Q: A friend gave me a used Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop. It has Windows XP Professional installed. One laptop sticker says “Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition. Product Key XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX.” On the right side, a label says “Intel Inside.” Another sticker says “Designed for Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional/Windows Me.” I am flummoxed. What does all this mean? [...]

Q: I’m using Outlook Express in Windows XP. How can I list my contacts in alphabetical order? A: The once-popular Outlook Express e-mail program enjoyed a good ten-year run, from Windows 3 to Windows XP. Microsoft’s Windows Vista finally killed it, unfortunately, substituting Windows Mail, which died a short two years later. Outlook Express lovers [...]

Q: Windows XP won’t remember my choice of media players. When I right-click a music file and choose Play from the pop-up menu, I choose Windows Media Player. I also click the box that says, “Make this player default.” But the next time I open a music file, a different media player opens the file. [...]

Q: I wanted to copy a program’s icon from the Start menu to the Desktop, but something went wrong. Now the icon has disappeared from the Start menu’s All Programs area, and it’s only on the Desktop. How do I put the icon back on the Start menu’s All Program’s area? A: Like many things [...]

Q: I just received an e-mail with an attached photo. When I tried to print the photo with Windows XP’s Photo Printing Wizard, I found other, older photos that looked like they’d come from the Internet rather than e-mail. How do I delete those old, unwanted photos from the Photo Printing Wizard? A: Windows Photo [...]