| Despite the many improvements in Windows over the years , one feature hasn't improved a bit: Microsoft's documentation. In fact, with Windows XP, you get no printed user guide at all. To learn about the thousands of pieces of software that make up this operating system, you're expected to read the online help screens. Unfortunately, as you'll quickly discover, these help screens are tersely written, offer very little technical depth, and lack examples and illustrations. You can't even mark your place, underline, or read them in the bathroom. In Windows XP, many of the help screens are actually on Microsoft's Web site; you can't see them without an Internet connection. Too bad if you're on a plane somewhere with your laptop. The purpose of this book, then, is to serve as the manual that should have accompanied Windows XP Pro. In these pages, you'll find step-by-step instructions for using almost every Windows feature, including those you may not even have quite understood , let alone mastered. Windows XP Pro: The Missing Manual is designed to accommodate readers at every technical level. The primary discussions are written for advanced-beginner or intermediate PC users. But if you're a first-time Windows user, special sidebar articles called Up To Speed provide the introductory information you need to understand the topic at hand. If you're an advanced PC user, on the other hand, keep your eye out for similar shaded boxes called Power Users' Clinic. They offer more technical tips, tricks, and shortcuts for the veteran PC fan. About the Outline This book is divided into six parts , each containing several chapters: -
Part 1, The Windows XP Desktop, covers everything you see on the screen when you turn on a Windows XP computer: icons, windows, menus, scroll bars, the Recycle Bin, shortcuts, the Start menu, shortcut menus , and so on. -
Part 2, The Components of Windows XP, is dedicated to the proposition that an operating system is little more than a launch pad for programs . Chapter 6 describes how to work with applications in Windows ”launch them, switch among them, swap data between them, use them to create and open files, and so on. This part also offers an item-by-item discussion of the individual software nuggets that make up this operating system. These include not just the items in your Control Panel folder, but also the long list of free programs that Microsoft threw in: Windows Media Player, Movie Maker 2, WordPad, and so on. -
Part 3, Windows Online, covers all the special Internet- related features of Windows, including the wizards that set up your Internet account, Outlook Express (for email), Internet Explorer 6 (for Web browsing), chatting or videoconferencing with MSN Messenger, and so on. -
Part 4, Plugging into Windows XP, describes the operating system's relationship with equipment you can attach to your PC ” scanners , cameras , disks, printers, and so on. Special chapters describe faxing, fonts, troubleshooting your PC, and preventing problems from even arising. -
Part 5, Life on the Network, honors the millions of households and offices that now contain more than one PC. If you work at home or in a small office, these chapters show you how to build your own network; if you work in a corporation where some highly paid professional network geek is on hand to do the troubleshooting, these chapters show you how to exploit XP Pro's considerable networking prowess. At the end of the book, two appendixes provide guidance in installing this operating system and a menu-by-menu explanation of the Windows XP Pro desktop commands. About  These Arrows Throughout this book, and throughout the Missing Manual series, you'll find sentences like this: "Open the Start My Computer Local Disk (C:) Windows folder." That's shorthand for a much longer instruction that directs you to open three nested icons in sequence, like this: "Click the Start menu to open it. Click My Computer in the Start menu. Inside the My Computer window is a disk icon labeled Local Disk (C:); double-click it to open it. Inside that window is yet another icon called Windows. Double-click to open it, too." Similarly, this kind of arrow shorthand helps to simplify the business of choosing commands in menus, as shown in Figure I-1. Figure I-1. In this book, arrow notations help to simplify folder and menu instructions. For example, "Choose Start All Programs Accessories Notepad" is a more compact way of saying, "Click the Start button. When the Start menu opens, click All Programs; without clicking, now slide to the right onto the Accessories submenu; in that submenu, click Notepad," as shown here.  About Shift-Clicking Here's another bit of shorthand you'll find in this book (and others): instructions to Shift-click something. That means you should hold down the Shift key, and then click before releasing the key. If you understand that much, the meaning of instructions like "Ctrl-click" and "Alt-click" should be clear. About http://MissingManuals.com You're invited and encouraged to submit corrections and updates to this book's Web page at http://www.missingmanuals.com. (Click the book's name , and then click the Errata link.) In an effort to keep the book as up-to-date and accurate as possible, each time we print more copies of this book, we'll make any corrections you've suggested. Even if you have nothing to report, you should check that Errata page now and then. That's where we'll post a list of the corrections and updates we've made, so that you can mark important corrections into your own copy of the book, if you like. In the meantime, we'd love to hear your suggestions for new books in the Missing Manual line. There's a place for that on the Web site, too, as well as a place to sign up for free email notification of new titles in the series. |
