Windows XP in 10 simple steps or less

Windows XP

®

in 10 Simple Steps or Less

Bill Hatfield and Bradley L. Jones

Windows XP

®

in 10 Simple Steps or Less

Bill Hatfield and Bradley L. Jones

Windows XP® in 10 Simple Steps or Less

Published by

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

10475 Crosspoint Boulevard

Indianapolis, IN 46256

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 0-7645-4236-2

Manufactured in the United States of America

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without written permission. Windows XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or

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associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

This book is dedicated to Zoe Rose Hatfield, born Friday, December 20, 2002.

Zoe, your sweet smile and quick laugh have lit up your mother’s and my life ever since we

brought you home a few short months ago. And there’s nothing in the world I love more

than holding you in my arms as you fall asleep at night.

I can already see the personality of an independent, loving, playful little girl emerging. I

can’t wait to see the kind of girl, and woman, you’ll grow up to be!

—Bill Hatfield

For the love of my life, my wife, Melissa.

—Bradley Jones

Credits

Acquisitions Editor

Sharon Cox

Development Editor

Chandani Thapa

Production Editor

Vincent Kunkemueller

Technical Editor

Lee Musick

Copy Editor

Joanne Slike

Editorial Manager

Kathryn A. Malm

Vice President & Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Bob Ipsen

Vice President and Publisher

Joseph B. Wikert

Executive Editorial Director

Mary Bednarek

Project Coordinator

Nancee Reeves

Graphics and Production Specialists

Beth Brooks, LeAndra Hosier, Lynsey Osborn,

Heather Pope

Quality Control Technician

Laura Albert

Proofreading and Indexing

Tom Dinse, Sossity R. Smith

About the Authors

Bill Hatfield is the bestselling author of books on a variety of subjects including ASP.NET For Dummies

and Active Server Pages For Dummies (Wiley). He is also the Editor of Hardcore Visual Studio .NET and

Hardcore Delphi, two technical journals from Pinnacle for professional software developers. He’s an inde￾pendent corporate trainer and works from his home in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he and his wife have

been blessed with two great kids — Bryce (BryceHatfield.com) and Zoe (ZoeHatfield.com).

Bradley Jones oversees a number of high-profile Web sites within the internet.com division of Jupiter

Media. This has included sites such as HTMLGoodies.com and Javascripts.com, as well as more technical

sites like CodeGuru, Developer.com, and Gamelan. Bradley, an internationally best-selling author, has

written a number of books for people who are interested in learning about computers and technology.

These include writing Sams Teach Yourself C# in 21 Days and Even You Can Soup Up and Fix PCs.

Acknowledgments

First, we want to thank Sharon Cox for inviting us into the process of writing this book and for her

guidance along the way. When pulling together a book, there are dozens of people involved in the

process. While it is impossible to thank them all, in addition to Sharon Cox, we would also like to

acknowledge the work of several others. They are a part of the team who worked together to make this

the best possible book for you.

Foremost, we would like to thank Lee Musick, who diligently went through every step in every task of

this book to ensure that you were getting the most accurate information available.

We’d also like to acknowledge Chandani Thapa, Joanne Slike, and Vince Kunkemueller. They helped

construct this book, and they ensured that the project came together into a complete package. Their help

and feedback made this a better book.

We would also like to thank you, the reader, for choosing this book over the many other Windows XP

books that you could have chosen.

Finally, Bradley would like to thank his wife, Melissa, who read through the book to make sure that it was

written in a way that the average person could understand what was being presented. Her reviews helped

to hone the material so that even a person using a computer for the first time would find value in this

book.

Contents

About the Authors v

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction xix

Part 1: Understanding Windows XP Basics 1

Task 1: Starting Up and Logging In 2

Task 2: Logging Off and Shutting Down 4

Task 3: Activating Windows 6

Task 4: Enabling Fast Switching between Users 8

Task 5: Setting Your Computer’s Clock and Time Zone 10

Task 6: Setting the Clock Automatically 12

Task 7: Adjusting Your Computer’s Volume 14

Task 8: Automatically Turning the Monitor Off 16

Task 9: Locking and Unlocking the Computer 18

Task 10: Locking Your Computer with a Screen Saver 20

Task 11: Getting Help 22

Task 12: Customizing Help Screens 24

Task 13: Setting Search Options for Help 26

Task 14: Creating a Help and Support Favorites List 28

Task 15: Using the Knowledge Base 30

Task 16: Getting Basic Information about Your System 32

Task 17: Automatically Keeping Windows Up-to-Date 34

Task 18: Manually Updating Windows XP 36

Task 19: Installing New Software 38

Task 20: Removing Application Software 40

Part 2: Working with Folders and Files 43

Task 21: Accessing My Computer 44

Task 22: Navigating What’s on the Hard Drive 46

Task 23: Creating, Renaming, and Deleting Files and Folders 48

Task 24: Creating Copies of Files and Folders 50

Task 25: Moving a File or Folder 52

Task 26: Using Different Folder Views 54

Task 27: Customizing the Details Folder View 56

Task 28: Settings Options on All Folders 58

Task 29: Customizing Windows Explorer 60

Task 30: Recovering Deleted Files 62

Task 31: Setting Recycle Bin Options 64

Task 32: Searching for Files or Folders 66

Task 33: Setting File Properties 68

Task 34: Creating a Shortcut 70

Task 35: Copying Files to a CD-ROM 72

Task 36: Saving Space by Compressing a Drive 74

Task 37: Creating a Zip File 76

Task 38: Accessing and Adding to a Zip File 78

Task 39: Extracting All Items from a Zip File 80

Part 3: Personalizing Windows XP 83

Task 40: Choosing a Theme 84

Task 41: Setting the Screen Colors and Resolution 86

Task 42: Choosing a Desktop Background Image 88

Task 43: Setting or Changing a Screen Saver 90

Task 44: Choosing or Changing an Appearance 92

Task 45: Assigning Sounds to Events 94

Task 46: Creating a New Theme 96

Task 47: Customizing Your Taskbar 98

Task 48: Customizing the Quick Launch Toolbar 100

Task 49: Customizing the Start Menu 102

Task 50: Adding Shortcuts to Your Desktop 104

Task 51: Arranging Your Desktop Items 106

Task 52: Picking a Program’s Icon to Display 108

Task 53: Placing Standard Items and Icons on the Desktop 110

Task 54: Putting Web Pages on Your Desktop 112

Task 55: Customizing Mouse Options 114

Task 56: Customizing the Mouse Pointers 116

Task 57: Setting Keyboard Options 118

Task 58: Automatically Starting a Program at Startup 120

Task 59: Changing Regional Settings 122

Task 60: Changing Number and Currency Formatting 124

x Windows XP in 10 Simple Steps or Less

Part 4: Graphics and Digital Photography 127

Task 61: Copying Pictures from Your Camera to Your Hard Drive 128

Task 62: Using a Scanner to Capture Photographs 130

Task 63: Capturing a Picture of Your Screen 132

Task 64: Creating Your Own Icons in Paint 134

Task 65: Drawing Pictures in Paint 136

Task 66: Organizing Your Pictures into Folders and Photo Albums 138

Task 67: Storing and Retrieving Information about Your Pictures 140

Task 68: Viewing, Zooming, and Reorienting Your Pictures 142

Task 69: Resizing a Picture 144

Task 70: Cropping a Picture 146

Task 71: Adding Notes and Drawings to a Picture 148

Task 72: Converting a Picture’s File Type 150

Task 73: Printing a Picture 152

Task 74: Ordering Prints of Your Pictures Online 154

Task 75: Putting Your Pictures on the Web 156

Task 76: Creating a Screen Saver with Your Own Pictures 158

Part 5: Working with Digital Music 161

Task 77: Upgrading Windows Media Player 162

Task 78: Playing Music CDs 164

Task 79: Copying Music from a CD to Your Hard Drive 166

Task 80: Identifying Your Album Name, Artist, and Tracks 168

Task 81: Finding and Playing Music in Your Media Library 170

Task 82: Searching for Music to Add to Your Media Library 172

Task 83: Adding and Viewing Song Lyrics 174

Task 84: Creating and Listening to a Playlist 176

Task 85: Downloading Music from the Internet 178

Task 86: Tuning In to Internet Radio 180

Task 87: Copying Music to a Portable Music Player 182

Task 88: Creating Your Own Audio CD 184

Task 89: Duplicating an Audio CD 186

Task 90: Making Windows Media Player Beautiful with Skins 188

Part 6: Working with Digital Movies 191

Task 91: Upgrading Windows Movie Maker 192

Task 92: Playing a Movie on DVD 194

Task 93: Playing a Video File 196

Task 94: Creating and Deleting Collections in Windows Movie Maker 198

Contents xi

Task 95: Importing Clips and Other Items into Your Collections in 200

Windows Movie Maker

Task 96: Making Movies 202

Task 97: Capturing Video from Your Camcorder 204

Task 98: Capturing a Photograph from a Video 206

Task 99: Capturing Live Video 208

Task 100: Splitting and Combining Video Clips 210

Task 101: Trimming a Video Clip 212

Task 102: Adding Transitions between Your Video Clips 214

Task 103: Adding Video Effects to Your Clips 216

Task 104: Adding Titles and Credits to Your Movie 218

Task 105: Adding Photographs to a Movie 220

Task 106: Adding Background Music and Sound Effects to a Movie 222

Task 107: Adding Narration to a Movie 224

Task 108: Saving a Movie to View on Your Computer 226

Task 109: Sending a Movie via Email 228

Part 7: Working with Notepad 231

Task 110: Creating a New Document Using Notepad 232

Task 111: Saving a Document from Notepad 234

Task 112: Changing the Page Setup in Notepad 236

Task 113: Creating Headers and Footers on a Notepad Document 238

Task 114: Changing the Font in Notepad 240

Task 115: Printing a Document in Notepad 242

Task 116: Finding and Replacing Text in Notepad 244

Task 117: Creating a Log File with Notepad 246

Task 118: Creating a Web Page in Notepad 248

Part 8: Working with WordPad 251

Task 119: Creating a New Document in WordPad 252

Task 120: Saving a Document in WordPad 254

Task 121: Changing the Page Setup in WordPad 256

Task 122: Using WordPad’s Print Preview 258

Task 123: Printing from WordPad 260

Task 124: Changing Font Characteristics in WordPad 262

Task 125: Formatting Paragraph Margins in WordPad 264

Task 126: Adding Lists to a WordPad Document 266

Task 127: Searching and Replacing Text in WordPad 268

Task 128: Inserting a Picture into a WordPad Document 270

Task 129: Adding an Object to a WordPad Document 272

Task 130: Changing Object Properties in a Document 274

xii Windows XP in 10 Simple Steps or Less