Fast Forward's Help File

Q After I installed a Logitech keyboard and mouse, Logitech's MediaLife program became my default for music CDs. How can I restore Windows Media Player to the default program?

AIsn't it amazing how pushy some companies can get with their software? (This is why I always choose a program's "custom install" option.)

To undo this takeover, you need to adjust Windows' AutoPlay settings -- a complicated task in Windows XP, where you need to open the My Computer window, right-click the CD or DVD drive's icon, select Properties, and click the Properties window's AutoPlay tab. (In Vista, open the Control Panel, click the "Hardware and Sound" category, then the AutoPlay icon.)

With your AutoPlay options in view, select "Music CD" from the first menu in that window. You can switch Windows to its normal settings -- in which it asks what you want to do with an audio CD -- by clicking the "Restore Defaults" button.

To have the program of your choice play a CD automatically, click the "Select an action to perform" button and select "Play audio CD using Windows Media Player" from the list of available programs.

The program I downloaded says it needs Microsoft's .Net Framework 2.0, but Microsoft's site lists a 3.0 version of this software. Shouldn't I download that instead?

Most of the time, you don't have to. The apparently sequential version numbers hide a more complicated reality about this framework, a set of shared tools other programs -- for instance, the free image-editing program Paint.Net -- can use.

The 3.0 version includes the 2.0 software (both are available at http://microsoft.com/downloads) but also throws in some separate components that newer programs might need. But if you're not using these new programs -- few exist so far -- you're better off keeping things a little simpler by sticking with the 2.0 release.

Rob Pegoraro attempts to untangle computing conundrums and errant electronics each week. Send questions to The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 orrobp@washpost.com.