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If you don’t want your kids watching what you watch and viewing what you view, set parental controls.

If you have Windows user accounts and passwords set up for everyone who accesses your computer, you can use the DVD ratings included on DVD disks to control which users can access and watch what DVDs. The Motion Picture Association of America rates DVDs as G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17, and Not Rated. If you set parental controls, anything that is rated higher than what you specify won’t be played unless the viewer has a valid administrator account and password.

To enable parental controls in Windows Media Player:

1. Open Windows Media Player. Right-click the title bar, point to

Tools, and click Options.

2. In the Options dialog box, click the DVD tab.

3. Check the Parental Control box, and then select a rating.

4. Click OK.

Make sure your computer isn’t bogged down with other tasks while you’re using the Media Player.

One of the major reasons computers have problems and perform poorly is that they simply have too much to do. Themes and screen savers that use system resources, and programs and files that take up valuable hard drive space, can cause performance problems. When cleaning up your computer to enhance performance, make sure you’ve dealt with these things appropriately. Turn off themes and system-intensive screen savers that require computations or lots of video memory, uninstall programs you don’t need and no longer use, and rid your hard drive of unnecessary files.

Another reason media hangs up, freezes, or performs poorly is that the application, in this case Windows Media Player 10, needs all of the resources it can get its hands on. If the application needs RAM, and you’re using what available RAM you have to print a large document or perform a complicated edit in Photoshop, performance will certainly suffer. Use a little common sense; don’t try to render a movie while at the same time you’re burning a DVD, and make sure your applications are getting the attention they need from both RAM and the processor.

You can also enhance computer, and thus media, performance by making sure you don’t have unnecessary programs running in the background that you don’t know about or need. If you’ve downloaded a lot of programs, shareware, freeware, or third-party applications from the Internet, chances are you’re going to be more than a little surprised at what you find running behind the scenes.

You can use the System Configuration Utility to see what is running in the background. To open this utility:

1. Click Start | Run and, in the Run dialog box, type msconfig.exe.

2. Click the Startup tab and scroll down to the bottom of the list.

3. Uncheck items you no longer use.

4. Click OK and restart the computer.

If you’re ever unsure about what an item does, a quick search on Google for the entry will generally produce results. Searching for one entry on my computer, SisUSBrg, Google offered up information that this particular entry is a sound-card driver. It would make sense that this is a necessary component.

When removing items, choose the items one at a time, restart the computer, and verify that you don’t get any error messages. If the computer runs fine, return here and delete another.

Don’t uninstall anything you aren’t familiar with. Windows XP needs RUNDLL32, for instance. Only uninstall what you recognize and know you don’t need.

You can apply ratings to songs to create playlists that are automatically created based on your likes and dislikes.

By default, each time you add a song to the Media Library, it’s automatically assigned a rating of three stars. These assigned ratings change automatically based on how often you play the song; that’s all integrated into the Media Player. Using the ratings, you can create auto playlists that change as often as your tastes in music do. However, you don’t have to be stuck with the automatic ratings given to songs, or wait for the Media Player to update them after you have or have not listened to them the required number of times. You can rate songs yourself.

To rate any song:

1. Open Windows Media Player and click the Library tab (or Media

Library tab).

2. Select the song(s) to rate, right-click, and point to Rate Selected Items.

3. Select a rating for the song(s). You’ll have choices ranging from one

star to five stars.

While this isn’t a difficult concept, the things you can do with your assigned ratings can be quite complex. As an example, you can classify your star rating system to mean something other than how much you like or dislike a song. You can use the star ratings to denote specific categories of music, such as music that you play when you have a party or when you’re working. You can then use your personalized rating system to create innovative playlists. (Once you’ve rated a song, the rating overrides any rating that Windows Media Player would ever apply.)

Here is an example of a possible star rating system you could use:

■ One star Music that you go to sleep to, soft rock, or music that

relaxes.

■ Two stars Music that you can listen to while you work, while

cleaning the house, or when guests are present and you need a little

background music.

■ Three stars Music that you listen to often, your favorite tracks,

and music you wake up to.

■ Four stars Music that you play at parties, dance to, or put on

when singing karaoke with friends.

■ Five stars Music that is hardcore, metal, grunge, or rap.

You can also create ratings if you are a professional (or wannabe) DJ, by

rating music by genres such as music that is suitable for wedding receptions,

funerals, graduation parties, birthday parties, and similar gatherings. Once

you’ve rated your songs, creating an auto playlist based on those songs is easy:

1. Open Windows Media Player, choose the Library tab, and select

Auto Playlists.

2. Right-click Auto Playlists and select New.

3. In the New Auto Playlist dialog box, name

the new playlist.

4. Under Music In My Library, click <Click Here To Add Criteria>.

Select Auto Rating.

5. Select the new entry, Is At Least, and set the criteria.

Click OK when finished.