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
  • Hour 18. Giving Windows XP a Tune-Up
    • How the Updates Work
    • Updating Windows Yourself
    • Transferring Settings from One Computer to Another
    • What's in Your System
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • 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

What's in Your System

Periodically, you might need to know specifics about your system, such as what hardware, memory, disk space, or other detail currently exists in case you want to upgrade your computer.

Windows XP supports a System Information window that displays all the details about your system. Figure 18.7 shows the results of running System Information on one computer.

Run System Information from your Start menu's Accessories, System Tools folder. Not only does the opening screen, shown in Figure 18.7, shows the details of your system, but you can get more specific information by selecting from the menus. For example, the Tools menu enables you to learn the specifics about your network connections.

Figure 18.7 Run System Information to learn about your computer's contents.

Much is available from the System Information window. You might want to look through the menu options to learn what is available. Perhaps the most important thing you can do right now is print a copy of your system information and save the printout in case you need to restore your system at a later time after a hardware failure of some kind. For example, if you later need to replace a faulty disk drive, you'll be glad you printed a copy of your system information so you can set up your replacement disk drives with the same system settings as the previous drive.

The System Information screen keeps track of the following details of your computer system:

• Your hardware and the internal resources each device uses
• Components such as the status of your USB ports and modem
• Software such as drivers and startup programs that automatically execute when Windows XP first starts
• Internet Explorer settings
• Office application settings (if you have installed Microsoft Office)

To print the system information, select File, Print and select All in the Print range field. Be warned, though, that this list can consume quite a lot of paper.

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