Special Features in This Book

Besides the main text in this book, you'll find several extra features that give you even more information about getting the most out of Windows XP.

TIP

To get the most out of Windows XP, I recommend that you configure your system to at least 1024 x 768 resolution, running at least 16-bit color and if your video card can handle it, crank the color quality all the way up to the highest setting. Windows XP looks best with 32-bit color. Naturally, you'll need a 17-inch or larger monitor to handle this resolution, which is another one of my recommendations.

Tips

These are pieces of advice little tricks, actually that help you use Windows XP more effectively or maneuver around problems or limitations.

Notes

Notes provide information that is generally useful but not specifically needed for what you're doing at the moment. Some are like extended tips interesting, but not essential.

NOTE

Prior to Windows 95, filenames were limited to eight main characters plus a three-character extension. Windows no longer has this "8+3" limitation. Filenames can now include up to 255 characters, and can use spaces and special characters.

CAUTION

Installing too many fonts on your system not only consumes a lot of hard disk space, it also eats up system memory and can cause your system to run slower than normal. If your system is running sluggishly, you may want to remove some unused fonts. This enhances the performance of your system performance and frees up some disk space.

Cautions

These tell you to beware of a potentially dangerous act or situation. In some cases, ignoring a Caution could cause you significant problems so pay attention to them!

Shortcut Key Combinations

Shortcut key combinations in this book are shown as the key names joined with plus signs (+). For example, Ctrl+W indicates that you should press the W key while holding down the Ctrl key. (This particular key combination closes the current browser window useful if you've been plagued with a bunch of advertising pop-ups without the normal Close Window controls.)

Menu Commands

You'll see instructions, such as this, everywhere in this book:

Choose File, New.

This means that you should pull down the File menu and select New. (This particular example opens the New dialog box in most Windows applications.)

Web Addresses

There are a lot of Web addresses in this book. They're notated like this:

www.microsoft.com

In all cases, the beginning http://, not necessary with Internet Explorer 6, is assumed.