My current home setup has two computers. The first computer is a Pentium III desktop running Windows 98. The second computer is a Toshiba Satellite 2410 running Windows XP Professional SP1. I regularly work on both computers, and the end result is I have files on the laptop which are not on the desktop and vice-versa. As you can imagine, this can get very messy with different versions of files on the two computers. So, I have to manually synchronise the files on each computer by burning the files to a CD then copying them to the other computer. Is there an easier (and cleaner) way to do things? A second issue is on the desktop machine I usually save files with the name ‘date - name’ (with the date in the DD-MM-YY format). When I sort the files on the desktop, they are always in the correct date order. However, on the laptop the files are not sorted correctly, as the date is interpreted the US format (YY-MM-DD). How can I change the date format?

First up, there is definitely a faster way to transfer files between the two machines. Instead of copying the files to a CD, you can use a crossover cable between the two computers. The only required equipment for this setup is both computers must have an Ethernet network interface card (i.e. a network port) and you will also need a crossover cable. We will consider the network cards first. Since your laptop is relatively recent, this should have an inbuilt network adapter and you should see on the side of the machine there is a network port (the port should look like one of the square phone plugs, but is slightly larger). However, your desktop machine is probably unlikely to have a network adapter. In this case, you will need to install a network card into the desktop computer. These are very cheap (approximately $20 - 30) and can be purchased from almost any computer store. Once you have purchased the card, you will need to install it in a free PCI slot inside your computer. The card should come with installation instructions, but if you are not confident then you may wish to have a more qualified person install the hardware.

Once you have installed the network card, you will need to get a crossover cable. These are special cables which allow the network cards on two computers to be directly connected to each other, without the need for an intermediate router, switch or hub. These cables are also relatively inexpensive, costing around $10.00 for a 2m cable (you can get longer cables if necessary), and you should be able to buy this from the same place as the network card. Make sure you ask for a crossover cable, as the normal type of network cable (known as a straight-through cable) will not work.

Now you should have a network adapter in each computer, plus a crossover cable. Connect the crossover cable to each network adapter - you have now just created a two computer local area network! To enable us to transfer files, we can use the Windows XP Network Setup Wizard to setup everything we need. On your Windows XP laptop, go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Control Panel’. Open the ‘Network Connections’ control panel (you may need to click the ‘Network and Internet Connections’ category if the control panel is displayed in Category View). In the window that appears, click the ‘Set up a home or small office network’ link in the right-hand pane, under ‘Network Tasks’. Follow the wizard that appears, to setup the network. Once you have completed the wizard and setup the network, you should have shared network directories allowing you to simply copy documents between machines over the network.

Regarding your second issue of the date not displaying correctly, this could be related to the regional settings on your Windows XP laptop not being correctly configured. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Control Panel’ and open the ‘Regional and Language Options’ control panel (you may need to click the ‘Date, Time, Language, and Regional Settings’ category). In the window that appears, click the ‘Regional Options’ tab. Under ‘Standards and formats’, select ‘English (Australia)’ and make sure the time and date are displayed in the correct format. If they are not displaying in the correct format, even though English (Australia) is selected, click the ‘Customize’ button to change the formats. Once all the formats are correct, make sure the ‘Location’ (also on the Regional Options tab) is set to Australia, then click OK to close and save.

If this does not fix the problem, there are a few articles you may be interested in reading on sorting options in Windows XP. These articles can be found at support.microsoft.com/kb/318872 and support.microsoft.com/kb/319827. Finally, you can try enabling the ‘Use intuitive filename sorting’ option in the Windows XP TweakUI add-on (which can be downloaded for free from www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx). When intuitive filename sorting is enabled, this will make explorer sort files using intuitive sorting (instead of literal sorting). For example, ‘File 5′ will be displayed before ‘File 10′. This option can be found under the ‘Explorer’ area in TweakUI.