Unleash your computer's potential with proven techniques for getting the most out of Windows XP Service Pack 2. This book provides in-depth coverage of the most useful Windows XP features. It focuses on techniques that enable the reader to work better, faster, and smarter. It covers all the changes, improvements, and additions in Service Pack 2 and shuns theory in favor of practical know-how that readers can put to use right away. Although what people create using a computer is a unique expression of who they are, how a person uses their computer probably isn't unique at all. Most Windows XP users follow the same Start menu paths to launch programs, use the standard techniques in programs like Windows Explorer and Outlook Express, and perform customizations that don't go much beyond changing the wallpaper. However, what about those users who qualify as post-novice? For those users, doing things the official way is slower, less efficient, and less powerful because Windows XP was designed from the ground up so as not to confuse novice users. wizards that turn two-step tasks into twelve-step sagas, and the hiding of powerful and useful programs behind layers of menus and dialog boxes. The post-novice user needs a different approach that goes where the Start Here booklet and the Help system fear to tread. This book goes beyond the standard-issue techniques sanctioned by Microsoft and parroted in other Windows XP books. Instead, this book offers shortcuts for boosting productivity, customizations for making Windows XP work the way the reader does, workarounds for known Windows XP problems, and warnings for avoiding Windows XP pitfalls. Along the way, you'll learn about all kinds of insider details, undocumented features, powerful tools, and background facts that help put everything into perspective.