|
Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, November 19, 2006
To all our readers, we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Computer Tasks
Websites of Interest: Thanksgiving; Car Buying Tips; WebMD Drug Index; Women in American History
We will all be celebrating the holiday and will not be publishing this newsletter next week. See you in December.
**************************************************************
Special Feature: Computer Tasks
Do you schedule tasks on a certain day of the week or month? If you add computer tasks to your routine, it may be easier to remember to do them.
The following tasks will protect you and your computer from malicious software, speed things up, free up used space and keep the computer clean inside and out.
Weekly Tasks
Run a Virus Scan. Open your antivirus program and run a full system or disk scan.
Run a Spyware Scan. Open your antispyware program and scan the disk for any spyware. Learn more about spyware by visiting our newsletter archives:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/062704.html
Delete All Cookies. To do so, open Control Panel (Click Start button, point to Settings, click Control Panel) and open Internet Options. On the General tab, click on the button that says Delete Cookies.
If you are using Windows XP category view, click Start, click Control Panel. Click Network and Internet Connections. Click Internet Options. On the General tab, click on the button that says Delete Cookies.
Visit our website to learn more about cookies, what they are, and how you can view the cookies on your computer:
http://stsico.com/html/cookies.html
Backup Important Documents and Files. Backing up your important files is vital! If anything happens to your hard drive or your computer, it is possible that all will be lost. You do not want to do ALL that work over again, so make sure you have a second copy of the important things kept somewhere away from your computer.
Take a look at our newsletter archives to learn how to put files on a CD-ROM disk:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/100106.html
Empty the Recycle Bin. You can permanently delete all the files in your Recycle Bin by double-clicking on the icon and choosing Empty Recycle Bin from the File menu. Remember that once you perform this step files deleted in this manner cannot be recovered by Windows. Be sure that you no longer want any of them.
Visit our website to learn more about the Recycle bin:
http://stsico.com/html/recycle_bin.html
Monthly Tasks
Update Your Antivirus and Antispyware Program. If your antivirus and antispyware programs are not configure to automatically check for and download updates every time you go online, open the programs and update them.
Remove Temporary Files. Temporary files are created when certain programs are run or installed. Windows is supposed to remove these files automatically but often misses many of these files. If these files are not deleted, they can cause problems with your computer.
To remove these files, Double click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Right click on your C: drive and left click on Properties in the resulting shortcut menu.
You will then see a pie chart showing you how much space on your drive is used and how much is free. You will also see numbers for of the total space on your drive, used space and free space. Click the Disk Cleanup button.
After Windows calculates how much space will be freed up, it will show you a list of files types, along with the amount of space that can be freed up if you delete them. Most of the files that you will see in here are unnecessary, only serve to clutter up your computer and can be safely removed. Click to put a checkmark in the box to the left of Temporary Files and then click the OK button.
Remove Temporary Internet Files. Internet Explorer uses the Temporary Internet Files feature to store copies of web pages on your hard drive. This feature improves network performance but can fill the hard drive with large amounts of unwanted files.
To remove Temporary Internet Files, follow the steps shown above in removing temporary files. An alternative method to removing these files is to open Control Panel and then Internet Options. (If you are using Windows XP category view, open Control Panel, click on Network and Internet Connections, and then open Internet Options).
The Internet Properties window will open. In the Temporary Internet Files area, click the Delete Files button and then click the OK button.
Defrag Your Hard Drive. When a file is stored on your hard disk, it is 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 not see the fragments, and you cannot 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.
If defrag does not complete, it is possible that some programs are running in the background. Visit our newsletter archives for solutions:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/071606.html
Remove Unused Programs. One of the quickest ways to free up storage space on your computer is to uninstall programs that you do not use anymore.
There are five ways you can uninstall a program:
- Delete the files from your hard drive. This is NOT a good way to uninstall a program. There are literally hundreds of places that a program can keep files, registry entries, and bits and pieces of files and such. By simply deleting the program files from your computer, you will not be able to remove all the extra files and pieces. All these junk files will be left on your computer and eventually slow things down.
- Use the Add/Remove Programs function in the Control Panel. This is a standard Windows removal tool that actually does a pretty good job of removing programs from your hard drive. To access the Add/Remove Programs function, click the Start button, choose Control Panel, choose Add/Remove Programs.
- Use the program's uninstall procedure. Many programs come with their own uninstall program that will quickly remove programs from your computer. Some installers do not put their program on the Add/Remove list, so your next place to look is in the Start menu. Find the group for that program and see if there is an item called Uninstall. If so, pick it and the Uninstaller will run.
If there is no menu item, look in the folder containing the program. There may be an uninstall.exe there. If so, double click it and the Uninstaller will run.
- Reinstall the program. Sometimes the easiest way to uninstall a program is to reinstall it, then remove it using its own uninstall program (see above)
- Use a third-party removal tool. A third party tool (such as Norton Uninstall or Clean Sweep) will be extremely thorough in removing programs. You will be able to uninstall any program on your computer, even if it does not show up in the Add/Remove list or have an uninstall feature built in. Some uninstall programs will detect files called Orphans, which are programs and files to which there is no connection; you’ll then be able to delete them, too.
Often an Uninstaller does not delete everything. If it does not, it will tell you what it has saved. Uninstallers will not delete data files you created with the program, in case you want to keep them to use with a different program (although it is always a good idea to back up all important files before uninstalling the program used to create them). The Uninstaller usually tells you where to look for these files in case you want to delete them.
Additionally, uninstalling programs will not uninstall shared files, which are usually DLL files. Some DLL files are used by many different programs and the Uninstaller may not know if a particular one is used by a different program.
In this case it will ask you whether it should delete the file or not. If you do not know, say No. If no other programs actually use the file it will not hurt anything, but if other programs do use the file, deleting it could make them stop working.
Clean the Computer. Computers get dusty and dirty and should be cleaned regularly.
Cleaning the Monitor. It is a good idea to clean your screen periodically, but be careful what you use since alcohol, ammonia, and other chemicals can lead to discoloration and even cracking.
You can use water or vinegar and water to clean the screen. Never spray anything directly onto the screen. Spray onto a soft, lint-free cloth and then gently wipe the screen from top to bottom.
You could also use those screen wipes they sell at the office supply. Be gentle!
Cleaning the Mouse. Turn the mouse over. You should see a removable piece that holds the mouse ball in. It usually comes off with a little twist. Take the ball out and wipe it off with a lint-free cloth. If it is very dirty, rinse it off under running water (the ball, NOT the mouse!!). Make sure that the ball is completely dry before you put it back in the mouse.
Remove any dust and hair from inside the mouse. If you have one of those canned air sprayers, you can use that inside the mouse.
Look inside the mouse where the ball was. You will see small rollers that may have grime on them. Take a pair of tweezers and carefully remove any dust or fuzz off the rollers.
Make sure that your desk and mouse pad surface is clean and free of lint and dust.
It is a good idea to clean out the inside of your computer every six months or so. You can use the canned compressed air to do this. Turn the computer off, open the case, and use short bursts of air to blow out the dust. Make sure you hold the can upright, and only use short bursts of air. A vacuum cleaner is not good to use because it can generate static electricity and cause damage to your computer.
You can use the can of compressed air to clean the keyboard. Shoot some air under the keys and that should remove any dust.
For cleaning the case, use a non abrasive cleaner. You can’t go wrong with water and a little scrubbing!
Having trouble with the website addresses featured above? Read the Using Links article at the end of this newsletter to learn how to access our Newsletter Archives and the featured websites.
**************************************************************
Websites of Interest:
Thanksgiving
Visit our website for recipes, decorating ideas, tips for traveling, e-cards, ways to help the needy, and much more.
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/thanksgiving.html
Car Buying Tips
Buying a car can be a difficult. This site helps get rid of the guess work.
http://carbuying.tipcentral.net/
WebMD Drug Index
if you want to get some information about a particular medication, take a look at this site. You will find an explanation, pronunciation, usage, side effects, interactions and more for hundreds of brand name and generic medications. Prescription and over the counter medications are listed.
http://www.webmd.com/drugs/
Women in American History
Created by the Encyclopedia Britannica, this website has a lot of information including biographies, timelines, multimedia and more.
http://www.britannica.com/women/ |
|
