Windows XP Pro: The Missing Manual, Second Edition

Add or Remove Programs

This program, freshly overhauled in Windows XP, is described at length in Chapter 5. It offers three or four panels that offer important software-management functions.

Change or Remove Programs

This tab displays a list of every program you’ve installed onto your PC. To remove one from your system, click its name and then click the Remove or the Change/Remove button. Some program packages (like Microsoft Office) offer a Change button, too, so that you can add or remove individual components—just Excel, for example. When you click the Change button, have your installation CD handy, because the program may ask you to insert it into your drive.

Add New Programs

You won’t need the first option here (“Add a program from CD-ROM or floppy disk”) very often, because most software programs come with their own installers. Using the CD or Floppy button is just a roundabout way of launching the installer on the disk you’ve inserted.

The Windows Update button, however, is useful indeed. It takes you to the same Microsoft Web page as the Start→All Programs→Windows Update command, at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. (Figure 8-4 shows what you might see.)

Here, you can get a list of the latest updates, bug fixes, and patches that Microsoft has released for your version of Windows XP. You’ll soon discover that Windows XP is a constant work in progress; Microsoft seems to come up with another one of these fixes, patches, or updates every couple of weeks.

Note that Windows Update ...