How to Ease into Windows XP

Taken from PC Magazine November 5, 2001

Windows XP comes with all kinds of gee-whiz features and productivity-enhancing applications. But when you're upgrading from a previous Windows version or trying to use your older software with XP, you may need a little extra help. We've assembled a series of tips and tricks to help ease the transition for you.

Before upgrading to Windows XP from Windows 98 or Me, create a bootable floppy disk. You can either format the disk with system files and add any necessary drivers, or create a start-up disk using Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs applet and then remove unnecessary files from the floppy disk. Verify that you can successfully boot from this floppy disk, then write-protect it and put it aside. This is your insurance against the possibility that an important DOS-based program (or well-loved DOS game) may be totally incompatible with Windows XP. If the program is important enough, you can boot from the floppy disk and run the DOS application.

The Upgrade Advisor

When upgrading to Windows XP from Windows 98 or Windows Me, allow plenty of time to run the Upgrade Advisor first. You can download it from www.microsoft.com/windowsxp, but the file is 50MB, so you'll probably choose to run it from the Windows XP CD. Pop in the CD, but don't begin installing. Instead, click on Check system compatibility and then on Check my system automatically. If the utility asks to download updated setup files, allow it to do so.

When the lengthy process is complete, the Upgrade Advisor will present you with a list containing three types of notices. Blocking Issues completely prevent installation, and must be resolved before you can install XP. Warnings are fairly serious problems—you should do your best to resolve them before installing XP. Helpful Information items can be dealt with either before or after the installation. Click on the Full Details button to get all the information and print the report. You can use the printed report as a to-do list. Now put away the Windows XP CD, because you've got work to do.

Lack of disk space is the most common Blocking Issue—get a bigger drive, repartition, or move files to make space. Now work through the Warnings carefully, downloading any necessary updates to drivers or software. Do the same for the Helpful Information items. Upgrading to XP may require you to replace older, incompatible hardware, so pay close attention to those warnings. Chances are good that working through the Upgrade Advisor's report will take the better part of a day. Wait until the next morning to actually perform the upgrade.

Create a Multi-User System

When you upgrade a family computer from Windows 98 or Me, think about creating a separate account for each family member. Switching between users is easier than ever; XP's Fast User Switching lets you change users without requiring the current user to log off. Each family member can have unique wallpaper, color schemes, and (most important) Start menus. The kids won't have your financial applications on their menus, and you can omit Barbie and Barney from yours. We recommend establishing your accounts during the upgrade process, though you can add or change them later.

Each user's Start menu draws its items from two locations, one of them personal and one that's common to all users. The upgrade process places all of your existing Start menu items in the common area. Before you can start trimming accounts' menu choices, you need to give each account separate menus.

Click the Start button, select My Computer, and click the Folders button in the toolbar to restore the familiar folder tree on the left side of the window. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start menu. Right-click on that folder and choose Copy. Select C:\Documents and Settings and note that this folder contains a subfolder for each account. Right-click each of those subfolders and select Paste. You'll get a warning that the folder already contains a folder named Start menu; click on Yes to All. Again select C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start menu and send its Programs subfolder to the Recycle Bin. (Windows will re-create the subfolder as needed.)

Now log on as each user in turn, and prune the Start menu to your liking. When you find a menu item or submenu that's not appropriate to the current user, simply right-click it and choose Delete. When you're done, each user should have a tidy Start menu containing only relevant programs.

Desktop and Menu Changes

By default, a new installation of Windows XP has one icon on the Desktop—Recycle Bin. If you miss having My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, or Internet Explorer on the Desktop, you can revive them. Right-click the Desktop, choose Properties, click on the Desktop tab, and then on the Customize Desktop… button. Check off any of those four icons that you want to place on the Desktop.

Windows XP really wants you to keep a clean Desktop, so every 60 days, it checks for icons that you haven't used since the last time it checked. With your permission, it will move such icons from the Desktop to a folder (you can move them back, of course). To disable this behavior, remove the check next to Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days. Later, if you wish, you can click the Clean Desktop Now button to invoke the wizard manually.

Start menu pinups.
The left column of Windows XP's new Start menu lists your most-used programs. Programs move in and out of the list as your usage patterns change. For stability, you may prefer to pin specific programs into place. The pinned programs will appear above a horizontal dividing line, and the most-used list appears below it. Locate the desired menu item in the Programs menu, right-click on it, and choose Pin to Start menu. Later if you wish to remove it, right-click on the pinned icon and choose Unpin from Start menu. If you run out of space in that left column, right-click on the Start menu and choose Properties. In the resulting dialog, click on the Customize… button. Check Small icons to make more room.

XP's tray manager.
PC Magazine's Tray Manager utility hides the icons in your system tray, making them available on demand—but you won't need it under Windows XP. XP automatically hides tray icons that are rarely clicked. It displays a pop-up balloon explaining this feature during your first several sessions. When icons are hidden, a round button with a left-pointing arrow appears; clicking it reveals the icons.

But there's more to this feature than just hiding unused icons. Right-click on the Taskbar, choose Properties, and select the Customize… button on the Taskbar tab of the resulting dialog. You'll get a list of current and past items from the system tray. For each of them, you can specify one of three actions: Hide when inactive (the default), Always hide, or Always show. If you set them all to Always hide, you can keep the system tray buttoned up at all times.

Explorer groups.
XP's Windows Explorer can group icons based on various characteristics. You can see this in the default My Computer display. To group icons in any folder, right-click within the right-hand pane, click on Arrange Icons By, and put a check next to Show in Groups. Right-click again, click on Arrange Icons By, and choose Name, Size, Type, or Modified. The groupings for Size (Zero, Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, and so on) are particularly helpful, as are those for Modified (Today, Yesterday, Last week, Last month, and so on).

DOS dinosaurs.
In the past, anybody who wanted to run older, DOS-based software or even older Windows software typically had to stick with Windows 98 or Windows Me. Windows NT 4.0 and 2000 just aren't friendly to older applications. Windows XP is meant to replace all of the current Windows platforms, and it has extensive resources to ensure compatibility with older programs.

If one of your programs won't run under Windows XP, try the built-in compatibility support. Right-click the program, choose Properties, and click the Compatibility tab. Select the platform that was previously able to run the program, and check off any relevant display settings. Click OK and try to run the program. If it still doesn't work, try different settings.

If a particularly important older program doesn't respond to the tweaks applied by the standard Compatibility tab, you can bring out the big guns—the Application Compatibility Toolkit. To install the toolkit, insert the Windows XP CD-ROM, navigate to the Support\Tools folder, and launch Act20.exe. Once the toolkit is installed, run the QFixApp applet. This complex utility will apply any or all of almost 200 fixes. Using it is a painstaking process; reserve its use for programs that are truly essential.

Tools and Tweaks

Don't be fooled by the Passport pop-up.
The first several times you start Windows XP, you'll get various pop-up warnings that appear in balloons above the system tray. You'll see one that says, in part, You need a Passport to use Windows XP Internet communications features... and to access .NET-enabled services on the Internet. This does not mean that you have to set up a Passport account in order to use the Internet. Dismiss the pop-up by clicking the X-icon at its top right. If you click anywhere else, you'll start the process of creating a Passport account.

Windows XP keeps a count in the Registry of how many times the Passport balloon has been displayed. By our observation, it stops after ten times. You can stop it sooner by setting the counter to 10. Launch Regedit, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MessengerService, and find the binary value PassportBalloon in the right-hand pane. Double-click it, press Del, and enter 0A. The value should now be 0A 00 00 00. If you have a multi-user computer, you'll want to do this for each account.

Favorites for Regedit.
There will always be Windows settings that can only be changed using the Registry Editor. Regedit in Windows XP doesn't look much different, but it has one excellent new feature—a Favorites menu, like that of PC Magazine's RegEdit+ utility. When you change a setting based on a tip from PC Magazine or another source, choose Add to Favorites from the Favorites menu. Each favorite identifies the key, not a specific value, but you can use the favorite's name to save additional information. For example, you can name a favorite MenuShowDelay—changed from default of 400 to 100. If you need to change the name, select the favorite to open the key, create a new favorite with the desired name, and delete the old favorite.

XP phone home.
After a bad crash occurs, Windows XP gets the urge to call Microsoft and tell the sad story. With your permission, it gathers information about your system and about the problem, and sends all the data to the Windows Online Crash Analysis site. Microsoft analyzes the reports, and you may get an e-mail response with a link to a solution for the problem. We recommend that you visit http://oca.microsoft.com and review the privacy policy. Note that you must be using Windows XP, NT 4.0, or 2000 to view this page.

Some users may not want to let XP phone home, or may not want to set up a Passport account (required for interaction with the OCA). To turn off this feature, launch the System applet from Control Panel—in the Category view, it comes under Performance and Maintenance. Click on the Error Reporting button on the Advanced tab of the resulting dialog. Check the Disable error reporting box, and the box below it, titled But notify me when critical errors occur. Now if there's a crash, you'll be informed but Microsoft won't.

Helpful help.
The Help and Support Center gives you access to an almost overwhelming amount of information about your computer. Under the Pick a task heading on the center's main screen, click the link with the title that begins Use Tools…. The My Computer Information tool provides detailed reports on the computer system itself and its installed hardware, including direct links to troubleshooters for particular components. The Network Diagnostics tool scrutinizes all networking components and reports their status in detail. You can even launch the old standby System Configuration Utility from the Tools page.

If you have any kind of problem with your Windows XP computer, spend some time with these tools. Even if you can't interpret the reports yourself, you'll have accurate information to share with a technician.

Additional support tools.
The Windows XP CD contains a large number of additional command-line support tools that are not installed by default. Log on as an administrator, insert the CD, and browse to the Support\Tools folder. Launch the Setup.exe program and choose Typical install (you can always choose the Complete install later, if you find it necessary). The tools are too varied and numerous to describe here; check the Help and Support Center for details.