Alan Simpson’s
Windows
®
XP Bible,
Desktop Edition
Alan Simpson
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Alan Simpson’s
Windows
®
XP Bible,
Desktop Edition
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Alan Simpson’s
Windows
®
XP Bible,
Desktop Edition
Alan Simpson
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trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other
countries, and may not be used without written permission. Windows XP is a registered
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Alan Simpson’s Windows
®
XP Bible, Desktop Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 0-7645-5722-X
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permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475

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THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH
RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND
SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WAR-
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ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE.
FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK
MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND
WHEN IT IS READ.
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About the Author
Alan Simpson is the author of more than 90 computer books, on topics rang-
ing from Windows to word processing and Web-page design to databases. His
books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have sold
millions of copies throughout the world. Prior to becoming a full-time author,
Alan taught computer science at the college level and served as a computerized-
training consultant to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy.
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Credits
Acquisitions Editor
Katie Feldman
Development Editor
Kelly Dobbs Henthorne
Production Editor
William A. Barton
Copy Editor
Christopher Jones
Editorial Manager
Mary Beth Wakefield
Vice President & Executive Group
Publisher
Richard Swadley
Vice President and Executive
Publisher
Robert Ipsen
Vice President and Publisher
Joseph B. Wikert
Executive Editorial Director
Mary Bednarek
Project Coordinator
Ryan Steffen
Graphics and Production Specialists
Beth Brooks
Sean Decker
Carrie Foster
Lauren Goddard
Jennifer Heleine
Rashell Smith

Quality Control Technicians
John Greenough
Andy Hollandbeck
Carl William Pierce
Brian H. Walls
Proofreading and Indexing
TECHBOOKS Production Services
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To my “Introduction to Windows XP” students,
who taught me how to explain this stuff
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Acknowledgments
E
very book is a team effort. But, before I give thanks where thanks are due,
I want you to know that I’m not trying to pass the buck here. I typed
every word and captured every screen, myself. So if you don’t like something,
blame me. But there’s a lot more to creating a book than typing the words and
making the pictures. And, for all the other countless tasks, I hereby sincerely
thank the following persons:
Kelly Henthorne and Chris Jones for helping make this book read as well as it
does, thanks to their flawless editing. Thanks also go to the entire team at
Wiley who made the process flow so smoothly: Katie Feldman, Bill Barton,
Ryan Steffen, and everyone else who contributed so much to this project.
Many thanks to Matt Wagner, Margot Maley, Maureen Maloney, and everybody
else at Waterside Productions (my literary agency) for making everything
work out.

And, of course, all my love and thanks to Susan, Ashley, and Alec for tolerating
weeks of neglect as I pounded furiously at a keyboard.
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Contents at a Glance
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix
Part I: Beginner’s Crash Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter 2: Workin’ It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 3: Getting Help When You Need It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Part II: Programs, Documents, and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 4: Running Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Chapter 5: Navigating Your Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter 6: Working with Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Chapter 7: Type, Edit, Copy, and Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Chapter 8: Printing and Faxing Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Part III: Using the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Chapter 9: Getting Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Chapter 10: Browsing the World Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Chapter 11: Sending and Receiving E-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Chapter 12: Using a .NET Passport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Chapter 13: Keeping It Safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Part IV: Fun with Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Chapter 14: Using Your Camera and Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Chapter 15: Playing with Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Chapter 16: Music and Video with Media Player 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Chapter 17: Managing Music, Making CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Chapter 18: Making Home Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Part V: Getting Organized, Staying Organized . . . . . . . . . . 417

Chapter 19: Managing Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Chapter 20: Using Your Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Chapter 21: Using Floppies, CDs, and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Chapter 22: Working with Compressed (Zip) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
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Part VI: Have It Your Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Chapter 23: Creating and Managing User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Chapter 24: Personalizing Your Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Chapter 25: Expanding Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
Chapter 26: Disaster Prevention and Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Part VII: Connecting Your Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Chapter 27: Design and Create Your Own Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Chapter 28: Sharing Things on a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Appendix A: Installing Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
Appendix B: Shortcut Key Quick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
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Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix
Who This Book Is for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix
How to Use This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxx
Write Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi
Part I: Beginner’s Crash Course 1
Chapter 1: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Getting to Know Your Computer’s Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Using Your Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Using Your Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Navigation Keys and Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . 6
Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Windows and Application Keys . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Typing Those key1 + key2 Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Getting to Know Your Computer’s Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
What Is Windows XP? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Why Learn Windows XP? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Starting Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Start Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Windows Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Notification Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Using Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Opening Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Shrinking a Big Thing Back to Its Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Organizing Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Working Common Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Using Scroll Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Hiding and Showing Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Using Dragging Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
About Disabled (Dimmed) Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The Right Way to Turn Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter 2: Workin’ It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Understanding Objects and Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Introducing Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Category View and Classic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
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Using Dialog Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Using Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Using Option Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
About the Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Using Checkboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Using Spin Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Using Drop-Down Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Using List Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Using Sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Getting Help in Dialog Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Using Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
What’s the Default? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Typing Text and Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Changing Text in a Textbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Changing Chunks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Combo Boxes and AutoComplete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Typing Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Chapter 3: Getting Help When You Need It . . . . . . . . . 41
Using Windows XP’s Help and Support Center . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Searching for Specific Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Using the Help Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Getting Around in Help and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Accessing Your Favorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Troubleshooters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Closing Help and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Getting Help Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Getting Help with Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Other Sources of Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Part II: Programs, Documents, and Folders 55
Chapter 4: Running Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Starting Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Taking Control of Program Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Tools Found in Most Program Windows . . . . . . . . . . . 60
About the Active Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Arranging Open Program Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Maximizing and Minimizing Program Windows . . . . . . . 65
See the Desktop by Minimizing All Open Windows . . . . . 66
Sizing a Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Moving a Program Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Working the Menu Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Watch Out for Collapsible Menus! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Using Toggles on Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Getting Help in Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
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Closing Program Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Saving Your Work before Closing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Closing Multiple Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Chapter 5: Navigating Your Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Understanding Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
All about Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
How Folders Are Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Parent Folder and Subfolders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Using Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Windows Explorer Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Explorer’s Title Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Explorer’s Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Explorer’s Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
The Explorer Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Windows Explorer’s Taskbar Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Navigating through Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Opening a Subfolder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Moving Up the Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Jumping across the Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Navigating with the Address Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The Back and Forward Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Different Ways to View Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
The Icons View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
The Tiles View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
The Thumbnails View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
The Filmstrip View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
The List View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
The Details View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Working with Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Sorting Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Sizing Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Moving Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Choosing Columns in Details View . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Arranging Icons in Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Closing Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Chapter 6: Working with Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Understanding the Document Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Showing/Hiding File Name Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Common Document File Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Using a Program to Create a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Saving a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
How to Save a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Using the Save As Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Step 1: Choosing a Folder to Save In . . . . . . . . . 105
Step 2: Naming a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
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Save Your Work Often! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Troubleshooting Saves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Closing a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Opening Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Opening a Recent Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Opening a Document from Its Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Using the Open Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Opening a Document in a Different Program . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Changing the Default Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
When Windows Can’t Open a Document . . . . . . . . . . 116
Changing a Document’s Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Working with Multiple Document Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Chapter 7: Type, Edit, Copy, and Paste . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Typing on a Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Indenting and Aligning Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Setting Margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Choosing a Page Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Printing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Navigating in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Selecting Text to Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Changing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Deleting and Replacing Large Chunks of Text . . . . . . . 131
Styling Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Copying, Moving, and Pasting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Copying from One Document to Another . . . . . . . . . . 134
Copy and Paste a Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Move a Chunk of Text within a Document . . . . . . . . . 137
Adding Special Characters to Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Saving Your Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Chapter 8: Printing and Faxing Documents . . . . . . . . 141
Printing a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Common Printing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Choosing a Print Quality and Such . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Stopping the Printer, Managing Print Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Managing Printers and Faxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Changing the Default Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Using a Different Printer for One Job . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Installing a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
USB, IEEE 1394 Firewire, or Infrared Connection . . 150
Parallel and Serial Port Connections . . . . . . . . . 150
Printing the Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Troubleshooting Common Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Faxing Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Using a Faxmodem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Configuring Fax Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Using the Fax Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Sending a Fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
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Receiving Faxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Faxing without a Faxmodem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
More on Faxing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Part III: Using the Internet 161
Chapter 9: Getting Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
What Is the Internet? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
What Is Bandwidth? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Clients and Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Online and Offline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Downloading and Uploading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Getting an Internet Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Your Network Connections Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Putting a Connectoid in the Notification Area . . . . . . . 168
Troubleshooting a Network Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Chapter 10: Browsing the World Wide Web . . . . . . . . 173
Using Microsoft Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Getting to a Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Using AutoComplete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Changing a URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Weird Ways to the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Navigating the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Using Hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Opening a Page in a New Window . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Other Hyperlink Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Other Navigation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Behind the Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Refreshing a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Printing a Web Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Revisiting Previous Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Using the History Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Closing the History Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Getting Rid of Cookies, Files, and History . . . . . . . . . 184
Changing your Default Home Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Tracking Favorite Web Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Viewing Your Favorite Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Organizing Your Favorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Creating a Favorites Subfolder . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Moving, Changing, and Deleting Favorites . . . . . . 188
Closing Up Favorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Choosing and Creating Favorites Folders on-the-Fly . . . 190
Creating Desktop Shortcuts to Web Pages . . . . . . . . . 190
General Browsing versus Secure Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Searching the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Searching without the Search Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
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Downloading from the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Downloading and Installing Programs . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Downloading Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Copying Text from Web Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Playing Online Music and Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Troubleshooting Web Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Page not Found Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
. . . Do you wish to debug? Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Using the Internet Explorer Troubleshooter . . . . . . . . 206
Internet Explorer Help and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Chapter 11: Sending and Receiving E-mail . . . . . . . . . 209
Introducing Outlook Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Setting Up Your E-mail Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Sending E-mail with Outlook Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Composing Fancier E-mail Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Using Fonts and Alignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Typing a List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Inserting a Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Inserting a Hyperlink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Attaching Files to E-mail Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Sending the Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Reading Your E-mail with Outlook Express . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Opening Attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Checking Your Attachment Security . . . . . . . . . 221
Viewing (Opening) an Attachment . . . . . . . . . . 222
Saving Attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Managing E-mail Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Selecting Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Deleting Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Grouping Messages into Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Moving Messages into Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Marking Messages as Read or Unread . . . . . . . . 230
Using Windows Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Tracking Names and Addresses Automatically . . . . . . 230
Opening Windows Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Managing Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Adding and Changing Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Deleting Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Printing Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Creating Groups and Mailing Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Using the Address Book to Send E-mail . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Customizing and Configuring Outlook Express . . . . . . . . . . 236
General Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Read Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Receipt Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Send Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Compose Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Automatic Signature Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
E-mail Spelling Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
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E-mail Security Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Connection Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Maintenance Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Troubleshooting E-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Chapter 12: Using a .NET Passport . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
What Is a .NET Passport? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Creating Your .NET Passport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Opening Windows Messenger, Signing In . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
E-mail Address Not Verified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
A New Version of Windows Messenger Is Available . . . . 250
Instant Messaging with Windows Messenger . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Setting Up Your List of Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Starting a Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Adding Emoticons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Choosing a Message Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Pasting to the Conversation Window . . . . . . . . . 256

When Someone Contacts You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Inviting Others to Join In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Inviting Others to Get Lost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Ending a Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Your Do Not Disturb Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Transferring Files and Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Toll-Free Talking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Twenty-First Century Toll-Free Videophone . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Using Remote Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Starting a Remote Assistance Session . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Ending a Remote Assistance Session . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Working in Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Using the Whiteboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Pasting into the Whiteboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Erasing from the Whiteboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Saving a Whiteboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Closing a Whiteboard Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Managing Your Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Grouping Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Creating Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Deleting Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Deleting a Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Configuring Windows Messenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Choosing Your Display Name and Font . . . . . . . . . . . 274
To Autostart or Not to Autostart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Showing/Hiding Message Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Choosing Where to Put Received Files . . . . . . . . 277
Maintaining Your Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Blocking Known and Unknown Contacts . . . . . . . 277
See Who Has You as a Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Showing/Hiding Your Phone Number . . . . . . . . . 279
Windows Messenger Phone Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Using an Alternative to Sign-ins and .NET Alerts . . . . . . . . . 280
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Signing Off, Closing, and Terminating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Still More .NET Passport Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Chapter 13: Keeping It Safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Viruses, Worms, and Trojan Horses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Installing Anti-Virus Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Using Anti-Virus Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Scanning Downloaded Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Hackers and Crackers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Dealing with Pop-Up Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Blocking Pop-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Blocking Messenger Pop-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Dealing with Spam (Junk E-Mail) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Adware and Spyware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Parental Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Keep XP Up-to-Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Installing Declined Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Getting Everything Up-to-Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Part IV: Fun with Multimedia 301
Chapter 14: Using Your Camera and Scanner . . . . . . . 303
About Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Viewing Picture Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Types of Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Copying Pictures from a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Getting Pictures from a Digital Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Scanning Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Copying Pictures from a Web Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Installing Cameras and Scanners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Troubleshooting Cameras and Scanners . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Chapter 15: Playing with Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Using Your My Pictures Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Printing Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Making a Working Copy of a Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Rotating a Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Recording Details About Your Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Editing Pictures with Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Opening Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Copy and Paste a Picture into Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Cropping a Picture in Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Sizing a Picture in Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Printing and Saving a Picture in Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Fancier Graphics Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
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Chapter 16: Music and Video with Media Player 9 . . . . 333
Introducing Windows Media Player 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Upgrading Windows Media Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Using the Features Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Using the Play Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Closing Windows Media Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Using Your My Music Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Types of Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Searching Your Hard Disk for Your Media Files . . . . . . 342
Opening a Media File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Playing Music CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Playing a Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Watching a DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Watching a VCD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Digital Media on the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Streaming Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Downloading Licensed Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
How to Download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Managing Digital Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Downloading Free Stuff from the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Using the Now Playing Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Radio Tuner and Premium Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Playing with Skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Downloading Skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Using Mini Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Chapter 17: Managing Music, Making CDs . . . . . . . . . 359
Media File Hidden Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Where Media Information Comes From . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Getting Media Player to Fill in the Blanks . . . . . . . . . . 362
Media Player Privacy Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Copying Music CDs to Your Media Library . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Preparing to Copy Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Choosing a Location and Name for Songs . . . . . . 365
Choosing a File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Copy Protect Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Copy CD when Inserted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Eject CD when Copying Is Completed . . . . . . . . 368
Audio Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Digital or Analog? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Copying a Music CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Finding Copied Songs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Using Your Media Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Keeping Your Media Library Up-to-Date . . . . . . . . . . 372
Managing Your Media Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Editing Media Information in Media Library . . . . . . . . 374
Creating Custom Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Creating Playlists Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Creating a Custom Audio CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Copying Music to Portable Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
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Copying Vinyl LPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
More on Media Player 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Chapter 18: Making Home Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Introducing Windows Movie Maker 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Upgrading to Movie Maker 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Taking Control of Movie Maker 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Windows Movie Maker Panes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Movie Tasks Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Storyboard/Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Collections Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Contents Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Getting Content for Your Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Getting Video from Your Camcorder . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Connecting the Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Using the Video Capture Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Importing Video from Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Creating the Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Arranging Your Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Previewing Your Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Trimming Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Overlapping Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Spicing Up Your Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Adding Titles and Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Adding Still Photos to Your Movie . . . . . . . . . . 404
Adding Video Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Using Transition Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Adding Narration or Background Music . . . . . . . 406
Saving a Project (Work in Progress) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Creating the Final Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Trying Other Quality Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Copying Movies to Tape and DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Closing Windows Movie Maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Managing Collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Combining Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Moving, Renaming, and Deleting Clips and Collections . . 414
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Part V: Getting Organized, Staying Organized 417
Chapter 19: Managing Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . 419
Creating Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Creating Your Own Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Creating a Folder on-the-Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Renaming Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Working with Multiple Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Selecting Multiple Icons by Dragging . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Selecting All Icons in a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
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Selecting Multiple Icons Using Ctrl and Shift keys . . . . . 429
Selecting Multiple Icons with Ctrl+Select . . . . . . . 430
Selecting Multiple Icons with Shift+Select . . . . . . 431
Inverting a Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Deleting Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Using the Recycle Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Restoring Accidentally Deleted Files and Folders . . . 435
Giving Files and Folders the Axe . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Moving and Copying Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Move versus Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Moving Files to a Subfolder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Moving and Copying across Any Folders . . . . . . . . . . 439
Moving and Copying by Dragging . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Using Cut and Paste to Move or Copy Files . . . . . 443
Move/Copy Files Using the Explorer Bar . . . . . . . . . . 443
Making a Copy in the Same Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Undoing a Move or Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Chapter 20: Using Your Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Searching for Lost Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Using the Search Companion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Telling Companion About the File Name . . . . . . . 450

Telling Companion About the File’s Contents . . . . 450
Telling Companion Where to Look . . . . . . . . . . 451
Telling Companion When You Last Used the File . . 451
Telling Companion the Size of the File . . . . . . . . 452
More Advanced Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Starting the Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Using Search to Gather Up Like Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Customizing the Search Companion . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Folder and File Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Choosing Your Own Folder Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Creating Shortcuts to Favorite Files and Folders . . . . . 458
Making Views Stick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Managing Your Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Discovering How Much Hard-Disk Space You Have . . . . 461
Maintaining Your Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Recovering Wasted Hard Disk Space . . . . . . . . . 464
Scanning the Disk for Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Defragmenting Your Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Exploring Your Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
A Note on User Accounts, Documents, and Settings . . . 470
Simple Names and Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Viewing the Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Chapter 21: Using Floppies, CDs, and DVDs . . . . . . . . 477
Why Use Removable Disks? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Using Floppy Disks and Zip Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
Viewing the Contents of Floppy and Zip Disks . . . . . . . 481
Formatting a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
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