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
  • 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
    • Introducing the Windows Media Player
    • Using AutoPlay
    • Changing the Look of the Windows Media Player
    • The Media Guide
    • CD Audio Extras
    • The Media Library and Playlists
    • A Radio in Your PC
    • Downloading to a Portable Player
    • What About Video?
    • Playing DVD Movies
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • 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 AutoPlay

AutoPlay is one of the Windows multimedia capabilities. If you've ever played a game or an audio CD in your computer's CD-ROM drive, you'll appreciate AutoPlay very much indeed. AutoPlay automatically inspects your audio CD or CD-ROM as soon as you place it in the computer's CD-ROM drive. AutoPlay then does one of four things:

• Starts the installation on your CD-ROM if you've yet to install the program that resides on the CD-ROM
• Begins the CD's program if the program is already installed
• Begins playing the DVD if you've inserted a DVD into a DVD-ROM drive
• Starts the audio CD player if it's an audio CD

Microsoft knows that putting a CD or DVD into your CD-ROM drive almost always means that you want to do something with that CD. Of course, you might be inserting the CD into the drive for later use, but that's rare; most of the time when you insert a CD, you're ready to do something with it right away.

To Do: Using AutoPlay to Play Music from an Audio CD

1. Find an audio CD that contains music you want to hear.
2. Place the CD into the CD-ROM drive and close the door or push the CD-ROM drive's Insert button to close the CD-ROM drive.
3. Windows immediately recognizes that you've inserted an audio CD into the CD-ROM drive and begins playing the music. Figure 21.1 shows the Windows Media Player when the first song begins.
   

   Figure 21.1 The Windows Media Player plays the CD and displays the CD's information.

4. Windows Media Player immediately loads and, if you have Internet access, goes to the Internet to look for the CD's artist, title, and song list. If you are not currently connected to the Internet, you can retrieve such information later. Windows Media Player scans your CD, looks for unique identifying information, and searches the Internet where song lists are stored for the majority of CDs published in the world. This magnificent database of audio tracks puts the song list on your computer so that you can later store the CD, or individual selections from the CD, to your hard disk, and you never have to enter the track or artist information. Some CDs will download with art that might appear in the center of the Windows Media Player as the CD plays.

   The Windows Media Player acts like a physical CD player that you can control by clicking the buttons. It displays Play, Pause, Stop, Eject, Previous, and Next Track buttons, Previous and Forward time buttons, and volume and mute controls. Move the cursor over the buttons on the Windows Media Player's window to see a pop-up help box that describes each button.

5. Click the Pause button. Click the Play button. Double-click another song to play a different track on the CD.
6. Select Play, Eject to stop the play and eject the CD.

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