NOTEBOOK/DESKTOP SOFTWARE

If you have been to college recently or have been out in the working world for a few years, changes are you have been using a desktop computer maintained by someone else. They have been responsible for making sure the hardware is working properly and the software was updated and functioning.

Unless you have continued access to an IT staff, law school is different. There is a good chance that you will be using a notebook computer and that you will be responsible for keeping that notebook in good working order. Law school, particularly in the first year, moves quickly. You will depend on your notebook computer and there will be little time to get it repaired if there’s a problem. For all these reasons, you will be your own IT staff, you will depend on your notebook computer and there is little time to resolve problems when they occur, it is important that you set up your computer correctly and that you are able to diagnose and fix simple basic problems – particularly software related problems.

A good start are the documents on our website that focus on setting up your notebook computer. These deal with the initial delivery of your notebook, how to install basic hardware related updates and connect and configure a printer. Once the hardware has been taken care of, the next area that you should attend to is the software and the first place to start is the Microsoft XP Professional operating system.

In this document we discuss updating Microsoft XP Pro and keeping it updated with the latest critical and security related patches. This is absolutely crucial and one of the requirements that we insist on if you are going to use your notebook computer at Suffolk. We also discuss configuring and then customizing XP Professional so it works well for you.

The operating system, Microsoft XP Professional, is one of the most basic series of programs on you notebook computer. In many respects it is the fulcrum on which all other software rests. It provides services to other software such how your printers are set up. And it establishes the basic look and feel of your system so you can work in the most productive manner.

You must purchase an operating system which Dell installs on your notebook (and desktop) computer. However, as in the case of other software, new patches to the Windows operating system are made available. In some cases these improve the performance of your computer and in other cases they provide additional features. In many cases, however, operating system updates are related to security and it is vital that you update your notebook with these critical and security patches. We require that you install the critical and security patches for the Windows operating system on your notebook or any computer that shares files or sends e-mail to our network.

In this section we focus on how to update Windows XP Professional. For computer and network security keeping the Windows operating system updated is required. It is one of the two requirements we insist on if you are using the network in the Law School or sending files to the Law School network via disk or e-mail. ¹ We then suggest a number of steps you can do to customize Windows XP Pro.

While Automatic Updates should keep your system software up to date, you will still want to check and update manually, if necessary. Checking for Microsoft Windows updates (updating your XP Professional operating system), protects you from system security problems. The website for these updates is:

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

If you are running the XP Professional operating system and you have updated at this site before, click Scan for Updates and the site will scan your computer (Figure 4).


Figure 4 - Click Scan for Updates

It will check to see what updates have been installed and will report to you what updates are available (Figure 5). If you are updating automatically , the Microsoft Update site will scan your system and there will be no updates. If there is an update or two it should take less than 5 minutes to download and install.


Figure 5 - Choose, download and install Updates

As we noted earlier, the operating system is very basic to the look and feel of your computer and provides basic services (such as printer availability and configurations, how files are displayed, the look of your desktop) to other software. Now that you have installed a printer and updated XP Professional, we are going to make some initial suggestions on customizing. We will make some additional suggestions in the final chapter of this document, after you have installed software.

One note; Windows XP can be customized extensively and there is a mini industry of suggestions for doing this. Some customization strategies (“tweaks” and “hacks”) are sponsored and support by Microsoft and some are not. Many strategies involve editing the Windows XP registry, which can be fun in itself for the technically minded (apart from its value in making your computer more usable – which may be very small indeed), but which can have serious consequences and make your computer unusable. O’Reilly Publishing has a number of books which will enable those who are technically adroit and interested in making a serious effort to customize XP Professional. The customization steps suggested here are both less drastic and less risky.

Our first suggestions on customizing XP Professional would include:

• Increase the security on your notebook computer
• Create and save a password recovery disk
• Customize the start menu
• Review Program Access and Defaults
• Create folders within My Documents
• Set the desktop theme, screen saver and appearance
• Customize the keyboard and the mouse

In the initial setup, Windows asks you for a password as Administrator of your computer. This gives you complete control of the system, including the ability to create new users and control how they use your system. In order to provide additional security, you may want to create a new user, one that only has rights to use software and save documents. In Microsoft parlance this user will be a member of the “Users Group.” Sometimes this is also called a “Restricted User.”

After you have created this new Restricted user and installed software on the computer, you will want to logon as that user to use the notebook computer on a regular basis.

In order to do so, click on start -> control panel -> user accounts -> add and follow the Wizard to create an account with user rights. After you have created the account, you should see it in the list of accounts displayed when you click on user accounts in the Control Panel.

You can always change the rights associated with any account by clicking on the account in this panel and then clicking on properties. This will display a box with two choices (standard user – with all privileges; and restricted user – with rights as in the user group to use software and save files) and a drop down box with a number of other, additional choices. You will want to click the choice making this a restricted user.

While you are in the User Account screen, you will note an additional tab – Advanced. Click on this and make sure the box user Secure Logon is checked. This will require all users to type Control-Alt-Delete, get the Windows logon screen and logon before they can access your computer.

Windows XP saves passwords for all your accounts on your computer. And, while the Administrator account can change passwords for all other users, changing the password in this way has a cost. All the passwords associated with that user are lost. This includes passwords for the Microsoft .NET Passport and any passwords that used to encrypt files or e-mail messages.

To avoid resetting passwords, create a password recovery disk for every account on your computer. If you have been working through these instructions, you will probably have only two accounts on your system – an Administrator account and the restricted account you have just created.

To create a password recovery disk, you will need a formatted floppy disk for each account and you will logon to each account and for each account you will go through the following steps: start -> Control Panel-> User Accounts. Select the user account you are logged into and, from Related Tasks, choose Prevent a Forgotten Password and follow the wizard. You will label and save each of these floppy disks in the Redweld file.

As you probably can see, many things, from logging off to launching programs, begin by clicking the start button. There are two ways to control what is displayed when you click on start. The first is through the Taskbar and Start menu icon in the Control Panel and the second is through Windows Explorer. Since each controls a different part of the start button menu, we will address both.

If click on Control Panel -> Taskbar and Start menu -> Start menu tab. Choose the Start menu radio button and then Customize and then the Advanced tab. You will then have the option of turning on or off various options to appear within the start menu. You can play with these so they match your work style. Here’s the list of my selections (Figure 6).

Figure 6 - Customizing the Start menu

The second way to customized the start menu is through Windows Explorer. In this view, the start button is a collection of shortcuts. To change what is included, right click on the start button and then click on Open or Explore. If you use Explore (the Windows Explorer), you will see something like the following figure (Figure 6). For an individual user on that notebook computer, the start menu is actually a folder: Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu.³ For all users, there is another folder Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu.

In order to add a shortcut which would appear in the list above “All Programs,” you would right click in the white space on the right, click new and then choose shortcut. You would follow the wizard prompts to add a shortcut to a particular program.

Figure 7 - The start menu in Windows Explorer

It is suggested that you add shortcuts to tasks that you use often and where there aren’t shortcuts elsewhere on your desktop. So, for instance, you wouldn’t want to add a shortcut to Symantec AntiVirus because Symantec will install an icon in your taskbar. My suggestion would be to add a shortcut for the following:

• Windows Update
• Spyware/Adware removal software
• Disk Cleanup
• Disk Defragment.

Figure 8 - Adding Disk Cleanup to the Start Menu folder

And your start menu should look something like the following (Figure 9):

Figure 9 - The resulting Start Menu with Disk Cleanup added

As a result of the antitrust settlements, Microsoft has been obliged to include easier ways in which other browsers (such as Netscape and Opera), e-mail clients (such as Eudora) and Media Player (such as Real Player), etc. The chances are that you will be using Microsoft software for most of these functions – you are going to make the setting here “Custom.” Counter intuitively the Custom setting will allow you to install and use Outlook (rather than Outlook Express). To check this setting, click on Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Set Program Access and Defaults – on the left sidebar ((1) in Figure 10). Click on the Custom radio button (2). If you click on the arrow on the right (3) you can check the particular settings for each category of software.

Figure 10 - Set Program Access and Defaults

Law school is about courses, cases and documents and more than anything it is about keeping up with your work and staying organized. As Dean Smith says, “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.”

When you create a user on your notebook computer, the operating system will create a number of folders for that user including “My Documents.” We suggest that you create a folder specifically for your work in law school within the “My Documents” folder. And you will probably want to create other folders inside the Law School folder as well – but we’ll leave that up to you. Once you know how to create a folder, you can create as many as you want. Our oly suggestion is that they should reflect the way in which you are comfortable working (organized by year or subject material, etc.). To create a law school folder, click on start -> My Documents. Then right click inside the My Documents window. Then click on New -> Folder. The new folder will come up and you will be able to name it something like SULS or Law School. In case you want to rename it, you can always right click on it and then click Rename.

Setting up a Desktop Theme and changing the appearance of your screen is not a big deal, however, how you set the power options is important. Since they all appear in one Control Panel menu, we cover them all here.

To change these settings, click on Control Panel -> Display. You will get the Display box with a number of tabs (Figure 11). You may set the desktop wallpaper within Desktop.

The screen saver is chosen in the Screen Saver tab. If you are going to use your notebook in class, we recommend setting this only go into screen saver mode after waiting 60 minutes. Further, Screen Saver gives you an option “On resume, password protect.” This means if your system goes into screen saver mode, when you want it to use it again, you will be prompted your account and password – as if you were logging on when you turn the system on. We don’t recommend this, particularly is you will be using your notebook to take notes in class. This additional step will take a few moments every time and will be distracting at the very moment you will be wanting to write down those key professorial words of wisdom.

Figure 11 - Display box

The screen saver tab also includes a button and additional menus to set the system power options (Figure 12).

Figure 12 - Power Schemes

While you may set these setting in the way that best meets your needs, we have some suggestions. If you are going to consistently plug your notebook in during class, you may want to use the settings indicated in Figure 12. This will keep the machine running throughout class. If you use these options along with a screen saver set at 60 minutes, you will not disturb others in class with a flashing screen saver and the machine will be ready for use throughout the class period.

The final settings are to the keyboard and the mouse. You may want to change how fast the cursor blinks and whether the keyboard repeats when you hold a key down. To do this, as well as other keyboard settings, click on Control Panel -> Keyboard.

You may also want to configure how the mouse is displayed on your screen. Whether it remains visable when you are typing, the size of the mouse pointer and whether the mouse tail is visible when you move the mouse (to make it easier to see). These and other settings are available by clicking Control Panel -> Mouse. Check Pointer and Pointer Options settings as indicated in Figure 13 to customize the look and feel to your liking.

Figure 13 - Pointer Option settings