Windows XP

Getting Your Windows XP PC to Boot When It Doesn’t Want To

Technique Save Time By Finding out what options you have — before you tear your hair out Trying Safe Mode to see if you can fix relatively minor problems Hauling out the Big Guns: Recovery Console Sooner or later it happens to every system: Windows goes to that big bit bucket in the sky. You […]

Part X (Windows XP)

Getting Help Fast in Windows XP

Technique Save Time By Using Windows Help and Support the smart way Creating shortcuts to Help topics — and sending them to friends Finding real answers to really vexing questions Many people get to Windows XP’s Help and Support Center, type a keyword, click a bunch of links, and come away frustrated. In some cases, […]

Requesting Remote Assistance in Windows XP

Technique Save Time By Having a friend take over your machine — via the Internet — while you watch Using timesaving Remote Assistance features Knowing when to give up on Remote Assistance — it doesn’t always work When Remote Assistance works, it’s great. Say you’re chatting with a friend in Windows Messenger, and she really […]

Making Backups — Fast in Windows XP

Technique Save Time By Knowing what Windows XP Home can — and can’t — do Creating copies of your essential files in case something goes wrong Getting Windows XP to automatically create backups Have you ever lost a hard drive? I sure have. Several times. When I had good backups, bringing my life and business […]

Running Periodic Maintenance of Windows XP

Technique Save Time By Buying all the supplies you need in one fell swoop Cleaning on schedule Using common tools to get the job done Ever lost ten minutes looking at a special can of computer monitor cleaner, wondering if you really need it? Ever open your computer to discover three inches of caked-on gunk […]

Updating Windows XP Drivers Safely

Technique Save Time By Choosing your driver updates wisely Protecting yourself before the update Rolling back quickly when a driver goes bad Over the years, Windows device drivers — those little programs that sit between Windows and the hardware attached to your computer — have instigated more crashes and lock-ups than all other causes combined. […]

Keeping Your Windows XP Hard Drive in Shape

Technique Save Time By Scanning for hard drive problems before they happen Making Check Disk and Scheduler work together Defragging your hard drive automatically The blue screen STOP message includes a cryptic description that’s written in some indecipherable dialect of English. I think. I looked it up in the Knowledge Base and was told that […]

Running Windows XP Disk Chores While You Sleep

Technique Save Time By Having Windows Scheduler clean your disks, even if you aren’t around Setting up Scheduler so you can use it with other periodic chores If you’ve ever tried to use the Windows Scheduler, you probably discovered that it’s incredibly easy — a wizard handles all the niggling details — and after you’ve […]

Updating Windows xp on Your Own Terms

Technique Save Time By Dealing with the Security Center’s automatic update biases Knowing when to update — and how Protecting yourself against bad updates Any large computer program has bugs. Heck, any small computer program has bugs. When a program gets as large as Windows — Microsoft claims Windows XP contains 50 million lines of […]

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