, or a spreadsheet chart that tracks the value of your Indian-head pennies. First, highlight the desired information. Next, either copy or cut the information from its window. Finally, pastethe information into a different window. In fact, after the information has been cut or copied, it lives inside Windows’ built-in Clipboard, where it can be pasted into as many windows as you’d like. The beauty of Windows XP is that with all those windows on-screen at the same time, you can easily grab bits and pieces from any of them and paste all the parts into a new window. A Windows programs are designed to work together, so taking information from one window and putting it into another window is easy. Sticking a map onto your party ﬂiers, for example, is really easy. A Cutting and pasting works well for the big stuff, like sticking big charts into memos. But don’t overlook it for the small stuff, too. For example, copying someone’s name and address from your Address Book program is quicker than typing it by hand at the top of your letter. Or to avoid typographical errors, you can copy an answer from the Windows XP Calculator and paste it into another program.

Chapter 8: That “Cut and Paste” Stuff (Moving Around Words, Pictures, and
A When somebody e-mails you a Web address, copy and paste it into Internet Explorer. It’s much easier than typing it in by hand, and it is less frustrating because you’ll know you didn’t make any mistakes. It’s easy to copy information from the Internet, too. A When you cut or copy information, it lives in a special Windows area called the Clipboard, ready to be pasted into other windows. The Clipboard holds only one chunk of information at a time, though. When you cut or copy other information, that information replaces the original information, and it’s now ready to be pasted into other windows.

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Highlighting the Important Stuff
Before you can grab information from a window, you have to tell Windows XP exactly what parts you want to grab. The easiest way to tell it is to highlight the information with a mouse. You can highlight a single letter, an entire novel, or anything in between. You can highlight pictures of water lilies. You can even highlight ﬁles and folders. You can highlight sounds so that you can paste belches into other ﬁles. In most cases, highlighting involves one swift trick with the mouse: Put the mouse arrow or cursor at the beginning of the information you want and hold down the mouse button. Then move the mouse to the end of the information and release the button. That’s it! All the stuff lying between where you clicked and released is highlighted. The information usually turns a different color so that you can see what you’ve grabbed. An example of highlighted text is shown in Figure 8-1. For delicate work with small text, use the arrow keys to put the cursor at the beginning of the stuff you want to grab. Then hold down Shift and press the arrow keys until the cursor is at the end of what you want to grab. You see the stuff on-screen become highlighted as you move the arrow keys. This trick works with almost every Windows XP program. (If you’re after text, hold down Ctrl, too, and the text is highlighted word by word.)

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Figure 8-1: Highlighted text turns a different color for easy visibility.

Some programs have a few shortcuts for highlighting parts of their information: A To highlight a single word, point at it with the mouse and doubleclick. The word turns black, meaning that it’s highlighted. (In most word processors, you can hold down the button on its second click, and then, by moving the mouse around, you can quickly highlight additional text word by word.) A To highlight a single line of text, click next to it in the left margin. Keep holding down the mouse button and move the mouse up or down to highlight additional text line by line. A To highlight a paragraph, double-click next to it in the left margin. Keep holding down the mouse button on the second click and move the mouse to highlight additional text paragraph by paragraph. A To highlight an entire document, try clicking three times in rapid succession. If that doesn’t work, hold down Ctrl and click anywhere in the left margin. If that doesn’t work, hold down Ctrl and press A. So much for consistency in Windows programs. A To highlight a portion of text in just about any Windows XP program, click at the text’s beginning, hold down Shift, and click at the end of the desired text. Everything between those two points becomes highlighted.

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A To highlight part of a picture or drawing while in Paint, Windows’ graphics program, click the little tool button with the dotted lines in a square. (The button is called the Select tool, as Windows XP informs you if you rest your mouse pointer over the tool for a second.) After clicking the Select tool, hold down the mouse button and slide the mouse over the desired part of the picture. After you’ve highlighted text, you must either cut it or copy it immediately. If you do anything else, like absentmindedly click the mouse someplace else in your document, all your highlighted text reverts to normal, just like Cinderella after midnight. Highlighted something? To cut or copy it immediately, right-click on it. When the menu pops up, choose Cut or Copy, depending on your needs. Be careful after you highlight a bunch of text. If you press a key — the spacebar, for example — Windows XP almost always replaces your highlighted text with the character that you type — in this case, a space. To reverse that calamity and bring your highlighted text back to life, hold down Ctrl and press Z. (That’s the universal “Undo” command, which works in many programs.)

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Cutting, Copying, or Deleting What You Highlighted
After you highlight some information (which I describe in the preceding section, in case you just entered the classroom), you’re ready to start playing with it. You can cut it, copy it, or just plain delete it. All three options differ drastically. This clever tip bears repeating. After highlighting something, right-click on it. When the menu pops up, choose Cut or Copy, depending on your needs.

Cutting the information
Cutting the highlighted information wipes it off the screen, but it’s not really gone: Instead, Windows stores the extracted information in a special Windows XP storage tank called the Clipboard.

Chapter 8: That “Cut and Paste” Stuff (Moving Around Words, Pictures, and
To cut highlighted stuff, right-click on your highlighted text and choose Cut from the pop-up menu, as shown in Figure 8-2. Whoosh! The highlighted text disappears from the window, scoots through the underground tubes of Windows XP, and waits on the Clipboard for further action.
Figure 8-2: Right-click on information you’ve highlighted and choose Cut to move the information to Windows’ Clipboard, where you can paste it into other windows.

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A One way to tell whether your Cut command actually worked is to paste the information back into your document. If it appears, you know that the command worked, and you can cut it out again right away. If it doesn’t appear, you know that something has gone dreadfully wrong. (For the Paste command, discussed a little later, hold down Ctrl and press V.) A Microsoft’s lawyers kicked butt in an old Apple lawsuit, so Windows uses the same cut keys as the Macintosh computer. You can hold down Ctrl and press the letter X to cut. (Get it? That’s an X, as in you’re crossing, or X-ing, something out.)

Copying the information
Compared with cutting, copying information is quite anticlimactic. When you cut something, the information disappears from the screen. But when you copy information to the Clipboard, the highlighted information just sits there in the window. In fact, it looks as if nothing has happened. Feel free to repeat the Copy command a few times before giving up and just hoping it worked. (It works.)

Chapter 8: That “Cut and Paste” Stuff (Moving Around Words, Pictures, and
To copy highlighted information, right-click on it and choose Copy. Or hold down Ctrl and press C (C for Copy ). Although nothing seems to happen, that information really does head for the Clipboard. A Feel free to cut and paste entire ﬁles back and forth in My Computer. When you cut a ﬁle, however, the icon is just gray until you paste it. (Making the ﬁle disappear would be too scary.) Changed your mind in mid-cut? Press Esc to cancel the cut and turn the icon back to normal. A To copy a picture of your entire Windows XP desktop (the wholescreen) to the Clipboard, press the Print Screen key, which is sometimes labeled PrtScrn or something similar. A snapshot of your screen heads for the Clipboard, ready to be pasted someplace else. Computer nerds call this snapshot a screen shot. All the pictures of windows in this book are screen shots. (And, no, the Print Screen key doesn’t send anything to your printer.) A To copy an image of your currently active window (just one window — nothing surrounding it), hold down Alt while you press Print Screen. The window’s picture appears on the Clipboard.

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Deleting the information
Deleting the highlighted information just wipes it out. Zap! It simply disappears. To delete highlighted information, just press the Delete or Backspace key. Unfortunately cutting and deleting look identical on-screen. In fact, the ﬁrst few times you try to cut something, you feel panicky, thinking that you may have accidentally deleted it instead. (This feeling never really goes away.) A If you’ve accidentally deleted the wrong thing, panic. Then hold down Ctrl and press the letter Z. Your deletion is graciously undone. Any deleted information pops back up on-screen. Whew! A Holding down Alt and pressing Backspace also undoes your last mistake (unless you’ve just said something dumb at a party, in that case, use Ctrl+Z).

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Finding out more about cutting, copying, and deleting
Want to know more about cutting, copying, and deleting? Read on (you really should read this stuff). A Windows XP often puts toolbars across the tops of its programs. Figure 8-3 shows the toolbar buttons that stand for cutting, copying, and pasting things.
Figure 8-3: Clicking these Cut toolbar Paste buttons cuts, copies, or pastes highlighted Copy information.

A If you prefer to use menus, click the word Edit on any program’s menu bar. The Cut, Copy, and Paste commands tumble down. A When you’re using the Print Screen key trick to copy a window or the entire screen to the Clipboard (see the preceding section), one important component is left out: The mouse arrow is not included in the picture, even if it was in plain sight when you took the picture. (Are you asking yourself how all the little arrows got in this book’s pictures? Well, I drew some of them in by hand!)

Pasting Information into Another Window
After you’ve cut or copied information to the special Windows XP Clipboard storage tank, it’s ready for travel. You can paste that information into just about any other window.

Chapter 8: That “Cut and Paste” Stuff (Moving Around Words, Pictures, and
Pasting is relatively straightforward compared with highlighting, copying, or cutting: Open the destination window, and move the mouse to the spot where you want the stuff to appear. Then right-click the mouse and choose Paste from the pop-up menu. Presto! Anything that’s sitting on the Clipboard immediately leaps into that window. Or, if you want to paste a ﬁle onto the desktop, right-click on the desktop and choose Paste. The copied ﬁle appears where you’ve rightclicked. A Another way to paste stuff is to hold down Ctrl and press V. That combination does the same thing as Shift+Insert. (It also is the command those funny-looking Macintosh computers use to paste stuff.) A You can also choose the Paste command from a window’s menu bar. Choose the word Edit and then choose the word Paste. But don’t choose the words Paste Special. That command is for the complicated Object Linking and Embedding stuff used only by Windows gurus with weird hats. A Some programs have toolbars along their tops. Clicking the Paste button, shown in Figure 8-3, pastes the Clipboard’s current contents into your document. A The Paste command inserts a copy of the information that’s sitting on the Clipboard. The information stays on the Clipboard, so you can keep pasting it into other windows if you want. In fact, the Clipboard’s contents stay the same until a new Cut or Copy command replaces them with new information.

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Leaving Scraps on the Desktop Deliberately
The Clipboard is a handy way to copy information from one place to another, but it has a major limitation: Every time you copy something new to the Clipboard, it replaces what was copied there before. What if you want to copy a bunch of things from a document? If you are cutting and pasting over a real desktop, you can leave little scraps lying everywhere, ready for later use. The same scraps concept

Chapter 8: That “Cut and Paste” Stuff (Moving Around Words, Pictures, and works with Windows XP: You can move information from window to window, using the desktop as a temporary storage area for your scraps of information. For example, suppose that you have some paragraphs in a WordPad or Word document that you want to copy to some other places. Highlight the ﬁrst paragraph, drag it out of the WordPad window, and drop it onto the desktop. Poof! A small Scrap icon appears on your desktop, just like the one in the margin. See another interesting paragraph? Drag it onto the desktop as well: Another Scrap icon appears. Eventually, you’ll have copies of your report’s best paragraphs sitting in little scraps on your desktop. To move any of the scraps into another document, just drag them into that other document’s window and let go. Any remaining, unused scraps can be dumped into the Recycle Bin or simply left on the desktop, adding a nice, comfortable layer of clutter. To make a scrap, highlight the information you want to move, usually by running the mouse pointer over it while holding down the mouse button. Then point at the highlighted information and, while holding down the mouse button, point at the desktop. Let go of the mouse button, and a scrap containing that information appears on the desktop. Note: Not all Windows XP applications support scraps. In fact, WordPad is probably the only program in the Windows XP box that makes good use of scraps. Other programs, such as Microsoft Ofﬁce, let you use scraps, though, so you haven’t wasted your time reading about them.

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Chapter 9

Sharing It All on the Network
In This Chapter
B Creating and changing user accounts B Finding other computers on the network B Locating ﬁles and folders on other computers B Giving permission to others to look at your ﬁles B Adding and using network printers B Buying a network’s parts B Installing a network’s hardware B Setting up a network

T

hankfully, you only need to bother with this chapter under four conditions:

A More than one person will be using your computer, and you’d like to assign a user account to everybody so that they can keep their work separate. A You want to change somebody’s user account. A Your computer is connected to other computers on a network, and you need to moves ﬁles between them. A You want to set up your own network. If you don’t care about networks or only a few people work on your computer, ignore most of this chapter, thank goodness. Just refer to the ﬁrst section on user accounts. That explains how to create new user accounts, change their little pictures and passwords, and delete or restrict unruly accounts to keep the wild ones in line.

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If you’re on a network or want to set one up, stick around for this chapter’s second half. That explains how to grab information from other computers, and let other people grab information from your computer. You also ﬁnd out how to share a printer or Internet connection among several computers. Finally, if you’re working on a larger, more confusing network at work, you ﬁnd a few tips on how to muddle your way through if the network administrator still hasn’t returned from the deli down the street.

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Fiddling with User Accounts
Everyone who uses Windows XP needs a user account. A user account is like a cocktail party name tag that helps Windows recognize who’s sitting at the keyboard. (Chapter 4 explains user accounts in more detail.) Windows XP dishes out three types of user accounts: Administrator, Limited, and Guest. Who cares? Well, each type of account gets to do different functions on the computer. If the computer were an apartment building, the administrator would be the manager, the limited accounts would be the tenants, and guests would only get to drop by and use the bathroom in the lobby. In computer lingo that means the administrator controls the entire computer, deciding who gets to use it and what they can do on it. Limited accounts can use most of the computer, but they can’t make any big changes to it. And guests, well, they can use the computer, but because the computer doesn’t recognize them by name, their actions are tightly restricted. A On a computer running Windows XP Home, the owner usually holds the administrator account. He or she then sets up accounts for other household members, changing their accounts when needed, ﬁxing lost passwords, and if desired, peeking into other users’ ﬁles. Here’s the important part: Only administrators can install software and change the computer’s hardware. A In a family, the parents usually hold administrator accounts, the kids usually have limited accounts, and the babysitter logs in using the guest account.

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A On computers running Windows XP Professional, the administrator holds the same privileges and more. But because Windows XP Professional offers many more security features and settings, its administrator often holds a full-time job in an ofﬁce setting. A To see what version of Windows XP you’re using, Home or Professional, click the lime-green Start button, right-click on My Computer, and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. On the ﬁrst page — the one beneath the General tab — your version is listed beneath the word System. A Administrators should create limited accounts for people who use the computer on a regular basis. Windows XP then keeps track of the way each limited account member prefers his or her computer to be set up. After a limited account user logs on, Windows XP displays that person’s favorite desktop and background, and remembers his or her favorite Internet Explorer Web sites. Everything looks just the way that user set it up. A Administrators should create a single guest account for people the computer doesn’t need to recognize. Guests can’t do much more than use the computer as a terminal, much like one in a library. Guests can use the programs, for example, but they can’t change any settings, much less install programs or burn CDs. However, guests can still log on to the Internet or read their e-mail by typing in their e-mail address and password. A More than one person can hold an administrator account on a computer. In fact, all the users can hold one, if the computer’s owner prefers that. That lets anybody install software and change important computer settings. (It also lets everybody peek into each other’s ﬁles.) A When you install Windows XP, the software automatically grants administrator status to every account you create. After the installation is complete, be sure to change these accounts to limited or guest status unless you trust those people to handle your computer wisely.

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Changing a user account’s picture
Okay, now the important stuff: changing the dorky picture Windows automatically assigns to your user account. When you ﬁrst create a

___________________________ Chapter 9: Sharing It All on the Network user account, Windows XP dips into its image bag and randomly assigns to accounts pictures of butterﬂies, ﬁsh, soccer balls, or even more boring images. However, customizing your picture is fairly easy. (It’s even easier if you have a digital camera.) After you log on, click the Start button and choose Control Panel. Click the User Accounts icon and select Change My Picture. (Administrators have to click Change an Account ﬁrst and then choose the account that needs a new picture.) A new window appears, as shown in Figure 9-1. If any of the currently shown pictures appeal to you, click a picture and click the Change Picture button. Done! To assign a picture that’s not shown, click the Browse for More Pictures button. A new window appears, this time showing the contents of your My Pictures folder. (This folder is where your digital camera stores your pictures.) Click a desired picture from the folder, choose Open, and click Change Picture. That’s it! As shown in Figure 9-2, a picture of my face now replaces the old rubber ducky picture.

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Figure 9-1: Choose the Control Panel’s User Accounts icon and choose Change My Picture to assign a different picture to your user account.

A Okay, how did I get the picture of my face? Well, I used my digital camera. What do you do if you don’t have a digital camera? You can grab a picture off the Internet. In fact, I grabbed the picture of my face off the Internet at my Web site, www.andyrathbone.com. (I explain how to copy a picture off the Internet in Chapter 12.)

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Figure 9-2: Use the User Accounts area to assign your own picture to your account.

A Don’t worry about choosing a picture that’s too big or too small. Windows XP automatically shrinks or expands the image to ﬁt the postage-stamp-sized space. A All users can change their pictures — administrators and limited accounts. And pictures are about the only thing that guests are allowed to change.

Switching quickly between users
Windows XP enables an entire family or small ofﬁce to share a single computer. Because everybody has a user account, Windows keeps track of everybody’s settings. In fact, the same computer acts like ﬁve different computers for a family of ﬁve. Best yet, the computer keeps track of everybody’s programs while different people use the computer. Mom can be playing chess, and then let Jerry log on to check his e-mail. When Mom logs back on 20 minutes later, her chess game is right where she left it: deciding between the en passant pawn move or sacriﬁcing the queen’s bishop.

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Do you want the Microsoft .NET Passport?
In its ever-expanding push toward computer domination, Microsoft launched an evil concept called the .NET Passport. (Soon after installation, Windows XP urgently asks you to sign up for one.) In theory, the Passport sounds great: Give Microsoft a user name and password, and you have a Passport. When you visit any Passport-aware Internet sites, you type in your same Passport name and password. You no longer have to remember different user names and passwords for every place that you visit or shop on the Internet. In fact, when you move from one Passportenabled site to another, you don’t even need to log on again. With the Passport, your personal data travels with you: name, address, and, if you purchased anything, your credit card number. Microsoft says its .NET Passport enables software, Internet services, and computer gadgetry to work together and share information, making the Internet easier for everyone to use. Think about it, though. No entity should govern your Internet use — except you. The Microsoft Passport contains your Internet identity. With Passport, Microsoft creates a consumer database that’s just too powerful. Microsoft can collect information from any Passport-enabled site you visit, so Microsoft knows the stocks you track in Investor.com, the Web pages you view in MSN.com, and where you travel through Expedia.com. When you move from one Passport-enabled site to another, that information could be shared, too. In concept, Passport sounds great. When computers are working well, they do great things. But everybody knows how terrible computers can be if something goes wrong. Passport, I’m afraid, offers too much opportunity for things to go wrong. Yes, I occasionally use a Passport account when there’s no alternative. But I avoid Passport-enabled sites whenever possible.

Switching users is fast and easy. While holding down the Windows key (it’s usually between your keyboard’s Ctrl and Alt keys), press the letter L. Wham! The Welcome screen pops up, letting another person use the computer for a while. After you ﬁnish using the computer, hold down the Windows key and press the letter L. Wham! The Welcome screen pops up again, letting a different user log on. A If you don’t like the Windows key, use the mouse to switch users: Click the Start button and click Log Off from the bottom of the menu. After the new window appears, click Switch User. The Welcome screen appears. A Microsoft touts this feature as Fast User Switching, or FUS in the trade. A If Fast User Switching doesn’t work on your computer, the administrator may have turned it off, a feat described in the next section.

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A Choosing Log Off rather than using Fast User Switching is often better, especially for computers without a lot of memory. Programs automatically shut down after users log off the computer, and the computer runs faster for the next user. If you use Fast User Switching, the computer must juggle unsaved settings and open programs, leading to more overhead.

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Creating, deleting, or changing a user account
Only administrators may create or delete user accounts. Sorry. If you don’t see your name on the Welcome screen, you must log on as a guest. (And some computers don’t even offer a guest account. That’s up to the administrator, too.) If you’re an administrator (and if you’re not, don’t bother reading any further), feel free to create a limited user account for everybody who’s going to use your computer. That gives them just enough control over the computer to keep them from bugging you all the time, yet it keeps them from accidentally deleting any important ﬁles. To create, change, or delete a user account, click the Start button, choose the Control Panel, and select User Accounts. A window pops up, as shown in Figure 9-3, that’s seen only by administrators. Here’s a rundown on the different tasks available. Change an Account: The most encompassing of the options, this lets you change an account’s name, picture, password, or type. (You can upgrade a user’s account to administrator if you’re tired of handling the computer by yourself, for instance.) Click here to delete an account, as well. Create a New Account: Click here to create accounts for other computer users. You choose a name and whether the user is to have an administrator or limited account.

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Figure 9-3: Only administrators can choose the Control Panel’s User Accounts icon to change, create, or delete user accounts.

Change the Way Users Log On and Off: This one’s a little more complicated, because it brings up two options, described here: A Use the Welcome Screen: Normally, people log on by clicking their names on the Welcome screen. Removing the check mark in this box turns off the Welcome screen. Instead, people must type their name and password into little boxes in order to log on. Why? This method is more secure — without the Welcome screen, nobody can tell which people have accounts on the computer. Turning off the Welcome screen also turns off Fast User Switching, described next. A Use Fast User Switching: Windows XP usually lets users switch back and forth quickly and easily. When they switch back on, their open programs are just the way they left them. (See the previous section ‘Switching quickly between users” for more information.) Removing the check mark in this box turns off the Fast User Switching for all users. Instead, they must log off, saving their work in the process, before another user may log on.

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A password, please
There’s not much point to having a user account if you don’t have a password. Without one, anybody can click your account on the Welcome screen. Windows will think that person is you and will let him or her delete or snoop through your ﬁles. Administrators, especially, should have passwords, or anybody can log on as an administrator, peek into every user’s ﬁles, or completely sabotage the computer. To create or change a password, open User Accounts from the Start menu’s Control Panel and choose Create a Password. Make up an easy-to-remember password to type into the ﬁrst box and then retype the same word into the box below it. (That eliminates the chance of typos.) In the third box, type in a clue that helps you remember your forgotten password. Make sure the clue only works for you, though. Don’t choose “My hair color,” for instance. Instead, choose “My cat’s favorite food” or “The actor on my favorite TV show.” And don’t be afraid to change the password every once in a while, too. You can ﬁnd more about passwords at the beginning of Chapter 4. Finally, create a Password Reset Disk. That way, if you forget your password, and your hint’s not helping you remember it, you can insert your Password Reset Disk as a key. Windows XP will let you in, and all will be joyous. (But if you lose the Password Reset Disk, you have to beg for mercy from the administrator. And be sure to change your password so nobody can use your lost Password Reset Disk to break in.).

Skip the Rest of This Unless You Have or Want a Network
A network is just two or more computers that have been connected so that they can share information. But computer networks have more subtleties than nervous high schoolers on their ﬁrst date. For example, how do you tell if a computer is on a network? Who’s allowed on the network? Which computers are on the network? Are all parts of Computer A available to Computer B? Should networked computers be allowed to kiss without passwords? All these technical decisions need to be made beforehand, usually by the network administrator — somebody who often looks as harried as the high school principal at the prom. Computers aren’t the only elements that you can network. You can put printers, modems, CD-ROM drives, USB ports, CompactFlash card readers, and nearly anything else on a network, as well. No need to buy bunches of stuff for each computer; they can all share.

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Windows XP divvies up its attention quite well. It lets all the networked computers share a single Internet connection, for instance, and everybody can be online at the same time. Everyone can share a single printer, too. If two people try to print something simultaneously, Windows holds onto the incoming ﬁles until the printer is free and ready to deal with them. Don’t know if you’re on a network? Click the Start button and choose My Network Places. A window appears, showing any computers connected to your own.

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Can I get in trouble for looking into the wrong computer?
Sometimes people tell you where to ﬁnd ﬁles and things on your network. They write it on a cheat sheet taped to your computer. If nobody’s dropped you a hint, feel free to grab a torch and go spelunking on your own with My Network Places, described in the next section. If you’re worried about getting into trouble, the rule is simple: Windows XP rarely lets you peek into networked areas where you’re not supposed to be. In fact, Windows XP is so security conscious that it may keep you from seeing things that you should be able to see. (That’s when you call on the administrator.) For instance, if you tried to peek inside a forbidden computer named Clementine, an “access denied” message would appear, as shown in Figure 9-4. No harm done.

Figure 9-4: If you try to enter a restricted area on the network, Windows XP politely refuses.

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A If you’re supposed to be able to read a folder on someone else’s computer and you can’t, just casually tell the administrator, “Pardon me, bloke, but I don’t seem to have permission to access folder X on computer Y. Could you check into that? There’s a good chap.” A If you do accidentally ﬁnd yourself in a folder where you obviously don’t belong — for example, the folder of employee evaluations on your supervisor’s computer — that should also be brought to the administrator’s attention.

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How do I access other networked computers?
The best and fastest way to knock on the doors of other networked computers is to head for the Start button and click My Network Places. A window pops open, such as the one in Figure 9-5, and you might see some folders living on other computers.

Figure 9-5: Click My Network Places from the Start button to see folders on other computers that you can access.

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Icons for networked folders — folders living on computers connected to yours — look slightly different than icons for your own computer’s folders. A sheet of paper sticks out of the top and a little wire runs beneath them. Networked folders work the same, though: Double-click them to see what’s inside, just like any other folder. There’s a catch, however: You’re only able to poke inside another computer’s folder if somebody has decided to share it. (Other sections in this chapter show how to share your own folders.) Sometimes an entire hard disk is shared; for example, other people have permission to come into that computer and stroll around that particular hard disk, pinching peaches and thumping melons. Other times, the sharing involves merely a folder or two. Windows XP, for instance, always makes its Shared Music and Shared Pictures folders available on the network so that everybody can peek at the same photo album and share the same CDs. A Networks being what they are, it’s hard to predict what you’ll see in your own My Network Places. Just about everybody’s network is set up differently. But there’s absolutely no rule against looking around. If you’re just curious, start spelunking by clicking folders. A To see any currently networked printers, open My Network Places from the Start menu and click Printers and Faxes in the Other Places section along the left side. Icons for networked printers look just like those for regular printers, but with that telltale cable running beneath. A The My Network Places window uses the networked folder icon for just about anything inside. Figure 9-5, for instance, shows a networked ﬂoppy drive and a networked Sony Memory Stick; both use a networked folder icon.

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Sharing your own computer’s stuff with the network
To share a ﬁle or folder with your fellow computer users, move the ﬁle into your Shared Documents folder, which lives in your My Computer window. (You must move or copy a ﬁle into the Shared Documents folder; shortcuts don’t always work.)

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After you place your ﬁle or folder into your Shared Documents folder, it appears in the Shared Documents folder of everybody else using your computer. As a special perk, administrators can share folders without having to move them into the Shared Documents folder. The trick is to follow these steps: 1. Right-click on a folder you’d like to share and choose Sharing and Security from the pop-up menu. Open My Computer and right-click on the folder you’d like to share. When the menu appears, select Sharing and Security. A window appears, showing the Properties for that folder. It opens to the Sharing tab, as shown in Figure 9-6.

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Figure 9-6: Right-click on a folder and choose Sharing and Security to share the folder on the network.

2. Click the box marked Share This Folder on the Network. A check mark in that box lets everybody peek at, grab, steal, change, or delete any of the ﬁles in that folder. To let visitors look inside the ﬁles but not change them, remove the check mark from the box marked Allow Network Users to Change My Files.

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3. Click OK. Now that particular folder and all its contents are available for everybody on the network to share. A Sharing many folders is not a good idea because it gives network visitors too much control over your computer. Even if you trust people, they might accidentally mess something up. To be safest, only share ﬁles by placing them in the Shared Document folder. A Inside Shared Documents live two more folders, Shared Music and Shared Pictures. Those two folders are also available to any user. So, if you want to share documents with any user of your computer, store them in the Shared Documents folder. When you make MP3s from your CDs, store them in the Shared Music folder, too, so that everybody can enjoy them.

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Sharing a printer on the network
Many households or ofﬁces have several computers but only one printer. That creates quite a problem: Who has to keep the printer on his desk? The second problem, how everybody can access the same printer, is solved easily: by putting the printer on a network. If no printer is directly plugged into your computer, you can easily ﬁnd out what networked printers are available. Click the Start button, choose the Control Panel, and select Printers and Other Hardware. Choose View Installed Printers or Fax Printers. (Or click the Printers and Faxes icon, depending on your setup.) Windows XP shows you the printers connected to your computer, as shown in Figure 9-7. To share a printer with the network, follow these steps. 1. Click the Start button, choose Control Panel, select Printers and Other Hardware, and choose Printers and Faxes. Depending on your setup, you might skip Printers and Other Hardware, because the Printers and Faxes icon will already be showing.

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Figure 9-7: The Control Panel’s Printers and Faxes window shows one networked printer accessible from this computer.

2. If you see an icon for your computer’s printer, right-click on the icon and choose Sharing. No icon for your printer? Move ahead to Step 4. 3. Click the Share This Printer button, and if desired, type in a name for your printer. Click OK. Any name will do — the make and model works ﬁne. If you’re running other versions of Windows on your network, click the Additional Drivers button. Click in the boxes next to the versions used by the other computers and click OK. Click OK to close the window, and you’re through. 4. If there’s no icon for your computer’s printer, click Add Printer. Fill out the questions Windows XP asks about your printer. If your printer came with an installation disk, use that. Windows XP recognizes many modern printers as soon as you plug them into the USB port. If the printer plugs into a printer port (also called the LPT port), you might have to tell Windows the printer’s make and model. Finally, tell Windows XP to use that printer as the default printer if you want Windows XP to use that printer all the time. (This option comes in handy for people who have more than one printer.)

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The new printer’s icon now appears in your Printers and Faxes window; you’ll also ﬁnd its name listed in your software programs as an option for printing. Now go back to Step 3 to share the printer with the network. That’s it. Your computer can send information to any of the printers listed in the window. If you don’t see any printers listed in the Printers and Faxes window, yet you know that one is attached to the network, click the Add Printer icon. This time, though, tell it you’re installing a network printer. Windows XP browses for any connected network printers and displays their names.

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How Do I Create My Own Computer Network?
If you’re trying to set up a lot of computers — more than ﬁve or ten — you need a more advanced book: Networks are very scary stuff. But if you’re just trying to set up a handful of computers in your home or home ofﬁce, this information may be all you need. So without further blabbing, here’s a no-fat, step-by-step list of how to set up your own small and inexpensive network to work with Windows XP. The following sections show how to buy the three parts of a network — cables, cards, and a hub for connecting the cables. It explains how to install the parts and, ﬁnally, how to make Windows XP create a network out of your handiwork.

Buying a network’s parts
Today, the fastest networks use 10BaseT cable. Some of today’s modern homes come prewired with 10BaseT network jacks in the wall, and people quickly ﬁnd out what’s so weird about 10BaseT cable: It looks like plain old phone cable. To tell the difference, examine the ends of phone cable and 10BaseT cable. The 10BaseT cable has a larger connector on it. (The connector won’t ﬁt into a phone, even if you try to force it.) The 10BaseT cable is known by a wide variety of names, including 100BaseT, Ethernet RJ-45, TPE (Twisted Pair Ethernet), and 10BT. But

___________________________ Chapter 9: Sharing It All on the Network when looking for it at the store, just say you want the network cable that “looks like telephone cord instead of cable-TV cord.” Next, you need network cards, one for each computer on the network. (Many new computers come with a network card preinstalled, so look in the back of the computer for the giveaway: something that looks like a huge phone jack.) When you choose a card, keep these factors in mind: A The card must be an Ethernet card with a 10BaseT connector. A The card must ﬁt into one of your computer’s unused slots. A The card’s box should say that it’s Plug and Play and supports Windows XP. If the box doesn’t list Windows XP, then Windows 2000 is your next best bet. Finally, you need a goody called a hub, where you plug in all the cables. Every computer needs to snake its cable to a single hub, as shown in Figure 9-8. Without the hub, shown in Figure 9-9, the network won’t work right. (More complex networks can often link hubs, but I’m deliberately leaving the complicated stuff out of this book.) Here’s the shopping list. Drop this onto the copy machine at the ofﬁce and take it to the computer store. A One 10BaseT-supporting Ethernet “Plug and Play” card for each computer on the network. (The 100 Mbps or Fast Ethernet cards are ten times as fast, but cost more money.) Make sure the cards are Windows XP or Windows 2000 compatible. A One hub that has enough ports for each computer — plus some extra ports for a few computers that you may want to add at a later time. A For every computer, buy one 10BaseT cable that’s long enough to reach from the computer to the hub.

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Sue‘s Computer Lemur‘s Computer Jeff‘s Computer Figure 9-8: 10BaseT cabling looks like telephone wire and links computers to a central hub.

Betty‘s Computer

Del‘s Computer

Abe‘s Computer

Installing the network’s parts
Here’s how to install your new network card. Windows XP should automatically recognize the card and embrace it gleefully. 1. Find your original Windows XP compact disc — you may need it. 2. Turn off and unplug all the computers on your soon-to-be network. Turn them all off; unplug them as well. 3. Turn off all the computers’ peripherals — printers, monitors, modems, and so on.

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Figure 9-9: 10BaseT users need to plug the cable from each of their computers into a central hub.

Hub

10BaseT(TPE) connectors

4. Insert the network cards into their appropriate slots. Remove the computer’s case and push the card into the proper type of slot. Make double sure that you’re inserting the proper type of card into the proper type of slot — for example, inserting a PCI card into a PCI slot. If a card doesn’t seem to ﬁt into a slot, don’t force it. Different types of cards ﬁt into different types of slots, and you may be trying to push the wrong type of card into the wrong type of slot. 5. Replace the computers’ cases and connect the network cables to the cards. 6. Connect the cables between the network cards and the hub. Figure 9-9 shows an example of how the cables connect. You may need to route cables under carpets or around doorways. (Some hubs have power cords that need to be plugged into a wall outlet as well.)

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7. Turn on the computers and their peripherals. Turn on the computers and their monitors, printers, modems, and whatever else happens to be connected to them. A If all goes well, Windows XP wakes up, notices its newly installed network card, and begins installing its appropriate software automatically. Hurrah! Or, if the network card came with an installation disk or CD, double-click the disk’s Setup ﬁle to install the card. A If all doesn’t go well, click Windows XP’s Start button, choose Control Panel, and double-click the Add Hardware icon. (You may need to click Switch to Classic View to see the icon.) Click the Next button to make Windows try to autodetect the new network card.

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Letting the Network Setup Wizard Set Up Your Network
Whoopee! After you’ve installed the cards and cables, the Windows Network Setup Wizard takes over the rest of the arduous tasks. Be sure to run the wizard on your most powerful computer and make that computer the one that connects to the Internet. Now, turn on all your computers, printers, and external modems and then connect your computer to the Internet. Ready? Here’s how to summon the wizard to complete the network ﬁnalities: 1. Start the Network Setup Wizard and click the Next button. Click the Start button, choose My Network Places, and choose Set Up a Home or Small Ofﬁce Network from the Network Tasks area along the left. The Network Setup Wizard rises to the screen, as shown in Figure 9-10, ready for you to click Next. 2. Read the screen and click Next. The Network Setup Wizard brings your network to life, examining everything connected to it and placing appropriate network icons on your computer. That’s why turning everything on is important, as the wizard requests. After you click Next, the wizard looks for your Internet connection.

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Figure 9-10: The Network Setup Wizard leads you through the networking process.

3. Tell the wizard about your Internet connection and click Next. Speciﬁcally, the wizard needs to know whether your computer connects directly to the Internet, or if it will connect to the Internet through a different computer on the network. Because you’re running this wizard on the computer that connects to the Internet, choose the ﬁrst option. 4. Choose your Internet connection from the list, if asked, and click Next. 5. Type a name and description for your computer and click Next. 6. If the settings look correct, click Next Windows XP lists the settings that it will use and asks for your okay. If you click Next, Windows XP checks out the Internet connection and lets other networked computers share it. It automatically installs a protective ﬁrewall, described in Chapter 12. And it starts setting up the network. (Give it a few minutes.) 7. If your network includes Windows 98 or Windows 95 computers, create a Home Networking Setup disk and click Next. If any of your networked computers use those older versions of Windows, create the Network Setup disk by clicking the Create Disk button. (You need a ﬂoppy.)

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Ignore this step if you’re networking all Windows XP computers. You can insert your Windows XP CD into those computers, choose Perform Additional Tasks, and select Set Up Home or Small Ofﬁce Networking. 8. Click Finish. That should do the trick. A The wizard does a reasonably good job of casting its spells on your computers. If the computers are all connected correctly and restarted, chances are they’ll wake up in bondage with each other. If they don’t, try restarting them all again. A Your newly networked Windows XP computers should list currently shared folders in their My Network Places areas. Unless you’ve shared additional ﬁles on your own, you’ll probably see a single folder called Shared Documents that contains My Music and My Pictures. A To run the wizard on Windows 95 or 98 computers that aren’t running Windows XP, insert your Network Setup disk into the computer you want to network. Open My Computer, double-click your ﬂoppy drive, and double-click the ﬁle named, netsetup. The computer asks a few questions, tweaks itself, and reboots. (Just run the Network Wizard on networked Windows Me computers, if Windows XP didn’t already set them up.) A All of your networked computers should now be able to share any shared ﬁles, your modem connection, and any printers. A If everything doesn’t proceed as merrily as described here, don’t worry. Networking will work. However, you need to make some more advanced tweaks that I can’t describe here or the book would cost too much. Pick up a copy of Brian Livingston’s Windows XP Secrets published by Hungry Minds, Inc. (It’s around 1,200 pages.)

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Part III

Using Windows XP Applications

In this part…

D

id you know that

A Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated? A A human’s eyelashes generally fall off after 5 months? A Windows XP comes with a bunch of free programs that aren’t even mentioned on the outside of the box?

This part takes a look at all the stuff you’re getting for nothing. Well, for the price on your sales receipt, anyway. It also shows how to get to those darn programs by using the Start button, the desktop, and that little bar along the screen’s bottom called the “taskbar.” Finally, it shows how to do the exciting stuff: Surf the Web, download music and videos, and turn your PC into something fun for a change.

Chapter 10

Your Desktop, Start Button, and Taskbar (And Free Programs)
In This Chapter
B Using the desktop and making shortcuts B Deleting ﬁles, folders, programs, and icons B Retrieving deleted items from the Recycle Bin B Using the taskbar and controlling Print Manager B Starting programs, adding programs, and removing programs from the Start but-

ton
B Making Windows load programs automatically

n the old days of computing, pale technoweenies typed disgustingly long strings of code words into computers to make the computers do something — anything. With Windows XP, computers reach the age of modern convenience. To start a program, simply click a button. There’s a slight complication, however: The buttons no longer look like buttons. In fact, some of the buttons are hidden, revealed only by the push of yet another button (if you’re lucky enough to stumble upon the right place to push). To make matters worse, some of the buttons fall off and land on your desktop. (Don’t worry; they’re supposed to do that.) This chapter covers the three main Windows XP buttonmongers: the desktop, the taskbar, and that mother of all buttons — the Start button. Plus, it explains which of the Windows freebie programs are worth the click it takes to load them.

I

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Rolling Objects along the Windows XP Desktop
Usually, nobody thinks of mounting a desktop sideways. Keeping the pencils from rolling off a normal desk is hard enough. But in Windows XP, your computer monitor’s screen is known as the Windows desktop, and it’s the area where all your work takes place. You can create ﬁles and folders right on your new electronic desktop and arrange them all across the screen. For example, do you need to write a letter asking the neighbor to return the circular saw she borrowed? The following steps show how to put the desktop’s functions to immediate use. Point at just about any Windows XP item and click your right mouse button to see a menu listing the things you’re allowed to do with that item. 1. Right-click on an uncovered area of your desktop. A menu pops up, as shown in Figure 10-1.
Figure 10-1: Clicking an empty area of your desktop with your right mouse button brings up a list of helpful options.

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2. Point at the word New and click WordPad Document from the menu that appears. Because you’re creating something new — a new letter — you should point at the word New. Windows XP lists the new things you can create on the desktop. Choose WordPad Document, as shown in Figure 10-2. Poof! A little WordPad icon appears on the desktop, bearing the vivid name New WordPad Document.

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Figure 10-2: Point at the word New and choose WordPad Document from the menu.

As your computer ﬁlls up with programs, your menu choices change, too. In fact, if you install Microsoft Ofﬁce or Microsoft Word, WordPad is kicked off the menu completely. If you don’t see WordPad on the menu, try this alternative approach: Click the Start button and choose Run. When the Run box appears, type WordPad into the Open box and then press Enter. WordPad opens automatically, ready for action. Now run ahead to Step 5. 3. Type a name for your letter and press Enter. When an icon for a new WordPad document appears on the desktop, the ﬁrst step is to give it a name of up to 255 characters — something like Polite Circular Saw Request. As soon as you start typing, your new title replaces the old name of New WordPad Document, as shown in Figure 10-3.
Figure 10-3: Start typing to create the icon’s new name.

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Press Enter when you’re through typing the name, and WordPad saves the new name. (Occasionally, Windows XP frets about your choice of name; if so, try a different name or skip ahead to Chapter 11 to see why Windows is so ﬁnicky about names.) 4. Double-click your newly created WordPad icon to open it. Double-clicking the new icon calls up WordPad, the word processor, so you can write the letter requesting the return of your circular saw. 5. Write your letter. Remember, word processors automatically wrap your sentences to the next line for you; don’t hit the Enter key when you’re nearing the right side of the page. 6. Click Save from the WordPad File menu to save the letter. If you created the ﬁle by right-clicking on the desktop, you’ve already named the ﬁle, and Windows will save it without further ado. If you opened WordPad through the Start menu’s Run command, Windows now asks you to choose a name for the ﬁle. 7. Head back to the WordPad File menu and choose Print to send the letter to the printer. 8. Close the ﬁle by clicking the X in its upper-right corner. To delete it, drag the ﬁle to the Recycle Bin. After you ﬁnish writing and printing the letter, you can either save it or throw it away. You can simply leave your new WordPad letter icon on your desk. When your desktop gets too cluttered, feel free to move the icon to a new folder, a process covered in excruciating detail in Chapter 11. If you want to delete the letter, drag the icon to your Recycle Bin, which I describe in the nearby section “Using the Recycle Bin.” A Windows XP is designed for you to work right on top of the desktop. From the desktop, you can create new things like ﬁles, folders, sounds, and graphics — just about anything. After working with your new ﬁle or folder, you can store it or delete it.

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A Are you confused about what something is supposed to do? Rightclick on it or simply rest the pointer over the confusing spot. Windows XP often tosses up a menu that lists just about everything you can do with that particular object. This trick works on many icons found on your desktop or throughout your programs. A Sometimes Windows XP does something nasty, and everything on your desktop disappears, leaving it completely empty. What gives? To ﬁx the problem, right-click on your desktop and choose Arrange Icons By from the pop-up menu. Then choose Show Desktop Icons from the next menu to make everything reappear with no harm done.

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Arranging icons on the desktop
Windows XP offers many — too many, in fact — ways to organize your desktop’s icons. If your desktop’s icons start to look like an unorganized pile, right-click on a blank area of your desktop. Then choose Arrange Icons By from the menu that appears. Windows arranges the icons along the left edge of the screen, depending on your option. Here’s a rundown: A Name: Arrange icons in alphabetical order by the icon’s name. A Size: Arrange icons according to the ﬁle’s size. (Shortcut ﬁles stay near the top because they’re small.) A Type: Line up icons by the ﬁle’s type: All WordPad ﬁles are grouped together, for instance, as are all shortcuts to Paint ﬁles. A Modiﬁed: Arrange icons in the order that the shortcut was created or modiﬁed. A Auto Arrange: Automatically arrange any new icons in columns along the screen’s left side. A Align to Grid: My favorite. Aligns all icons to an invisible grid on the screen to keep them nice and tidy. A Show Desktop Icons: Make sure you keep this option on. If you click here, Windows hides all the icons on your desktop. If you can remember in your frustration, click this option again to toggle your icons back on.

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A Lock Web Items on Desktop: Chapter 14 shows how to place a Web page onto your desktop as a background. Click here to “lock” that Web page in place.

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Using the Recycle Bin
The Recycle Bin, that little oval wastebasket icon on your desktop (shown here in the margin), is supposed to work like a real recycle bin. It’s something you can ﬁsh the Sunday paper out of if somebody pitched the comics section before you had a chance to read it. If you want to get rid of something in Windows XP — a ﬁle or folder, for example — simply drag it to the Recycle Bin. Point at the ﬁle or folder’s icon with the mouse and, while holding down the left mouse button, point at the Recycle Bin. Let go of the mouse button, and your detritus disappears. Windows XP stuffs it into the Recycle Bin. But if you want to bypass that cute metaphor, you can delete stuff another way: Right-click on your unwanted ﬁle or folder’s icon and choose Delete from the menu that pops up. Windows XP asks cautiously if you’re sure that you want to delete the icon. If you click the Yes button, Windows XP dumps the icon into the Recycle Bin, just as if you’d dragged it there. Whoosh! (If you’re not sure, click No, and Windows leaves the ﬁle in place.) So if you like to drag and drop, feel free to drag your garbage to the Recycle Bin and let go. If you prefer the menus, click with your right mouse button and choose Delete. Or, if you like alternative lifestyles, click the unwanted icon with your left mouse button and press your keyboard’s Delete key. All three methods toss the ﬁle into the Recycle Bin, where you can salvage it later or, eventually, purge it for good. A Want to retrieve something you’ve deleted? Double-click the Recycle Bin icon, and a window appears, listing deleted items. See the name of your accidentally deleted icon? Right-click on the icon and choose Restore to send it back to the folder from which it was deleted. Or drag the icon to the desktop or any other folder: Point at the icon’s name and, while holding down the left mouse button, point at its desired location. Let go of the mouse button, and the Recycle Bin coughs up the deleted item, good as new.

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A Sometimes, the Recycle Bin can get pretty full. If you’re searching fruitlessly for a ﬁle you’ve recently deleted, tell the Recycle Bin to sort the ﬁlenames in the order in which they were deleted. Click View, point at Arrange Icons, and choose Date Deleted from the menu that pops out. The Recycle Bin now lists the most recently deleted ﬁles at the bottom. A The Recycle Bin icon changes from an empty wastepaper basket to a full one as soon as it’s holding a deleted ﬁle. You may have to squint a little to notice the pieces of paper sticking out of the trashcan’s top. A The Recycle Bin waits until your deleted ﬁles consume 10 percent of your computer's hard drive before it begins purging your oldest deleted ﬁles to make room for new ones. If you’re running out of hard disk space, shrink the bin’s size. Right-click on the Recycle Bin and choose Properties from its menu. If you want the Recycle Bin to hang on to more deleted ﬁles, increase the percentage. If you’re a sure-ﬁngered clicker who seldom makes mistakes, decrease the percentage.

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Making a shortcut
Some people like to organize their desktops, putting a pencil sharpener on one corner and a box of Kleenex on the other corner. Other people like their Kleenex box in the top desk drawer. Microsoft knew that one desktop design could never please everybody, so Windows XP lets people customize their desktops to suit individual tastes and needs. For example, you may ﬁnd yourself frequently copying ﬁles to or from a ﬂoppy disk in drive A. Usually, to perform that operation, you click the Start button, click My Computer, and drag your ﬁles to the ﬂoppy drive icon living in there. But there’s a quicker way, and it’s called a Windows XP shortcut. A shortcut is simply a push button — an icon — that stands for something else. For example, here’s how to put a shortcut for drive A on your desktop: 1. Click the Start button and then click My Computer. The My Computer folder opens up, showing the icons for your disk drives as well as oft-used folders. (My Computer gets more coverage in Chapter 11.)

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2. With your right mouse button, drag the drive A icon to the desktop. Point at the drive A icon and, while holding down your right mouse button, point at the desktop, as shown in Figure 10-4. Let go of your mouse button. (Check out Chapter 6 if you’re not sure how to shrink the My Computer window to make the desktop visible.) 3. Choose Create Shortcut(s) Here from the menu. Windows XP puts an icon for drive A on your desktop, but it looks a little different from the drive A icon you dragged. Because it’s only a shortcut — not the original icon — it has a little arrow in its corner, as shown in the margin.

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Figure 10-4: Dragging the drive A icon to the desktop with the right mouse button creates a shortcut.

That’s it. Now you won’t need to root through any folders to access your ﬂoppy drive. The shortcut on your desktop works just as well as the real ﬂoppy drive icon. To copy or move ﬁles to your A drive, just

_____ Chapter 10: Your Desktop, Start Button, and Taskbar (And Programs) drag them to the newly created shortcut. To see the contents of your ﬂoppy disk, double-click the shortcut. A Feel free to create desktop shortcuts for your most commonly accessed programs, ﬁles, or disk drives. If you’re on a network, create shortcuts for networked computers, or just folders on networked computers. Shortcuts are a quick way to make Windows XP easier to use. A Here’s a quick trick: Right-click on a disk drive — even your ﬂoppy drive — and choose Create Shortcut. Windows will offer to place the shortcut on your desktop. (This trick only works for disk drives, though.) A You can even put a shortcut for your printer onto your desktop. To print a ﬁle, drag and drop its icon onto the printer’s shortcut. A If your newly dragged icon doesn’t have an arrow in its bottom corner, don’t let go of the mouse! You might not be making a shortcut. Instead, you’ve probably dragged the real program to your desktop, and other programs may not be able to ﬁnd it. Press the Esc button with your free hand, and Windows stops what you were doing. (You probably mistakenly held down the left mouse button instead of the correct button — the right button.) A Have you grown tired of a particular shortcut? Feel free to delete it. Deleting a shortcut has no effect on the original ﬁle, folder, or program that it represents. A You can make as many shortcuts as you’d like. You can even make several shortcuts for the same thing. For example, you can put a shortcut for drive A in all your folders. A Windows XP shortcuts aren’t very good at keeping track of moving ﬁles. If you create a shortcut to a ﬁle or program and then move that ﬁle or program to a different folder, the shortcut won’t be able to ﬁnd that ﬁle or program anymore. Windows will panic and try searching for it, but may not be able to ﬁnd it. Shortcuts, by contrast, can be moved anywhere without problems.

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Keeping your icons straight
Don't be confused by a program's icon on your desktop and a program's button on the taskbar along the bottom of your screen. They're two different things. The button at the bottom of the screen stands for a program that has already been loaded into the computer's memory. It's already running, ready for immediate action. The icon on your desktop or in Windows XP Explorer stands for a program that is sitting on the computer's hard disk waiting to be loaded. If you mistakenly click the icon in Windows Explorer or on the desktop rather than the button on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, you load a second copy of that program. Two versions of the program are loaded: one running as a window, and the other running as a taskbar button waiting to be turned back into a window. Running two versions of a program can cause confusion — especially if you start entering stuff into both versions of the same program. You won't know which window has the right version! Check out “The Way-Cool Taskbar,” later in this chapter, for more taskbar information.

Uh, what’s the difference between a shortcut and the actual program?
An icon for a ﬁle, folder, or program looks pretty much like a shortcut, except the shortcut has a little arrow wedged in its lower reaches. And double-clicking a shortcut and double-clicking an icon do pretty much the same thing: start a program or load a ﬁle or folder. But a shortcut is only a servant of sorts. When you double-click the shortcut, it runs over to the program, ﬁle, or folder that the shortcut represents and kick-starts that program, ﬁle, or folder into action. You could do the same thing yourself by rummaging through your computer’s folders, ﬁnding the program, ﬁle, or folder you’re after, and personally double-clicking its icon to bring it to life. But it’s often more convenient to create a shortcut so that you don’t have to rummage so much. A If you delete a shortcut — the icon with the little arrow — you’re not doing any real harm. You’re just ﬁring the servant that fetched things for you, probably creating more work for yourself in the process. A If you accidentally delete a shortcut, you can pull it out of the Recycle Bin, just like anything else that’s deleted in Windows XP.

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Shutting down Windows XP
Although the big argument used to be about saturated and unsaturated fats, today’s generation has found a new source of disagreement: Should a computer be left on all the time or turned off at the end of the day? Both camps have decent arguments, and there’s no real answer (except that you should always turn off your monitor when you won’t be using it for a half hour or so). However, if you decide to turn off your computer, don’t just head for the off switch. First, tell Windows XP about your plans. To do that, click the Start button, choose the Turn Off Computer command, and ponder the choices Windows XP places on-screen, as shown in Figure 10-5:
Figure 10-5: Click Stand By to temporarily put the computer to sleep, click Turn Off to turn off your computer, or click Restart to make Windows XP shut down and come back to life.

Stand By: Save your work before choosing this option; Windows XP doesn’t save your work automatically. Instead, it lets your computer doze for a bit to save power, but the computer wakes up at the touch of a button. Turn Off: Clicking here tells Windows XP to put away all your programs and to make sure that you’ve saved all your important ﬁles. Then it turns off your computer and most of the newer monitors. Poof! Use this option when you’re done computing for the day. (If your monitor

_____ Chapter 10: Your Desktop, Start Button, and Taskbar (And Programs) doesn’t turn off automatically, you’ll have to push its power button yourself.) Restart: Here, Windows saves your work and prepares your computer to be shut off. However, it then restarts your computer. Use this option when installing new software, changing settings, or trying to stop Windows XP from doing something awfully weird. Hibernate: Only offered on some computers, this option works much like Shut Down. It saves your work and turns off your computer. However, when turned on again, your computer presents your desktop just as you left it: Open programs and windows appear in the same place. Putting your computer into hibernation mode is not as safe as shutting it down. (Don’t see the Hibernate feature? Hold down Shift, and it will replace the Standby button.) A The Hibernate command takes all of your currently open information and writes it to the hard drive in one big chunk. Then, to recreate your desktop, it reads that big chunk and places it back on your desktop. A Don’t ever turn off your computer unless you’ve chosen the Turn Off command from the Start button. Windows XP needs to prepare itself for the shutdown, or it may accidentally eat some of your important information — as well as the information of anybody else using the computer at the time. A Remember, if you’re done with the computer but other people might want to use it, just click Log Off from the Start menu: Windows XP saves your work and brings up the Welcome screen, allowing other people to log on and play video games.

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The Way-Cool Taskbar
This section introduces one of the handiest tricks in Windows XP, so pull your chair in a little closer. Whenever you run more than one window on the desktop, there’s a big problem: Programs and windows tend to cover each other up, making them difﬁcult to locate. Windows XP’s solution is the taskbar — a special program that keeps track of all your open programs. Shown in Figure 10-6, the taskbar normally lives along the bottom of your screen, although you can move it

_____ Chapter 10: Your Desktop, Start Button, and Taskbar (And Programs) to any edge you want. (Hint: Just drag the taskbar to any of the screen’s four edges. If it doesn’t move, right-click on the taskbar and click Lock the Taskbar to remove the check mark by its name.)
Figure 10-6: The handy taskbar lists your currently running programs and lets you bring them to the forefront by clicking their names.

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See how the button for Calculator looks “pushed in” in Figure 10-6? That’s because Calculator is the currently active window on the desktop. One or more of your taskbar’s buttons always look pushed in unless you close or minimize all the windows on your desktop. From the taskbar, you can perform powerful magic on your open windows, as described in the following list: A To play with a window you see listed on the taskbar, click its name. The window rises to the surface and rests atop any other open windows, ready for action. A To close a window listed on the taskbar, right-click on its name and choose Close from the menu that pops up. The program quits, just as if you’d chosen its Exit command from within its own window. (The departing program gives you a chance to save any work before it quits and disappears from the screen.) A Don’t see the taskbar? If the taskbar’s top edge peeks up along the screen’s bottom, grab the visible part with your mouse and drag it toward the center of the screen until the entire taskbar is visible.

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What’s the MSN Messenger Service?
With its MSN Messenger Service, Microsoft has created a combination doorbell/peephole for the Internet. When a friend logs onto the Internet, your bell rings automatically, and a window pops up, ready for you to bug your friend with a message. Then, when you get tired of your friends bugging you, you search for a way to turn off the darn thing. (Right-click on the little “people” icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen near the clock, and choose Exit.) To keep this icon always hidden, check out this chapter’s section on customizing the taskbar. You want to click the Customize button, click MSN Messenger Service, and choose Always Hide.

Shrinking windows to the taskbar and retrieving them
Windows spawn windows. You start with one window to write a letter to Mother. You open another window to check her address, for example, and then yet another window to see whether you’ve forgotten any recent birthdays. Before you know it, four more windows are crowded across the desktop. To combat the clutter, Windows XP provides a simple means of window control: You can transform a window from a screen-cluttering square into a tiny button on the bar — the taskbar — that sits along the bottom of the screen. See the three buttons lurking in just about every window’s top-right corner? Click the Minimize button — the button with the little line in it. Whoosh! The window disappears, represented by its little button on the bar running along the bottom of your screen. Click that button, and your window hops back onto the screen, ready for action. A To make a minimized program on the taskbar revert into a regular, on-screen window, just click its name on the taskbar. Pretty simple, huh? A To shrink an open window so that it’s out of the way, click the leftmost of the three buttons in the window’s top-right corner. The window minimizes itself into a button and lines itself up on the bar along the bottom of the screen.

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A Each taskbar button shows the name of the program it represents. A When you minimize a window, you neither destroy its contents nor close it. You merely change its shape. It is still loaded into memory, waiting for you to play with it again. A To put the window back where it was, click its button on the taskbar. It hops back up to the same place it was before. A Whenever you load a program by using the Start button or Explorer, that program’s name automatically appears on the taskbar. If one of your open windows ever gets lost on your desktop, click its name on the taskbar. The window immediately jumps to the forefront.

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Clicking the taskbar’s sensitive areas
Like a crafty card player, the taskbar comes with a few tips and tricks. For one thing, it has the Start button. With a click on the Start button, you can launch programs, change settings, ﬁnd programs, get help, and order takeout food. (Well, forget the food, but you can do all the things mentioned in the Start button section later in this chapter.) The Start button is only one of the taskbar’s tricks; some others are listed in Figure 10-7.
Click here to reveal the hidden icons Click here to adjust the volume Figure 10-7: Clicking or Click here to see what's heading for the printer doubleclicking Rest your mouse pointer over these areas the clock to see the date of the taskbar Click here before unplugging performs USB-using gizmos like digital these tasks. cameras, MP3 players, speakers, and other toys

Hold the mouse pointer over the clock, and Windows XP shows the current day and date. Or if you want to change the time or date, a doubleclick on the clock summons the Windows XP time/date change program.

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Sometimes the taskbar hides things. Click the little double arrows near the clock (refer to Figure 10-7), and a few more icons might slide out. (Check out the “Customizing the taskbar” section for tips and tricks affecting these icons.) Click the little speaker to adjust the sound card’s volume via a sliding control, as shown in Figure 10-8. Or double-click the little speaker to bring up a mixing panel. Mixers let you adjust separate volume levels for your microphone, line inputs, CD and DVD players, and other features. (No speaker icon? Choose Control Panel from the Start menu, open the Sounds and Audio Devices icon, and click in the box marked Place Volume Icon in the Taskbar.)
Figure 10-8: Clicking the little speaker lets you adjust the sound card’s volume.

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A Other icons often appear next to the clock, depending on what Windows XP is up to. If you’re printing, for example, a little printer icon appears there. Laptops often show a battery power-level gauge. As with all the other icons down there, if you double-click the printer or battery gauge, Windows XP brings up information about the printer’s or battery’s status. A After joining the Internet and activating Windows XP, you can let somebody else play mechanic. Click the icon shown in the margin when it appears next to the clock. Windows XP automatically bellies up to a special Microsoft Web site, analyzes itself, and installs any updated software that may help it run better. A Want to minimize all your desktop’s open windows in a hurry? Right-click on a blank part of the taskbar and choose the Minimize All Windows option from the pop-up menu. All the programs keep running, but they’re now minimized to icons along the taskbar. To bring them back to the screen, just click their names from the taskbar.

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A For an even faster way to minimize all your desktop’s open windows, click a little icon down by the Start button. As you can see in Figure 10-6 and in the margin, it’s a square with blue-tipped corners, a white rectangle in the center, and a little pencil thing resting on top of it all. A To organize your open windows, right-click on a blank part of the taskbar and choose one of the tile commands. Windows XP scoops up all your open windows and lays them back down in neat, orderly squares. (I cover tiling in more detail in Chapter 7.)

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Customizing the taskbar
Windows XP brings a whirlwind of new options for the lowly taskbar, letting you play with it in more ways than a strand of spaghetti and a fork. Right-click on a blank part of the taskbar, and a menu appears, as shown in Figure 10-9.
Figure 10-9: Right-click on an empty part of the taskbar and choose Properties to customize your taskbar.

Choose the Properties option, and a new window pops up, as shown in Figure 10-10. Here’s what those options mean, and my recommendation for them. (You might need to click the Lock the Taskbar check box to remove its check mark before some of these options will work.) Lock the Taskbar: Click in this box, and Windows XP “locks” the taskbar in place. You can’t drag it to one edge of the window, drag it up to make it bigger, nor drag it down beneath the edge of the screen. Rath-

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Figure 10-10: Click the Taskbar tab to see all the options available for customizing your taskbar.

bone recommendation: Check this box, but only after you’re sure the taskbar is set up the way you like. Auto-Hide the Taskbar: Some people think the taskbar gets in the way. So, they drag it down below the bottom of the screen. (Try it.) Clicking in this box makes the taskbar automatically hide itself below the screen’s bottom. Point the mouse at the screen’s bottom, and the taskbar rises automatically from its grave. Rathbone recommendation: Uncheck. Keep the Taskbar on Top of Other Windows: This option keeps the taskbar always visible, covering up any windows that may be low on the screen. Rathbone recommendation: Check. Group Similar Taskbar Buttons: When you open lots of windows and programs, the taskbar gets crowded. Windows accommodates the crowd by shrinking the buttons. Unfortunately, that means you can’t read the button’s names. This option groups similar windows under one button. When things get crowded, Windows groups all your Internet Explorer windows under one Internet Explorer button on the taskbar, for instance, as shown in Figure 10-11. Show Quick Launch: Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed tiny icons in some of this book’s ﬁgures that live next to the taskbar’s Start button. What gives? That’s the Quick Launch toolbar, and you turn it on by

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Figure 10-11: Choose Group Similar Taskbar Buttons to save space on your taskbar by stacking similar buttons.

clicking in this box. Try it — the Quick Launch toolbar places itty-bitty icons for Internet Explorer and Media Player next to the Start button for easy access. Just drag program icons to the Quick Launch bar to add them to it. (Drag the icons off to remove them.) Don’t like Quick Launch? Then remove it by removing the check mark from this box. Show the Clock: You want to know when it’s time to leave work, don’t you? Rathbone recommendation: Check. Hide Inactive Icons: A new one for Windows XP, this option lets you hide those little icons — like the volume control, printer button, RealPlayer, the desktop cleanup program, and other doodies — that begin hanging out by your clock. Click the Customize button to choose which icons should show up, which should hide, and which should appear only when they’re being used. Rathbone recommendation:Click the Customize button and choose Restore Defaults to hide everything except the sound volume. Choose Always Show for that one. Feel free to experiment with the taskbar, changing its size and position until it looks right for you. It won’t break. After you set it up just the way you want, click the Lock the Taskbar box described earlier in this list.

Controlling the Printer
Many of the Windows XP features work in the background. You know that they’re there only when something is wrong and weird messages start ﬂying around. The Windows XP print program is one of those programs.

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Oh, no! The taskbar looks really weird now!
Your taskbar won’t always resemble the familiar entity shown in Figure 10-9 or 10-11. Microsoft lets you customize the taskbar even further, often beyond the point of recognition. To experience this weirdness — or to turn it off, if it’s happened to you — right-click on a blank area of the taskbar and click the Toolbars option. A menu pops up, offering several options, each described in the following list: “shrink everything from the desktop” icon. To add your other favorite programs, just drag and drop them onto the Quick Launch toolbar.

A New Toolbar: This option lets you place any folder’s contents onto your taskbar. Most people don’t choose any of these options except Quick Launch, so feel free to do the same unless you like to ﬁddle with your computer’s settings. Also, you can drag any of these toolbars off the taskbar and onto the desktop. In fact, it’s quite distracting if you accidentally drag the Quick Launch toolbar off the taskbar. To replace Quick Launch, right-click on the taskbar, choose Toolbars, and choose Quick Launch. Another replacement Quick Launch appears on the taskbar, in the right place. Close the Quick Launch window that you accidentally dragged onto the desktop, and all is well. (To keep mistakes like these from happening, choose the Lock the Taskbar option described in the “Customizing the taskbar” section.)

A Address: Choose this option, and your taskbar contains a place for quickly typing in Web sites. It’s big and bulky, though, so it’s rarely used.

A Links: This option ﬁlls the taskbar with links to Internet Web pages. (They’re the same ones listed in the Links area of Internet Explorer’s Favorites menu. Ho hum.)

A Desktop: A weird one, this option places the icons from your desktop onto your taskbar.

A Quick Launch: I like this one. It keeps little icons for these frequently used programs next to your Start button: Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Media Player, and the

When you choose the Print command in a program, you may see the little Windows XP printer icon appear at the bottom-right corner of your screen. (Depending on how your computer’s set up, you might have to click the little arrows by the clock to see the printer icon.) Your printer can print only one thing at a time. If you try to print a second memo before the ﬁrst one is ﬁnished, Windows XP jumps in to help. It intercepts all the requests and lines them up in order, just like a harried diner cook. To check up on what is being sent to the printer, double-click the taskbar’s little printer icon, and you see the print program in all its glory: The program lists each of your documents as they wait for their turn at the printer. A When the printer is through printing one ﬁle, it automatically moves to the second ﬁle in the lineup.

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A Changing the order of the ﬁles as they’re about to be printed is easy. If you have three jobs waiting and you need the third one in a hurry, just drag and drop it so that it’s behind the ﬁrst job. Poof! Windows will print that one next. (The printing order is called a queue, pronounced “Q.”) A To cancel a print job, right-click on the ﬁlename you don’t like and then choose Cancel Printing from the menu that pops up. A If the boss walks by the printer while you’re printing your party ﬂier, choose Document from the menu and select Pause Printing from the menu that drops down. The printer stops. After the boss is out of sight, click Pause Printing again to continue. A If you’re on a network (shudder), you may not be able to change the order in which ﬁles are being printed. You may not even be able to pause a ﬁle. A If your printer is not hooked up, Windows XP will probably try to send your ﬁle to the printer anyway. When it doesn’t get a response, it sends you a message that your printer isn’t ready. Plug the printer in, turn it on, and try again. Or hit Chapter 14 for more printer troubleshooting tips.

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The Start Button’s Reason to Live
The Start button lives on your taskbar, and it’s always ready for action. By using the Start button, you can start programs, adjust the Windows XP settings, ﬁnd help for sticky situations, or, thankfully, shut down Windows XP and get away from the computer for a while. The little Start button is so eager to please, in fact, that it starts shooting out menus full of options as soon as you click it. Just click the button once, and the ﬁrst layer of menus pops out, neatly labeled in Figure 10-12. A The Start menu changes as you add programs to your computer. That change means that the Start menu on your friend’s computer probably offers slightly different programs than the Start menu on your own computer.

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A Save your ﬁles in your My Documents folder. Save your photos in your My Pictures folder. And save your music in your My Music folder. You can easily access each folder from the Start menu. And each folder is specially designed for its contents. The My Pictures folder automatically shows little thumbnails of all your photos, for instance. By keeping your ﬁles organized, you’ll have a better chance of ﬁnding them again. A See the little arrow by the words All Programs near the bottom left of the Start menu? Click the arrow, and another menu squirts out, listing more programs stored inside your computer. A Windows graciously places your most frequently used programs along the left side of the Start menu. The Start menu in earlier versions of Windows displayed icons for the last ten documents you accessed.

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Starting a program from the Start button
This one’s easy. Click the Start button, and the Start menu pops out of the button’s head. If you see an icon for your desired program or ﬁle, click it, and Windows loads the program or ﬁle. If your program isn’t listed, though, click the words All Programs. Yet another menu pops up, this one listing the names of programs or folders full of programs. If you see your program listed there, click the name. Wham! Windows XP kicks that program to the screen. If you don’t see your program listed, try pointing at the tiny folders listed on the menu. New menus ﬂy out of those folders, listing even more programs. When you ﬁnally spot your program’s name, just click it. In fact, you don’t have to click until you see the program’s name: The Start button opens and closes all the menus automatically, depending on where the mouse arrow is pointing at the time. A Still don’t see your program listed by name? Then head for Chapter 7 and ﬁnd the section on ﬁnding lost ﬁles and folders. You can tell Windows XP to ﬁnd your program for you.

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Adjust settings here Displays computers connected to your own computer Displays computer's disk drives Click to access files by category

Current user's name Browse the Web with Internet Explorer Check e-mail with Outlook Express

Frequently used programs and files appear here Displays Windows programs Click here to see this menu Clicking a Quick Launch program icon loads that program Figure 10-12: Click the taskbar’s Start button to see a list of options. Log off and let others use the computer, or turn it off Runs programs by name (rarely used) Click to search for files, programs, and other items Provides help

A There’s another way to load a program that’s not listed — if you know where the program’s living on your hard drive. Choose Run from the Start button menu, type the program’s name, and press Enter. If Windows XP ﬁnds the program, it runs it. If it can’t ﬁnd the program, though, click the Browse button. Yet another dialog box appears, and this time it lists programs by name. Pick your way through the dialog box until you see your program; then doubleclick its name and click the OK button to load it.

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A If you don’t know how to pick your way through this particular dialog box, head to the section of Chapter 5 on opening a ﬁle. (This particular dialog box rears its head every time you load or save a ﬁle or open a program.)

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Adding a program’s icon to the Start menu
The Windows XP Start button works great — until you’re hankering for something that’s not listed on its menu. How do you add a favorite program’s icon to the Start menu? Windows XP makes it easier than ever. When you install a program, as described in Chapter 14, the program almost always adds itself to the Start menu automatically. Then it announces its presence to you and to all the other users of the computer, as shown in Figure 10-13.

Figure 10-13: Most newly installed programs add themselves to the Start menu’s All Programs area and announce their presence.

To see the newly installed program, click the words All Programs (located right above the Start button on the Start menu), and a huge menu of additional programs appears. See how the words Button Studio are highlighted in Figure 10-14? That’s the newly installed program, so Windows XP highlights it and usually places it in alphabetical order on the menu.

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Figure 10-14: Click the words All Programs to see the newly installed program — Button Studio, in this case — which appears highlighted and in alphabetical order on the menu.

A There’s another way to add a program to the Start menu. Windows XP adds icons for your ﬁve most-frequently used programs to the Start menu’s left column. If you come across an icon or shortcut for a program that you’d like to appear there, right-click on the icon. Choose Pin to Start Menu from the menu that appears, and Windows places that icon in the left column of your Start menu. A To get rid of unwanted icons from the Start menu’s left column, right-click on the icons and choose Remove from This List; they disappear. Remember, though, the icons on the Start menu are just shortcuts. Removing the icon from the list doesn’t remove the program from your computer. A Here’s a dirty little secret: The Start menu isn’t really anything special. It’s simply one of many folders on your hard drive. In fact, your entire desktop is just a folder, too. Chapter 11 shows how to explore the folders living on your hard drive, so don’t be surprised when you discover folders named Desktop and Start Menu on your C drive.

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Making Windows start programs automatically
Many people sit down at a computer, turn it on, and go through the same mechanical process of loading their oft-used programs. Believe it or not, Windows XP can automate this computerized task. The solution is the StartUp folder, found lurking in the Start button’s All Programs area. When Windows XP wakes up, it peeks inside that StartUp folder. If it ﬁnds a shortcut lurking inside, it grabs that shortcut’s program and tosses it onto the screen. Here’s how to determine which programs wake up along with Windows XP and which ones get to sleep in a little: 1. Right-click on the Start button and choose the Open option. The My Computer program comes to the screen, displaying a Programs folder. 2. Double-click the folder named Programs. You see shortcuts and folders for most of the programs currently listed in your Start button’s All Programs area. 3. Double-click the folder named StartUp to open it onto your screen. 4. Using your right mouse button, drag and drop any programs or ﬁles you want to start automatically into the StartUp window. If Windows asks, tell it to turn those programs or ﬁles into shortcuts. Then, whenever you start Windows XP from scratch, those programs or ﬁles load up right along with it. A The items in the StartUp area load themselves only when you log onto Windows after logging off. If you’ve clicked the Switch Users button instead of the Log Off button, Windows considers you still at work. It launches the StartUp items only after you’ve logged off and Windows has saved your settings.

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A Do you ﬁnd yourself using the StartUp area a lot? Make a shortcut that points straight toward it and leave the shortcut on your desktop. Drag and drop a program into the StartUp shortcut, and that program’s shortcut will appear in the StartUp area, ready to load itself whenever your computer starts up.

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The Start Menu’s Free Programs
Windows XP, the fanciest version of Windows yet, comes with oodles of free programs. This makes customers happy and makes the Justice Department members ﬂap their long black robes. Free software is usually as nice as a free lunch. The Windows problem lies with its menu. Sure, some of its freebie programs control important parts of your computer. But more than 50 additional programs merely buff and polish the details. This extraordinarily long section explains which freebie programs are worthwhile and which ones you can safely ignore.

The Start menu’s ﬁrst-tier programs
These items appear on the Start menu whenever you click the Start button. You’ll be using them over and over again, so if you’re bored already, just read this part. Internet Explorer: Click this button when you’re ready to explore the Internet. (I cover Web browsing, e-mail, and other Internet activities in Chapter 12.) Outlook Express: This brings up Microsoft’s built-in e-mail program. (I also cover it in Chapter 12.) My Documents: Always store your documents in this folder so you’ll know where to ﬁnd them later. My Pictures: Keep your digital pictures in this folder. Each picture’s icon is a tiny thumbnail image of its picture. My Music: Store your digital music in here so Media Player can ﬁnd it more easily.

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My Computer: Open this to see every storage area inside your computer, including your ﬂoppy drive, hard disks, CD-ROM drives, digital cameras, and folders shared with other users. My Network Places: Is your computer connected to other computers on a network? Click here to see the other computers or folders you’re allowed to access. Control Panel: Click here to adjust your computer’s oodles of confusing settings, all described in Chapter 14. Help and Support: Befuddled? Click here for an answer. (Chapter 17 explains the confusing Windows Help system.) Search: Missing a ﬁle? Click here to ﬁnd it. (Chapter 7 explains the Windows Search system.) Run: Rarely used, this launches a program if you type in its name and location. Log Off: Click here either to let somebody else use the computer quickly, or to save your work and let the computer stand idle for others to use it. Turn Off Computer: Click this button to restart the computer, turn it off completely, or let it Standby — the computer saves everybody’s work and “goes to sleep” to save power. (Push the computer’s On/Off switch to bring it back to life.)

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The Start menu’s All Programs area
The Start menu lists quite a few options, but it hides a huge batch of freebie programs in the All Programs area. Open the Start menu, click All Programs near the menu’s bottom, and you’ll ﬁnd these freebies on the menu. Windows Catalog: Microsoft never has enough of your money. After you’ve bought Windows, a click here takes to you an Internet page with many more Microsoft products to peruse. Windows Update: Microsoft is never happy with Windows. So when it ﬁnds a way to make it better — or to keep evil people from breaking

_____ Chapter 10: Your Desktop, Start Button, and Taskbar (And Programs) into it — it automatically sends a software patch to ﬁx it. Click here to grab the ﬁx or set up Windows to grab the ﬁxes automatically. Activate Windows: Oh, the horror! When you buy a copy of Windows XP, Microsoft gives you 30 days to activate it. When you click this icon, Windows XP combines its built-in serial number with a “snapshot” of your computer’s hardware. Then it dials Microsoft and registers your software with your computer. From the moment the software's registered, your copy of Windows XP will work only on the computer it's installed on; it won’t work on any other computer. And if you don’t activate Windows XP within 30 days, it stops working. Welcome to Windows!

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Accessories
By far, the bulk of the Windows XP freebie programs are dumped under the generic menu label Accessories. Here are programs that make Windows XP easier to see and hear; they let your computer talk to other computers and the Internet, and they entertain you during slow days. Finally, they let you ﬁddle with Windows’ innards during even slower days. This section tackles the programs found on the Accessories menu, accessed through the Start button’s All Programs button.

Accessibility
Accessibility Wizard creates a customized, easy-to-read version of Windows. It lets you choose your ideal size for fonts, menus, icons, and window borders, making them easier to click. The wizard enables sounds to accompany certain on-screen actions if you’re having difﬁculty seeing the screen. Magniﬁer enlarges the mouse pointer’s current location, making small buttons and boxes easier to spot. Narrator reads your on-screen menus, albeit not very audibly. The On-Screen Keyboard draws a keyboard right onto the desktop. Point and click at the letters with the mouse, and you’ll never have to type. (Works well for people with broken keyboards.)

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Utility Manager helps people with low vision quickly set up computers by using several of the Accessibility options at once.

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Communications
Much of this stuff applies to the tech-heads, so don’t spend too much time here. HyperTerminal is a throwback to the old days of telecomputing. Ignore this relic that lets two computers talk over the phone lines. Network Connections provides techie information about how fast your networked computers send information back and forth. It also lets you connect to networks or other computers across the phone lines or by using a single cable. (It replaces the older Direct Cable Connection option.) Network Setup Wizard shows how to link two or more computers to share information or even a single modem or printer. It’s covered in Chapter 9. New Connection Wizard walks you through connecting your computer with your Internet service provider (ISP) so you can Web surf like the best of them. It’s covered in Chapter 12. Remote Desktop Connection works like a mini-network, but it lets you run programs on another computer.

Entertainment
Windows XP provides the controls for a complete entertainment center, including your computer’s CD player, DVD player, and TV card. Pick up a modem and a bag of microwave popcorn, and a modern young couple’s plans are set for the evening. Here’s the rundown on the Windows XP stereo cabinet of entertainment goodies. Sound Recorder merely records up to 60 seconds of sound. Yawn. Most of the time, it’s meant to record short messages for embedding into documents or attaching to e-mail. Chances are, you’ll never use it. Volume Control brings up a mixing panel that controls all your sound sources. A CD Player shows up here, as well as general sound (WAV), music (MIDI), or peripherals, such as TV cards or video capture cards (Line-in). Unless you’re recording sounds, don’t bother with it. Instead, control the volume by clicking the little speaker in the corner of your

_____ Chapter 10: Your Desktop, Start Button, and Taskbar (And Programs) taskbar. (No little speaker? Then put it there with the Control Panel, as described in Chapter 14.) When the volume control pops up, just slide it up or down to change your volume. Windows Media Player is hip, it’s happening, and it’s huge. It can ﬁll your entire screen with ’60s-era pulsating lights while playing your favorite tunes from your CDs or MP3 ﬁles. Unfortunately, Media Player can’t make MP3 ﬁles from your CDs, instead opting for Microsoft’s competing WMA format. It grabs sound and video from the Internet, plays your CDs, and categorizes your sound and video, from CDs to movie trailers to radio station presets to favorite playlists. It’s all covered in Chapter 13.

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Games
Nothing new here if you’ve been using Windows Me. Here you ﬁnd FreeCell, Hearts, Minesweeper, two solitaire games, and some classics like backgammon and checkers for playing over the Internet. Be sure to check out Pinball, though, if you can tear yourself away from the venerable FreeCell.

System Tools
Windows XP comes with several technical programs designed to make the nerd feel at home. Here’s a description of what they do so you know which ones to avoid. Activate Windows does just what is described earlier in this section. You must activate your version of Windows within 30 days, or it stops working. And after it’s activated, that copy won’t work on any other computer. Character Map lets you add weird foreign characters, such as à, £, or even ß, into your document. Clicking here brings up a list of foreign characters and symbols, all in your current font. Double-click the character you’re after and then click the spot in your document where you’d like that character to appear. Choose Paste from the document’s Edit menu, and the new character appears. Disk Cleanup helps out when you’re running out of storage space on your computer. Like the backseat of a car, Windows accumulates junk: ﬁles temporarily grabbed from the Internet, deleted ﬁles from the Recycle Bin, and other space-wasters. Disk Cleanup automatically gathers these programs and lets you delete them.

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Disk Defragmenter organizes your hard drive so it runs faster. See, when a computer reads and writes ﬁles to and from a hard drive, it’s working like a liquor store stock clerk after a Labor Day weekend. It has to reorganize the store, moving all the misplaced beer cans out of the wine aisles. The same disorganization happens with computer ﬁles. When the computer moves ﬁles around, it tends to break the ﬁles into chunks and spread them across your hard drive. The computer can still ﬁnd all the pieces, but relocating them takes more time. Disk Defragmenter reorganizes the hard drive, making sure that all the ﬁles’ pieces are next to each other for quick and easy grabbing. Files and Settings Transfer Wizard helps out when you ﬁnally upgrade to a new computer. It examines your program’s settings on your old computer and lets you choose which ﬁles you’d like to transfer. The wizard can grab information from older versions of Windows, as well. (The program works fastest and easiest with network cards, second best with a cable-to-cable transfer, third-best by copying information to a CD, and agonizingly slowly with a ﬂoppy disk.) Scheduled Tasks lets Windows XP run programs when you’re not around to supervise, whether you’re sleeping at night or away from the home computer during the day. The program plans the schedule of your computer’s routine, telling it which programs to run, when, and for how long. System Information a ﬁx-it tool for the mechanics, compiles vast technical charts about your computer’s innards. Chances are, you won’t be messing with it. System Restore is probably the most important item here, so the nearby “System Restore restores your faith in Windows” sidebar covers it in detail.

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Address Book
Address Book is used by Outlook Express to send and receive your email. If you ever move up to its more powerful parent program, Outlook, you can move over all your address information by using the Export command from the File menu.

Calculator
Calculator is, well, a calculator. It looks simple enough, and it really is — unless you mistakenly set it for Scientiﬁc mode and see some nightmar-

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System Restore restores your faith in Windows
When your computer’s running well — and you wish it would always work that well — open System Restore and click next to the Create a Restore Point option. Windows examines itself and takes a snapshot of its settings. Then, if something awful happens a few days later, you have an out: Head back to the System Restore area and choose Restore My Computer to an Earlier Time. Choose a restore point you saved back when everything was just ducky, and, after Windows restores your pre-disaster settings, your computer will perform swimmingly. There are a few problems with System Restore, as with anything. When System Restore brings back your earlier, faithful Windows setup, it will most likely leave out any of the programs you’ve installed since then. You have to reinstall them. Because Windows automatically creates a restore point every day, don’t choose a spot further back in time than necessary. System Restore won’t touch any ﬁles you’ve stored in the My Documents folder. It swears it won’t touch any of your other data ﬁles, either. But to be on the safe side, keep your most favored data in the My Documents folder. If you use System Restore, use it often. Use it both before and after installing any new program, for instance, or when making any major tweaks to your system settings. That way, System Restore can bring up a reasonably current version of your work. If you goof and restore something that made your computer function worse than ever, undo the restoration. Call up System Restore and choose Undo My Last Restoration. In fact, don’t be afraid to try several restore points when something goes wrong. You can always undo them and try a different one. Finally, System Restore consumes 12 percent of your hard drive space. To shrink or enlarge that chunk, right-click on My Computer from the Start button, choose Properties, and use the sliding control on the System Restore tab.

ish logarithmic stuff. To bring the calculator back to normal, choose Standard from the View menu. For an extra measure of handiness, choose Copy from the File menu. Then click in the window where you want the answer to appear and choose Paste from that window’s File menu. That’s much easier than retyping a number like 2.449489742783. Hint: If the mouse action is too slow, press your keyboard’s Num Lock key and punch in numbers with the numeric keypad.

Command Prompt This remnant lets old-time computer users boss their computers around by typing a command into an ugly text window. Don’t bother.

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Notepad
Windows comes with two word processors, WordPad and Notepad. WordPad is for the letters you’re sprucing up for other people to see. Notepad is for stuff you’re going to keep for yourself. It’s for typing quick stuff and saving it on the ﬂy. Unfortunately, Notepad tosses you into instant confusion: All the sentences head right off the edge of the window. To turn those single-line, runaway sentences into normal paragraphs, choose Word Wrap from the Edit menu. (After you change this option the ﬁrst time, strangely enough, Windows XP remembers your preference and uses it each time you use Notepad in the future.) Notepad doesn’t print exactly what you see on-screen. Instead, it prints according to the margins you set in Page Setup from the File menu. This quirk can lead to unpredictable results.

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Paint
Paint creates rudimentary pictures and graphics to stick into other programs. It comes with more than an electronic paintbrush: It has a can of spray paint for that airbrushed look, several pencils of different widths, a paint roller for gobbing on a bunch of paint, and an eraser for when things get out of hand. With such limited capabilities, Paint’s better for quick touch-ups than ground-zero creations. Use the View menu’s Zoom command and the Airbrush tool to remove spinach caught on somebody’s teeth in a digital photo, for instance. You can copy drawings and pictures from Paint and paste them into just about any other Windows XP program. Paint enables you to add text and numbers to graphics, so you can add street names to maps copied from the Internet, put labels inside drawings, or add the vintage year to your wine labels. Paint will open and save ﬁles in BMP, JPG, GIF, and TIF formats.

Program Compatibility Wizard
If a program seems reluctant to run on Windows XP, the Program Compatibility Wizard does a little coaxing. Fire up the wizard and select the problematic program. The wizard then tricks the program into thinking

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Synchronize
Some people like to place a Web page on their desktops as a background. The Synchronize option sets up a timetable for how often Windows should automatically update that Web page — once a day, maximum. (To add a Web page as a background, right-click on your desktop, choose Properties, click the Desktop tab, and choose Customize Desktop. Then click the Web tab and click the New button to add as many Web pages as you want.)

Tour Windows XP
New Windows users might beneﬁt from taking the Windows XP tour — a multimedia extravaganza showing how to use the basic Windows features.

Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer provides views of ﬁles stored on your computer and lets you copy them from one place to another. I cover this in Chapter 11.

Windows Movie Maker
For years, Windows could only edit words. Eventually, it could edit sounds. Now, Windows XP jumps into the millennium with a program to edit movies from video cameras. It lets you arrange your clips any way you want and add soundtracks or voiceovers. It’s cool, it’s catchy, it’s too complicated to cover in this book, and it requires a special camcorder and a special video camera card. (Check out Windows Movie Maker For Dummies, written by Keith Underdahl and published by Hungry Minds, Inc.)

WordPad
Although its icon is fancy, WordPad isn’t quite as fancy as some of the more expensive word processors on the market. You can’t create tables or multiple columns, like the ones in newspapers or newsletters, nor can you double-space your reports. Ferget the spell checker, too.

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But WordPad’s great for quick letters, simple reports, and other basic stuff. You can change the fonts around to get reasonably fancy, too. That’s because WordPad can handle Windows TrueType fonts — that font technology that shapes how characters appear on-screen. You can create an elegant document by using some fancy TrueType fonts and mail it on a disk to somebody else. That person can view your letter in WordPad, and it looks the same as when you created it. If you’ve just ditched your typewriter for Windows, remember this: On an electric typewriter, you have to press the Return key at the end of each line or else you start typing off the edge of the paper. Computers avoid that. They automatically drop down a line and continue the sentence. (Hip computer nerds call this phenomenon word wrap.)

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StartUp
The StartUp folder lists programs that start automatically when Windows XP loads itself for a day’s work. It’s covered earlier in this chapter, in the section called “Making Windows start programs automatically.”

Internet Explorer
Yep, clicking here loads Internet Explorer. But the Start menu’s big blue “e” marked Internet loads Internet Explorer, too, and it’s easier to aim for. Internet Explorer is covered in Chapter 12.

MSN Explorer
Don’t have access to the Internet yet? Clicking here brings up Microsoft’s own clone of America Online. It collects a monthly fee, connects you to the Internet, and lets you send e-mail. Some love its all-inone interface. Others say it’s nothing new. If you’re curious, sign up for a free trial and check it out.

Outlook Express
This icon appears near the Start menu, as well as here. Chapter 12 explains how to set it up.

Remote Assistance
This new option supposedly lets techies log onto your computer and ﬁx it — without coming to your home or ofﬁce. Don’t use it unless you completely trust the other person.

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Microsoft puts this one in here twice. The Entertainment section holds the description, because that’s the ﬁrst place Microsoft lists it on the menu. See Chapter 13 for more information.

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Windows Messenger
Because this icon appears on your taskbar, as well, it’s covered in the “What’s the MSN Messenger Service?” sidebar, earlier in this chapter. (It lets you send quickie messages to other people signed up for the service.)

My Version of Windows XP Doesn’t Have the Right Freebie Programs!
Depending on the buttons you punched when you installed Windows XP, the program installed different varieties of its freebie programs onto your hard drive. Many people won’t see all the Start menu programs mentioned in this chapter, for instance. If you feel left out and want some of these freebie programs mentioned earlier, follow these steps: 1. Double-click the Control Panel’s Add or Remove Programs icon. You can load the Control Panel by clicking its Start menu icon. 2. Click the Add/Remove Windows Components icon. It’s the third icon in the left column. The Windows Components Wizard appears, showing the various freebie programs included with Windows XP, as well as the amount of space they need to elbow onto your computer’s hard drive. 3. Click in the little box by the programs or accessories you want to add. Some boxes already have check marks. That means that program or accessory is already installed. Others have gray check marks in the box. That means that some programs in that particular category aren’t installed.

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If your Accessories and Utilities area is grayed out, for example, not all of your Accessories are installed. Click Accessories and Utilities and click the Details button. Windows XP lists the items available in that category so that you can select the ones you want. Again, click the accessory you want and click the Details button again, if it’s available. Keep selecting items and click Details until you ﬁnd the program you want to add. Find it? Then click in its empty box to add it. (You remove Windows XP accessories the same way, but this time remove the check mark from the box next to their names.) Click OK until you return to the Windows Components Wizard’s opening window. 4. Click the Next button. Windows XP looks over your check marks to see which, if any, programs should be installed or removed. 5. Click OK and insert your Windows XP CD if asked. If you’ve chosen to install anything, Windows XP sometimes copies the necessary ﬁles from your CD onto your hard drive. Other times, it copies them from your hard drive. A black check mark means that you’ve already selected all the available programs in that program category. A gray check mark means you’ve grabbed only some of them. Empty check boxes mean that you aren’t using any of those programs.

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Chapter 11

That Scary My Computer Program
In This Chapter
B Finding out why the My Computer program seems so scary B Looking at folders B Loading a program or ﬁle B Deleting and undeleting ﬁles, folders, and icons B Copying and moving ﬁles, folders, and icons B Copying to a disk B Getting information about ﬁles, folders, and icons B Finding ﬁles that aren’t shown B Working with ﬁles, folders, and icons on a network B Formatting new ﬂoppy disks

T

he My Computer program is where people wake up from the easyto-use computing dream, clutching a pillow in horror. These people bought a computer to simplify their work — to banish that awful ﬁling cabinet with squeaky drawers. But click the little My Computer icon from the Start menu, and that ﬁling cabinet reappears. Folders, bunches of them, appear. And where did that ﬁle go? Unless you understand the basics behind the My Computer program, you might not be able to ﬁnd your information very easily. This chapter explains how to use the My Computer program, and, along the way, it dishes out a big enough dose of Windows ﬁle management for you to get your work done. Here, you ﬁnd out the wacky Windows way to create folders, put ﬁles inside, and move everything around with a mere mouse.

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Why Is the My Computer Program So Frightening?
Windows needs a place to store your programs and ﬁles. So, it borrowed the ﬁle cabinet metaphor, translated it into light and airy Windows icons, and called it the My Computer program. My Computer shows the ﬁles and storage areas inside your computer, allowing you to copy or move them, rename them, or delete them. Everybody organizes his or her computer differently. Some people don’t organize their computers at all. To see how your computer has been organizing your ﬁles, click the Start menu and click My Computer (the icon shown in the margin). Your My Computer window probably looks a little different from the one shown in Figure 11-1.

Figure 11-1: The My Computer window displays the ﬁles and storage areas inside your computer, allowing you to copy, rename, move, or delete them.

The My Computer program is a big panel of buttons — sort of an extension of your desktop. Here’s a brief rundown on what those big icons along My Computer’s right side mean. You’ll ﬁnd more detailed explanations throughout this chapter.

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Files Stored on This Computer: Windows XP lets many people use the same computer, and everybody’s ﬁles stay private. However, sometimes everybody wants to share information — letters from relatives, for instance. That’s where the Shared Documents folder (shown in the margin) comes in. The Shared Documents folder contains ﬁles and folders accessible to everybody that uses the computer. To share things with other users of your computer, call up My Computer and store the information inside My Computer’s Shared Documents folder. (Double-clicking any folder shows its contents.) Two additional folders live inside the Shared Documents folder: Shared Music and Shared Pictures. Everybody using the computer may also access music and pictures stored in here. If you don’t want other users to share your information, keep it out of the Shared Documents folder. Instead, store the information in your My Documents folder, accessible from the Start menu. (See the Other Places area listed along My Computer’s left side, as shown in Figure 111? You can also open your My Documents folder from there by clicking its name.) Notice two other folders in Figure 11-1, one belonging to Guest and the other to Tina? You see those folders because you’re viewing the My Computer area of an administrator’s account. As explained in Chapter 9, the administrator can peek inside the ﬁles of any other user. So, Figure 11-1 shows the My Documents folders of two other users, Tina and the Guest account. Those folders are called Tina’s Documents and Guest’s Documents, respectively. Hard Disk Drives: This one’s not too difﬁcult. It lists the hard drives installed on your computer. Double-clicking a folder here shows what’s inside, but you rarely ﬁnd much useful information. In fact, Windows often simply tells you to back off and look for programs on your Start menu, instead. Unlike ﬁles and folders, hard drives can’t be moved to different areas. Devices with Removable Storage: This area shows stuff you take in and out of your computer: ﬂoppy drives, CD-ROM drives, Iomega Jaz drives, and even MP3 players, if they’re Windows XP compatible, like the HipZip’s PocketZip player shown in Figure 11-1. (I cover MP3 players in Chapter 13.)

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How come I have two Music and Pictures folders?
Don’t be confused by this bit of confusion. When any users log onto the computer, no matter what type of account they own, they’ll ﬁnd a My Documents folder that contains a My Music and a My Pictures folder. They also ﬁnd a Shared Documents folder that contains a Shared Music and a Shared Pictures folder. What’s the difference? Well, the difference can be embarrassing if you don’t understand it. As described in Chapter 9, Windows XP lets several people share a single computer. When people log onto the computer, Windows XP acts as if they’re all using a different computer — each user sees his or her own separate My Documents ﬁle, which contains only his or her own ﬁles. However, each user also sees a Shared Documents folder inside the My Computer area. Although everybody has his or her own separate My Documents folder, the Shared Documents folder is the same folder for every computer user. If Jeffrey has some great music he wants to share with everybody, he doesn’t keep it in his My Music folder. Instead, he stores it in the Shared Documents folder’s Shared Music folder. That way he — and everybody else on that computer — can hear the tunes. To remember this distinction more easily, any folder that has the word My in front of its title is a personal, private folder. Any folder with the word Shared in front of its title can be used by anybody on the computer. And any folder with a little hand beneath its icon can be used by anybody on a computer’s network, as described in Chapter 9. Whew!

Scanners and Cameras: Digital cameras and scanners often appear down here, depending on their make and model. Unlike ﬁles and folders, Hard Disk Drives, Devices with Removable Storage, and Scanners and Cameras can’t be moved to different areas. They’re stuck where they live in the My Computer area. To make them more accessible, you can place shortcuts to them on your desktop or any other convenient spot, as explained in Chapter 10. My Computer also includes several boxes along its left side. They serve mainly as shortcuts — pointers — that take you to other areas on your computer. The boxes change according to what you’re viewing in My Computer. These choices appear when you ﬁrst open My Computer, and here’s what they mean. System Tasks: Both items listed here, View System Information and Add or Remove Programs, deal with your computer’s innards. They’re shortcuts to icons on Windows XP’s Control Panel, so I cover them both in Chapter 14.

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Other Places: Three of these items, My Network Places, My Documents, and Control Panel, are simply shortcuts to items that appear on your computer’s Start menu. I cover My Network Places in Chapter 9, My Documents appears later in this chapter, and the Control Panel’s covered in Chapter 14. I dunno why there’s a shortcut to the Shared Documents folder here, because the Shared Documents folder already appears a few inches to the right, as you can see in Figure 11-1. Details: Finally, something interesting. Click almost any icon in My Computer, and the Details window automatically displays information about that object: the date a ﬁle was created, for instance, or how much space it consumes.

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Getting the Lowdown on Folders
This stuff is really boring, but if you don’t read it, you’ll be just as lost as your ﬁles. A folder is a storage area on a disk, just like a real folder in a ﬁle cabinet. Windows XP divides your computer’s hard drives into many folders to separate your many projects. You can work with a spreadsheet, for example, without having all the word-processing ﬁles get in the way. Or you can keep all your music in your My Music folder, and your pictures in your My Pictures folder. Any type of disk can have folders, but hard drives need folders the most because they need a way to organize their thousands of ﬁles. By dividing a hard drive into little folder compartments, you can more easily see where everything sits. Windows’ My Computer program lets you probe into different folders and peek at the ﬁles you’ve stuffed inside each one. It’s a pretty good organizational scheme, actually. Socks never fall behind a folder and jam the drawer. Folders used to be called directories and subdirectories. But some people were getting used to that, so the industry switched to the term folders.

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A In a way, learning how to deal with ﬁles and folders is like learning how to play the piano: Neither is intuitively obvious, and you hit some bad notes with both. Don’t be frustrated if you don’t seem to be getting the hang of it. Liberace would have hated ﬁle management at ﬁrst, too. A You can place folders inside other folders to add deeper levels of organization, like adding drawer partitions to sort your socks by color. Each sock color partition is a smaller, more-organized folder of the larger sock-drawer folder. A Of course, you can ignore folders and keep all your ﬁles right on the Windows XP desktop. That’s like tossing everything into the backseat of the car and pawing around to ﬁnd your tissue box a month later. Stuff that you’ve organized is a lot easier to ﬁnd. A If you’re eager to create a folder or two (and it’s pretty easy), page ahead to this chapter’s “Creating a Folder” section. A Windows creates several folders when it installs itself on your computer. It created a folder to hold its internal engine parts and a folder to hold your programs. Windows creates a My Documents folder for you to store your work. And it creates a My Pictures folder and a My Music folder inside your My Documents folder to keep your pictures and music separate from your other stuff. A Just as manila folders come from trees, computer folders use a tree metaphor, shown in Figure 11-2, as they branch out from one main folder to several smaller folders.

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Peering into Your Drives and Folders
Knowing all this folder stuff can impress the people at the computer store. But what counts is knowing how to use the My Computer program to get to a ﬁle you want. Never fear. Just read on.

Seeing the ﬁles on a disk drive
Like everything else in Windows XP, disk drives are represented by buttons, or icons as shown to the left.

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Figure 11-2: The structure of folders inside your computer is tree-like, with main folders branching out to smaller folders.

What’s all this path stuff?
Sometimes, Windows XP can’t ﬁnd a ﬁle, even if it’s sitting right there on the hard drive. You have to tell Windows where the ﬁle lives. And to do that, you need to know that ﬁle’s path. A path is like the ﬁle’s address. When heading for your house, a letter moves to your country, state, city, street, and ﬁnally, hopefully, your apartment or house number. A computer path does the same thing. It starts with the letter of the disk drive and ends with the name of the ﬁle. In between, the path lists all the folders the computer must travel through to reach the ﬁle. For example, look at the My Music folder in Figure 11-2. For Windows XP to ﬁnd a ﬁle stored there, it starts from the computer’s C: hard drive, travels through the Documents and Settings folder, and then goes through the Tina folder. From there, it goes into the Tina folder’s My Documents folder. And only then does it reach the My Music folder. Take a deep breath. Exhale. Now, in a path, a disk drive letter is referred to as C:\. The disk drive letter and colon make up the ﬁrst part of the path. All the other folders are inside the big C: folder, so they’re listed after the C: part. Windows separates these nested folders with something called a backslash, or \ . The name of the actual ﬁle — for example, Rivers of Babylon — comes last.

C:\Documents and Settings\Tina\My Documents\My Music\Rivers of Babylon is what you get when you put it all together, and that’s the ofﬁcial path of the Rivers of Babylon ﬁle in Tina’s My Music folder.
This stuff can be tricky, so here it is again: The letter for the drive comes ﬁrst, followed by a colon and a backslash. Then come the names of all the folders, separated by backslashes. Last comes the name of the ﬁle (with no backslash after it). When you click folders, Windows XP puts together the path for you. Thankfully. But whenever you click the Browse button when looking for a ﬁle, you’re navigating through folders and showing Windows the path to the ﬁle.

When it’s ﬁrst loaded, Windows’ My Computer program shows those icons. See the icon labeled 3 1/2 Floppy (A:)?The icon is a picture of a ﬂoppy disk and its disk drive. You see a compact disc ﬂoating above

_______________________ Chapter 11: That Scary My Computer Program drive D: to show that it’s a compact disc drive. The hard drive, in the middle, doesn’t have anything hovering over it except a nagging suspicion that it will fail horribly at the worst moment. My Computer also shows information stored in other areas, like MP3 players or digital cameras, as shown in these icons to the left. Clicking these icons isn’t as straightforward as clicking a disk drive icon because cameras and music players can be set up in many different ways. However, clicking these icons usually lets you access their contents and move ﬁles back and forth. A If you’re kinda sketchy on those disk drive things, you probably skipped Chapter 2. Trot back there for a refresher. A Double-click a drive icon in My Computer, and the My Computer window displays the drive’s contents. For example, put a disk in drive A and double-click My Computer’s drive A icon. After a few gears whirl, My Computer shows what ﬁles and folders live on the disk in drive A. A Hold down the Ctrl key while double-clicking a drive icon, and a second My Computer window appears, to show the drive’s contents. (You might have to rearrange one window’s size to see them both.) So what? Well, a second window comes in handy when you want to move or copy ﬁles from one folder or drive to another, as discussed in the “Copying or Moving a File, Folder, or Icon” section of this chapter. A If you click an icon for a CD or ﬂoppy drive when no disk is in the drive, Windows XP stops you gently, suggesting that you insert a disk before proceeding further. A Spot an icon called My Network Places? That’s a little doorway for peering into other computers linked to your computer — if there are any. You ﬁnd more network stuff near the end of this chapter and in Chapter 9.

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Seeing what’s inside folders
Because folders are really little storage compartments, Windows XP uses a picture of a little folder to stand for each separate place for storing ﬁles.

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To see what’s inside a folder, either in My Computer or on your computer’s desktop, just double-click that folder’s picture. A new window pops up, showing that folder’s contents. Spot a folder inside that folder? Double-click it to see what’s inside. Keep clicking until you ﬁnd what you want or reach a dead end. If you mistakenly open the wrong folder, all is not lost. Just back your way out as if you’re browsing the Web. Click the lime-green Back arrow at the window’s top-left corner. (It’s the same arrow that appears in the margin.) That closes the wrong folder and shows you the folder you just left. If you keep clicking the Back arrow, you end up right where you started. A As you keep climbing farther out on a branch and more folders appear, you’re moving toward further levels of organization. If you climb back inward, you reach ﬁles and folders that have less in common. A Yeah, this stuff is really confusing, but keep one thing in mind: Don’t be afraid to double-click, or even single-click, a folder just to see what happens. Clicking folders just changes your viewpoint; nothing dreadful happens, and no tax receipts fall onto the ﬂoor. You’re just opening and closing ﬁle cabinet drawers, harmlessly peeking into folders along the way. A To climb farther out on the branches of folders, keep double-clicking new folders as they appear. A How do you know which folders contain something and which are empty? You can’t. Sorry. Just click a folder and look inside. (Or you can use the Windows Explorer program, described in the “What’s That Windows Explorer Thing?” section near this chapter’s end.) A Sometimes, a folder contains too many ﬁles or folders to ﬁt in the window. To see more ﬁles, click that window’s scroll bars. What’s a scroll bar? Time to whip out your ﬁeld guide, Chapter 5. While mining deep into folders with My Computer, and not ﬁnding what you want, here’s a quick way to return to any of the folders you’ve plowed through: See the little downward-pointing black arrow next to the green Back arrow in the window’s top-left corner? Click there, and a list drops down to reveal the names of all the folders you’ve plowed through to reach your current folder. Click any of the listed folders, and

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Windows XP immediately opens that folder. (Click the History option, by the way, to make Windows display all the Internet sites you’ve visited in the past few weeks.) Using a Microsoft IntelliMouse, the kind with the little wheel embedded in the mouse’s neck? Point at a long list of ﬁles and folders in My Computer and spin the little wheel; the list moves up or down as you spin the wheel, letting you see some ﬁles and folders that were off-screen. Can’t ﬁnd a ﬁle or folder? Instead of rummaging through folders, check out the Search command that I describe in Chapter 7. It’s the fastest way to ﬁnd ﬁles and folders that were “there just a moment ago.”

211

Loading a Program or File
A ﬁle is a collection of information on a disk. Files come in two basic types: program ﬁles and data ﬁles. Program ﬁles contain instructions that tell the computer to do something: balance the national budget or dial up the Internet and display pictures of exotic monkeys. Data ﬁles contain information created with a program, as opposed to computer instructions. If you write a letter to the grocer complaining about his soggy apricots, the letter is a data ﬁle. To open either kind of ﬁle in Windows XP, double-click its name. Doubleclicking a program ﬁle’s name brings the program to life on the screen. Double-clicking a data ﬁle tells Windows XP to load the ﬁle and the program that created it. Then Windows simultaneously brings both the ﬁle and the program to the screen. A Depending on how your computer is conﬁgured, sometimes a single-click does the trick: Point at the ﬁle or program to highlight it and then click it to bring it to life. (If that doesn’t bring the ﬁle or program to life, try a double-click.)

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A Windows XP sticks little icons next to ﬁlenames so that you know whether they’re program or data ﬁles. In fact, even folders get their own icons so that you won’t confuse them with ﬁles. Chapter 20, at the tail end of the book, provides a handy reference for ﬁguring out which icon is which. A Because of some bizarre New School of Computing mandate, any data ﬁle that Windows recognizes is called a document. A document doesn’t have to contain words; it can have pictures of worms or sounds of hungry animals.

212

Don’t bother reading this hidden technical stuff
Sometimes, programs store information in a data ﬁle. They may need to store information about the way the computer is set up, for example. To keep people from thinking that those ﬁles are trash and deleting them, Windows hides those ﬁles. You can view the names of these hidden ﬁles and folders, however, if you want to play voyeur. Open My Computer and choose Folder Options from the Tools menu. Select the View tab from along the menu’s top and click the Show Hidden Files and Folders button under the Hidden Files and Folders option. Click the OK button, and the formerly hidden ﬁles appear alongside the other ﬁlenames. Be sure not to delete them, however: The programs that created them will gag, possibly damaging other ﬁles. In fact, please click the View tab’s Restore Defaults button to hide that stuff again and return the settings to normal.

Deleting and Undeleting Files, Folders, and Icons
Sooner or later, you’ll want to delete a ﬁle that’s not important anymore—yesterday’s lottery picks, for example, or something you’ve stumbled across that’s too embarrassing to save any longer. But suddenly you realize that you’ve made a mistake and deleted the wrong ﬁle! Not to worry, the Windows XP Recycle Bin can probably resurrect that deleted ﬁle. The next two sections show how to delete a ﬁle and retrieve ﬁles you’ve deleted.

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213

Getting rid of a ﬁle or folder
To delete a ﬁle or folder, right-click on its name. Then choose Delete from the pop-up menu. This surprisingly simple trick works for ﬁles, folders, shortcuts, and just about anything else in Windows. The Delete option deletes entire folders, as well as any ﬁles or folders stuffed inside them. Make sure that you’ve selected the right folder before you choose Delete. A After you choose Delete, Windows tosses a box in your face, asking whether you’re sure. If you are, click the Yes button. A Be extra sure that you know what you’re doing when deleting any ﬁle that has pictures of little gears in its icon. These ﬁles are sometimes sensitive hidden ﬁles, and the computer wants you to leave them alone. (Other than that, they’re not particularly exciting, despite the action-oriented gears.) A As soon as you ﬁnd out how to delete ﬁles, you’ll want to read the very next section, “How to undelete a ﬁle.” Deleting a shortcut from the desktop or any other place just deletes a button that loads a ﬁle or program. You can always put the button back on or even create a new one. The program itself is undamaged and still lives inside your computer. Deleting an icon that doesn’t have the little shortcut arrow removes that ﬁle or program from the hard disk and puts it into the Recycle Bin, where it disappears after a few weeks.

How to undelete a ﬁle
Sooner or later, your ﬁnger will slip, and you’ll delete the wrong ﬁle. A slip of the ﬁnger, the wrong nudge of a mouse, or, if you’re in southern California, a small earthquake at the wrong time can make a ﬁle disappear. Scream! After the tremors subside, double-click the Recycle Bin, and the Recycle Bin window drops down from the heavens, as shown in Figure 11-3.

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Figure 11-3: The Recycle Bin’s Restore button drops from the heavens to save the day.

To restore a ﬁle or folder to its former place among the living, right-click on its name in the Recycle Bin and choose Restore from the menu. The ﬁle or folder reappears in the place where you deleted it. You can also drag deleted goodies out of the Recycle Bin window: Use the mouse to point at the name of the ﬁle you want to retrieve and, while holding down the mouse button, point at the desktop. Then let go of the mouse button. Windows XP moves the once-deleted ﬁle out of the Recycle Bin and places the newly revived ﬁle onto your desktop. Feel free to drag the ﬁle anywhere you want. The Recycle Bin chokes under a few circumstances, however, so be careful: A First, you can only restore deleted items within a few weeks of deleting them. If you wait too long, the Recycle Bin eventually sends your ﬁles to the trash heap. It can’t keep saving your deleted ﬁles forever, or your computer would run out of storage space. So, the Recycle Bin waits until its stash of deleted ﬁles consumes about 10 percent of your computer’s storage space. Translation? That means you probably have a few weeks to retrieve things before the Recycle Bin sends them down the pipes forever.

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A Second, the Recycle Bin only restores ﬁles deleted from your hard drive. Sure, that’s 99 percent of your ﬁles. But that doesn’t help when you accidentally delete an important ﬁle from a ﬂoppy disk, a genuine picture of a UFO on your digital camera, your favorite song from an MP3 player, or a ﬁle from the network. The Recycle Bin doesn’t save ﬁles deleted from those areas. When they’re deleted, they’re gone for good. A If you delete something from somebody else’s computer while using the network, it can never be retrieved. The Recycle Bin only holds items deleted from your own computer, not somebody else’s computer. And, for some awful reason, the Recycle Bin on the other person’s computer won’t save the item, either. A After you restore your ﬁle, it’s as good as new. Feel free to store it in any other folder for safekeeping. A The Recycle Bin normally holds about 10 percent of your hard drive’s space. For example, if your hard drive is 20GB, the Recycle Bin holds onto 2GB of deleted ﬁles. After it reaches that limit, it starts deleting the ﬁles you deleted the longest time ago to make room for the incoming deleted ﬁles. To increase or decrease that percentage, right-click on your desktop’s Recycle Bin icon, choose Properties, and adjust the amount on the window that appears.

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Copying or Moving a File, Folder, or Icon
To copy or move ﬁles to different folders on your hard drive, it’s sometimes easiest to use your mouse to drag them there. For example, here’s how to move a ﬁle to a different folder on your desktop. In this case, I’m moving the Traveler ﬁle from the Home folder to the Morocco folder. 1. Move the mouse pointer until it hovers over the ﬁle you want to move, and then press and hold down the right mouse button. As you see in Figure 11-4, I’ve opened the House folder by doubleclicking it. Inside is the Traveler ﬁle, the one I want to move.

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2. While holding down the right mouse button, use the mouse to point at the folder to which you’d like to move the ﬁle. The trick is to hold down the right mouse button the whole time. When you move the mouse, its arrow drags the ﬁle along with it. For example, Figure 11-4 shows how the desktop looks when I drag the Traveler ﬁle from the House folder to my Morocco folder.

216

Figure 11-4: The Traveler ﬁle is being dragged to the Morocco folder on the left side of the window in order to move the ﬁle there.

3. Release the mouse button and choose Copy, Move, or Create Shortcut from the pop-up menu. When the mouse arrow hovers over the place to which you want to move the ﬁle, take your ﬁnger off the mouse button and choose Copy, Move, or Create Shortcut from the menu that appears. Moving a ﬁle or folder by dragging it is pretty easy, actually. The hard part comes when you try to put the ﬁle and its destination on-screen at the same time, especially when one folder is buried deep within your computer.

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That’s why Windows offers a few other ways to copy or move ﬁles — you don’t have to drag and drop icons if you don’t want to. Although none of these methods is the best for all situations, they all work well at different times.

217

And what if I don’t hold down the right mouse button while dragging and dropping?
My Computer does something awfully dumb to confuse people: When you drag a ﬁle from one folder to another on the same drive, you move the ﬁle. When you drag a ﬁle from one folder to another on a different drive, you copy that ﬁle. I swear I didn’t make up these rules. And the process gets more complicated: You can click the ﬁle and hold down the Shift key to reverse the rules. That’s why it’s much easier to simply hold down the right mouse button whenever you drag and drop anything.

A Cut and paste: Right-click on a ﬁle or folder and choose Cut or Copy, depending on whether you want to move or copy it. (I cover cutting and pasting extensively in Chapter 8.) Then right-click on your destination folder and choose Paste. It’s simple, it always works, and you needn’t place the item and its destination onscreen simultaneously. However, moving from one folder to another often takes a few keystrokes. A Copy/Move to Folder commands: This method only works on items within folders. Click the ﬁle and click Edit from the menu along the folder’s top. Choose Copy This File or Move This File, and a new window appears, listing all your computer’s folders and their locations. Click through the window’s folders until you ﬁnd the destination folder, and Windows carries out the Copy or Move command. This method works well, but only if you know your destination folder’s exact location within your computer’s pile of folders. A Windows Explorer: Described later in this chapter, Windows Explorer presents a My Computer window, but with all your folders lined up along the window’s left side. That makes it easier to see both the object and its destination on the same screen. Using Windows Explorer is often the easiest method, but you need to ﬁgure out the program, which I describe toward this chapter’s end. (For a peek at Windows Explorer, open My Computer and click Folders on the toolbar along the top.)

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Always drag icons while holding down the right mouse button. Windows XP is then gracious enough to give you a menu of options when you position the icon, and you can choose to move, copy, or create a shortcut. If you hold down the left mouse button, Windows XP sometimes doesn’t know whether to copy or move. A To copy or move ﬁles to a ﬂoppy disk, digital camera, or MP3 player in the My Computer window, hold down the right mouse button while dragging those ﬁles to that item’s icon. A Don’t ever move these folders: My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, Shared Documents, Shared Pictures, or Shared Music. Keep them where they are so they’re easy to ﬁnd. A After you run a program’s installation program to put the program on your hard drive, don’t ever move the program’s folder or ﬁles around. An installation program often wedges a program into Windows pretty handily; if you move the program, it may not work anymore, and you’ll have to reinstall it. Feel free to move the program’s shortcut, though, if it has one.

218

Selecting More Than One File or Folder
Windows XP lets you grab an armful of ﬁles and folders at one swipe; you don’t always have to piddle around, dragging one item at a time. To pluck several ﬁles and folders, hold down the Ctrl key when you click the names or icons. Each name or icon stays highlighted when you click the next one. To gather several ﬁles or folders sitting next to each other in a list, click the ﬁrst one. Then hold down the Shift key as you click the last one. Those two items are highlighted, along with every ﬁle and folder sitting between them. Windows XP lets you lasso ﬁles and folders as well. Point slightly above the ﬁrst ﬁle or folder you want; then, while holding down the mouse button, point at the last ﬁle or folder. The mouse creates an invisible lasso to surround your ﬁles. Let go of the mouse button, and the invisible lasso, er, disappears, leaving all the surrounded ﬁles highlighted.

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A You can drag these armfuls of ﬁles in the same way that you drag a single ﬁle. A You can also simultaneously cut or copy and paste these armfuls into new locations using any of the methods described in the “Copying or Moving a File, Folder, or Icon” section. A You can delete these armfuls of goods, too. A You can’t rename everything at once, though. To rename them, you have to go back to piddling around with one item at a time. A To quickly select all the ﬁles in a folder, choose Select All from the folder’s Edit menu. (Or press Ctrl+A.) Here’s another nifty trick: To grab all but a few ﬁles, press Ctrl+A and, while still holding down Ctrl, click the ones you don’t want.

219

Renaming a File, Folder, or Icon
Sick of a ﬁle or folder’s name? Then change it. Just right-click on the offending icon and choose Rename from the menu that pops up. The old ﬁlename gets highlighted and then disappears when you start typing the ﬁle or folder’s new name. Press Enter or click the desktop when you’re through, and you’re off. Or you can click the ﬁle or folder’s name to select it, wait a second, and click the ﬁle’s name again. Windows XP highlights the old name, ready to replace it with your incoming text. (Some people click the name and press F2; Windows automatically lets you rename the ﬁle.) A If you rename a ﬁle, only its name changes. The contents are still the same, it’s still the same size, and it’s still in the same place. A You can’t rename groups of ﬁles. The ﬁles spit in your face if you even try. A Renaming some folders confuses Windows, however, especially if those folders contain programs. And please don’t rename these folders: My Documents, My Pictures, or My Music.

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Some icons, like the one for the Recycle Bin, won’t let you rename them. How do you know which icons don’t let you meddle with their names? Right-click on the icon you want to rename. If you don’t see the word Rename on the menu, you won’t be able to rename the ﬁle. Handy button, that right mouse button.

220

Using Legal Folder Names and Filenames
Windows is pretty picky about what you can and can’t name a ﬁle or folder. If you stick to plain old letters and numbers, you’re ﬁne. But don’t try to stick any of the following characters in there:
: / \ * | < > ? “

If you use any of those characters, Windows XP bounces an error message to the screen, and you have to try again. These names are illegal:
1/2 of my Homework JOB:2 ONE

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