Re: Having problems adjusting to XP

PD

When driving your car, you must have a helluva time.. worrying about the
uneven spacing of spot welds along the underneath of the body, seemingly
random wiring across the internals under the hood.. or do you just drive
it?..

When you watch TV, does it bother you that there is not a 'domestic vacuum'
access point in the back someplace where you can easily remove the dust from
under the circuit boards, and why can't they neaten the wiring in there?..
you must have looked through the air vents on the casing at some time with
the help of a flashlight..

It is one thing to like order in one's life, but there are extremes.. look
behind your computer.. all those cables are still in place.. you haven't cut
them off to neaten it all up because you know that if you do, it won't work
anymore..

OK.. the same applies to Windows.. remove some of it, cut it off, delete it
and guess what?.. no more computer, just a collection of parts, loosely
assembled, sporting the most gross wiring mess inside..

Under normal operation, you should not know what is under the Windows hood..
the only way you can know is to go looking.. so apply that to everything in
your house and see how far you get..

Just use the programs on the computer.. get enjoyment from them without
worrying about the space they take up or the fact that there are repetitive
lines within the programs code.. should I have told you that, about the
repeating lines?..

XP is a great OS.. it needs far less user input than ever it's Win 9x
cousins did.. my wife loved the old ones, tinkering around with this and
that.. hell she had to tinker with it because it would not remain stable
long enough to do *** with it.. since XP, she just uses the computer.. no
more 'edit config.sys' or booting to DOS and running mem /c.. I asked her if
she would like to go back to the old ways.. guess what her answer was?


--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"P D Sterling" <pdsterling@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:RTBGf.8377$Nv2.7914@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mike - many thanx for posting, and I have read you pretty carefully.
Regarding question 1) I have already removed the desk top icon as
unnecessary. Will the system die if I remove the folder from the computer?

2) I pulled up and book marked the documentation about user accounts,
which was voluminous, and I will have to read it closer when I am not so
tired. However, I remind you that I am 1 unitary user, and while a little
schizo, do not have three administrative personalities, as well as all
users, current users, default users, and lastly ME. It would appeal to my
sense of order to cut the number of users down.

3) Why do I need shortcuts to things? I know where they are; they come up
automatically when I open Excel or Word, which I have customized.

I appreciate that there are many repetitive, newbie questions on these
boards, but I find that having read this closely for nearly a month, many
of them are ignorant questions, and ignorance can be fixed. Only stupidity
is forever. Many thanks for being a resource to those more novice than
you, but please remember you were a novice once, too, and unlike me, you
have had training. Everything I learned was done by the Mobil Method:
figure it out yourself.
--
Regards,

P D Sterling
www.pdsterling.com
214/520-6655 voice
214/550-2618 FAX
"Mike Hall (MS-MVP)" <mikehalll@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23ZnxjNRLGHA.3264@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PD

Desktop is not the root of all.. it just appears at the top of the list
for simplicity..

#1.. Network places exists because you have a NIC (Network Interface
Card, maybe integrated) in your system.. Tweakui for XP allows you to
remove the icon from your desktop..

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

#2.. For info on user accounts and what the different ones do, see here..

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/usercpl_overview.mspx

#3.. No, you are not keeping five copies of anything.. there is one
physical storage area, the others just being links..

None of the above take up any appreciable space other than the ONE
location where documents are stored, and that depends upon your own
personal productivity..

Messing with XP's system files is one of the best ways to bring the OS to
it's knees.. use applications, but do not go into the system unless you
have a problem which compromises your system.. as things stand, the only
problem is in your head..

These newsgroups are full of people who just don't know when to stop..
much of what is asked in these groups is USER ERROR.. oh, I know some
will jump on me for that, but when I visit users who have problems, in
over 50% of them, I can give a detailed road map of what they did to
terminate normal operation.. then they start to listen to me and quit
trying to defend what they originally said that they didn't do anyway..


--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"P D Sterling" <pdsterling@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EuvGf.8196$Nv2.599@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Giving you a brief bit of background, I have worked with computers and
data processing since Mc Bee Keysort, if any of you know what that is.

Starting, I think, with Windows 98, we started having Desktop, which I
gather is a kind of über root directory. OK, now I am XP, and with my
directories collapsed as much as they can, I have

My Computer - which I understand
My Documents - which I understand, but disagree with
My Network Places - which I don't understand (see below*)
Recycle - which I understand but don't use

*Let me be perfectly clear: I am one little computer, lost in the
cosmos, with only one operator. I am the administrator, I am all users,
I am the default user. I am not connected to a network, except being
connected to my ISP, if that counts. There is no wi-fi, high-five, or
any other state-of-the-art enhancements.

I am very jealous of the amount of disk space given over to keeping
things which I do not need, and keep an incredibly small amount of data
on the C:\ drive, and I like simplicity. As an example, I have one icon
on my desktop.

Question 1: How can I learn about Network Places, and possibly get rid
of them?
**********
My Computer contains My Documents and *MyName*Documents.

Question 2: Why?
***************
In My Computer, C:\ contains
1)Administrator 1,
2) Administrator 2,
3) Administrator 3,
4) All Users,
5) Default User,
6) *MyName*

All of these folders contain
1) Application Data
2) Cookies
3) Local Settings
4) Templates

Question 3: Why?
**************************
According to my calculations, there are five instances of My Documents
of one flavor or another. If I am keeping five copies of a document, I
want to stop.

I know this is a very long message, but this is a very complicated
situation, and one which aggravates me. Any advice would be gratefully
appreciated.
--
Regards,

P D Sterling
www.pdsterling.com
214/520-6655 voice
214/550-2618 FAX







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