The Windows XP Desktop



The Windows XP Desktop

 

When you first switch your computer and monitor on, your screen might look something like this, in the link below (It's too big for this page!).

Click here to see the desktop

This is the Windows XP Desktop. There are a number of thing to notice about the Desktop. First, all those little pictures on top of the big picture. (Your screen may well be nice and colourful). There are 4 in the image above. The pictures are called icons.

To get some practice with using your mouse, click on each of your Desktop icons. (If you have only one icon, the Recycle Bin, then practice with that for the time being. We'll see how to add shortcuts soon.) Click on them with your Left mouse button, a Single Click. You should notice that the icons change colour, usually blue. When they do change colour, the icon is said to be selected.

Now click on any of your icons with the Right mouse button, again a Single Click. What happens now?

You should see a menu popping up with a list of items on it. The menu pops up because of that Right Click - the Right click is usually a shortcut click. Each icon on your Desktop has a shortcut associated with it. Indeed, the icons themselves are shortcuts. Each picture is associated with a programme on your computer. When you clicked an icon with your left mouse button, the only thing that happened was that it turned a different colour. You had selected it by clicking the icon with your left mouse button.

Now try to double click each icon with the Left mouse button and see what happens. You should find that some sort of software, or programme is launched.

So the desktop icons are shortcuts to your programmes. That's why they are there - so that you can get at your programmes with a Double Click of your left mouse button.

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Move on to the Next Part -->

The Start Menu

 

[pic]We saw in the last lesson that the desktop can be used to launch your software. Another way to launch your programmes is through the Start menu at the bottom of the Desktop. Your Start button should look something like the one below:

[pic]

Click your Start button once with your Left hand mouse button. What you will see is a menu popping up. This one below:

[pic]

Notice the name "KC" next to the image. Yours will show the name you typed when setting up Windows XP.

The menu bar is split into three sections. The first section, the white one on the left, has seven items in it. The first three are shortcuts to a web browser, email software, and easyPHP. The four items under this are shortcuts to recently used programmes. These will change as you start up and close down software packages. Yours will probably be different items. One Single click with the Left mouse button on any of these items will launch some software.

The second section has just one item in it: All Programs. There is a green arrow next to this text. Clicking on the green arrow will bring up menu where you can find all the software installed on your computer. And this is the one we're interested in. We'll explain it in more detail in a moment.

The section on the right of the Start menu, the one in pale blue, is for special areas of your computer, and shortcuts to folders and files that are used frequently. You can also get help here, and search your computer for files and folders (we'll see how to do this shortly.)

At the bottom of the start menu are two buttons, one for logging off and one for closing down your computer. There is a difference between the two, but the one you'll probably want when it comes to turning off your computer is Shut Down. Clicking it once with your Left mouse button will give you this pop up box, called a dialogue box.

[pic]

The dialogue box is giving you four options. Click the second option "Turn Off" with your left mouse button, a Single Click, if you want to completely close down your computer. The other popular option is "Restart". If you change your mind, click the Cancel button at the bottom. The dialogue box will disappear.

But let's concentrate on that green button on the Start Menu, the one to the right of "All Programs." Click the button with your left mouse button. A menu will appear. Actually, it's a sub menu - a menu on a menu! It will look something like the one below:

[pic]

As you can see, the Programs Sub menu is fairly small, but it gets bigger the more software you install. Your Programs menu may well be longer than this one. When you install some new software, a shortcut to it will probably be added to this Programs Sub menu.

Notice the black arrows on the menu. This indicates that there is another submenu available. The menu will appear when you move your mouse to an item that has a black arrow next to it.

Move your mouse over to the Programs Sub menu. Then move your mouse up and down it. You should see a light coloured line moving with your mouse. This line is telling you which item of the menu you are currently on.

To launch one of your software programs, click an item on the list with your Left mouse button, a Single Click. When you do, the software is launched.

To quickly close down the software you have launched, look in the right hand corner. Search for this, in the picture below

[pic]

Click the red X to close down your software. The one on the left of the three, with the single line, will make your software disappear. But it will not have closed down. Look at the bottom of your Desktop. You'll see something like this:

[pic]

The two long rectangles indicate that two programmes are still open. In the image above, the Firefox web browser is open, as well as the Home and Learn Web Editor.

What we'll do now is to create a Shortcut to your "My Documents" folder, which we will place on the Desktop. You will then be able to open this folder by Double-Clicking its icon on the desktop.

How to create a Desktop Shortcut

 

[pic]To create a shortcut to a programme, and display the shortcut on the Desktop, do the following:

• Click the Start button on your desktop

• From the Start menu, locate the "All Programms" item

• Move your mouse to the programme you want to create a shortcut to. In the image below, we've gone for the Home and Learn Web Editor

[pic]

• Right click on the menu item to see a new menu appear:

[pic]

• On this menu, locate the "Send to" item

• On the Send to item, Left click on "Desktop (create shortcut)":

[pic]

• When you left click Desktop (create shortcut), a new shortcut appears on your main screen - the Desktop.

• Double click your new shortcut to test it out. You should see a new window opening, and the programme will start

Now that you've had a bit of practice with your mouse, we'll move on to exploring the files and folders on your hard drive.

We'll start with the Hard Drive itself.

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|What is a Hard Drive? |

|  |

|A hard drive is nothing more than a magnetised storage area. Your|

|Operating System is stored on your hard drive, as well as all |

|your software programmes, like Microsoft Word. The hard drive is |

|actually a few circular disks stacked one on top of the other. A |

|little arm moves over the disks and writes things to these |

|circular platters, and reads them. When you save a file or create|

|a new folder, think of these circular platters being written to |

|and you'll have a basic idea of just what your hard drive is. |

|A hard drive is given a letter of the alphabet for convenience |

|sake, and in most computers this will be the letter C. That's why|

|the hard drive is popularly know as the C Drive. There are other |

|drives on your computer. These are the usual drives on modern |

|Personal Computers: |

| |Computer Tutorials List |

| | |

| |> Beginners Computing |

| |Microsoft Word |

| |Microsoft Excel |

| |Web Design |

| |Cascading Style Sheets |

| |Javascript |

| |Visual Basic .NET |

| |Beginners PHP |

| |Floppy Drive or A drive | |There will be a thin slot on the front of your computer. Into the gap, a disk is inserted. This is your floppy|

| | | |drive, and the disk is called a floppy disk |

| |CD Rom Drive or D Drive | |Press a button on the front of your computer and a tray will probably slide out. The tray will accept a |

| | | |circular disk - a CD Rom. |

| |DVD Drive | |A DVD disk is the same size and shape as a CD, but can hold more information. You can play a CD in a DVD |

| | | |Drive, but you can't play a DVD disk in a CD Rom Drive |

| | | |  |

| |CD/DVD Writer | |These types of drives are for creating your own CD's or DVD's. They are becoming statndard on a new computer |

| |A modern Hard Drive is measured in Gigabytes. To find out how big your Hard drive is, click the next part of this lesson. |

| |[pic][pic]  |

| | |

How Big is your Hard Drive?

 

[pic]Find the "My Computer" icon Start menu, and click with your left mouse button. When the window opens it will look something like this one:

[pic]

The "My Computer" screen shows you different areas of your computer. In the picture, there are icons for the Floppy Drive, The C drive, and the D Drive. Don't worry if yours is not the same. But you'll probably have a D drive icon. There is a CD over the D drive icon, indicating that there is a CD in the disk drive on this computer.

The one we're interested in is the C drive icon. This is the Hard drive. There are two ways you can check your Hard drive to see how big it is. The easiest way is to click once on the C icon with your Left mouse button. The area on the left of the window will change to this:

[pic]

The "Details" section at the bottom is showing how much space is free on your hard drive. It also shows how big the Hard drive is. GB stand for Gigabytes. So this Hard drive is just over 4 gigabytes. Not very big in today's computer market, where Hard drive ten and twenty times this size are common!

There is another way to check how big your Hard drive is.

Click on the C icon from the My Computer screen. But click on it with your Right mouse button. You'll get a menu similar to the one below.

[pic]

Click on "Properties with your Left mouse button. You'll get the following dialogue box popping up.

[pic]

Here, we get a pie chart showing us information about the hard drive: Used Space, Free Space and Capacity (How big your hard drive is). The Capacity is showing 19.0 Gigabytes, Used space 17.9 Gigabytes, and Free space 1.01 Gigabytes.

Click the OK button to get rid of the dialogue box (One click with the left mouse button.)

Get rid of the "My Computer" screen by clicking the red X in the top right hand corner.

What we'll do now is create a folder on the hard drive. But we'll use the Windows Explorer to do it.

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The Windows Explorer

 

[pic]In this lesson, we'll create a new folder on the hard drive, but we'll use a tool called the Windows Explorer to do it. To bring up the Windows Explorer, do the following:

• From your Desktop, Click the Start button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen

• Click the green "All Programs" button

• From the Sub menu that pops up, click on Accessories

• The following sub menu appears. Click on Windows Explorer at the bottom:

[pic]

The Windows Explorer is a great tool for finding your way around your hard drive. You can quickly locate files and folders, or browse for something in particular. Another quick way to bring up the Windows explorer is to do the following:

• Press the Windows key on your keyboard (The Windows key is located in the bottom left hand corner of your keyboard, in between the Ctrl key and the Alt key. If there is a gap between these two keys then you have an older keyboard, and the shortcut won't work. Sorry!)

• Once you've located the Windows key, keep it held down

• With the Windows key held down, press the letter "e" on your keyboard

• The Windows Explorer will appear, and should look something like the one below

[pic]

If your screen is not split in two like the one above, do this:

• On the menu bar across the top that says File, Edit, View, Go, etc, select the View option by clicking on the word "View" with your Left mouse button

• A menu will drop down

• Move your mouse pointer down to "Explorer Bar"

• From the sub menu that pops up, click the word "Folders" once with your Left mouse button

• Your screen should split in two like the one above

The left hand side of the Windows Explorer screen shows different areas of your computer. In the previous image, the left part of Windows Explorer starts with Desktop. Next we have My Documents, My Computer, 3 ½ floppy, the C drive, the CD Rom Drive, Control Panel and so on right down to Recycle bin as the last option.

Click on the first option, Desktop, once with your Left mouse button. This will show you all the shortcuts you have on your Desktop, including the "My Documents" shortcut we placed there earlier. But the list of shortcuts will appear on the right hand side. And that is the main idea behind the Windows Explorer - Clicking something on the left hand side will bring up a list on the right hand side.

Click on the letter C in the left hand side of your Windows Explorer. A list of all the files and folders on your hard drive will appear on the right hand side. Like the one below, but with different folder names on your computer.

[pic]

When we create a new folder, it will appear on the right hand side. But because we clicked the letter C on the left hand side, the new folder will be created in the root folder of the C drive.

The Root folder? What's that when it's at home? Well, the rectangular yellow icons on the right hand side are all folders. You can put one folder inside another. All of those folders on the right hand side, and all the single files, are inside the C Folder. The main folder on a hard drive is know as the Root Folder. This is the symbolic notation for the Root Folder on the C Drive

C:\

You can see that notation in the Windows Explorer address bar. (If you can't see an address bar, on the menu bar across the top that has File, Edit, View, Go, click the View option. On the menu that drops down, move your mouse pointer to Toolbars. From the sub menu that pops up, Click the words "Address bar" once with your left mouse button.)

The Windows Explorer address bar looks like this:

[pic]

Notice how the address bar says C:\. This is the root folder of your C Drive, the folder in which all of your other files and folders are placed. Watch what happens when the folder on the right hand side called "Program Files" is double clicked with the left hand mouse button. We get this:

[pic]

The address bar now says C:\Program Files. This means that there is a folder called Program Files, and this folder is on the C Drive. On the right hand side is a list of all the folders and files in the "Program Files" folder.

Now that you know how the Windows Explorer works, we'll now create our new folder.

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How to Create a New Folder

 

[pic]Following along from the last lesson, we'll now create a new folder using the Windows Explorer. So do the following:

• Click once with your Left mouse button on the letter C in the left hand pane of the Windows Explorer

• On the menu bar across the top that has File, Edit, View, Go, Click the File option once with your Left mouse button

• From the menu that drops down, move your mouse pointer to New

• A sub menu appears

• Click the word "Folder" once with your left Mouse button

[pic]

A New folder will be created on your C Drive. The new folder will appear right at the bottom of all of your other folders and files, under the last one. So you might have to scroll across to see it. You can tell it's your new folder because it says, quite helpfully, "New Folder".

When you clicked "Folder", a new folder was created. But it appears right at the end of your list folders and files, in the right-hand pane of Windows Explorer. That's why you might need to scroll down or across in order to see it. But it will look like the one in the picture below:

[pic]

The words "New Folder" will be highlighted. It's highlighted so that you can rename it. After all, "New Folder" is not very descriptive. So go ahead and type in a new name for your folder. Type "wpProjects". As in the image below:

[pic]

If nothing happens when you try to type a new name for your folder, do the following:

• Click on your new folder, but click on the folder with your right hand mouse button

• A menu appears

[pic]

• From the menu, click once with your Left mouse button on the word Rename

• Type a new name for your folder

You have now created a new folder in the root folder of your C Drive. You can use this same technique to create a new folder inside any of the folders on your C Drive. If you make a mistake and decide you don't want this new folder, you can always choose the Delete options from the menu above, instead of Rename.

But one more thing to notice about the Windows Explorer. In the left hand side, you see a lot of plus signs in a square box.

Clicking one of these plus signs will expand your selection. The image on the left below show a plus sign before it is clicked, and on the right afterwards.

[pic]   [pic]

The plus sign turns into a minus sign. But the plus sign indicates that there are more folders inside the one that has the plus sign. When you click the plus sign, it will expand to show you all the folders inside a main folder. You can click on any of these folders to see what is inside it.

As for the files inside the folders - try double clicking on one and see what happens. Don't worry: you won't do any harm!

What we're going to do now is to move that new folder we just created, and put it inside our "My Documents" folder. We'll start that in the next part.

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Moving Folders on your Hard Drive

 

[pic]Drag and Drop Moving

The easiest way to move one folder to another folder is to use drag and drop. And the easiest way to explain drag and drop is by doing it!

To drag the new folder you created earlier and drop it inside your "My Documents" folder, do the following:

• Click on your new folder once with the left hand mouse button

• The folder will be highlighted

• Keep you left hand mouse button held down

• Move your mouse around the screen. You should see a faint outline of the folder moving with your mouse

• Now move the folder over the top of the folder called "My Documents" (Still with your Left mouse button held down!)

• The My Documents folder will be highlight as well

• Once your My Documents folder is highlighted, let go of your left hand mouse button

• The new folder will disappear. It has been moved to My Documents

In the image below, a folder called "MyWPProjects" is being dragged to the My Documents folder on the C Drive.

[pic]

 

Cut and Paste Moving

If all that was a bit tricky, you can use Cut and Paste to move your folder instead.

To cut and paste one folder inside another, do the following:

• Click on the folder you want to move (One click, left hand button), in our case "My WP Projects"

• From the File, Edit, View, Go menu bar in Windows Explorer click "Edit"

• From the menu that drops down, click the word "Cut" with your Left mouse button

• The folder you selected will appear fainter

• Now, Double Click the folder you want to move your new folder into, or select one from the list on the left hand side. In our case that's the "My Documents" folder. So Click the "My Documents" folder

• Once in the "My Documents" folder, From the File, Edit, View, Go menu bar in Windows Explorer click Edit

• From the menu that drops down, click Paste

• Your folder will be pasted from your root folder on the C drive into your My Documents folder

Instead of cutting the folder and pasting, you can just Copy the folder instead. To copy the folder instead of cutting, follow the steps outlined above, but when the menus drop down select "Copy". Then select "Paste" after you have double clicked on the My Documents folders.

Everything we've said above about folders also applies to files. In other words, you can rename a file like you did above, you can copy a file, move it with drag and drop or cut and paste, and you can even create a file with Windows Explorer. Just click on File. From the sub menu select New. You'll see a list of software packages that you can create new files for.

In the next lesson, we'll look at how to copy files from a CD Rom to your hard drive.

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Copying from a CD to a Hard Drive

 

[pic]In this lesson, you'll see how to copy the files from a CD over to your own hard drive. Files load a lot quicker when they are on your own computer comapred to a CD. And you won't have to keep inserting the CD every time you need something from it.

The folder we will be copying is called CD Rom Contents. Inside this folder there are more folders and files that are needed for the courses. When we copy the "CD Rom Contents" folder we will automatically copy all the folders inside this one. In other word, copy one folder and you copy everything inside it.

To copy the contents of a CD Rom to your own hard drive, then, do the following:

• Insert the CD into your CD Rom drive

• Start Windows Explorer if you haven't already (see here for how to do this: Windows Explorer Lessons.)

• In the left hand pane, Click on the Drive letter for your CD Rom (It will probably be "D")

• In the right hand pane of Windows Explorer, you should see the name of a folder or folders (In our case, the folder is called CD Rom Contents.)

[pic]

In the Image above, the CD Rom Drive letter is D. Clicking on the Drive letter displays the contents of the Drive in the right hand pane. The folder CD Rom Contents is displayed.

• Click once with the left hand mouse button on the folder "CD Rom Contents"

• The folder is selected

• From the menu bar at the top of Windows Explorer, click on Edit (once, left hand mouse button)

• From the drop down menu, click "Copy" with your left mouse button

[pic]

• In the left hand pane of Windows Explorer, Click on your hard drive letter, which will probably be C (click the letter C once with your left mouse button)

• When the folders and files from your hard drive are displayed in the right hand pane of the Windows Explorer, click on Edit from the menu bar

• From the drop down menu, click on "Paste" (once with the left mouse button)

• The files will be copied from your CD Rom drive to your Hard drive

[pic]

To check that all the folders have been copied over correctly, double click the "CD Rom Contents" folder on your hard drive.

And that's it. Quite easy, once you get the hang of it! You can use the same method to transfer files from a floppy disk in the Floppy Drive (which is the A drive) to your hard drive.

We'll now move on to finding files and folders that have gone missing.

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Finding Files with Windows XP

 

[pic]Sometimes, you will have created a file or a folder, and just can't remember where it is. If you have a very big hard drive, there are a lot of places to look for a single file. You may never find it, even with the help of Windows Explorer. One thing you can do to track down a missing file or folder is to use the Windows XP Search tool. Here's how to use it.

• Click your Start button in the bottom left corner of your Desktop

• From the menu that pops up, locate the Search item (in the blue section on the right, at the bottom)

• Click on Search

• When you click on Search, you'll get the following window popping up.

[pic]

(If you see an animated dog, and it's annoying you, you can turn it off by clicking it with the right mouse button. Then click "turn off animated character".)

Under "What do you want to search for" click the option "All files and folders". You should see the following:

[pic]

You are given a number of different option to conduct your search. Click inside the top text box, under "All or part of the file name". Enter the name of the file, then click the Search button. (Just enter a few lettters of the file name, if you can't remeber exactly what it's called.) Windows XP will start the search, and you'll see something like this:

[pic]

In the image above we're searching for a file called "wp projects". If XP finds any files or folders with your search term in it, it will display them in the window to the right. In the image below XP has found two folders with our search term in the name.

[pic]

Even though we typed all our letters in lowercase, the folders found have capital letters in them. In others words, the search is not case sensitive.

Notice in the picture that under the heading "In Folder" it says "C" and "My Documents". These are the two place where the folders are. So we have a folder called "My WP Projects" in the "My Documents" folder of the hard drive, and we also have one called wpProjects. This one is in the main C:\ root folder.

You can open any of the files or folders found simply by double clicking on them. But double click a file or folder under the "Name" heading of the Window, and not the "In Folder" heading.

Finally, to get rid of the Search Window, click the red X in the top right corner of the box.

The last part of Computing for Beginners is a section without which no beginners guide would be complete - Wallpapers and Screensavers!

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How to change your Windows XP Wallpaper

 

[pic]Wallpapers are images that appear in the background on your Desktop, behind all your icons. To change your Desktop wallpaper, do the following:

• Click anywhere on the Desktop that is not an icon, but click once with your right hand mouse button

• A menu pops up. The one below

[pic]

• Click on Properties, once with your Left mouse button

• The following dialogue box pops up

[pic]

This is the Display Properties dialogue box. As you can see, there are tab strips for Themes, Desktop, Screensaver, Appearance, and Settings. Click on the Background tab strip and the dialogue box will change to this one:

[pic]

There is a list of wallpapers we can use. Click on one, and you get a preview of what it will look like. Scroll down to see more wallpapers. If you're satisfied, click the OK button to set your wallpaper.

You can use your own images. You are not limited to the ones on the list. If you have an image somewhere on your computer, and you want to use that instead of the ones on the list, you can click the Browse button, in the image above. Doing so will bring up the Browse Dialogue box:

[pic]

In the image above, no background files are showing. You can click one of the folders on the left to search for a picture, or use the "Look In" drop down box at the top. When some background image are showing, click on one to select it. The name of the file you have selected will then appear in the File name text box.

Click the "Open" button to return to the Display Properties dialogue box. A preview of your image will be displayed. If you're happy with your selection, click the "Apply" button then OK. Your desktop will change to your selected image.

In the next part, we'll take a look at Screensavers.

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Setting a Screen Saver with Windows XP

 

[pic]A Screen Saver is something that kicks in when your computer has been idle for a set period of time. They are usually some form of animation, or moving imagery. To pick a Screen Saver for your own computer, select the Screen Saver tab strip from the Display Properties dialogue box by clicking on the word "Screen Saver" once with your left mouse button. It looks like this:

[pic]

Click the little black down-pointing arrow to see a list of available Screen Savers. This one is set to the Windows XP Screen Saver.

[pic]

You can see that it also says "Wait 10minutes". This means that the Screen Saver will kick in if the mouse has not been moved for 10minutes. You can change this figure. The values go from 1 minute to 60 minutes. When you're happy, click Apply then OK. But play about with the settings on the Screen Saver tab strip. The Energy saving features of the monitor section is not available for all computer monitors, so you may or may not have the part available to you.

There are lots and lots of Wallpaper and Screen Saver web sites out there internet. These sites will offer a wide variety of wallpapers and Screen Savers that you can use to liven up your own computer. But be careful of files sent to you by email that pretend to be a Screen Saver (Check for a file that ends in .SCR). There is a good change it will be a computer virus! If the file has been sent to you from somebody you don't know - don't open the attachment. Just delete the whole email.

In the next section, we'll take a look at how to configure a new email account, and email things in general.

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Setting up an Outlook Express Email Account

 

[pic]Your Internet Service Provider has probably given you the option to set up more than one email aaddress. Most come with at least five. So you're not limited to just the one. If somebody else in your household wants his/her own address, you should be able to do it. We'll learn how to configure a new address right now (We're using Outllook Express, the most popular Email software.)

To set up an email address, make sure you are looking at an Outlook Express screen and not a New email screen. Then do the following.

• From the menu bar, click on Tools

• From the drop down menu that appears, click on Accounts (one click, left mouse button)

[pic]

• When you click on Accounts, you get the Internet Accounts dialogue box popping up. Click the Mail tab at the top to see the following:

[pic]

The Mail tab shows you all the email accounts that you have set up. In the image above, there are no email accounts set up yet. To set up an email account, do the following:

• Click on the Add button in the top right hand corner

• A popup menu appears

• Click Mail with your left mouse button

[pic]

When you click on Mail, you get an Account Wizard popping up, which will ask you a series of question. We'll run through the various pages of the Wizard in the next part.

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Setting up an Outlook Express Email Account (p2)

 

[pic]In the last part, we left it at the point where the Email Account Wizard pops up. We'll continue right now.

When the Wizard first starts, it will look like this:

[pic]

• Type in a name you want for display purposes. You can type in anything you like here. It doesn't really matter because Outlook Express will completely ignore the name you pick!

• Click the "Next" button when you're done. The screen will change:

[pic]

You need to type in an email address. Type in the email address you got from your Internet Service Provider.

• Once you have entered the email address, click Next. You'll get the following screen

[pic]

It looks a very daunting screen, so let's break it down.

Your Incoming mail server is probably a POP3 one, so leave the drop down box as it is. The first text box is Incoming mail (POP3, IMAP or HTTP) server. You can usually get these details from your Service Provider's homepage. But yours will probably be a POP or POP3 address. This is a method used to receive emails. The format to type into the text box is this

pop.

So if your Service Provider was Home and Learn, you'd enter this

pop.homeandlearn.co.uk

The next text box to fill in is "Outgoing mail (SMTP) server". SMTP is the method used for sending emails. The format to use is

smtp.

So if your Service Provider was Home and Learn, you'd enter this

smtp.

In the picture below, we have entered some fake POP and SMTP details

[pic]

• Click the "Next" button at the bottom when you are finished

• The next screen is this one:

[pic]

• The Account name is the one you got from your Service Provider. They might have given you a password, too. If they did, enter your Password in the text box. Unless your Service Provider has told you otherwise, DON'T put a tick in the box for Log on using Secure Password Authentication.

• When you're done, click the "Next" button

• There's nothing left to fill in, and you are invited to click the Finish button. Click the Finish button and you'll return to the Internet Accounts dialogue box

• Your new Account will be there:

[pic]

The Account name is a bit messy. Outlook Express has simply taken the name of the Incoming Server - pop.type_your_isp_. To change this to something more memorable, click the Properties button to the right, or simply double click the name of your account. You'll see this dialogue box:

[pic]

Delete the text at the top, the one highlighted in blue in the image. Then type something of your own:

[pic]

Click OK and you'll get back to the Internet Accounts screen. You should see your new name appear, under Account:

[pic]

When you're done, click the Close button on the Internet Accounts dialogue box. You'll be taken back to the main Outlook Express screen. To check if the account has been set up, we can click on the Send/Recv icon in the main Outlook Express screen.

[pic]

As you can see, our new account has been added at the bottom. It was a success!

In the next lesson, we'll have a look at email attachments.

[pic][pic] 

Adding an Attachment with Outlook Express

 

[pic]To add a document as an attachment, do the following.

• Create your new email

• Then click Attach (the paper clip icon) in the toolbar

[pic]

• The Insert Attachment dialogue box appears. You now have to search for that file you want to send

[pic]

• To search for your file, click the little black down-pointing arrow, to the right of "Look in".

• A drop down list appears. In the image we have moved the mouse pointer down to "Local Disk (C:)". A list of files and folders will be displayed.

• In the image below, we have double-clicked the wpProjects folder to get inside of it:

[pic]

• Click on the file you want to attach (click once, left mouse button)

• Then click the grey button that says Attach.

• A copy of the file will be added as an attachment to your email

• You email will now look like the one below

[pic]

As you can see, there is now an Attach text box. The document we wanted is displayed in the text box, along with how big it is: imageFile.jpg (39.0KB). In other words, we'll be sending an email with an attachment that is 39 kilobytes.

You can click the Send icon to send your email.

[pic][pic] 

In the next lesson, you'll see how to Backup Emails in Outlook Express.

How to Backup Emails in Outlook Express

 

[pic]Backing up emails in Outlook Express is not for the faint hearted! It's a lengthy process. If Microsoft decide to update this free email client, a "Backup" button would be a welcome addition. However, the software giant shows no sign of doing anything with Outlook Express, and haven't changed the look and feel of it for some years. (They do security updates, though.)

You can backup individual Outlook Express email folders, or backup all of them. The process is the same, so we'll see how to backup all Outlook Express folders in this tutorial. Off we go.

First, create a folder on your hard drive. Call it something like "backupOE". This folder is where we're going to be saving copies of all of Outlook Express's email folders. Once you have created a new folder, we can begin. (If you don't know how to create a new folder on your hard drive, the tutorial is here: how to create a new folder.)

 

Outlook Express email folders

Outlook Express keeps all of your emails in folders. When you send an email, Outlook Express keeps a copy of it in the Sent Items folder. Likewise, there is a separate folder for emails in your Inbox. You can see all of Outlook Express's folder by clicking on the View menu. Select Layout from the menu. From the dialogue box, make sure there is a tick next to Folder List. On the left hand side of Outlook Express, you should see something like this:

[pic]

These are the folders that we will backup, ensuring that we have a copy of all our emails.

 

Where Outlook Express saves your email folders

All of these folders are stored on your hard drive, in a special location. Because that location may differ from user to user, we can find out where the email folders are stored. So do the following:

• From the Outlook Express menu bar, click on Tools

• From the drop down menu, select Options.

• On the options dialogue box, click the Maintenance tab

• Then locate the Store Folder button, as in the image below:

[pic]

Click the Store Folder button, and you'll see another box pop up. This one:

[pic]

This is the location on your hard drive of your emails and email folders. We need to copy this location.

• Using your Right mouse button, click where it says "C:\Documents and Settings\user … " etc

• You'll get a menu popping up

• Click Select All with you Left mouse button

[pic]

• When you click Select All, the location turns blue

• Right click on the Blue highlighted area, and select Copy from the menu

[pic]

Clicking on Copy will copy this location to the Windows Clipboard. It will then be available to other programmes.

Now that we've copied the location to the Clipboard, we can come out of Outlook Express. So,

• Click Cancel on the Store Location dialogue box

• When you get back the Maintenance tab of the Options box, click the Cancel button

• Then close down Outlook Express altogether

[pic][pic] 

 

In the second half of this tutorial, you'll learn how to open up the emails folders, copy them, and paste to your new backup folder.

Continue with the tutorial -->

Backup Emails in Outlook Express, Part Two

 

[pic] 

This lesson follows on from the previous tutorial.

In the last lesson, you copied the location of where Outlook Express stores all your email folders. In this lesson, you'll now copy those folders, and then paste them to the backup folder you created. Off we go then.

 

Locate the Outlook Express store folder

We now need to open up the location we just copied. To do that, we can use the Run utility. So, do the following:

• Click your Start menu (probably in the bottom left of your screen)

• Then select Run, as in the image below:

[pic]

When you click Start > Run, you'll see another box appear. If your Run dialogue box has anything in the Open text box area, click inside of it and then delete everything that's there. You should then have a blank text box. To copy the Outlook Express Store Location, do the following:

• With your Right mouse button, click inside of the Open text box

• From the menu, select Paste:

[pic]

The contents of the Clipboard (our Store Location), will then be pasted to the Open text box, as in the following image:

[pic]

Click OK on the Run box.

If you were successful, you should see a new window appear. This will show all of the items in Outlook Express's Store Location. You should be looking at a window something like this one:

[pic]

Outlook Express folders end with the three letters DBX. This tells you that it is an email folder. All of your emails are stored in these folders. You now need to copy these folders, and paste them to that folder you created at the start of the lesson.

• So, click the Edit menu at the top of the screen

• From the Edit menu, click Select All

[pic]

• Click the Edit menu again

• This time, click Copy

When you click Copy, your Outlook Express email folders will be copied to the Windows Clipboard, ready to be pasted elsewhere.

 

Saving your Copied Outlook Express folders

To save your copied Outlook Express folders, you now need to locate the folder you created earlier. In the image below, we've navigated to the backupOE folder. This was created on hard drive called F (this is a second hard drive on this PC. So if the first one goes down, we'll still have all of our Outlook Express email folders on a different drive.)

[pic]

Double click your new folder to open it up. Then from the menu bar, click Edit > Paste. All of your Outlook Express email folders will then be pasted to your new folder. You can then burn them to CD for safe keeping. Or save then to another hard drive, like we did.

[pic][pic] 

Of course, once you've backed up all your emails folder, you need to know how to restore them if anything goes wrong with your PC. We'll see how to do that in the next tutorial.

Learn How to Restore your Outlook Express Email Folders -->

How to Restore Outlook Express Emails

 

[pic]In a previous tutorial, you learnt how to backup your Outlook Express emails. In this tutorial, we'll see how to restore them if anything goes wrong with your PC. The process is not quite as long as it was for saving them. Here's how to do it.

 

How to Restore Outlook Express backups

• Open up Outlook Express

• Click on the File menu

• From the File menu, select Import > Messages, as in the image below:

[pic]

When you click Import > Messages, you get a Wizard popping up. The first screen looks like this:

[pic]

Select Microsoft Outlook Express 6 from the list, then click Next. You'll then get this screen:

[pic]

Select "Import mail from and OE6 store directory", as in the image above. Then click OK. You'll then be taken to the next step of the wizard:

[pic]

You now need to select the folder where you saved your Outlook Express backups. So click the Browse button. You can then navigate to where you saved all those DBX files. In the image below, we've navigated to our second hard drive. If you have your backups on a backup CD, you would navigate to there:

[pic]

Click the OK button when you have located your backup Outlook Express folder. Click Next when you are return to the Location of Messages step of the Wizard. The next step of the wizard will then look like this:

[pic]

You can select either individual folder to import, or import all the folder that the Wizard finds in your backup folder. We've chosen All folders. Click the Next button to continue. Outlook Express goes to work, importing your backup DBX folders:

[pic]

When your emails have been imported, click the Finish button on the final step of the Wizard. You will be congratulated on successfully importing your messages. Such a lengthy process is it, you deserve those congratulations!

[pic][pic] 

In the next tutorial, you'll learn how to backup an Outlook Express Address book.

Learn How to Backup an Outlook Express Address Book -->

How to Backup an Outlook Express AddressBook

 

[pic]If something happens to your PC, the loss of your Outlook Express Address Book can be devastating. Imagine all those valuable contacts disappearing when you computer refuses to ever boot up again! In this tutorial, we'll see how to backup your Address Book. That way, you can restore it at the click of a few mouse buttons. Off we go.

 

Backup an Outlook Express AddressBook

• Open up Outlook Express

• From the menu bar, click Tools > Address Book

• When your Address Book opens up, click the File menu

• Then select Export > Address Book (WAB)

[pic]

Choose a location and file name for your Address book, then click the Save button. Outlook Express will save your address book.

[pic]

Note the location in the Message Box. This address book is being backed up to a folder on the F drive called Backups. The name of the file is AddressBook.wab.

You now need to learn how to import this file, just in case anything goes wrong with your PC.

 

How to Import an Address Book in Outlook Express

The process to import an address book into Outlook Express is quite straightforward. Do this:

• Open up Outlook Express

• Click the File menu

• From the File menu, select Import > Address Book

• Navigate to where you saved your Address Book

• Then click the Open button

• If all went well, you'll see this message:

[pic]

All your contacts will then be restored to Outlook Express.

[pic][pic] 

Another useful backup is Email Accounts. Rather than typing out all your account details again, why not just import it from your backup folder? You'll learn how to do that in the next lesson.

Learn How to Backup an Outlook Express Email Account -->

How to backup an Outlook Express Email Account

 

[pic]When you create a new email account in Outlook Express, the process can be quite tricky - especially if you don't know the pop and smtp details, and have had to phone up your ISP to find out! Now that you've set up the email account, it's worth backing up these details, just in case something happens to your PC. Here how to do it.

• Open up Outlook Express

• From the menu bar, click on Tools

• From the tools menu, select Accounts

• From the Internet Accounts dialogue box, click on the Mail tab at the top

• From the list of available account, select the account you want to backup

• Then click the Export button on the right, as in the image below:

[pic]

In the Image above, we've clicked on the Home and Learn email account to select it. The Export button is on the right hand side, near the bottom.

When you click the Export button, you'll get the follow dialogue box popping up:

[pic]

The file extension is IAF. This tells you that it is an Outlook Express email account. The name of the file is Home and Learn. We're saving it to our F drive for safe keeping, in a folder called backupOE.

When you click the Save button, the email account will backed-up. (The only thing not saved will be your password.)

If anything happens to your PC, you can import the email account quite easily. Just click the Import button on the Internet Accounts box, instead of the Export button.

[pic][pic] 

In the next tutorial, you'll learn how to set up an identity with Outlook Express. This is very useful if you have only one PC but more than one user.

Use an Identity to set up a second Outlook Express Account -->

Use an Identity to set up a second email account

 

[pic]If you have more than one user on the same PC, you can set up a separate identity for them. That way, they won't get their account mixed up with yours. They won't be able to see your emails, and you won't be able to see theirs. To set up a separate identity in Outlook Express, do the following:

• Open up Outlook Express

• Click on the File menu at the top

• From the File menu Select Identities > Add New Identity

• The New Identity box appears, and looks like this:

[pic]

At the top of the New Identity box, type a name (We've called ours Second User.) You also have the option of setting up a password for the identity. But as the help button informs you, this is not terribly secure. We'll leave it blank. Click the ok button and you get a message box popping up:

[pic]

Click Yes to switch to the new identity. Your Outlook Express screen will then tell you that you have one unread message (this is just the Microsoft Welcome email.)

[pic]

Notice that the name of the Identity is showing - Second User, in our case. If you look on the left, you'll see the folder bar is showing 1 message in the Inbox.

Any folders you set up for your main account will not be there: the two account are kept separate. You now need to set up an email account for this Identity. Click Tools > Accounts, then click the Mail tab. You'll see that the text area is blank:

[pic]

The email account you set up in your identity is missing! You can only see your email account if you switch to your identity. To set up a new email account, click the Add button. Then click Mail. If you're not sure how to create an email account, see the following tutorial: How to set up an Outlook Express email account.

 

Switching Identities

To switch back to your email account (your Identity), click the File menu. From the File menu, select Switch Identities. You'll see the following box:

[pic]

The Log Off identity button is quite confusing. If you click it, it closes down Outlook Express. To switch identities, select the Identity you want from the list, then click the OK button. You will then be able to access your own emails.

Delete an Identity

To delete an identity, click the File menu. From the File menu, select Identities > Manage Identities. You'll see the following box:

[pic]

Select the Identity you want to delete, and then click the Remove button on the right. You can't remove your own Identity, though. If you were logged on as Second User, for example, and then tried to delete this Identity, the button would be unavailable.

When you click the Remove button, you'll see this warning message:

[pic]

So, think carefully before you delete an identity - you might be deleting a lot of important emails by mistake!

[pic][pic] 

In the next part, learn how to add a message to all outgoing emails.

Add a Signature to all outgoing emails

 

[pic]You can add a message to all outgoing emails in Outlook Express. If you have received an email from somebody with AVG anti-virus, for example, you'll see something like "Checked by AVG Free Edition" at the bottom of the email. This gets added automatically by the programme. It's called a Signature.

To set up your own Signatures, or perhaps just to have your name added automatically to all outgoing emails, do the following.

 

How to add a Signature in Outlook Express

From the main Outlook Express screen click the Tools menu at the top. From the Tools menu, select Options. From the Options dialogue box, click the Signatures tab, as in the image below:

[pic]

Click the New button to create a new signature. It will have a default name of something like "Signature #1":

[pic]

In the "Edit Signature" text area below, make sure Text is selected:

[pic]

Click inside of the text area and type the text you want to add to all outgoing messages:

[pic]

At the top of the Signatures tab, make sure "Add signatures to all outgoing messages" is ticked:

[pic]

To give your signature a more memorable name, click the Rename button. Then type a new name for your signature:

[pic]

If you have more than one signature set up, you can make one of them the default. Just click a signature to highlight it, and then click button "Set as Default"

To test out your new signature - send yourself an email. The email you get back should now have your new signature on it. If it's not quite what you wanted, go back to the signatures tab and edit your work.

If you have more than one signature set up, you can choose which one to insert. Create a new email, then click the Insert menu at the top of the new email. From the Insert menu, select Signature. You should see the signatures you have set up. Select one to insert it into your email. (If Signature is unavailable, it means you haven't clicked inside the Body of the email. Your cursor is probably in the "To", "CC", or "Subject" areas.)

[pic][pic] 

 

Brighten up your Emails

 

[pic]You can brighten up your emails with the use Outlook Express Stationery. This usually consists of a background image, and formatted font. It's very easy to add Stationery to your emails. Try the following.

• Open up Outlook Express, and click the icon for "Create Mail". This will open up a new email, with its own menu bar

• From the New Message menu bar, click Format and make sure that "Rich Text (HTML)" is selected:

[pic]

NOTE: If you use Rich Text, it means your emails will be sent using HTML. This means you can do all the fancy formatting you want (bulltes, italics, Bold, etc). However, a lot of people don't like to receive emails that have been formatted using HTML, because there are some security issues involved. For example, some dangerous JavaScript can be executed in the background, if you receive HTML emails. If you use Plain Text, then potential for harm is greatly reduced. You can't do any text formatting, though. To change an email into Plain text, simply select it from the Format menu.)

• Click Format again, and select Apply Stationery > More Stationery:

[pic]

You should get the following dialogue box popping up:

[pic]

You can select one of the inbuilt templates. Tick the box "Show preview" to see what your email will look like. If you like any of these, click OK. Your new message will then have a background image.

If you don't like any of these (and you won't!) then you can create your own stationery in Outlook Express. To see how to do just that, move on to the next part.

[pic][pic] 

Create your own Stationery

 

[pic]You can create your own stationery in Outlook Express, and add any images you like. Your new stationery will then be available any time you need it. Try this:

From a new email, click Format > Apply Stationery > More Stationery from the menu bar. This will bring up the Select Stationery dialogue box:

[pic]

• Click the button Create New. You'll then get a Wizard popping up. Click next to see the following screen:

[pic]

From this screen, you can select an image to use as your stationery, and specify where it should go on the page. Click the Browse button to select the image you want to use for your stationery. (You don't want to select images that are very large, because the size of the file would be too big. Aim for an image that's no more than 10 to 15 kilobytes in size.)

In the images below, we've clicked the Browse button to navigate to an image we want to use:

[pic]

[pic]

In the two images above, we've chosen an picture called piano.jpg. The location of this image is then placed in the textbox (F:\stationery\piano.jpg).

We want this image to appear on the left of our email, and for it to be tiled vertically. This will get us the same image repeated down the page. From the Position drop down lists we've chosen Top, Left and Tile Vertically. A preview of what this will look like appears on the right:

[pic]

If you would like a different colour for the main body of the email, tick the Color checkbox. You can then select your colour from the list:

[pic]

There's not too many to choose from, but we've gone for Silver.

When you're happy with the Preview, click Next.

The next screen allows you to select the Font you want to use for your email text. This, unfortunately, does not work too well. You can select the font you want to use, along with the colour and size. But when you try to write your email with your new stationery, Outlook Express will often revert to the default of an Arial font in size 10! All the same, we've chosen a Comic Sans MS font in size 12. We've kept the colour on black, and don't want Bold or Italic.

[pic]

The next screen is an important one. It allows you to set how far from the left the text should start. The size is in pixels. The image we're trying to use is 200 pixels high by 200 pixels wide, so we need the left margin to start at a number higher than 200. Otherwise our email text will end up over the image. You can also specify how far down the page you want your text to start. In the image below, our left margin is 225 pixels and our Top margin is 50 pixels:

[pic]

Click next, and give your new stationery a name (it's better to use just one word).

When you click Next, you're done. So click the Finish button and you'll be returned to the Select Stationery screen. The name of your new Stationery will already be in the File Name box, so just click OK to see your new stationery added to you email. Type some text to see what it looks like. Has Outlook Express ignored your Font choices and gone back to Arial 10 points? In the image below, it has! The only solution is to type the email text in the default font and then format it later :(

[pic]

 

There's plenty of stationery on the Internet, if you want to see what others have created. Try a Google search with "Outlook Express Stationery". (Include the quote marks.) Your emails need never be plain again!

[pic][pic] 

Accessibility Options - StickyKeys

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

The StickyKeys Option is for people who have problems holding down two or more keys on the keyboard at the same time. If you want to bring up the Task Manager, for example, you'd hold down the CTRL and ALT keys on your keyboard, and then press the Delete key. If, for whatever reason, you're not able to do this, then StickyKeys can come in handy.

To bring up the StickyKeys dialogue box, click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen, then click Control Panel on the Start menu. From the Control Panel, double click "Accessibility Options". You'll see the following dialogue box:

[pic]

Put a tick in the box where it says "Use StickyKeys". Then click the Settings button. You'll see this dialogue box:

[pic]

There are only five settings, grouped into three categories. If your keyboard is making srtange, high-pitched noises, then you might have a tick in the box at the top "Use Shortcut". This switches StickyKeys on or off when you hit the Shift Key 5 times in a row (the Shift key is the one with the up-pointing arrow, usually just below the Caps Lock key).

The first Option, Press modifier key twice to lock, is probably the most useful one. When this is ticked, it locks the CTRL, Shift, ALT, or Windows logo key. Then you just need to press the shortcut key on the keyboard. You wouldn't need to hold two keys down at the same time. For example, the keyboard shortcut to copy things to the Windows clipboard is CTRL + C. To paste, it's CTRL + V. With the "Press modifier key twice to lock" option ticked, press the CTRL key twice. This locks it. Now you don't have to keep holding down the CTRL key when you want to copy and paste. Just press C then V.

Unfortunately, activating this option means you can't switch between programmes! You're stuck to using one programme at a time until you turn it off.

The Notification area is if you want Windows to make that awful high-pitched noise when the modifier keys are pressed. (The modifier keys are CTRL, Shift, Alt, or the Windows logo key.)

If you want some visual notification that StickyKeys is on, tick the final option: Show StickyKeys status on screen. Selecting this option will make an icon appear near the clock, as in the following image:

[pic]

The StickyKeys icon is the one on the far left - the one with the black rectangles.

If you really do have problems holding down two or more keys at the same time, then StickyKeys can come in useful. But you may need the Valium handy to cope with that nerve-jangling, high-pitched noise that Windows make!

 

Move on to the Next Part-->

Accessibility Options - FilterKeys

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

If you or a member of the family have difficulties using the keyboard (trembling hands that produce multiple keystrokes, or difficulty pressing and releasing the keys quickly enough), then Windows XP has an option called FilterKeys. This is on the Accessibility Options dialogue box. To see it, click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen. From the Start menu, click on Control Panel. Double click the Accessibility Options icon to see the following screen.

[pic]

With FilterKeys, you can control how long the keyboard takes to respond before the next key press is ready (under normal circumstances this is immediately), and tell XP to ignore repeated keystrokes.

To see what you can do with FilterKeys, click the Settings button. You'll see the following dialogue box:

[pic]

The shortcut for FilterKeys is to hold down the RIGHT Shift key for 8 seconds. When you do, it switches FilterKeys on or off. Put a tick in the box Use shortcut if this will be useful to you (a non disabled person sharing a disabled person's PC, for example).

The second set of options are:

• Ignore repeated keystrokes

• Ignore quick keystrokes and slow down the repeat rate

If you select the first option (Ignore repeated keystrokes) you can set how long it takes before the next key is ready to be pressed. To try it out, click the settings button to see this dialogue box:

[pic]

Click inside the Test area and try to press a letter on your keyboard twice in under half a second. You won't be able to. If that's not slow enough, click the drop down list to select a new value. You can choose from between 0.5 seconds and 2 seconds.

The second option, Ignore quick keystrokes and slow down the repeat rate, allows you to set the repeat delay and repeat rate. Click the Settings button to see the following options:

[pic]

Repeat delay is how long it takes for a key to respond to a single key press. The value go from 0.3 seconds to 2 seconds. The repeat rate is how fast the letters appear if you hold down the key. Or, to put it another way, you have up to 2 seconds to take your finger off the key before it will repeat the letter. But you can choose values from 0.3 seconds to 2 seconds.

The Slow Keys option lets you slow down the keys on the keyboard, so that a key needs to be held down for a certain length of time before anything happens. The intervals go from 0 to 20 seconds.

If you have FilterKeys turned on, you may see the following icon near the clock in the bottom right:

[pic]

The FilterKeys icon is the one on the far left - the one that looks like a stopwatch.

 

Switch Off FilterKeys

A lot of people have accidentally switched FilterKeys on. Symptoms are a keyboard that keeps beeping whenever you press a letter, and/or a delay before you can press a new key. To turn off this feature, uncheck the box on the Accessibility Options dialogue box that says Use FilterKeys. Next, click the Settings button and uncheck the option for Use Shortcut. Click OK on all the dialogue boxes and your problems should now disappear!

If the problem doesn't disappear, try the following:

• Press and hold down the Right shift key

• Press the F7 key

• Then, with the Right shift key still held down, press the other shift key three times

Or just try holding down both Shift keys at the same time.

 

Accessibility Options - Mouse

 

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

 

[pic]

 

To move your cursor around the screen, you use the mouse, of course. But if using the mouse is difficult, impossible, or just plain painful, then why not control the mouse with your keyboard keys instead? To set this up, do the following:

• Click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen

• From the Start menu, click on Control Panel

• From the Control Panel, double click Accessibility Options

• Click the Mouse tab at the top to see the following:

[pic]

Put a tick in the box where it says "Use MouseKeys", and then click the Settings button. You'll see the following screen:

[pic]

 

You can set the pointer speed to how fast you want it to move when the numeric keys on your keyboard are pressed (these are the ones on right of the keyboard. Look out for NumLock. In the image above, we can only use MouseKeys when this is on).

We've set the mouse pointer speed to High, and Fast. Click Ok on all the screens, and test it out. With the NumLock on, press the Up (number 8), Down (number 2), Left (number 4) and Right (number 6) arrow keys. You should see your mouse move around the screen

If you want to access a menu, move the mouse pointer up to the menu item you want. Then press the big 0 key on the numeric key pad. The menu should display. You can then use the normal arrow keys to highlight things from the menu. Press the Enter key to select a menu item, and to bring up dialogue boxes. You can use the Tab key on the keyboard to move around dialogue boxes. The normal arrow keys and the enter key are used to select things from the dialogue box.

If MouseKeys is active, you may see its icon in the bottom right, near the clock (the icon on the far left, in the image below):

[pic]

The MouseKeys option can be very handy, if using the mouse is difficult. You should still be able to use a computer, if you can't use a mouse!

 

Install a New Font

 

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

If you've ever had to choose a Font for some word processing you've been doing, then you've probably heard of Arial, Times New Roman and Courier. You may well have wanted something a little different for your work, and chosen Fonts, like Bookman Old Style or Comic Sans MS.

There will also be plenty of fonts to choose from if you have Microsoft Word, as it comes

with its own set of Fonts. But even if these are not enough, there's some great Fonts out there on the Internet. You can use a Control Panel icon to install new Fonts.

First, though, you need to get hold of a Font that you like. Most Fonts are copyrighted to the people or organizations who created them. So you just can't install a Font without reading the copyright information attached to it. But there are plenty of free Fonts you can download. A good place to start looking is this website:



Pizzadude is the alias of Jakob Fischer, who has been designed fonts since 1998. He has some great free fonts that you can use.

You can also find his fonts at the FontFreak website:



We've chosen his "Words of Love" font. After it has been downloaded and unzipped, you'll see this:

[pic]

Double click the Text Document to see what you can and can't do with the Font. As Jakob says,

"This font is copyright (c) Jakob Fischer at pizzadude.dk, all rights reserved. Do not distribute without the author's permission.

Use this font for non-commercial use only! If you plan to use it for commercial purposes, contact me before doing so!"

So as long as we don't use the Font directly in any commercial work, we should be all right. But you should always get the Font creator's permission, if you're not sure.

Once we have downloaded the Font we're looking for, we can go ahead and install it.

• Click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen

• From the Start menu, click on Control Panel

• Double click the Font item in the Control Panel to see a list of all the Fonts on your computer. (In the image below, there's not a lot of Fonts! But your computer will probably have quite a lot)

[pic]

The TT on the icons stands for TrueType. TrueType is a Font scaling technology, developed by Apple for the Macintosh. They then got together with Microsoft so that the technology could be implemented on both Mac and PC.

The O on the icons stands for OpenType. (Microsoft had also teamed up with Adobe, and together they worked on another Scaling technology called OpenType.)

To install your new font, click File from the menu. Then click Install New Font. You'll get the following dialogue box popping up:

[pic]

You now need to navigate to where on your computer you downloaded the font to. In this type of dialogue box, you select a drive from the drop down list. Then you double click a folder to see what's inside of it. We downloaded the font to the F drive, but yours is probably C. Make sure there is a tick in the box "Copy fonts to Font Folder".

[pic]

Once you have found your font, it will appear in the text area under List of Fonts:

[pic]

Click on the Font to select it, and then click OK. You should then see your new font on the list:

[pic]

 

Double click the font and it should open in the Windows Font Viewer. You will then see some more information about the Font, including copyright information:

[pic]

With the Windows Font Viewer, you are also able to see what the Font looks like in different sizes.

To use your new font, open up a programme like Microsoft Word (if it's already open, close it first, and then reopen it). It should then be available in the list of fonts:

[pic]

Start typing to see what your new font is like on the page.

 

Power Options

 

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

You can set up various power option in Windows XP. These are things like turn off the hard drive, go in to hibernation, turn off the monitor, and even settings for Uninterruptible Power Supply units (surge protectors). We'll take a look at the Power Options now.

Power Schemes

Open the control panel by clicking the Start button. Select Control Panel from the Start menu, and look for the Power Options item. Double click this to bring up the following screen:

[pic]

You can select a built-in power scheme by choosing one from the drop down list:

[pic]

When you choose an option, you'll see the settings change for the other three drop down lists. But you can change these to anything you like:

If you select the laptop power scheme, the settings will be as follows:

[pic]

So XP will switch your monitor off after 15 minutes of inactivity. It won't turn off your hard drive, and will go into Standby mode after 20 minutes. Again, you can set these times to any you like from the drop down lists

From an energy point of view, or if you want to save a few pennies off your power bills, switching off the monitor on a Home/Office PC after a certain length of time can help.

NOTE: When XP goes in to Standby mode, it will disconnect any internet connection you may have. When it comes out of Standby mode (after you move the mouse, for example), it won't reconnect you to the internet.

Power Options – Advanced

If you click the Advanced tab, you'll see this screen:

[pic]

The icon for the power options looks like this (the one on the far left):

[pic]

If you see that icon near your clock, you know you have power options set on your computer.

You can also get XP to prompt you for your password when the computer comes out of standby. Put a tick in the box to keep prying eyes from your PC.

The power buttons are on the PC itself (the off button, if you like), and on the keyboard. Not all keyboards have a "sleep" button, but setting this option can be a quick way to switch the PC off.

 

Power Options - Hibernate

The Hibernate option only has one tick box on it. It's a bit like standby, but it stores a few settings in memory, so that it can return to the previous state it was in before hibernation. At least, that's the theory!

Power Options -UPS

UPS stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply. In the UK, it's commonly know as a surge protector. This is a device that sits between your electric wall socket and the PC. If you get some kind of power surge or outage, they protect your PC. They can also protect modems, and we've known quite a few of these taken out by a storm! They can be a good investment.

Here's what the UPS screen looks like:

[pic]

From this screen, you can select the make of your UPS, and configure a few settings.

Click the Select button and choose your model from the list. If it's not there, choose Generic. When you click OK, the Configure button should become available.

[pic]

If the UPS device detects a power failure, XP picks it up. It then gives you warnings. In the UPS configuration screen, you can set the number of seconds for the first warning, and subsequent warnings. You can also set what happens when you hear the alarm going off. (Panic is not an option!) You'll probably want XP to switch the computer off, though.

 

Folder Options

 

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

If you want to control how Folders operate on your PC, and files in folders, then the Control Panel icon you need is called, not surprisingly, Folders. There are some quite useful options here that you may want to set, and we'll see what they are now.

Click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen. From the Start menu, click Control Panel. Then double click the Folder Options icon to see the following screen:

[pic]

There are three tabs on the Folder Options dialogue box: General, View and File Types.

 

General Folder Options

The image above shows the General Folder options you can set. The first one, tasks, sets how the Folder looks when you open it up. The two views are Show common tasks in folders, and Use Windows classic folders. The first one looks like this:

[pic]

The Tasks pane is on the left, in blue. If you select Use Windows classic folders then this will disappear.

The two Browse folders options do exactly what they say. If you choose to open the folders in a new window then when you double click a folder to see what's inside of it, you stay on the same screen. The other option is to open a new window every time you double click a folder.

The Click items … option can speed things up a bit. If you choose this option then there's no more double clicking a folder to open it. Just point your mouse at a folder and then click just the once.

 

Folder Options - View

When you click the View tab, you'll see the following screen:

[pic]

There are some interesting option you may want set here. One that we recommend is the one at the bottom, in the image above: Hide extensions for know file types. If you check this box, your files will look like this:

[pic]

But if you uncheck "Hide extensions for know file types" you files will look like this:

[pic]

In this view, you can now see what type of file it is: a ZIP file, in this case. The three letters on the end, after the full stop, tell you this. We recommend you uncheck "Hide extensions for know file types", so that you can see what type a file you have downloaded, or are trying to open. (Be wary of files that end in EXE. These are the ones that you double click to install things. Some viruses and Trojans end in EXE as well. That's why you should scan all EXE files with you Anti Virus software before opening them. If you have the habit of simply double clicking every file on your PC, without realising what it is, then you're asking for trouble!

Another useful option on the Advanced Settings list is "Show pop-up description for folders and desktop items". When you have this option checked you will see a little pop up, when you move your mouse over a file or folder. It will look like this:

[pic]

 

File Types

The File Types tab shows you which programme is used to open certain files. For example, if you double click an MP3 music file then it may automatically open in the Windows Media Player. If you'd rather have some other programme open up your MP3 files instead, you can change it from here. The File Types tab looks like this.

[pic]

In the image above, we've clicked on MP3. This details section tells us that it is set to be opened with the Windows Media Player. There is a Change button that you can click to set this to another programme. The screen looks like this:

[pic]

We've gone a free programme called BSPlayer. When OK is clicked, all our MP3 files will then open up in this programme.

NOTE: If you double click a file and get an error message telling you that the programme associated with this file is missing, and XP can't open it, then it means that the Registered File Type needs resetting. Choose a new programme from the list of options above. Or click the Browse button to search for a programme.

 

Customize Your Folder Views

 

As well as the folder options from the dialogue box, you can do a certain amount of customization of you folders. Here's how.

 

Change how the Files are displayed

In the image below, the files in the folder are displayed as Tiles:

[pic]

To change how the files are displayed, either click the View menu at the top, or click the Views icon in the toolbar:

[pic]

The black dot shows you which View is currently selected.

The five different Views in XP are Thumbnails, Tiles, Icons, List, and Details. When you click Thumbnails, you'll see your files set out like this:

[pic]

When you click Icons, you'll see your files set out like this:

[pic]

When you click List, you'll see your files set out like this:

[pic]

When you click Details, you'll see your files set out like this:

[pic]

The only two views where file information is directly displayed are Tiles and Details. Otherwise, you have to move your mouse over a file to get more information. If you need to see how big a file is (if you're emailing an image, for example, then select Tiles or Details.

If you want to add more details than the ones above, click View from the menu bar. From the View menu, click Choose Details. You'll then see a dialogue box that allows you to select the items you want in Details view. In the image above, only Size, Type and Date Modified are shown. But you can add details like Date Created, Owner, Author, Title, and a whole lot more.

 

Change the Sounds that Window XP makes

 

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

You can change the sounds that Window XP makes when it's doing something (displaying an error message, starting up, emptying the recycle bin, etc). If you're getting tired of that short musical burst when XP closes down, then why not replace it with something of your own? Here's how.

Click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen. From the Start menu, select Control Panel. From the Control Panel, double click Sounds and Audio Devices. The first Tab will be the Volume controls for your computer. Click the Sounds tab at the top to see the following screen:

[pic]

The first drop down box is for any Sound schemes you may have on your computer. Yours will probably say Windows Default.

The Program Events list is all the XP events for which you can change the sound. Scroll down the list to see what's on it.

To assign your own sound to a Program Event, your first need a new sound. There are plenty of free sounds available on the internet, and this is a good place to start is with these two websites:





Or type the following into a search engine (include the double quote marks):

"free sounds" +wav

WAV is a type of sound file. Others are MID and, of course, MP3. In the following image, we've downloaded a few WAV files to a folder on the hard drive:

[pic]

You can either keep them in your download folder, or copy them to the place where XP stores all of its own sounds. Navigate to the following folder on your hard drive:

C:\Windows\Media folder

Then copy and paste your new sounds to this "Media" folder. (If you're not sure how to do this, see the section on "Moving Folders on your Hard Drive".)

If you copy your new sounds to the Media Folder they will be available in the Sounds drop down list. In the image below, we've selected the "Program Error" event. The Sounds list then becomes available:

[pic]

Select the sound you want from the list. If the sound you want is not on the list, click the Browse button. You can then search your hard drive for the location of your WAV file.

To hear what you WAV sound like, click the arrow circled in the image below:

[pic]

If your sound card is working OK, you should hear something. Click Apply and OK when you're happy with your new sound.

 

Task Bar Settings

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

You can change the settings on the Windows XP Taskbar (that thin strip running across the bottom of your screen - from the Start button to the clock). Play around with these settings as we go along!

To get at the settings for the Taskbar, click Start and then Control Panel. From the Control Panel, double click Taskbar and Start Menu. This will bring up a dialogue box. You can also bring this dialogue box up by clicking the Taskbar with your Right mouse button. From the menu, select Properties. You should see the following:

[pic]

Lock the Taskbar

Some people like to have the Taskbar at the top of the screen, or at the sides. To move the Taskbar, you click on it with the left mouse button. Keep the mouse button held down and drag to the very edges of your screen, or to the very top. Let go of the left mouse button and your Taskbar will be relocated. To stop this from happening, put a tick in this box Lock the taskbar.

Auto-hide the Taskbar

If you want you're your Taskbar to disappear when you move your mouse over it, place a tick in the box Auto-hide the Taskbar. If you've accidentally enabled this, and are getting tired of your Taskbar hiding every time your mouse is at the bottom of the screen, then take the tick out.

Keep the Taskbar on top of other windows

If you have this box unticked then the Taskbar will disappear altogether when you have a programme maximized on your screen. It means, for example, that you won't see the clock or the Start button if you're typing away in Microsoft Word.

Group similar Taskbar buttons

By similar, Microsoft mean similar programmed. It's when you have say Internet Explorer windows staked one on top of the other. Put a tick in the box and you may see the preview window at the top of the Taskbar properties page change to this:

[pic]

The number 2 means two Internet Explorer windows are open. To see which pages you have open, click on the white arrow.

Show quick launch

Arguably the most useful item on the Taskbar! When you put a tick in this box, you'll see some shortcuts appear, just the right of the green Start button. This allows you to click the shortcut and quickly launch the programme. If you've ever had a version of Windows before XP then you would have seen this all the time. But of you upgrade to XP then it's hidden by default. To get it back, put a tick in the box Show quick launch. You'll then see something like the following appear:

[pic]

The three new icons are, from left to right, shortcuts to Internet Explorer, a shortcut to quickly minimize or maximize all open programmes, and a shortcut to the Windows Media Player.

You can delete these and add your own. Right click an icon, and then select delete from the menu that appears. To add a quick launch shortcut to a favourite programme, you can drag and drop into this area. The image below shows the process in action. We want to drag the Firefox icon to the Quick Launch area.

Click on an Icon with your Left mouse button:

[pic]

Hold down the left mouse button and drag to the quick launch area:

[pic]

Let go of the left mouse button when the cursor changes to a black line:

[pic]

When you let go of your left mouse button, the new icon should appear on the Quick Launch bar. Click it once to start the programme:

[pic]

 

Hide Inactive icons

The inactive icons are the ones near the clock. If you have too many icons there, then they can occupy a lot of the Taskbar area. Much more than you'd like. To hide the ones you don't use often, put a tick in the box Hide Inactive Icons. Your taskbar will then change to this:

[pic]

The white arrows indicates hidden icons. Move your mouse over the arrows to reveal the hidden icons in the Taskbar.

NOTE: We've missed out Show the clock. It does exactly what it says on the tin - shows or hides the clock in the bottom right of the screen. If your clock has gone missing, then put a tick in the box.

 

Customize Your Start Menu

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

You can customize your Windows XP Start menu. To get at the settings for the Start Menu, click Start and then Control Panel. From the Control Panel, double click Taskbar and Start Menu. This will bring up a dialogue box. You can also bring this dialogue box up by clicking the Taskbar with your Right mouse button. From the menu, select Properties. Click the Start tab from the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties box. You should see this:

[pic]

There are two options on this screen: to have the new-look XP start menu, or the older one (Classic) familiar to Windows 9X/Windows 2000 users. We'll stick with the first one, Start menu. But if you prefer the Classic menu, then select it from here. Click the Customize button to see the options.

But with the first option, Start menu, selected click the Customize button to see the following dialogue box:

[pic]

The general tab has three sections. The first of these allows you to select the size of the icons on the start menu, Large or Small. The second option, Programs, lets you select how many programs to display in the "most often used" section. This is the section highlighted in the image below:

[pic]

The Show on Start menu option is for which Internet Browser or Email programme you prefer. Select one of these, and the drop-down list becomes available.

The Advanced tab has more options. Click this tab to see the following:

[pic]

The first two options are easy ones. If a menu item has a black arrow next to it, it's know as a submenu. To save you actually clicking on it, you can just display the submenu by hovering your mouse over it. Untick the box if you prefer to click. If you place a tick in the box "Highlight newly installed programs" then new items on your All Programs list will have an orange tint to them.

To really customize your Start menu, the list under Start menu items is the one to concentrate on. Scroll down to see the options. But here's an image of the full list:

[pic]

There's a lot of things you can change. For example, if you don't want the My Document folder on your Start menu, select the option "Don't display this item". The same goes with the My Music, and My Pictures folders. You'll have your own preferences for your Start menu, so play around with the above options.

XP also lists, by default, a list of your recently opened documents. If you want to hide this list from prying eyes, uncheck the box "List my recently opened documents".

Add a programme to the Start menu

If you want to add a programme to the Start menu, there's an easy way to do it. Locate the programme on the All Programs menu. Right click the programme to see a pop up menu. From the menu, select "Pin to Start menu":

[pic]

After you left click Pin to Start menu, click the Start button to see your new menu item.

 

Windows XP User Accounts

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

If you have only one computer in the house, but more than one person who uses it, you can set up a separate user account for each person. That way, they can have their own settings, and customisation. For example, they can have their own desktop wallpaper that you won't see when you login to your account. Here's how to set up a new user account.

User Accounts

To get at the settings for the User Accounts, click Start and then Control Panel. From the Control Panel, double click User Accounts. This will bring up the following dialogue box:

[pic]

In the image, we have two accounts already set up. We have an account called kc, and one called limited. Each has its own icon. But notice that one account has "administrator" next to it, and the other has "limited account". It's important to know the difference between the two.

Administrator Account or Limited?

An administrator account is one that has full rights over what you can do on the computer. You can install software, make changes to the whole of system, and generally create merry havoc, if you wanted to! A limited account, as its name suggests, limits what you can do to XP's settings. For example, if you're logged in as the administrator, you can change the password for all User Accounts that have been set up. You can even delete accounts, if you want. If you're logged in with the a limited account, you can't do any of this. If you access the User Accounts screen on a limited account, you'll see this:

[pic]

If you compare the two, you'll notice that there is no option to change an account, or to create a new one.

It's a good idea, if you have children using your computer, to set them up with a limited account. That way, you control what they can and can't do to your PC.

There is another issue, as well. When surfing the internet, if your kids are have full admin rights then all kinds of harmful programmes can be run in the background, unbeknown to them. On a limited account, these programme won't have the rights to install themselves. In fact, some experts advocate that you yourself shouldn't surf the internet on anything but a limited account. If you need to install software, or to make system changes, then you can always switch users to the main Administrator account, and do so when you're offline.

If you have already set up another User Account, then check what rights are given. If they both say Administrator, and one of you is not a responsible adult, then you may want to change the rights that the other has.

Of course, there are plenty of responsible, security-conscious kids about who have parents or guardians who are a danger to the computer (and the rest of us)! If so, you may want to change their rights!

 

How to set up an XP User Account

To set up a new account, then, you need to be logged in with an Administrator account. Click on "create a new account" to see the following screen:

[pic]

Type a name for the account, and click the Next button. You'll then see this:

[pic]

By default, the Administrator account is chosen. The bulleted lists tells you what you can do with this type of account. Click the Limited option to see the following:

[pic]

As you can see, the full rights granted to the Administrator are not available to a limited user.

Whichever account you choose, though, click the Create Account button. You will then be taken back to the main screen. Click the icon for your new account to see the following options:

[pic]

There are five options, in the image. Click an option to make your changes. Click "Change the picture", for example, the see the following screen:

[pic]

Select a picture from the list, and click Change Picture. Or you can click Browser for more pictures, if you prefer to use one of your own.

 

Switch Users

Windows XP allows you to switch between users with a click of a couple of buttons. To set this up, go back to your main administrator account page (click the Home button at the top). From the list, select "Change the way users log on or off." You'll the following:

[pic]

To allow you to switch users, make sure there is a tick in the box "Use Fast User Switching". Then click the Apply Options button.

What this allows you to do is to click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen, and then click "log off":

[pic]

Then click the Switch Users button to get back to the Welcome screen, where you can select a new account to log in to.

[pic]

Without a tick in the box for Use Fast User Switching, nothing happens when you click the Switch User button above.

 

Windows XP Security Centre

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

Windows XP comes with its own rudimentary security centre. This consists of a Firewall, and settings for Automatic Updates. It also tells you if you have anti virus software enabled.

To get at the Security Center (note the American spelling, for you Brits!), click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen. From the Start menu, click Control Panel. You should see an item for Security Center. Double click this to bring up the following screen:

[pic]

If you can't see the Security Center icon in your Control Panel, then you need to update your version of Windows XP. The Security Center was part of Service Pack 2. Click Start > All Programs, and look for the Windows Update item at the top of the menu. Or go to the following internet address:



The page should (if you're using Internet Explorer) detect if you need to update your version of XP.

 

Windows XP Firewall

A software firewall is a programme that sits between you and the rest of the world, when you're on the internet. A good firewall will detect if anyone is trying to get at your PC, and automatically block the attempt. Firewalls like the free Zonealarm will even alert you if anything on your computer is trying to contact the outside world. It will then ask your permission for this programme to go ahead. You can, typically, click on a Block or Allow button.

Windows XP came with a firewall. But until Service Pack 2, this was turned off by default. When Microsoft updated the XP operating system, it revamped the firewall, and turned it on by default.

The Firewall option in the Security Centre tells you straight away of it is on or off. Click the down arrows to see more options:

[pic]

If you have a separate firewall on your PC, you might see this instead:

[pic]

As the message says, having two or more firewalls on the PC can be a hindrance rather than a help. If you have something like Zonealarm, or Norton Internet Security, then you won't need the Windows XP Firewall. These programmes will even turn off the XP firewall for you.

If you're only relying on the Windows XP firewall, however, there is an obvious danger: if Zonealarm and Norton Internet Security can switch off the XP firewall behind your back, so can things like viruses, worms and Trojans. It's recommended that your get a separate software firewall for your pc.

But to see the settings for the XP firewall, click the icon under "Manage Security Settings For":

[pic]

When you click the Windows Firewall option, you'll see the following screen:

[pic]

We'll get on to Exceptions in a moment, but the only things you need to do on this screen is make your choice: On, or Off? Click OK to get back to the Security Center screen. You'll then see the Firewall section reflect your changes.

 

Firewall Exceptions

An exception, in firewall terms, is a programme or service that you would like to access your PC, and don't want your firewall blocking. Click the Exceptions tab at the top to see the following screen:

[pic]

In the list box, you see the programmes and service that are allowed. Here, we're only allowing three. Two of them are for AVG anti Virus, and the other is the Windows XP service File and Printer Sharing. Check your list to see if anything suspicious is on it. You should be wary if Remote Assistance and/or Remote Desktop are ticked. These are XP services that allow other people (PC technicians, for example) to control your computer. If you haven't allowed say the man form Dell to tinker with your PC over the phone, then you should ask why these are ticked. Remote Desktop is useful if you're away from home and want to access your PC. There is even software that allows you to do just that. If you have such software, it would explain why Remote Desktop is ticked. Check which programmes you have that might explain why these are ticked.

If you have a version of XP other than XP Home Edition then there are separate settings for the Remote Desktop. In can be really handy if you're away on holiday and want to check your email! Some even hook up a few web cams so that they can keep an eye on things remotely. If you're interested in a free online service that allows you to do all this, then pop along to for more information.

You can add a programme to the list of exceptions by clicking the button. When you do, you'll see a list of programmes. Select the one you want to allow (or click Browse), and then click OK.

If you're trying to get your computer to play an online game, then you may need to allow traffic on a certain port. The makers of the game will tell you which port number you need, and any other settings. Once you have these, click the Add Port button and enter the details.

If you click the Advanced tab at the top of the dialogue box, you'll see a list of network connections for which the XP firewall is enabled.

 

Automatic Updates

Windows XP is prone to security attacks, as everybody knows. Microsoft try to keep on top of things by releasing updates to the operating system. If you have Automatic Updates turned on, then you don't need to do anything else: XP will connect to the internet, and check if any updates are available. If so, they will automatically be downloaded and installed.

If , in the security center, Automatic Updates says "Check security settings", then you haven't got it turned fully on. Click the link for Automatic Updates, under "Manage security settings for", to see the following settings:

[pic]

In the image above, we specified that XP should notify us if there are any updates available, but it won't download them or install then unless we say so. It's recommended thatselect the first option, though - Automatic. You definitely don't want it on the last option - Turn off Automatic Updates!

 

Virus Protection

Another setting under Security Center is the Virus Protection. Click the down arrows to see more information:

[pic]

XP is telling us that we have AVG Anti-Virus, and that it is up to date. If you have less well know anti virus protection then it may not show up here, and Virus Protection may give you a false reading. As long as your Anti-Virus is running, then you don't need to worry about this.

Security Center is a good addition to Windows XP, and if you don't have it in your Control Panel, you defintely need to update your computer - you could be, and probably are, at risk!

 

System Properties - General Tab

 

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

The System Properties dialogue box gives you information about your PC. There's quite a lot of useful areas here, so we'll go through some of them. To bring up System Properties, click Start and then Control Panel. From the Control Panel, double click System. Another way to bring up this box is to right click the My Computer on your desktop. From the menu, select Properties. A keyboard shortcut is to hold down the Windows Logo key in the bottom left of your keyboard. Keep it held down and press your Pause/Break key. You should see something like the following:

[pic]

The first tab of the System Properties box, General, shows you information about your version of Windows. As you can see, this computer is running XP with Service Pack 2 installed. The area at the bottom is just additional information. For the more adventurous amongst you, you change the logo and text below to something of your own. The part you'll be changing is this part:

[pic]

Here's how.

Navigate to this folder on your hard drive:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32

Look for a file called oeminfo.ini. Double click this, and it should open up in notepad. Here's what ours looks like:

[general]

Manufacturer = Home and Learn

Model = Self-Built

[Support Information]

Line1 = Phone: 01642 868839

Line2 = Email: online@homeandlearn.co.uk

You file needs to be set out like the one above. Just leave the parts that have square brackets - [general] and [Support Information]. Then change anything after the equals sign ( = ). We've highlighted in blue the parts that you can change. Add your own text in place of the blue text above.

You don't need any Support Information. But if you only have Line1, then the Support Information button will be unavailable. If you add a Line2, then you'll be able to click the button and see the rest of the text you typed.

To change the image to one of your own, you need an image that is no larger than this:

width = 180 pixels

height = 114 pixels

You can create your own in something like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (or even Paint). Then save your work as a BITMAP file (.bmp). But you need to save your work with the following name:

oemlogo.bmp

Once you're happy with your new logo, copy and paste it to the folder you opened above (C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32). Launch the System Properties box again to view your work.

Here's another General tab logo we created:

[pic]

The image was created using a Tube in Paint Shop Pro. Very easy to do! If you'd like to practice with some Bitmap images we created, then download the images below. Change the name of an image to oemlogo.bmp before you copy and paste to the your SYSTEM32 folder.

Download the LOGO Bitmap Images

Have fun!

Take your PC back to an earlier Date with System Restore

 

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

Windows XP let's you do something called a System Restore. This is when you take your computer back to an earlier time, typically done when something goes wrong with your PC. You simply select a Restore Point from a list (which we'll see how to do), and then restart. You cross your fingers and toes, and then hope the problem goes away! The settings for System Restore can be found on the System Properties dialogue box.

To bring up System Properties, click Start and then Control Panel. From the Control Panel, double click System. Another way to bring up this box is to right click the My Computer on your desktop. From the menu, select Properties. A keyboard shortcut is to hold down the Windows Logo key in the bottom left of your keyboard. Keep it held down and press your Pause/Break key. Click the System Restore tab to see the following:

[pic]

To activate System Restore, make sure there is NO tick in the box "Turn off System Restore on all drives".

Clicking the Settings button just brings up a box with a slider on it. This lets you adjust how much hard disk space to let Windows XP use for your Restore Points:

[pic]

If you have a hard drive that's about 200 gigabytes, then you may want to adjust the slider down. Allow about two gigabytes.

 

Create a Restore Point

Windows XP creates its own Restore Points, but it's a good idea to create your own. Create one every time you install software like Anti-Virus, or software that you're not sure about. Do the following.

Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools. You'll see the following menu:

[pic]

Click on to System Restore and you should see the first screen of the Wizard:

[pic]

Select "Create a Restore Point", and then click Next. You'll see this:

[pic]

Type a name or description for your Restore Point, and click the Create button. Windows XP then tells you that it has created your Restore Point, and displays the date and time for it. Click Close and you're done!

 

Restoring Your Computer using a Restore Point

To use the Restore Point that you have created, or any one on the list, click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools. Select "System Restore" from the menu:

[pic]

Select "Restore my computer to an earlier time", and then click Next at the bottom of the screen. You'll see this:

[pic]

You can use the calendar on the left to select a date. Then on the right, you'll see all the available restore Points. Choose one from the list on the right, and then click Next. Windows XP will then ask you to confirm the details. If you're happy with your choice of Restore Point, then click Next to take you PC back to the settings you had on that day. After a restore, or will be well. At least, that's the theory!

 

System Properties - Advanced

 

This tutorial assumes that you have set the Control panel to Classic View. To see how to do this, click this link (opens in a new window): Set the Control Panel to Classic View

[pic]

 

Ever wondered how to turn off Error Reporting? That's the annoying box you get popping up asking if you want to send an error report to Microsoft. You then get two buttons Send or Don't Send? In this section, we'll see how to switch it off. You can do this via the Advanced tab of the System Properties dialogue box.

To bring up System Properties, click Start and then Control Panel. From the Control Panel, double click System. Another way to bring up this box is to right click the My Computer on your desktop. From the menu, select Properties. A keyboard shortcut is to hold down the Windows Logo key in the bottom left of your keyboard. Keep it held down and press your Pause/Break key. Then click the Advanced tab to see the following:

[pic]

To turn off Error Reporting, click the button at the bottom. You'll then see the following box:

[pic]

Select Disabled error reporting to switch it off. But you may want to keep a tick in the box to notify you of critical errors. XP won't fix them, but at least it will tell you about them!

(If you've been wondering why you didn't get a reply when you click the Send Error Report button, it's because clicking Send just notifies Microsoft about the problem. They then collect this information for future reference. If a lot of people are suffering similar problems, then Microsoft may work on a fix.)

Performance Settings

The only other useful button on the Advanced tab is the Settings button under Performance. This allows you to do things like switch off the shadows under menus and the mouse pointer.

Click the button to see the following box:

[pic]

You can select the Custom option from the list of four. Then check or uncheck an item. If you're system is really struggling for memory, you may want turn a few of these off: Animate Windows, Show shadows, and the Fade options.

If you click on the Advanced tab above, you'll see an option for Virtual Memory:

[pic]

Virtual Memory is used when your computer hasn't got enough to work with. XP will then use some of your hard drive to bail you out. In the image above, XP will use just over 3 gigabytes of this hard drive, if there is not enough real memory to work with. You don't need a massive amount of Virtual Memory, so if yours says something like 20 gigabytes, click the Change button and type a new value.

If you're a bit uncertain about all this, it's better not to change anything!

But in a modern PC running Windows XP, it's recommended that you have at least 1 gigabyte of real memory. Many computers have only half of this. It can make a big difference to how fast your programmes run. To see how much real memory your computer has, click the General tab on the System Properties dialogue box:

[pic]

The processor above is 2.25 gigahertz (GHz), and the real memory is 1.00 gigabytes (GB). Consider adding more memory to your PC, if yours is only half this, and running Windows XP.

 

Internet Options - General

 

For this tutorial, you'll need the Internet Options dialogue box. To see how to bring it up, click this page (opens in a new windows):

How to bring up the Internet Options Dialogue Box

[pic]

 

There are quite a few changes you can make on the General Tab of the Internet Options dialogue box. First, you'll learn how to change your Home Page. But if your browser is really crawling along, or odd things are happening when surfing the internet, then you'll need to know how to Delete Temporary Internet Files, how to Clear Cookies, and how to make sure you get the latest version of a website. So bring up the Internet Options dialogue box (see the link above for how to do this), and we'll begin.

 

How to change your Home Page

When a browser like Internet Explorer is first started up, its default behaviour is to go immediately to a web page. Which web page it tries to go to is the one on the General tab of the Internet Options dialogue box:

[pic]

The area highlighted in blue, under Home Page, is the internet site that you will be taken to when Internet Explorer first starts. In the image, we've set it to go to google.co.uk.

If you don't want Internet Explorer to go to any web pages at all when it starts up, click the button Use Blank. (This is useful if you're creating web pages, and just want to test them out.) Clicking the Use Blank button will change the text box to this:

[pic]

If you see this in the Home Page text box then you should be looking at a blank white page when Internet Explorer starts. However, there is a notorious browser hijacker called about.blank. If, when Internet Explorer starts, you see any pop up windows telling you about Spyware and how to remove it then you've probably been infected. (Please don't buy anything from these people!)

If you are infected, then you may also notice a slow internet connection. Other symptoms are search areas with "Quick Web Search", "Search for ", or "Search The Web". What the creators of this Spyware are trying to do is to re-route all your internet searches through to their own paid listings, or serve you up lots of ads scaring you into buying something. You may also get an unwanted toolbar in Internet Explorer. To cure the problem, try this web site:



But to change your Home Page to something else, do the following:

• Close down the Internet Options dialogue box and navigate to the web site that you want explorer to go to when it first opens

• Once you have the page open, click Tools from the menu bar

• From the Tools menu, select Internet Options:

[pic]

• Once you see the Internet Options box, click the button that says Use Current.

• Your text box should now display the address of your chosen web site

• Click OK

• Close down Internet Explorer, and then open it back up again. Do you see your chosen website?

If you don't see your chosen web site, but some other page instead, then there's a very strong possibility that your computer has become infected with Spyware. See the internet page above for removal of Spyware (scroll down until you see the links).

 

Clean up your Browser Files

When you surf the web, Internet Explorer stores a copy of your sites in an area called Temporary Internet Files. It will also store things like images and scripts. This is to speed up your web surfing. If you're not on a fast broadband connection, this can be a real help. If you don't clean out your Temporary Internet Files, however, they can be a bit of a hindrance. As well as occupying lots of space on your hard drive, some malicious web pages can cause you problems.

To clean the folder, though, you need this area on the General tab of the Internet Options dialogue box:

[pic]

Click the button Delete Files, and you'll see this box:

[pic]

Put a tick in the box "Delete all offline content", if you want to really spring clean. Then click OK. If you have a lot of files the in the Temporary folder, then it may take a few minutes to complete the deletion process. Make yourself a cup of coffee, and wait for XP to finish!

To see more Options, click the Settings button. You'll then see this:

[pic]

You may think that you are getting the latest page from a site like ours. But if you have Never selected under "Check for newer versions of stored pages", then you may be missing out. That's because of something called caching. If a web site is on a server in say the UK, and you're in the US, then the first time that you visit the site, a copy will be held on a computer (server) near to you. The copy is said to be held in a cache. The next time that you visit the site, you may just get the copy (the cached version). Select the option "Every visit to the page" to ensure that you're getting the version from the original computer that the web site is held on (at least, that's the theory).

In the image above, you can also change how much of your hard disk space that XP uses to store the Temporary Internet files. If yours is really big, perhaps in the Gigabytes, then you'll definitely want to change this. Move the slider to the left, to adjust the size downward. In the image, we've gone for only 400 megabytes. But even this may be too much for some!

Clicking the button View Files will bring up the folder containing all of the files and folders in Temporary Internet Files.

If you've never deleted your Temporary Internet Files then there could be quite a lot to see. (Hopefully, there won't be any nasty surprises lurking there!)

The View Objects button brings up a screen containing something called Browser Helper Objects. Expect to see things like Flash, Java, and Shockwave. These help Internet explorer to display things like animations created for the Flash Player. Or even help to display Adobe Acrobat PDF documents, Microsoft Word, and Excel files. But this folder can also contain some very unhelpful Browser Helper Objects. If you've become infected with Spyware it may place its own items here. The following site is a free check for Internet Explorer issues. If you have any parasites on your PC, it should find them:



The site will also give you information about the parasite, and removal instructions. But it can't check for everything our there!

 

Clear your Browsing and Address Bar History

You can clear the Address bar of website in the drop down list. This usually appears when you start typing an web site address. Select an address from the list to go to that page. However, if you have embarrassing websites on the list, they are there for all to see. To clear your Address bar list, click the button Clear History:

[pic]

If you don't want any addresses appearing in the drop down list at all, then set the value to 0 next to "Days to keep pages in History".

Additional Buttons

Also on the General tab of the Internet Options dialogue box, you'll see these buttons:

[pic]

The buttons allow you to change the colours of hyperlinks on a web page from the usual blue to a colour of your choice. You can also set which fonts and font sizes for all the text on web pages.

In the next part, we'll take a look at the Security tab of the Internet Options dialogue box.

 

Internet Options - Security

 

For this tutorial, you'll need the Internet Options dialogue box. To see how to bring it up, click this page (opens in a new windows):

How to bring up the Internet Options Dialogue Box

[pic]

 

If you want to protect your PC while surfing the internet, then the Security tab of the Internet Options dialogue box has some essential settings. Bring up Internet Options (follow the link above, if you don't know how). Click the Security tab to see the same screen as in the image below (Internet Explorer 6):

[pic]

The idea here is that you split your internet surfing in to Zones. There's four Zones to choose from (Internet, Local intranet, Trusted sites, Restricted sites). Once you have selected a Zone, you then click the Custom Level button to select the settings for that Zone. If you click on Trusted sites or Restricted sites, the Sites button becomes available. The Sites button is not available if Internet is the selected zone.

The first Zone, though, is Internet. A highly recommended strategy is to disabled just about everything in the Internet zone. You do this by clicking the Custom Level button, and unchecking just about everything on the list. Then select Trusted sites, click the Custom Level button, and turn most things back on. Sites that you trust can then be added to your list by clicking the Sites button. This way, things like pop ads, harmful JavaScript, or Spyware are less likely to damage your PC.

The snag is, there's quite a lot of options to choose from when you click the Custom Level button! You should see this:

[pic]

A scroll down the list will reveal a lot of bewildering Security Settings. To see which settings you need for your Internet and Trusted Zones, and thus a safer browsing experience, see the following site (opens in a new window):



The site (not ours) has screenshots of recommended settings, as well as how to add new sites to your Trusted zone. If you have kids in the house, it's a good tactic to use: disable just about everything in the Internet zone, and add Trusted sites to a list you don't mind them viewing. This does NOT mean they won't be able to see un-trusted sites - it just means that if they come across anything that may harm your computer then, because you've disabled everything, your Security Settings should deal with the attack.

Surfing the internet this way can be annoying at first. Those shiny, all-singing, all-dancing websites don't look half as good with JavaScript turned off! Put the website in the Trusted site, though, and you'll be able to see it in all its glory.

 

Internet Options - Privacy

 

For this tutorial, you'll need the Internet Options dialogue box. To see how to bring it up, click this page (opens in a new windows):

How to bring up the Internet Options Dialogue Box

[pic]

 

Another tab on the Internet Options dialogue box is Privacy. This allows you to choose your Cookie settings, and whether to allow popup windows. The Privacy tab looks like this:

[pic]

Before you play around with the slider above, you need to know what Cookies are.

 

What is a Cookie?

A Cookie is a small text file that a website places on your computer. It does this because web pages are not good at remembering things. If you select an option a form, and then go to another page on the same site, the next page won't know what you selected on the previous one. This is important if you do any online shopping, for example. If you order two things on two different pages, and then click the "Check Out" button on the second page, only one of them will be remembered - the one on the same page as the "Check Out" button.

So that your choices can be remembered, a text file is placed on your PC - a Cookie. This, in most cases, is just a record of what you selected on a previous page. If you navigate to the following folder on your hard drive, you'll be able to see the Cookies on your own computer:

C:\Documents and Settings\user\Cookies

Because they are only text files, you can double click to open them. Here's what a Cookie looks like:

[pic]

As you can see, this one is from the BBC website. The numbers won't mean anything except to the website which placed the information on the computer. But it could be anything: the 1024 above, for example, may be the width of your computer screen. You'd then be served up a page that suits your screen size. But it could very well mean the 24th day of the 10th month. This would then be the date that the Cookie is deleted from your PC!

A reputable site will have a Cookie policy telling you why they use them, and what they do with any information stored. To view the BBC's Cookie policy, for example, go here: (We don't use Cookies at all, in case you're wondering!)

The fuss about Cookies is that the website doesn't ask you - it just goes ahead and places itself on your PC. This raised quite a few security scares because people didn't know exactly what these things did. Plus, a Cookie can be used to store personal information about you that a web site gathers when you visit it. If you're worried about Cookies, then you can change the settings from the Internet Options Privacy tab. In our first image, we had the slider at the top - this will block all Cookies from the computer. If a web site we trusted, and needed to use, was asking to place a Cookie on the PC, then we could easily put the slider down to low.

If you click the Advanced button just below the Cookie slider, you see more option:

[pic]

If you place a tick in the box "Override automatic cookie handling" then the rest of the options become available.

A first-party Cookie is one that comes from the website you're visiting. A third-party Cookie is one that comes from somewhere else. This could be from an advertising banner on the page, for example, which will then dump its own information onto your PC.

A session is the time you spend on the internet with one browser window open. When you close the browser down, the session will end. If you have a tick in the box "Always allow session cookies", then any Cookie that a website placed on your computer will be deleted when the session ends.

The settings in the image above, incidentally, are not a recommendation for you to select the same options. In fact, we'd recommend that you uncheck the box "Override automatic cookie handling", and then set your slider to Block all Cookies. If a web site you know and like is complaining that you need to enable Cookies in your browser, then simply move your slider back down.

 

Block Popup windows

Also on the Privacy tab is an area for pop up windows. Most of these are just annoying adverts that you close down straight away. But a few can be malicious, launching harmful scripts in the background, or trying to get Spyware onto your PC. If you want to block all pop up windows, put a tick in the box:

[pic]

When a tick is in the "Block pop-ups" box, the Settings button becomes available. Click the button to see the following:

[pic]

If you prevent all pop ups then things like a banking site, which may launch in a separate window, won't be available. You can add a site you trust to the list of Allowed sites. Just type the address in the first text box, and click the Add button.

In the "Notifications and Filter Level area", you'll notice a tick box that says "Show Information Bar when a pop-up is blocked". The Information Bar looks like this:

[pic]

So Internet Explorer tells us that the Pop-up was blocked. Click the icon to see the additional options:

[pic]

If you want to turn off the pop-up blocker, then select Settings from the menu above. You will get another menu allowing you to turn it off.

 

Internet Options - Content Advisor

 

For this tutorial, you'll need the Internet Options dialogue box. To see how to bring it up, click this page (opens in a new windows):

How to bring up the Internet Options Dialogue Box

[pic]

 

The Content Advisor allows you to set what sort of content you want to allow on to your computer when surfing the internet. If you don't want the kids coming across adult material then Internet Explorer can block this. It is not, however, entirely effective, and you shouldn't rely on it as your only content blocker, if this is a concern to you. Software like Netnanny and Cybersitter can do a better job. But to see how the Content Advisor works, click the Content tab of the Internet Options dialogue box. You'll see the following:

[pic]

The Content Advisor is at the top. If your button says Disable instead of Enable it means that you already have Content Advisor switched on. We'll assume that you don't, though. So click the Enable button to see the following:

[pic]

The idea is that you select a category from the list, and then adjust the slider. The description area tells you more information about that setting, and what will be allowed. So a setting of Level 0 for the Language slider means users will be allowed to view content that contains inoffensive slang. Any other form of bad language (not the same as bad grammar, for those of you whose first language is not English!) will be blocked. The other four Levels in the Language category are:

Level 1: Mild expletives

Level 2: Moderate expletives

Level 3: Obscene gestures

Level 4: Explicit or crude language

It's important to remember that these are what you are willing to allow, when you adjust the slider. They are NOT what you are blocking. But select the other three categories and adjust the slider according to your needs.

The letters RSAC, incidentally, stand for Recreational Software Advisory Council. This organization no longer exists, which you'll find out when you click the More Info button at the bottom. You'll get a web page telling you that it's now called ICRA - the Internet Content Rating Association (about/). When Internet Explorer blocks or filters content it will be using this organization's rating system.

To add or block sites that you don't want users to see, click the Approved Sites tab at the top. You can then allow or permit websites by typing them into a text box.

The General tab is where you can set a password for the Content Advisor, preventing other users from switching it off:

[pic]

Click the Create Password button. You'll then see an area with a couple of text boxes that allow you to type your new password. Make sure you don't forget this password as you'll be stuck with a browser that can be very restrictive! A good hint to create a memorable password is to use the initial letters from a favorite song or phrase. For example, here's a password that looks complex but is easy to remember (please don't use this one - we don't!)

hb2y_hbdM

The hb2y is "happy birthday to you". After the underscore character is, "happy birthday dear Mark". But the longer your memorable phrase is, the more secure it will be. Passwords of four or five characters can be cracked very easily!

How to Delete a Forgotten Content Advisor Password

If you already have forgotten the password for the Content Advisor, it's quite complicated to reset it. You need to access something called the Registry Settings. This is an area of a Windows PC that has all the settings for the various programmes on your computer. If you damage your Registry it can really trash your PC! Before doing any of this, create a Restore Point. This will save your current settings. If anything goes wrong, you should be able to take your PC back to how it was. (How to create a Restore Point).

• To access the Registry, click Start and then select Run from the Start menu

• From the Run box, type regedit:

[pic]

You will then see the Registry Editor:

[pic]

Click the plus symbols, and navigate to this area:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Ratings

On the left hand side, you'll see the Registry entries. Click on Ratings, and you should see something like the following:

[pic]

The Key is the one that's the password. It's in encrypted form. Click on the word Key to highlight it. Then press the Delete key on your keyboard:

[pic]

Select Yes from the Confirm Value Delete dialogue box to delete the password. If you have a Filename0 entry and a Hint entry, then delete these as well. You can leave the Default entry:

[pic]

Close down Internet Explorer and reopen it. You should now have the Content Advisor disabled. To test it out, click the Content tab of the Internet Options dialogue box. If the button says Enable in the Content Advisor section, then you have successfully deleted the password.

 

Internet Options - AutoComplete

 

For this tutorial, you'll need the Internet Options dialogue box. To see how to bring it up, click this page (opens in a new windows):

How to bring up the Internet Options Dialogue Box

[pic]

 

Internet Explorer has a feature that allows you to type in the first few characters of form field and it will finish the rest of it for you. For example, if a text box on a from is asking for your email address, then you would only need to type in the first few letters. Internet explorer would then add the rest of it. This feature is called AutoComplete. You can turn this off and on, depending on your tastes. You can also clear any entries that have already been added. We'll see how it works now.

So click the Content tab of the Internet Options dialogue box. Then look for this area:

[pic]

Click the AutoComplete button to bring up the following:

[pic]

As you can see, we've checked all the options in the image above. To see what effect this has, here's what happens when you have a tick in the box for "Web addresses". In the next image, we've started to type the address of our web site in Internet Explorer (home and learn):

[pic]

As soon as we start to type the address, we get a drop down list of other web sites that we've visited. Only the ones that start with "ho" are on the list. If we typed "homea" then the second one would disappear. To quickly select our address, we can either click on it with the left mouse button, or use the down arrow key on the keyboard, and then press enter. Internet Explorer would then go to that address.

If you don't want the drop list to appear at all, take the tick out of the Web Addresses box on the AutoComplete settings. To clear the drop down list of web address, you need to be on the General tab of the Internet Options dialogue box. Then click the Clear History button.

AutoComplete works the same way for textboxes on forms. Start typing the first few characters, and Internet Explorer will finish the rest of it for you. This can save you time if you have to type say a long email address to login. But there are some security concerns. Public computer may suggest your login details to others in a drop down list. Or if another person uses your computer, they may be able to see your details. Or if the worst happens and someone steals your laptop, then AutoComplete would be a great help to them filling out all your cherished logons!

If you put a tick in the box "Prompt me to save passwords" then Internet Explorer will display a message box asking you if you'd like to save the password that you have entered. Passwords are saved in encrypted format, and are not displayed for all to see. But if the username is typed correctly, the password will be automatically filled in.

If you want to start afresh with login and form details, then click the two buttons Clear Forms and Clear Passwords. All of the details previously stored will then be erased.

If you don't want any of this, then uncheck all the boxes in the section Use AutoComplete For. This is the safest option.

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