Apostolos Dountsis

The stability of Microsoft Windows has improved hugely since the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2. However, the chance that the operating system may crash still exists. When that happens, earlier versions of Windows displayed a blue screen with an error code and some gibberish unpreventable to human beings outside the Microsoft Windows Team. This screen has been ginen the nickname Blue Screen Of Death or BSOD. BSOD has its own entry on Wikipedia.

Windows XP has “resolved” the issue by automatically restarting the computer when a BSOD occurs. So, instead of addressing the problem that causes the BSOD or displaying a user-friendly message, your computer now automatically restarts with no indication as to why this has happen.

A remedy exists in Windows XP. Open the Control Panel, select System. Under the Advanced tab, click on the Startup and Recovery Settings, untick the Automatically Restart option and press the OK button.

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The licensing requirements for Windows Vista state that users are required to launch a Windows Vista Upgrade from within Windows XP. However, by doing so users invalidate the Windows XP license and the Windows Vista installation process can take place. In simple words, you cannot use your Windows XP serial ever again.

At least that is what Microsoft wants the upgrade users to do. However, a workaround exists that allows users to perform a “clean install.” The process is a bit tedious, but is not hard at all to complete:
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PowerToys are 14 programs that Microsoft developers have made available for Windows XP. These programs are not included in Windows Update as they are not part of the operating system, but they are available for download from the Microsoft website. The majority of Windows users are not aware that these programs exist as Microsoft does not publise them. It seems that Microsoft does not promote the work of its developers.

The Toys

• Color Control Panel Applet: Manage Windows color settings in one place.
• SyncToy: With new sources of files coming from every direction (such as digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops), SyncToy can help you copy, move, and synchronize different directories.
• RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer: Organize and work with digital RAW files in Windows Explorer (much as you can with JPEG images). This tool provides thumbnails, previews, printing, and metadata display for RAW images.
• ClearType Tuner: This PowerToy lets you use ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen, and installs in the Control Panel for easy access.
• HTML Slide Show Wizard: This wizard helps you create an HTML slide show of your digital pictures, ready to place on your Web site.
• Open Command Window Here: This PowerToy adds an “Open Command Window Here” context menu option on file system folders, giving you a quick way to open a command window (cmd.exe) pointing at the selected folder.
• Alt-Tab Replacement: With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.
• Tweak UI: This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more. Note that the latest version requires Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2003.
• Power Calculator: With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions.
• Image Resizer: This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click.
• CD Slide Show Generator: With this PowerToy you can view images stored on a CD as a slide show. The Generator works downlevel on Windows 9x machines as well.
• Virtual Desktop Manager: Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy.
• Taskbar Magnifier: Use this PowerToy to magnify part of the screen from the taskbar.
• Webcam Timershot: This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate.

The Favourites

From this collection of programs, the old-time favourite Tweak UI, the ClearType Tuner, the Alt-Tab Replacement, Open Command Window Here and the Virtual Desktop Manager stand out. Also worth downloading is the Windows XP screensaver.

In Windows, you can scan the computer’s hard disks for errors (bad sectors) by right-clicking on the hard disk icon from My Computer and selecting Properties. Under Tools, press the Check Now button.

The disadvantage of this tool is that you receive no information on what it is doing and it does not produce a report on the status of your hard disk. There is an alternative method of checking the status of your hard disks with actual reporting. From the Start button press Run…, type cmd and press enter. This will bring-up the console and type:

where C should be replaced with the letter of your hard disk which can be found in My Computer. Depending on the size of the hard disk, the check may take a while. If the system is using the hard disk in question, then it will suggest to schedule the check for the first time that you restart the computer.