Information about Windows XP Home Edition

Information about Windows XP itself

• Windows XP Home Page: Here's Microsoft's official word on Windows XP. Note that Microsoft's web sites appear to be engineered not to work with Netscape.

• Comparison of Windows XP Professional and Home Editions: Lists the differences between the two versions of Windows XP, so you can decide whether Professional is worth the extra $100. (Our analysis: if you don't need to connect to a corporate domain-based LAN, Home Edition works fine.)

• Microsoft Support Knowledge Base: Search the Knowledge Base for answers to your questions about Microsoft software, including Windows XP.

• Windows XP Newsgroups: Use Outlook Express or Netscape to read and post to these newsgroups, which discuss Windows XP and its features

• Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs: Home of the HCL -- the Hardware Compatibility List.

• Dirt Cheap Drives' Technical Information: Information about hard disks and other disk drives.

• Microsoft Accessibility: Information about how to make Windows XP and other Microsoft programs more usable by the handicapped.

• Microsoft Windows Update: Source for updates to Windows XP itself (we prefer to use XP's Automatic Updates feature instead). This site requires IE, and doesn't work with Netscape or Opera.

• Microsoft .NET Passport: Passport's home page, with information about the service. Judge for yourself whether the privacy dangers outweigh the convenience.

• CNET: More computing news.

• MSN Tech & Gadgets: MSN's computing site.

• Paul Thurott's SuperSite for Windows: An unauthorized site about new versions of Windows.

• ZDNet Windows: Reviews of Windows software.

• Windows Script Host Overview: Microsoft's documentation for the Windows 2000 version of WSH, which looks like the same one that comes with Windows XP.

• MSDN SCripting: Windows Script Host information for developers.

• Microsoft Piracy - Piracy Basics: An explanation of how Microsoft's activiation system is designed to work.

Information about programs that work with Windows XP

• Ontrack's ZipMagic: Here's trhe source for ZipMagic, our favorite ZIP file handler (it's much better than XP's Compressed Folders feature, because all programs can read and write files directly into ZIP files).

• WinZip: The source for the classic Windows ZIP file program.

• Compaq's CarbonCopy: It's now called Altiris CarbonCopy, but it still enables you to remotely access a computer over a LAN or the Internet.

• Symantec's pcAnywhere: The original remote-access program.

• Virtual Network Computing: An open-source remote-access that's we've used successfully for years.

• Roxio's Easy CD Creator: Software for creating CDs.

• Ahead's Nero: A powerful CD and DVD burning program.

• Jasc's Paint Shop Pro: Our favorite graphics editor.

• Opera Software: The alternative Web browser.

• Coffee Cup Software: Home of the CoffeeCup HTML Editor.

• Macromedia's HomeSite: Our favorite Web page editor. (It used to be owned by Allaire.)

• AOL Instant Messenger (AIM): AOL/Netscape's popular instant messaging program.

• ICQ (I Seek You): The original instant messaging program.

• Yahoo Messenger: Our favorite instant messaging program, because it handles both voice and video from groups of people -- instant free video conference calls!

• Sygate: An alternative to Internet Connection Sharing.

• WinGate Internet Sharing: Deerfield's alternative to ICS.

• WinProxy: Another good alternative to ICS.

• Qualcomm's Eudora: Our favorite Windows e-mail program.

• Mike Lin's Home Page: Useful freeware and shareware Windows utilities.

• Windowblinds.com: Fancy window treatments.

• PowerQuest's PartitionMagic: Terrific program for creating, modifying, copying, and deleting disk partitions.

• PowerQuest's DriveImage: Useful program that can copy a disk partition to another partition or to a CD.

• Terabyte Unlimited: Source of BootIt, another good partition manager.

• Visual Styles and Skins for Windows XP: Dress up your copy of XP!

• Tewak XP: Ways to customize Windows XP.

• ExpressAssist 2000: Utility that backs up your Outlook Express mail folders, Windows address book, and Internet Explorer Favorites folder.

• Microsoft's TweakUI Program: This version doesn't say that it works with Windows XP, but we hear that it does.

• Microsoft Plans to Expand Windows Messaging: We prefer Yahoo Messenger, because it does so much more than Windows Messenger, but Microsoft may be planning to fix that.

• Windows XP Doesn't Support MP3 Files: But you can buy add-ons that do.

Security information

• Symantec's Norton AntiVirus: This program comes in a number of editions, for corporate or individual use.

• McAfee's VirusScan: Our other favorite virus-scanner.

• Internet Content Rating Association: Information about filtering the Web.

• Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Project: Technology for Web filtering.

• TRUSTe: Organization that promotes voluntary privacy guidelines.

• Microsoft .NET Passport Member Services: To update your .NET Passport account, if you have one.

• Gibson Research Corporation: Steve Gibson's invaluable set of Internet security services.

• Scrap Files Can Tear You Up: Explanation of how Windows "scrap" files can be used to spread viruses.

• Doug Muth's Anti-Virus Resources: Information about viruses and how to protect your computer from them.

• Symantec Security Response: Virus information, including how to get rid of them.

• McAfee AVERT: Virus Information Library.

• Vmyths.com: Truth about computer virus myths and hoaxes.

• VeriSign: Digital security products and services.

• Thawte: Purveyer of digital certificates for e-commerce and secure e-mail.

• RSA Laboratories: RSA's cryptography FAQ.

• PGP (Pretty Good Privacy): Now owned by Network Associates Inc. (NAI).

Libraries of downloadable software

• CWSApps - Stroud's Consummate Winsock Apps List: The original list of downloadable freeware and shareware.

• CNET's Download.com: Software library with lots of downloadable programs.

• TUCOWS Downloads: The Ultimate Collection Of Windows Software, including plug-ins for Netscape and IE.

• Netscape Products: The source for Netscape Navigator and Netscape 6.1 (our favorite Web browsers), as well as AOL Instant Messenger and Netscape plug-ins.

• CNET Shareware.com: Shareware only.

Web directories and search sites

• Google: The ultimate Web search engine.

• MSN.com: Microsoft's ISP, the Microsoft Network. (This Web site appears to have been engineered not to work with Netscape.)

• My Yahoo: The Yahoo directory, customized for you.

• Microsft's Hotmail: Free Web-based mailboxes.

• Google Groups: Searchable Usenet newsgroups, including the comp.os.ms-windows.win98 group.

• Topica: Searchable mailing lists.

Other Web sites referred to in the book

• MSN Gaming Zone: The Web site for Microsoft's online games.

• CD-Recordable FAQ: The most complete explanation of CD-Rs and CD-RWs that we know of.

• Kodak's Ofoto: You can upload and store your digital photos here for free, and send passwords to your friends so that they can view your photo albums. Then you can order prints of any of your photos for 40 cents apiece (price as of October 2001).

• Real Networks' RealPlayer: The player you'll need for the widest range of streaming audio and video files.

• Microsoft's WindowsMedia Media Guide: The Windows Media Player links to the Web site automatically when you click the Media Guide button.

• radioIO: Lots of interesting Internet radio stations.

• Microsoft.net Speech 2001: Speech recognition technologies.

• world Wide Web Consortium: The Web's home page -- the organization that started it all and still sets the standard for the Web.

• DevX NetMeeting Zone: Source for information about NetMeeting and addresses for NetMeeting directory servers.

• MSN Communities: Find online communities hosted by MSN.

• Yahoo Geocities: Yahoo's free Web-hosting site.

• Angelfire: Lycos's free Web-hosting site.

• Wireless Ethernet: Source of technical information about wireless networking.

• HomeRF: Information about wireless home LANs.

• Mailing List Gurus Page: Information about how to participate in and create your own mailing lists.

Updated: Oct 26, 2002