XP Professonal Configuration

There are many new and exciting features with XP. As you check through what's new discover which features are making their debut in Windows XP Professional, and which have been improved from Windows 9x or W2K. These new tools will help you get the most out of your computer. Moreover, these new features make your computer run more efficiently and reliably.

Security has been improved, making it safer for you to shop and browse on the Internet. Performance is higher than ever, allowing you to use more programs and have them run faster than ever. Windows XP Professional is very stable.

Getting Started

Start Menu

The new Start menu is smarter and gives you with more options to get the machine just how you want it. You can easily see who is logged on. I like the way that XP automatically adds the most frequently used programs to the menu. If you prefer, you can move any programs you want to the Start menu.

Once you have installed Windows XP there are numerous settings to optimise. This section will take you through the places to inspect. Use this configuration section to learn about your system. If you are trying to cure a specific problem then refer to the System and Network Icon pages.

Remote Assistance

Remote Assistance was voted the most useful new feature in XP. Use Remote Assistance to have a friend or computer expert help you solve your computer problem. Just use Windows Real-Time Client to invite an online contact. Note only with your permission, the 'expert' can view your screen or even take control of your computer. The two of you can chat online as you work through the problem.

Network and Dial-up Connection Icons

My favourite icon in the control panel is the Network Icon. I make this a key location when troubleshooting machine connection problems. For example: If I cannot connect to server then I check the TCP/IP Properties.

Open the Network Connection Icon

To find the network settings, right click the 'My Network Places', select Properties. Alternatively:

Start, Connect To, Show all connections.

Inside the Network Icon

First select the Local Area Network Connection (Blue Floor in above Diagram), then right click, Properties.

General Tab - TCP/IP, Properties - Advanced Tab

As the name suggests, advanced is used by Technical support to configure special DNS settings or extra IP addresses. What you are most interested in troubleshooting is the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties tab.

General Tab - TCP/IP, Properties

If the radio button is set to 'Obtain an IP address automatically', then go to the CMD prompt and type IPCONFIG /all. That will tell you the IP settings you have received from the DHCP server. Note: If you have an IP address beginning 169.254.x.y then the DHCP is not working and you have an Automatic Private IP Address (APIPA)

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Task Manager

You may have already used the Task Manager to kill programs that are 'Not Responding'. Take the time to explore the other Tabs.

Opening the Task Manager

If you have a big hand span, the fastest way of opening the task manager is: CTRL + SHIFT + ESC.
Alternatively: CTRL + ALT + DELETE, then select Task Manager.

Task Manager Tabs

Application Tab

The main purpose of this Tab is to be able to 'End Task' which is 'Not Responding' and so save time in having to reboot the machine.

A little know use of the Application tab is to start a program when all else fails. I once used this technique to start start Explorer when the everything else was locked down.

Process Tab

It is worth getting to know the 'Image names' in this program. Knowledge of which 'Image Name' corresponds to which program could allow you to close down multiple instances of programs like Outlook or Frontpg without a reboot. What sometimes happens is that you start several instances of program which then fight or block each other. If you close down all instances of an application it can save you a reboot.

Knowledge of the Image names and their associated process will help to troubleshoot viruses. Many so called virus attacks turn out to be false alarms. However there are viruses about and they often leave signs in the task manager. If you know what the image names do, you will be able to spot a virus impostor.

Advanced Columns

If you wish to check more detailed information then go to the View (menu) and Select Columns (see above diagram). I use this for checking the settings of individual programs. For example, if NonPaged pool increases you could have a leaky application. Another use is to check if applications are reading or writing to disk when you have high disk activity.

Performance Tab

This is the poor man's System Monitor. The performance tab useful for to check on memory or processor usage and so troubleshoot why the machine is running slowly.

Check Performance Tab, bottom Right: Note the Commit Charge Peak. Compare it with
Commit Charge Limit. If the two figures are close add more RAM or increase the pagefile.

Network Tab

In XP there is an extra tab in the Task Manger which is most useful for checking network utilisation.

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Windows XP Professional

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