Right click the disk or folder that you want to share and select Sharing and Security.

The disk or folder that you share, along with all of the folders that it contains, will be accessible by other network users. If you’re sharing an entire disk, Windows XP gives a warning. The implication of the warning is that it’s better to share a specific folder, since only that folder (and its subfolders) will be accessible by others, and the rest of the disk will be inaccessible. Click where indicated if you want to go ahead and share the entire disk. This screen doesn’t appear if you’re sharing a folder.

The first time that you set up sharing, Windows XP displays a warning, urging you to use the Network Setup Wizard for safety. Click where indicated to either run the Wizard or to do it yourself.

What great secret does the Wizard know that XP thinks you don’t? The Wizard automatically enables the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) to prevent other Internet users from accessing your shared disks and folders. If you have Service Pack 2 installed, the built-in Windows Firewall should already be running automatically, unless you turned it off.

XP displays another warning. If you want the firewall enabled, select Use the wizard to enable file sharing. Otherwise, select Just enable file sharing.

Having successfully run the Wizard’s obstacle course, you may now specify a Share name, which users on other networked computers will use to access this disk or folder. For maximum compatibility with all versions of Windows, use 1-12 characters.

By default, users on other computers have full access: they can read, write, and delete shared files. If you only want them to be able to read files, un-check Allow network users to change my files.

Warning: If a user has full access, deleting a file doesn’t put it in the Recycle Bin. Once it’s deleted, it’s gone for good.

Hiding a Shared Disk or Folder

What if you don’t want everyone on the network to be able to access a shared disk or folder? For example:

• Mom, Dad, and Junior each have a computer.
• The computers are networked so that everyone can share a cable modem Internet connection.
• Mom and Dad share a folder that stores the family’s financial data.
• They don’t want Junior to see the folder or the data.

The answer is to create a hidden share by adding a dollar sign (‘$’) to the end of the share name. A hidden share doesn’t appear in My Network Places or Network Neighborhood on any of the networked computers. In order to access a hidden share you need to already know the name of it.

Warning: Using hidden shares is a good way to keep their contents out of the hands of casual users, but a determined individual using certain techniques and/or utilities will be able to detect them. Therefore, you should not rely on hidden shares to provide security for any truly sensitive data.

To create a hidden share, right click the disk or folder and select Sharing and Security.

Specify a share name that ends with a dollar sign. Once again, use 1-12 characters (1-11 before the dollar sign). If Junior is clever enough to guess a name like Finances$, use a more secure name, like a combination of letters and numbers. Just make sure that Mom and Dad can remember it, and don’t write it on a yellow sticky note attached to the monitor!

]

Accessing a Hidden Share

A hidden share doesn’t appear on any of the networked computers, so how can someone on another computer access it? The answer is to map it as a network drive, which assigns a drive letter to the hidden share. Once it has a drive letter, you access it just like a disk on the same computer.

To map a network drive, open My Computer, click Tools, and select Map Network Drive.

Specify an unused drive letter and enter the network path for the hidden share, being sure to include the dollar sign. If you check Reconnect at logon, the mapping will happen automatically every time you start your computer. Otherwise, you’ll have to map it manually every time.

Click Finish. The mapped drive is connected and appears in a new window. It’s also available in My Computer.

The Question was :

How do i change the default grub boot order to Windows XP other than Ubuntu?

We thought this question might help a lot of people out there googling for Ubuntu Grub Default order change. Here are the steps :

• Open the file menu.lst

Code:

gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

• Then change default from 0 to 6. Only change the number.So this:

Code :

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.
## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#

# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default		0

should look like this:


Code :
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),

#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#

# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default		6



SAVE THE FILE AND CLOSE IT

Why is it 6? Because at the end of the file, from this section:## ## End Default Options ##,

Windows is the 6th option (the first option is 0, second option is 1 etc.)
Code :
## ## End Default Options ##
THIS ONE IS 0
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-25-386
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-25-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-25-386
savedefault
boot
THIS ONE IS 1

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-25-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-25-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-25-386
boot

THIS ONE IS 2
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-23-386
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386
savedefault
boot

THIS ONE IS 3
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-23-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386
boot

THIS ONE IS 4

title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

THIS ONE IS 5

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian

# ones.

title Other operating systems:

root

THIS ONE IS 6

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS

# on /dev/hda1

title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

First, locate the Windows CD that shipped with your PC, along with the CDs for your application software. If you downloaded your antivirus, firewall, or other programs, copy those downloads to a CD or to some other type of removable media. (If your system didn’t ship with a Windows CD, your reinstallation files are situated on your hard drive; I’ll describe how to access them in just a minute.) Also, dig up the instructions that your ISP sent you for configuring your network settings, and keep them close at hand.

Copy the contents of your ‘C:\Documents and Settings’ folder (or whichever folder you store your personal files on) to a CD or other removable medium. Then grab any other critical data and back it up. It helps to collect the installers for the latest drivers for your PC’s graphics card and other hardware, too.

Ready to Reinstall

Now insert the Windows CD that came with your PC, and reboot your system. If you didn’t receive a Windows disc with your machine, the files you need are sitting in a hidden partition on your hard drive. To access them, press the keys indicated on your screen when you reboot, but before Windows loads. The keys differ from vendor to vendor, so contact your PC’s manufacturer if you don’t see the prompt.

In many instances, the only available option is ‘Return the drive to its factory condition’, which destroys all documents, photos, and other data files on your PC. That’s why you made a copy of your data folders.

You get more options–including the ability to preserve your files and settings–when you use Microsoft’s own Windows XP installation disc. Make your selection, and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the reinstallation.

Starting Over

Regardless of which option you choose, you’ll have to reconfigure your network connections, reinstall some of your device drivers, and update XP and your applications manually.

To configure your Internet connection, right-click My Network Places, click Create a new connection, and follow the prompts, entering the appropriate information you received from your ISP.

Once you’ve re-established your Internet link, you must reinstall and update your firewall, antivirus, and antispyware programs.

Next, check to see which of your device drivers need updates: Rght-click My Computer and select Properties,Hardware, Device Manager. Look for entries with yellow question marks or red exclamation points. A question mark indicates that Windows is using a generic driver for that device instead of one specifically designed for it; an exclamation point means that the device is not working.

The drivers for graphics boards, sound cards, and printers are most likely to need an update. If you haven’t already done so, visit the vendors’ Web sites to download updated drivers to your PC. Run the installer for each updated driver, allowing XP to reboot when needed, or right-click the entry in Device Manager, choose Update Driver, and step through the wizard, selecting No, not this time to the Windows Update question, and choosing the specified location option when it appears. When you can navigate to the driver file, select it and click OK to install it. When you finish updating your drivers, close all open windows.

Updates Galore

Your next stop is Microsoft’s Windows Update site. ClickStart, Windows Update, and follow the prompts. Since you’ll probably be downloading many megabytes of updates, you might want to find yourself a good book or seek some other diversion while you wait.

When the downloading is complete, you’ll be ready to reinstall and update your applications. Don’t forget to update your critical apps as well. Microsoft Office, in particular has some important updates. Download them at the Microsoft Office Online Downloads page.

Once you’ve restored your applications, begin replacing your data. The first priorities are the My Documents and Application Data folders, which you’ll find in the folder with your logon name inside ‘C:\Documents and Settings’. To bring back your Internet Explorer favorites, restore the contents of the Favorites folder. Also restore the Shared Data and Application Data folders inside ‘C:\Documents and Settings\Shared Documents’. Once you’ve reintroduced all of your data, your Windows refresh will be complete.

Note: Since we didn’t create an VideoTutorial, we recommend you to watch this video.

Actually it has for years. I’ve been running XP in Parallels and then VMWare Fusion on my MacBook Pro. At my place of employment, we’ve been using XP on VirtualBox for a couple of months and it lets us use those “Built for IE” websites that we sometimes have to use, as well as our Windows Quickbooks. Some designers even check their websites in IE on Windows XP inside a virtual box on a Mac.

As with everything else (so it seems), this new ‘XP Mode’ feature that Microsoft is touting has been on Apple products for awhile.

Now, I know that you’ve been able to run Virtual Machines on Windows and Linux longer than you have been on Macs.   What is amusing is that Windows users are now having to use a virtual machine to use XP just like Mac users always have.

Another interesting quandary: If Windows XP is so important, and Windows 7 can only replicate it in a VM, why not just run Windows XP natively? XP mode is only supported on higher-end Intel chips and with top-end Microsoft Windows 7 OS products.

Netbooks are far and away the fastest growing area of PCs and will be for the foreseeable future. Most, if not all, netbooks won’t be able to run Windows 7 and then XP mode on top of that. They can run XP on VMWare on top of Windows 7 if they choose, but the question still remains: Why run Windows 7 at all?

It seems that Microsoft is happy selling Windows XP for $15 a pop. Why would somebody pay a premium for Windows 7 which can’t do everything that XP does? On top of that, there is speculation that Microsoft will only allow three concurrent applications to run on the base model of Windows 7 Starter edition.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve tried Windows 7 and it runs very well, especially when you compare it to Vista. But that’s on a high-end MacBook Pro. With netbooks gaining all kinds of momentum, Microsoft may be selling all of its netbooks with XP mode – the type of XP mode that you get from native Windows XP.

Meanwhile, I’ll run Windows 7 mode on my Mac.

“OEMs that are using Windows XP on netbooks will have the ability to install Windows XP for one year — 12 months — after Windows 7 general availability,” said Mike Nash, corporate vice president of the Windows product management group at Microsoft, during a conference call with reporters.

The continued availability of Windows XP during a transition period after Windows 7′s release will reassure users who have avoided upgrading to Windows Vista and may be wary of the new operating system.

Nash declined to say when Windows 7 will be commercially available, despite the fact that Microsoft is making the final beta version — called a release candidate (RC) — available to testers today. The distribution of the RC is one of the last steps before the Windows 7 code is locked down and sent off to manufacturers ahead of its commercial release.

The reluctance to nail down a release date is understandable. The PC market is in a fragile state, with shipments much lower than last year. Preannouncing the release date of Windows 7 could convince some users to delay buying new computers, further depressing the market for computers.

What impact Windows 7 will have on netbook pricing isn’t clear. Nash declined to comment on Windows 7 pricing, even in relative terms. But he said users of netbooks and other computers will like what they see when the new operating system is released, particularly those users who’ve been using Windows Vista.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a version of Windows that will actually run better [than the previous version] on the hardware that most customers have,” Nash said.

Microsoft Corp. will provide free or discounted Windows 7 upgrades not only to users who buy Vista PCs between June 2009 and January 2010, but also to people who buy a system that’s been factory-downgraded to Windows XP, according to a report on the Web.

TechARP.com, a Malaysian Web site that earlier this year leaked Microsoft’s upgrade plans, said Saturday that users who purchase a PC equipped with a Windows XP downgrade will also be eligible for the “Windows 7 Upgrade Option” program.

In Microsoft’s terminology, “downgrade” describes the Windows licensing rights that let users of newer versions replace the OS with an older edition without having to pay for another license. In effect, the license for the newer Windows is transferred to the older edition.

The inclusion of new PCs running Windows XP shouldn’t come as any surprise, since by definition, those systems also come with a license for Vista. “Unlike actual Windows XP installations, [these PCs] come with a Windows Vista COA (Certificate of Authenticity) and are therefore eligible for the upgrade program,” said TechARP. “Hence, users with Windows XP downgrade licenses can upgrade to Windows 7.”

Because Microsoft allows downgrades only from Vista Business and Vista Ultimate, the free or discounted upgrades to Windows 7 will be for Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate, respectively, claimed TechARP.

One caveat: Windows XP users will not be able to do an in-place upgrade to Windows 7, as can people running Vista. Instead, XP owners will have to do a clean install of Windows 7 that overwrites the hard drive’s contents.

Computer makers will be allowed to start shipping the Windows 7 upgrade media to customers when Microsoft announces the general availability of the new operating system.

As with the Vista Express Program, a similar marketing effort that offered free or discounted upgrades to Vista to people who purchased an XP-equipped machine during the three months leading to Vista’s launch, PC makers will be allowed to set their own pricing for the Windows 7 upgrades. Three years ago, PC makers charged a variety of prices for the XP-to-Vista upgrades. Hewlett-Packard Co., for example, gave away the upgrades, but others, such as Dell Inc., charged users $49.

According to TechARP, new PCs purchased between June 26, 2009, and Jan. 31, 2010, with a downgrade to XP Professional Service Pack 3 (SP3) will be eligible for a free Windows 7 upgrade. The site also said that XP users will be able to run Windows Easy Transfer from the Windows 7 installation disc prior to upgrading; that utility will let users save files and some Windows settings to an external drive, such as a flash drive, then after the hard drive is wiped and Windows 7 installed, migrate those files and settings to the new operating system.

Although Microsoft has not committed to a delivery date for Windows 7, last month the company inadvertently revealed that it will post a release candidate next month.

Microsoft was not immediately available for comment Monday, but it has previously declined to comment on reports of its Windows 7 upgrade offers.

First off, it’s no secret that Vista hasn’t been embraced by enterprises, many of whom have treated it like the plague. That’s unlikely to be the case with Windows 7. One reason: Vista wouldn’t run properly on a fair number of PCs in enterprises when it was initially launched because the hardware wasn’t high-powered enough.

Today that’s no longer the case. Enterprises have gone through at least one round of hardware refresh since the Vista launch, and so now virtually all of their PCs will run Windows 7.

The same thing holds for printers and other peripherals. One of Vista’s biggest problems was that too many peripherals wouldn’t run with it.

Again, though, that’s no longer true. Enterprises have newer peripherals now than they had years ago. Newer peripherals will work with Windows 7, because it was designed to work with Vista-compatible hardware.

In addition, the Windows 7 beta has been quite solid and stable — so much so that Gartner has been telling businesses that they don’t need to hold off until Windows 7 SP1 to plan for deployment — they can start planning at launch.

Given all that, Microsoft will be able to move enterprises toward Windows 7 and away from XP, ultimately allowing the company to kill XP.

Windows 7 will run on netbooks, which Vista can’t do. Because Vista can’t power notebooks, Microsoft has had to keep XP alive for the large and growing netbook market. But when Windows 7 ships, Microsoft will have Windows 7 installed on netbooks, not XP. That also will let it kill XP more quickly.

The upshot? Windows 7 will do something that Vista couldn’t — kill XP.

Well, no matter what your plans for the future are, Microsoft is certainly in the early stages of pulling the plug on XP and if you’re an XP user then it’s time to at least start planning on your escape strategy.

Kingsley-Hughes includes a poll, asking readers if they plan to bite the bullet and upgrade or whether they will consider Mac OS X or Linux (the overwhelming poll winner so far is upgrading to Windows 7).

The other post is a longer consideration of what the “XP factor” is. What made it so popular? How did Windows slip up with Vista, and how can Linux come up with its own “XP factor?” Keir Thomas wrote this post, “Giving Linux That ‘XP’ Factor,” and he is also the author of the popular freebie I’ve linked to previously, the Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference.

I have a solution for your XP woes. Unless you’ve been lobotomized, you might think you’ve guessed what it is: Linux. But you would be wrong. I don’t generally recommend Linux. I recommend Ubuntu. You see, Ubuntu is a special version of Linux. Ubuntu is Linux for human beings. That’s their tag line, in fact, and it needs some explanation.

Ah! Interesting. Thomas goes on to assert what he thinks the XP factor is and in his opinion, Ubuntu already has it: it’s as functional as it needs to be; it’s approachable for a wide audience of users; and it “just works.”

When Windows 7 is released later this year or in early 2010, many PC users who upgrade will be coming from Windows XP. Unlike Vista users, they can’t do an “in-place upgrade,” in which the new OS overwrites the old one, preserving their installed applications, preferences, and data. Instead, they’ll have to do a clean install, which means they have to back up their data, install Win 7 (either deleting or XP or installing as a separate environment), reinstall their apps, restore their data, and re-create their preferences.

For Windows XP users who avoided Vista because of its many problems, that upgrade work may seem as adding insult to injury, making it harder for them to finally adopt a new version of Windows. Through its PR agency, Microsoft confirms to InfoWorld that there will be no “in-place upgrade” option for XP users, but it declines to explain why not. “More materials on your question are in the works,” the spokesman says.

[ Can your PC run Windows 7? Find out with InfoWorld's free Windows Sentinel compatibility checker. | See our experts' first looks at Windows 7. ]

Why a clean-install requirement may make sense

But there may be good reason not to support an in-place upgrade, suggests Michael Silver, a Gartner analyst who follows Microsoft technologies. That’s because viruses, registry errors, and other performance-sapping flaws in the user’s Windows environment would be carried over into Windows 7; something that would not happen with a clean install.

Business IT typically does clean installs on user systems to avoid these issues, Silver notes, so the lack of an in-place upgrade will be a nonissue for most enterprises.

Consumers and small businesses are the ones who tend to prefer the in-place upgrade option, Silver notes, and they’re the ones who may be annoyed by the clean-install requirement if coming from XP. “Microsoft is in a bit of a no-win situation here: Support the upgrade and live with whatever bad experiences users have or don’t support the upgrade and make it harder for people to do it,” Silver says.

“Most users will be better off doing the clean install anyway,” he says, so he recommends that even Vista users avoid the in-place upgrade and proceed to the clean install.

Silver also notes that users who did not upgrade to Vista often have hardware that can’t run Windows 7 or Vista (typically, PCs from 2006 or earlier), so they would likely get a new computer at the same time with Windows 7 preinstalled, which means reinstalling their apps, preferences, and data anyhow.

A precedent for providing in-place upgrades for earlier generations

When Microsoft shipped Windows Vista, it offered XP users the choice of an in-place upgrade or a clean install, but users of earlier Windows versions could do only a clean install. So the requirement for Windows XP and earlier users to do a clean install of Windows 7 follows that precedent.

But when Microsoft shipped Windows XP in late 2001, it gave not only users of the predecessor Windows 2000 but also users of the earlier generations (Windows 98, Windows Millennium, and Windows 98 Second Edition) the in-place upgrade option. In some ways, the situation then was similar to that situation today. Microsoft Millennium was a technical failure that customers avoided, causing Microsoft to issue Windows 98 SE. Then came Windows 2000, replacing the OS kernel and much of the architecture, which meant it needed newer hardware and was incompatible with many peripherals and applications. So most users stuck with Windows 98 or 98 SE, and Microsoft eased the path to XP by allowing in-place upgrades for them all.

Technically, the shift from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is small, so it should be easier to support an in-place upgrade from XP to Windows 7 than it was from Windows 98 to Windows XP. But Silver cites the performance and security issues that an in-place upgrade preserves as a reason that Microsoft may have chosen not to do so this time.

Silver contrasts Microsoft’s situation with that of Apple, which lets users do an in-place upgrade three versions back (from Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, 10.3 Panther, and 10.4 Tiger) to the current Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. “This is an area — efficiency, ease, and success of upgrade — where Apple has an edge,” he notes, due to its greater control over the hardware and the more focused reach of the OS. ]]> http://www.dide3d.com/2009/02/is-jumping-from-xp-to-windows-7-too-complicated/feed/ 0