Sound Settings
Adjust with the Volume Control
Changing formats for e-mail Messages
Spruce up the way your E-mails Look.
Deleting Temporary Files
Every web site visits adds temporary files. It is a good idea to erase them fairly often.
Emptying your Recycle Bin
The files you delete from your system stay in the Recycle Bin until you permanently delete them.
Printing your Internet Explorer Favorites List
Print only the text you want.
Printing Selected Text
Print only the text you want.
Power Management
A terrific feature that saves power and extends your hard drive's life.
Running Scandisk
It finds and corrects errors in your folders and files!
Adjust with the Volume Control
Changing formats for e-
Spruce up the way your E-
Every web site visits adds temporary files. It is a good idea to erase them fairly often.
Emptying your Recycle Bin
The files you delete from your system stay in the Recycle Bin until you permanently delete them.
Printing your Internet Explorer Favorites List
Print only the text you want.
Printing Selected Text
Print only the text you want.
Power Management
A terrific feature that saves power and extends your hard drive's life.
Running Scandisk
It finds and corrects errors in your folders and files!
PC Security
Protect your PC from Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses Spyware and Adware.
Protect your PC from Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses Spyware and Adware.
Sometimes the volume adjustment of a sound source on your PC gets out of whack for any number of reasons. If you are hearing very low sound or none at all first check:
1. Is your PC speaker cable properly plugged into the Speaker port on your PC sound card?
2. If the speakers are the powered type make sure they are ON and that the volume control is up.
If these checks are OK then proceed to check the Volume Control that is found in Programs.
1. Click Start, Programs, Accessories and then Entertainment.
2. When the Entertainment list opens you should see a Volume Control icon. Click it to open the control.
3. You will see a vertical slide control for each sound source on your PC and one for the main volume called Play Control.
4. Make sure each slide control is pushed up and that none of the controls have the Mute box checked. Then try to use your sound device again.
If you're e-
HTML or Rich Text (depending on the version of e-
Go to your Outlook Express main screen:
1) Click on Tools, then Options. Select the 'Send' tab.
2) Scroll down to the 'Mail Sending Format' area.
3) There are two options, Plain Text and HTML. Select HTML.
4) Click OK to save the changes.
If you don't like the way it looks just select plain text in step 3.
Every time you access web sites on the Internet, temporary files are copied to your PC. These files contain information intended to make these web sites open faster on your next visit. They may also contain preferences you've entered on the site while visiting it.
All well and good so far. Over time, however, you can build up thousands of these files. Many of them may not be doing you much good, especially if they are from sites you've visited once never intending to go back.
Every once in a while, you should go in and clean these files out.
Here's how you do it:
1) In Internet Explorer click Tools, then click 'Internet Options'.
2) Select the 'General' tab and find the 'Temporary Files' section half way down the page.
3) Click the 'Delete Files' button and in the window that opens, check the box for 'Delete all offline content'.
4) Click OK and all the files are erased.
Everytime you delete a file on a PC running a Windows Operating system it isn't really deleted. It is instead stored in a temporary holding area called the Recycle Bin. It stays there until you restore it or permanently delete it.
From time to time it is a good idea to go and delete the files you have no intention of restoring.
To delete all the files in the Recycle Bin do the following:
1) Locate the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and double-
2) When the Recycle Bin opens, click 'File' on the menu bar and a list of options appears.
3) Select 'Empty Recycle Bin' from this list and every item in the Recycle Bin is deleted.
When the number of links in your favorites list becomes large, being able to print and manage the list becomes important. Here is a step by step way to do it:
1) Open Internet Explorer, click File on the menu bar and then click 'Import and Export'.
2) The Import/Export wizard opens, click Next which brings up a list of things you can do.
3) Select 'Export Favorites, and click Next which shows you a list of all the folders contained in Favorites.
4) To export every folder and web link contained in Favorites, select the folder labeled 'Favorites'. To export just the contents of a single folder select it.
5) Click Next and select the 'Export to a File or Address' option and give the file a name, ending in the .htm extension. Save it to a folder of your choice. Click Next, Finish and then OK.
6) Open Windows Explorer and locate the file you just created. Double-click it to open it. You will see all the favorite's folders you selected. Each folder will be expanded to show all the web pages it contains.
7) Click File on the menu bar and then click Print from the menu that appears. The Print page opens.
8) Click the Print button and your Favorites are on their way to your printer!
Have you ever wanted to print just a tiny section of a large file? Sometimes I need to print just a few cells from an Excel spreadsheet. Using this tip I don't end up using a whole tree to print lots of pages I don't need.
1) Select the text you want to print.
2) On the 'File' menu select 'Print'.
3) In the dialog box that opens look in the 'Print Range' section and check the 'Selection' option.
4) Click Print and the selected text is printed.
When you leave your PC running but are not using it, you can set the length of time your hard drive(s) and monitor run before they go to an 'idle' state.
Slowing down the spin rate of a hard drive from a high to a low speed, reduces the wear on it bearings.
Turning off the monitor when not in use saves a significant amount of power. It is by far consumes more power than any other component in your PC.
To set these options, follow the instructions below:
1) On your PC click 'Start', then 'Settings' and then 'Control Panel',
2) Double click the Power Options icon in the control panel and a window appears with a number of tabs across the top labeled: Power Schemes, Alarms, Power Meter, Advanced and Hibernate. There may be variances in these options depending on which Windows operating system you have.
3) Double-click the 'Power Schemes' tab.
4) At the top of the window that opens you can select different modes to which you assign hard drive and monitor activity. There are usually three there with pre-assigned names: 'Desktop/Home', 'Laptop' and 'Always on'. Select Desktop/Home and let's set it up.
5) At the bottom of the window you can set the time to run before turning off your monitor and your hard drive(s). This time is measured from the last keystroke or mouse movement you make.
6) To set your hard drive running time, select the time you want from the drop down menu next to 'Turn off hard disks'. Select a time that you think you will not exceed in your typical routine.
I set mine at 45 minutes, which means the drive will slow down 45 minutes after the last time it was accessed.
The hard drive(s) wake up when you access a file or when some other activity occurs that requires access to it.
I set mine at 45 minutes, which means the drive will slow down 45 minutes after the last time it was accessed.
The hard drive(s) wake up when you access a file or when some other activity occurs that requires access to it.
7) The monitor running time is set similarly with the 'Turn off Monitor' drop down box. I set this at 20 minutes.
So if you don't press a key or move your mouse, the screen goes dark in 20 minutes. It wakes up again when you move your mouse or press any key on your keyboard.
So if you don't press a key or move your mouse, the screen goes dark in 20 minutes. It wakes up again when you move your mouse or press any key on your keyboard.
8) Click 'OK' or 'Apply' to save the settings.
9) To setup another mode, go back to step 4, select it and repeat steps 5-7.
10) To use another mode, select it in step 4 click 'OK' and your PC will run with it, until you change it.
As you save, erase, and move files sometimes things do not go just right. This is not caused by anything you are doing wrong. A PC is a very complex, fast machine and despite the best efforts of all the designers, engineers and programmers who've toiled to make it flawless, sometimes programs collide and mess up each others files.
This unwanted interaction can result in invalid files, files with lost file fragments, and cross linked files. You don't always know right away when this happens. This is why you should run the Scandisk utility from time to time.
For Windows 9x and ME
1) Click the Start button.
2) Select Programs, Accessories, then System Tools. Click Scandisk.
3) Select and click the drive you want to scan, and then choose either the Standard or the Thorough test.
4) Click Start.
Scandisk runs in two modes
The Standard test checks the files and folders on the selected drive for errors.
The Thorough test performs the Standard test and then checks the entire surface of your hard drive for physical damage. You can even specify to scan areas of your disk containing only data files, or just the areas with system files, or both. This process takes a long time. Unless the Standard test fails you shouldn't need to run this test.
For Windows XP and 2000
In XP and 2000, the utility is called 'Error Checking' and doesn't offer the full physical surface check.
1) From 'Start' double click 'My Computer'.
2) Right-
3) Click on 'Properties', then 'Tools'.
4) Under 'Error Checking' click 'Check Now' and then Start.
5) A small scandisk window appears and the process begins.
Open Windows Explorer
You can find Windows Explorer by going to 'Start', then 'Programs'. If you don't see it in 'Programs' then look in 'Accessories'. Double click the Windows Explorer icon and it will open.
Viewing Folders and Files
On the left side of Windows Explorer you will see a section called 'Folders'. Normally under Folders you should see at a minimum:
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My Computer
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My Network Place
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Recycle Bin
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My Documents
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To see the all the drives on your PC, click on 'My Computer'. Typically you will have listed:
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3-
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Hard drive (C:)
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CD or DVD (D:)
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Control Panel icon.
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Click the drive you want and all the folders for it become accessible.
Copying Files and Folders
Copying Files and Folders
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Navigate to the folder or file that you want to copy. and place your cursor over the file or folder you want to copy, then right-
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Select copy from the menu that appears.
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Now place your cursor over the destination folder and again right-
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That's it! The item is copied to the destination folder.
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How to copy files using Windows Explorer
Take control of finding, moving and copying files on your PC.
Take control of finding, moving and copying files on your PC.
Defragment Your Hard drive
Speed up your PC by regrouping files on your hard drive.
Using Cut, Copy and Paste
Save time as you create and modify files.
Cleaning your mouse
Keep your cursor from jumping all over the place by cleaning your track-ball mouse.
Making old games work in XP
Get your old Windows 95 - 98 - ME to run properly on Windows XP.
One Click shutdown
Create a desktop shortcut that will turn your PC off with a double click
Get to the desktop
Quickly get to your desktop screen when you have multiple windows open.
Close that window
Close a window where there is no visible signs of being able too.
A Quick Bookmark
Be able to bookmark a web site quickly and put it in your favorites.
Stop a Pop Up Blocker
A quick way to stop your pop up blocker blocking a pop up you want to see.
Speed up your PC by regrouping files on your hard drive.
Using Cut, Copy and Paste
Save time as you create and modify files.
Cleaning your mouse
Keep your cursor from jumping all over the place by cleaning your track-
Making old games work in XP
Get your old Windows 95 -
One Click shutdown
Create a desktop shortcut that will turn your PC off with a double click
Get to the desktop
Quickly get to your desktop screen when you have multiple windows open.
Close that window
Close a window where there is no visible signs of being able too.
A Quick Bookmark
Be able to bookmark a web site quickly and put it in your favorites.
Stop a Pop Up Blocker
A quick way to stop your pop up blocker blocking a pop up you want to see.
Defragmenting your Hard Drives
Defragmentation is something that is required from time to time on your hard disk drive (HDD).
When a drive is empty it is easy to find space to store files anywhere on the disk. As files are erased they leave empty spaces between the files next to them. As you write and erase files over time, many of these empty spaces are created. If a file being written is bigger than the largest free space, then it must broken up into smaller pieces and stored in a number of these empty spaces.
Fragmentation
This process of files being broken up and stored in a number of smaller pieces is called fragmentation. A section of the disk contains what is called the File Allocation Table (FAT). It is a file system that keeps track of where all the files are stored on the hard drive.
Eventually a condition exists where there are many fragmented files and empty spaces scattered all over the disk. When this happens the HDD is said to be very fragmented. The FAT has to work very hard to manage these chopped up files.
Instead of writing and reading files that are contiguous (in one piece), the read/write head in the HDD must move up and down and jump all over the disk from fragment to fragment to access the file. This takes a lot of time!
It's like Restaurant Seating
The FAT does the same thing as the person who seats you at a restaurant.
When the restaurant is empty it's easy. There are plenty of tables that will fit your group. They find you a table big enough, or maybe even slightly bigger than you need and you all sit down.
As the restaurant fills up it gets more difficult to find the right sized table quickly. A couple of things can happen when you show up to be seated.
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The greeter checks for space and finds a table that has just freed up and will fit all the people in your party. They seat you as soon as the table is emptied and made ready for your group.
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Or they may say, 'We don't have a table big enough to seat all of you, the wait is 25 minutes. Hang out in the in the lounge and we'll call you when we have space.'
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Let's seat your Group in Fragments
Files don't care whether they are fragmented, or located together in a contiguous space of the disk. We know people do care, but let's imagine the people in this restaurant don't care either.
So instead of making you wait for a big enough table the greeter says 'we don't have space enough for your party of five at one table, but two of you can fit at this table, one at that table and two more can fit at the table in the back.' So you go and get split up at different tables. Your party has been fragmented.
The greeter continues seating new people this way until waiters are getting confused with which food goes with which party, who gets the bill and so on. The whole process bogs down and eventually grinds to a halt.
The same thing happens on your HDD. The PC spends more and more time working with the FAT to find all the pieces of the file you're attempting to access.
Defragmentation
Finally the restaurant manager says, 'Wait a minute,' just as you might say when it seems to take longer and longer to read and write files on your PC.
He says 'We are going to defragment this place.' He has everyone get up, move to one side together with their original group. He then figures out how many 1, 2, 3 etc. person groups he has and how they will best fit into his tables. He reseats each group at an optimum sized table. He now even has some spare tables open for new guests. Everything flows along smoothly again.
Running a defragmentation program on your PC reorganizes the files on the HDD so that each file is located in one contiguous space. All the free space is grouped together on the disk as well.
How do I Defragment my Drive?
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Go to the desktop and double-
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Right click the drive you want to defragment, (C:) in most cases.
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In the drop down menu that appears, click 'Properties'.
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Click the 'Tools' Tab in the dialog box that appears.
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In the Tools section, select 'Defragment Now' and defragmentation begins.
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NOTE: Don't defragment a drive you want to use anytime soon. It can easily take a couple of hours on a large, fragmented drive. The end of the day is a great time to kick this maintenance routine off.
Just as shake, rattle and roll are primary elements used in early rock'n'roll songs, so it is that cut, copy and paste are the main editing elements used in computer file creation and modification.
If you don't know about these important tools you may be doing a lot of extra typing, when creating or editing computer files!
Cut, Copy and Paste with your Mouse
Before text in a file can be cut or copied, it must first be selected. It can they be pasted into another part of the file you are working on or even into a completely different file.
Selecting Text
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To select text, place your cursor (looks like an I-
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Then click the left mouse button and a vertical bar called the 'text selection bar' appears and blinks at the cursor location.
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Hold the left mouse button down and sweep the selection bar across text you want to select.
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The text becomes hi lighted as you sweep it which means you've successfully selected it.
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Release the mouse button when you reach the end of the text you want to select.
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Copying Text
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Now that the text you want is selected, right click your mouse. Do not left click your mouse. If you do all the text becomes unselected.
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A drop down menu appears with a number of different choices. Choose copy by moving your cursor over the word copy and clicking either mouse button.
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Doing this places a copy of the selected text in an area of memory called the 'clipboard'. The selected text is left intact in source file.
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Pasting Text
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The text in the clipboard can now be pasted where ever you want it.
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Left click your mouse at the place in the text where you want to paste the clipboard contents. The blinking text selection bar appears.
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Right click your mouse and a drop down menu appears as well. Choose paste by moving your mouse over it and clicking either button.
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The clipboard contents are pasted at the location of the selection bar.
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That's it, you are done copying and pasting! If you like the changes you made be sure to save your work right away.
Cutting Text
Cutting Text
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Select the text you want to work with.
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When your place your cursor over the selected text and right click the mouse, the drop down menu appears. Choose the 'cut' option by moving your cursor over it and clicking either mouse button.
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The selected is sent to the clipboard and it is cut (removed) from the source file.
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Follow the same procedure as above to paste it in the destination file.
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Cut, Copy and Paste with the Keyboard
Sometimes it is easier and faster to use the keyboard instead of the mouse.
Selecting Text
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Use the up, down, left and right arrows to move the selection bar to the end of the text you want to hi light.
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Hold down the 'shift' key and use the 'left' arrow key to sweep the selection bar across the text you want to select.
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The selected text becomes hi lighted.
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Copying Text
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Hold down the 'Ctrl' key while pressing the 'C' key and the hi lighted text is copied to the clipboard.
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Pasting Text
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Move the text selection bar to the place in the file where you want to paste the clipboard contents.
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Hold down the 'Ctrl' key while pressing the 'V' key and the clipboard contents are pasted at the insertion point.
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Cutting Text
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Select the text you want to work.
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Hold down the 'Ctrl' key while pressing the 'X' key and the selected text is cut from the source file and copied to the clipboard.
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Follow the same procedure as above to paste it in the destination file.
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If you use a track ball mouse this tip applies to you.
All mice are now manufactured with optical sensors instead of track balls to sense movement.
I need to clean my mouse on the inside? That's right!. If you don't know about this it can cause your cursor to skip along instead of moving in a nice smooth even motion.
If you turn your mouse over you will see part of a small rubber or plastic ball through a cut-out in a cover. The cover holds the ball in place inside the mouse.
As the ball rolls on the mouse pad surface, it causes two rollers inside the mouse to turn.
One roller controls the display cursor's left to right motion. The other roller controls the up and down motion.
How Does it Get Dirty?
Over time the ball picks up and transfers dust, dirt and old eraser bits to the rollers. If you're like me there will be a lot of eraser material all over your desk for the mouse to pick up!
Eventually all the dirt and debris builds up on the rollers until it forms a hard band all the way around them.
When these bands of dust and dirt get big enough, they cause the rollers to slip as the ball moves, which can make your cursor do funny things.
Cleaning your mouse is very easy to do! You can clean the mouse with the PC on or off. The cursor will jump around if you leave it on, but it won't hurt anything!
Removing the Track Ball
The ball we talked about is held in place by a circular cover that either slides or spins off. Take a close look at this cover. There is usually some marking or text on it (similar to those on the battery cover on your portable CD or cassette player) that indicate which way to get the cover off.
Once you get the cover off, slowly turn the mouse over and the little ball will roll out.
Check the ball for any obvious surface damage, which could really cause strange cursor movement. If this is the case, then give this mouse to the cat and buy another one. I've never seen this happen but it is possible, especially if the mouse has been subject to really rough treatment.
If the ball is OK, put it and the cover aside in a safe place.
Cleaning the Rollers
Now that the ball is out, look inside and you will see two large rollers (these need cleaning), and a smaller one, which doesn't. The small roller is there to push the ball against the other rollers. You don't have to do anything with it.
The next task is to find a small relatively hard object to clean the rollers. A toothpick or Q-tip will work. Pretty much anything that is small, stiff and not too sharp. You don't want to scratch the rollers!
Begin with one of the rollers and scrape the ring of dirt off in a motion in line with the axis of the roller. As you get the dirt off in one spot, spin the roller a little and work on the next spot until you've gone all the way around and the ring has been completely removed.
When both rollers are clean, hold the mouse upside down and shake out all the dirt that you removed from the rollers. You may have to blow a little air in there to get it all. Don't leave any in there, because it will soon find it's way back to one of the rollers!
With the mouse upside down, put the ball back in. Then slide or turn the cover (depending on how it came off) back into place.
Congratulations! You are done!
Don't Forget Your Mouse Pad
Before you start using your mouse again, make sure your mouse pad is clean. It is a good idea to clean your mouse pad often to keep dirt and erasure debris from finding it's way onto the rollers.
All mice are now manufactured with optical sensors instead of track balls to sense movement.
I need to clean my mouse on the inside? That's right!. If you don't know about this it can cause your cursor to skip along instead of moving in a nice smooth even motion.
If you turn your mouse over you will see part of a small rubber or plastic ball through a cut-
As the ball rolls on the mouse pad surface, it causes two rollers inside the mouse to turn.
One roller controls the display cursor's left to right motion. The other roller controls the up and down motion.
Over time the ball picks up and transfers dust, dirt and old eraser bits to the rollers. If you're like me there will be a lot of eraser material all over your desk for the mouse to pick up!
Eventually all the dirt and debris builds up on the rollers until it forms a hard band all the way around them.
When these bands of dust and dirt get big enough, they cause the rollers to slip as the ball moves, which can make your cursor do funny things.
Cleaning your mouse is very easy to do! You can clean the mouse with the PC on or off. The cursor will jump around if you leave it on, but it won't hurt anything!
Removing the Track Ball
The ball we talked about is held in place by a circular cover that either slides or spins off. Take a close look at this cover. There is usually some marking or text on it (similar to those on the battery cover on your portable CD or cassette player) that indicate which way to get the cover off.
Once you get the cover off, slowly turn the mouse over and the little ball will roll out.
Check the ball for any obvious surface damage, which could really cause strange cursor movement. If this is the case, then give this mouse to the cat and buy another one. I've never seen this happen but it is possible, especially if the mouse has been subject to really rough treatment.
If the ball is OK, put it and the cover aside in a safe place.
Cleaning the Rollers
Now that the ball is out, look inside and you will see two large rollers (these need cleaning), and a smaller one, which doesn't. The small roller is there to push the ball against the other rollers. You don't have to do anything with it.
The next task is to find a small relatively hard object to clean the rollers. A toothpick or Q-
Begin with one of the rollers and scrape the ring of dirt off in a motion in line with the axis of the roller. As you get the dirt off in one spot, spin the roller a little and work on the next spot until you've gone all the way around and the ring has been completely removed.
When both rollers are clean, hold the mouse upside down and shake out all the dirt that you removed from the rollers. You may have to blow a little air in there to get it all. Don't leave any in there, because it will soon find it's way back to one of the rollers!
With the mouse upside down, put the ball back in. Then slide or turn the cover (depending on how it came off) back into place.
Congratulations! You are done!
Before you start using your mouse again, make sure your mouse pad is clean. It is a good idea to clean your mouse pad often to keep dirt and erasure debris from finding it's way onto the rollers.
Old games that ran on windows 95 - 98 - ME may not work properly in XP but fear not.
Right click on the games desktop shortcut and click on “Properties”.
On the Properties window click the "Compatibility" tab and near the top there is a section called "compatibility Mode".
Click in the box to run the program in compatibility mode and then pick the version of Windows that the game was made for.
Click "OK" and your done.
Follow these directions to create a one-click shutdown shortcut on your desktop:
1. On your desktop, right-click on a blank spot and point to New, then click on Shortcut.
2. In the "Create Shortcut" window, type the following depending of the version of Windows you are using.
For Windows 95, 98, or Me type (or even better, copy and paste):
C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows
For Windows XP type or copy:
SHUTDOWN -s -t 01
3. Click the "Next" button.
4. Name the shortcut whatever you would like, and click the "Finish" button. Now whenever you want to shut down, just double click on this shortcut.
Right click on the shortcut go to Properties and you can change the icon to the red windows shutdown icon.
Just press the Windows key on your keyboard and the letter D.
The windows key is on the bottom row of your keyboard between the Ctrl and Alt keys. It has the windows symbol on it.
To bring the windows back up to the way they were before, just press the same key combination again.
Have you ever found yourself on the internet when suddenly a full screen advertisement pops up and you can't find the X to close it?
I hate it when a web site tries to trap me with a full screen page with no visible way to close the page.
With this tip, you won't be stuck again. Simply click once on the offending page, then hold down the "Alt" key on your keyboard and press the "F4" key. This will close the window that you just clicked on.
I hate it when a web site tries to trap me with a full screen page with no visible way to close the page.
With this tip, you won't be stuck again. Simply click once on the offending page, then hold down the "Alt" key on your keyboard and press the "F4" key. This will close the window that you just clicked on.
A fast way to add a web page to your favorites, or bookmarks (depending on what browser you use) is to hold down the CTRL key and press the D key once. Go ahead and give it a try. This page should now be in your Favorites!
A quick way of letting a pop up not get blocked is to hold down the shift key then click on the link that brings up the pop up. That’s it, you’re done!!