Windows XP For Dummies, Second Edition, Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Bare-Bones Windows XP Stuff

Chapter 1: What Is Windows XP?

• What Are Windows and Windows XP?
• What Does Windows Do?
• How Does Windows XP Affect My Older Programs?
• Should I Bother Using Windows XP?
• Bracing Yourself (And Your Computer) for Windows XP

Chapter 2: Ignore This Chapter on Computer Parts

• The Computer
• The Microprocessor (CPU)
• Disks and Disk Drives
• Floppy disks
• Compact discs (CD-ROM drive stuff)
• DVD discs
• Iomega drives
• Hard disks
• What does write-protected mean?
• The Mouse and That Double-Click Stuff
• Video Cards and Monitors
• Keyboards
• Groups of keys
• More key principles
• Modems and the Internet
• Printers
• Networks
• Sound Cards (Making Barfing Noises)
• Ports
• Parts Required by Windows XP

Chapter 3: Windows XP Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know

• Activation
• Backing Up a Disk
• Clicking
• The Cursor
• Defaults (And the Any Key)
• Desktop (And Changing Its Background)
• Double-Clicking
• Dragging and Dropping
• Drivers
• Files
• Folders (Directories)
• Graphical User Interfaces
• Hardware and Software
• Icons
• The Internet
• Kilobytes, Megabytes, and So On
• Loading, Running, Executing, and Launching
• Memory
• The Mouse
• Networks
• Pointers/Arrows
• Plug and Play
• Quitting or Exiting
• Save Command
• Save As Command
• ScanDisk
• Shortcuts
• Temp Files
• The Windows
• The World Wide Web
• Part II: Making Windows XP Do Something

Chapter 4: Starting Windows XP

• Logging On to Windows XP
• It wants me to enter a password!
• Starting your favorite program with the Start button
• Pull-Down Menus
• Loading a file
• Putting two programs on-screen simultaneously
• Printing Your Work
• Saving Your Work
• Logging Off of Windows XP

Chapter 5: Field Guide to Buttons, Bars, Boxes, Folders, and Files

• A Typical Window
• Bars
• Moving windows with the title bar
• Bossing around windows with the menu bar
• Moving inside your window with the scroll bar
• Switching windows with the taskbar
• Borders
• The Button Family
• Sending commands with command buttons
• Choosing between option buttons
• Changing a window’s size with Minimize and Maximize buttons
• The Useless Control-Menu Button
• Filling Out Bothersome Forms in Dialog Boxes
• Typing into text boxes
• Choosing options from list boxes
• Drop-down list boxes
• Check boxes
• Sliding controls
• Just Tell Me How to Open a File!
• Hey! When Do I Click, and When Do I Double-Click?
• When Do I Use the Left Mouse Button, and When Do I Use the Right One?

Chapter 6: Moving Windows Around

• Moving a Window to the Top of the Pile
• Moving a Window from Here to There
• Making a Window Bigger or Smaller
• Making a Window Fill the Whole Screen

Chapter 7: I Can’t Find It!

• Finding Lost Windows on the Desktop
• Plucking a lost window from the Task Manager
• Tiling and cascading windows (The “deal all the windows in front of me” approach)
• Finding Lost Files, Folders, Music, Photos, Videos, People, or Computers
• Finding any lost files or folders
• Finding lost pictures, music, or video
• Finding lost documents
• Finding computers or people
• Searching the Internet

Chapter 8: That “Cut and Paste” Stuff (Moving Around Words, Pictures, and Sounds)

• Examining the Cut and Paste Concept (And Copy, Too)
• Highlighting the Important Stuff
• Cutting, Copying, or Deleting What You Highlighted
• Cutting the information
• Copying the information
• Deleting the information
• Finding out more about cutting, copying, and deleting
• Pasting Information into Another Window
• Leaving Scraps on the Desktop Deliberately

Chapter 9: Sharing It All on the Network

• Fiddling with User Accounts
• Changing a user account’s picture
• Switching quickly between users
• Creating, deleting, or changing a user account
• Skip the Rest of This Unless You Have or Want a Network
• Can I get in trouble for looking into the wrong computer?
• How do I access other networked computers?
• Sharing your own computer’s stuff with the network
• Sharing a printer on the network
• How Do I Create My Own Computer Network?
• Buying a network’s parts
• Installing the network’s parts
• Letting the Network Setup Wizard Set Up Your Network

Part III: Using Windows XP Applications (And Surfing the Web)

Chapter 10: Your Desktop, Start Button, and Taskbar (And Free Programs)

• Rolling Objects along the Windows XP Desktop
• Arranging icons on the desktop
• Using the Recycle Bin
• Making a shortcut
• Uh, what’s the difference between a shortcut and the actual program?
• Shutting down Windows XP
• The Way-Cool Taskbar
• Shrinking windows to the taskbar and retrieving them
• Clicking the taskbar’s sensitive areas
• Customizing the taskbar
• Controlling the Printer
• The Start Button’s Reason to Live
• Starting a program from the Start button
• Adding a program’s icon to the Start menu
• Making Windows start programs automatically
• The Start Menu’s Free Programs
• The Start menu’s first-tier programs
• The Start menu’s All Programs area
• My Version of Windows XP Doesn’t Have the Right Freebie Programs!

Chapter 11: That Scary My Computer Program

• Why Is the My Computer Program So Frightening?
• Getting the Lowdown on Folders
• Peering into Your Drives and Folders
• Seeing the files on a disk drive
• Seeing what’s inside folders
• Loading a Program or File
• Deleting and Undeleting Files, Folders, and Icons
• Getting rid of a file or folder
• How to undelete a file
• Copying or Moving a File, Folder, or Icon
• Selecting More Than One File or Folder
• Renaming a File, Folder, or Icon
• Using Legal Folder Names and Filenames
• Copying a Complete Floppy Disk
• Creating a Folder
• Seeing More Information about Files and Folders
• What’s That Windows Explorer Thing?
• How Do I Make the Network Work?
• Making My Computer and Windows Explorer List Missing Files
• Formatting a Disk

Chapter 12: Cruising the Web, Sending E-Mail, and Using Newsgroups

• What’s the Difference between the Internet, the World Wide Web, and a Web Browser?
• Who Can Use the Internet and World Wide Web?
• What’s an ISP, and Do I Need One?
• What Do I Need to Access the World Wide Web?
• Setting Up Your Internet Account with the Internet Connection Wizard
• What Is a Web Browser?
• How Do I Navigate the Web with Internet Explorer?
• What’s a home page?
• How do I move from Web page to Web page?
• How can I revisit my favorite places?
• What’s an index or search engine?
• But How Do I Do This?
• I can’t get it to install!
• How do I install the firewall?
• I keep getting busy signals!
• The Web page says it needs [insert name of weird plug-in thing here]!
• How do I copy a picture from the Internet?
• Little boxes keep popping up on the Web pages!
• Managing E-Mail with Outlook Express
• Setting up Outlook Express 6.0 to send and receive e-mail
• Getting ready to send e-mail
• Composing a letter
• Reading a received letter
• What does the News area do?
• Finding and reading a newsgroup

Chapter 13: Sound! Movies! Media Player!

• Understanding Media Player
• Using Media Guide to Find Videos, Music, and Movie Trailers on the Internet
• Finding and Playing Internet Radio Stations
• Finding Media on Your Computer and Putting It into the Media Library
• Creating Playlists
• Playing CDs
• Playing DVDs
• Playing MP3s and WMAs
• Creating WMAs or MP3s
• Storing Files in Your My Music and Shared Music Folders
• Playing Videos
• Moving Music or Video to an MP3 Player or Pocket PC
• Burning Your Own CDs
• Adding Skins to Media Player
• Fixing Media Player Muckups
• It just doesn’t work!
• Does it have to be so huge?
• Bizarre Multimedia Words
• Part IV: Help!

Chapter 14: Customizing Windows XP (Fiddling with the Control Panel)

• Finding the Right Control Panel Option
• Appearance and Themes
• Changing the display’s background, screen saver, and resolution
• Making Windows display folders differently
• Adjusting your taskbar and Start menu
• Viewing your computer’s fonts
• Network and Internet Connections
• Add or Remove Programs
• Removing programs
• Installing a new program
• Adding or removing Windows components
• Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices
• Changing Windows’ volume and playing with its sounds
• Letting Windows talk to you
• Performance and Maintenance
• Seeing information about your computer
• Turning on or off visual effects
• Freeing up space on your hard disk
• Rearranging your hard disk to speed it up (defragmenting)
• Other Performance and Maintenance icons
• Printers and Other Hardware
• Adding new hardware
• Fiddling with printers and faxes
• Game controllers
• Scanners and cameras
• Making Windows XP recognize your double-click
• Phone and modem options
• User Accounts
• Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options
• Regional and language options
• Setting the computer’s date and time

Chapter 15: The Case of the Broken Window

• Restoring Calm with System Restore
• My Mouse Doesn’t Work Right
• Making Older Programs Run under Windows XP
• It Says I Need To Be an Administrator!
• I’m Stuck in Menu Land
• Keeping Windows Up-to-Date
• All My Desktop Icons Vanished
• I’m Supposed to Install a New Driver
• His Version of Windows XP Has More Programs Than Mine!
• I Clicked the Wrong Button (But Haven’t Lifted My Finger Yet)
• My Computer Is Frozen Up Solid
• The Printer Isn’t Working Right
• My Double-Clicks Are Now Single Clicks!

Chapter 16: Figuring Out Those Annoying Pop-Up Messages

• Access Is Denied
• AutoComplete
• Click Here to Activate Now
• Connect To . . .
• Error Connecting To . . .
• File Name Warning
• Found New Hardware
• Hiding Your Inactive Notification Icons
• If You Remove This File, You Will No Longer Be Able to Run This Program
• Missing Shortcut
• New Programs Installed
• New Updates Are Ready to Install
• Open with . . .
• Privacy Alert — Saving Cookies
• Rename
• Safe to Remove Hardware
• Stay Current with Automatic Updates
• There Are Unused Icons on Your Desktop
• When You Send Information to the Internet
• You Have Files Waiting to Be Written to the CD

Chapter 17: Help on the Windows XP Help System

• Get Me Some Help, and Fast!
• Press F1
• Click the right mouse button on the confusing part
• Choose Help from the main menu
• Sending in the Troubleshooters
• Search — letting Windows do the work
• Consulting a Program’s Built-In Computer Guru
• Finding Help for your exact problem
• Using Windows Help and Support Center

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 18: Ten Exciting New Windows XP Features

• Way Cool Folders
• Remote Assistance
• Burning (Writing Information onto) CDs
• Files and Settings Transfer Wizard
• User Accounts
• Increased Stability
• Built-in Firewall against Internet Hackers
• Automatically Sets Clock
• Windows XP Must Be Activated
• Making Windows XP Run Like Your Old Version of Windows

Chapter 19: Ten Aggravating Things about Windows XP (And How to Fix Them)

• How Do I Change the Volume?
• What Version of Windows Do I Have?
• I Want to Click Instead of Double-Click (Or Vice Versa)!
• My Bar Full of Buttons Just Fell Off!
• Keeping Track of All Those Windows Is Too Hard
• The Taskbar Keeps Disappearing!
• My Print Screen Key Doesn’t Work
• Lining Up Two Windows on the Screen Is Too Hard
• The Folder Lists the Wrong Stuff on My Floppy Disk
• It Won’t Let Me Do Something Unless I’m An Administrator!

Chapter 20: Ten (Or So) Windows XP Icons and What They Do

Chapter 21: Ten Most Frequently Asked Windows Questions

• How Do I Remember All the Stuff I Can Do to a File?
• Should I Upgrade to the Windows XP Home or Professional Version?
• How Do I Add a Picture of My Face to My User Account?
• Why Can’t Windows XP Play My DVDs?
• Why Can’t Windows XP Create MP3 Files?
• How Do I Get Rid of the Welcome Screen?
• How Can I See Previews of My Pictures?
• How Can I Make All My Web Pages Open in a Full-Screen Window?
• What Will I Miss If I Don’t Use the Internet with Windows XP?

Glossary