Microsoft Windows XP top tips
Under its friendly looking interface, Microsoft Windows XP has tons of hidden power. Here are our top tips for unlocking that power.
05 October 2005
Right-click
The right-click is one of the most useful things you'll ever learn to do, because it provides fast access to lots of useful features - not just in Windows, but in most applications too. You can right-click on files, drives, my computer, icons, the desktop - you name it. Many of our tips involve the right-click. Get used to exploring hidden options with it.
E-mailing attachments without opening your mail program
Here's a right-click favourite. Right-click on a document and choose 'Send to..' and then 'mail recipient'. This opens a mail message, with the file as an attachment, and the title of the e-mail set to the file name. All you need to do is fill in the recipient's name.
Finding files
Another right-click essential. When you can't find a file, use the Windows search. You can easily narrow this down to a drive or folder, by right-clicking on the file or folder and choosing 'search...' - it works faster this way around than launching search and then navigating to where you want to search (and much, much quicker than searching the whole of your PC).
Hide the taskbar
The taskbar runs along the bottom of your screen. You can grab back some screen space by right-clicking on the toolbar and choosing 'properties'. Then, on the 'taskbar' tab, check the 'auto-hide the toolbar' box. The toolbar will slide out of the way when you don't need it - leaving just a couple of pixels of it on display. When you want it back, just move your mouse cursor to the bottom of the screen - and up it pops!
Printing right from Windows
You don't always need to open a file to print it. If you want to print an Office document, for example, just right-click on it and choose 'print'. This prints the document without even launching the program, in many cases. If you do this with a picture - such as a JPEG - then you'll be offered some printing choices, such as the size of the picture, how many copies to print and so on.
Customise your start menu
Get your start menu organised just the way you want it to be. First, you can pin programs to the main part of the start menu, so they can be more easily accessed. To do this, click start, and then make your way to the program you want - by clicking on the various menu layers. When you've found the program, instead of left-clicking to run it, right-click and choose 'pin to start menu'. This places the program on the main part of the start menu. You can then organise these how you like, by dragging them up and down on the menu. (You can remove it by - you guessed it - right-clicking, and choosing 'unpin from the start menu.)
Get folders just the way you want them
Maybe you don't like the way that Windows displays folders. Changing this is a two-step process. The first step is to get a folder exactly the way you want it. You can change the way that file icons are displayed by choosing 'view' and then either 'thumbnails' 'tiles' 'icons' 'list' and 'details'. (I like details, so I can see the size of a file and the date it was created.) You can then change the size of the folder's toolbar icons by right clicking on it and choosing 'customise'. Then select 'small icons' for something that's a little less Playschool. At the same time, you can change the icons used for something that suits your way of working. Great. But the downside is that those settings only apply to that folder - not all folders. To give these settings to all folders, simply choose 'tools…' and then 'folder options'. Here there's a whole wealth of settings, but the one we want is in the 'view' tab - the 'apply to all folders' button. This sets all your folders to be like the one you customised. (Experiment with some of the other settings - I like to see my file extensions, for instance, which you can reveal by unchecking the 'hide extensions for known file types' box in the 'view' tab.)
Even more details
If you choose the detailed view, you can add new columns - giving you exactly the information you want. Just right-click on one of the top columns (such as size) to see the range of 'other information' options on offer.
Get media player to display album covers
OK, Media Player does this by default - if you're listening to media on the Internet. But if the files are on your hard disk… the answer is easy. You can get album cover images from places like cdnow.com - then you just rename the file 'folder.jpg' and drop it into the folder containing the album. When media player plays the files, choose 'display album cover' instead of 'visualization'.
Really speed up the start menu
If you have a lot of start menu items, it can take an age to load. You can really speed this up by turning off the drop shadows on the menu icons (you can barely see them anyway). You do this by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing 'properties'. Then choose the 'appearance' tab, and then 'effects'. Then, simply uncheck 'show shadows under menus'.
Bigger thumbnails
When you're viewing thumbnail images you want them to be as big as possible. You can get rid of the file name under the thumbnail, by pressing the shift key when you click 'view' and then 'thumbnails'. Doing the same thing again brings them back.
