Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with WindowsXP and windows

How can I use my external hard disk drive to regularly backup my Windows XP laptop?

grouse — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:08:43 -0800

How can I use my external hard disk drive to regularly backup my Windows XP laptop in as simple a manner as possible? Ideally, I would want something that works like Time Machine on the Mac—I would really like something I can set and forget. Free solutions are best, obviously, but I'm willing to buy software for this. I've read some of the previous backup questions, but figured there might be new recommendations by now.

What's up with my music files on my PC?

ishotjr — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:12:02 -0800

What is up with my music files' titles turning into nonsensical four-letter titles? Ok, this is a little long, but it's a weird problem that is hard to describe.

I use iTunes on a (Dell) Windows Vista PC laptop. I noticed this issue probably over a year ago, but was too lazy to do anything about it until now.

Thousands of my music files are in files within "C:\My Music" that are named with F and then a number, F00 thru F49. All of my music was originally in "C:\Users\ishotjr\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music," and some of it still is. Within the F-named folders, the files are named/songs titled in three different ways.
1) Most are with four letters in caps, example: AJOM. They are seemingly random and not acronyms of the real titles. Within this, most, in the artist/album, etc. fields in Windows Explorer, have the correct info. A few have nothing at all in those.
In either case, if I choose to play it in iTunes (by clicking the option within Windows Explorer, where I'm viewing the files), it brings me to the song that is properly titled within iTunes (i.e., AJOM takes me to "Levitate Me" by The Pixies in iTunes).
2) A few of the songs are named with their correct name, but with the track number proceeding it (i.e. 01 Debaser)
3) Even fewer are named completely normally, with just the actual song title.

Another weird twist is that in iTunes itself, there are a handful of files that are actually named with the four letter names. Most of these are all from a Velvet Underground greatest hits compilation, but there are a few that aren't.

There seems to be no pattern as to how I procured the music and what's in these weird files. I did bring most of the music onto my computer from my iPod when I got the computer, but some of it I have purchased since owning this computer. The software I used to bring the songs from the iPod to the computer was some free program that I don't recall the name of and deleted to save hard drive space when I was done using it.

The real kicker is that most of these weirdly-named tracks are NOT duplicates, so I can't just delete them. Most of the time, it's one or two songs from a given album that are named weird and in the F-named folder instead of in the folder with the rest of its album-mates.

It seems that I might be stuck consolidating the 49 "F" folders into one (not so hard, just tedious), then trying to rename the thousands of song backs to their proper names by clicking them through to iTunes and manually entering the name of each song into the file name in Windows, then moving all of the songs to the correct place. It's not necessary to do this to be able to listen to the songs, but it's annoying having my files all over the place, especially when I want to delete entire albums off of my hard drive to make space.

My actual question is two-part:
1) Has anyone ever had this weirdo thing happen to their music files before?
2) Does anyone know a better way to fix it than to do everything manually (which will take for-ev-er)?

Windows xp lockdown

kraigory — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:49:16 -0800

What's a simple way in windows xp to prevent a user from doing anything but using one program? An employee was recently caught playing solitare on the clock at a computer terminal that is used to search an access database. I am tasked with locking the computer. I know I could just delete the games, but I'm looking for something more complete, and I may not be able to log in as the administrator.

So, are there any simple ways I can prevent users from doing anything except using access? They don't need to open the program, just use it. Also, the users aren't terribly computer literate, so if it just appears that they can't do anything else, that might be sufficient. Is there any way to get a program to go full screen and hide the minimize/maximize/close, and keep the start bar from poping up?

Also keep in mind that I don't have the administrator password, although i could get it if I absolutely had to. So, anything that could be done without that would be best, although I would like to know what options there are if I did have the password.

If software is used I would prefer for it to be freeware.

Thanks for any suggestions! I know there are multiple ways to do this, but I'm trying to figure out what would be best.

Multiple versions of IE

kidbritish — Sun, 03 May 2009 10:29:57 -0800

In Windows XP, what is the best way to keep Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, and 8 all installed simultaneously? This is for the purpose of testing websites.
When I say "best", I mean the browsers should function normally, and it should be unlikely to cause other problems with the system.
I've seen Multiple-IE, from 2006, which doesn't seem to go past IE6, and Internet Explorer Collection which looks promising. But I'm hesitant to install strange hacks until I've had some input from people more knowledgeable. Do any of you have experience doing this?

What good is a windows COA sticker?

washburn — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:41:24 -0800

What does it mean when a used laptop is advertised as having Windows XP installed and coming with a COA sticker? Without having a Windows install cd, is there any benefit to having such a sticker? Would it, for example, permit one to call MS and obtain a new install disk for Windows XP?

Can I link from desktop wallpaper?

Joleta — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:37:17 -0800

Is there any way I can create desktop wallpaper that has a link to a specific web site? Our company is launching a new human resources online system. We're going to push new wallpaper with a logo and tag line about the new system to all our Windows XP desktops. I was asked if we can include a link to the HR system login page. I've never seen this done within desktop wallpaper, but I don't want to just say "no" without checking. I do the graphics for all our corporate desktop wallpapers, but I'm not a programmer.

Is there any way to view a list of failed incoming faxes in Windows XP using the built-in fax service?

reddot — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:34:23 -0800

Is there any way to view a list of failed incoming faxes in Windows XP using the built-in fax service? A friend of mine uses the built in software on XP to send and receive faxes. Sometimes an incoming fax fails. He'd like to know the fax number of the sending party. However, the only notification that a fax failed is a pop up bubble from the system tray, which seems to disappear after a while. Also, if he has had more than one failed fax (like over night), only the last one is reported in the bubble.

Does Windows XP keep a log of incoming and outgoing modem activity? Is there a way to set that up if it doesn't happen by default? I see that in the Event Viewer there is an event for each failed fax, but it does not report the incoming fax #.

Thanks for the help.

More like WRONG arrow key, amirite?

Rhaomi — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:52:28 -0800

My laptop's right-arrow key is remapping itself. Any tips for diagnosis or repair? The right-arrow key on my laptop is behaving badly. It seems to be wildly remapping itself several times per second, varying between a few keys. After a little testing, here's what I found out:

- Inside a text field, pressing it will produce either "n/ " or "b". It varies between the two randomly with repeated keypresses. Example:

n/ bbbn/ n/ / bn/ / n/ n/ bn/

(Yes, I realize it typed "/" twice in the middle there -- no clue why)

- When it does type "b", it also minimizes whatever application I'm using.
- When testing in Notepad, pressing the arrow also displays the little underscores under "File", "Edit", etc. that usually appear when you press "Alt", suggesting this key is getting selected, too.
- To see exactly how the key was working, I brought up a driving game that has an area in the menu to test the controls -- pressing the acceleration key will fill up a bar slowly to the maximum speed, for instance. I mapped this function to the arrow, then pressed it. Instead of filling the bar smoothly, it caused it to jitter around a bit but never increase, as if I was lightly tapping the key over and over again.
- Lastly, and most puzzling: the problem comes and goes, seemingly not tied to any one program or process. It'll be there when I boot up, disappear for awhile, then return for no visible reason.

I thought the problem was rooted in a Windows Update I had recently added that XP had been nagging me to install, but rolling back to the pre-Update (and pre-problem) state via System Restore didn't fix it. Rebooting does nothing, either. And I don't have any spyware or viruses, to my knowledge -- my AV software hasn't given me any warnings lately.

My laptop is a Dell Latitude D820, running Windows XP SP2.

Any thoughts? Are there any Microsoft diagnostic tools I could run to repair this irritating little problem?

Is it safe to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 yet?

NoMich — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:41:23 -0800

Is it safe to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 yet? My Windows Updater has been bugging me since the first of September to install SP 3. I remember earlier this year reading horror stories from family, friends and strangers alike that installing SP 3 borked everything on their computer. Is that still the case, or has Microsoft ironed out the problems by now?

May I transfer an XP Genuine Advantage Kit install?

Dave 9 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:13:03 -0800

A Dell PC was originally equipped with Windows ME. Somebody later installed, instead, an unauthorized copy of XP. The machine was given to me, and I legitimated the XP install by paying Microsoft for a "Genuine Advantage Kit." Will Microsoft let me use that kit's CD to install XP on a different machine (perhaps an Apple) if I get rid of the first machine? Thanks.

How to create a convenient and secure multi user set up in windows XP.

vegetableagony — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:02:08 -0800

What is the best way to set up multiple user accounts on my computer to: minimize security risk, allow me to keep some files/passwords private, but still let others use my computer for basic tasks? I like having all of my passwords saved, leaving all my websites logged in, and just generally needing to type passwords as little as possible. (currently I just use a master password in firefox)

But I also don't want anyone walking by my computer to be able to see my email and facebook (unpleasent experiences with modifications to my profile that took me a while to notice).

I also want to make sure that someone is able to use basic functions of my computer like web browsing and movie watching without needing a password.

Is there a better way of doing this than my current set up, which involvess one account with a password to login and a masterpassword in firefox, plus a guest acount?

On a mostly connected note, is there a reason for some web pages that I have a saved password/screen name they are pre entered and i only have to click login, but for others like gmail i have to type a couple of letters of my screen name before it offers the option of completing both the screen name and the password?

Going from an old PC to a new iMac, migration possible?

mathowie — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:05:13 -0800

I'm finally retiring my dad's virus-laden PC running XP with a new iMac. Is there any way to migrate his old settings from the PC over to a VMWare instance of XP running on the iMac in case he must use a PC-only app after the upgrade to a new machine? My dad has been doing the horrifying thing of running a PC for the past few years and about every six months, when his PC gets overrun with viruses and adware, buys a new $500 PC running XP like his last computer, and the process repeats. I swear the last time I checked out his PC there were several weird taskbar apps running, one of which was in chinese (he can neither speak nor read it).

To ease the transition, I figured installing XP under VMWare would be a good option, in case there is one last PC app or game he needs to use occasionally.

But then I was thinking, even though it may be riddled with viruses/adware -- is there a way to migrate all the apps and settings from the old PC to a new VMWare XP instance? I use VMWare only rarely to test out websites in IE/PC, but I've never tried anything like this and I don't know how sophisticated the Microsoft apps are for migration of apps and profiles and such.

Has anyone ever done something like this?

Send me to computer jail

snowjoe — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:54:07 -0800

PC Help again again. I have an old pc with windows 2000 server installed on a 20gig SCSI drive. I am trying to install a 40 gig IDE drive that has xp on it. I don't need windows 2000 server anymore so I want the computer to boot into xp but it isn't happening for me. What am I doing wrong? It is a D850EMV2 intel motherboard with 512kb of that super expensive ram. A custom built computer, not a brand name.

I removed the scsi card and uplugged the scsi drive and then plugged in the IDE drive. The cd drive was connected to the secondary IDE connector so I moved that to the primary connector and connected the middle part of the connector to the ide hard drive and the end to the cd drive. I also moved the led light switched to the motherboard from the scsi card. I get a failure to boot error message. I did nothing with the bios. I am not a computer guy but i sure would like to make this work. What am I doing wrong?

I put everything back the way it was and it boots into windows 2000 server fine. By the way I also tried to format the scsi drive but the os wouldn't let me.

Shouldn't I be able to do this?

Build Custom Windows XP Install Disc

HC Foo — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:03:03 -0800

Can I create a custom Windows XP install disc with all of my favorite applications, drivers, windows updates already installed? If so, how do I do it? I have a tendency to break Windows. I am generally really rough on the operating system. Thus, I like to reformat my drive, and reinstall windows about every year to keep things running smoothly. The worst part about the re installation process is reinstalling all of my drivers, and favorite applications. I would love to be able to create a custom XP installation disc that will, when installed, already have all of my applications on there.

Thanks in advance.

Any experiance with Faxing from within Windows... sans modem?

TrueVox — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:36:10 -0800

Anyone familiar with using a Fax/Printer to send a fax from Windows XP, connecting to a Fax/Scanner/Printer?? At my company we have one fax machine for all 15 of us, which would be fine. Except we're fairly spread out throughout a few different rooms. However, all of our machines are networked to each other. I realize that Windows has an inbuilt function for sending faxes, but everything it wants to do for me requires a modem (which few of our computers have). I'm thinking there MUST be some way to make our computers look to the Fax/Printer/Scanner combo we have out in the front office, but I can't for the life of me figure it out!

Any suggestions? Or, failing that, any alternative solutions? We're trying to avoid pay-per-use services such as eFax, so that's right out. We'd like to avoid buying modems for all our machines, but if that's the only way to fax from Windows (which seems strange to me), then I suppose that's what we'll end up doing.

Thanks in advance!!!

Clean me up, Scotty!

rhoticity — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:47:51 -0800

What's the best way to erase my hard drive for resale if I don't have original OS reinstall CDs to work with? I have a 1.5 year old Dell laptop running Windows XP SP2 which I'm selling in the next couple of weeks (getting a Macbook... YESSSS). I'm going to make an attempt to sell it here on campus or through Craigslist before I try other methods, and so as soon as I transfer everything I want to keep over to my new computer, I want to clean the hard drive off as well as I can. The problem is that, in a misguided money-saving attempt when I first ordered the Dell, I did not request physical Windows XP reinstall CDs. Obviously I cannot just completely reformat the hard drive, then, since I will have no way of reinstalling the OS.. right? What do I do to get this thing ready to sell to a stranger?

For the record, there's nothing terribly "sensitive" on here, just personal/academic documents and photos, but I'd rather get it as clean as possible just in case some total weirdo gets a hold of it.

Any other tips on dealing with the less-than-stellar electronics resale market would also be appreciated.

Help me reinstall xp

snowjoe — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:26:43 -0800

I want to reinstall Windows xp but I am scared. My computer has become sluggish and I would like a fresh install of xp but am uncertain about several things.

I have a forty gig internal and also a 120 gig internal that all of my data is on. I have a new 160 gig Pata drive. I bought it to replace the 40 gig but now I am wondering if I should just keep the 40 gig for the operating system and get a case for the 160 gig drive and use it as an external drive. The computer has a Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz mother board with a cd drive a dvd drive and a firewire card. Should I replace the 40 gig drive?

I learned about the file and settings transfer wizard here on ask MetaFilter. I am on a cabled home network and am wondering if my network settings will be saved with this wizard. I did not setup the network and the guy that did is long gone. Will my network settings be saved with the wizard?

Will I have to get and reinstall drivers for the printers and scanner and cd and dvd etc. or will they be saved also?

What else am I forgeting?

Now that I have asked these question I have to wonder if this might be more complicated than I though it would be. Darn.

Stop-Start Computing

SansPoint — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:39:16 -0800

What would make an old Windows computer stop accepting input for short periods of time (2-3 minutes)? My housemate has an old Compaq PC running Windows XP. Lately, it's started pausing for 2-3 minute intervals, not accepting any input. The keyboard buffer isn't overflowing: it's even mouse input that stops dead. It also seems to just seize up.

I'm going to run Memtest86+ on it, but I can't imagine anything that would cause it to exhibit these symptoms. He has Antivirus and Spyware software, though any Windows worms would hit my Mac mini first, which is the DMZ host.

I'm a bit out of practice with Windows. Help?

Where's the rest of my task manager?

Verdandi — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:31:13 -0800

In the rare times I've needed to hit ctrl-alt-delete within the past few months, the task manager window pops up, but it lacks the little tabs at the top and the useful little X in the upper right that actually allows me to CLOSE the task manager. What happened? I haven't been able to pinpoint the problem, and I'm getting frustrated. I've scanned the drive for viruses, spyware and the like (I use Avast!, Spybot and Ad-Aware), but no luck. I haven't installed anything else weird. I'm running Windows XP. I've never had a problem with it before this.

I have a screeenshot, if a visual is necessary.

I'd really hate to format/reinstall since it's such a pain, so I thought I'd ask here before I did. TIA!

Please, no OS wars. I'm fully aware of Linux.

Any thoughts on reinstalling dell drivers?

TrueVox — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:56:23 -0800

I'm trying to reinstall Windows XP, but I'm running into driver issues. I'm using a Dell Inspiron E1405 that I want to dual boot XP and Feisty Faun on (I want to go Linux full time, but I needs my WoW, and I can't get Wine to be friendly with my Video Card). I'm running into driver issues. I was smart enough to back up all my drivers from my previous installation, but it's not working very well to reinstall them. I run into this issue were even though I saved them all (using a program called DriverMax), they won't reinstall properly. I can get most of 'em, but my sound is still funky, it says my wireless is working, but it won't connect, and there's three unrecognized "System" devices. Do dells have some funkieness with their drivers?

Anyway, I just want to get this right so I can install Ubuntu. I'm sick of swaping out HDD's every time I wanna do something different.

Thanks a lot!

Random windows lockups

samw — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 18:52:22 -0800

Windows XP: my wife's computer locks up a few times a day, but there are no other symptoms. What could be wrong? My wife's computer (Windows XP Pro SP2) has started randomly locking up a few times per day. Nothing has been changed on the system recently. There aren't any other symptoms to give me a hint about what's going wrong. Google and the MS KB aren't much help with such a generic sounding issue.

Any ideas on where to start?

XP unusably slow after STOP errors and running checkdisk - what's going on?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 12:29:42 -0800

So it's come to this - I see no other option than to ask a "help me fix my PC" question. After some troubleshooting the STOP errors seem to have been resolved, XP now boots successfully but is excruciating slow to the point of being unusable. Details and specs below the fold. Specifications:
-Intel Celeron 2.4GHz
-1 x 512 MB RAM
-XP Pro SP2
-PCI Firewire card
-onboard: USB 2.0, VIA Gigabit Ethernet adapter

IDE config:

1M: HD Maxtor 80 GB U-ATA
1S: empty
2M: DVD Burner
2S: DVD-ROM

First, the BIOS would occasionally fail to find the boot device (HD). Setting the primary master to "Not Installed" and rebooting, and then back to "Auto" remedied this for the time being.

Then a few days ago the machine started throwing a bunch of BSODs during normal operation. I recorded some of them for your viewing pleasure:

0x000000F4, 0x00000003, 0x829FF020, 0x829FF194 0xc000000E, 0xC000000E, 0x00000000, 0x05357000 0x0000007A (0XC03E1128, 0XC0000185, 0XF844A074, 0X08195860) ACPI.SYS 0x0000008E (0XC0000005, 0X8054AE34, 0XF6505BF4, 0X00000000)

Eventually XP wouldn't boot at all: system32/config was 'corrupted', or something along those lines. I assume this happened as a result of one of the STOP errors.

For some reason CHKDSK wouldn't run on this machine, so I took out the drive and ran CHKDSK on it with the drive attached to another machine. It did find a bunch of errors and corrected them all.

I put it back in its own box, and ran CHKDSK again from the Recovery Console (ran fine this time, and found no errors) and also a FIXBOOT for good measure.

Which brings us to the current situation. The system32/config error is gone, and Windows does boot, *but*:

-The XP splash screen fades in very slowly and seems halted here and there.
-Upon logon, the desktop background loads but no icons or taskbar appear.
-I can load explorer and systray via taskmgr, and sometimes they eventually load on their own without intervention, but this takes a *long* time. Somewhere in the ten minutes order of magnitude.

So technically speaking, Windows now runs, but it's so excruciatingly slow it's basically unusable.

Additional details:
-I have run a Spybot Search & Destroy scan: it found some threats and removed them. No new findings upon further boots and/or Spybot runs.
-I would scan for viruses, but I can't install AVG Free: I just removed the old 7.1 version (had to anyway as it was no longer supported), and the 7.5 installer happily skips from "pick a directory" to "Installation Complete!" but never seems to have touched a file at all! Doesn't even create the specified directory in Program Files.
-Network now also doesn't work. The Network Connections window says "Connected" but the machine receives no IP address nor lease from router. Router and rest of network are running fine.
-I tried System Restore with a variety of restore points from the past two weeks or so, but after going through the process (which also takes very long) it reboots and tells me that restoring to the previous point failed.

In short, I'm confused and could really use your insight. What's causing this and how can I fix it? Thanks in advance for any light you can shed upon this. If you have any questions or need any further details, I'd be happy to answer and provide them.

Help me backup my dad's computer and emails!

sperose — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:57:35 -0800

My dad needs help with total computer backup (particularly Outlook). Computer in question is an older Dell model, running Windows XP. No one in our family is a computer genius. More information and particular stickyness inside. My dad has been reading a lot of articles in the newspapers lately about the dangers of HDs failing and whatnot. We've had a history of failures (namely my computer, 3 drives and counting) and so it's a bit freaky. He had a severe HD failure a few years back and his solution was to take it to Best Buy and have them attempt to save as much information as they could. They burned it to CD and when he bought a new HD, he had them install it along with another HD (so under My Computer it comes up as Local Disk C: and Backup D:) where all of his backed up files from the failed HD are.
He wants to backup his files (basically only Excel spreadsheets and Word docs) as well as all his email which he reads through Outlook and his IE favorites.

How can he do this so if both the HDs fail, he has some way of getting to his files and his emails?

He's looked into using a flash drive (which is what I use to half-assedly backup my stuff, basically only important documents) but he's not sure what would be the best way. Something that is absurdly easy to understand and explain and possibly able to be completely automated would be best.

(Like I said before, no one in our family is exactly a computer genius. He hates Firefox, and believes everything that Microsoft puts out is golden, FWIW.)

Help me AskMefi!

Help me re-install XP

jeffmshaw — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 19:58:30 -0800

My mom's computer won't re-install an older version of Windows XP. This is actually a timely, pressing problem. When we split, I purchased a Sony VAIO laptop from my ex. We agreed that she'd wipe the hard drive for various reasons. Instead, she ended up replacing the hard drive entirely -- which is fine, except she installed a temporary copy of XP. (Evidently, we/she lost the original install discs from Sony -- we legally purchased the computer and copy of XP.)

I tried re-installing a version of XP from an older, defunct desktop my mom no longer uses, but it won't let me re-install an older version over a newer one.

The XP trial installed now expires tomorrow. It wouldn't be a big issue, except I am overseas and Skype is how my mom and I communicate via video chat.

What are my options for legally getting a working copy of XP? Contact Sony? Is there a way to get around the "can't re-install an old version" barrier? Please do not suggest hitting the ex up to buy a new copy of XP. It's really not an option.

Comprehensive XP -> Parallels migration

maniabug — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:12:27 -0800

What's the most efficient way to transfer an entire functioning Windows XP PC to my new Mac running Parallels? I'm looking to ship over the whole nine yards: files, settings, apps, and appropriate registry entries. The Windows File and Settings Transfer Wizard does not move the apps. I'm going to have to do this on a regular basis, and would prefer to do as little by hand as possible. Do you have a favorite software tool for this?

I considered imaging the hard drive, but I believe Parallels uses a proprietary image format.