Windows XP FAQ

These are frequently asked questions about Windows XP and my answers to them.

Warning: Please read warnings and notes!

Note: If you find this page generally beneficial please see Linking.

Warning: Please do not contact me with your random questions about Windows XP, it is very likely that I won't answer them as I am rather busy with real life, computer programming, and such.

Note: If you have a specific question about Windows XP and it is not related to one of the questions here, check the websites in my Links section, if you cannot find an answer in any of them please ask your question in the Microsoft Newsgroups. It is a good idea to search the newsgroups before posting your question; I have found that Google Groups is better for searching newsgroups than Outlook Express.

Links

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP These are free additional programs from Microsoft that enhance and improve Windows XP. The three that I use most often and highly recommend are Open Command Window Here, Tweak UI, and Power Calculator.
Kellys XP Korner Kelly is a very helpful newsgroup participant and she is a Microsoft MVP; her site has lots of useful information.
- Windows XP from A-Z Kelly's alphabetical list contains many tips and fixes including some of mine.
Doug's Windows 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Tips Doug Knox is also a Microsoft MVP and has been a very active and helpful newsgroup participant. He is also a Doug, just like me!
- Per User Display Settings
Windows Support Center Jim Eshelman, the webmaster, provides excellent information, he is also an MVP.
Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows Paul Thurrott is a computer industry journalist who tells it like it is and he also has some helpful information about Windows.
- Windows Technology FAQs
  - Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) FAQ
  - Windows XP FAQ
Windows Media Player: WMP mini FAQ zachd is a lead Windows Media developer at Microsoft and this is his unofficial FAQ for the Windows Media Player.
ISO Recorder Power Toy Alex Feinman's tool that extends Windows XP's built in CD burning capabilities.
- CreateCD A command line tool for Windows XP's CD burning capabilities.
Open Directory - Computers: Software: Operating Systems: Windows: Windows XP: FAQs, Help and Tutorials
Zeal.com - United States - New - Computing - Software - Operating Systems - Microsoft Windows - Windows XP - Guides & Directories

Windows Installer Cannot Be Found

Question: When I try to install any programs that use the Windows Installer I get the following message:

Windows Installer Error Message

The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed.
This can occur if you are running Windows in safe
mode, or if the Windows Installer is not correctly
installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance.

Answer: This problem occurred on my brother's computer after I upgraded it to Windows XP; I emailed Microsoft Support about this problem and I promptly received a response from Support Engineer Einstein Han (I have included the email within WI.zip). In a later newsgroup thread I was informed by Torgeir Bakken that this solution would be harmful for computers where the Windows directory is not C:\Windows, so I have updated the registry file as Torgeir instructed and included his posting in WI.zip. Other than the updated registry file the solution is the same:

Save WI.zip to a folder on your computer.
Go to the folder where you saved it and open it, then double click WI.reg.
Restart your computer and hold down F8 until a menu appears, choose Safe Mode and press Enter.
In the Start Menu select Run, type cmd, and then at the prompt type msiexec /regserver.
Reboot your computer normally.

That should fix your problem.

DOS Sound

Question: How do I get sound and music in old DOS games?

Answer: In Windows XP, DOS is emulated, so no matter what sound card you have, you can hear sound if the DOS games were written to use the Sound Blaster 2.0. All you need to do is set your game to use a Sound Blaster 2.0 with a General Midi device and the following configuration:

Digital Sound: Sound Blaster 2.0
- Port: 220
- IRQ: 5
- DMA Channel: 1
Music: General MIDI
- Port: 330

Note: This may not work with all of your games, for another solution try downloading and installing VDMSound.

DOS Sound Setup for LucasArts Dark Forces

Special Folders

Question: One of my special folders (e.g. My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, Shared Documents, etc) has lost its name, lost its icon, or has the wrong Task Pane template, how can I get it back?

Answer: This problem can occur if the hidden desktop.ini file in the special folder is corrupt or missing. Here are the steps to fix this problem:

Open the special folder, then in the address bar type \desktop.ini at the end of the path and press enter. This will open Notepad.
$Type "\desktop.ini" in the Address bar$
If, instead of opening Notepad, you get a message saying Windows cannot find the file right click in the folder and select properties, then go to the Customize tab and click Change Icon then click OK and click OK again. This will create a desktop.ini with the correct Hidden and System attributes. Now you can repeat the first step.

If that fails, just open up Notepad, and save the file as desktop.ini in the desired directory. Then, open a Command Prompt and change to that directory (e.g. cd "My Documents", cd "..\All Users\Documents", etc.), and then type attrib +S +H desktop.ini.
In Notepad change the text of the file to the correct text specified below (My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, Favorites, Shared Documents, Shared Music, Shared Pictures, Shared Videos). Then save the file and exit Notepad.
Log Off all the way and then Log In.

Note: When the text of one of these files contains Douglas Thrift replace it with your own user name. Also, if a certain Special Folder is not listed here, don't hesitate to email me so I can add it.

Note: If Notepad is opening a Desktop.ini file when you login, it is because a Desktop.ini file in your Startup folder has lost its Hidden and System attributes. You can use the following method, which is based on a newsgroup posting by Keith Miller (I have included his posting in Desktop_ini.zip), to fix this:

Save Desktop_ini.zip to a folder on your computer.
Go to the folder where you saved it and open it, then double click Desktop_ini.cmd.
Wait for it to complete.

That should fix your problem.

Note: Another cause for this might be that the read-only attribute on the folder is not set, to fix this use the command attrib +R . after the commands mentioned above.

My Documents

[DeleteOnCopy]
Owner=Douglas Thrift
Personalized=5
PersonalizedName=My Documents

My Music

[DeleteOnCopy]
Owner=Douglas Thrift
Personalized=13
PersonalizedName=My Music
[.ShellClassInfo]
InfoTip=@Shell32.dll,-12689
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll
IconIndex=-237

My Pictures

[DeleteOnCopy]
Owner=Douglas Thrift
Personalized=39
PersonalizedName=My Pictures
[.ShellClassInfo]
InfoTip=@Shell32.dll,-12688
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\System32\mydocs.dll
IconIndex=-101

My Videos

[.ShellClassInfo]
InfoTip=@Shell32.dll,-12690
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
IconIndex=-238
[DeleteOnCopy]
Owner=Douglas Thrift
Personalized=14
PersonalizedName=My Videos

Favorites

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll
IconIndex=-173
LocalizedResourceName=@shell32.dll,-12693

Shared Documents

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@shell32.dll,-21785

Shared Music

[.ShellClassInfo]
InfoTip=@Shell32.dll,-12689
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
IconIndex=-237
LocalizedResourceName=@shell32.dll,-28995

Shared Pictures

[.ShellClassInfo]
InfoTip=@Shell32.dll,-12688
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\mydocs.dll
IconIndex=-101
LocalizedResourceName=@shell32.dll,-28997

Shared Videos

[.ShellClassInfo]
InfoTip=@Shell32.dll,-12690
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
IconIndex=-238
LocalizedResourceName=@shell32.dll,-28996

Web Server

Question: How can I install a Web server in Windows XP or does Windows XP come with Personal Web Server?

Answer: If you have Windows XP Professional you can install IIS from the Windows XP CD; Windows XP Home, however, does not come with a version of IIS or PWS, but you can still install and run a third party Web server such as Apache. To install IIS in Windows XP Professional follow these instructions:

Open Add or Remove Programs from the Control Panel, then click Add/Remove Windows Components.
Click Next, then check the box to Internet Information Services (IIS), if you want to select specific components to install click Details. When you are ready to install, click Next.
Follow the instructions for the rest of the wizard.

If you want to install Apache, I suggest you download the latest stable Apache 2 MSI from win32 (at the time of writing, it was apache_2.0.45-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi).

Note: Some people are afraid of Apache, command line programs, and configuration using text files, if you are one of these people I suggest you either immerse yourself into the world of UNIX and get over your silly fears or download and install Simple Server:WWW from AnalogX. It is not as feature filled as Apache or IIS and it has some strange quirks, but that is what you get for being afraid to use Apache or not buying Windows XP Professional to use IIS.

Note: If you are looking for a search engine to use with any of these web servers you can always use my Open Source Search Engine.

Task Manager

Question: My Windows Task Manager has changed, it is missing the tabs and other options, how can I get it back to normal?

Not normal!

Answer: Double click it and be amazed! A double click will toggle between the normal view and the focused view.

Normal!

Note: If you cycle through the UI elements to where the tabs would be using the tab key you can use the left and right arrow keys to switch tabs.

Missing Address Bar in SP3

Question: The address toolbar in the taskbar disapeared after I installed Windows XP Service Pack 3; how can I get it back?

No Address Bar!

Answer: Download and open xp-sp3-addressbar.zip, then run XP-SP3-AddressBar-Setup.exe and you will be able to add it again; however, you may have to log off and log in first (more information).

Address Bar!