By David Pogue
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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Very Basics

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• What Is Windows, Anyway?
• Working Windows Smarter

If you're new to windows, you've got to start with the fundamentals. Don't worry—this chapter won't make you memorize a bunch of jargon. Instead, it gives you a solid understanding of what Windows XP does and how to use it. In fact, even if you're not so new to Windows, a little background information will help you feel at ease with the program you're staring at on the screen.

Be prepared to encounter the following terms and concepts over and over again—in the built-in Windows help, in computer magazines, and in this book. Along the way, you'll pick up some basic operating principles—like right-clicking and keyboard shortcuts—that will make every moment you spend at your PC more efficient and productive.

Windows is an operating system, the software that controls your computer. It's designed to serve you in several ways:

• It's a launching bay. At its heart, Windows is a home base, a remote-control clicker that lets you call up the various software programs (called applications in the trade) you use for work or play. When you get right down to it, applications are the real reason you bought a PC.
  Windows XP is a well-stocked software pantry unto itself. As you'll see later in this book, it comes with such basic programs as a Web browser, email program, simple word processor, and calculator. There's even software to download, print, and edit photos from your digital camera and play music and movies on your PC.
  If you're like most people, sooner or later, you'll buy and install more software. That's one of the luxuries of using Windows: you can choose from a staggering number of add-on programs. Whether you're a left-handed beekeeper or a German-speaking nun, some company somewhere is selling Windows software designed just for you, its target audience.
• It's a file cabinet. Every application on your machine, as well as every document you create, is represented on the screen by an

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What Is Windows, Anyway?

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Windows is an operating system, the software that controls your computer. It's designed to serve you in several ways:

• It's a launching bay. At its heart, Windows is a home base, a remote-control clicker that lets you call up the various software programs (called applications in the trade) you use for work or play. When you get right down to it, applications are the real reason you bought a PC.
  Windows XP is a well-stocked software pantry unto itself. As you'll see later in this book, it comes with such basic programs as a Web browser, email program, simple word processor, and calculator. There's even software to download, print, and edit photos from your digital camera and play music and movies on your PC.
  If you're like most people, sooner or later, you'll buy and install more software. That's one of the luxuries of using Windows: you can choose from a staggering number of add-on programs. Whether you're a left-handed beekeeper or a German-speaking nun, some company somewhere is selling Windows software designed just for you, its target audience.
• It's a file cabinet. Every application on your machine, as well as every document you create, is represented on the screen by an icon (see Figure 1-1). You can organize these icons into little onscreen file folders. You can make backups (safety copies) by dragging file icons onto a floppy disk or blank CD, or send them to people by email. You can also trash icons you no longer need by dragging them onto the Recycle Bin icon.
• It's your equipment headquarters. What you can actually see of Windows is only the tip of the iceberg. An enormous chunk of Windows is behind-the-scenes plumbing that controls the various functions of your computer—its modem, screen, keyboard, printer, and so on.

Figure 1-1: Your Windows world revolves around icons, the tiny pictures that represent your programs, documents, and various Windows components. From left to right: the icons for your computer itself, a word processing document, a digital photo (a JPEG document), a word processor program (Word), and a CD-ROM inserted into your computer.

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Working Windows Smarter

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The next few pages may well be the most important in this book. The coolest, most powerful PC on the planet can feel awkward and clunky if you're using computer techniques you learned during the first Bush administration. Even if you have a favorite way of doing something, make this your mantra: never stop learning. There's probably a way to do it better and faster in Windows XP. Fortunately, remembering just a few simple principles usually helps you find a better way every time.

One of the most important features of Windows isn't on the screen—it's under your hand. The standard mouse has two mouse buttons. You use the left one to click buttons, highlight text, and drag things around on the screen.

When you click the right button, however, a shortcut menu appears onscreen, like the ones shown in Figure 1-2. Get into the habit of right-clicking things—icons, folders, disks, text in your word processor, buttons on your menu bar, pictures on a Web page, and so on. The commands that appear on the shortcut menu will make you much more productive and lead you to discover handy functions you never knew existed.

This is a big deal: Microsoft's research suggests that nearly 75 percent of Windows users don't use the right mouse button, and therefore miss hundreds of time-saving shortcuts. Part of the rationale behind Windows XP's redesign is putting these functions out in the open. Even so, many more shortcuts remain hidden under your right mouse button.

Microsoft doesn't discriminate against left-handers…much. You can swap the functions of the right and left mouse buttons easily enough. In the Control Panel window (Section 10.16), open the Mouse icon. When the Mouse Properties dialog box opens, click the Buttons tab, and turn on the "Switch primary and secondary buttons" checkbox. Then click OK. Windows now displays shortcut menus when you left-click.

Figure 1-2: Shortcut menus (sometimes called context menus) often list commands that aren't in the menus at the top of the window. The commands shown here appear when you right-click a folder (left), or some highlighted text in a word processor (right). Once the shortcut menu appears, left-click the command you want.

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Chapter 2: The Desktop and Start Menu

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• Logging In
• The Elements of the XP Desktop
• The Start Menu
• Start → Log Off
• Start → Shut Down (Turn Off Computer)
• Start → All Programs
• Start → Search
• Start → Help and Support
• Start → Control Panel
• Start → My Network Places
• Start → My Computer
• Start → My Music, My Pictures
• Start → My Recent Documents
• Start → My Documents

When you turn on a brand-new Windows XP computer for the first time, you're treated to a series of blue "Welcome to Microsoft Windows" setup screens. This Setup Wizard guides you through setting up an Internet account, activating your copy of Windows, setting up accounts for all the people who use the computer, and so on. If you've been through that process once, read on.

You don't have to create accounts for different users, but if you're interested, you can learn all about the subject in Chapter 12.

If your PC isn't connected to any others and you're the only one who uses it, life is easy. You arrive at the Windows XP desktop without needing to log in.

Otherwise, what happens when you turn on your PC (or when you complete your first setup) depends on whether your PC is connected to some kind of network. Windows XP behaves a bit differently when the computer is on a big, corporate network than when it's on a home network. That's why what you see onscreen when you log in may not match the examples you see in magazines, books, and Web sites.

Although Windows XP works very well for home PCs, it's also designed to thrive in massively networked corporations. It has two slightly different personalities that you only really see when you're starting up each day.

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Logging In

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If your PC isn't connected to any others and you're the only one who uses it, life is easy. You arrive at the Windows XP desktop without needing to log in.

Otherwise, what happens when you turn on your PC (or when you complete your first setup) depends on whether your PC is connected to some kind of network. Windows XP behaves a bit differently when the computer is on a big, corporate network than when it's on a home network. That's why what you see onscreen when you log in may not match the examples you see in magazines, books, and Web sites.

Although Windows XP works very well for home PCs, it's also designed to thrive in massively networked corporations. It has two slightly different personalities that you only really see when you're starting up each day.

When you connect your PCs, printers, and so on into a home network, Windows calls that a workgroup. You can share files with other machines in the workgroup by setting up an account for yourself on each machine. Some very small businesses also use a workgroup arrangement. (Chapter 13 is all about home networking.)

If you're in a larger office, you're probably part of a domain network, managed by a system administrator (sysadmin for short). This highly paid professional can set up and troubleshoot all files and security settings on all domain PCs.

If you're not sure whether your computer is a member of a workgroup or a domain, choose Start → Control Panel → System, and then click the Computer Name tab. This dialog box shows the name of your computer and the name of its domain or workgroup.

If you set up multiple user accounts on your PC, then Windows XP acts like it's in a workgroup, even though it's not actually connected to one. So the workgroup information below pertains to you, too.

• If your PC is part of a workgroup, you may encounter the Welcome dialog box shown in Figure 2-1. Click your name in the list, type your password if you're asked for it, and click the little right-pointing arrow button (or press Enter). You arrive at the desktop.

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The Elements of the XP Desktop

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Once you're past the heart-pounding excitement of the new startup logo and the Setup Wizard, you reach the digital vista shown in Figure 2-2. It's the Windows desktop, now graced by a pastoral sunny hillside that should look familiar to anyone who has ever watched "Teletubbies."

A new installation of Windows XP on a new computer presents an absolutely spotless desktop, utterly icon-free except for the Recycle Bin. Your first step in doing pretty much any task will be to click the Start button in the lower-left corner of your screen. The following pages cover the Start menu in detail.

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The Start Menu

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The Start menu is so important because it lists every useful piece of software on your computer, including commands, programs, and files. You can use the Start menu to open your applications, install new software, configure hardware, get help, find files, and much more.

Figure 2-1: This is the logon screen you see if your PC is on a home network or has multiple user accounts, as shown here. Click your name, then type the password you created when you set up Windows.

When you click the Start button at the lower-left corner of your screen, the Start menu pops open, shooting upward. Its contents depend on which options you (or your computer's manufacturer) have put there; Figure 2-3 illustrates an example.

Figure 2-2: Everything you'll ever do on the computer begins with a click on one of these three elements: a desktop icon, the Start button (which opens the Start menu), or the taskbar, which is described in Chapter 3. (The Start menu lists every significant command and software component on your PC.)

The new Start menu is divided into four chunks. One area, the pinned items list, lists programs you use every day and is yours to modify. Another, the most frequently used programs list, lists programs you use often and is computed automatically by Windows. The final two sections list Windows features and standard Windows programs. Figure 2-3 describes the function of each section.

Figure 2-3: In Windows XP, the Start menu is divided into several distinct sections. The lower-left section lists the programs you use most often, according to Windows XP's calculations. The right-side column provides direct access to certain Windows features and standard Windows programs.

If you're a keyboard-shortcut lover, you can open the Start menu by pressing the Windows logo key. Once it's open, you can use the arrow keys to "walk" up and down the menu (or type the first letters of the command you want) and then press Enter to "click" the highlighted command.

Start menu items graced by a right-pointing triangle arrow (such as Accessories in Figure 2-3) have

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Start → Log Off

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This command is at the heart of Windows XP's accounts feature, in which each person who uses this PC gets to see his own desktop picture, email account, files, and so on (see Chapter 12). When you're logged into a network domain, this is one of the most important features of all. You should log off your computer any time you walk away from it, especially if your computer stores confidential information. If this is a home computer and it doesn't store confidential information, you can safely ignore this option forever.

Choosing this command presents one of two dialog boxes, depending on whether your computer is logged into a network domain, or whether or not you log on to a standalone or workgroup computer that has the Windows XP feature called Fast User Switching turned on. (You can't use Fast User Switching on a computer that logs on to a network domain.)

• Switch User/Log Off. If you see the dialog box shown at the top of Figure 2-4, then Fast User Switching is turned on (as it is on any fresh Windows XP installation for a standalone or workgroup computer). It's among the most useful new features in Windows XP, since it lets somebody else log into the computer, opening up his own world of documents, email, desktop picture, and so on. Meanwhile, whatever you had up and running remains open behind the scenes. After the interloper is finished, you can log on again to find all of your open programs and documents exactly as you left them on the screen.
  Although this is a handy Windows XP feature, it can also be the least secure. When user accounts aren't assigned passwords, anyone can access anyone else's information as easily as clicking the person's name.
• Immediate log off. If you see the dialog box shown at bottom in Figure 2-4, either you're logged into a network domain or Fast User Switching has been turned off. When you click Log Off (or press Enter), Windows closes all open programs and then presents the classic Welcome to Windows dialog box so that the next person can log on.

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Start → Shut Down (Turn Off Computer)

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In Windows XP, this menu item is more powerful than its name implies. Choosing it opens a dialog box that offers several variations on "shut down" (see Figure 2-5):

• Stand By puts your computer to "sleep." This special state of PC consciousness reduces the amount of electricity the computer uses. It remains in suspended animation until you use the mouse or keyboard to begin working again. (This feature is available only if your computer offers it and you've turned it on in the Power Options program in the Control Panel.) Whatever programs or documents you were working on remain in memory.
  This information is stored only in memory, not on your hard drive. If your computer loses power, you lose all of the information that was stored in memory. To be absolutely safe, save your open documents before putting the PC in Stand By.
  If you're using a laptop on battery power, Stand By mode is a real boon, because it consumes only the barest trickle of battery power.
• Shut down quits all open programs (or, in some cases, prompts you to do so), offers you the opportunity to save any unsaved documents, and then exits Windows. Most modern PCs then turn off automatically. If you're logged on to a workgroup network, this command may be called Turn Off.
  You don't have to open the Start menu to turn off the computer. Just press the power button. (If that makes the PC sleep or hibernate instead, see Section 10.17.)
  

  Figure 2-5: Here's the Shut Down dialog box on a workgroup PC. Press Shift to reveal the Hibernate button (bottom). If your company has a domain network, you choose these options with a drop-down menu instead of buttons.
• Restart quits all open programs, then quits and restarts Windows again automatically. The computer doesn't turn off. (You might do this to "refresh" your computer when you notice that it's responding sluggishly, for example.)
• Log off quits all programs, disconnects from the network, and then displays the Welcome screen so that the next person can log in. (The PC doesn't restart.)

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Start → All Programs

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For most people, the Start → All Programs command is the most important function of the Start menu. It's the master list of every program on your computer. You can jump directly to your word processor, calendar, or favorite game, for example, just by choosing its name from the Start → All Programs menu (see Figure 2-6).

When the Start menu is open, you can open the All Programs menu in a number of ways: by clicking the All Programs menu, by pointing to it and keeping the mouse still for a moment, or by pressing the P and then the right-arrow keys on your keyboard.

Figure 2-6: The Start → All Programs menu may list the actual application (such as Microsoft Word) that you can click to launch the program. But it may also list a program group, a submenu that lists everything in a particular application folder. Some software programs install a folder on the All Programs menu, like the Office Tools folder shown here.

Speaking of keyboard fanaticism: once the programs list is open, you can also choose anything in it without involving the mouse. Just type the first letter of a program's name—or press the up and down arrow keys—to highlight the name of the program you want. Then press Enter to seal the deal.

The Start → All Programs menu also lists the Startup folder, which contains programs that load automatically every time you start Windows XP. This can be a very useful feature; if you check your email every morning, you may as well save yourself a few mouse clicks by putting your email program into the Startup folder. If you spend all day long word processing, you may as well put Microsoft Word or WordPerfect in there.

In fact, although few PC users suspect it, what you put into the Startup folder doesn't have to be an application. It can just as well be a certain document you consult every day. It can even be a folder or disk icon whose window you'd like to find open and waiting each time you turn on the PC. (The My Documents folder is a natural example.)

Of course, you may be interested in the Startup folder for a different reason: to

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Start → Search

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The humble Search command looks no more special than anything else on the Start menu. In Windows XP, however, it's a powerhouse that you'll probably use often. Using it, you can quickly find all kinds of computer-ish things: file and folder icons, computers on your network, Web sites, email addresses, and phone numbers.

If you save your files exclusively into the My Documents folder (Section 2.13), you'll have little need to use the Search function to locate your files. You'll always know where they are: right there in that folder.

Every now and then, however, you won't remember where you filed something, or you'll download something from the Internet and not be able to find it again, or you'll install something and not know where to look for it. In those situations, the Search command is just what you need. It lets you look for a particular file or folder based on its description—by its name, size, date stamp, and so on.

To get rid of the cutesy animated dog who accompanies the Search function, either click "Turn off animated character" on the current menu, or click directly on the animated character to open up a panel allowing you to change or remove the character.

The Search command can also look for the words inside your files—a powerful feature if you remember typing or reading something, but not what you named the file.

Section 2.7.1.1: Starting a search

Microsoft wanted to make absolutely sure you'd be able to find the Search command. It has provided at least six different ways to begin a search:

• Choose Start → Search.
• Press F3 or Windows key+F (that's the Windows logo key on the bottom or top row of most keyboards).
• If a disk or folder window is already open, press Ctrl+E, click the Search toolbar button, or choose View → Explorer Bar → Search.

In each case, the Search window appears, as shown in Figure 2-8.

Figure 2-8: Left: Basic Search panel, complete with Rover, the search-companion dog.
Right: If you click the desktop itself and then press F3, or if you turn on the "More advanced search options" checkbox that occasionally appears, the Search panel may look slightly different, as shown here.

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Start → Help and Support

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Choosing Start → Help and Support opens the new, improved Windows Help and Support Center window, which is described in Chapter 11. Once again, speed fans have an alternative to using the mouse—just press the F1 key to open the Help window.

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Start → Control Panel

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This extremely important command opens an extremely important window: the Control Panel, which houses two dozen programs you'll use to change almost every important setting on your PC. It's so important, in fact, that it gets a chapter of its own—Chapter 10.

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Start → My Network Places

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If your PC is part of a network, choosing this command opens the My Network Places window, which displays icons for the computers, disks, and folders other people on the office network have made available for rummaging. (For details on setting up and joining a network, see Chapter 13.)

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Start → My Computer

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The My Computer command is the trunk lid, the doorway to every single shred of software on your machine. When you choose this command, a window opens to reveal icons that represent each disk drive (or drive partition) in your machine, as shown in Figure 2-11.

If your PC is on a home or office network, your My Computer window will look a little different. See Figure 4-1 for some examples.

For example, by double-clicking your hard-drive icon and then the various folders on it, you can eventually see the icons for every single file and folder on your computer.

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Start → My Music, My Pictures

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Clearly, Microsoft imagined that most of its Windows XP customers would be multimedia mavens, decked out with digital cameras and MP3 music players. To hammer home the point, it has stocked your My Documents folder with My Pictures and My Music folders to store digital photos and music files, respectively.

Figure 2-11: The My Computer window gives you an overview of your PC's world. You see icons representing your hard drive and any CD, floppy disk, and other internal or external drives Windows detects. If anything's in the drive, as is the case for the CD drive here, you can see that, too. Double-click the icon to read the contents.

If you do indeed have a digital camera or MP3 player (and it's Windows XP compatible), you'll probably find that whatever software came with it automatically dumps your photos into, and sucks your music files out of, these folders. You'll find more on this topic in Chapter 6.

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Start → My Recent Documents

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The My Recent Documents menu command gives your Start menu a submenu listing the last 15 documents you've opened. Using a list of recent documents can save you time when you want to reopen something you've worked on recently but you're not in the mood to burrow through folders to find its icon.

Note, however, that:

• Documents appear on the "recently used" list only if your applications are smart enough to update it. Most modern programs (including all Microsoft programs) perform this administrative task, but not all do.
• The Documents list doesn't know when you've deleted a document or moved it to another folder or disk; it continues to list the file even after it's gone. In that event, clicking the document's listing produces only an error message.

Of course, there's another easy way to open a document you've recently worked on. To start, simply launch the program you used to create it. Many programs maintain a list of recent documents at the bottom of the File menu; choose one of these names to open the corresponding file.

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Start → My Documents

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This command opens up your My Documents folder, which is designed to hold the data files you and your programs create.

Of course, you're welcome to file your documents anywhere on the hard drive, but most programs propose the My Documents folder as the target location for newly created documents.

Sticking with that principle makes a lot of sense for three reasons. First, it makes navigation easy. You never have to wonder where you filed some document, since all your stuff is sitting right there in the My Documents folder. Second, this arrangement makes backing up easy, in that you can drag the entire My Documents folder right onto a Zip disk or blank CD.

Third, remember that Windows XP has been designed from the ground up for computer sharing. It's ideal for any situation where different family members, students, or workers share the same PC. Each person who uses the computer will turn on the machine to find her own separate, secure set of files, folders, desktop pictures, Web bookmarks, preference settings—and My Documents folder. (More about user accounts in Chapter 12.)

Whenever you log on, Windows XP provides a My Documents folder just for you. (It actually sits in the My Computer → Local Disk (C:) → Documents and Settings → [Your Name] folder.)

This feature can be confusing if you're not expecting it. For example, if you stop by the computer after somebody else has logged in, none of your stuff is where you expect to find it—specifically, in the My Documents folder. That's because the computer no longer opens your documents folder when you choose Start → My Documents.

If this happens to you, check the name that appears at the top of the Start menu. It identifies who's currently logged on—and whose documents are showing up in the My Documents window.

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Chapter 3: Windows, Folders, and the Taskbar

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• Windows in Windows
• The Desktop Window Overhaul
• Window Toolbars
• The Taskbar
• Taskbar Toolbars

Windows got its name from the rectangles on the screen—the windows—where every computer activity takes place. You look at a Web page in a window, type into a window, read email in a window, and look at the contents of a folder in a window—sometimes all at once. But as you create more files, stash them in more folders, and launch more programs, it's easy to wind up paralyzed before a screen awash with cluttered, overlapping rectangles. Fortunately, Windows is crawling with icons, buttons, and other inventions to help you keep these windows (and the folders in them) under control. The taskbar along the bottom of your screen is another enormously helpful tool, as you'll see later in this chapter.

There are two categories of windows in Windows:

• Desktop windows. These windows, sometimes called Windows Explorer windows, include the windows that open when you double-click a disk or folder icon. This is where you organize your files and programs.
• Application windows. These are the windows where you do your work—in Word or Internet Explorer, for example.

Nonetheless, all windows have certain components in common (see Figure 3-1):

• Title bar. This top strip displays the name of the window. Drag it like a handle when you want to move the window on the screen.
• Minimize button. Click this box to temporarily hide a window, shrinking it down into the form of a button on your taskbar (Section 3.4). You can open it again by clicking that button. Keyboard shortcut: Press Alt+Space bar, then N.
• Maximize button. Click this button to enlarge the window so that it fills the screen, gluing its edges to the screen borders. At this point, the maximize button turns into a

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Windows in Windows

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There are two categories of windows in Windows:

• Desktop windows. These windows, sometimes called Windows Explorer windows, include the windows that open when you double-click a disk or folder icon. This is where you organize your files and programs.
• Application windows. These are the windows where you do your work—in Word or Internet Explorer, for example.

Nonetheless, all windows have certain components in common (see Figure 3-1):

• Title bar. This top strip displays the name of the window. Drag it like a handle when you want to move the window on the screen.
• Minimize button. Click this box to temporarily hide a window, shrinking it down into the form of a button on your taskbar (Section 3.4). You can open it again by clicking that button. Keyboard shortcut: Press Alt+Space bar, then N.
• Maximize button. Click this button to enlarge the window so that it fills the screen, gluing its edges to the screen borders. At this point, the maximize button turns into a restore down button (whose icon shows two overlapping rectangles), which you can click to return the window to its previous size. Keyboard shortcut: Press Alt+Space bar, then X.
  You can also maximize or restore a window by double-clicking its title bar.
  

  Figure 3-1: All windows have the same basic ingredients, making it easy to become an expert in window manipulation. This figure shows a desktop window—a disk or folder—but you'll encounter the same elements in application windows.
• Close button. Click the X button to close the window. Keyboard shortcut: Press Alt+F4.
• Menu bar. Click a menu title (such as File or Edit) to open a menu, revealing a list of commands available for that menu in this window. Keyboard shortcut: Press Alt+[underlined letter in menu], or press F10 to activate the menu bar in the active window and

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The Desktop Window Overhaul

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Windows' windows look just fine straight from the factory: all the edges are straight, and the text is perfectly legible. Still, if you're going to stare at this computer screen for half of your waking hours, you may as well investigate some of the ways these windows can be enhanced for better looks and greater efficiency. As it turns out, there's no end to the tweaks Microsoft lets you perform.

You can view the files and folders in a desktop window in any of several ways: as small icons, jumbo icons, a tidy list, and so on. Each window remembers its own view settings.

To change the view of a particular open window, choose one of these commands from its View menu (or from the little icon-filled desktop-window icon on the toolbar): Filmstrip, Thumbnails, Tiles, Icons, List, or Details. Here's a brief rundown:

• Filmstrip view, new in Windows XP, creates a slideshow right in the folder window. It's ideal for working with digital pictures, as you can see on Section 6.1.2.3.
• Thumbnails view shows you a small preview of the document, making it, too, great for viewing folders full of photos. See Figure 3-4 for an example.
• Files view, also new to Windows XP, is a more readable improvement on the old favorite Icons view. It shows icons alphabetically in vertical columns, with details just to the right. Figure 3-1, for example, shows a window in Tiles view.
• Icons view sorts icons horizontally in rows, displaying only their names. The window at right in Figure 3-3, for example, happens to be in Icons view.
• List view earns its worldwide popularity by packing the most files into the space of a window. The window at left in Figure 3-3 is a good example of List view.
• Details view is similar to List view, except that it has additional columns revealing the item's size, its type, and the date and time it was last modified.

Some of these views are new in Windows XP. Filmstrip view, for example, is a home run for anyone with a digital camera or scanner. It turns the folder window into a slide show machine, complete with Next and Previous buttons beneath an enlarged picture, as well as buttons that rotate the image on the screen. (You get this view automatically when you open your My Pictures folder.)

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Window Toolbars

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On the day it's born, every Windows XP desktop window has a standard toolbar across the top (see Figure 3-6). A toolbar is simply a strip of one-click buttons like Back, Forward, Search, and so on.

Figure 3-6: Here are the three basic toolbars that you can summon independently for any desktop window. By dragging the vertical left-side handle of a toolbar, you can place two or more bars on the same row, or even in the menu bar (arrow).

But by choosing View → Toolbars, or right-clicking a blank spot on a toolbar and pointing to Toolbars on the shortcut menu, you can add or hide whichever toolbars you like, on a window-by-window basis. Three different toolbars are available from the View menu: Standard Buttons, Address Bar, and Links.

As anyone in the U.S. Justice Department could probably tell you, the Internet Explorer Web browser is deeply embedded in Windows itself. These window toolbars are perfect examples: they appear not only in desktop windows but also in Internet Explorer when you're browsing the Web.

This toolbar helps you navigate your desktop (or the Web). The desktop version contains buttons like these:

• Back, Forward. On the Web, these buttons let you return to Web pages you've just seen. At the desktop, they display the contents of a disk or folder you've just seen.
  But wait—there's more! You can click the tiny down-pointing black triangle on the Back or Forward button to see a drop-down menu of every Web page (or desktop window) you visited on your way to your current position. Similarly, if you point to one of these buttons without clicking, a tooltip indicates which Web site or folder you'll go to if you click.
  These Back and Forward buttons work exactly the same in both Internet Explorer and the Windows desktop.
• Up. This button, short for "up a level," displays the contents of the folder that contains the one you're examining. If you're looking at the contents of, say, the Idaho folder, clicking this button would open the USA folder that contains it.

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The Taskbar

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The permanent blue stripe across the bottom of your screen is the taskbar, one of the most prominent and important elements of the Windows interface (see Figure 3-7).

Figure 3-7: When you see nothing but microscopic icons, point without clicking to view an identifying tooltip.

The taskbar has several segments, each dedicated to an important function. Its right end, the notification area, contains little status icons that display the time, whether or not you're online, whether or not your laptop's plugged in, and so on. The main portion of the taskbar, of course, helps you keep your open windows and programs under control. You can even dress up your taskbar with additional little segments called toolbars, described on Section 3.5.

This section covers each of these features in turn.

In Windows XP, Microsoft has chosen a new name for the area formerly known as the tray (the group of tiny icons at the right end of the taskbar): the notification area. (Why use one syllable when eight will do?)

The purpose is much the same: to give you quick access to little status indicators and pop-up menus that control various functions of your PC. Many a software installer inserts its own little icon into this area: fax software, virus software, palmtop synchronization software, and so on.

To figure out what an icon represents, point to it without clicking so that a tool-tip appears. To access the controls that accompany it, try both left-clicking and right-clicking the tiny icon. Often, each click produces a different pop-up menu filled with useful controls.

Despite the expansion of its name, you'll probably discover that this area is much smaller than it used to be. On a new PC, for example, you may find little more than the current time.

By double-clicking the time display, you open the Date and Time Control Panel program. And if you point to the time without clicking, a tooltip appears to tell you the day of the week and today's date.

That's because Microsoft's XP anti-clutter campaign reached a fever pitch when it came to this component of the operating system. The designers of Windows had noticed that software companies large and small had been indiscriminately dumping little icons into this area, sometimes for prestige more than utility.

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Taskbar Toolbars

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Taskbar toolbars are separate, recessed-looking areas on the taskbar that offer special-function features. You can even build your own toolbar, for example, stocked with documents related to a single project.

To make a toolbar appear or disappear, right-click a blank spot on the taskbar and choose from the Toolbars shortcut menu (Figure 3-11). The ones with checkmarks are visible now; select one to make the toolbar (and checkmark) disappear.

The Quick Launch toolbar, once you've made it appear, is fantastically useful. In fact, in sheer convenience, it puts the Start menu to shame. It contains icons for functions that Microsoft assumes you'll use most often. They include:

• Show Desktop, a one-click way to minimize (hide) all the windows on your screen to make your desktop visible. Don't forget about this button the next time you need to burrow through some folders, put something in the Recycle Bin, or perform some other activity in your desktop folders. Keyboard shortcut: Windows logo key+D.
  

  Figure 3-11: Top: Make toolbars appear by right-clicking a blank area on the taskbar, if you can find one.
  Bottom: If you've added too many icons to the toolbar, a >> button appears at its right end. Click it to expose a list of the commands or icons that didn't fit.
• Launch Internet Explorer Browser, for one-click access to the Web browser included with Windows XP.
• Windows Media Player, for one-click access to the music and movie player included with Windows XP (see Chapter 6).

The buttons detailed above are only hints of this toolbar's power, however. What makes it great is how easy it is to add your own icons—particularly those you use frequently. There's no faster or easier way to open them (no matter what mass of cluttered windows is on your screen), since the taskbar displays your favorite icons at all times.

To add an icon to this toolbar, simply drag it there, as shown in Figure 3-12. To remove an icon, just drag it off the toolbar— directly onto the Recycle Bin, if you like. (You're not actually removing any software from your computer.) If you think you'll somehow survive without using Windows Media Player each day, for example, remove it from the Quick Launch toolbar.

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Chapter 4: Organizing Your Stuff

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• Creating a Folder
• The Folders of Windows XP
• Life with Icons
• Copying and Moving Folders and Files
• The Recycle Bin
• Shortcut Icons
• Burning CDs from the Desktop

Every disk, folder, file, application, printer, and networked computer is represented on your screen by an icon. To avoid spraying your screen with thousands of overlapping icons seething like snakes in a pit, Windows organizes icons into folders, puts those folders into other folders, and so on.

This folder-in-a-folder-in-a-folder scheme works beautifully at reducing screen clutter, but it means that you've got some hunting to do whenever you want to open a particular icon. Helping you navigate and manage your files, folders, and disks with less stress and greater speed was one of the primary design goals of Windows—and of this chapter.

To create a new folder to hold your icons, right-click where you want the folder to appear (on the desktop, or in any desktop window except My Computer), and choose New → Folder from the shortcut menu. The new folder appears with its temporary "New Folder" name highlighted. Type a new name for the folder and then press Enter.

Before Windows took over the universe, folders were called directories, and folders inside them were called subdirectories. Keep that in mind the next time you're reading an old user guide, magazine article, or computer book.

The top-level, all-encompassing, mother-ship window of your PC is the My Computer window. From within this window, you have access to every disk, folder, and file on your computer. Its slogan may as well be: "If it's not in here, it's not on your PC."

To see it, choose Start → My Computer. You generally see several categories of icons (Figure 4-1):

• Hard Disk Drives. These icons, of course, represent your PC's hard drive (or drives, if you've installed or attached additional ones). Most people, most of the time, are most concerned with the Local Disk (C:), which represents the internal hard drive preinstalled in your computer. (You're welcome to rename this icon, by the way, just as you would any icon.)

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Creating a Folder

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To create a new folder to hold your icons, right-click where you want the folder to appear (on the desktop, or in any desktop window except My Computer), and choose New → Folder from the shortcut menu. The new folder appears with its temporary "New Folder" name highlighted. Type a new name for the folder and then press Enter.

Before Windows took over the universe, folders were called directories, and folders inside them were called subdirectories. Keep that in mind the next time you're reading an old user guide, magazine article, or computer book.

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The Folders of Windows XP

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The top-level, all-encompassing, mother-ship window of your PC is the My Computer window. From within this window, you have access to every disk, folder, and file on your computer. Its slogan may as well be: "If it's not in here, it's not on your PC."

To see it, choose Start → My Computer. You generally see several categories of icons (Figure 4-1):

• Hard Disk Drives. These icons, of course, represent your PC's hard drive (or drives, if you've installed or attached additional ones). Most people, most of the time, are most concerned with the Local Disk (C:), which represents the inter