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
    • Activate Your Desktop
    • Synchronizing Your Web Page Desktop
    • Active Content
    • SOS—Save Our Screens!
    • Paint Windows XP
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • 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

Synchronizing Your Web Page Desktop

The advantage of placing a Web page on your desktop is that, unlike regular wallpaper, the Web page content can frequently change. The Web page will not change on its own after you place the page on your desktop. Windows XP stores the page in an offline format, meaning that the Web page contains whatever it contained when you first placed it on your desktop. You can close your Internet connection after placing the Web page on your desktop because the Web page content will already be on your computer's hard drive, as a snapshot of what it contained when you placed the page.

If you want the Web page to be updated regularly, you must tell Windows XP to synchronize the page, or go to the Internet and update the page at specified time intervals.

The following To Do item explains how to synchronize your Web page.

To Do: Synchronizing Your Web Page-Based Desktop

1. At any point, you can right-click over a blank area of the Web page to display a pop-up menu and select Refresh to synchronize the desktop Web page to its current Internet. Windows XP starts your Internet connection automatically if needed to refresh the page. Instead of manually synchronizing the page, you can request that Windows XP do so as the remaining steps show.
2. To specify a time interval that you want Windows XP to use to synchronize the Web page, display the Display Properties dialog box and click the Customize Desktop button to open the Desktop Items dialog box.
3. Click the Web tab.
4. To synchronize immediately, click the Synchronize button. Doing so performs the same action as manually selecting the Refresh pop-up menu option as described in Step 1. To set up a synchronization schedule for automatic synchronization, click the Properties button and then click the Schedule tab to display the Schedule page.
5. Click the option labeled Using the Following Schedule(s) and click the Add button to display the New Schedule dialog box shown in Figure 7.3.
   

   Figure 7.3 Tell Windows XP how often to synchronize the Web content.

6. Select a time when you want Windows XP to synchronize your desktop Web page's content and choose how often to synchronize. Click the check box at the bottom if you don't have an always-on Internet connection (such as a T-1, DSL, or cable modem line).
7. Click OK and close all the open dialog boxes. At the time you scheduled, Windows XP will handle the synchronization automatically so that you can keep a fresh Web page on your desktop.

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