CD Burner
WinXP includes Windows Media Player 8, which provides music CD ripping and burning. Unfortunately, read/write errors tend to crop up when WinXP attempts to harness the full potential of your CD-R (CD-recordable) drive. Even if you have a CD-R drive that supports write speeds of 16X, try slowing down to speeds of 8X or even 4X to ensure your CDs are created error free. Launch Windows Media Player, click Tools from the menu, and select Options. Under the Devices tab, select your CD-R from the list and click the Properties button. Select the Recording tab, a write speed from the drop-down list at the bottom of the window, and click OK.

CD-ROM
If you share a CD-ROM drive with other co-workers, it could be accessed from a remote computer on a LAN (local area network). When you insert a CD that starts automatically, the program starts only on the local computer. To install a program from that CD on a remote computer, you need to open the drive's icon within My Network Places to get to the disk's contents. Optionally, you can right-click the icon and choose Explore to view the contents of the CD.

Clicking- Single/Double
If you prefer to always single-click instead of double-click, then choose Folder Options from the Control Panel's Appearance and Themes area, and choose the single-click option Single-Click to Open an Item (Point to Select). However, if you prefer the traditional double-click way, then go to the same place and choose the other option Double-Click to Open an Item (Single-Click to Select). 

Compatibility
If you try to install an older program on a computer with WinXP, it may tell you that it’s not compatible. At this point, open Windows Explorer to the folder holding the program’s setup.exe file. Right-click the file, choose Properties, and then click the Compatibility tab. Check Run this program in compatibility mode for, and select one of the Windows versions 95/98/Me/NT/2000 in the drop down list. Now install the program as usual. If you run into a problem, follow the same steps for the file that opens and runs the program. 

Default Settings

• Quick Launch Toolbar
  is located next to the Start button and launches applications with a single click. To activate/deactivate it right-click the Taskbar, select Properties, choose the Taskbar tab, check /uncheck Show Quick Launch, and then click OK.
  
• My Recent Document
  is on the Start menu and lists the 15 most recently opened documents. To activiate/deactivate it, right-click the Taskbar, select Properties, choose the Start Menu tab, click Customize, select the Advanced tab, under Recent documents, check/uncheck List my most recently open documents, and click OK twice.
  
• Volume Icon
  is located on the System tray next to the clock and it adjusts your PC’s volume. To activate/deactivate it, right-click the Taskbar, select Properties, choose the Taskbar tab, and check/uncheck Show the clock.
  
• Show File Name Extensions
  can be found in Explorer and folder windows and shows file-type extensions, such as, exe., gif., etc. To activate/deactivate it launch Windows Explorer, click Tools, select Folder Options, choose the View tab, under “Advanced settings” uncheck Hide Extension for Known File Types, click Apply to All Folders at the top of the dialog box, choose Yes, and then click OK.
  
• Clock
  is in the System tray and shows the current time. To activate/deactivate it right-click the Taskbar, select Properties, choose the Taskbar tab, and check/uncheck Show the clock
  
• Search for Hidden Files
  is in Explorer and folder windows and includes hidden files in search results. To activate/deactivate it, launch Windows Explorer, click Tools, select Folder Options, choose the View tab, under “Advanced settings” check Show hidden files and folders, click Apply to All Folders at the top of the dialog box, choose Yes, and click OK.

Digital Snapshots of Movies
In Movie Maker, you can take a snapshot of any frame of your video, in essence creating a digital photograph. You do this in the Record dialog box, but don't click the Record button to capture video; instead, play the tape until the frame you want to shoot appears in the Preview box. This is a little easier with a digital video camera because you only need to get close to the frame. Then you can use the Previous Frame and Next Frame buttons in the Digital Video Camera Controls within the Record dialog box to zero in on the exact frame. After you have the frame you want, just click the Take Photo button. When you do, the Save Photo dialog box opens so that you can navigate to the spot where you want to save the photo.

Firewall
WinXP comes with its own Internet Connection Firewall to protect home and small office users of XP. You should not use the Internet Connection Firewall if your corporate network already has a firewall or proxy server. Also you shouldn’t use it in an existing network that uses Win2000 or XP domain controllers, DHCP servers, DNS servers, gateways, or static IP addresses. If your network uses a remote exchange server to handle e-mail, a firewall will prevent the server from automatically sending e-mail message notifications to Microsoft Outlook 2000 users. The reason is because the remote procedure call (RPC) that sends the notification has been initiated outside the firewall. Outlook 2000 users can still send and receive e-mail messages normally. However, they need to manually check for new messages from their own computers so that the process begins within the firewall.

Guest Accounts
If there are several other people using your computer and you don't want to set up separate user accounts for everyone, create a standard Guest account with its own set of limited user privileges. A guest can run programs but cannot make changes to the system. To turn on or off the Guest account, choose Start, Control Panel, and User Accounts. Then click the Guest account picture in the User Accounts window. You'll be taken to a page that enables you to turn the account on or off.

Keyboard Shortcuts
The Windows keyboard shortcuts for WinXP are somewhat different than those for other versions of this basic operating system.

• WINDOWS+F: Display Help and Support Center
• WINDOWS+D: Minimize windows
• WINDOWS+F: Search for Files
• WINDOWS+CTRL+F: Search for Computer
• WINDOWS+R: Display Run dialog box
• WINDOWS+L: Logon Screen
• WINDOWS+U: Open Utility Manager
• WINDOWS+BREAK: Display System Properties dialog box

Listening to Radio Stations
You can use Windows Media Player to listen to radio stations from around the world that broadcast on the Internet. You will need a computer with sound capabilities and an Internet connection. To listen to radio stations, click Start to display the Start menu and then click All Programs to view a list of the programs on your computer. Next click Windows Media Player. The Windows Media Player window appears. So now click the Radio Tuner tab to listen to radio stations that broadcast on the Internet. A list of featured radio stations appears. Click the name of the radio station you want to play. Information about the radio station you selected appears. Click Play to play the radio station. If the play option is not available, click the Visit Website to Play option to listen to the station using your Web browser. After a moment, the radio station begins to play. The Microsoft Internet Explorer window opens behind Windows Media Player, displaying the Web page for the radio station. To clearly view the Web page, click the window's button on the taskbar. To adjust the volume, drag the slider left or right to decrease or increase the volume.

Login Image
WinXP automatically assigns a picture to your user account. When you first create a user account, WinXP randomly assigns pictures of butterflies, fish, and other images to it. To customize your picture, after you log on, click the Start button, choose Control Panel, click the User Accounts icon and select Change My Picture. You can either select one of the other existing pictures or browse to your My Pictures folder on your hard drive to locate a desired picture.

Menu Options
After you've been using WinMe/XP for a little while, it pulls a fast one. These programs hide the menu options that you haven't used for a while. To make Windows show you all of its menu options, click the two little downward arrows at the bottom of the menu. Windows immediately unveils all of the menu options.

Menus
WinXP sometimes sacrifices speed for looks. Menus fade in and out of place, slowing down the job. To dump this action and bring back the speed, right-click the My Computer icon, choose Properties, and click the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button in the Performance area and select Adjust For Best Performance. Lastly, click OK.

Multiple Monitors
Plug a second video card into your computer and a second monitor, and WinXP will probably be able to spread its display across both monitors, or three of them, if you install yet another card and monitor.

This new WinXP feature can be useful. For example, you can run your Internet browser on one monitor while keeping your desktop handy for other work. Or you can spread your work out, making it easy to cut and paste between several open windows. However, this two-monitor capability is relatively new in the Windows world, so not all programs can handle it. Also, TV viewer cards can display TV shows only on the primary or first monitor. The TV show simply disappears if you try dragging its window to the second monitor.

Network Configuration
WinXP Professional not only includes the software you need to set up your network, but it also automatically configures itself to work on a TCP/IP network. All you have to do is install a network card and power up a WinXP Professional computer. The program then locates other computers on the network and configures itself to join the workgroup or domain automatically.

Should a crash occur on your WinXP computer, this operating system will transmit information about your system and its problem to the Windows Online Crash Analysis site with your permission. Microsoft will then analyze these reports. Thereafter Microsoft may send you an e-mail response with a link to a solution that will preclude another similar system failure. Microsoft plans on releasing Service Pack 1 for WinXP in a month or two. In a few years it will release the follow-on to this operating system code-named “Longhorn.” This development is a change from Microsoft’s previous plans where Longhorn was to be a smaller release expected to follow immediately after WinXP. “Blackcomb,” another code name, is still planned to follow Longhorn but at a much later date.