Easy fixes for common Windows XP problems

By Brian Culp

September 1, 2005 12:00 PM ET

The following is excerpted from Chapter 14, "Common Problems --Easy Fixes," of Brian Culp's Spring Into Windows XP Service Pack 2, with permission from publisher Addison Wesley Professional.
Program Compatibility
Older programs might not always work with Windows XP. You might have a favorite application that worked great under Windows 95, but the software vendor has since gone out of business, and they have not released a version for the XP platform.
Not to worry. A great XP feature called Application Compatibility lets you run programs using automated settings that make XP behave, as least as far as the application is concerned, a lot more like older Windows versions.
To run a program in Application Compatibility mode, follow these steps:

Open the Start Menu and find the shortcut for the desired application.

Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties.

Select the Compatibility tab, and then select the compatibility mode appropriate for the application.

Click Apply to commit the changes. You can also select from one of several display settings, although this is not required. However, many games and educational titles written for the MS-DOS or Windows 95 platform can only use 256 colors.

Now, every time you use the shortcut to launch the program, XP "fools" the app into thinking it's running on whatever version of Windows you specified.
An alternate approach is to run the Program Compatibility Wizard. This is a Help and Support Center utility that essentially does the same thing. To launch it, choose the Start Menu | All Programs | Accessories | Program Compatibility Wizard.
You'll be able to figure it out from there. You can choose from a Microsoft-generated list of programs or locate the program manually. Once you select the program, set the compatibility mode with the dialog box.
Diagnose Slow Performance
Slow performance can be a very difficult problem to diagnose, as the causes of slow performance are many. What's more, slow performance is often a subjective measurement: "Slow" to one person can be "working as designed" to another.
Here's one thing you can count on, however: The longer you use a computer, the slower it's going to respond. Fortunately, XP ships with several tools to help diagnose and correct the causes of degraded performance.
These tools include:

My Computer Information -- Use this information to figure out what hardware and software is installed on your system. Included here is a look at the operating system version and the processor speed.

Network Diagnostics -- Lets you gather information about the network, which you use to troubleshoot network-specific issues.

Advanced System Information -- Links you to targeted information about a particular issue and can even put you in touch with a technical support person for further assistance with especially difficult issues.

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