Protect your identity

Like many other audio players, Windows Media Player rushes out to the Internet to
find information for you when you play a CD. Some of this information, such as song
titles and album art, is useful, but Media Player also identifies your copy of Media
Player to the site where it's getting data. Why? According to the help file, "The server
uses this unique identifier to monitor your connection. By monitoring your
connection, the server can make adjustments to increase the playback quality and to
alert you about events that occur when receiving streams over the Internet."
If you're disturbed by this exchange of information, here's how to stop it. In
Windows Media Player, click Tools > Options and go to the Player tab. Notice the
option that says "Allow Internet sites to uniquely identify your player?" Turn it off.

Know your rights

Windows XP comes bundled with Windows Media Player 8.0. While Media Player
plays just about any digital media file format--it supports 35, including MP3, it
records music only in the Windows Media Audio, or WMA, format. The reason?
Content protection.
When recording, or ripping, music from CDs, Media Player allows you to make
protected recordings so that no one will be able to copy the recording from one
computer to another. You can turn copy protection on or off on the Copy Music tab
by checking or unchecking the box that says Protect Content.

Change Out Your Pointer Scheme

Tired of seeing your pointer as an arrow or an hourglass all the time? Windows XP
offers a number of alternative pointer schemes, such as Dinosaur, Ocean and Sports.
Open the Control Panel, double-click Mouse, and select the Pointers tab. (If you start
in Category view, select Appearance and Themes, then click Mouse Pointers under
"See Also.") Next to Schemes, click the down arrow and select a scheme to preview
its pointers. Click OK to apply the scheme to your desktop. Simple as that.