PERRICONE'S WORLD

If it seems like your computer has gotten slower since you bought it, it probably has. One of the biggest factors that slows down your computer’s performance is fragmentation, a situation that occurs over time, in which files on your hard drive become divided into small pieces. Your computer must read a file to open, [...]

The notification area is the collection of small icons near your system clock, in the bottom-right corner of your screen. After you’ve used your computer for a few months, the notification area can become cluttered with icons for different programs you may have installed. Each icon takes up space on your Microsoft Windows XP taskbar, [...]

When you right-click a file name or a thumbnail in Microsoft Windows XP, you see a shortcut menu for that file. One of the items on the menu is Send To, which enables you to quickly e-mail a file, copy it to your desktop, or copy it to a floppy disk. Sometimes what you really [...]

Microsoft Windows XP has two types of user accounts: limited and computer administrator. Limited accounts are more secure because they offer some protection from spyware and viruses. For that reason, you should use a limited account for your day-to-day computing. For more information about user accounts, read Set up user accounts and log on to [...]

Would you rather not have to log on after your computer starts? If you’re the only person who uses your computer, you can make life a little easier by skipping the Welcome screen completely and having Microsoft Windows XP take you straight to your desktop. To automatically log on to Windows XP upon startup 1. [...]