Windows XP Annoyances | O'Reilly Media

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Do you get a sinking feeling every time you're about to install new software on your computer? Do you get tired of having to turn off all the bells and whistles integrated into new products just to make them usable? Does your day-to-day experience with Windows make you want to chuck the whole system out the window? Have you calmly accepted the fact that your new operating system will most likely contain more bugs than improvements?

Why fight it? Why not simply join the masses and slip into the mind-numbing abyss of acquiescence, feeling powerless whenever computers don't work as seamlessly as promised to us by those who market them?

Because you know there's a better way. You know there's more to Windows XP than what's mentioned in the documentation, such as it is, and in Microsoft's press clippings. And you know you're not alone.

More than anything else, an annoyance is a way of looking at a problem or an unfamiliar task. It's an attitude that gives you the fortitude and patience to solve any problem, rather than ending up powerless, frustrated, and feeling like a dummy.

Now, if we had a large selection of operating systems from which to choose, the point would be almost moot; each of us would simply choose the most appropriate (and, of course, least annoying) software available. However, the real world isn't like that, and most of us who use Microsoft Windows are doing so out of necessity rather than personal choice.

That puts Microsoft in a position to control what we see and how we work. Realizing you're not alone is the first step to improving your experience with Windows XP and regaining control of your machine before it assumes control of you.

But the purpose of this book is not to complain or criticize, but rather to acknowledge and understand the problems and shortcomings of the operating system in an effort to overcome them.

Windows XP Annoyances presents solutions that enable you to both customize and troubleshoot Windows. This is an important distinction, because many times solving a problem requires that you know whether something irritating is an inadvertent bug or an intentional feature of the software, and the dividing line isn't always clear. It's important to realize that, if software doesn't act in a way that

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More than anything else, an annoyance is a way of looking at a problem or an unfamiliar task. It's an attitude that gives you the fortitude and patience to solve any problem, rather than ending up powerless, frustrated, and feeling like a dummy.

Now, if we had a large selection of operating systems from which to choose, the point would be almost moot; each of us would simply choose the most appropriate (and, of course, least annoying) software available. However, the real world isn't like that, and most of us who use Microsoft Windows are doing so out of necessity rather than personal choice.

That puts Microsoft in a position to control what we see and how we work. Realizing you're not alone is the first step to improving your experience with Windows XP and regaining control of your machine before it assumes control of you.

But the purpose of this book is not to complain or criticize, but rather to acknowledge and understand the problems and shortcomings of the operating system in an effort to overcome them.

Windows XP Annoyances presents solutions that enable you to both customize and troubleshoot Windows. This is an important distinction, because many times solving a problem requires that you know whether something irritating is an inadvertent bug or an intentional feature of the software, and the dividing line isn't always clear. It's important to realize that, if software doesn't act in a way that you think it should, it should be regarded as poor design and not necessarily the result of a bug. A bug is an action carried out by a piece of software that wasn't intended by the designer of the product.

Here's a simple, yet not readily apparent, example of an intentional design decision that has led to a tangible annoyance in Windows:

Common file dialog boxes—the little windows that appear when you use File → Open or File → Save—look basically the same in most applications, because they're a function provided by Windows XP. This concept of

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As time progresses, the lineage of Windows becomes less linear. Windows XP, despite its name, is not the direct successor to Windows Me, nor is Windows 2000 the direct successor to Windows 98 and Windows 95. Instead, Windows XP is the latest installment to the historically less-consumer-oriented Windows NT line of operating systems, developed in parallel to the Windows 9x/Me line.

So why the distinction between these two product lines? The first release of Windows NT, arbitrarily assigned the 3.1 version number, was released in the middle of 1993. At the time, Microsoft's marketing department asserted that NT was an acronym for New Technology, which was actually quite an accurate description. The NT kernel, or underlying code upon which the interface (Explorer) runs, was completely new and did not rely on DOS, despite the fact that it shared the same shell (interface) as Windows 3.1. This resulted (theoretically) in a more stable environment, much better security, and the ability to be easily ported to work on other processors (such as Compaq's Alpha chip).

Over the years, this "portability" has become much less emphasized. More recently, the NT line (Windows NT 4.0 in 1996 and Windows 2000 in 2000) has been improved and re-marketed as a web, intranet, and network server; a challenger to Unix; and now, with Windows XP, a viable home-office operating system.

One of the problems with earlier releases of NT (from NT 3.1, which nobody liked, to NT 4.0, most commonly used as a web server, to Windows 2000, which made inroads among businesses and power users) was that they offered the enhanced features of the NT kernel without most of the perks prized by the average consumer. What has plagued NT most, however, was the abysmal industry support for the platform. Given the overwhelming majority of Windows 9x users, a sizeable percentage of the hardware and software available for the PC—even released as recently as the time of this writing—was simply not supported in Windows NT/2000. The result was a platform that was really inappropriate for most users.

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If Windows XP is your foray into Windows, you're lucky to have escaped the early days of changing jumpers, editing the config.sys file, running out of "system resources," and suffering with the Windows 3.x Program Manager. However, dealing with the problems of the early days of Windows is a good way to build coping skills and is the only way to appreciate some of the things we now take for granted, such as Plug-and-Play and fast Internet connections.

Getting under the hood of Windows is not only a great way to take charge of the operating system and make it conform to the way you work and think, but it's also a very effective method for learning more about your computer and the technology that makes it work.

The basic "shell" interface (Explorer, the Desktop, and the Start Menu) in Windows XP is not that different from that of its immediate successors, Windows Me and Windows 2000. The new "Windows XP Style" (discussed at more length in Chapter 2) adds an optional new look to all dialogs, controls, windows, and even the Start Menu, but everything still works pretty much the same as it did in every version of Windows since `95.

What follows are a few highlights and lowlights of Windows XP, most notably for those who have upgraded or who are thinking of upgrading from a previous version. Some may seem insignificant; others may mean the difference between upgrading to Windows XP and waiting for something better to come along. All of these, naturally, add up to the total Windows XP experience.

Note that whether any particular thing is actually new to you depends on which version of Windows you were using previously.

Drag-and-drop of EXE files finally makes sense: After years of customer complaints, Microsoft has finally fixed the absurd way Windows handled the drag-and-drop of .exe files. As one visitor to Annoyances.org wrote several years ago, "whoever came up with the `dragging an application creates a shortcut' behavior must be shot immediately." Now, dragging an

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The part of Windows XP with which we interact most frequently is Windows Explorer, commonly referred to simply as "Explorer." The Explorer application (Explorer.exe) is known as the shell, since it's the pretty face that is used to conceal what lies under the hood of the operating system. Although Explorer is really only an application like any other, it is responsible for the desktop, the Start Menu, Recycle Bin, Control Panel, folder windows, and a million other things.

Given the amount of time you probably spend starting programs, copying files and folders, and looking for documents—not to mention actually writing all those documents—it makes sense to invest a little time to find better ways to accomplish these tasks. By following some of the solutions in this book, you can make your experience with Windows a lot more pleasurable, reducing stress and your recurring urges to toss your computer out a window seven stories off the ground.

The ideal user interface should adapt to you rather than the other way around. Indeed, one of the primary goals of this book is to show you how to change the way Windows looks, feels, and operates so that it is more closely in tune with the way you think and work. The problem is that there are some fundamental features of the interface that simply can't be changed, so some of the time you'll simply have to settle for best compromise between the ideal solution and what is actually possible.

A classic example is the Search tool in Windows XP. When you begin a search from an open Explorer window, the Search pane replaces the folder tree, forcing you either to open a new Explorer window or to turn the folder tree back on by going to View → Explorer Bar → Folders (which incidentally is the only entry in this menu without a keyboard shortcut). And let's not forget the little puppy dog with its incessant scratching noises. Although these problems can't be completely fixed without a third-party add-on, there are several workarounds discussed in Section 2.2.7, later in this chapter. A little knowledge of the alternative methods will save you tons of aggravation.

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One of the primary roles of Explorer is to provide the basic working interface that allows you to manage the files, folders, and applications on your system. This is why it's so baffling why Microsoft has buried the Windows Explorer icon so deep in the Start Menu, rather than giving it a more prominent position.

As stated earlier, the Windows desktop, the My Computer window, the single-folder windows, the folder tree pane window, and the Start Menu are all services provided by the single Explorer application. However, in most Windows lore and in the solutions in this book, the term Explorer refers specifically to the window that has the hierarchical tree view in the left pane (referred to by Microsoft as the Folders Explorer bar). This window can be opened by going to Start → Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Windows Explorer, or by launching Explorer.exe from the Start Menu's Run command. All other windows used to browse folders—such as those windows accessible from the My Computer window—are commonly referred to as single folder windows.

It's important to realize that Explorer, your single-folder windows, and even your desktop, all essentially are the same interface (with a few subtle exceptions). File and folder icons look and behave the same, regardless of the way they're viewed.

Interface consistency is one of the most important aspects of interface design, but, unfortunately, it often contradicts other factors, such as intuition and historical consistency. For example, drag-drop in Explorer behaves differently when you're dragging from one drive to another (d: to c:) than when dragging from one folder to another on the same drive (c:\docs to c:\files). Why the inconsistency? Because that's the way it has been done in Windows for years, and fixing it would likely confuse too many users. (At least from the perspective of the company that otherwise would have to answer all the technical support calls.)

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Much of the work we do on a computer either involves creating or modifying documents. The rest of the time, it seems like all we do is move those documents around. The next few topics will help make file manipulation easier and hopefully a lot more pleasurable.

Intuitively, when one drags an object from one place on the screen to another, it would seem reasonable that the object would then appear in the new place and disappear from the old place. In other words, what happens to a file when you drag it from the left side of your desktop to the right side of your desktop should be exactly the same as what happens when you drag a file from one folder to another or from a floppy disk to your hard drive.

The problem is that drag-drop is handled differently in different situations. The decision of what action to take in each situation was made by a committee at Microsoft; I'd be willing to bet that you didn't have a personal representative at that meeting.

So, our aim here is to force Windows to work the way we think, keeping in mind the practical limitations of the operating system. Here's the way Explorer works (note that "object" is a file, folder, shortcut, system object, or anything else with an icon that can be knocked around with your mouse):

If you drag an object from one place to another on the same physical drive (c:\docs to c:\files), the object is moved.
If you drag an object from one physical drive to another physical drive (c:\docs to d:\files), the object is copied, resulting in two identical files on your system.

This means that if you drag an object from one physical drive to another physical drive and then back to the first physical drive, but in a different folder (c:\docs to d:\files to c:\stuff ), you'll end up with three copies of the object.

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Microsoft has positioned the Desktop as the root of all other objects in the imaginary hierarchy depicted by Explorer's tree. This includes all drives, the Control Panel, My Network Places, My Documents, and — in terms of the layout of the interface—the Start Menu and all running applications.

The following topics cover some fundamental tasks when dealing with the desktop and other aspects of the shell, such as making sure your desktop layout remains intact and tweaking the Start Menu.

Windows XP has a bunch of ways for you to save—and later retrieve—your preferences, but the inconsistent way Microsoft uses and names these features can be confusing and irritating. The best way to deal with schemes, styles, and themes is to understand their scope and learn when to use them.

Section 2.3.1.1: Part 1: Schemes

A scheme is a saved collection of settings in a single dialog box. For example, you can save your current mouse pointer selections under a scheme name by going to Control Panel → Mouse → Pointers. This not only makes it easier to quickly switch between multiple sets of mouse pointers (such as one for when you're wearing your glasses and when when you're not), but it allows you to quickly undo changes made by Windows and other applications.

Other dialogs that use schemes include Control Panel → Power Options → Power Schemes tab and Control Panel → Sounds and Audio Devices → Sounds tab. In previous versions of Windows, you could also save your Display Settings into a scheme, but in Windows XP, this functionality has been replaced with "themes."

Section 2.3.1.2: Part 2: Themes

Themes work similarly to schemes, described above, in that several individual settings can be saved under a single theme name. The difference is that there's only one place in Windows to save and retrieve themes, and your theme selection affects settings in several dialogs.

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Every time you change a setting in Control Panel, add hardware to your system, install an application, or even rearrange icons on your desktop, Windows stores the corresponding data in your Registry. The Registry is a database containing all the settings for Windows XP, as well as the applications installed on your system. Knowing how to use the Registry effectively is important for improving performance in Windows, troubleshooting all kinds of problems, and, most importantly, customizing Windows XP beyond what is possible with the dialog boxes scattered throughout the interface.

All of your file types (also known as associations; see Section 4.3) are stored in the Registry, as well as all of the network, hardware, and software settings for Windows XP, and all of the particular configuration options for most of the software you've installed. The particular settings and data stored by each of your applications and by the various Windows components vary substantially, but you can use some special techniques to figure out undocumented settings and uncover hidden functionality, regardless of how the data is stored. What's especially helpful is that most of the settings stored in the Registry are named in plain English rather than with obscure codes and acronyms. You shouldn't take this fact for granted, but it does help quite a bit in finding settings and troubleshooting problems.

Word to the wise: you can irreversibly disable certain components of Windows XP—or even prevent Windows from running—by changing certain settings in the Registry. Now, the vast majority of settings in the Registry are mostly harmless, but nonetheless, I strongly recommend taking the steps outlined in this chapter to prevent making irreversible changes, such as taking advantage of Registry patches to backup portions of the Registry before you edit a single value. Furthermore, backing up your entire system will ensure that none of your valuable data or programs are compromised and will undoubtedly save you hours of hassle in the event of a stupid mistake. Believe me, I've been there.

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Although the Registry is stored in multiple files on your hard disk, it is represented by a single logical hierarchical structure, similar to the folders on your hard disk. The Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) is included with Windows XP to enable you to view and manually edit the contents of the Registry.

Don't confuse the Registry with the Registry Editor. Regedit.exe is just another application; most of the access to the Registry is performed behind the scenes by the applications that you run, as well as by Windows—settings and other information are read from and written to the Registry constantly.

When you open the Registry Editor, you'll see a window divided into two panes (as shown in Figure 3-1). The left side shows a tree with folders, and the right side shows the contents of the currently selected folder. Now, these aren't really folders—it's just a convenient and familiar method of organizing and displaying the information stored in your Registry.

Figure 3-1: The Registry Editor lets you view and change the contents of the Registry.

Each branch (denoted by a folder icon in the Registry Editor) is called a key. Each key can contain other keys, as well as values. Values contain the actual information stored in the Registry, and keys are used only to organize the values. Keys are shown only in the left pane; values are shown only in the right pane (unlike Explorer, where folders are shown in both panes).

To display the contents of a key (folder), just click the desired key name on the left, and the values contained therein will be listed on the right side. To expand a certain branch to show its subkeys, click on the plus sign [+] to the left of any folder or double-click on the folder name.

Editing the Registry generally involves navigating down through branches to a particular key and then modifying an existing value or creating a new key or value. You can modify the contents of any value by double-clicking it.

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The solutions in the rest of this chapter concern the Registry Editor and other topics related to the Windows Registry.

In addition to editing the Registry with the Registry Editor (see earlier in this chapter), you can make changes by using Registry patches. A Registry patch is simply a text file with the .reg extension that contains one or more Registry keys or values. If you double-click on a .reg file, the patch is "applied" to the Registry, meaning that the contents of the patch are merged with the contents of the Registry. This tool is especially handy for backing up small portions of the Registry or distributing Registry settings to other computers.

For example, if a particular application stores its custom toolbar in the Registry, you can use a Registry patch to copy the toolbar to another computer, saving time that would otherwise be spent painstakingly configuring the 431 toolbar items on the new machine.

A Registry patch is also a handy way to back up Registry data, such as file types, which are constantly at risk of being changed by other applications (see Section 4.3.3). More importantly, however, Registry patches can be used to back up portions of the Registry to safeguard them against modifications you're about to make, such as the modifications suggested throughout the rest of this book.

Section 3.2.1.1: Create a Registry patch

Open the Registry Editor, and select a branch you wish to export.

The branch can be anywhere from one of the top level branches to a branch a dozen layers deep. Registry patches include not only the branch you select, but all of the values and subkeys in the branch. Don't select anything more than what you absolutely need.
Select Export from the File menu, type a filename, and press OK.

All of the values and subkeys in the selected branch will then be stored in the patch file. Make sure the filename of the new Registry patch has the

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The most important part of software design is the interface. The interface is the only link we humans have with the machines we use—the better the interface, the better the link, and the more useful the machine will be. Because the Windows XP software has already been designed and written, the most we can hope to do is to tinker with it so that it works more like we think it should.

The first thing I do when I hit a roadblock or find a "feature" in Windows is jump into the Registry and try to fix it. The more I hack away at Windows' flaws, the easier it gets, and the leaner, cleaner, and less annoying Windows becomes. The solutions in this chapter illustrate this point.

The unfortunate methodology behind the design of the Windows interface is that it's supposed to be usable by the lowest common denominator: the person who has never seen Windows before. Don't get me wrong, one of the most important interface design considerations is its ability to be used by the uninitiated. But there are three main problems with this approach if not done correctly. One, such an interface can be inherently condescending. Two, no user is a beginner forever. Three, users are not all the same.

Many people don't realize that it is possible to have an elegant, simple interface that is easy and comfortable to use by beginners, yet is not limited in its usefulness as users gain experience. A dumbed-down interface is not the answer.

One of Windows' strong points is its flexibility. For example, the fact that you can reprogram almost any system object on the desktop to serve a different function, and this is one of the main reasons that Windows enjoys such a large market share. Although the variety of solutions presented here are a testimony to the power and flexibility of Windows XP, I'd also like to note the need for such solutions in the first place.

This chapter takes advantage of the basic topics covered in Chapter 2—such as shortcuts, system objects, and some of Windows' more obscure settings—as well as usage of Registry, discussed in Chapter 3 to customize Windows beyond Microsoft's intentions. We'll start by clearing some of the clutter caused by the installation of Windows and move on to customizing whatever is left over to suit your needs.

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The default configuration of Windows XP—including the way the desktop and Start Menu are configured and which optional Windows components are installed—was decided upon by a committee at Microsoft. The motivation was not so much ease of use as it was how to best showcase the features included in the new operating system. This criterion may be great for the marketing department at Microsoft, but it doesn't make for a very pleasant experience for the user.

The best place to start when customizing an interface is to throw out all the stuff you don't want, which will make much more room for the stuff you actually use. By not being forced to wade through dozens of icons or menu items to find the one you want, you can complete your work more easily and with less aggravation.

Not only does Windows XP sport fewer icons on the desktop, by default, than any preceding version of Windows, but the icons that have remained are actually easy to remove. The removal process, however, depends on the type of object you're trying to remove.

There are two types of icons that appear on the desktop (not including the taskbar or Start Menu). Those objects that are physical files or shortcuts to files are simply stored in your desktop folder (typically \Documents and Settings\{username}\Desktop); these items can be deleted, moved, renamed, etc. as easily as any other file on your hard disk. The Desktop Cleanup Wizard, an interactive program designed to help the truly lazy among us remove less-frequently used file and shortcut desktop icons, and can be found in Control Panel → Display → Desktop tab→ Customize Desktop (shown in Figure 4-1).

Figure 4-1: The Desktop Items window allows you to show or hide a few prominent desktop objects, as well as customize their icons.

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In nearly every part of the interface, Windows keeps a history of your activity, from a drop-down list of typed commands in the Address Bar to the Recent Documents list in the Start Menu. The problem is there's no apparent way to control this record-keeping. Using the Registry and a number of tricks, it's possible to control some of these features and even wipe out the history at your whim.

Note that the drop-down list that appears in File-Save and File-Open dialogs when you type into the File name field is not actually a history of previously selected or typed files. Instead, it's an auto-complete mechanism that fills in the field as you type using the names of the files in the current folder.

Every time you double-click a document in Explorer or on your desktop, Windows places a shortcut to the file in your Recent Documents folder. At any given time, you might have a few hundred shortcuts in there, effectively tracing your every action when sorted by date.

The contents of this folder is used to populate the Recent Documents menu on the Start Menu (just called Documents if the Classic Start Menu is used), as well as the handful of recent documents shown in the File menu of some applications (such as Microsoft Office 2002). The contents of the Recent folder are also accessible, by default, from the Places Bar shown in most file dialogs (discussed later in this chapter).

These solutions should help you tame the Recent Documents list:

Section 4.2.1.1: Choose how many recent documents are shown in the Start Menu

Assuming you haven't disabled the Recent folder or hidden the Documents menu, as described later, you can control how many of the most recent document shortcuts are shown in the Recent Documents.

Open the Registry Editor (discussed in Chapter 3).
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

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The term File Types describes the collection of associations between documents and the applications that use them. The most apparent use of this feature is that, for example, Windows knows to run Notepad when you double-click on a text document in Explorer (proof that Windows XP is not truly object oriented).

True object-oriented design dictates that objects (in this case, files and folders) be aware of their own traits. This design is only mimicked in Windows XP. Instead of each file's knowing which application is used to edit it, Windows determines how to handle a file based solely on the filename extension. This design has advantages and disadvantages, but Microsoft's decision to hide filename extensions, the basis for file associations, only makes the whole system more difficult to understand and master.

It all starts with file extensions, the letters (usually three) that follow the period in most filenames. For example, the extension of the file Readme.txt is .txt, signifying a plain text file; the extension of Resume.wpd is .wpd, signifying a document created in WordPerfect. By default, Windows hides the extensions of registered file types in Explorer and on the desktop, but it's best to have them displayed.

File extensions not only allow you to easily determine what kind of file a certain file is (because icons are almost never descriptive enough), but also allow you to change Windows' perception of the type of a file by simply renaming the extension. Note that changing a file's extension doesn't actually change the contents or the format of the file, only how Windows interacts with it.

To display your file extensions, open Folder Options in Control Panel (or from Explorer's Tools menu), choose the View tab, and turn off the Hide extensions for known file types option. Click OK when you're done.

By hiding file extensions, Microsoft hoped to make Windows easier to use—a plan that backfired for several reasons. Because only the extensions of registered files are hidden, the extensions of files that aren't yet in the File Types database are still shown. What's even more confusing is that, when an application finally claims a certain file type, it can appear to the inexperienced user as though all of the old files of that type have been renamed. It also creates a "knowledge gap" between those who understand file types and those who don't; try telling someone whose computer still has hidden extensions to find

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Given the important role of folders in Windows, not only in their ability to store our personal data, but in the way they're used to organize the files that comprise the operating system, it should not be surprising that there are lots of cool things you can do with them. The next few solutions should illustrate the flexibility of Windows XP, and the lengths one can go to accomplish just about anything.

There may come a time when you may get a little sick of the generic icons used for drives and folders in My Computer and Explorer (personally, I'm not a big fan of the liberal use of yellow in the Windows XP interface). Now, you've probably figured out that you can create a shortcut to any drive or folder, choose a pretty icon, and place it on the desktop or in some other convenient location. Unfortunately, the icon you choose doesn't propagate to the target object. Here's how to make the change a little more universal.

Section 4.4.1.1: Solution 1: Customize drive icons

Using the functionality built in to Windows' CD auto-insert notification feature—functionality that allows Windows to determine the name and icon of a CD as soon as it's inserted in the reader (see Section 4.4.4 later in this chapter)—there's a simple way to customize the icons of all your drives:

Open a plain-text editor, such as Notepad.
Type the following:
```
[autorun]
icon=filename, number
                     
```
where filename is the name of the file containing the icon, and number is the index of the icon to use (leave number blank or specify 0 [zero] to use the first icon in the file, 1 for the second, and so on).
Save the file in the root directory of the hard disk, floppy, or removable drive you wish to customize, naming it

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Although your computer spends 99.9% of the time waiting for you to do something, what concerns us is that other 0.1% of the time when eight seconds can seem like an eternity.

A common misconception is that a computer with a fast processor, say 1.6 GHz, will automatically be faster than an 800-MHz system. While the increased processor speed is an obvious benefit in some specific circumstances, such as when performing intensive statistical calculations, using 3D modeling software, or playing some high-end games, the real-world performance of a computer is really measured differently.

In most cases, our qualitative assessment of a computer's speed is based on its ability to respond immediately to mouse clicks and keystrokes, start applications quickly, open menus and dialog boxes without a delay, start up and shut down Windows quickly, and display graphics and animation smoothly. For the most part, all of these things depend more upon correctly optimized software, the amount of installed memory, and the amount of free disk space than on raw processor power.

Because financial limitations prevent most of us from simply buying new hardware every three months, most of this chapter is devoted to solutions that will help improve the performance of your existing system without requiring any additional monetary investment. For example, the way Windows uses the swap file (virtual memory) can be inefficient, and dealing with this bottleneck can result in performance increases all across the system. In your approach to these problems, consider that your computer has a given theoretical top speed, so all you need to do is fix whatever is slowing it down so that you can approach that speed.

Upgrading, discussed at the end of this chapter, is a somewhat different story—there, your aim is to raise the theoretical top speed. Start by asking yourself where your money is best spent, which isn't always obvious. For example, there are always faster processors available, but often something as simple as adding more memory can have a much bigger impact on performance for much less money.

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In many ways, Windows XP is able to take more advantage of your hardware than Windows 9x/Me, but that doesn't mean it's configured for optimal performance right out of the box. Because all the software you run is dependent upon the operating system, tweaking Windows for better performance can result in performance gains across the board.

To start off, there are several easy settings that can have substantial effect on Windows' responsiveness. The next few sections explain these settings.

Windows XP adds animation to almost every visual component in the operating system. While these affectations may be cute, they can easily make a 2-gigahertz computer perform as though it were an antiquated 386. Rather than watch your Start Menu crawl to its open position, you can configure your menus and list boxes to snap to position. You'll be surprised at how much faster and more responsive Windows will feel.

The settings that can affect performance are scattered throughout the interface, but the ones that control display effects are the ones that concern us here. Double-click the System icon in Control Panel, choose the Advanced tab, and click Settings in the Performance section. The Visual Effects tab, shown in Figure 5-1, contains sixteen settings, all explained later.

Figure 5-1: The Performance Options window is a good place to start when looking for Windows bottlenecks to eliminate.

Unfortunately, the four selections above the list are rather misleading. For example, the Let Windows choose what's best for my computer option reverts all settings to their defaults, chosen by a marketing committee at Microsoft to best showcase their product's features. The Adjust for best appearance option simply enables all features in the list, while the Adjust for best performance option just disables them.

Keep in mind that disabling some of these options will definitely improve Windows' performance, while others may only be of benefit if you are using older video hardware. Regardless, some of these features are just plain annoying, and turning them off can be beneficial to your sanity. Others are actually kinda cool.

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Your hard disk is more than just a storage device; it's used to hold your operating system and to supplement your system's memory. The speed and configuration of your hard disk is a major factor in your computer's performance, not to mention its reliability and security. The following topics all deal with different aspects of your hard disk and how effectively Windows uses it.

The best way to ensure maximum performance from your drive is to regularly (weekly or bi-weekly) defragment it (also called optimizing). Figure 5-3 shows how frequent use can cause files to become fragmented (broken up), which can slow access and retrieval of data on the drive, as well as increase the likelihood of lost data.

Figure 5-3: File fragmentation on your hard disk can slow performance and decrease reliability.

To defragment your drive, run the Disk Defragmenter (dfrg.msc), which rearranges the files on your hard disk to make them contiguous (not broken into pieces). It also defragments the free space, and optionally places the files you access more frequently (such as programs and recently modified documents) at the start of the drive and less frequently accessed files at the back of the drive. If you're compulsive about disk defragmentation, superior alternatives to Disk Defragmenter include Norton Speed Disk (included with Norton Utilities, http://www.symantec.com) and Diskeeper (http://www.executive.com/).

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It's frustrating how computers never seem to be as fast as they were when we first bought them, although in most cases, it's simply a matter of the software demanding more.

A computer is ultimately the sum of its parts, so the task of improving performance must include a discussion of each component. Some parts, such as hard disks, can be optimized to your heart's content, potentially with substantial performance gains. On the other hand, when it comes to such components as your processor or motherboard, there's not much you can do to them short of replacing them entirely. In the rather special case of memory, an upgrade usually consists of simply adding more memory modules.

I'm often asked which hardware component is the most important in terms of performance or where money is best spent in upgrading. As you might expect, however, there is no hard and fast rule. As stated at the beginning of this chapter, sometimes it's more cost-effective to replace an entire system rather than laboring over software settings or simply swapping components, especially if most of said components are more than a few years old. For example, knowing where to spend your money and where to hold back is important; if you buy something you know is going to be obsolete in six months, such as the CPU, don't buy the top of the line, because the extra money will likely be worth very little down the road. However, spending more on a good monitor that will last for years is smart and will pay off in the long run.

When purchasing a new, prebuilt system, you should be aware that the quality of some of the components is often less than what you'd get if you bought the components separately. Computer system vendors make more money by including substandard, generic parts in their systems rather than name-brand, top-of-the-line components, although some mail-order firms often allow you to customize your system with various higher quality components. The moral when buying a new system is to look at more than just the CPU speed and the sticker price, so shop around. This goes for laptops as well as desktop computers.

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Most Windows users would probably consider the barrage of incomprehensible error messages and crashing to be the operating system's biggest annoyance, and I'd be the last one to argue with them. But the problems that plague our computers vary widely from simple features not working to massive data loss, with a whole range of annoying quirks in between.

No single resource could possibly document every bug and every error message produced by Windows and every possible combination of drivers and applications, and this chapter is no exception. Instead, the topics in this chapter show you how to troubleshoot your Windows system by isolating the problem and then using the tools available to find a solution.

First off, if you remember only two pearls of wisdom from this chapter, let them be the following:

99% of all computer problems are solved by pressing your computer's Reset button.
Insanity can be defined as repeating the same actions over and over again, expecting different results. (Or, worse: repeating the same actions over and over again, knowing that you'll never get different results.)

Naturally, a corollary to these principles is that resetting your computer repeatedly will get you nowhere. Herein lies the rub: what do you do during that remaining 1% of the time when restarting your computer doesn't help?

Troubleshooting a computer involves more than just whining about it. One of the first things you need to do to solve a problem is to find the right words to describe the problem. You don't know how many people have come to me simply saying, "it doesn't work." I have to prod them to find what they did (or didn't do), whether or not they received an error message, if they saw smoke billowing out of one of their drives, or if the computer simply didn't do what they expected.

Like it or not, most problems are simply caused by poorly written software. As soon as you remove yourself (the user) as a potential cause of the problem, it makes it much easier to track down the real source of the problem and fix it.

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Troubleshooting a computer involves more than just whining about it. One of the first things you need to do to solve a problem is to find the right words to describe the problem. You don't know how many people have come to me simply saying, "it doesn't work." I have to prod them to find what they did (or didn't do), whether or not they received an error message, if they saw smoke billowing out of one of their drives, or if the computer simply didn't do what they expected.

Like it or not, most problems are simply caused by poorly written software. As soon as you remove yourself (the user) as a potential cause of the problem, it makes it much easier to track down the real source of the problem and fix it.

Computer problems can come in many forms: error messages, crashes, lock-ups, unexpected results, and corrupted data. A crash is usually attributed by a cryptic error message of some sort (General Protection Fault, Blue Screen of Death, etc.), followed by having the application—or the entire operating system—shut down abruptly. A lock-up is what happens when an application (or Windows) stops responding to the mouse and keyboard; sometimes a lock-up is recoverable (often by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del or just waiting a few seconds), and sometimes it isn't.

Much of this chapter focuses on some specific problems and their solutions, but most troubleshooting requires nothing more than a little reasoning. If you're looking for a chart of every conceivable error message and its cause, you're out of luck: such a thing simply doesn't exist. There is effectively an infinite combination of computer systems, add-on devices, application software, and drivers; unfortunately, some of those combinations can be fraught with headaches. However, Appendix E does have a list of common BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) error messages, typically considered the most extreme you'll encounter.

The most important step—and usually the most difficult—in troubleshooting a computer system is to isolate the problem. Here are some questions to ask yourself when you're trying to isolate a problem:

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Once you start peeking under the hood of Windows XP, you'll notice some of the tools that have been included to help the system run smoothly. Some of these tools actually work, but it's important to know which ones to use and which ones are simply gimmicks. A good example is System Restore, a feature intended to solve certain file version conflicts automatically, its brute-force method often ends up causing more problems than it solves. See the discussion of System Restore later in this chapter for more information.

Here are some software-specific issues that should help you solve most problems with Windows XP and the applications that run on it.

Unfortunately, Windows' not being able to start is a common problem, usually occurring without an error message or any obvious way to resolve it. Sometimes you'll just get a black screen after the startup logo, or your computer may even restart itself instead of displaying the desktop. Of the many causes to this problem, many deal with hardware drivers, conflicts, or file corruption—all of which are discussed elsewhere in this chapter.

In previous versions of Windows, up until Windows 98, one could start a DOS session before loading Windows, which was a gateway to several effective troubleshooting techniques. In Windows XP, this lifeline is gone, but, fortunately, there are several other tools in place to take up the slack:

Windows Recovery Console: The Windows Recovery Console, discussed in Chapter 10, is a way to repair your operating system or boot manager. It also lets you delete or replace system files, something not possible from within Windows. Use the WRC when Windows won't start at all.
Safe Mode with Command Prompt: The Safe Mode with Command Prompt, explained in Section 2.2.6, is somewhat of a hybrid between the Windows Recovery Console and a standard Command Prompt window. (It's also described later.) Use it to affect minor repairs when the Windows Recovery Console is overkill.

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A driver is the software that allows your computer—and all of its applications—to work with a hardware device, such as a printer or video adapter. That way, for example, each word processor doesn't need to be preprogrammed with the details of all available printers (like in the early days of PCs). Instead, Windows manages a central database of drivers, silently directing the communication between all your applications and whatever drivers are required to complete the task at hand.

Let's get one thing straight before we begin: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Many problems are actually caused by people looking for problems to solve. For example, installing a new driver just for the sake of having the "latest and greatest" version on your system may introduce new bugs or uncover some bizarre incompatibility. This doesn't mean that updating your drivers isn't a good idea, but you'll typically only want to do this if something isn't working or performing at its best.

Problems arise when a driver is buggy or outdated, or one of the files that comprise a driver is missing or corrupted. Outdated drivers designed either for a previous version of Windows or a previous version of the device can create problems. Additionally, manufacturers must continually update their drivers to fix incompatibilities and bugs that surface after the product is released. It's usually a good idea to make sure you have the latest drivers installed in your system when troubleshooting a problem. Furthermore, newer drivers sometimes offer improved performance, added features and settings, better stability and reliability, and better compatibility with other software and drivers installed in your system.

The other thing to be aware of is that some drivers may just not be the correct ones for your system. For example, when installing Windows, the setup routine may have incorrectly detected your video card or monitor and hence installed the wrong driver (or even a generic driver). A common symptom for this is if Windows does not allow you to display as many colors or use as high a resolution as the card supports. Make sure that Device Manager (

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More often than not, problems are unique to a particular type of component. For example, modems often suffer the same types of problems, which don't necessarily affect any other types of hardware. The following guidelines should help you solve most component-specific problems (as opposed to general lockups or application error messages).

And don't forget that a non-functioning component can be a great excuse for an upgrade (see Chapter 5), especially considering that many of the following components are likely to be much cheaper than were the ones they're replacing.

Most likely, without the correct video driver installed, you still should be able to use Windows at a bare-minimum resolution of 640 X 480 with an 8-bit color depth (256 colors); this is a standard mode supported by all video adapters and is Windows' default display mode. If you can display this mode, but no others, odds are you don't have the proper drivers installed. In fact, nearly all video card problems are caused by faulty or incorrect video drivers.

Most modern video cards are based upon a certain chipset (controller), usually identifiable by the large, square chip in the center of the card itself. If the chip is covered with a sticker, remove the sticker to see what's printed on the chip surface. Common chipset manufacturers include nVidia, ATI, and 3D Labs. In many cases, Windows will be able to detect the type of chip even if it can't determine the specific make and model of the card. If you can determine the type of chipset your video adapter uses, you should be able to use either a generic video driver made for that chipset (typically available at the chipset manufacturer's web site), as well as a driver for another card that uses the same chipset.

If you know you are using the correct video driver, but can't use all of the resolutions it supports, make sure Windows is identifying your monitor correctly (see the next topic).

If you're trying to use Windows XP's support of multiple monitors, you need to be aware of a few things. Your system BIOS (see Appendix B) chooses which video card is your

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Face it: some sort of data loss is inevitable. Whether it's a single lost file or a dead hard disk—whether it's tomorrow or twelve years from now—it will happen. On that happy note, there is plenty you can do about it.

First and foremost, there's no better method of disaster recovery than having a good backup copy of all your data. Any stolen or damaged hardware is easily replaced, but the data stored on your hard disk is not. Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20, and if you didn't back up, there's not much you can do about it after the fact; even if your computer equipment is insured with Lloyds of London, once your data is gone, it's gone. So, we'll begin our discussion with some preventive maintenance before covering any disaster recovery techniques.

In its simplest form, a backup is simply a copy of your data. Now, a full system backup, as described later in the next topic, is obviously valuable, but often too involved of a procedure to practice often enough to be entirely effective.

While you might perform a full backup once a week or once a month, you can do a quick backup of your most important files several times a day. No special software or hardware is required, and, best of all, it will only take a few seconds.

The following two solutions are remarkably simple, but the idea is sound, and if you make a habit of making these quick, on-the-fly backups, it will save you hours of work.

Section 6.5.1.1: Solution 1: simple copy

The next time you've put a few hours into a document, open the folder in Explorer, and make a duplicate of the file by dragging it to another part of the same folder with the right mouse button and selecting Copy Here. See Section 2.2.3 for more information on this function.

Then, if you screw up a file you're working on, if it gets accidentally deleted, or if it gets corrupted by a system crash, you'll have a fresh backup right in the same folder.

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A network is the interconnection of two or more computers, facilitating the exchange of information between them. Networks aren't just for large companies; you can network two computers in your home to share a single Internet connection, share a printer, easily exchange files, or even play a networked game. Networking—whether it's between two computers in the same room or two computers on opposite ends of the Earth—can open a host of possibilities not feasible on a standalone system.

There are several different kinds of networks, each with their own limitations and advantages. A simple "peer-to-peer" workgroup can comprise as few as two computers connected with a single cable. This is ideal in a home office or small business setting, where individual systems can be linked together with a minimum of hardware and cabling and configured to share resources. A shared folder, for example, is merely a standard folder residing on a single computer, made accessible to any other computer on the network through Explorer as though it were actually on each computer's hard disk.

Larger organizations typically deploy networks based on the client/server topology. Client/server networks are different from peer-to-peer networks not so much in technology as in the roles the different computers play. For example, one computer on the network, which might be running Unix or Windows, would take on the role of the mail server, while another would be configured to handle such tasks as printing, storage of data and applications, backup, or user authentication. The rest of the computers—the clients—would subsequently retrieve email from the mail server, send print jobs to the print server, and store data on the file server.

A seemingly different kind of connection, usually involving a measly telephone line or a more modern high-speed connection, allows access to the Internet from a single PC. Again, this is more of a matter of the roles the different computers play than the actual technology involved in establishing the connection.

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Table of Contents

Section 2.3.1.1: Part 1: Schemes

Section 2.3.1.2: Part 2: Themes

Section 3.2.1.1: Create a Registry patch

Section 4.2.1.1: Choose how many recent documents are shown in the Start Menu

Section 4.4.1.1: Solution 1: Customize drive icons

Section 6.5.1.1: Solution 1: simple copy