How to configure IE to open Office docs in the appropriate program

Sometimes when you click a link on a web site to a Microsoft Office document (a Word .doc file, Excel .xls file or PowerPoint .pps file), sometimes it may open up in Internet Explorer instead of in the Office program associated with the file type. This happens because IE is configured to host Office documents by default. You can change this behavior by following these directions: Open My Computer and click Tools | Folder Options. Click the File Types tab. In Registered File Types, click the file type you want to change and click Advanced. In the Edit File Type dialog box, clear the checkbox that says Browse in Same Window. Click OK.

How to change the location of the print spool folder

XP uses the spool folder on your hard disk to store queued print jobs. Without it, you’d have to wait until printing was finished to use other programs on your system. The spool folder is located on the partition where your Windows system files are installed, but if this partition gets low on free space, you can move it to a different location. This can also speed up performance. Here’s how:

1. First, be sure you’re logged on with an administrative account.
2. Click Start | My Computer.
3. Select the drive where you want to store the spool folder.
4. Click Make a New Folder under File and Folder Tasks in the left pane.
5. Type a name for the folder.
6. Click Start | Printers and Faxes.
7. Click File | Server Properties, then click the Advanced tab.
8. In the Spool Folder field, enter the path to the new folder you created in step 4.
9. Click Apply.
10. After any documents currently printing have finished, click Yes.
11. Click OK.

How to Start and Run the XP Recovery Console

The Recovery Console is a tool built into Windows XP that will allow you to repair problems when your XP computer won’t start. Here’s how to start it:

1. Insert the Windows installation CD in your computer’s CD-ROM drive.
2. Reboot the computer from the CD.
3. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press F10 or R for Repair.
4. On a dual boot system, you’re prompted to enter the number of the Windows installation that you want to log onto.
5. Enter the administrator password when prompted.

You can use the Recovery Console commands to change file/folder attributes, run batch files, change the boot configuration, run chkdsk to repair disk problems, copy and delete files, disable and enable services, manage disk partitions, overwrite the boot sector, repair the Master Boot Record, format drives, and more. For a complete list of Recovery Console commands, see
http://www.wxpnews.com/OOD818/060905-XP_Recovery_Console

How to change taskbar grouping behavior

You can configure the taskbar Properties in XP to group similar items together (for instance, all open Word documents) when the buttons start to get too small. By default, the items are group in the order they were opened (the one opened first is first in the group, etc.). You can change the grouping behavior by editing the registry. Here’s how:

1. Open your favorite registry editor and navigate to this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
2. Create or open the DWORD entry called TaskbarGroupSize.
3. In the Value Data field, enter one of the following values, depending on how you want items to be grouped: 0 = group by age (this is the default); 1 = group by size, largest first; 2 = group any group of two or more; 3 = group any group of 3 or more.
4. Close the registry editor.

You have to log off and log back on before the change takes effect, and it only applies to the user account logged on when the change is made.