Windows XP Slow Startup Problems.

Here is a video that teaches you how to create Windows desktop shortcuts on your desktop.

here is another article you may find useful on how you can cleanup your desktop if it becomes to cluttered read it at “Desktop Cleanup“.

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We have all seen those Windows XP Desktop Shortcuts on our desktops, you know the ones with the little curly black arrow in the corner. What we may not know is how do they get there and how are these Windows XP desktop shortcuts created.

Most of the Windows XPdesktop  shortcuts are created when we install programs. Most of the time the programs ask you if you want to install the Windows XP desktop shortcut for the program. What you may not know that you can create your own windows desktop shortcuts for just about anything you want. Shortcuts to folders, your video libraries, pictures and even shortcuts to your favorite web sites.

So how do you create your own windows XP shortcuts? There are several ways and I will show you how to do each way you can do it.

The first way is directly from you desktop as follows.

1. Find an empty spot on your desktop and right click on it with your mouse.
2. In the little window that comes up place your mouse pointer over “new”
3. Another window will appear near the top you will see an item called “Shortcut”, left click this with your mouse.
4. Another window will appear called “Create Shortcut”
5. Here you can browse to a location and create a shortcut to a folder, image or video.
6. One you have found your item just click on  “Next”
7. In the next window you have the opportunity to change the name of the Windows XP shortcut you have just created or leave it as it is. For example if you selected your “My Videos” folder it will show this name as the default. You could change it if you want to something like “Marie’s Videos”
8. Next just click “Finish” and your Windows XP shortcut is created.

I have Windows XP desktop shortcuts to my most used folders – “My Document”, “My Videos”, “My Pictures” and “My Music”

At instruction “5″ instead of browsing you can enter the folder path directly into the box if you wish.

This brings us to how you can create a Windows desktop shortcut directly to your favorite websites.

1. In your Web browser bring up the website you would like to create a Windows XP desktop shortcut for.
2. Once again find an empty spot on your desktop and right click with your mouse.
3. In the little window that comes up place your mouse pointer over “new”.
4. Another window will appear near the top you will see an item called “Shortcut”, left click this with your mouse.
5. Another window will appear called “Create Shortcut”.
6. Go back to your website browser and in its address box highlight the website address.
7. Right click and copy this location.
8. Go back to the “Shortcut” windows and paste it into the box then click  “Next”
9. In the next window you will need to change the shortcut name and change it to the name of your website. Then click “Finish”

You can create as many website Windows XP desktop shortcuts as you wish this way.

The final way to create Windows XP desktop shortcuts is through your Windows explorer file manager. You can do this as follows. You may already be at the location in the file manager where you wish to create a desktop shortcut to it.

1. All you have to do is “right click” on the folder.
2. In the window that pops up select “Send to”
3. In the next windows select  “Desktop (Create Shortcut)”
4. A shortcut Icon is then sent to your desktop with the name of the folder.

That one was simple.

So there you are not really hard to create Windows XP desktop shortcuts is it? Just remember that you can delete Windows XP desktop shortcuts at anytime without affecting the contents of the folder that they are pointing to.

You can go to “Windows XP Desktop Shortcuts Video” and watch the video version if you prefer.

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Have you ever thought about a desktop cleanup? If not why not. Have you a screen full of zillions of icons that makes you spend all day looking for that one you used a couple of weeks ago. Cannot see your loved one’s picture that you used as a background because of all those little square things called icons cluttering up her face (sorry or his).

Never mind I have a solution for you. Why don’t you group all similar program icons together and stick them into a folder that has an icon itself.  So all those photo folder shortcut icons you can put in a folder called “photos” and reduce the clutter.  Just follow me this way and I will show you how it’s done.

First you need a folder. “Simple” just find an empty space on your desktop (if you can find an empty space) and right click on it.  Up pops a window. In that window you will see a menu item called “new”. Put your mouse pointer over it and whey!! Up pops another window (gee this is fun) Left mouse click on the menu item called “folder”. Wadoyouknow, a new icon appears called “New Folder” on your desktop. Now, if you can find it, (It really does look like a folder, y’know like those you put in a filing cabinet.) you can change the name.

To change the name, just place your mouse pointer over the name and left click once. Then click again. Don’t double click fast or a bloody great window will open up in your face with nothing in it. Just click then pause then click again. The name will show blue with a white border. While it is like this just start typing in the new name. For this exercise we will use “photo’s”, then just hit enter, return, send or whatever they have decided to call it on your particular keyboard. (We will win one day against those developers who keep trying to confuse us).

Well that done so now we can start moving all those photo icons you have (“Fred’s photos” “our holiday snaps” or whatever into this new folder. I expect you have heard of “click and drag” There may be people who haven’t so I had better explain.

Find one of your photo icons and click on it with your left mouse button but keep holding the button down. Then move your mouse around while holding the button down. Wheee! the photo icon moves around all over the place. You had better place it over the new “photo” and release the button before you lose it. God I’ve lost it! No you haven’t it has just gone inside the folder.

Just to ease your mind you can now double click on the folder and a window will come up and you will see the icon you have just put there. Thank goodness for that you thought, I thought I had lost Aunt Fanny’s photos.

Now that you feel comfortable about that, left click on the “x” (upper right corner of the window that opened) to close it. You can then “click and drag” all the other like icons into the new “photo” folder.

Before you get too excited and repeat this operation for other like minded icon groups we had better do something about the folder icon or you will end up with a whole lot of icons looking exactly the same. This may make it even harder to find what you want than before.

Let’s change the icon. Right click on the new “photo” folder. A window appears and right at the bottom left click on “properties” Another window will open, at the top menu click on “Customize” you will then see a button “Change Icon” left click on it. Up pops another window showing a whole heap of icons. You can now have lots of fun trying to figure out which one you would like to use. There are about 200 of them. When you have finally decided (might take you all day) just click on it with the left button to highlight it then click “OK” then click “OK” again. Hey presto the folder icon has now changed to the one you decided upon.

And that’s it folks you have started your desktop cleanup. All you have to do now is repeat for all the other groups of similar icons. Have fun.

By the way now you have got rid of a whole lot of icons from you desktop you may find that your PC may startup a bit faster. It doesn’t have to go looking for all those short cuts or whatever to sprinkle across the screen. Aren’t you glad you did a desktop cleanup.

Read another article on what you can do to your desktop at “Windows XP taskbar“

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The Windows XP Taskbar is usually situated at the bottom of the display. Did you know that there are several things you can do to it to make it more friendly and useful?

For example you can make it disappear and reappear at will thus making your whole screen display available for just viewing. You can also put your most used programs as icons and invoke them with a single click. You can also move it around and make it bigger so if you are a person who has lots of windows open can show them all in buttons in the taskbar.

If you are interested in customizing your windows xp taskbar, then read on.

Your windows xp taskbar consists of 3 parts. On the left you can see the “quick Start” icons. On the right you can see icons of all the programs that are started during startup. The middle contains all the buttons of the programs you have running.

Windows XP Taskbar

First find the start button and left click with your mouse, select “settings” then “Taskbar and Start Menu” You will get a window like this:

Taskbar Window

As you can see there are several boxes you can select. Before you can on the actual Taskbar you need to unlock it. The Auto hide selection makes the windows xp taskbar disappear if you mouse pointer is not at the bottom of the screen. If you do not want to use the quick launch buttons you can deselect it this makes extra space for the program buttons. If you select the “Hide inactive icons” This hides any startup programs that are not presently in use.

Select everything you need but leave the “lock the taskbar” deselected. Click on “apply” then “OK”.

Now let us have a bit of fun with the windows xp taskbar.

If you place your mouse pointer in an empty space in the taskbar and press the left button on your mouse holding it down, you will find that when you move the mouse to the right, left or top the taskbar will move to those locations. Take you finger of the left mouse button and it will stay there. Move the taskbar to the location you like best.

If you would like your most used programs as “quick launch” icons in your windows xp taskbar all you have to do is to left click on the icon on your main desktop. While holding the button down drag the icon down into the “quick start” area of your windows xp taskbar then release the button. You will get a miniature of the icon in the taskbar. You can then delete the program icon on your main desktop if you wish. This enables you to reduce the “clutter” on you desktop.

You can make the windows xp taskbar deeper if you wish. Just move your mouse down to the taskbar, move it to the top edge until you see an up and down arrow. When you see this press your left mouse button and while holding it down move the mouse up until you get the depth you require then release the button.

One other thing you can do is increase the width of the “quick start” area. You may want to do this if the number of icons cannot fit the area. You will see a vertical bar to the right of the quick start area. Move your mouse to this until you see a left and right arrow. Press your left mouse button and while holding it down move the mouse to the right until all your icons can be seen.

The last think you should do to your windows xp taskbar is to lock it. This will prevent any accidental changes being made. All you have to do is “Right” click in an empty area in the task back. A window will appear where you will see a menu item “lock the taskbar” just click on this and then your taskbar is locked and no changes can be made. If you need to make changes just do the same and deselect the “lock the taskbar” and you will then be able to modify your windows xp taskbar again.

More information on what you can do on your desktop can be found at “Desktop Shortcuts“

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