Windows XP Questions (1 Viewer)

[Kevin_Graham]

As I've stated in other posts, I really like Windows XP. It has fixed almost all of the issues that I had with my computer while I was running 98. I do have a couple of questions regarding XP though.

1. When I install new software under my account it doesn't always show up in the start button list of my kids accounts. Is there a way that I can choose whether I want the install to be available in all accounts or not?

2. With XP after shutting down Windows I am prompted to turn off the computer. Under 98 it would shut the computer off automatically. Can XP do this as well?

 

[Scott Rei]

XP will automatically shut down your PC if the power management is setup properly.
In Control Panel, make it show all available options and go to Power Options, APM, and see if it is checked. If not, check it.
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q313290
If you want installed programs to show up under all users, they need to be in the all users profile. I know when you install some programs, it will ask you if you want it to be available to the current user or to all users, but I do not think it will do that for all programs. If need be, you can manually copy the icons into the all users profile and it will show up on all.

 

[Kevin_Graham]

Thanks for the reply! I came up with another question. Within XP how do I find out how much free space I have on my hard drive?

 

[Denward]

how do I find out how much free space I have on my hard drive?

StartMy Computer. Click once on your hard drive icon. Look in the 'Details' box at the lower left of the window.

 

[Hugh M]

or you could just right click on the drive icon in my computer, and hit properties.

as for the power off, I am 90% sure that the suggestion to enable APM in the "control panel"-"power options"-"APM" area will do the trick.

XP wants everyone to use ACPI, and if you're not then this is probably disabled and you have to enable it to get your pc to shut off. This might not be related to ACPI use, but I think it is?

I'm glad I upgraded but some of this is really annoying for a $100 piece of software thats been in development/use for years on end. Explorer is the most annoying thing I can think of trying to navigate. I had more fun delivering pizzas in NJ for the mob.

 

[Kevin_Graham]

Under power options I checked the APM box and now it shuts down automatically. Now sometimes when I turn it on, it doesn't boot up properly. It stops almost immediately with nothing on the monitor. I then have to hard boot it and it comes up perfectly. Is there something else I can do to make this work more smoothly?

 

[Kevin_Graham]

This problem of not booting up is occurring more frequently now. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

 

[Scott Rei]

If you turn the APM back off does it stop?

Did you actually load Windows XP from scratch or did you do an upgrade? If you upgraded, I would really suggest a fresh installation of XP, it tends to work a lot better.

 

[Hugh M]

are you using a normal standard keyboard and mouse?
when exactly does the screen go blank?
this is from when the computer is cold only? or when you restart only?
what motherboard? do you have a network card installed?
have you been to KMart lately? Blue light special on the whole store!!

 

[Rob Varto]

I get the hangup that Kevin described too. It happens about half way through booting up. It just stops and the screen stays blank. About 15-20 seconds later, it continues the booting process.

I did an upgrade and since my XP is only the "upgrade" version, I wouldn't even know how to begin with a "clean" install. Don't you have to install XP over a currently running OS? I'd love to get rid of this booting problem. It just started all of a sudden.

 

[Brett_H]

Ron & Kevin,
Any chance you're using Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5? If so, I believe this was an issue and there's supposedly a fix for the problem.
If not, disregard this message...
-Brett.

 

[Rob Varto]

Ironically, yes I was TYRING to use EZ CD Creator 4.02. Of course, XP hated it and wouldn't even load it. I'll check out the fix. Thanks.

Update: Win XP will not work with EZ CD Creator 4.x!! Roxio isn't even going to attempt to support it. Doesn't matter though. I d/l a small program to transfer mp3's to .wav format and used Windows Media Player to burn a CD. Now Im in CD burning heaven. Oh yeah, I just got Nero trial version too.

So I guess Roxio will never get my $$ again.

 

[Kevin_Graham]

No I don't have Eazy CD Creator, I use the latest version of Nero instead.

If I'm going to do a new install I need some advice on how I go about reformatting my hard drive. I've heard that you want to set up your hard drive so that XP has it's own partitioned drive.

Rob - I have an upgrade version also so I checked the directions and it looks like you can do a clean install. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Rob Varto]

Kevin, I asked the same question a while back. Here is that link:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=36226
That should get you through. In a nutshell:
1) insert Win 98 startup disk
2) turn on computer
3) at A: prompt type 'fdisk' (follow direction from the recommended article in the above link)
** Fdisk allows you to repartition your hard drive. I use Partition Magic 7.0 which allows you to do this in Windows (highly recommended) but I did allow a 2GB space for JUST Win XP)
4) after Fdisk, restart computer (with disk still in)
5) at A: prompt type 'format c: /s'
6) Wait 15 minutes and voila! Clean drive.
7) Restart computer so Win 98 startup files can be loaded to hard drive
8) Insert OS disk
9) Choose 'Start Computer WITH CD Rom support'
Note: Some people recommend reseting your BIOS to have the cpu read the CD drive before the A: drive and install Win XP that way. I didn't have any luck with that method. For some reason, my CD wouldn't detect at the startup.
Good luck and if anyone sees any errors in my description, feel free to correct me.

 

[Hugh M]

I get the hangup that Kevin described too. It happens about half way through booting up. It just stops and the screen stays blank. About 15-20 seconds later, it continues the booting process.

thats a pause really not a hangup. This is probably your Network card or another device that is configuring or searching or whatever.
if you want to attempt to reduce your boot times I believe there are some software programs that you could try out. You might want to go to the forums at www.anandtech.com (communities) and do a search in the "OS" board.

 

[John Wilson]

I have a follow up question on this subject.
I am planning to do a clean install of XP Pro onto a 80GB HD. The reason I went so big is that I would like to do some video editing and I'd like to be able to hold some large files. I'm trying to decide how to partition the drive. Initially I was going to use a 20 GB c drive for the OS and applications and a 60 GB D-drive for data. But I've now read a few places that XP should have its own partition. Why? If I do that, then all of the applications that want to load onto the c-drive will have to be manually directed onto another drive. In the past this has created some problems when the app was loaded to a different drive than the OS.
I'm looking for suggestions on how to partition and have a stable system.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Rob Varto]

John, you can partition using the fdisk command. It's not very intuitive, but it works. A better way, like I stated above, is to get Partition Magic 7.0. It's like $50 shipped but being able to partition right from Win XP is awesome. You can specify the size and drive label. It's also very easy to use.

I think XP should have it's own partition in case you need to clean install your other drives (why delete the OS?) and due to swap files- just guessing though. I wouldn't allocate more than 2GB for XP - its a 1.5 GB OS and anything really more than that is a waste. I would create another partition for all your program files like Word, Excel, etc. and yet another for your games or music. Just my $.02 but if one partition gets screwed up, why bother formatting the whole drive and losing all your files - including good ones. With as much as I personally install and remove games I tend to get swap files or .dll files missing.

 

[Todd Hochard]

The vast majority of applications install files in various Windows directories. As such, if you have a problem with Windows or an app that requires the reinstall of either, both are inextricably linked, and both will be affected by the reinstall.
In other words, for all but the simplest apps, if you reinstall Windows, you're going to have to reinstall the apps, as well.
Therefore, I submit that separate partitions for for OS and apps (like Word, Excel, etc.) aren't useful.
Also, most IDE drives I've used slow down access times considerably when they get close to full. As such, I would give a little more than 2GB for a 1.5GB OS.
The 20/60 partition for an 80GB drive seems reasonable to me. Maybe add a third small partition for downloaded web junk (like 20/5/55 or some such- the big video partition should be last). You never know when you may inadvertantly get "Hard Drive Herpes."
Todd

 

[Scott Rei]

You guys are forgetting that in a fresh install of any NT4, Win2k, or WinXP OS, you do not need to do a dos fdisk beforehand. You can and will want to do all your partitioning inside of the setup mode, so you can select a NTFS partition.

 

[Jon_R]

The hangups previously mentioned are likely XP searching for new hardware or something like that. And, why do you shut down XP so often? I have all sorts of silly things XP does when it boots that I'm too lazy to fix. I have an average uptime of a few weeks though, so it doesn't really bother me. Take advantage of an NT based OS, leave it on.
About upgrading vs. clean install. I had a copy of win2k that was acting up, it was about a year old install. Just for fun I put XP on and its been great. I'm hard on an OS and I have had very few problems. Aside from Star Wars Racer, thats like hitting the reset switch, just as fast and just as predictable reboot! However, the general concensous is a clean install is better and I agree with that.
About FDISK,
If you don't know what FDISK is, and DOS, and booting from a floppy into a dos you should read up on it before playing with it. I think its really easy but lots of people are a bit intimidated by the black screen and the little a: .
Lastly,
Partitions are a mixed bag of fun. They can help you organize your data, keep your hard drive fragments down, and logically seperate applications and OS. However, no speed increases will be found doing this, USING 1 DRIVE. Now, if you had 2 drives and one had OS the other had applications that could speed things up as far as accesses go. I use a partition to logically divide my 18 gig drive into 2 9 gig drives. C has OS and applications and D has ftp and mp3. I have a 600 meg scsi drive that I write all internet cache too. This keeps my drive from being fragmented.
If using XP, and you have a bootable cdrom you can avoid a floppy entirely. In fact, the computer I'm currently on has no floppy, well it has one but it died. I installed from CD. I have another computer on my network with a shared A drive if I have to use a floppy!
This info isn't wrong, honestly none of it is, but if there are debatable issues, and there likely are, I'll fix any misunderstandings.
Hope that helps.