WINDOWS XP TIMESAVING TECHNIQUES FOR BEGINNERS
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 ABOUT THIS BOOK 1 FOOLISH ASSUMPTIONS 2 WHAT S IN THIS BOOK 2 CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS BOOK 4 ICONS USED IN THIS BOOK 5 WHERE TO GO FROM HERE 5 PART I NO BULL INSTALLATION AND SETUP 7 TECHNIQUE 1 GETTING THE LATEST VERSION OF WINDOWS 9 INSTALLING SERVICE PACK 2 10 SETTING UP SERVICE PACK 2 12 RECOVERING FROM SP2 PROBLEMS 13 CHOOSING BETWEEN XP HOME AND XP PROFESSIONAL 13 UPGRADING QUICKLY 15 IN PLACE UPGRADES IN A SNAP 16 BREEZING THROUGH CLEAN INSTALLS 17 TRANSFERRING FILES AND SETTINGS 21 UNDERSTANDING WHAT GETS TRANSFERRED 21 CHOOSING STORAGE MEDIA FOR TRANSFERRING YOUR FILES 22 TRANSFERRING FILES AND SETTINGS ON A CLEAN INSTALL 22 BREEZING THROUGH A TRANSFER 23 TECHNIQUE 2 RUNNING THE ACTIVATION GAUNTLET 25 UNDERSTANDING ACTIVATION REGISTRATION AND PASSPORT 25 ACTIVATING WINDOWS XP THE RIGHT WAY 26 UNDERSTANDING YOUR ACTIVATION OPTIONS 26 INSTALLING AN OLD COPY OF WINDOWS XP ON A NEW COMPUTER 27 REGISTERING FOR FUN AND PROFIT 28 SIGNING UP FOR PASSPORT AND HOTMAIL 28 STAYING ON TOP OF PRIVACY ISSUES 30 TECHNIQUE 3 RETRIEVING YOUR PRODUCT KEY 31 UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF THE WINDOWS XP PRODUCT KEY 32 LOCATING THE KEY 32 RECONSTRUCTING THE PRODUCT KEY 33 VERIFYING YOUR PRODUCT KEY 33 TECHNIQUE 4 INSTALLING A LEGAL COPY OF WINDOWS XP OVER A BOOTLEG 36 NAILING PIRATE PRODUCT KEYS 36 UPDATING YOUR KEY THE EASY WAY 38 TOUGHING IT OUT THE HARD WAY 39 PART II MAKING WINDOWS LEAN AND CLEAN 41 TECHNIQUE 5 MAKING WINDOWS WORK FASTER 43 BYPASSING THE LOGON SCREEN 43 MONITORING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE 45 ELIMINATING THE 1 BOTTLENECK MEMORY DRAIN 46 NO NONSENSE TWEAKING 48 USING WINDOWS BUILT IN TWEAKING TOOLS 48 DISABLING AUTOMATIC ERROR REPORTING 50 CLEANING AND DEFRAGGING YOUR HARD DRIVE 50 SPECIAL PURPOSE TWEAKS 52 FINE TUNING INTEL SYSTEMS 54 TECHNIQUE 6 SHUT DOWN RESTART AND SWITCH USERS QUICKLY 57 CREATING A FAST SHUT DOWN ICON 58 CREATING AN ICON TO ABORT A FAST SHUT DOWN 59 CREATING AN ICON TO RESTART YOUR COMPUTER QUICKLY 59 USING SHUT DOWN AND RESTART OPTIONS 59 CREATING AN ICON TO SWITCH USERS 60 TECHNIQUE 7 SAVING TIME AND YOUR EYES ON SCREEN 61 APPLYING BASIC VISION SAVING TACTICS 61 UNDERSTANDING HOW CHARACTERS APPEAR ON SCREEN 62 SCREEN RESOLUTION AND ZOOM ON CRTS 63 ADJUSTING RESOLUTION SETTINGS 64 HANDLING REFRESH RATE MATTERS 66 HIGH RESOLUTION TRICKS 67 PART III CONVINCING WINDOWS TO WORK YOUR WAY 111 TECHNIQUE 13 STREAMLINING THE START MENU 113 NAVIGATING THE START MENU 114 PINNING AND UNPINNING 114 UNPINNING INTERNET EXPLORER AND OUTLOOK FROM THE START MENU 114 PINNING WHAT YOU LIKE TO THE START MENU 116 CREATING MORE ROOM FOR PINNED ITEMS 117 REINING IN THE ALL PROGRAMS SUBMENU 118 WHERE ALL PROGRAMS COMES FROM 118 REARRANGING THE ALL PROGRAMS SUBMENU 120 CASCADING TO SAVE TIME 122 TECHNIQUE 14 BUILDING A POWER DESKTOP 126 DESKTOP BREVITY THE SOUL OF WIT 127 CLEANING UP OLD ICONS 127 EXPLORING UNUSED DESKTOP SHORTCUTS 128 ALIGNING ICONS 129 MOVING ICONS SO YOU HAVE MORE ROOM ON THE DESKTOP 130 ADDING OTHER ICONS MAYBE 131 AVOIDING ACTIVE CONTENT 131 TRIMMING THE NEW RIGHT CLICK MENU 132 GENERATING ONE CLICK E MAIL 134 SETTING UP THE E MAIL 134 IMPROVING ONE CLICK E MAIL 135 STARTING MULTIPLE PROGRAMS AT ONCE 136 ARRANGING MULTIPLE WINDOWS SIDE BY SIDE 138 TECHNIQUE 15 TRICKING OUT THE TASKBAR 140 CUSTOMIZING THE TASKBAR 140 GROUPING WINDOWS 142 BLITZING THE ADDRESS BAR 144 NAVIGATING FROM THE TASKBAR 145 TECHNIQUE 16 LAUNCHING YOUR MOST USED PROGRAMS QUICKLY 147 USING THE QUICK LAUNCH TOOLBAR 147 MAKING THE QUICK LAUNCH TOOLBAR APPEAR 148 ADDING PROGRAMS TO THE QUICK LAUNCH TOOLBAR 148 FINE TUNING CLEARTYPE 68 SETTING UP MULTIPLE MONITORS 69 TECHNIQUE 8 STOPPING A THIEF WITH YOUR WELCOME SCREEN 72 CHOOSING A BRANDING APPROACH 72 BUILDING A PRE LOGON SCREEN 73 BRINGING THE PRE LOGON SCREEN TO LIFE 74 ADDING LINE BREAKS TO YOUR PRE LOGON SCREEN 75 MODIFYING THE WINDOWS WELCOME SCREEN 77 TECHNIQUE 9 RAPID POWER PASSWORDS 80 UNDERSTANDING PASSWORD LIMITATIONS 80 REQUIRING A PASSWORD TO LOG ON 81 LOOKING AT PASSWORDS FROM A CRACKER S POINT OF VIEW 82 CHOOSING A QUICK STRONG PASSWORD 84 CHANGING AND DELETING PASSWORDS 85 KEEPING YOUR PASSWORD ALIVE 87 TECHNIQUE 10 WINDOWS POWER MANAGEMENT 89 UNDERSTANDING THE STANDARDS 89 USING STAND BY AND HIBERNATE 90 FORCING POWER OFF ON SHUT DOWN 91 TIMESAVING SETTINGS FOR POWER USERS 91 TECHNIQUE 11 KEEPING PROGRAMS FROM STARTING AUTOMATICALLY 94 RECOGNIZING YOU HAVE A PROBLEM 94 FINDING AND ELIMINATING AUTO STARTING PROGRAMS 95 PREVENTING NEW AUTO STARTERS 100 TECHNIQUE 12 REMOVING AND REINSTALLING PROGRAMS 102 REMOVING PROGRAMS THOROUGHLY 102 UPDATING THE ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS LIST 105 CLEANING UP BEFORE A REINSTALL 105 ADDING WINDOWS COMPONENTS 106 USING NON MICROSOFT REPLACEMENTS 107 NIXING WINDOWS MESSENGER AND OTHER HIDDEN PROGRAMS 109 MAKING ROOM FOR MORE PROGRAMS ON THE QUICK LAUNCH TOOLBAR 149 AUTO HIDING THE TASKBAR 149 CHANGING QUICK LAUNCH SCREEN TIPS 149 OPENING DOCUMENTS QUICKLY 151 OPENING WEB PAGES QUICKLY 151 ADDING A BLANK E MAIL MESSAGE TO THE QUICK LAUNCH TOOLBAR 152 CREATING NEW TEMPLATE BASED DOCUMENTS QUICKLY 152 TECHNIQUE 17 MAKING PROGRAMS RUN YOUR WAY 153 RUNNING A PROGRAM WHEN WINDOWS STARTS 153 ALLOWING OTHER USERS TO RUN YOUR PROGRAMS 154 BRINGING BACK WORD S LAST DOCUMENT 155 TECHNIQUE 18 USING BUILT IN KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 158 SHORTCUTS EVERYBODY NEEDS 159 IMPORTANT WINDOWS KEY COMBINATIONS 160 A GRAB BAG OF APPLICATION SHORTCUTS 160 ODDS N SOMETIMES USEFUL ENDS 161 TECHNIQUE 19 MAKING YOUR OWN KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 163 PUTTING CUSTOM HOT KEYS TO WORK FOR YOU 163 KNOWING WHAT YOU CAN T DO WITH HOT KEYS 164 CREATING AND ORGANIZING HOT KEYS 164 STARTING A PROGRAM WITH A HOT KEY 165 OPENING A FOLDER WITH A HOT KEY 166 SURFING TO A WEB SITE WITH A HOT KEY 168 SENDING E MAIL WITH A HOT KEY 169 OPENING A FILE WITH A HOT KEY 170 CREATING NEW DOCUMENTS WITH A HOT KEY 171 RUNNING PRESENTATIONS WITH A HOT KEY 172 UNDOING HOT KEYS 173 USING ACTIVEWORDS FOR EXPANDED HOT KEYS 174 TECHNIQUE 20 EXPLORING EFFECTIVELY 175 MAKING WINDOWS SHOW FILENAME EXTENSIONS 175 CUSTOMIZING EXPLORER FOR SPEED 177 SEEING ALL YOUR FILES AND FOLDERS 177 SEEING PATHNAMES IN EXPLORER S TITLE BAR 178 CHOOSING THE RIGHT VIEW 179 WORKING WITH DETAILS VIEW 181 RETURNING CRUCIAL FOLDERS TO THEIR ORIGINAL VIEWS 182 SORTING FILES BY GROUP 183 SETTING FOLDERS BEHAVIOR 184 COPYING FILES QUICKLY 185 CHANGING FILENAME ASSOCIATIONS 186 RENAMING FILES EN MASSE 187 CUSTOMIZING THE OPEN AND SAVE AS DIALOG BOXES 188 TECHNIQUE 21 FINDING THE FILES YOU WANT FAST 189 SPEEDING UP SEARCHES 190 STARTING WITH ADVANCED SEARCHES 190 NIXING THE MUTT 191 ENGAGING YOUR BRAIN BEFORE THE SEARCH 191 RUNNING A SIMPLE ADVANCED SEARCH 192 SEARCHING FOR CONTENTS AND METADATA 193 EMPLOYING WILDCARDS 194 SAVING AND REUSING SEARCHES 195 FINDING FILES THAT GOT LOST 195 FIRST DON T PANIC 196 SECOND GET DETERMINED 196 ADVANCED SEARCHING WITH COPERNIC 197 TECHNIQUE 22 LISTING FILES QUICKLY 199 GETTING STARTED BY FIXING A WINDOWS BUG 200 SHOWING DIRECTORY LISTINGS 201 WRITING A PROGRAM TO SHOW DIRECTORY LISTINGS 202 ADDING THE PROGRAM TO THE RIGHT CLICK MENU 203 LISTING FILES BY FILENAME EXTENSION 204 PRINTING A FILE LIST AUTOMATICALLY 206 GETTING RID OF LISTING ENTRIES 208 PART IV MAKING THE MOST OF INTERNET AND E MAIL 209 TECHNIQUE 23 CUSTOMIZING INTERNET EXPLORER 211 SPEEDING UP IE 211 USING A BLANK HOME PAGE 212 SHOWING PLACEHOLDER PICTURES 213 STOPPING SCRIPT DEBUGGING 214 BUMPING UP THE CACHE 214 DOWNLOADING PAGES OVERNIGHT 216 TECHNIQUE 28 STREAMLINING OUTLOOK EXPRESS 258 ARRANGING YOUR OE DESKTOP 258 DISABLING WINDOWS MESSENGER AUTOMATIC SIGN IN 260 MAKING OE WAIT TO SEND AND RECEIVE 260 DEALING WITH READ RECEIPTS 261 REDUCING CLUTTER IN YOUR CONTACTS LIST 262 USING SIGNATURES THE SMART WAY 262 USING A BUSINESS CARD 263 ORGANIZING CONTACTS IN FOLDERS 264 SETTING UP OUTLOOK EXPRESS FOR MORE THAN ONE USER 264 BRINGING OLD IDENTITIES INTO THE FOLD 265 IMPORTING EXISTING MESSAGES FOR A NEW USER 266 DEALING WITH E MAIL ATTACHMENT SECURITY 266 REMOVING THE YOU HAVE MESSAGES NOTICE 267 TECHNIQUE 29 ZAPPING JUNK MAIL 268 UNDERSTANDING SPAM 268 PHISHING PHOR PHUN AND PROPHIT 270 AVOIDING SPAMMEISTERS AND PHISHERS 270 LURKING IN WEB BEACONS 271 CRAWLING AND TRAWLING 272 UNSUBSCRIBING NOT 273 FIGHTING BACK 273 TAKING SPAM ACTION 273 BITING THE PHISHERS 274 FILTERING OUT JUNK E MAIL 274 TECHNIQUE 30 PROTECTING YOUR KIDS 277 EVALUATING PARENTAL CONTROL SOFTWARE 277 GOING BEYOND PARENTAL CONTROL SOFTWARE 279 SETTLING ON A WORKABLE PLAN 279 PART V OPTIMIZING YOUR MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT 281 TECHNIQUE 31 USING WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 283 INSTALLING WMP 10 283 TWEAKING WMP 285 RUNNING WMP 286 CONTROLLING WMP FROM THE KEYBOARD 288 FINDING UNCOMMON METHODS FOR COMMON TASKS 218 USING IMPORTANT IE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 218 UNHIJACKING THE BACK BUTTON 218 CREATING CUSTOM SHORTCUTS FROM THE ADDRESS BAR 219 CONTROLLING FAVORITES DIRECTLY 221 KEEPING IE UNDER CONTROL 222 REMOVING SAVED PASSWORDS AND USER NAMES 222 UNTRUSTING TRUSTED PUBLISHERS 224 CHECKING FOR ADD ONS AND PARASITES 225 CONFIGURING SECURITY ZONES 226 RIDING HERD ON POP UPS 227 OVERRIDING THE DOUBLE DOWNLOAD INANITY 227 TECHNIQUE 24 SAVING TIME WITH GOOGLE 229 USING THE GOOGLE TOOLBAR 230 INSTALLING THE TOOLBAR 230 GETTING AROUND THE TOOLBAR 231 GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE TOOLBAR 232 USING GOOGLE EFFECTIVELY 234 SAVING TIME WITH SEARCH TERMS 234 USING ADVANCED SEARCH 235 VIEWING THE NEWS 236 SCANNING NEWSGROUPS 236 USING THE DIRECTORY THE TIMESAVING WAY 237 TECHNIQUE 25 LOCATING AND SHARING FILES ON THE INTERNET 239 DECIDING WHAT FILES ARE WORTH SHARING 239 UNDERSTANDING HOW FILE SHARING WORKS 240 DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING SHAREAZA 242 FINDING THE GOOD STUFF 245 TECHNIQUE 26 KEEPING MESSENGER IN LINE 246 SAVING OR SHOOTING THE MESSENGER 246 GETTING THE SKINNY ON USER IDS 248 SETTING UP YOUR MESSENGER ACCOUNT 249 MAKING CONTACT 252 USING THE FANCIER FEATURES 253 TECHNIQUE 27 POLYGLOT IMING WITH TRILLIAN 254 WEIGHING TRILLIAN AGAINST THE COMPETITION 254 INSTALLING TRILLIAN 255 USING TRILLIAN 255 TECHNIQUE 32 NO NONSENSE MUSIC GATHERING 289 ADDING MUSIC TO THE MEDIA LIBRARY 289 MAKING WMP SEARCH FOR MUSIC ON YOUR HARD DRIVE 289 ADDING NEW SONGS TO THE LIBRARY 290 RIPPING CDS YOU OWN 291 RIPPING ETHICS 291 CHOOSING A FILE FORMAT AND SAMPLING RATE 292 RIPPING A TO Z 293 TECHNIQUE 33 BUYING MUSIC ON THE WEB 296 WHAT S GOING ON HERE 296 SORTING THROUGH THE STORES 297 SO IT PLAYS FOR SURE 298 TECHNIQUE 34 TUNING IN THE RADIO 299 TUNING IN A STATION 299 TECHNIQUE 35 CREATING YOUR OWN MUSIC CDS 302 CHOOSING THE TYPE OF CD TO BURN 302 PICKING SONGS TO GO ON THE CD 303 BURNING THE CD OR DVD 304 DEALING WITH HARD DRIVE SPACE ISSUES 305 TECHNIQUE 36 TRANSFERRING MUSIC TO MP3 PLAYERS 306 CHOOSING AN MP3 PLAYER 306 COPYING FILES TO AN MP3 PLAYER 307 KEEPING BACKUPS 308 PART VI HAVING FUN AND SAVING TIME WITH VISUAL MEDIA 309 TECHNIQUE 37 TAKING SNAPSHOTS WITH A WEBCAM 311 TAKING THE SHOT 311 SETTING UP THE SHOT F 11 AND BE THERE 313 USING TIME DELAY 313 TECHNIQUE 38 RECORDING VIDEO WITH A WEBCAM 315 INSTALLING WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER 2 315 SETTING UP AND RECORDING A VIDEO 316 RECOVERING FROM A WMM 2 FREEZE 318 TECHNIQUE 39 EDITING YOUR HOME MOVIES 319 UNDERSTANDING THE LIMITATIONS OF WMM 320 IMPORTING AND COMBINING CLIPS 320 TRIMMING CLIPS 322 USING TRANSITIONS AND EFFECTS 323 ADDING TITLES AND CREDITS 324 SAVING THE MOVIE 324 TECHNIQUE 40 MANAGING PICTURES FROM A DIGITAL CAMERA 326 TRANSFERRING PICTURES TO YOUR PC AUTOMATICALLY 326 TRANSFERRING PICTURES WITH WINDOWS EXPLORER 329 USING A CAMERA S MEMORY CARD AS A STORAGE DEVICE ON YOUR PC 330 TECHNIQUE 41 DOING MORE WITH YOUR PICS 333 PUTTING YOUR PIC ON THE DESKTOP 333 USING YOUR PICTURES FOR A SCREEN SAVER SLIDESHOW 334 BURNING PICTURES ON A CD 335 BURNING A SLIDESHOW ON A CD 337 RECOVERING DELETED PICTURES ON YOUR CAMERA 338 TECHNIQUE 42 DECREASING PICTURE DOWNLOAD TIMES 341 UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL PIC FILE SIZES 341 CHANGING THE RESOLUTION OF PICTURES 343 TECHNIQUE 43 PRINTING AND POSTING PICTURES 345 USING THE PHOTO PRINTING WIZARD 345 POSTING PICS ON THE WEB 348 TECHNIQUE 44 USING A SCANNER EFFECTIVELY 350 GETTING YOUR SCANNER TO WORK 350 PRODUCING QUALITY SCANS 351