Internet Explorer is the default browser included with Windows XP. If you’ve chosen to use another browser – Firefox or Maxthon or Opera or Avant, for example – for everyday use, you can tell Windows that you want to use that browser as your default instead. To make the switch, follow these steps after installing the alternative browser:

1. Click Start and choose Set Program Access and Defaults. (If this option is not available, go to Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs, and look for the icon in the left column.)
2. Click the Custom option and click the arrow to its right to display the list of options.
3. Choose your newly installed browser from the list of available browsers. Leave the Enable access to this program option selected for Internet Explorer.
4. Make any other changes you want to make (for your default e-mail program, media player, etc.) and click OK to save your changes.

From now on, your alternative browser should open whenever you click a link or enter a Web address manually. You’ll probably notice that IE continues to open in some instances. I’ll explain why, and how you can change this, in tomorrow’s tip.

When you install a new program that adds one or more shortcuts to the Start menu, Windows XP highlights the new Start menu shortcuts for a few days. This highlighting, which appears in orange by default, makes it easier to find the new items and makes you
aware of added items that you might have otherwise overlooked. If you find the highlights distracting, you can turn this feature off.

1. Right-click the Start button and choose Properties.
2. In the Taskbar And Start Menu Properties dialog box, click the Customize button to the right of the Start Menu option.
3. Click the Advanced tab and clear the Highlight Newly Installed Programs check box.
4. Click OK to save your changes.

Windows keeps track of all the files you open from within Windows (by double-clicking a file in Windows Explorer, for instance). This can have privacy implications, and over time the %userprofile%\Recent folder, where shortcuts to all tracked files are stored, can get cluttered. To empty this folder, right-click the Start button, choose Properties, and click the Customize button to the right of the Start menu option. In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, click the Advanced tab.

To empty the Recent folder, click Clear List. (This option deletes the shortcuts in the Recent folder only; it doesn’t delete the files themselves!) To stop keeping track of recently used files, To hide the My Recent Documents shortcut on the start menu, clear the List my most recently opened documents checkbox.

Update: The original version of this tip contained an error, which I’ve highlighted and corrected above. If you want to stop tracking recently opened files in Windows, you’ll need to change the attributes or permissions of the Recent folder or use a third-party utility. Microsoft’s Tweak UI PowerToy for Windows XP can do the job. Click the Explorer heading and clear the Maintrain document history option.

In Windows XP Inside Out, we listed a bunch of command-line shortcuts that can take you to useful spots within the Windows interface, usually much faster than the point-and-click method. Instead of drilling down through the Start menu, just click Start, Run, type in one of the following commands, and press Enter. Here are a few examples of the command that open common management tools directly:

In each case, you’ll notice that the command ends with .msc. That extension means the utility is a saved Microsoft Console (technically, a Microsoft Common Console Document). The names are reasonably intuitive, and if you do a lot of system maintenance and are comfortable with the command line, these shortcuts can save you a few seconds here and there.

Let’s say you have two accounts on your Windows XP computer: An everyday account, set up as a Limited User, and an account in the Administrators group that you use for system maintenance tasks. Your computer is in a secure location, and you’re the only person with physical access to it. Which of the following options is more secure?

• You assign a blank password to the administrative account
• You create a strong password of 15 characters, using a randomly generated string of letters, numbers, and symbols, for the administrative account

Believe it or not, the blank password offers considerably more protection. Because of security enhancements introduced in Windows XP, accounts with a blank password can be used only to log on interactively at the computer by using either the Welcome screen or the Log On To Windows dialog box. You can’t log on to a non-password-protected account over the network using a Remote Desktop connection. Nor can you use the Run As feature to run in the context of an account with a blank password. An attacker who wants to break into your computer won’t be able to get administrative access over the network.

This approach isn’t for everyone – you don’t want to try it on a portable computer, or on one that’s part of a Windows domain, or if you actually need access via Remote Desktop.

But this strategy is a decent alternative for home computer users who don’t want to be bothered with passwords. You can return to the Welcome screen at any time by using the Windows key+L shortcut; from there, you can log on to the administrative account for system maintenance tasks.

You’re typing a note on your American English keyboard, and you need to enter a character that isn’t represented by one of the available keys. Maybe it’s an inverted exclamation point or question mark, used in Spanish, or an accented letter for a French word, or some sort of umlaut or diaeresis. How do you get the character to appear on the screen?

There are several different ways, but one easy way is to fire up the Character Map utility. Click Start, Run, enter charmap in the Open dialog box, and click OK.

Pick a font from the list on top, and then scan through the list of available characters until you find the one you want. Click any character to magnify it and see an explanatory ScreenTip (as I’ve done above). You can double-click to insert the character directly into the current document, but before you do that, take a look in the lower right corner. That’s where you’ll see the keyboard shortcut that lets you enter the same character manually next time. Just remember that you need to hold down Alt and enter the characters on the numeric keypad, not on the row of numbers at the top of the keyboard.

Related: Enter international currency symbols in Office

Most people find it convenient to dump icons on the Windows desktop for easier access. Files, program shortcuts, downloads, Internet shortcuts. I have five folders and 23 individual icons on my desktop, and I suspect that’s less than average.

The trouble with all those icons is they’re hard to get to – whatever you’re working with covers up the desktop – and they cover up the photo that you use as a desktop background. Here’s a strategy I use to make things neater:

1. Create a shortcut to the Desktop. Yes, the desktop is just a folder with a few special attributes. Right-click any empty space on the desktop and choose New, Shortcut. In the location box, type %userprofile%\Desktop (be sure to include the percent signs) and click Next. In the next step, you should see Desktop already filled in as the title of the shortcut. Click Finish.
2. Add your new Desktop shortcut to the Start menu. Drag the Desktop shortcut icon you just created over the Start button – but don’t release the mouse button yet. When the Start menu appears, move the shortcut up to the top, just below the shortcuts for your Web browser and e-mail program. Now release the mouse button to drop the shortcut into position. (If you miss, you can drag it up or down into any position.)
3. Hide all icons on the desktop. In Windows XP, right-click any empty space on the desktop and choose Arrange Icons By. Click the Show Desktop Icons menu option to remove the checkmark. Within a few seconds, your desktop will be completely clean and uncluttered.

To access any of the icons on your desktop, click the Desktop shortcut you created on the Start menu. You might want to organize the Desktop folder a little more, with a subfolder for program shortcuts, another for Downloads, and so on