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For Dummies is a registered trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Used here by license.Putting programs on your computerTo install a new application program from floppy disks or a CD-ROM by using the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel, follow these steps:
1. Click the Start button and then click Control Panel to open the Control Panel window.
2. Click the Add or Remove Programs hyperlink in Category view to open the Add or Remove Programs dialog box. If the Control Panel opens in Classic view (indicated by the individual icons rather than a list of categories), double-click the Add or Remove icon.
3. Put the CD-ROM in your computer’s CD-ROM drive, or put the first disk in your computer’s floppy disk drive.
4. Click the Add New Programs button on the left side of the dialog box and then select the CD or Floppy button to install a program from the CD or floppy disk you inserted into the drive.
5. Follow the steps outlined in the Install Program from Floppy or CD-ROM Installation wizard to install your new program.
You can also use the Run command on the Start menu to install a program from the Run dialog box. In the Open text box in the Run dialog box, type the drive letter that contains the disk or CD-ROM from which you’re installing the program, followed by a colon and the name of the installation program (either setup or install). For example, to install a new CD-ROM game that uses install as the installation command, you type
d:\install
(assuming that D is the letter assigned to your CD-ROM drive; if this isn’t the case, replace d with the letter your system uses) in the Open text box of the Run dialog box and then click the OK button or press Enter.
Use the Install Wizard to install all new Windows XP versions of software (also known as 32-bit versions of a program). Install programs from the Run dialog box when you install older software whose installation instructions talk about entering an install or setup command in the Run dialog box.
Adding Windows ComponentsWhen you first install Windows XP (doing a standard installation), not all of the Windows accessories and auxiliary tools are installed, by any means. To install additional Windows components from the Add or Remove Programs dialog box, follow these steps:
1. Click the Add/Remove Windows Components button on the left side of the Add or Remove Programs dialog box to open the Windows Components Wizard.
2. In the Components list box, locate the category of the component( s) you want to add.
When the check box for a particular category is unchecked, that means that none of its components is installed. When the check box for a particular category is checked, but the check box is shaded (as opposed to white), this means that only some of the components in that category are currently installed.
3. To select which component(s) in that category to install, click the category icon or name to select it and then click the Details button at the bottom of the dialog box. Windows displays a new dialog box, listing each of the individual components for the particular category. All those that are currently installed have their check boxes selected.
4. To install component(s) from the list, click the component check box.
5. After you’re finished selecting components to install, click the OK button to close the dialog box and return to the Wizard Components Wizard dialog box.
6. Repeat Steps 2 through 5 for all the Windows components that you need to add. When you’re finished selecting components to add, click the Next button to move to the next dialog box, where the wizard starts installing the selected components.
7. Click the Finish button when the Completing the Windows Components Wizard dialog box appears.
Be sure that you have the Windows XP CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive so that Windows can find the files for the components you selected. Note that some components require that you restart Windows XP before their new settings take effect.
Taking programs off your computerWindows XP includes an uninstall utility that takes the pain out of removing unneeded or obsolete versions of a program from your computer. To uninstall a program installed with Windows XP (as I describe in the earlier section, “Putting programs on your computer”), follow these steps:
1. Click the Start button and then click Control Panel to open the Control Panel window.
2. In the Category view, where you see a list of Control Panel categories, click the Add or Remove Programs hyperlink to open the Add or Remove Programs dialog box. In the Classic view, where you see individual Control Panel icons, double-click the Add or Remove Programs icon.
3. Click the Change or Remove Programs button on the left side of the Add or Remove dialog box to display the Currently Installed Programs list box.
4. In the Currently Installed Programs list box, click the program you want to remove (when you click a program name, the description expands to include a Change/Remove button or separate Change and Remove buttons).
5. Click the Change/Remove button or the Remove button, if Change and Remove are separate.
6. Click the OK button in the alert dialog box that appears to confirm your removal of the program. When the uninstaller finishes removing the program, click the Close button to close the Add or Remove Programs dialog box and to return to the Control Panel window.
Use the Windows XP uninstaller to get rid of any unwanted program that you’ve installed with the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel. Using this utility to remove a program (rather than just deleting the program folder) ensures that all vestiges of the program are removed from the system and that you get back every byte of storage space to which you’re entitled.
To remove unneeded Windows components, click the Add/Remove Windows Components button in the Add or Remove Programs dialog box and then locate and remove the check mark from the components you want removed before you select the Next button. Remember that if you remove the check mark from a category of components rather than from a particular component within that category, Windows will remove all the components.
Setting default Windows applicationsNew to the Add or Remove Programs window in the SP2 update to Windows XP is the Set Program Access and Defaults button. Click this button when you want to enable access to or change the default Web browsing, e-mail, media player, or instant messaging program, or to determine whether or not to use Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (abbreviated MSJVM, this is an extension of Microsoft’s license to Sun Microsystem’s Java source code that expires on December 31, 2007).
When you click the Set Program Access and Defaults button, the following categories, each with its own radio button and Expand button, appear:
Microsoft Windows to use all Microsoft applications, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Windows Media Player, and Windows Messenger, no matter what programs you’ve installed
Non-Microsoft to use all non-Microsoft Web, e-mail, media player, and instant messaging applications that you’ve installed on your computer
Custom to select exactly which of the Web, e-mail, media player, and instant messaging applications installed on your computer to make the Windows XP defaults and to which to enable user access
To select a particular category to use, click its radio button. To display the actual list of applications used by each category, click its Expand button (the one with the two arrowheads, one on top of the other, pointing downward).
For the Custom category, to change default Web, e-mail, media player, and instant messaging applications and to determine which applications to grant access, click the radio button of the program you want to make the default, and click the check box to insert a checkmark for each program you want to be able to use by manually launching it from the Start menu or from a desktop shortcut.
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For Dummies is a registered trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Used here by license.