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
    • First Things First
    • Shut Down Before Leaving
    • I Do Windows!
    • Manually Changing Window Sizes
    • Moving Windows
    • Closing a Window
    • A Window's Menu
    • A Window's Toolbar
    • One Last Note About Windows
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • 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
  • 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

First Things First

Windows XP automatically starts when you turn on your computer. Before you can use Windows XP you must tell XP who you are.

Logging On

At one time, only users networked to other computers had to worry with logging on, the process of telling the computer who you are by entering a name and password to gain access to the files that you have access to. (Sometimes, logging on is called signing on.)

Windows XP lets many different users create their own accounts, with optional passwords. Each account contains all the settings that the account's user likes, such as screen colors, Start menu options, and other preferences. When someone first starts the computer, a Welcome screen appears with each user's account name and an associated icon. You can easily add new users, change an account's icon, and modify your password.

Three permissions are available for XP accounts. An account's permission determines how much access to the operating system that account is allowed to have. The permissions are

• Administrator: An administrator account allows changes to other users'account settings and has access to all areas of Windows XP. An administrator account is automatically created when you first install Windows XP, or one will be there when you first start a new computer with Windows XP. That Administrator account does not require a password until you log on as Administrator and assign a password to that account.
• Limited: A limited account allows changing of a user's own account settings and can access the parts of Windows XP that any Administrator account has given access to.
• Guest: A guest account allows the running of some programs with possible limited data file access but cannot access any of the system areas of Windows XP.

The reason for different accounts for different users becomes apparent when you think about how people use the computer. Some people might prefer a desktop wallpaper picture that differs from someone else's favorite. Some people may want to slow down the speed of their mouse movement or work with a desktop that has fewer icons getting in the way.

When you select your account after first starting Windows, Windows loads all your preferred settings. If you later log off and someone else comes along, they will log on with their account and, possibly, see entirely different settings.

Parents can have an account and the kids can have their own accounts. The kids can play games and change the Windows environment without affecting the Windows environment that the parents see when they log into Windows.

The following To Do item shows how to log on.

To Do: Logging into Windows XP

1. When you see the Welcome screen in Figure 2.1, click on your account name to log on.
   

   Figure 2.1 Each user can have a separate account with special file-access permissions and individual desktop settings.

2. Enter your account's password. (Windows XP will not ask for a password if the account has not been set up to require one.) The password will not appear on the screen but an asterisk (*) will appear as you type each character of your password. The asterisks help ensure that you don't reveal your password to someone who may be looking over your shoulder.
3. The Windows XP desktop appears and conforms to your account. If you've recently made changes to your desktop, those changes will be reflected in the desktop that you see. If you make further changes to your desktop, such as change the background wallpaper, Windows XP remembers the change the next time you log on.

Notice that the Welcome screen in Figure 2.1 shows that the account named Greg-Dad has two programs running. If e-mail was waiting for any of the users, Windows XP would also indicate that the mail is waiting for those users.

Windows XP supports Fast User Switching of accounts. Unlike most multiuser operating systems, Windows XP allows more than one account to be running at the same time, although only one is visible and available at any one time. Suppose Dad's paying bills with a financial program and little Heath needs to look up a foreign country's location on a Web page's map. Dad can simply log off without having to close programs or stop whatever he was doing. After Heath logs on, looks at the Internet map, then logs off, Dad can return to what he was doing simply by clicking his account at the Welcome screen. All the programs that Dad was running will now be running once again as though he'd never logged off. For example, if Dad was editing a document when he logged off and let Heath log on for a few minutes, the document will reappear when Dad logs back on again.

Switching Accounts

If you're using Windows XP and need to log off so that someone else can do something on the computer, the following To Do item shows you how.

To Do: Switching Users

1. Click the Start button to display the Start menu.
2. Click Log off. The Log Off Windows dialog box appears like the one shown in Figure 2.2.
   

   Figure 2.2 Tell Windows XP if you want to let someone else use the computer for a while or log off completely.

3. Click Switch User to let another account user log on. Click Log Off if you want to shut down your Windows XP session completely, including shutting down the programs you might be running.
4. If you selected Switch user, the Welcome screen will once again appear and display the list of accounts.

Accounts Aren't Just for Networks

A network is a set of two or more PCs connected together in some way. Network connections might consist of a single wire, a wireless connection, or a connection made available by the Internet.

By design, networks enable more than one user access to the same resources such as files and printers. In other words, assuming that you have the proper electronic authorization, you can access files stored on any person's PC that is connected to your PC. The extra benefits that a network provides also require extra security precautions so that unauthorized users do not have access to other people's files.

The nature of different users having their own accounts is critical in a networking environment where multiple users have access to the same files. Some users, such as a business's Payroll Department, might have access to files that other departments should not have rights to. By linking file authorizations to accounts, a Network Administrator can give special file rights to certain users. By adding the security of passwords to accounts, the Network Administrator helps ensure that files remain protected and only available to some people. Others might have read-only access but won't be able to change certain files.

With the Windows XP Home Edition, you don't have to work on a PC networked to another computer to utilize the accounts as you've seen throughout the previous sections of this lesson. Nevertheless, more and more homes are getting on the network bandwagon. Instead of throwing away an old, out-of-date computer, a family can now network that computer to a newer one, keeping the family files on the new computer with the larger disk drive, but allowing access to those files from either computer.

Assigning and Changing Account Passwords

You can change an account's password as long as you're using an Administrator account or changing your own account. The following To Do item explains how.

To Do: Switching Users

1. Click the Start button to display the Start menu.
2. Select, by clicking, Control Panel. The Windows XP Control Panel, such as the one shown in Figure 2.3, appears. The Control Panel is where the Administrator can make changes to the operating system settings. Often, a user with any permission can make some changes from the Control Panel. Your Control Panel may look different from that of Figure 2.3, depending on your computer's settings. You'll learn all about the Control Panel in Hour 4, "Working with the My Computer Window."
3. Click User Accounts to display the User Accounts window.
4. Click the account you want to change in the bottom portion of the window. A list of options appears.
5. Click Create a password.
6. Type a password. As you type the password, asterisks appear.
7. Press the Tab key to move your text cursor (the blinking line that indicates where your next typed character will appear) to the next field. A field is a place that accepts data.
8. Retype the password. Windows XP compares the two passwords to ensure they match. This ensures that you actually typed what you wanted to type. (With the asterisks in the password fields, it's not always obvious if you type the wrong character when entering a password.)
   

   Figure 2.3 Change your Windows XP system and desktop settings from the Control Panel.

9. Press the Tab key to move your text cursor to the next field.
10. Type a password hint. This is a hint that will appear when you log on to remind you what your password is in case you forget it. Make your hint good! You don't want your hint so easy that others figure out your password but you want your hint obvious enough to you to remember your password. Your screen should look something like the one in Figure 2.4.
11. Click the Create Password button. (Since the button's already highlighted and has the focus, you only need to press Enter to trigger the button's action.) Your account will now have the password.
12. Click the X in the window's upper-right corner to close the account window. (You've just clicked the window Close button.) The next time you log on with that account, you will be prompted for the password.
    

    Figure 2.4 You'll have to type your account password twice and add a hint.

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