On the surface, Microsoft Passport dazzles as a wonderful idea: a central location where you can put all the consumer-related information you’ll need to interact with vendors over the Web, not to mention chat with other people using Windows Messenger, download stock prices, customize weather predictions, send and receive e-mail using Microsoft’s own Hotmail e-mail service, open a bank account, trade stock, and on and on. Here’s the downside of Microsoft Passport: How much do you trust Microsoft to protect your privacy? That seems to be the root question when any discussion of Microsoft Passport hits the ether. Most people don’t trust Microsoft much farther than they can throw a cow. With a tractor and two barns attached. On the face of it, the Passport seems innocuous: Type in your name, pick an ID and a password, and suddenly all of these wonderful features become available. Beneath the surface, though, you have to realize that Microsoft holds the keys to all of the Passport data. If you trust Microsoft (and, personally, in this case, I do), the only real problem with Passport is a growing sense of Big Brother’s imminent arrival. If you don’t trust Microsoft, you’d be a fool to hand over your personal information even something as simple as a list of your favorite stocks. On the third hand, if you don’t sign up for Passport, you can’t use Windows Messenger for instant chatting, can’t use Hotmail for e-mail on the Web, can’t ask someone to take over the controls at your computer and help you with Remote Assistance, can’t put Microsoft’s neat stock ticker on your Windows desktop, and on and on. What’s a person to do? Many folks strike a balance between privacy and convenience by getting a Passport, but being very vigilant about the kinds of information they hand over to Microsoft’s ever-expanding database. You may find that a workable solution, too. Just be aware that Passport data collection can be a two-way street: If you use a Passport to get onto a site, there’s a chance that the site will send gathered information back to Microsoft. I don’t mean to make you paranoid, but almost anything that you enter on any Web page hooked up to Passport could end up sitting in a Microsoft database. At any rate, if you want to sign up for Microsoft Passport and have your account on your PC linked to that big MS Passport logbook in the sky, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts.

2. Choose your own account.

3. Click Set Up My Account to Use a .NET Passport. You are transported to Microsoft’s Web site, where you can consummate the relationship. Deleting yourself AHA! I bet you saw it. Bonus Dummies Merit Points if you noticed the subtle difference. (One hundred Dummies Merit Points are redeemable for one Severe Bragging Right at any local Dummies store. Tell ’em I sent ya.) You can’t delete your own account. Windows has to protect itself. Every PC must have at least one user signed up as Computer Administrator. If Windows XP lost all of its Administrators, no one would be around to add new users or change existing ones, much less to install programs or hardware, right? Although you and I could probably think of a few dozen ways to ensure that a PC always has at least one Computer Administrator, Microsoft has chosen a rather straightforward approach. First, you can’t turn yourself into a Limited user if you’re the only Computer Administrator left. Second, you can’t delete your own account. Betwixt the two of those requirements, Windows XP is assured of always having a minimum of one Computer Administrator available at its beck and call. Logoff Last things last, I always say. Windows XP Home allows you to have more than one person logged on to a PC simultaneously. That’s very convenient if, say, you’re working on the family PC checking Billy’s homework when you hear the cat screaming bloody murder in the kitchen, and your wife wants to put digital pictures from the family vacation in the Shared Pictures folder while you run off to check the microwave. The ability to have more than one user logged onto a PC simultaneously is called Fast User Switching, and it has advantages and disadvantages:

 -  On the plus side: Fast User Switching lets you keep all of your programs going while somebody else pops onto the machine for a quick jaunt on the keyboard. When they’re done, they can log off, and you can pick up precisely where you left off before you got bumped.

 -  On the minus side: All of the idle programs left sitting around by the inactive (“bumped”) user can bog things down for the active user. You can avoid the overhead by logging off before the new user logs on. If you want to disable Fast User Switching, choose Start -> Control Panel and click User Accounts. At the bottom of the Pick a Task list, click Change the Way Users Log On or Off. Then clear the check box marked Use Fast User Switching. If you’ve used Windows for any time at all, you have undoubtedly discovered that you have to click Start in order to stop. That’s one of the hallmark wonders of the modern Windows world, an oxymoron codified in code. You probably won’t be surprised to find out that you have to click Start in order to log off or switch users. Simply choose Start -> Log Off, and then click Switch User or Log Off. To further confuse matters, many computers especially portables can go into Hibernate or Standby mode (variously called Suspend, or Suspend to File, or any of a handful of out-to-lunch synonyms). The primary differences between the two modes are as follows:  

-  In Standby mode, the PC shuts off the monitor and hard disks but keeps everything in memory so it can “wake up” quickly.

 -  In Hibernate mode, the PC shuts off the monitor and hard disks and shuffles a copy of everything in memory to the hard drive before going night-night. It takes longer to wake up from Hibernate mode because the contents of memory have to be pulled in from the hard drive. If your portable runs out of power while in Standby mode, you’re up the creek without a paddle. If it’s in Hibernate mode (and Hibernate mode is working properly not always a given!), running out of juice poses no problem at all: Plug the PC back into the wall and it comes out of Hibernate mode, brings its memory back from the hard drive, and picks up where you left off. Not all computers support Standby mode or Hibernate mode. Some older computers don’t handle either mode. Other computers can do both. If you have a choice, the guidelines are quite simple:  

-  If there’s any chance that your PC will run out of power while in Standby mode, don’t use it. Hibernate instead.

 -  If you have to bring your machine back up quickly (say, for a presentation, or to take sporadic notes), use Standby mode. To go into Standby or Hibernate mode, choose Start -> Turn Off Computer. You see a dialog box with the recommended mode as your first option If your PC supports both Standby and Hibernate modes, hold down the Shift key while the Turn Off Computer dialog box is on the screen. Windows obliges by changing back and forth between Standby and Hibernate. You should always turn your computer off the “official” way, by choosing Start -> Turn Off Computer -> Turn Off. If you just flip the power switch off, Windows can accidentally zap files and leave them unusable. Windows needs time to make sure that everything is in order before turning the lights off. Make sure it gets the time it needs by using the official method for shutting down.