Must have applications for windows xp

But if you know what to do, you can install a freeware sound recording utility such as Audio Recorder Free 2. Click OK, play the sound you want to record, the utility should show a waveform in its tiny black window and click the Record button it has a Red dot on it. But please remember, re-recording sound files is usually governed by copyright laws. Check the legislation in your country to see if you are able to use the sound files for educational purposes short sound excerpts are usually okay.

Windows XP's search facility does not have the ability to print just the files and folders listed in your search results. All you can do is selected files and go under under File menu command and you'll find Print. But this just prints the contents of each file selected.

You are better off pressing the Print Screen key next to Scroll Lock and paste the graphic snapshot of the screen stored in memory into a Word application. Or you could download a third-party utility such as FindFiles XP.

This utility goes one further and allows you to rename groups of files and folders as well as display and print the list of files and folders after performing a search. This little known feature requires you to be using a Microsoft Exchange Server email account to work properly. Assuming this is the case and the recipient has not read the email message:. Mailing lists are effectively groups in the language of Microsoft Outlook. A group contains the contact information for a number of people.

The advantage of groups is to allow the sending of emails to everyone in the group without having to individually find and select the individuals from the Address Book. Many of the groups you are likely to be involved with are likely to be available by the administrators who created the groups. And if you have sufficient privileges, you may be able to create groups yourself. We appreciate your concerns for a security-free life. How about trying this automatic logon solution:.

You may have used the Cancel command to cancel a job but noticed the job stays put in the queue. Perhaps someone sent a print job and suddenly the PC restarted because of a power failure. Solution 1: 1. Open the Command Prompt. Type net stop spooler , and press the Enter key.

If successful, type net start spooler , and press the Enter key. Solution 2: 1. Right-click on "My Computer" on the desktop or in the Start menu. Select "Manage" from the pop-up menu. Expand "Services and Applications". Click on Services icon. Scroll down the list of services until you find "Print Spooler". Click the "Stop" link to stop this service. When the service returns with a message saying "Stopped", right-click the taskbar print icon and select "Update".

When the icon disappears, go back and restart the service. In very rare circumstances, you may need to Log off and Log on again. Solution 3: 1. Delete the files you find in this folder. If any files cannot be deleted because of a message claiming they are "in use", reboot your PC and try again. If all else fails, it is likely you will need administrator privileges to properly clear the spool folder in Solution 3. Have you had enough of Windows XP telling you things you already know about and just want to do your work on a PC without the hassles?

Don't want to see the balloon pop-up telling you there are unused desktop icons to be cleaned up when really you don't want to see it cleaned up or is okay as it is? This sort of thing can also stop you from printing an email to PDF from Microsoft Outlook when the balloon suddenly pop-ups, and you have to select print several times until XP learns to hide the balloons only to restart again on re-launching the Outlook application. A very bad design for an OS.

You should now be free of those notification balloons forever. But if you should ever want to see those balloon pop-ups again, just delete the registry setting entry. Now there are fewer messages being shown under the newer Windows OS versions. And if they are shown, they are grouped together under one red flag that you can double-click to view them.

Even more remarkable is the fact that Microsoft does allow access to a control panel called Action Center where you can select which messages will show. It is not perfect in the sense that you can switch off all messages, but you can further reduce the number of messages.

Just go into the control panel, click the "Change Action Center Settings" link, and remove the ticks in the check boxes for those messages you don't want to see anymore. All rights reserved. Draw on this page. Double click the "Local Area Connection" option if you are on a network and click the "Properties" button. You can also right click and select "Properties". Click the "Properties" button next to "Uninstall".

If the IP address is fixed and known, you may wish to directly enter the four numbers for all the relevant address fields. However, for this purpose and the easiest , we shall select DHCP. In other words, click on "Obtain an IP address automatically".

Likewise, for simplicity, click on "Obtain DNS server address automatically". Otherwise, if you know the DNS server address es , you can manually enter the address under the option "Use the following DNS server addresses ". Type "cmd" in the Open field box. This is a quicker way than going through System Preferences and double-clicking on Network.

Click on Built-in Ethernet and then the "Configure Type the DNS server address either check with other Macs or ask the administrator for this information. Type the search domain s , such as "canberra.

In a large organisation, you usually type "[Room Number]-[computer model]". If you require access to other servers on the network, click AppleTalk tab and put a tick in the check box that says "Make AppleTalk Active". Now because some organisations may apply a Web Proxy Server Settings to help control who is accessing internet web sites for identification purposes , you must enter in Proxies the Web Proxy Address.

For example, "proxyhost. Specify the port number as well. To avoid having to constantly retype your username and password to access the internet through this Web Proxy server, type them in at this point there should be an option in Proxies. No tick is required for the check box that says "Use proxy for local servers". Click OK. That's it! This will bring up the black command prompt window.

You will need it. Close the window. The names of the available network connections are displayed. Right-click on the correct connection. If there is more than one say "Local Area Connection 4" and "Local Area Connection 2" , right-click on one connection and select "disable". Open up your internet browser and see whether you can visit a web page.

If not, you have the right connection remember, this assumes you already had internet connection. Re-enable the connection when you have the right one. Alternatively, to test you have the correct network connection, right-click on the network connection, choose Properties, put a tick in the check box that says "Show icon in notification area when connected", and by connecting and disconnecting the ethernet cable, you should see a message pop-up automatically saying whether you are connected and disconnected from the network.

Right-click on the correct network connection and choose Properties. You will see a window with General and Support as tabs. Make sure you are in the General tab. Click the Properties button. Now we are into the crucial window for setting static IP address information. Before we move on, write down the settings you see here if there are any in case you make a mistake and need to revert the numbers back to its original state.

If your computer is set up for dynamic IP addresses, the radio button that says "Obtain an IP address automatically" is checked. If not, you are already using a static IP address. Click the radio button that says "Use the following IP address". Do the same for the DNS server address. Make sure the check box that says "Use the following DNS server addresses" is selected.

Click OK and finish by getting out of the windows. You should be able to access the internet with these settings. Or make sure you have an independent IP address not assigned to another computer. This is the network card address. Mapping drive Mapping drive is equivalent to saying you want to access a network volume and assign it a name i. To map a drive: Click the Start button. Choose a Drive letter to assign to the network you wish to connect to.

Click into the Folder field box and type the path to the folder you want to access on the network. With a bit of luck, the PC is shareable and will give you access to a certain folder. Put a tick in the box if you want to have the PC automatically logon to this network resource. If the tick is in the box and you click the Finish button, you will be asked to give a username and password to access the network resource.

If you don't know this information, ask the administrator or person owning the network resource after you've explained why you need it, of course. You can also place a tick in the box to "Remember your Password" saves you time and hassles in remembering the password, but is more risky on a security level.

To activate remote assistance feature for your PC: Click the Start button. Right-click "My Computer" and choose "Properties" from the pop-up menu.

In the System Properties window, click "Remote" tab. Place a tick if there isn't one in the box that says, "Allow Remote Assistance invitations to be sent from this computer". Click the OK button. Alternatively, select "Help and Support" under the Start menu. The Help and Support Center window should be displayed. Click "Invite someone to help you" link. Don't give the expert your password in your email message. Windows XP will not deliver your password.

Wait until the expert is ready. Your firewall will open a port for enabling Remote Assistance to the Internet so that your expert can connect to your PC. But before the expert can see your PC, you will receive a message.

If the expert accepts your invitation, allow them to connect to your PC. A change in the desktop picture to a solid blue tells you the expert is viewing your PC. You will receive a message asking whether to allow the expert to control your PC. Click Yes if you want this to happen. To terminate the connection at any time, press the Esc button. Set up firewall To set up a firewall: Click the start button. Select "Run". Type in the Open field box, "firewall. Press the Return key or click the OK button.

Click the firewall "On". Click the Exceptions tab. You can select by placing a tick in the box the programs and services you are happy to receive incoming network connections. You can also delete the list of exceptions. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but others have no effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get more information about these with internet searches and asking about specifics here. Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.

Can yor list the questionable services that have been known to consume more than 40 seconds or more. I then could do a through examination of their function? TTo Ken, "Some of them can hurt performance severely" What are these programs in xp?

I don't have any particular programs in mind. There are many that are in each of the two categories. You need to examine each of the programs you have autostarting to see which category it falls into. If I set questionable ones in Services to manual rather than start, I should be pretty safe?

If something does not work properly, I can go back to "Start" and "Automatic"? I think I might get a message clueihg me in to what went wrong. See ElderL's reply. It's OK to stop some programs from starting automatically if you don't need them, but I recommend that you leave services alone.

It's a dangerous area to fool around in, unless you really know what you are doing. My PC boot-upis sluggish. I want to eliminate as many items as possible from startup list. This thread is locked. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread. I have the same question Report abuse. Details required :. Cancel Submit. What programs MUST be in startup list?

How satisfied are you with this reply? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. Palcouk Volunteer Moderator. In reply to georgeinirvingf's post on July 16, There is no definative answer to that without detailed knowledge of your system and installed programs If your PC has sufficient memory and free disk space, unless an auto start program is an 'iffy' one it should make much difference. Ken Blake. Here's my standard reply on this subject: My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it takes to boot is unwarranted.

In reply to Ken Blake's post on July 16, In reply to bobnametaken's post on January 10, Thanks for the reply. As you can see, this present quite a moral problem, because recommending products is much more than their software quality. In the list below, I will list several products that fall into both these categories.

You may wonder why I would do so. The answer is, I think the potential benefit for people who opt to use these products is greater than the above two issues. Nagware can be disabled during the installation, which is something you should pay attention to.

Missing signatures are a problem, but using several signature-based products will cover the gaps and provide a wider coverage, despite quite some overlap. Personally, I do not think you need most of the products listed below to remain safe!

But, if you do decide to use signature-based products, you should use several, regardless of the efficiency of the task at hand. What more, I am definitely not going to re-educate the entire Windows world in one fell swoop, so I might as well offer some help and guidance on the subject, even if the pinpoint security tactics, like signature-based scanning and real-time monitoring, are not as efficient as having an agnostic, general-purpose security strategy.

For each listed program, I will mention the possible ethical issues, including the third-party components, if they exist. I may miss some, so if you have additional information, feel free to email me. I will add a recommendation tag for specific products that I do think you should be using. These products will necessarily be clean of third-party surprises. What more, they will toll few system resources and will provide you with a generic protection that does not rely on signatures, avoiding the blind, futile race of who gets there first, the malware writers or the security vendors.

These products will also help you understand your system better. This little utility allows you to run programs with limited privileges while logged in as the Administrator. It can be useful for neutering the potential hazard of online activities by reducing the rights of Internet-dependent programs like browsers, mail client, P2P software etc.

Meanwhile, take a look at the Run Safer component in Online Armor see below. SuRun is the latest incarnation of programs that mimic the default UNIX system configuration: the user account is regular and limited; system access requires temporary elevation of privileges to the administrator root account, by the means of password authentication. The user sudoes access to the system and relinquishes it when done. But on Windows, it has not. SuRun changes this. It is the first application that truly encompasses the principle of sudo on Windows.

SuRun works perfectly. SuRun is the opposite of DropMyRights, which lowers the privileges of programs in the admin account, whereas SuRun elevates privileges in the limited account.

Note: This product is a personal recommendation of Dedoimedo. It's probably the most important piece of security for XP users.

Anti-malware software is not necessary to enjoy a healthy Windows computing. However, if you do run into trouble somehow, you may want to use a few scanner utilities with good detection and removal capabilities. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware MBAM is a powerful, fast, thorough malware cleaner for Windows systems, capable of removing even the most stubborn infections.

The freeware version features only the on-demand scanner, which is nevertheless sufficient for getting rid of infections, should they occur.

The payware version also has a real-time monitor. It can be used in conjunction with MBAM. Indeed, like MBAM, the free version offers on-demand scanning and cleaning, while the payware edition can be used in real time. SAS is very effective against rootkits. Similarly, I think that anti-virus software is not really necessary. But most Windows users run one or more out of sheer habit, without really bothering to check whether the software is up to date, configured properly or doing its job, yet most almost panic if it were to be uninstalled from their systems.

Antivir is a free, real-time anti-virus, which includes scheduling and automatic updates. The free version does not have a mail scanner. Furthermore, the free version displays large splash ads every time it updates. AVG offers a free, real-time anti-virus, which includes scheduling, automatic update and email scanning. Please note that AVG also comes with LinkScanner, a real-time web scanning utility, which checks each web page you're trying to visit in your browsers for exploits and malicious code, plus it checks the page "greenness" status against the server database.

Personally, I recommend you disable web scanning and deselect LinkScanner during the installation as it will slow down your browsing experience.

You can use the online version if you need it. Furthermore, if you're using Firefox, it has the built-in functionality to block reported web forgeries and known attack sites. ClamWin portable is a portable anti-virus utility, which can be particularly useful for scanning files in Internet cafes, on the go, away from your main machine. If you do not want to run an anti-virus on your machine, there's a number of online services that you can use to scan suspected files. Jotti's malware scan some 15 anti-virus scanners.

If you want to know whether the site you're visit is reputable, especially if you're going to exchange potentially sensitive information, like credit card payments, there's no need to run real-time scanners that will hog your system and slow down the browsing experiences. Furthermore, almost every virus vendor has an online scan service.

Others also offer live CD virus scanning and cleaning utilities based on BartPE or Linux, which the user can download and burn to disc, then use these utilities to perform while booted in the live session. Web anti-virus link-checker Firefox extension; this utility will scan down any page you're about to visit and any downloaded file on your machine using the Dr. Web online services. It will slow down your browsing experience. Kaspersky Free Virus Scan plugin for Internet Explorer and Firefox; this utility offers only on-demand scanning of the filesystem without the ability to disinfect if threats are found.

Note 2: If you have a compiled list of online anti-virus scanning services, I'd appreciate if you could send me a link. Note 3: Several vendors also offer free anti-virus utilities for U3 devices.

If you're familiar with these programs, feel free to email me. The Secunia Online Software Inspector is a fast way to scan your Windows installation for the most common programs and vulnerabilities, thus checking if your system has a minimum security baseline against known patched vulnerabilities. Most Windows users feel a need to run a firewall with outbound control, because they do not trust their programs or they fear they might get infected and the malicious program may try to phone home.

The best way to avoid any outbound-connection issues is to use programs you trust and avoid infections in the first place, thus elegantly preventing any scenario where unsolicited outbound connections are established from your computer to remote servers, without your knowledge or permission. Still, if you must, here are a few candidates:. The free version of this program offers a very thorough security solution for the Windows users. It is very easy to configure and use.

In addition to the basic firewall functions, the programs also has some HIPS ability. The limited-privilege utility called Run Safer is available in the payware edition. ZoneAlarm is one of the more popular Windows firewalls, because it has a very simple interface and is easy to learn and use. It is recommended for beginner users. The firewall has inbound-outbound filtering and application control. Please note that the software comes bundled with Ask toolbar that is checked by default during the installation.

You should uncheck the selection if you do not wish to install the toolbar - you probably don't. Alas, they are also the best! Light and fast, robust, with minimal system resource usage and excellent network handling capabilities, even under tremendous load. For Windows XP users, in addition to the built-in firewall, these two are the best choices. We listed codecs separately, but there are additional plugins to pay attention to.

In general, browser plugins should only be ever downloaded from official vendors' sites. You may also be interested in my article on Flash privacy and security. It allows you to block whole ranges of IPs, including known advertisement, education, government, P2P, or spyware addresses. Note: this application is useful if you run P2P software. Proximitron is a very powerful web filtering proxy. Properly configured, it can be used to clean the web pages of advertisements, exploits, nags, or just about anything.

It has the similar impact to a number of Firefox extensions combined, except that it will function for all browsers rather than just Firefox. A tutorial coming soon, I promise. There is a number of other tools you may want to consider, but they are somewhat more geeky and require quite a bit of understanding to utilize fully and correctly. Most of these tools are by WinInternals, formerly SysInternals, lightweight, powerful programs that do one or two things at most, but do it very well.

Among the most notable ones are the autoruns and ProcessExplorer , but in general, all programs released by SysInternals are top-notch quality.

I've also heard good feedback about Sandboxie , another privilege-control software. If you have a few good words about Sandboxie, do share them. Likewise, if you have other suggestions, I'd appreciate them.

Here's a number of articles that you should read. They will give you a good indication of what security is all about and how rather simple it is to get it right. MojoPac is a very handsome and useful solution for Windows XP users. It allows you to run a virtualized version of your own installation, with full 3D support, making it ideal for games and programs that require the use of the graphic card and yet you cannot install where you might need them workplace, Internet cafe.

MojoPac is limited in being a self-virtualization, but it's extremely simple to use. You do not need to worry about the network stack or drivers configurations. You may want to read my review. Additionally, please note that MojoPac allows you to run VirtualBox inside the virtualized environment, offering yet another layer of encapsulation.

VirtualBox is a versatile, cross-platform virtualization software that allows you to run multiple guest operating systems on top of your existing desktop.

VirtualBox is a must for software enthusiasts, testers and researchers, or people who want to try new operating systems without altering their existing setups. Since version 3. VirtualBox also has a Seamless mode, which allows the integration of applications running inside virtual machines onto your running desktop.

VMware Player is a simple, adequate virtualization solution for desktop use. It is less powerful than either VirtualBox or VMware Server see below , but it allows home users to test new operating systems or new software for their existing platforms in guest machines, without altering their base setup. It also comes included in numerous repositories, so it is quite easy to install and maintain. You can check a review here. VMware Server is another powerful desktop virtualization software.

Alongside VirtualBox, it makes a great combo for exploring and testing new stuff. VMware Server has many useful features, including the ability to connect to remote machines, a mighty network stack, and offers 3D support for DirectX on Windows guests. The Server can also create new virtual machines and supports VMware Tools , which enhance the guest performance significantly.

Note: I've also heard positive feedback about Returnil, a lightweight para-virtualization program. Feel free to suggest this software. I have deliberately omitted some stuff, as we will discuss it separately. I have very little experience with parental control programs and spam filtering. I did mention the usage of PGP tools in the first part on encryption, but other than that, I did not elaborate much.

Likewise, I did not go much into mail privacy. For example, there are online disposable mail services, which allow users to create temporary accounts, so they can be used just for the duration of a necessary registration. We will talk about these in a separate tutorial, but your feedback would be appreciated. Portable applications belong in a section of their own.

For now, I have a number of articles that should point you in the right direction: PortableApps and Portable VirtualBox. We did talk about these somewhat There's still a lot of stuff left to do. There's also a whole load of other, less popular program categories that I have chosen not to include in the collection, in order to keep it lean and lean. Too many programs would have negated the effect of the "must-have" label.

Below, you will find a list of software categories that I intend to review in the future. If you have ideas or other suggestions, they are most welcome, as I have somewhat limited experience with some of the categories.

I know I have neglected this section. Last time, I listed Eclipse, but not much more than that. If you have a few useful suggestions, feel free to shoot. I did not list any - but the best choice for any operating system is GParted. Not a must for many Windows users, but a useful bunch nonetheless.

If you're interested, take a look at my older review , which documents three popular scientific programs. Your help would be appreciated. Here's a collection of other online sources where you should find a wealth of useful information, including links to popular software, reviews, top lists, and more.

Gizmo's Freeware Reviews also featured in my Greatest sites.