Number 248 - January 2004

New Things To Consider Regarding XP
by Jean Wilcox, The Suncoast Beeper, IBM UG St. Petersburg, FL
I guess the first thing to think about is that we'd better get used to using it since the next version of Windows, originally expected to be released August 15, 2004, has had the date set back to around the second quarter of 2005. And, of course, it could be later than that, depending upon how many holes they find that need filling. So we are talking here about 17 to 20 more months, give or take a few. By that time, Windows 98 will be a good eight years old, well beyond its prime. MS has already released Service Pack 1 for XP, and Service Pack 2 is due early next year. It will probably be a very good idea to install it when it arrives if it provides as many improvements as SP1 did. When the time comes, give it a couple or three weeks before you install it so that you have time to read up on what the experts have to say about it. Sometimes there are problems, sometimes there are not.    So let's deal with what we have. Just as every version prior to XP had certain peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, we can surely expect the same today. One weird example is what happens when your internet temp directory gets too full. You go along highlighting and saving the photographs and graphics you find while browsing, generally saving them as .JPG files since that is the most space efficient format generally used, and then one day. --whoa! You can't do that anymore! The only format available for saving is BMP, a notorious space hog. So what' s up with that? Your temp directory has gotten too big, that's what, and you require a little light housekeeping.    You can fix it right up by going to Internet Explorer, Click Tools, Internet Options, click the General tab, then from there you can delete the temporary internet files. After that, just to continue the good work, go to Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Cleanup and run that, too. Get rid of the trash and your operating system will thank you for it by operating as it was designed to do. If you'd like to read up on this interesting topic, try these articles:    Internet Explorer Does Not Save Graphics Files in the Proper Format: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid= kb;en-us;260650    Internet Explorer Saves Images As Bitmaps (.bmp Files): http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=810978    But sometimes it's all beer and skittles! Microsoft, your friend and mine, has released, by way of the Power Toys for XP website, a free little application that allows you to easily make a CD slide show of your graphics. It's not PowerPoint you understand, but it is simple to get, simple to use and it does the job. If you make a habit of sending family photos to family members on CDs, or making them for yourself, for that matter, then this may be just what you're looking for.    CD Slide Show Generator can be obtained from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp In the right-hand column under "Download", find CD Slide Show Generator and click the link. It's a small program, so even with a slow modem it should only take a few minutes. Once downloaded and installed, you don't need to look for a program to run--it's now a built in feature of XP's CD recording Wizard. It allows you to add a small, auto loading, picture viewing application to the CD you are burning. When the completed CD is put into the drive, it does its thing, assuming the playing computer has Win98 or better. Sorry, but it does require XP to make the CD in the first place.    If you don't know how to use XP's CD burning program, you can find a quick and easy tutorial at http://www.worldstart.com/tips/file-management/howto-burn-a-cd.htm Scroll down to "Burning with Windows XP". On the other hand, you can do just as well by looking	on your own computer, under Help, and locating the instructions there. It's not rocket science.    The burning process will proceed as usual until a screen comes up that asks, "Do you want to make a picture CD?" It then tells you about the picture viewer feature. choosing "Yes" will add the picture viewer to the disk. That's it--one little button click will make this picture CD into an auto-run slide show. The rest of the burning process will finish as usual. If you want to add more pictures to the CD later it's no problem. Just follow the normal procedure for burning CDs again. Even with a CD-R in the drive, XP's burner allows multiple sessions when you are burning data. This time, however, you won't be asked about the picture viewer since it's already in place.    When this CD plays after its auto load, you'll see a gray navigation bar at the top of the screen. Using this you can start, pause, or close the slide show. There are forward and back buttons to manually change the pictures. The controls are minimal, but then so is the program, and you certainly can't beat the price. The pictures of course are still printable. They remain in the normal JPEG format so load 'em up into whatever graphics printing application you normally use and have at it.    And here's one more thing I really like about XP-its ability to run older applications in something very like the environment in which they were designed to be used. Any program that you could manage to run in Windows 95 will run in XP. All you have to do is go about it right. Doing so is not automatic, not the default, but the method to make it behave is neither complicated nor difficult. XP has a "compatibility mode" that allows this near-magic to happen.    In order to do this it must be installed, (as well as run), as if you were installing it onto a W95 machine. First look at your installation media, whether old floppies or a CD or whatever, and locate the file that starts the actual setup. It will generally be named "startup.exe" "or install.exe" or something similar enough for you to identify it. After finding it, right click it and look at the properties. There will be a tab in the properties box called "compatibility". Click that and when it opens, you'll see a check box that says "run this program in compatibility mode for:" First, make a check mark in that box, then use the drop down arrow to select whichever version of Windows you found in the past would run your application.    Now, immediately run the setup while that piece of information is in memory. Install just as you always did; there are no other arrangements to be made here. Once the installation is complete it's time to run the program. But before we run it, we need to do part two of our conjure act. Again you need to find a file, but this time it is the actual executable that makes the program go. Look for it in the directory where the installation was made. It shouldn't be difficult to find. The icon will look different from the others in the directory, for one thing, and for another, the file will end in .EXE. Its name will usually be very similar to that of the main program.    Again, right click the file, look at properties, find the compatibility tab, click it, make a check mark in the box, select the Windows version you used for the setup and you're in business! You have installed your program in what amounts to W95 (in this example) and you will run it in what amounts to W95. On that same page with the compatibility choices there are also some "Display settings" that can also be changed if necessary. Usually they are not necessary, but if things don't look right, go back and fiddle with these settings until they do. Do you have an old program you want to run? Do it!
Number 248 - January 2004