SOLUTIONS EXPERT HELP
AsktheExperts Unwanted Win XP Setup at Boot Time My computer has Windows XP installed. During a period of computer constipation I decided to reinstall XP. After the file copying from CD to hard drive had begun, I changed my mind and aborted the installation process. Since then, a panel appears on boot-up showing two operating systems, Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows XP Setup, with the setup one being the default. If I don’t watch the monitor during startup and select the regular OS, the setup one begins, then hangs because the Setup CD and balance of the installation files are missing. So I end up getting a blue screen with the option of pressing F3 to abort the setup and restart the computer. Is there any way, short of actually reinstalling Windows, that I can get rid of that setup option on start-up and just have the regular Win XP start-up?— Charlie Hull
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Sure! Click Start, choose Run, and enter msconfig. Click the BOOT.INI tab. You’ll see that there are two lines under [operating systems]. First try clicking the Check All Boot Paths button; this might remove the Setup option automatically, depending on how incomplete the setup is. If that doesn’t do it, click the Microsoft Windows XP line, click the Set As Default button, and set the timeout to 0 seconds. Now the
system will boot directly into regular XP without that annoying prompt.—Neil J. Rubenking
Automatically Move Sent Mail to Outlook Inbox I need to force all sent messages to be stored in the Inbox folder. I attempted to create a rule but could not find the right “expression.” Please help.—Ricardo Vidrio
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Outlook’s message rule system can definitely handle this task. In addition to putting your sent messages into the Inbox, you’ll probably want to tag them with a Category, so there will be no confusing these with actual new messages. Here are the steps that you should take if you’re using Outlook 2007: Select Rules and Alerts from the Tools menu. Click the New Rule button to open the Rules Wizard. (In previous versions of Outlook you’d go straight to the Rules Wizard from the Tools menu.) Near the bottom click Check messages after sending. Click Next. Click Next again without checking any condition. Click Yes to confirm that this rule applies to all messages. Check the box Move a copy to the specified folder.
MOVE MAIL: Force sent messages into your inbox using Outlook’s Rules Wizard.
Click the word specified and select Inbox. Check the box Assign it to the category category. Click the underlined word category and select or create a category. Check the box Stop processing other rules. Click Next and Next again. Name the rule and click Finish. From now on each message you send will be copied to the Inbox and marked with the category you specified.—NJR
Double Up on Graphics Cards? RESET OS DEFAULT: If an aborted OS reinstall gets in the way at start-up, use the System Configuration Utility to return your regular OS to default status.
I was about to build a system with two 512MB nVidia GeForce 8800 GT cards in SLI mode, but recently nVidia released the GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280. Now that has me wondering: What will be a better value for the money, two 8800GTs or one GTX 260? What’s your take on this?—Umar
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I’m generally not much of a fan of dual-GPU solutions, particularly if you can get a powerfulenough single-GPU card that will do the job. Given recent price drops, I’d go with a single GTX 260 over a pair of
78 PC MAGAZINE JANUARY 2009
