Fixing Windows XP Annoyances By David A. Karp ............................................... Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: March 2006 Print ISBN-10: 0-596-10053-1 Print ISBN-13: 978-0-59-610053-7 Pages: 239 Table of Contents | Index Windows XP is the most popular operating system on the planet--and the most annoying. From incomprehensible error messages to inexplicable crashes, from wonky wireless setups to just finding a file, Windows can make your computing life a nightmare. But thanks to Fixing Windows XP Annoyances, you can banish the bugs, speed up operations, and just make Windows work right. Inspired by author David Karp's Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks, this all-new tome pulls together tips, tricks, insider workarounds, and fixes for PC novices and pros, in a handy, accessible Q&A format that lets you find the solutions in a flash. Fixing Windows XP Annoyances will not only increase your productivity but lower your blood pressure. Karp's new book covers: Setup and Hardware-Update Windows, reinstall Windows safely, speed up start up, resolve driver-hardware conflicts, and more. Windows Interface-Navigate quickly, fix screen resolution problems, customize the desktop, and switch applications more quickly. Windows Explorer-Force XP's file & folder management application to remember your view settings, save your default application choices, and get XP's Search tool to behave. Multimedia-Having a problem playing a video or burning a CD? Want to do more with your digital photo collection? We have the answers. Web and Email-Get a handle on spyware, spam and pop-ups; protect your privacy online; learn how to improve your online experience. Wireless and Home Networking-Connect all your PCs; share Internet connections; share files and drives securely; make your wireless network purr; share network printers; and more. If you're having a problem, just look through the Table of Contents for the annoyance that most closely matches your problem, or feel free to start thumbing through the pages. You'll likely find a fix to a problem you didn't even know could be solved. Fixing Windows XP Annoyances By David A. Karp ............................................... Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: March 2006 Print ISBN-10: 0-596-10053-1 Print ISBN-13: 978-0-59-610053-7 Pages: 239 Table of Contents | Index Copyright Dedication Introduction How to Use This Book Conventions Used in This Book Got an Annoyance? O'Reilly Would Like to Hear from You About the Author Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Windows Interface Section 1.1. GENERAL INTERFACE Section 1.2. DESKTOP Section 1.3. START MENU Section 1.4. TASKBAR Section 1.5. APPLICATION WINDOW Section 1.6. WELCOME SCREEN Chapter 2. Windows Explorer Section 2.1. FOLDERS Section 2.2. FILES Section 2.3. FILE DIALOGS Section 2.4. SEARCHING Chapter 3. Multimedia Section 3.1. VIDEO Section 3.2. SOUND AND MUSIC Section 3.3. PHOTOS Section 3.4. WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER EDITION Section 3.5. CDS AND DVDS Chapter 4. The Web and Email Section 4.1. THE WEB Section 4.2. EMAIL Chapter 5. Wireless and Networking Section 5.1. SHARING AND SECURITY Section 5.2. INTERNET CONNECTIONS Section 5.3. WIRELESS CONNECTIONS Chapter 6. Setup and Hardware Section 6.1. SET UP Section 6.2. STARTUP AND SHUTDOWN Section 6.3. WINDOWS UPDATE Section 6.4. HARDWARE Index Copyright © 2006 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Illustrations © 2006 Hal Myforth 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 (safari.oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or [email protected]. Print Robert Editor: Indexer: Julie Hawks History: Luhn March First Production Philip Interior David Futato 2006: Edition. Editor: Dangler Designer: Rachel Robert Romano, Jessamyn Copyeditor: Illustrators: Wheeler Read, and Lesley Borash The O'Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O'Reilly Media, Inc. TheAnnoyances series designations 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. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. 0-596-10053-1 [C] Dedication For Cory Introduction Some days I want to pick up my PC and throw it out the window. Other days, I fancy hitting it with a large, blunt object, or perhaps drilling through the CPU with a high-speed auger bit. Yesterday, I dreamt of small gray mice chewing through the power cable. But of course, the wanton destruction of electronic equipment can be rather expensive, not to mention a poor solution to the hundreds of everyday annoyances that evoke such feelings. Windows XP frequently falls under the "You can't live with it; you can't live without it" category, and with good reason. Windows is an operating system, the underlying software that provides drivers, interface components, and communication services to the applications and games you use on your PC. Ideally, operating system software should be both omnipresent and invisible; like the air we breathe, it allows us to function but should never get in our way. Alas, it doesn't always work out that way. Windows crashes. It interrupts our work with incomprehensible error messages. It bogs down under the weight of the software we pile on top of it. And it seems to make simple taskssuch as finding files, choosing default applications, and setting up a networkneedlessly complicated and hopelessly cumbersome. For these reasons and hundreds more, Windows is annoying. The good news is that there are solutions to most Windows annoyances. Whether the solution lies in an obscure setting, an add-on program, or just a different way of doing something, most of what bugs us about Windows can be fixed. And that's what this book is about. How to Use This Book The information in this book is assembled into "annoyances" and "fixes." If you're having a problem with Windows, look through the Table of Contents for the annoyance that most closely matches your problem, or jump to the Index to find a section based on the solution. Of course, feel free to thumb through these pages, tooyou'll likely find fixes to problems you didn't even know could be solved. Annoyances and their respective fixes are organized into categories, which in turn are divided into these six chapters: Chapter 1, Windows Interface The fixes in this chapter deal with the interface quirks that plague Windows and most of the applications you run on your PC. Among other things, you'll learn how to clean up your Start menu, get to the desktop easily, and switch between applications more quickly. Chapter 2, Windows Explorer Windows Explorer is the heart of file and folder management in Windows XP. The annoyances in this chapter cover Windows Explorer in all of its forms, including tips on how to do things like force it to remember your view settings, save your default application choices, tame File Open and File Save As dialog boxes, and get XP's Search tool to behave. Chapter 3, Multimedia Can't hear sound? Having a problem playing a DVD or burning a CD? Want to do more with your digital photo collection? Interested in turning your PC into a DVR and entertainment center? Chapter 4 covers all this and more! Chapter 4, The Web and Email The Internet is a terrific resource, but it's also the source of a lot of major annoyances, such as spyware, spam, and pop-ups. Get a handle on Internet Explorer's role in this mess, and what you can do to improve your online experience. Chapter 5, Wireless and Networking Getting your PC online can be a bit of a headache, not to mention connecting all the PCs in your home or office together to share files and printers. Learn how to make everything work without compromising your security. Chapter 6, Setup and Hardware This opening chapter helps you reinstall Windows, update it safely, get it to start up more quickly and shut down without complaining, and finally, make it work with all your hardware. Conventions Used in This Book The following are the typographical and iconographical conventions used in this book: Italic Used for emphasis and to indicate new terms, URLs, filenames, file extensions, directories, program names, and pathnames. For example, a path in the filesystem appears as c:\Windows\System32. Constant width Used to show code examples, anything that might be typed from the keyboard, the contents of files, and the output from commands. Constant width italic Used in examples to show text that should be replaced with your own user-supplied values. Menus and navigation Arrows ( ) are used as a shorthand notation to indicate navigation through drop-down menus, which is particularly useful given how frequently settings and features are buried deep in Windows's various menus and dialog windows. If you see an instruction like "select View Explorer Bar Folders," it means that you should open the View menu in the current window, select the Explorer Bar menu item, and then select the Folders menu item. Note that when you need to click other interface elements, such as tabs, checkboxes, and buttons, this will be clearly indicated in the text.