Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks, 2nd Edition By David A. Karp Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: November 2004 ISBN: 0-596-00876-7 Pages: 664 Table of • Contents • Index • Reviews Reader Offering dozens of on-target tips, workarounds, and warnings, Windows • Reviews XP Annoyances for Geeks allows users to improve their overall experience • Errata with the popular XP operating system. And now, with this updated edition, • Academic users can also expect detailed coverage of the newly released Service Pack Going Wireless 2 (SP2) technology, which provides protection against viruses, hacker, and • with Windows worms. It's the ultimate resource for the ever-expanding Windows XP XP market. Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks, 2nd Edition By David A. Karp Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: November 2004 ISBN: 0-596-00876-7 Pages: 664 Table of • Contents • Index • Reviews Reader • Reviews • Errata • Academic Going Wireless • with Windows XP Copyright Preface What IS an Annoyance? How This Book Came to Be Organization of This Book Getting the Most Out of This Book Software Depository Using Code Examples Conventions Used in This Book Request for Comments Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Getting Started with Windows XP Section 1.1. A Brief History of Time, Re: MS Windows Section 1.2. Windows Editions and Service Packs Section 1.3. What You Get with Windows XP Section 1.4. Installing Windows XP Section 1.5. Migrating to Windows XP Chapter 2. Basic Explorer Coping Skills Section 2.1. Working with Explorer Section 2.2. Handling Files and Folders Section 2.3. Customizing the Interface Chapter 3. The Registry Section 3.1. The Registry Editor Section 3.2. The Structure of the Registry Section 3.3. Registry Procedures Chapter 4. Tinkering Techniques Section 4.1. Customizing Your Desktop Section 4.2. Covering Your Tracks Section 4.3. File Types: The Link Between Documents and Applications Section 4.4. Cool Things You Can Do with Drives and Folders Chapter 5. Maximizing Performance Section 5.1. Trimming the Fat Section 5.2. Hard Disk Section 5.3. System Hardware Chapter 6. Troubleshooting Section 6.1. General Troubleshooting Techniques Section 6.2. Specific Software Issues Section 6.3. Dealing with Drivers and Other Tales of Hardware Troubleshooting Section 6.4. Fixing Device-Specific Problems Section 6.5. Preventive Maintenance and Data Recovery Chapter 7. Networking andGoing Wireless Section 7.1. Getting Started with Networking Section 7.2. Build a Workgroup (Local Area Network) Section 7.3. Connect to the Internet Section 7.4. Stuff You Can Do with a Network Section 7.5. Go Wireless Section 7.6. Securing Your System on a Network Chapter 8. User Accounts and Administration Section 8.1. Managing Users Section 8.2. Permissions and Security Section 8.3. Logon Options Section 8.4. Sharing Files and Printers Chapter 9. Scripting and Automation Section 9.1. Building a Script with VBScript Section 9.2. Object References Section 9.3. Development Tips Section 9.4. Wacky Script Ideas Chapter 10. The Command Prompt Section 10.1. DOS Commands Section 10.2. Batch Files: The Other Way to Do It Section 10.3. Command Prompt Integration Appendix A. Setting Locator Section A.1. Alphabetical Listing of All Windows XP Settings Appendix B. BIOS Settings Appendix C. TCP/IP Ports Appendix D. Class IDs (CLSIDs) of System Objects Colophon Index Copyright © 2005 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O'Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safari.oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or [email protected]. Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O'Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc. The Annoyances series designation, Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks, the image of a Surinam toad, and related trade dress are trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O'Reilly Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. Preface What IS an Annoyance? How This Book Came to Be Organization of This Book Getting the Most Out of This Book Software Depository Using Code Examples Conventions Used in This Book Request for Comments Acknowledgments What IS an Annoyance? If you're using Microsoft Windows, I shouldn't have to tell you what an annoyance is. To put it simply, an annoyance is a problem to be solved, and Windows certainly has no shortage of those. An annoyance is the way Windows keeps forgetting your settings, rearranging your desktop icons, and constantly changing the order of items in your Start Menu. An annoyance is the inconsistent way Windows handles the dragging and dropping of files. An annoyance is the fact that Microsoft gave Windows a fancy face lift in Windows XP, but didn't bother to fix a nearly decade-old problem with File Open and File Save dialogs (more on that later). An annoyance is Service Pack 2, which contains as many new bugs as it fixes, and only provides superficial protection in an age of viruses, Trojan horses, and spyware. More often than not, an annoyance is the result of bad design, as opposed to a garden-variety bug. Now, if we had a large selection of compatible operating systems from which to choose, the point would be almost moot; each of us would simply choose the most appropriate (and, of course, least annoying) software available. However, the real world isn't like that, and most of us who use Microsoft Windows are doing so out of necessity rather than personal choice. That puts Microsoft in a position to control what we see and how we work. Realizing you're not alone is the first step to improving your experience with Windows XP and regaining control of your machine before it assumes control of you. But the purpose of this book is not to complain or criticize, but rather to acknowledge and understand the problems and shortcomings of the operating system in an effort to overcome them. Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks presents solutions that enable you to both customize and troubleshoot Windows. This is an important distinction, because effective problem solving often requires that you know whether an annoyance is an inadvertent bug or an intentional feature of the software, and the dividing line isn't always clear. It's important to realize that if software doesn't act in a way that you think it should, it should be regarded as poor design and not necessarily the result of a bug. A bug is an action carried out by a piece of software that wasn't intended by thedesigners of the product. Ultimately, this distinction doesn't make any particular annoyance any less annoying, but it goes a long way toward helping you come up with a solution. Thinking Inside the Box Here's a simple, yet not readily apparent, example of an intentional design decision that has led to a tangible annoyance in Windows: Common file dialog boxesthe little windows that appear when you go toFile Open or File Save in most applicationslook basically the same, regardless of the application you're using, essentially because they're a function provided by Windows XP. This concept ofcommon dialogs (in the Windows world, anyway) was introduced in the 1980s in Windows 3.1 and has since undergone an evolutionary process as they've been reworked in each successive version of the operating system. An annoyance that plagued these boxes from the start was that they were not resizable and were therefore awkward to use with large displays (or, conversely, too large on small displays). Fortunately, this problem has since been fixed, and in Windows XP, we enjoy resizable file dialog boxes most of the time. And although each application's file dialog will remember its size temporarily, this information is forgotten when the application is closed. Of course, this means that if you want a larger dialog box, you'll have to enlarge it again and again, and do it separately for each application. However, a more serious problem (in my opinion), still not remedied in XP, is that of theLook in (or Save in) list at the top of these dialogs. When you're opening or saving a file, the only clue to the location of the current folder is the namenot the entire pathof the folder. So, for example, if the current folder shown in a file dialog box is calledimages , there's no way to immediately determine if the folder you're looking at is c:\projects\images or d:\webpages\ personal \images. What's worse is that Microsoft knows about the problem and has done nothing about it; in fact, they've taken steps to hide it. In some earlier versions of Windows, if you clicked the[?] button and then clicked the Look in list, you would see this note: "To see how the current folder fits in the hierarchy on your computer, click the down arrow." In later releases of Windows, Microsoft simply removed the explanatory text, and did so instead of simply improving the interface.