This computer has one floppy drive, two hard drives (or one partitioned hard drive, as described in Appendix A), and one CD-ROM drive. At the top of the screen comes a list of hard drives, followed by a list of removable-disk drives. Top: The screen you see when your computer joins a network domain. (The My Computer icon no longer appears on the desktop-unless you put it there, as described in Section 1.2.)įigure 1-21. The My Computer window is divided into two sections on a computer that’s a member of a network domain, and three sections on a computer that’s a member of a workgroup. So there probably aren’t many “files stored on this computer.”įor example, by double-clicking your hard-drive icon and then the various folders on it, you can eventually see the icons for every single file and folder on your computer. They probably sit on some centralized server machine elsewhere on the network. Why? Because in a corporation, your files probably aren’t even on your PC.

It lists the My Documents folders for each person who has an account on-and who has logged on to-this computer. On a workgroup PC, you get a third section, called “Files Stored on This Computer” ( Figure 1-21, bottom). On a computer that’s part of a domain, you see only two sections: “Hard Disk Drives” and “Devices with Removable Storage” (as shown at top in Figure 1-21). As you’ll discover over and over again, the Windows XP Pro experience is slightly different depending on which kind of network you’re on.

The difference is that your PC at work is probably on a network domain, and the one at home belongs to a smaller, less formal workgroup network.

The My Computer window at home and the My Computer window on my PC at work don’t look alike. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONThe View from a Window

Windows xp computer