Carefree Computer Group Notes Nov
19, 2007
Welcome to the Carefree Computer Group. Is there anyone here for the 1st
time? If so, welcome to our Computer
Group where we try to make you feel comfortable using your computer. Just remember what Mary Ellen says –
computers are not smart, in fact they are pretty dumb, they only do what they
are told – but they do have excellent memories.
My name is Bill Roach for those who don’t know me, and my partner this
year is Dave Clark, a new member who lives in the same town as I do up
North. We both will be attempting to
teach things that most of you are having trouble with. We will also, during the meeting, handle any
computer questions that you may have.
Above all, we want all of you to enjoy your computer and enjoy attending
our meetings. We only have five meetings
a year, so it is important that you attend as many as you can.
All the material we have discussed will
be published on the web site under the Computer Group page on the website. www.carefreecountryclub.org
Recommended Techs
First of all, if you have any dealings with
technicians in the area, let us know of your experience so that we can
recommend them or not.
Recommended Internet Services
We recommend you use Bright House High Speed
Lite. It frees up your telephone and one
you try it you will never go back to dialup again. Best of all, it only costs $14.95 for the 1st
six months. We also recommend you use
web based email which will work for you up north and down south. All you have to do is find a server north and
south and everything else remains the same.
Email is free.
There is always the WiFi available at the clubhouse,
but it is on a secure network. If you
have a wireless network in your laptop and want to use this service, just give
me a call and I will set up your machine for you so it will connect every time
you go down to the clubhouse.
Forwarding Email
There is still a problem forwarding email. I am getting email from a lot of people that
has been forwarded about 5 or 6 times resulting in my machine having access to
about a hundred of your friends. This is
not a great idea and I am sure your friends would agree. To resolve the problem all you have to do is
highlight the message text and pictures you want to forward and select it by
hitting Ctrl + C. This puts the body of
the email on your clipboard. You then
compose a new email to whomever you want to forward this particular piece of
humor or whatever to, and place your cursor in the text portion of your new
email and press Ctrl + V. This pastes
the complete message that was stored in your temp memory and the email goes out
with just your address on it. It is a
polite way of forwarding most stuff that you send on email. Another good idea
is the following. When you send an
email to multiple people use the BC box. (Blind Copy) The
copy each person receives will only have one address on the email, theirs. This
will provide address security for your friends.
Installing a Printer on your
Computer
Some people are having printer problems. The main problems are when you arrive in
Also, when installing printer software DO NOT plug the printer into your
computer until the screen tells you to do so.
This is necessary in order to have the terminal work properly.
The Good:
Some features are a definite improvement over Windows
XP. There are fewer system crashes than XP and it offers better built-in support
options.
Of no use to use , an interesting note: Windows
The Bad:
There is simply too much and not all of it is
implemented properly.
At the beginning, last January, no new software had
been written exclusively for Windows
The bottom line is:
Windows
More Good News
More and more old software will work on
You can go onto Google Search and find a list of what
old software will now work on
Don’t buy a new laptop loaded with
Some of the higher range laptops today come with 4
Gig Ram. This sure is a change from the
days when 4 MB of Ram on DOS was sufficient.
RAM is cheap enough that you should not always buy the cheapest PC or
laptop because in most cases you get what you pay for. This will make you very unhappy if you buy a
new machine and find out it is too slow even on high speed Internet. If you buy a new machine with 1 Gig of ram and later want to make it 2 Gig, you
will be in for a surprise. Laptops
always come with 2 slots for Ram. They
put half in one and half in the other. Not so good, huh? So you won’t be able
to use the Ram that is in there – you will have to buy the total 2 Gig that you
want (1 Gig for each slot) So when you
buy, if it is a very cheap upgrade to increase your Ram – that’s the time to do
it.
Vista opens and closes much faster than XP but part
of this is probably due to the fact that my computer processor uses a dual core
and that
Checking on Google for info on Windows XP versus
Windows
Finally, there is a learning curve finding
everything, since it is different from XP.
I found the file system to be crammed into a small space on the screen
creating small fonts that are hard to see unless you select a larger font than
normal which may be okay, but on the web, the page will not present itself
correctly. It will have incorrect
spacing in the windows that make up the web page.
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More Computer Hints and
Tips
Introduction
This document covers in a little more detail the
topics introduced at the Carefree Computer Club meeting held on 19 Nov
2007. The principal subjects included:
System Restore
System Restore provides Windows XP with an easy way
to bring peace back into a troubled world. Every so often, the System Restore
program takes a "snapshot" of Windows XP's key internal settings and
saves them by date, known as a "Restore Point". When Windows XP is
behaving badly on your system, call up System Restore, and tell it to return to
a Restore Point when everything was working correctly.
Windows XP quickly loads the settings it used on that
Restore Point's date, and when Windows XP restarts, it works just as well as it
did on that day in the past.
If you choose a Restore Point that somehow makes
things even worse than they were, head back to System Restore and choose ‘Undo
my last restoration’. System Restore promptly discards those settings,
restarts, and lets you choose a different Restore Point.
Since everything System Restore does is reversible,
there's rarely much to lose in giving it a try. Here are some tips for using
System Restore to its full potential.
To locate System Restore, click your Start menu.
Point to All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools and, finally, click
on System Restore. (You'll also find System Restore hidden in the Control Panel
under Performance and Maintenance.)
System Restore normally takes a snapshot of your
computer's settings on a daily basis. It usually takes another automatic
snapshot when you install a new computer part or new program - just in case the
newcomer causes problems. But Windows XP simply slaps the date onto these
System Restore points. How can you remember which Restore Point to use? For
better control over your Restore Points, feel free to create your own Restore
Points when everything's running smoothly. Just call up System Restore and
choose Create a restore point. Windows
will ask you to describe your new Restore Point. The description is just
something to help you remember why you made the Restore Point. Type something
like, "Created just before installing the Chess game." That way, if
the Chess game messes up your computer, you know which Restore Point will bring
the computer back to sanity. (The Restore Points that Windows XP creates
automatically have the boring, non-descript name "System
Checkpoint.")
You don't need to include the date in your
description, as Windows automatically gives each one a date stamp. But when you
create your own Restore Point with a descriptive name, you'll know immediately
which one to try first if things go bad.
System Restore won't delete any of your letters,
e-mails, or other data files, thank goodness. The files you created yesterday
will still be there, even if you use a Restore Point from last month.
Since System Restore only deals with Windows XP's
settings, it only helps with Windows XP itself. It can't help you locate
deleted e-mails or recover deleted files that are no longer in the Recycle Bin.
Using System Restore to "go back in time"
won't disinfect your computer of a newly acquired virus, unfortunately.
If you use a Restore Point from two weeks ago, then
any programs installed since then might not work. Programs often alter Windows
XP's settings as a way of introducing themselves to your computer. When Windows
XP "wakes up" with settings from two weeks ago, it won't remember
that those programs have been installed. You'll probably have to reinstall
them.
When you find yourself humming a happy tune while
computing, don't hesitate to create a Restore Point. Just think how happy
you'll be down the road if you can return your sick computer to that happy
state. Make it a habit to create your own Restore Points before you do anything
that will change your computer's settings, such as installing a new computer
part, like a scanner, or adding new software. The important thing is to create
the Restore Point before you make the changes. That gives Windows XP something
to return to if the changes mess things up.
When Windows XP is first installed onto your
computer, it reserves about 12 percent of your available disk space for System
Restore to use. That's usually enough to extend about one month into the past.
This may vary, depending on the size of your hard disk and how much computing
you do.
Note: To view or change the System
Restore settings, right-click on Start, then click Explore. Right click on My
Computer in the next window, choose Properties, and click the System Restore
tab. The "status" area should say "monitoring", meaning
System Restore is up and running.
If your anti-virus program just disinfected your
computer of a nasty virus, then quickly use System Restore to create a Restore
Point called "Disinfected Computer." Then, never use any Restore
Points dated earlier than your newly created "Disinfected Computer"
Restore Point. Those older Restore Points might return your computer back to a
time when it was infected. Also, if your anti-virus program discovers an
infected Restore Point, you'll need to delete that Restore Point manually; the
anti-virus program usually can't do it.
Restoration is a simple software tool used to
undelete files that were removed from the recycle bin, or directly deleted from
within Windows. You can scan for all files that may be recovered and also limit
the results by entering a search term or extension. The program is small, does
not require installation and can also run from a ‘flash card’.
Get your free copy of Restoration here:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html
The main purpose of a firewall is to control access
to or from your computer for security purposes.
A firewall is a software program, hardware device, or
a combination of both that monitors the information coming through the Internet
connection into your computer. The firewall will only let information in that
you asked for. A firewall will also monitor information going out from your
computer to the Internet. It will only let information out that you say can go
out.
Windows
Windows XP's Internet Connect Firewall is really only
half a firewall. It only checks information coming into your computer. It
doesn't check information going out from you computer. Why is this significant?
If you have inadvertently become infected with a virus, Trojan, worm, or
spyware, that little malicious devil can send out your personal information,
use your computer to infect other computers, or even allow hackers to access
your computer to do whatever they please.
A true firewall will stop that malicious software
from getting out of your computer and notify you there is a problem so you can
clean it up. Software programs like Comodo and ZoneAlarm are true firewalls. A
firewall may very well be the most important piece of security software on your
computer.
You’ve just seen a fantastic article on a website, or
made an online purchase. You may be unable or simply don’t want to print out
the web page but you would like to keep an exact copy of that page. Here’s a
simple way to do that.
Take your mouse, and place your pointer at the
beginning of the text that you want to save, then click and hold the left mouse
button, while pulling your mouse over the complete text. This should highlight
the text. Now release the left mouse button. Now, with the cursor over the
highlighted text, right click the mouse for options, and select 'copy'. The
information is now safely stored on the computer Clipboard (a short-term memory
device). Now click on Start, then All Programs, then Accessories, then Notepad.
At the top, left of the blank Notepad page you will notice a flashing cursor.
That is where your text will start. With
the mouse pointer inside the Notepad page, right click your mouse and select
Paste from the options. Your information is now transferred to the Notepad
page. To save it, click on File, Save As, and choose a folder in which to store
it, and a title that you will remember.
You can now close Notepad and your information is now saved for future
reference.
I keep a Notepad file called Notes on my Desktop, so
that I can add little pieces of useful information that I see on my web travels
each day. I just open the Notes file, place the cursor at the end of the
existing text (press Ctrl and End on your keyboard), and then paste in the new
information. Don’t forget to click on File, Save before you close it!
Cut and paste is the same as above, except you choose
'Cut', instead of 'Copy'.
To Highlight a complete document or web page: Press
'Ctrl' + 'A'.
To Copy: highlight an area, as shown above, then hold
'Ctrl' + 'C' (For Mac users 'Apple' + 'C').
To Paste: click your mouse where you want the text pasted,
and then press 'Ctrl' + 'V' (For Mac users 'Apple' + 'S'.
Adware and Spyware
Adware is software that displays advertisements on
your computer. These are ads that inexplicably pop up on your display screen,
even if you're not browsing the Internet. Some companies provide
"free" software in exchange for advertising on your display. It's how
they make their money.
Spyware is software that sends your personal
information to a third party without your permission or knowledge. This can
include information about Web sites you visit or something more sensitive like
your user name and password. Unscrupulous companies often use this data to send
you unsolicited targeted advertisements.
Get your free copy of Ad-Aware here:
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2007-Free/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5
Get your free copy of Spybot - Search and Destroy
here:
http://www.download.com/3000-8022_4-10743107.html
Have you ever noticed how your computer always seems
to run better after rebooting? Do you wish it could be that fast all day? It
could be if you free up some of the memory being used by the computer ‘just in
case’ you want it again. MaxMem is a memory management program that
automatically ensures that you always have as much physical memory available as
possible. It does this by allowing you to set minimum amounts of memory to be
made available under certain circumstance, and then passively monitoring how
much of your system resources is being used. It runs in the system tray, and
also shows you exactly how much memory you have available, plus graphs how
you've been using memory over the last 60 seconds!
Get your free copy of MaxMem here:
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/maxmem.htm
Please read the hints and tips given at the Computer
Club meeting in March for further details of keeping your computer free of
unrequired data. Weekly maintenance is
important to keep it running quickly and safely!