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Welcome to today's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Thursday, April 5, 2001
In this Issue:
Today's Featured Computer Term: Defrag
Today's Topic: Preventive Maintenance
Progressive Learning Series: Preview Your Document Before Printing
Today's Featured Website: Trip Advisor
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Today's Featured Computer Term: Defrag
When a file is stored on your hard disk, it's often split into separate fragments. Fragmentation occurs naturally when you use a disk frequently, creating, deleting, and modifying files. At some point, the operating system needs to store parts of a file in noncontiguous clusters. You can't see the fragments, and you can't stop this fragmenting from occurring, but it can slow down the speed at which data is accessed because the disk drive must search through different parts of the disk to put together a single file.
However, you can defrag your system. This is the term used for reorganizing the data on your Hard Disk into a more logical sequence, which means taking all those scattered fragments of files and piecing them back together where they belong. This helps free more hard drive space and makes the accessing of files a speedier process; your Hard Disk will work quicker and more efficiently.
In Windows, the defragmenter is located in your System Tools folder. Click on the Start button, point to Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools. Click on Disk Defragmenter.
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Today's Topic: Preventive Maintenance
Sometimes things go wrong with computers. That's just how it is. But, with a little preventive maintenance, you may be able to avoid problem situations before they occur.
Keep your PC clean. Computers are susceptible to damage by the smallest of particles, including pet dander, smoke, and dust. You can minimize this kind of damage by:
Closing the windows in your office
Not smoking around the computer
Covering peripherals with a plastic cover or cloth when they aren't in use
Keeping animals away from the computer
Removing disks from the drives when they are not in use
Being careful with food or drink near the computer
Additionally, you should give your computer a good cleaning at least once a year. Use a vacuum attachment to clean out the power supply fan. Use a can of compressed air to blow dust off the computer's internal components. Wipe the computer case with a damp cloth (don't let water get inside the computer, though).
Maintain a comfortable work environment. Extreme temperatures and humidity can damage fragile computer circuitry. For this reason, put your computer in a room where the temperature is regulated.
Use an uninterruptible power supply. A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) is a personal generator that gives you a few valuable minutes to save your work and shut down the computer when a sudden power outage strikes. A UPS also serves as a surge protector. You can buy a quality UPS for as little as $30.
Back up. Backing up data is the best way to protect it from corruption, viruses, and drive failure. Iomega Zip drives (around $100) have emerged as a popular and affordable backup alternative for consumers and small businesses.
Run drive maintenance utilities. You can keep the hard drive in good running order by running two of Windows' built-in disk maintenance utilities. The first is ScanDisk, which checks for corrupted data and drive errors. Depending on the amount of work you do, you should run it from once a week to once a month. The second is Disk Defragmenter, which organizes data efficiently on the drive. You should run it at least once every six months. Both can be accessed by opening the Start menu and selecting Programs, Accessories, and then System Tools.
Use an antivirus application. An antivirus application protects your data from harmful computer viruses. Norton Internet Security 2001 (around $70) and McAfee VirusScan ($30) are two of the most popular.
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Progressive Learning Series: Preview Your Document Before Printing
Many programs let you preview what the printed version of your document will look like. This is especially useful if you're printing a small amount of text or a graphic on a page and want to make sure it's properly centered or laid out the way you want.
With Print Preview, you can see what the finished document will look like before clicking on the print button and wasting time, money, paper, and ink on something you may want to change. In Word, for example, go to File menu and then click Print Preview. To exit print preview and resume working on the document, click the Close button on the toolbar.
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Today's Featured Website: Trip Advisor
There are probably hundreds of websites out there offering information on travel destinations: Trip Advisor is an especially helpful one.
Click on the US map to get information about the state you're interested in visiting. Once there, you'll see popular destinations within that state, a listing of guidebooks and links to newspaper and magazine articles about your destination.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ |
