Windows XP FAQ

Question: Is Windows XP firewall any good?

If you have a dialup connection, then it is probably good enough for you, due to their nature, dial up connections aren't easily attacked since they are connected for short periods and get new ip addresses every signon. But with a full time internet connection, such as cable, dsl, or leased line connection, I recommend you get a full featured firewall, such as Kerio Personal Firewall or ZoneAlarm.

NOTE: I DO NOT recommend Black Ice. This firewall is far to easy to compromise or Hack.

Question: What's the difference between the home version and the professional version of Windows XP?

Answer: Well The home edition means what you think it does, it's more for stand alone home pc's, won't login to domains correctly, etc. The professional is more suited for domains, such as you may have at your work environment, multi-processor support, roaming user profiles, remote desktop connections, access control, you can encrypt your files, it has suport for fffline files and folders, remote installation services, group policy, and multi-lingual user interface support (add-on).

Question: Does Windows XP come with a webserver installed?

Answer: Home Edition does not, but you can download some free ones, professional comes with Internet Information Server 5.1.

Question: I purchased Windows XP Home edition, can I upgrade my Windows 2000 professional with it?

Answer: No, you can only upgrade no you can only upgrade from Windows 98 and Me with windows xp home edition, windows xp professionla can be used to upgrade windows 2000 professionla though.

Question: What happened to WINIPCFG.EXE?

Answer: WINIPCFG.EXE was the GUI application in Windows 9x/Me that lets you check the status of your network connections. In Windows XP you can run a command line version, ipconfig.exe, or you can right-click, or double-click, each network connection to make configuration changes and check their status.  To use ipconfig.exe, open a command prompt by clicking Start/Run and typing cmd in the text box, and click ok. In the command window type ipconfig and enter. For more detailed IP information, type ipconfig /all.

Question: How do I get rid of that stupid toolbar when I hover the mouse over images on my desktop.

Answer: That would be the Internet Explorer 6 Image Toolbar, to turn this off, open IE 6 and then click tools, then internet options, on the advanced tab, untick Enable Image Toolbar under Multimedia.

Question: What does XP in Windows XP stand for?

Answer: "eXPerience".

Question: How do I get rid of that dang new programs installed message from the start menu?

Answer: Well you can get rid of it permanately, atleast until you change this setting back, by right clicking the start menu, then click properties then click the start menu button and then click customize, click advanced and untick the highlight newly installed programs box.

Question: I like AOL instant messenger and don't want to use Windows Messenger, how do I remove it?

Answer: Open C:\WINDOWS\inf\sysoc.inf and change msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 to msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,7, then goto add/remove programs and you'll see the uninstall for it now.

Question: I liked the old look of windows better, can I switch it back?

Sure can, right click your desktop and click properties, then click the advanced tab, on the windows and buttons drop down slect windows classic, and then click ok.

Question: I can't get my PC to boot with the CD, is there a way to create a floppy boot disk to install Windows XP?

Sure can, from Microsoft, create a bootdisk for Windows XP Professional install, you should also check out bootdisk.com they have listings for all kinds of boot disks for Windows XP, Windows 98, DOS and more.

Question: Can I network two pc's one with 98 and the other with XP? What do I need to do it?

Answer: Sure can. :)
How to gets a little more complicated. The cheapest way would be to buy two ethernet cards, and a crossover cable for your pc's and run a peer to peer network that way. You could also buy two wireless cards for the pc's and run it peer to peer that way. If you have a cable or dsl connection, then you could buy a wireless access point/router and two wireless cards for your pc's and be able to share your files and an internet connection. Check out Surpluscomputers.com for all the hardware you need to get started.
Windows XP is a lot more secure than windows 98, so you need to have an id on the XP machine for each windows 9.x machine that needs to connect to it, also, if you still have trouble connecting, make sure the windows xp firewall is not on on that particular connection.

Question: I have some older programs that I can't get too work with windows XP, what can I do?

Well you can try running it in compatibility mode, in windows explorer, right click the program and click properties, then click the compatibility tab, the check the box that says run this program in compatibility mode for: and then select the operating systems it needs from the drop down box and tehn click ok.

Question: I have more than one computer, do I have to buy a copy of Windows XP for each computer?

Answer: Yes, you have always been required to have license for each computer runnin a windows operating system, now Microsoft is making it harder for you to install Windows onto more than one system with WPA. Another option is volume Licensing, which allows you to use one copy of the Windows XP media (CD) and a single license key that does not require product activation. This last option is geared more for the enterprise.

Question: Will I be able to upgrade my existing windows to windows XP?

Answer: Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51, or earlier, are not supported for upgrading, so you will need to buy a full version of Windows XP, Windows 98, Windows 98 se, Windows ME, Windows 2000 are all supported upgrades to Windows XP home edition and professional, Windows 2000 professional and NT Workstation 4.0 can only be upgraded to Window XP professional.

Question: All of my open copies Internet Explorer appear under one group in my taskbar, why is that and how do I stop it?

Answer: It's called grouping, in which all of the copies of the same program, in your case internet explorer, appear under one group in the taskbar. You can turn grouping off by right clicking the taskbar, then click properties and untick the option Group Similar taskbar option.

Question: My mom and I share the same computer, she likes the resolution lower so she can read the text easier, can we have seperate resolutions on the different logins?

Answer: Each user must have the same resolution, but you can adjust some of her settings to make it easier on her, in Internet Explorer, if you hold the ctrl key and move the wheel on your mouse up and down you can see the font size change in front of you. You can also set some accessibilty options by going to control panel and opening Accessibility Options.

Question: How do I lock my computer in Windows XP?

Answer: Type WINKEY+L to lock your computer. OR (if you are a member of a Domain): Press Ctl+Alt+Del and in the resulting dialog, click "Lock your Computer"

Question: How can I find out which product key I used to activate my copy Windows XP?

Answer: Well ou can't because XP converts the product key to the system's product ID, and if you expose this product ID, it opens security concerns around the product ID generation process and it's security. So make sure you keep track of all product keys you use, write em down or keep a text file if you have lots to keep track of.

Question: How do I enable Windows 2000-like file sharing and security in Windows XP workgroups? I don't see the security tab for a file or a folder

Answer: You have to change a network access setting in the local policy settings. Now you have share permissions and file security on NTFS volumes with Windows XP. On FAT volumes, the Security menu will still remain unavailable.

Question: How do I keep Windows XP from hightlighting newly installed programs?

Answer: You can do this by right-clicking the Start button, choosing properties, then customize, and then click advanced, and then untick Highlight newly installed applications option.

Question: Windows XP doesn't have a driver for my hardware, what can I do?

Answer: You can try using the Windows 2000 driver, since it is an upgrade from Windows 2000, or if you can get online, goto the manufacturers homepage and download ther latest driver from there. Before you buy any hardware for Windows XP you should check the hardware compatibility list here from Microsoft.

Question: Microsoft reccommends a Pentium II 233 and 64 MB of RAM to run Windows XP, is this true?

Answer: While this is true, technically, you will not really be able to use it for very much, you should start with at least a Pentium III 500Mhz or above and 256 MB of ram to have a decent user experience. I personally recommend a Pentium 4 2.7Ghz with 1GB of RAM for the ultimate user experience. And with the price of hardware being very reasonable, this is not a very expensive configuration.

Question: What happened to NetBEUI?

Answer: NetBEUI is no longer supported and Microsoft recommends using TCP/IP protocol instead, which is the default in Windows XP. But if you must have NetBEUI, you can install it, it's in D:Valueadd\msft\net\netbeui by default. You can add it by configuring a network adapter and choosing Properties, General, Install.