Fixing Windows XP Annoyances

Introduction

Some days I want to pick up my PC and throw it out the window. Other days, I fancy hitting it with a large, blunt object, or perhaps drilling through the CPU with a high-speed auger bit. Yesterday, I dreamt of small gray mice chewing through the power cable. But of course, the wanton destruction of electronic equipment can be rather expensive, not to mention a poor solution to the hundreds of everyday annoyances that evoke such feelings.

Windows XP frequently falls under the “You can’t live with it; you can’t live without it” category, and with good reason. Windows is an operating system, the underlying software that provides drivers, interface components, and communication services to the applications and games you use on your PC. Ideally, operating system software should be both omnipresent and invisible; like the air we breathe, it allows us to function but should never get in our way. Alas, it doesn’t always work out that way.

Windows crashes. It interrupts our work with incomprehensible error messages. It bogs down under the weight of the software we pile on top of it. And it seems to make simple tasks—such as finding files, choosing default applications, and setting up a network—needlessly complicated and hopelessly cumbersome. For these reasons and hundreds more, Windows is annoying.

The good news is that there are solutions to most Windows annoyances. Whether the solution lies in an obscure setting, an add-on program, or just a different way of doing something, most of what bugs us about Windows can be fixed. And that’s what this book is about.

How to Use This Book

The information in this book is assembled into “annoyances” and “fixes.” If you’re having a problem with Windows, look through the Table of Contents for the annoyance that most closely matches your problem, or jump to the Index to find a section based on the solution. Of course, feel free to thumb through these pages, too—you’ll likely find fixes to problems you didn’t even know could be solved.

Annoyances and their respective fixes are organized into categories, which in turn are divided into these six chapters:

Chapter 1 , Windows Interface

The fixes in this chapter deal with the interface quirks that plague Windows and most of the applications you run on your PC. Among other things, you’ll learn how to clean up your Start menu, get to the desktop easily, and switch between applications more quickly.

Chapter 2 , Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer is the heart of file and folder management in Windows XP. The annoyances in this chapter cover Windows Explorer in all of its forms, including tips on how to do things like force it to remember your view settings, save your default application choices, tame File → Open and File → Save As dialog boxes, and get XP’s Search tool to behave.

Chapter 3 , Multimedia

Can’t hear sound? Having a problem playing a DVD or burning a CD? Want to do more with your digital photo collection? Interested in turning your PC into a DVR and entertainment center? Chapter 4 covers all this and more!

Chapter 4 , The Web and Email

The Internet is a terrific resource, but it’s also the source of a lot of major annoyances, such as spyware, spam, and pop-ups. Get a handle on Internet Explorer’s role in this mess, and what you can do to improve your online experience.

Chapter 5 , Wireless and Networking

Getting your PC online can be a bit of a headache, not to mention connecting all the PCs in your home or office together to share files and printers. Learn how to make everything work without compromising your security.

Chapter 6 , Setup and Hardware

This opening chapter helps you reinstall Windows, update it safely, get it to start up more quickly and shut down without complaining, and finally, make it work with all your hardware.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following are the typographical and iconographical conventions used in this book:

Italic

Used for emphasis and to indicate new terms, URLs, filenames, file extensions, directories, program names, and pathnames. For example, a path in the filesystem appears as c:\Windows\System32.

Constant width

Used to show code examples, anything that might be typed from the keyboard, the contents of files, and the output from commands.

Constant width italic

Used in examples to show text that should be replaced with your own user-supplied values.

Menus and navigation

Arrows ( → ) are used as a shorthand notation to indicate navigation through drop-down menus, which is particularly useful given how frequently settings and features are buried deep in Windows’s various menus and dialog windows. If you see an instruction like “select View → Explorer Bar → Folders,” it means that you should open the View menu in the current window, select the Explorer Bar menu item, and then select the Folders menu item. Note that when you need to click other interface elements, such as tabs, checkboxes, and buttons, this will be clearly indicated in the text.

Notes and warnings

Pay special attention to notes set apart from the text with the following manner.

Warning

This is a warning note. When you see one of these, your PC’s security or stability—not to mention your own sanity—may be in jeopardy.

Note

This is a tip, typically containing useful supplementary information, a handy suggestion or shortcut, or a general note relating to the topic at hand. Extra credit if you can spot the pun.

Got an Annoyance?

Is your mother nagging you about grandchildren? Are your grandchildren nagging you about their mother? Did your cat shred your dog-eared copy of Lord of the Rings? Is Sauron giving you a hard time? Can’t shake the feeling that your friends don’t really like you? If so, I don’t want to hear about it. Tell your therapist. Or your plumber.

Something bothering you about Windows? Ahh…now you’re talking. If you have an annoyance that needs an immediate solution, pay a visit to the Annoyances.org forums, particularly http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/ for XP-related issues. Or, if you’d like to submit an annoyance for a future edition of Fixing Windows XP Annoyances, send it to [e-mail]. Tell ‘em Dave sent you.

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About the Author

David A. Karp started the Annoyances series of books with the bestseller Windows Annoyances all the way back in 1996. Since then, he has written 10 power-user books available in 9 languages, including 5 books on Windows XP. He’s also the author of eBay Hacks: Tips & Tools for Bidding, Buying, and Selling, Second Edition (see http://www.ebayhacks.com) and the editor of PayPal Hacks (see http://www.paypalhacks.com).

David writes for PC Magazine and is a contributing editor for Ztrack Magazine. He created and actively maintains Annoyances.org, a popular Windows troubleshooting web site. Noted recognition of his work has come from PC Computing Magazine, Windows Magazine, The San Francisco Examiner, and The New York Times.

Educated in mechanical engineering at U.C. Berkeley, David consults on Internet technology while dabbling in user-interface design and software engineering…all of which illustrate his disdain for thermodynamics. Of course, David works hard to conserve energy, even though he knows full well that energy is always conserved.

David is a compulsive tinkerer, an avid skier, and a mediocre Go player. He likes to spend time outside, predominantly on his bicycle or with his camera, but rarely both. David scored 30.96647% on the Geek Test (http://www.innergeek.us/geek.html), earning a rating of “Total Geek.” He knows the difference between a fireman and a firefighter. He’s a master craftsman and a breeder of prize-winning clams. Animals and children trust him. And he knows why you bought this book.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Robert Luhn, Mark Brokering, and Tim O’Reilly for helping to make this book happen.

My immense gratitude to Torey Bookstein, love of my life, who provides immeasurable support through good times and bad.