CD-Rom Drive
Should you have problems opening your CD drive, straighten a paper clip and stick it in the very small hole near the drive’s door.  There’s a release mechanism there which when pushed by the paper clip will open the drive door.

Computer Equipment
To discover the equipment being used on your computer using Win98/Me/XP, click Start, Run, enter MSINFO32 in the text box, and click OK.

Disk Cleanup
When you run Disk Cleanup, found in the WinXP Windows System Tools folder, be sure to open the More Options tab. It contains additional options for cleaning up Windows components or installed programs.  Use the Windows Components option to create free space by removing optional features, such as fax services, that you do not use.  You can also use the Installed Programs option to free more disk space by removing unused programs.  Clicking the Clean Up button starts the Change or Remove Programs option in the Add/Remove Programs tool.  Finally, under System Restore, you can remove all but the most recent restore point on your system.

Dr. Watson
All Windows versions have a utility called Dr. Watson.  It captures a snapshot of your system when a program crashes. The idea is that someone could look at the data and figure out what's wrong with it. You usually have to tell Dr. Watson to get to work.  In Win98/ME, click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and System Information.  On the Tools menu, click Dr. Watson.  That will put an icon in your taskbar. Dr. Watson generates information about your system. To look at it, double click the icon and, on the View menu, click Advanced View.  You will find several tabs.  If a program crashes, the Details tab will have all the pertinent information. Otherwise, that tab will be missing.  Dr. Watson is found in WinXP, too, but it’s just harder to find in this operating system.  Click Start, Run, enter Drwtsn32.exe in the box, and click OK. There's no need to start Dr. Watson manually in XP because it jumps to work automatically when an error occurs.

Drive Compression
You can compress your hard drive to gain more space.  The answer to the question as to whether or not you might want to compress your hard drive really depends upon your computer use.  If there’s information that you simply cannot easily transfer to another hard drive and you're hard pressed for space, then compression might be an option.  If it's possible for you to transfer data to another hard drive or upgrade to a larger hard drive, then this option is the best choice.  Unfortunately there are some drawbacks to compression.  Compression initially takes a long time.  During this period, your data is somewhat vulnerable to data loss.  DriveSpace's logic is set up so that the program will attempt to restart where it left off, but you could still  lose data.  Compression works only on disks smaller than 2 gigs of memory.  Almost all new drives are much larger than this size, therefore this feature is not a viable option for them.  WinMe does not support hard-drive compression.  Only Win95/98/XP can compress hard drives.  If you cherish every ounce of possible speed, realize that the compression/decompression algorithm can cause bottlenecks.  Disk compression works because a compression utility sits between the operating system and the disk.  Whenever a disk read or write is needed, it must pass through the utility.  Depending upon the level of compression, this passage may take many hours. You cannot use FAT32 and compression at the same time.  DriveSpace 3, with the highest level of compression, will work only on a Pentium system.  The bottom line is that one should avoid compression altogether unless you’re a very experienced computer user.

Drivers
Sometimes drivers can cause rather than resolve problems especially with applications/hardware.  If this happens and you’re operating WinXP, use its Device Driver Rollback feature to restore a previous driver.  Go to Control Panel and open the System applet.  Under Systems Properties, choose the Hardware tab and select Device Manager.  Expand the menu there for the type of device you want to roll back.  Right-click on that device, choose Properties and click on Roll Back Driver.  If all else fails, try drivers written for other versions of Windows.  You can find hardware drivers at web site .

Error Messages
Error messages are notorious for making little or no sense.  Sadly, too, there is no master error code list because your computer depends on much more than Windows to operate.  There are too many hardware and software variables to create one master error code list.  But there are things you can do to understand them.  If the problem occurs with a particular application, check with the manufacturer. There may be a patch available. That's particularly true with WinXP which has had compatibility problems with many older products.  Sometimes error codes can be used to find information. Research the error code on Microsoft's (MS) Web site .  Copy the error code into MS’ support search function to learn about it.  The error could just be telling you of a memory problem which can be solved by replacing the memory.  You can also find error message information at .gregorybraun.com.  Error Messages for Windows is a small utility that will allow you to look up MS Windows error code numbers and display a descriptive message explaining the meaning of the numeric code.  Error Messages for Windows also provide a facility to display and print all of the error codes and messages defined for your version of MS Windows.  There are at least two other programs that will help you interpret error messages.  Both WinErr 1.0 and MS Windows Error Messages are free.  They're available at respectively camtech and gregorybraun.com.

Hard Drive Test
Western Digital, a hard drive manufacturer, has software available to test any brand of hard drive to see if it is failing and soon to be a major problem for you.  The software first uses external commands to test drives. Then it calls on the drives' self-test features.  Only late model drives are likely to have these features, known as Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology, or SMART.  The software is available free at Western Digital's Web site.

Hardware Diagnostics Tool
Win98 users have a neat tool at their fingertips without downloading.  Click on Start, Run and enter "hwinfo /ui" without quotes.  The information displayed is color-coded.  Error messages are in red, warnings are in blue.  Green denotes registry entries, Configuration Manager information is in brown, and file attributes are shown in magenta.

Maintenance
To maintain your computer and its software there are numerous actions required by you.  They include the following tasks: 

• Configure your Anti-Virus Software to automatically update your Virus Definitions on a regular basis.
• Always perform Shut Down and avoid just turning off your PC. 
• Delete unnecessary clutter. 
• Backup your important files. 
• Create entries into Windows (or other) scheduler for virus scans, defrags, etc. 
• Update all of your Applications software.
• Update Windows. 
• Create a computer budget for 2002. 
• Uninstall all unnecessary software. 
• Back up your Registry onto a separate disk.

NTFS Floppy Boot Disk
Bootable floppies run the old DOS operating system because it doesn’t recognize hard drives formatted in the NT File System (NTFS) that WinXP/2000 use.  The solution is NTFS.com’s free program NTFS Reader for DOS.  Put NTFS Reader on a bootable floppy to view the folders and files on an NTFS-formatted hard drive.  You can also use the program to copy these files to a FAT-formatted or networked drive.  Go to pcworld to download NTFS Reader for DOS.

Power Savings Management Options
Standby and Hibernate are power management options included in Windows. They work similarly in Win98/ME/2000/XP.  In each case, you can schedule power savings.  These settings are
particularly useful on notebooks and help conserve power on a desktop computer, too. They are really useful if you leave your computer and cannot get back to it for one or more hours.  Hibernate turns the computer off.  Use this option if you'll be away from the computer for a long period, for instance, overnight.  Standby puts it into a low power state. This mode is typically used for shorter periods.  The computer rouses quickly when you return to work.  But it has a disadvantage, too.  Your files are not automatically saved.  If there is a power failure while in Standby, your files are lost forever.  When you use this mode, save your open files first.  Hibernate, on the other hand, takes much longer to reboot.  However, it saves your files before shutting down so your work is protected from loss.  When the computer reboots, the desktop is returned to its previous state. That is its biggest advantage. If you used a normal shutdown, the computer would not boot with your files open.  Both modes are under Power Options in Control Panel (click Start, Settings, Control Panel in Win98; Start, Control Panel in WinXP).  Select the Power Schemes tab.  The process is similar in Win2000/ME.  If you want to use one or the other of these modes at different times, set up power schemes. Select either Standby or Hibernate at the bottom of the window. The schedule is selected in the drop boxes.  Computer manufacturers must set up the machines for Standby and Hibernate. If these modes are not available or do not work, check with your manufacturer.

Prefetch
For WinXP you can periodically empty the list of directories at C:\Windows\Prefetch.  This folder is usually full of prefetch directions for applications you no longer use on your computer.  You can safely remove these files.  Any of these files that are needed will be automatically created again.

Preventative Maintenance
PC Pitstop is a free Web service that examines your notebook's hard drive, memory, security, Internet connection, ActiveX settings, and other components, and then recommends for your consideration fixes and performance enhancers. You can find links to specific PC Pitstop tools.

As a rule of thumb, you should probably be careful in purchasing software ending in “0.”  This “0” usually signals new features that may not be adequately debugged by the software developer.  If you really need the software, go for the older version, for example, 2.0c or 2.1 if 3.0 is the latest upgrade.  Not only are the first two examples more likely to have fewer bugs, but they will also run much faster on older computers.  A good illustration of this tip pertains to American on Line’s (AOL) new Version 9.0 software.  AOL has just updated this version with AOL 9.0 Optimized.  This new version focuses on security and spam, adding word-specific and “learning”” junk mail filters, plus stronger parental controls, and firewall protection