Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows XP in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Wake Up with Windows XP
  • Hour 1. Taking a Bird's-Eye Look at Windows XP
  • Hour 2. Getting Started with Windows XP
  • Hour 3. Managing the Windows XP Interface
  • Part II: Morning Windows Desktop Exploration
  • Hour 4. Working with the My Computer Window
  • Hour 5. Navigating Files with Windows Explorer
  • Hour 6. Calling for Help
  • Hour 7. Improving Your Windows Desktop Experience
  • Part III: Early Afternoon Windows Exploration
  • Hour 8. Installing Programs with Windows XP
  • Hour 9. Finding Files, Folders, and Friends
  • Hour 10. Using the Desktop Accessories
  • Part IV: Late Afternoon Internet Integration
  • Hour 11. Surfing the Web with Internet Explorer
  • Hour 12. Tying Windows into the Web
  • Hour 13. Networking with Windows XP
  • Hour 14. Managing E-mail and Newsgroups with Outlook Express
  • Part V: An Evening with Advanced Windows
  • Hour 15. Exploring Your Hardware Interface
  • Hour 16. Understanding Printing and Fonts
  • Hour 17. Using Windows on the Road
    • Docking Your Laptop
    • Using PC Cards
    • The Windows Briefcase
    • Going Wireless with Infrared
    • A Word About Power
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Hour 18. Giving Windows XP a Tune-Up
  • Hour 19. Managing Your Hard Drives
  • Hour 20. Tinkering with the Advanced System Tools
  • Part VI: Having Fun at Nighttime
  • Hour 21. Using Media Player
  • Hour 22. Picturing Windows XP Graphics
  • Hour 23. Making Movies with Windows XP
  • Hour 24. Advanced Windows XP Tips
  • Part VII: Appendixes
  • Appendix A. Differences Between the Windows Home and Professional Edition
  • Appendix B. Glossary
  • Appendix C. Answers to Quizzes

Using PC Cards

For several years, laptops have supported PC cards, the small credit card–sized expansion peripherals that plug into the side of your laptop. These cards enable you to add a modem, memory, networking capabilities, and even another hard disk to your laptop.

Three card types exist:

• Type I: The original card that was replaced with Type II cards
• Type II: The most common PC card you can purchase today, primarily used for modems, memory, and networking
• Type III: A double-sized card used primarily for disk expansion. Several megabytes can fit into the size of a couple of credit cards.

Most laptops in use today support two Type II (or Type I) cards at once, or one Type III PC card, because of its double width.

Your taskbar's notification area includes an icon that represents your PC card (PCMCIA) slot. When you double-click this icon, Windows XP opens the PC card Safely Remove Hardware window shown in Figure 17.2.

Figure 17.2 The Safely Remove Hardware window enables you to control your PC card settings.

Figure 17.2 indicates that the laptop has one PC card socket (many have two) and that the socket has a D-Link PC card currently plugged in. The Safely Remove Hardware window also displays any USB devices you have installed, such as a laptop's USB-based floppy disk drive. Although you can insert and remove most PC cards during the operation of Windows without stopping the card first, if you use a PC card with a hard disk, you must stop the card before removing it to ensure that all unwritten data is on the card's disk.

To start any card, simply insert the card into the appropriate PC card slot. Your PC can be on or off for this operation; this is one of the only times you can modify PC hardware with the power on. Windows senses the change, installs the modem support through Plug and Play, and adds the card to the list in the PC card Properties dialog box that will no longer be empty. To remove the card, eject the PC card from its slot and Windows reconfigures itself accordingly.

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