Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit 2003
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 338
Pages: 338
In Windows XP Professional, both users and network administrators can configure workstations to optimize for digital media and customize personal preferences such as audio playback levels. Network administrators can use Group Policy and local policies to configure custom desktop settings and profiles across the network. For example, your company or group can configure individualized custom sound configurations for employees and customers with special needs or alternate language requirements.
For information about setting custom desktop settings and profiles by using Group Policy, see Managing Desktops in this book.
The following sections discuss specific aspects of configuring for digital media.
You can assign sounds to system and program events, such as Windows XP Professional startup or when a user logs off. You can save different combinations of event and sound pairings as custom sound schemes. You can also specify default devices to use for playing and recording sound.
To assign a particular sound to a specific system or program event, you must configure the event and sound pairing and save it as a custom sound scheme. You can configure sound events and sound schemes in Control Panel. Click Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices, and then click Sounds and Audio Devices.
For information about recording sounds to use for sound events or in your custom sound schemes, see Using Digital Media later in this chapter.
For more information about configuring digital-media hardware devices and options, see Configuring Digital Media Devices later in this chapter.
If a workstation has multiple audio playback and recording devices, you can specify the preferred devices to use when playing or recording sound. You can also specify the default playback or recording volume for that device. Preferred playback and recording devices are specified using Sounds and Audio Devices in Control Panel or from the Tools menu in Windows Media Player.
To configure analog or digital audio CD playback
In Windows Media Player, click Tools, and then click Options.
On the Devices tab, double-click the CD device you want to use for audio CD playback and recording.
Under Playback and Copy, select Digital or Analog.
You can specify a default playback or recording level by setting volume controls for a device that you want to use for playing MIDI music.
To configure a preferred MIDI music playback device
In Control Panel, click Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices, and then click Sounds and Audio Devices.
On the Audio tab, under MIDI Music Playback, click the preferred device for playing MIDI music.
To specify the default playback or recording level for the selected device, click Volume, and then set the volume controls.
To display information about the selected device, click About.
For more information about using MIDI devices, see Playing Digital Media later in this chapter.
Windows XP Professional lets you optimize audio playback and recording performance by specifying the default hardware acceleration and sample-rate conversion quality. The default hardware acceleration setting for Windows XP Professional is Full, which enables all acceleration features. The default sampling-rate conversion quality is Good, which provides reasonable quality with fast performance.
You can configure audio performance options in Control Panel. Click Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices, and then click Sounds and Audio Devices.
In Windows XP Professional, you can select a default application for playing CDs and DVDs. You can use a third-party DVD player application provided with your DVD device or you can select Windows Media Player as your default CD or DVD player application.
To select Windows Media Player as your default CD or DVD player application
In Windows Media Player, click Tools, and then click Options.
On the File Types tab select the file types for which Windows Media Player should be the default player.
| Note | If you install a third party CD or DVD player after you set Windows Media Player as your default application, the third-party player might register itself as the default. If this happens, you must set the default player to Windows Media Player again, if you want it to be your default CD or DVD player. |
You can also select actions to for Windows to perform when inserting a CD or DVD that contains different media file types, such as automatically playing a file or opening the folder to view the available music files, or, for pictures, viewing a slideshow of the images or printing the pictures. You can also choose to have Windows XP Professional automatically perform the action, display a prompt to choose an action, or to take no action at all when that file type is encountered. The action is taken whenever the specific file type is encountered in the data from the CD or DVD drive. These AutoPlay settings are available for pictures, music files, video, and mixed content.
To select AutoPlay actions for different content types
In Windows Explorer, right-click the CD or DVD drive, and then click Properties.
On the AutoPlay tab, in the drop-down list box, select the content type you want to configure.
In the Actions area, select the Select an action to perform button, and then select an action from the list.
Click Apply.
Repeat steps 2 through 4 for each content type and click OK to close the dialog box.
By default, Microsoft Internet Explorer plays animations, sounds, and videos from intranet and Internet sites. However, you can disable any of these to ensure that pages load faster or to create a quiet work environment.
To configure animations, sounds, and videos in Internet Explorer
On the Start menu, right click the Internet Explorer icon and then click Internet Properties.
On the Advanced tab, in the Settings dialog box, under Multimedia, select or clear the Play animations in web pages, Play sounds in web pages, or Play videos in web pages check boxes.
In Windows XP Professional you can configure digital media devices such as the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), DVD devices, and digital video cameras like any other supported device. Windows XP Professional also supports a wide range of Human Interface Devices (HIDs) and other peripherals connected through the Universal Serial Bus (USB) or an IEEE 1394 port. For more information about installing and configuring such devices, see Managing Devices in this book.
When you are writing files to CD, it is recommended that you optimize your computer s disk space for optimal recording speed. To do this, configure your workstation to use another local drive or partition for the temporary storage area that Windows uses to preprocess files before they are written to a CD. You need to have another local drive available, or to have created a partition on your hard drive. For more information about creating partitions on your hard drive, see Disk Management in this book.
To select a different drive or partition on which to store temporary files for CD recording
In My Computer, right-click the CD recording drive, and then click Properties.
On the Recording tab, in the drop-down box, select a drive with at least 700 MB of free disk space to store temporary files.
Click Apply, and then click OK.
You can view a list of installed digital media devices, determine driver versions, perform diagnostics, see what codecs are installed, and more, in Control Panel, under Sounds and Audio Devices, on the Hardware tab. The Devices list shows the audio, video, and digital media devices installed on the workstation. When you click a device in the Devices list, information about that device (such as the manufacturer and operational status) is displayed under Device Properties. You can also use the System Information component of Windows XP Professional Help and Support Center to view information about the digital media devices and codecs installed on your system.
To view information about installed digital media devices in Help and Support Center
In Help and Support Center, click Use Tools to view your computer information and diagnose problems, and then click Advanced System Information.
Click View detailed system information.
A System Summary list of hardware resources, components, software and applications displays.