Things you were never told!
Many
things that are associated with computers are over our heads!
We
take this opportunity to bring them down to earth.
Making a restore point in
XP
In XP, it's a good idea to make a "Restore Point“
(click Control Panel/Performance and Maintenance/System Restore) and select "Create a restore point" before each and every change.
System Restore can roll back many minor system changes
without requiring you to restore your full backup.
Adjusting Color depth
To adjust XP's desktop animations and visual effects, right
click on My Computer and select Properties/Advanced/Performance Settings. You can choose to
activate/deactivate individual items or use the general "best performance/best appearance" buttons. When you've made a change, click Apply, and you'll see the
effects almost immediately. (By the way: Selecting Best Performance makes your
desktop look very much like the classic desktop in Win98/Win2K.) Experiment
until you've found the mix of speed and visual effects that works best for you
Folder Views
Open My Documents. In the View menu, select Status Bar, List, and Arrange Icons by Name. Next, right click on an empty spot in the My Documents toolbar and
select Customize. Choose any of
the Available Toolbar Buttons
you wish and click Add. (I select the Undo, Delete, Cut,
Copy, and Paste buttons.) Exit the
dialog
Now click to the Tools menu and select Folder Options. Under the View tab, tell XP to show you the full path, to
show hidden and system files, not to hide any file extensions, and not to hide
protected folders--plus any other settings you want. When you have the folder
options set the way you desire, click the "Apply to all folders" button at the top of the dialog. This adjusts all windows
opened by Explorer, so they'll inherit the visual choices you made for this one
window.
Desktop Toolbar
One I always select is Toolbars/Desktop.
I place the new Desktop toolbar far to the right on the Taskbar, over by the clock
area. Whenever I want access to something on the Desktop that's covered with
open windows, I can use this new Desktop toolbar as a shortcut to get to the
item on the Desktop without having to close or move any open window.
Patches, Downloads, Updates
& Errors
You can turn off both behaviors by right clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties, and first
choosing the Automatic Updates tab.
Select either Turn Off or, minimally, Notify me.
Now select the Advanced tab and click on Error Reporting.
Check "Disable error reporting," but leave "notify me when
critical errors occur" checked
Control XP's Hidden Devices
For reasons known only to the programmers in Redmond, XP
may deliberately hide certain system devices from you. While this might make a
kind of sense in, say, XP Home edition, these devices remain hidden even in the Professional edition.
For example, if you're used to Windows 98's networking
applet, you may be surprised by how clean and uncluttered XP's networking
applet is. But XP may simply be hiding lots of networking elements from you. To
see if this is the case, right click on My Computer, select Properties, Hardware, and Device Manager. In Device Manager, select View and Show Hidden Devices.
Depending on how XP was set up, you may find a number of
networking devices--"Miniports"--that
the Networking applet didn't display. In my case, I found unnecessary PPOE, PPTP, L2TP, and Dial Out elements. I
disabled all these unneeded elements, leaving only the IP miniport enabled, and
thus restored some sense of control over my networking setup. Depending on how
your system is set up, you may find other hidden devices, or no others. It
varies hugely. But at least now you'll know if XP is hiding things from you.
“You are ‘low on’ or ‘out
of’ resources?”
How
many times have you seen this message?
In Win9x-family versions of Windows--- and that includes
Windows ME--- the memory areas are of a fixed size regardless of how much RAM
you have. That's a problem: If you run too many things at once or have too many
graphical objects displayed at once, you can deplete one of the memory areas.
When that happens, you get error messages or weird behavior or a crash.
XP manages memory in a fluid manner. All memory is allocated to areas as needed.
“Your password is about to
expire!”
There are two sides to this: From the viewpoint of
"good security practices" it's actually a good thing to have
passwords that expire: Passwords that change every so often are a kind of
moving target for hackers: Even if they crack or guess a password, it'll only
be good for a while before it's replaced, forcing the hacker to start over.
(And, of course, a well-constructed password--- one that's not just an ordinary
word--- should be hard to crack or guess in the first place.)
But for people who work alone or otherwise have setups
where password security isn't a major issue, being forced to change a password
at short intervals is a pain.
Fortunately, XP lets you change the expiration interval to
be anything from 0 to 999 days. (Setting it to 0 means the password will never
expire.) XP's default password longevity is six weeks: 42 days. For full info
and help on everything about the password system, including how to change the
expiration period, search the XP help system for the keywords "password expire." While you're there, also search for the keywords
"creating
strong passwords" for some good
advice on what makes a password hard to crack or guess in the first place.
“Sterilize” Hark Disks
Here is a free utility for erasing information off disks;
it runs from a bootable floppy. It's called Autoclave and was written by Josh
Larios from Washington University and can be found here:
http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave/index.html
Windows/MSN Messenger
Do you suffer the continual intrusion of Windows messenger
popping up and inviting you to enlist in one thing or another? Would like to
uninstall this "service“?
Some of the newer versions of Messenger are easily
uninstalled via Control Panel's Add/Remove Software applet: That is the first place to check.
Win9x/ME/2K users also can check
http://messenger.microsoft.com/support/helphome.asp?client=1
while XP users can check
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?ID=FH;rid;WinMsgr
If you can't find what you need there, there are still
several options.
For XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_messenger_remove.htm
NT/2K:
http://www.ntcompatible.com/faq328.shtml
Win98:
http://www.pchelplive.com/article.php?sid=30
Remove WM Integration from All Versions of Outlook Express:
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/989/
Remove WM Integration from All Versions of Outlook Express:
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/1049/
CD’s do get stuck!
Sometimes with a bad or damaged CD, or a CDR disc that's
not yet "finalized" or "closed," a CD drive can end up in
limbo, with the reader or burner software stuck in a loop or otherwise hung.
One simple fix for this is to reboot your computer and
press the CD drive's Eject button as your PC begins to restart: No software will yet
have taken control of the CD, and the eject button should work.
You may also try using My Computer --- right click the CD Drive icon and click on
the eject
command.
If it doesn't, you can eject a stuck CD purely
mechanically: Use a straightened paper clip (or similar thin, stiff wire) and
gently insert it into the small hole in the CD drive's front panel (not the
headphone jack, but a small, often unmarked hole that's about the diameter of,
well, paper clip wire.). Pushing the paper clip into that hole lets you
manually move the ejection mechanism (that's what the hole is for). This in
turn opens the drive door and pushes the CD tray out so you can grab it with
your fingers.
If removing the stuck CD doesn't help, I'd suggest that you
uninstall your drive via the control panel's system/hardware applet. (You don't have to physically remove the drive; you're
just telling Windows to act as if the drive had never been installed in the
first place.) If the drive is a CDR or CDRW, also uninstall the burner
software. Then reboot. Windows should re-detect and reinstall the hardware upon
restart; and you then can reinstall any burner software.
Returning from vacation.
An important thought to keen in mind when you return from
vacation and turn on your computer(s) again to read e-mail...that *first* you should
make sure that your anti-virus software has had its virus definitions updated.
It's hard to resist the temptation of reading the e-mail before attending to
this important detail. Otherwise you may be sitting ducks for the newest
viruses--which are probably already waiting to be launched from attachments on
their incoming e-mail.
(Despite the repeated warnings, people still keep opening
attachments.)
Hard disk
Compression
"Compress Old Files" is a really nice feature of
NTFS ("NT File System"), used by default in Windows 2000 and XP: When
you run the Disk Cleanup/Cleanup Manager (cleanmgr.exe) it can look to see if a file hasn't been
used or accessed in in a while, and if not, then it can automatically compress
these little-used files so that they take up much less space.
Note that this isn't Zip-Compression per se: Files
compressed by Win2K and XP aren't renamed as a "zip" file and can be
accessed normally, just like any other file. They're just smaller than they
would be otherwise.
By default, CleanMgr compresses any files that haven't been used in more than
50 days. But the first time you run it on an older system--- or on a system
with lots of old files--- it can indeed take a very long time to finish.
The simple solution is to set the compress option to a very
old date---say, maybe a year or so--- and then slowly advance the date with
successive compression cycles until you eventually are compressing files from a
fairly recent time. In other words, let it chew on only the very oldest files at
first, then some slightly younger files, and so on.
Who’s spying on you?
As you surf the net each site you visit plants a cookie
on your hark drive. Mostly these
cookies are to identify you and your interests the next time you visit their
site. However many sites will plant
cookies which feed information about you and the sites you visit back to their
computers. The results these databases
are sold to various advertisers who are eager to get information about you to
selectively target their product. Most of the unsolicited e-mail you receive is
a result of this activity. It is
desirable to rid your computer of these cookies.
I can recommended the free Spybot Search-and-Destroy
http://security.kolla.de/
or http://ejrs.com/spybot/
Is your digital camera a
hard disk?
Digital Cameras Can Transfer *Any* File. Can you believe this!
Many of us don't have any removable storage medium other
than a floppy, so for files greater than 1.44Mb we either have to burn the file
onto a CD to transfer it or send it as an e-mail attachment, which can be time
consuming without broadband.
My camera shows up via the USB port as a removable drive.
For a long time I just used this to copy images from camera to hard drive, but
recently I clicked on save after working on an image in Photoshop. Perhaps I
shouldn't have been surprised to find it was saved to the camera, but I was.
So I tried a
non-image file, and of course that got saved to the camera too. I suppose it is
obvious really, but it just hadn't occurred to me that to the computer the
camera was just another drive.
Obviously the maximum file size is limited by the camera's
storage, but apart from the simplest cameras this is likely to be much more
than a floppy. 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, etc. mb
There could be many other camera owners who may not realize
they have a removable drive that can store files and be taken anywhere to
upload them to another computer's hard drive.
Most
memory-stick-based digital cameras function internally a form of "RAM
disk;" a solid-state version of an ordinary small hard drive. As such, the
memory stick doesn't care what kind of data it holds--- it's all just ones and
zeros anyway.
What's more, some normal hard drive maintenance tools can also
work on memory stick- based RAM disks, so you can even use things like
"undelete" functions to recover digital photos you may have
accidentally erased.
I am using a ‘Pocki Drive” for this
presentation. Is is a memory-stick with
32mb of storage. They also come with
larger capacities. Several sticks can be carried and swapped to provide
different data at a presentation such as this.
Migrating to XP?
Where is the best information for migrating from Windows
98SE to XP?
With the coming end of support for Win98, a lot of users
are facing the need to contemplate this move.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011115S0014
and
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011204S0009
and search the archives--- tons of XP stuff there.
XP Home vs Pro
I'm not the only one prepping for Microsoft's coming
abandonment of Win98: A lot of users are asking about their upgrade options.
Among those looking at XP, the most common question is "Which version;
Home or Pro?"
The Home version is OK, and it costs substantially less
than the Pro. But it does lack some features found in the Pro version. Dell
actually has a good, though limited, summary page that shows what's *not* in
the Home version, here:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/fed/topics/winxp_000_index.h
Print too small when
surfing?
Internet
explorer has a feature of which few are aware. If the print is too small for
your aging or tired eyes, you can go to View
on the menu bar and click on text size. Here you can vary the text size by a considerable amount.
When loading a new
program?
You
should close all running programs
before installing!
Usually
the user right clicks on an icon in the tray and then exits or turns off the
program. This is then repeated multiple
times till all the icons are gone. However this doesn't close all programs
running in the background.
The
second way is to use control---Alt---delete.
This opens the task manager in which you can select each program, one at a
time, to then end-task.
Unfortunately some programs takes up to three tries at end-task
before it ends.
An
easier method follows:
Go
to Start and then to Run.
Type in msconfig and press enter.
The dialog box will display a choice of configurations for startup. Click selective
startup and then uncheck the box where it says Load
startup group items. Click Ok.
Then
restart the computer and all of the background programs will not be
installed. Also note how much faster
the restart is. After the new program is finished installing it usually will
ask if you want to do a automatic restart or a manual restart later. Take this opportunity to return the above
dialog box to normal start
and to recheck the Load startup group items.
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Thank you for your interest
and attention.
Have a nice day!