Windows being the most used operating system, the posts in this category will provide information about software that can run on Windows.
In many previous posts I provided step-by-step instructions for performing certain tasks. At times I mentioned several methods of accomplishing one of the steps, and usually it involved using the Windows key on your keyboard. This key provides many shortcuts for commonly used functions within Windows.
I have decided to compile a list of the various functions that the Windows key can accomplish for future reference. They are listed within this post.
The first PC my family ever had had an 8088 4.77MHz processor, 640KB of RAM, 20MB hard drive and a CGA (4colors) graphics adapter. This was back in the early to mid-80s, but I remember how much fun I had playing many games on that system. Back then, of course, all games and applications ran in DOS, the operating system at the time.
I still enjoy some of the old games, however, computers have change much since that time and many of those DOS games are either difficult to get working in Windows, or don’t run at all. In this post I will introduce you to a free application that you can download that allows you to still run those old DOS applications in Windows XP or Vista.
I recently published a post titled What is USB? where I briefly mentioned the problem of new computers only have USB ports. For many this may not seem like a problem, but for those that have devices that don’t use USB, this can be a problem.
For those with older printers that connect only to the parallel port, and you would still like to use that printer, I will provide instructions on how you can connect that old printer to the USB port in this post.
I recently wrote two posts on how to speed up Windows XP. The first post discussed some easy changes you can make to XP as well as a few maintenance tasks you can perform. The second post was a bit more advanced and discussed a few of the Windows services that you can safely stop.
Although, both posts weren’t really in-depth, they did provide some quick changes that should help you get more performance from your system. As I wrote the posts, I also thought about tweaks that are discussed online (ones that I used to use), but have since been proven false. In this post I will outline some of the popular “tweaks”, that really don’t do anything.
I recently encountered a problem where a Dell Inspiron 6400 displayed three base system devices after installing Windows XP onto the machine. It originally had Vista installed, so I only had Vista drivers, which didn’t work with Window XP.
About a year ago, someone I know purchased an Inspiron 6400 laptop from Dell and tried to get XP installed on it instead of Vista. They had no luck and ended up with Vista. Recently, they have decided to remove Vista and install XP on that same laptop, and asked me to do it. No problem, at least until I ended up with three devices that weren’t recognized by XP.
If you have an Inspiron 6400 and have noticed three base system devices in the device manager, then I will explain how to correct that issue in this post.
I recently wrote a post titled Tips to Speed Up Windows XP, which provided easy ways of speeding up Windows XP. Many of those tips were easy to implement, and depending on your computer, you may not have noticed any large performance gain.
In this post I will explain how to gain possible even more performance gain but stopping unneeded Windows XP services. This is a more advanced method of gaining performance from your computer.
I recently decided to design a logo for a new blog that someone I knew was about to start. While looking through the fonts installed on my computer, I couldn’t find the right font to use. I didn’t have any additional fonts other than the ones that were installed with Windows XP, so I decided to search online for some new fonts.
I was able to find two fonts that I thought would work for the logo, so I downloaded and extracted the fonts into the correct directory. When I opened up Photoshop to use the new fonts, they didn’t show up in the list. I also checked Word to see if they appeared there, but they weren’t available in that application as well.
I decided to look into the problem and see if I can get the fonts to work properly. I did manage to fix the problem, and have provided to solutions you can try if you are having problems with installing fonts.
Most fonts that you download from the Web are usually compressed inside zip files. To use these fonts, you will first need to extract the font file and then copy it to the correct directory.
If the first method did not install the font correctly, you can always use a font manager application. These help you manage the many fonts that may be installed on your computer. The application I used was an old application (circa 1999), but I was able to use it with no problems on Windows XP. The application is called The Font Thing.
If you are still having problems with the font, try downloading another font that looks similar from another site and see if you can install that one. Some of the free font files may not be recognized by the application so you may not have success with all fonts. I have only downloaded a few fonts, but have not had any problems with them.
In this post I provided two methods that I have used to install fonts successfully. My recent problems with installing fonts was solved by using The Font Thing application. There are other font management applications on the market, but this was small, free and easy to use.
Although Windows XP is not the newest operating system from Microsoft (Windows Vista is the new version), I find that there are still many people that prefer XP over Vista. I, for one, am one of those people that prefers XP instead of Vista. I find it a faster more reliable operating system.
I have been using XP for many years now, and have at times looked for ways to tweak the operating system to get the most performance out of my computer. There are many tweak tips on the Internet, many true and many false, but I have decided to put together a simple list that you can use to make you version of XP run faster.