Some Useful Tips

Keyboard shortcuts

There are many useful keyboard shortcuts available for use in Windows XP, so if you are "keyboard literate" you may want to consider learning some of these as using the keyboard is still faster than using the mouse and has the additional incentive of saving time and reducing wear and tear on yourself.

For the full list to to this link at Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/personalize/default.mspx

• Creating shortcuts

Shortcuts are small files that simply point to the location of another file or folder. They can be created easily in one of two ways -- either right click on the file or folder itself and select 'create shortcut' from the resulting menu, then cut and paste the shortcut to where you want it, or right click an empty space in the area you want the new shortcut to be, select 'new' then 'shortcut' from the menu.

Then once the wizard opens, browse to the file or folder you wish the shortcut to point to.

• Backing up or transferring your email manually with outlook express

If you would like to ensure that you always have a backup of your Outlook Express mailboxes available, there is an easy way to do it manually. To do this you must enable viewing of hidden folders in order to successfully view your mailboxes (in Windows Exporer | Tools | Folder Options | View Tab | enable "show hidden files and folders")

Navigate to c:\documents and settings\(your username)\ Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\(some very long and complicated string of numbers and letters)\Microsoft\Outlook Express

You will see a .DBX file for each of your mailboxes. Transferring these to another hard drive or burning them onto a CD at regular intervals will ensure that you can always restore your email records should you be forced to reinstall Windows.

To restore your mailboxes in the event of reinstalling Windows, simply copy them back into the same folder once the install is complete, overwriting the existing files. You will now have access to all your email records.

• How to Organize your Programs in the Start Menu (works for Windows XP, ME, W98 and W95)

If you have many programs installed, it can be difficult to find the one you want in the Start | All Programs menu. To make it easier, you can organize them into subfolders and "pin" your most used programs to the top section of the Start menu so they'll always appear there.

To pin a program to the top section, just click Start | All Programs and drag the program you want into the top section on the Start menu. This creates a shortcut there, and does not remove the shortcut from the All Programs menu.

To organize programs into subfolders, do the following:

Right click the Start button and select Explore. Windows Explorer will open with the Start menu folder highlighted in the left pane.

Click the Programs folder. In the right pane, you'll see folders that represent submenus and shortcuts to programs.

Make new submenus by right clicking in an empty space in the right pane and selecting New | Folder. Name the new folder whatever you want the new submenu to be named (for example, Graphics Programs).

You can drag the programs you want into the submenu (for example, you might drag Adobe Photoshop, CorelDraw and PhotoPaint into the Graphics folder).

Now when you open the Programs menu, you'll have submenus with your similar programs organized in them, making it easier to find the programs you need and making your Programs menu shorter. Tip from WinXP News.

• Set a new home page in Internet Explorer

The easiest way to change Internet Exploer's default page is to go to the web page you wish to use as your home page and then go to Tools | Internet Options and under the 'home page' section, click the 'use current' button to set it. You can also simply type the address of any page you wish to use into the address bar here, then click OK to confirm the change.

• Error Messages:

When using a program you get a message ".... has caused an error in Kernel32.dll"

Kernel32.dll errors generally mean that you have a serious stability problem because something is attacking the core of the Windows operating system, so addressing the problem is important.

The Kernel32.dll is a 32-bit "dynamic link library" (dll) file that is found in Windows. Dynamic link library files, in general, are called upon by your programs to address specific components. There are literally hundreds of these files on your system that can be called upon at any time instead of having to be pre-loaded in the system memory.

The Kernel32.dll file handles memory management, input/output operations and interrupts, which are used to address hardware components.

It's an essential core component of Windows that acts as a traffic cop for controlling your primary hardware interface.

Unlike most DLL files, Kernel32.dll is loaded into a "protected memory space" when Windows is started up, because it is called upon constantly and so it can not be disturbed by other programs.

When you get a message that an error has occurred in Kernel32.dll, something has attempted to use the protected memory space it occupies. The portion of the error that comes before the "has caused an error" will point to the offending program.

There is a long list of potential causes of this error that include: viruses, low disk space, third-party software that is damaged or incorrectly installed, registry damage, bad memory (RAM), overheating CPU, bad power supply, bad hard disk controller, failing hard disk, damaged swap files, damage to the file allocation table, improper BIOS settings, incorrect hardware drivers, or a whole host of file corruption issues.

Some third-party (or non-Windows) programs try to force Windows into making system changes that it wouldn't normally make.

If the program named in the error message is not a Windows program, try uninstalling the program to see if the errors go away.

If you recently added a new printer and installed the software that came with it, try uninstalling it or anything that you can recall that was added since the error began.

As you can start to see, the task of tracking down the exact cause can be daunting.

The two most helpful bits of information for beginning your trek are the program name in the error message that caused the error and if you can recall when the problem began.

More information available at these links:

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