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?

A: Whether a hand-me-down comes from a friend or a stranger, that newly acquired PC brings a nagging question: What can I do with this old thing?

Those stickers on its case provide important forensic clues, so let’s start there:

• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition: This version of Windows rode on computers from September, 2000 to August, 2001, when Windows XP took over. That makes your laptop at least ten years old — too old to run the latest version of Windows, but new enough to run Windows XP reasonably well.
• Product Key XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX: Computers sold with Windows pre-installed usually include a product key sticker. That code lets you reinstall Windows after a dire emergency. Unfortunately, your sticker’s key works only with the operating system sold with your laptop: Windows Millennium. Since somebody has installed Windows XP onto your PC, peel off that sticker; it’s worthless. To find your new, Windows XP product key, download and run the free Magical Jellybean Keyfinder. Print out the new key and save it for an emergency. You’ll need it if you ever try to reinstall Windows XP onto your PC.
• Intel Inside: Your computer’s brain, or Central Processing Unit (CPU), comes from Intel. Intel CPUs cost more than their competitors, and ten years ago, Intel led the pack. That’s a point in your favor.
• Designed for Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional/Windows Me: Your laptop could run both Windows Me and Windows 2000 Professional, commonly used by corporations. The two versions of Windows required similar computing power, so this sticker means little.
• Service Tag: You’re lucky to have a Dell laptop, as all Dell computers come with a Service Tag sticker containing a special series of numbers and letters. Find its Service Tag number, and enter it into Dell’s support website. There, a customized web page tells you everything inside your particular computer. You’ll also find your computer’s drivers, handy when troubleshooting problems. No Service Tag? Dell’s generic website for the Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop says your laptop sports a DVD drive and has about a three-hour battery life.

While sleuthing for clues about an old PC, don’t forget eBay. There, you can see what Dell Inspiron 8000 models currently fetch on the resale market. In the United States, for example, a Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop sells for between $20 and $40.

The verdict? Your PC certainly isn’t a powerhouse. Its low battery life means you’ll probably need to plug it into the wall most of the time. After ten years, those batteries probably won’t last 15 minutes.

Don’t count on using it for editing movies, doing advanced photo processing, or running any newer versions of Windows. It’s already pushed to its limits. Don’t sink any more money into it with a new battery, memory, or any other upgrades.

But when plugged in, it’s fine for web browsing, e-mail, and word processing, which consumes most of our work today. It might be a little slow, but it will do the job.

If you need more computing power than that, you’ll need a newer computer. Or, perhaps, you’ll need a friend that hands you something that’s newer than ten-years-old.

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 can still run the popular program in Windows 7, however. Just download and install Microsoft’s Windows XP Mode, and you’ll create a fully-functional Windows XP computer running in its own window on your desktop. And inside that window, you’ll find Outlook Express awaiting on Windows XP’s familiar Start menu.

But whether you’re running Outlook Express in Windows 98, Windows XP or Windows 7, the program lets you view and sort your Contacts in either of two ways.

Sorting your Contacts from the Address Book

To see your Address Book in Outlook Express, click the Addresses icon from the program’s menu bar along the top (shown to the left).

The Address Book window appears, listing your contacts’ names and e-mail addresses, each in their own columns.

The Address Book normally lists your contacts alphabetically by name.

If it doesn’t, sort them by name by following this step:

Click the word “Name” atop the column listing your contact’s names (shown to the left).

Outlook Express quickly sorts that particular row alphabetically. Click it again to sorts in reverse alphabetical order.

In fact, this trick works throughout Windows whenever you see a list of files, in any version of Windows, including Windows 7.

Clicking any column’s header quickly sorts those files by that header’s name. You can sort files by name, size, or creation date; you’ll find a wide variety of column headers in your Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folders.

You can sort photos by the date they were taken, for example, handy when trying to find vacation photos from a specific trip.

Sorting contacts within the preview pane

Depending on Outlook Express’ layout, Outlook Express may list your contacts’ names along the program’s left edge, usually in the bottom left corner.

(If they’re missing, here’s how to put those Contacts’ names back where they belong.)

To sort those contacts names, follow these steps:

1. Click the word Contacts, right above the box listing your contacts’ names.
2. When the drop-down menu appears, choose Sort by Name.

Outlook Express will sort the names alphabetically by their first name.

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. Right now, a media player called Creative MediaSource that came with my sound card takes control again and names itself “King.”

How can I stop it from always taking over control of my music?

A: Every music player on your computer wants the right to play your music.

Because of their possessiveness, you may find yourself handling arguments between iTunes, Windows Media Player, and even that odd music player bundled with your new sound card.

Sure, you can go through the steps of choosing your default music player by choosing Start -> Default Programs (Windows 7, Windows Vista) or Start -> Set Program Access and Defaults (Windows XP).

But even after you’ve gone through that trouble, one player keeps taking over.

The culprit? Some older media players include a special setting that makes them verify that they’re the default player each time they’re loaded. If that player discovers that a different program is the default player, the newly loading player snatches back that right for itself.

To stop that program from hogging the default player setting, you need to turn off a hidden setting in your rogue media player. But how do you find the setting?

It’s not easy. Different players use different language and different menus. But start by finding the Options or Preferences menus, and then looking for the words “default” or “file associations.” When you find those options, turn them off, and you’ve solved the problem.

The figure at the top of this page, for example, shows how Winamp’s “Enable Winamp agent” setting tells it to grab the default player setting whenever it’s loaded. Turning off the “Enable Winamp agent” setting from the Preferences menu stops Winamp from hogging the default player setting

Q:

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 in Windows, the Start menu’s icons can be dragged around on your screen.

Unfortunately, that means a slip of the wrist can drag a program off its rightful place from the Start menu, and onto the adjacent Desktop.

Follow these steps to put a misplaced Desktop icon back onto the Start menu:

1. Hover your mouse pointer over your misplaced Desktop icon.
2. Hold down your right-mouse button. (This selects the misplaced icon for action.)
3. While holding down your right-mouse button, point at the Start button, as shown in the figure above. (After a moment, the Start menu opens.)
4. While still holding down your right-mouse button, point at the Start menu’s All Program’s area. (After a moment, the All Program’s menu opens.)
5. While still holding down your right-mouse button, point at the menu area where you want to place your icon. (If your icon lived within its own folder in the Start menu, keep your right-mouse button held down while navigating to the icon’s original folder.)
6. When your icon hovers over its original Start menu folder, let go of the right mouse button.
7. When the menu appears, choose either Copy or Move to copy or move the icon back to its rightful place on the Start menu’s All Programs area.

These steps actually reverse your first action, but the safety of holding down the right-mouse button lets you choose to copy the icon back to original position on the Start menu.

Or, if you don’t want the copy on your Desktop, choose Move instead of Copy.

Tip: To prevent these mishaps, always drag while holding down your right mouse button. Then, when you drop the dragged icon, a menu asks if you’d like to Copy or Move the icon. Choose Copy for the best of both worlds: The icon stays on the Start menu, and a shortcut to that icon lives where you choose to drop it.

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 Printing Wizard tries to make it as easy as possible to print photos that arrive as e-mailed attachments.

First, the Wizard copies those attached photos into a temporary folder, giving you time to ponder options like printing size, printing paper, and other printer necessities. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer also uses that same temporary folder, usually to hold images from websites you’ve visited or photos you’ve saved previously.

The solution? Tell Internet Explorer to clean up after itself and delete those older images.

Follow these steps to remove the older, unwanted photos:

1. Click the Start button, and click Internet Explorer.
2. Click Tools, and when the drop-down menu appears, click Internet Options.
3. Click the General tab, if needed, and then click the “Delete Files” button in the Temporary Internet Files section.
4. Click to select the Delete All Offline Content check box, and then click OK.

The next time you open the Photo Printing Wizard, you’ll no longer see the unwanted photos.

Q: I purchased McAfee Internet Security 2011, I am not sure if I have a 32-bit computer or the 64-bit version that this program requires.

Also, I do not know if I have Windows Vista or not. PC technicians usually repair my PC, and I don’t know what version came with my computer.

How can I find out if my PC meets the requirements for this program?

A: Many of today’s programs want to know not only what version of Windows lives on your PC, but whether it’s 32-bit or 64-bit. Luckily, these arcane details can be found fairly easily.

To discover what version of Windows lives on your PC, follow these three simple steps. (These steps work with every version of Windows released in the past ten years.)

1. Click the Start menu button.
2. Right-click the menu item named “Computer” or “My Computer” (shown above) and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.
3. When the System Properties window appears, read the information to discover your version of Windows, and whether it’s 32-or 64-bit.

Here’s how to decipher that window’s information whether your computer runs Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7:

Windows XP

Following those steps in Windows XP brings up a window like the one above.

First, find the window’s System section (circled in red). There, you see that this computer runs Windows XP Professional.

It’s actually Windows XP Professional Version 2002, a special version which lets you run temperamental Windows XP programs within Windows 7.

It’s also running Service Pack 3. (Every version of Windows XP should be running Service Pack 3, which brings it up-to-date with security fixes.)

Finally, nearly every version of Windows XP is a 32-bit version. But if this version was one of the few that ran 64-bit, the window above would mention that.

Windows Vista

Following those steps in Windows Vista brings up a window like the one above.

First, find the window’s Windows Edition section (top, circled in red). There, you see that this computer runs Windows Vista Ultimate.

It’s also running Service Pack 2. (Every version of Windows Vista should be running Service Pack 2, which brings it up-to-date with security fixes.)

Unlike Windows XP, Windows Vista came widely distributed in both 32- and 64-bit versions. To see your version, look in the System’s section’s System Type area (bottom, circled in red). The example above is a 32-bit version of Windows Vista.

Windows 7

Following those steps in Windows 7 fetches a window like the one above.

First, find the window’s Windows Edition section (top, circled in red). There, you see that this computer runs Windows 7 Ultimate.

It’s also running Service Pack 1. (Every version of Windows 7 should be running Service Pack 1, which brings it up-to-date with security fixes.)

Like Windows Vista, Windows 7 came distributed in both 32- and 64-bit versions. To see your version, look in the System’s section’s System Type area (bottom, circled in red). The example above is a 64-bit version of Windows 7.

The moral? When a program presents a complicated list of System Requirements, you can always see if your computer’s up to snuff by clicking the Start button, right-clicking “Computer” or “My Computer,” and choosing Properties from the pop-up menu.

I have a USB flash drive where I keep personal pictures and emails from friends. My old Windows XP computer let me save pictures or emails on the drive. But when I try to save files on the drive with a newer version of Windows, I see this error message:

You don’t have permission to save in this location. Contact the administrator to obtain permission.

How can I fix this?

A: Microsoft stepped up Windows’ security a few notches after Windows XP, annoying both nosy hackers and innocent users in the process.

One of the ways Microsoft increased security came from the way Windows stores files. Windows XP formatted hard drives larger than 10GB using an older version of NTFS, not the newer version preferred by Windows Vista and Windows 7.

So, to solve the problem, you need to reformat your USB drive (or your hard drive, if that’s giving you the same error message) using Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer.

Follow these steps to reformat your hard drive safely, removing the error message and the problem:

1. Back up all the drive’s files by copying them to an empty folder on your C: drive.
2. Click Start, click Computer, right-click the drive or the device, and then click Format. (Type your password, if asked, and click Continue.)
3. Select the NTFS (default) file system from the list.
4. Click to select the Quick Format check box.
5. Click Start.
6. When the format is through, close the Format Local Disk dialog box.
7. Copy that drive’s files from the folder on your C: drive back onto your portable drive.

Once you’ve formatted your flash drive using the newer, more secure format, the error message should disappear.

That feature seems to be missing from Windows Live Mail. Where did it go?

A: That feature, called “Request a read receipt for all sent messages,” lives on in Windows Live Mail. But finding it requires a different set of keystrokes.

But first, some background. The Request Receipt feature emails you when the recipient opens your sent email. Theoretically, you’ll know exactly when your boss saw your e-mail asking for that raise, for example.

The feature isn’t anywhere near foolproof, though. You’ll never receive that “message received” email under these conditions:

• When your e-mail recipient doesn’t use Windows Live Mail or Outlook Express.
• When the recipient reads the email on her smartphone rather than her computer.
• When the recipient clicks “No” when his email program asks permission to send the confirmation email.

When those stars align correctly, though, you’ll know when your email was opened. (Whether the recipient actually read it is another story.)

To turn on the return receipt feature in Windows Live Mail, follow these steps:

1. Click the Windows Live Mail main menu (it’s dark blue and unlabelled in the top, left corner), click Options, and choose Mail (shown below).



2. When the Options menu appears (below), click the Receipts tab, and click the box called, “Request a read receipt for all sent messages.



3. Click the OK button to save your changes and exit the menus.

That turns on the return receipts feature. It’s easy to turn on, and on those few occasions when it works, it could be just what you’ve been waiting for.

Q:

A: Most versions of Windows offer several ways to change Windows Explorer’s appearance. You can toggle ribbons across the top, change their size, and even customize some menus.

In Windows XP, however, you’re not supposed to be able to remove the main File menu. When you’re staring at a menu-less Windows Explorer, you’ve got a problem.

You’re also in luck: Microsoft has released a one-click fix to bring those menus back. If you’re missing the main menu from atop Windows Explorer, follow these steps to bring it back:

1. Visit “Microsoft Fix it 50157” in the company’s online Knowledgebase.
2. Scroll down to the page’s “Fix It For Me” section.
3. Click the Fix It button shown in this post’s top-left corner. (Save the file on your PC’s desktop or another easy-to-find location.)
4. Double-click the downloaded file.

Once the menus are back in place, you may safely delete the downloaded file.

Microsoft’s one-click fix resets the toolbar layout to its default condition, removing any customizations you may have made to the toolbar or its layout. If you don’t see the toolbar at all, follow these steps to put it back in place:

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Right-click a blank area of the toolbar or the menu bar.
3. Click the Address Bar item.

You’ll find more Microsoft one-click Fix-It items in the Knowledgebase.

Q: I don’t know what I did last week.

All the names beneath my folders and pictures have suddenly disappeared.

If I place my mouse pointer over the folder or picture, Windows XP tells me the name of the folder or picture.

But I want to bring back the names beneath the thumbnails! How do I bring them back?

A: In Windows XP, Microsoft really wanted a neat and tidy look. For example, the Desktop Cleanup Wizard constantly threatens to clean up your desktop if you haven’t touched a desktop icon in awhile.

And, Microsoft wondered, wouldn’t the windows look less cluttered if we removed all the names from beneath the icons in Thumbnail view?

So, Microsoft added the feature: If you hold down the Shift key while choosing Thumbnail view, the names disappear from view, as shown above.

Unfortunately, it’s all-too easy to hold down the Shift key accidentally while choosing Thumbnail view, only to wonder why your file and folder names have mysteriously disappeared. When that happens to you, follow these steps to put the names back in their rightful place:

1. Open the folder containing your name-less thumbnail icons. (It’s often your My Pictures folder, but it could be any other folder, as well.)
2. From the folder’s menu, click the View button and select Details (or any other view, actually).
3. Click the View button again, but this time hold down the Shift key and choose Thumbnails.

Your file names should reappear beneath the thumbnails and folders.

Holding down the Shift key while choosing Thumbnails is a toggle switch; do it once, and the names disappear. Do it again, and the names reappear. It only affects that one folder, as well; the other folders remain unaffected, adding to the mystery.

If you need to cram a lot of thumbnails into tight quarters, removing their names will move them slightly closer together. Other than that, though, the Shift+View trick serves mostly as a nuisance.