Dec 26
2007The Control Panel - Part 2
Filed Under (Windows Xp) by Admin on 26-12-2007
Tagged Under : Administrative Tools, automatic updates, contacts, Download updates, email, genuine copy of Windows XP, genuine Windows users, History, HTML editor, Internet Explorer settings, Internet Options, intranet browsing, newsgroups, parental control, patches, pop-up blocker, service packs, system updates, Temporary Internet Files
Administrative Tools
Most options available here are designed for power users—those who know to work with such things as services and event loggers. But Computer Management is a very useful tool that anyone can make use of.
Automatic Updates
‘Automatic updates’ is a feature by which Microsoft tries to help genuine Windows users get patches, service packs and system updates. This helps you maintain a robust operating system.
You can set Automatic updates to any of the following four settings.
You need to have a genuine copy of Windows XP, and also a good Internet connection. Dial-up users be warned—the update process will take a lot of time the first time round.
Internet Options
Use ‘Internet Options’ to modify or set your Internet Explorer settings. You can specify the default Web page for the browser, delete temporary Internet files, and use Content adviser to block access to objectionable material.
Double-click on ‘Internet Options’ listed in the Classic View of the Control Panel. A pop-up window with tabs opens; the tabs classify the settings under different categories—General, Connection, Content, Advanced, etc. Here’s a description of each of the tabs.
General
IE may most likely open the Microsoft page by default; you can change it to open a blank page or any page you’d like to see when you start up IE. Just enter the URL of the site under the ‘Home Page’ section. Temporary Internet Files and History both relate to your daily use of IE. Web pages you visit are cached, that is, saved temporarily to enable faster browsing. But some cleaning up of these files is occasionally required. You can change the folder size for temporary files and alter the cache settings for periodically checking changes to a Web page. In most cases, you’d want to leave the latter set at ‘Automatically’.
Connection
Use the features under this tab to set up an Internet connection by clicking the Setup button; you can also add VPN and dial-up net works. If your PC connects to the Internet through a proxy server, click on the LAN button to enter the settings for the proxy server. You can choose to bypass the proxy server for faster intranet browsing.
Programs
Under this tab, you’ll see a list of services such as HTML editor, email, newsgroups, contacts, etc. and you can specify which program Windows should use by default to open these services.
Content
You can enable parental control by preventing certain sites (such as sites with adult content) from opening on IE. Click ‘Enable’, and then follow it up with the necessary settings. Details on how to use the content advisory is explained at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/security/contentadv/config.mspx Privacy and Security These tabs have very basic settings; for instance, you can enable or disable the pop-up blocker. Security allows you to set a security level for Internet browsing; this mainly deals with cookies.