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Leo's Win XP Tricks Tips and Tweaks

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Internet Explorer Import/Export Wizard Saves Valuable IE Data
Here's something I bet you didn't know about. The Internet Explorer Import/Export Wizard! This Wizard saves important data like shortcuts and cookies. Cookies? I thought cookies were only about spyware! Not true. Cookies help you log onto sites automatically and make your online life easier. There are bad cookies and good cookies. I worry a lot more about the Windows Media Player than I do about cookies. Try this to save your important Internet Explorer data:
Open Internet Explorer, click the File menu and then click the Import/Export command.
On the first page of the Import/Export Wizard, read the description and click Next.
On the Import/Export Selection page, select the action to perform. Let's choose the Export Favorites option and click Next.
On the Export Favorites Source Folder page, select the folder you want to export. If you want to back all your favorites up, select the Favorites folder on the top of the list and click Next.
On the Export Favorites Destination page, note the location that file will be saved. The name of the file is bookmark.htm. Click Next.
Click Finish on the Completing the Import/Export Wizard page.
A dialog box will appear telling you the export was successful. Click OK to close it.
Now go to the folder where you saved the bookmark.htm file and open the file. Bingo! A Web page with all your Favorites saved to it.
That page can be used to import into a browser on another machine, or use it for easy access to your favorites.

Make People Log in to Use the Computer
If your Windows XP computer doesn't belong to a Windows domain, you have the choice as to whether you want to require users to log on or not. If you're the only person who uses the computer and you're worried about someone else getting into your computer, you might want to do away with the log on process. Here's how:
Click Start and click the Run command. In the Open text box type control userpasswords2 and click OK.
In the User Accounts dialog box, click on the Users tab. On the Users tab remove the checkmark from the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer checkbox.
Click Apply. The Automatically Log On dialog box appears. This dialog box allows you to enter the user account that will log on automatically. For safety reasons, you might want to make this a non-Administrator account. Enter the User name, Password and confirm the password and click OK.
Click OK in the User Accounts dialog box.
Restart the computer and away you go!


Outlook XP, which is part of the Office XP suite of applications, includes a nice junk email filter that can color code or move spam messages for you. But you might have been wary of using Outlook's spam whacker because you weren't sure what the filter was looking for. Me too! Just what does the Junk email filter look for? What does the adult content filter look for? The fact is not much!

How to Backup Outlook Express Messages and Windows Address Book
Your email messages are probably the most important data you keep on your computer. The worst computing disaster most people experience is the loss of their email. Here's some easy steps you can take to back up your messages and address book:
Right click on the Desktop, point to New and then click Folder. Rename the folder to My Backup Files.
Click Start and then click Search. In the What do you want to search for? balloon, click on the All files and folders arrow.
In the Look In box, click Local Hard Drives.
In the Named box, type *.dbx, and then click Search. When the search is completed, you should see a list of all the files with the .dbx file extension in the Search Results window.
Click the Edit menu and then click the Select All command.
Click the Edit menu and then click the Copy command.
On your desktop, double-click the My Backup Files folder.
On the Edit menu, click Paste.
Repeat steps 4 through 9, but this time search for files with the *.wab file extension. Those files will be for the Windows Address Book.

Windows Media Player Uninstall Needs Help
Last week I showed you how to use the Add/Remove Programs applet to remove the Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger from your computer. One thing I left out was that you need to restart the computer in order to remove the Windows Messenger icon from the system tray. You won't see the Windows Messenger icon anymore after restarting. But guess what? You can't kill the dreaded Media Player! I told you the Media Player is targeted as the "Mother of All Spyware" and it's living up to it's bad name. Try this little experiment:
Go to the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel and remove the Windows Media Player.
Restart the computer. After the computer restarts, go into the Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player. Delete all the files in that folder. Don't close the Windows Explorer, we'll be going back there in a moment.
Run the Search utility and see if you can find wmplayer.exe on your hard disk. You should not be able to find it anywhere.
Right click on the desktop and point to New. Click on Wave Sound.
Notice the icon for the New Wave Sound on the desktop. It's the Windows Media Player icon. No problem, you've uninstalled the Windows Media Player and you've even deleted the files for the program. Double click on the icon. What??? The Windows Media Player pops up and plays the file.
So, what's up with the Windows Media Player? The fact is, WMP is part of the "your computer belongs to the entertainment industry initiative". It's how they'll be able to prevent you from ripping songs from CDs you've purchased, or playing songs that others have ripped from their CDs. Windows Media Player files are protected system files and will regrow automatically, so it doesn't matter if you delete them, they'll just come back!