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Cookies, Histories, and Defragmenting
Cookies are bits of information placed on your computer by almost every website you visit. Some cookies have a helpful
purpose, such as allowing you to access a web site without having to log in each time you visit. Other cookies are not
so innocent. Tracking cookies may be placed on your computer to keep up with your browsing activities. Cookies are easy
to delete and should be deleted on a regular basis. Simply open your browser, click on Tools / Internet Options
and hit the delete cookies button. After deleting the cookies, you may have to log back in to certain web sites the
next time you visit. You should always keep user names and passwords written down in a secure location to make logging
in easy.
Internet Histories are deleted from the same place you delete the cookies. There is a button in the same window to delete
histories. There is also a button in that window to delete files. Clearing these will free up memory and clean out the
previously viewed history and file pages. If you seldom use the history function you can decrease the number of days
your history is saved in this same window. Click OK at the bottom of the window to exit.
You should check to find out if you need to defrag your hard drive on a regular schedule. How often you need to defrag will depend on how much new information
or pictures you save over a given period of time. The disk defragmenter can be accessed by clicking Start /
All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Disk Defragmenter. It can also be found in Start / Control Panel
/ Administrative Tools / Computer Management. Either place will accomplish the same goal, which is to re-arrange
the information stored on your hard drive. By moving the related files together and getting rid of the fragmentation your
computer will run faster and more efficiently. A disk defrag takes quite a while. Do it when you have plenty of time.
Clip Board
The clip board is an option on your computer which allows you to move pictures or text from one document to another
or from one application to another. You cannot normally see the clip board or what is contained on it. Information
is placed on the clip board by using the cut or copy functions. You can find these options under the Edit
on most tool bars. To use the cut or copy functions the portion of text to be placed on the clip board must first
be highlighted. This can be done by placing the curser at the beginning of the text to be highlighted, holding down
the left mouse button, and dragging the curser to the end of the text to be highlighted, then releasing the mouse button. The
selected text should then appear with a dark background. With the selection highlighted, simply click on Edit, then
click Cut or Copy. If you choose Cut the selected text will be removed from your document and placed
on the clip board. If you choose Copy the document will remain intact, but the selected text will be copied
to the clip board. You can also highlight the entire document by clicking Edit ,then clicking Select All.
With the text on your clip board, place the curser where you want the copied text to begin in your document, click
Edit, then click Paste. The text on the clip board will be placed in your document.
There are many other
ways to perform the highlight and cut/copy functions. Placing the curser in front of a word and left clicking will
highlight the word. Placing the curser in the margin to the left of a paragraph, then left clicking, will highlight
the entire paragraph. Right clicking in the highlighted area of a document will give you the Cut, Copy,
and Paste options.
If you wish to view the text on the clip board, it can be done by clicking Start / Run, then type clipbrd.exe in the
box which opens, and click OK or press Enter.
If the cut, copy, and paste icons do not appear on your browser tool bar, they can be easily added. Right click on the
tool bar, in the area where the icons appear, and left click Customize on the drop down menu. A customize tool bar
window will open. Highlight the icon in the list of available
buttons, then click Add. The selected icon will be added the available tool bar buttons. An icon can be
removed from the tool bar by highlighting it on the available tool bar button list and clicking Remove.
Desktop Backgrounds
The information provided here applies mainly to WindowsXP. You can also change the desktop backgrounds on most of the
older operating systems. The desktop background is the picture or graphic which is on your desktop. These pictures can
easily be changed. There are several methods of changing the desktop background.
One of the easiest methods is to
find a picture of the proper size, in your files or on the Internet, and right click it with the mouse. A drop down will
open and you will be presented with many options. One of the options should be Set as Desktop Background or something
to that effect. If you
select this option and left click it, the picture will become your new desktop background. Using pictures of the correct
size will keep them from tiling in or being out of focus. The approximate size should be about 800X600 pixels. A little
larger or smaller will work.
MS Paint, a drawing program which is supplied with most Windows operating systems, can also
be used to change the desktop background. Load or draw a picture of the proper size, then save it to a file in BMP format.
Click file and there is an option near the bottom of the list to set your picture as desktop background. For large pictures
set them centered. Small pictures can be tiled in. Be sure you first save the picture to a file in BMP format or MS Paint
will not allow you to use it as a desktop background.
There are many web sites which offer backgrounds for downloading, but when downloading anything you may also get spyware
with the download. Using the methods above there is little chance of getting spyware. A good place to find images for
your desktop backgrounds is the Google Image Search. The picture
size is listed and you can search for images of any type. If you change the desktop background often, consider starting
a file containing some of your favorite backgrounds so you do not have to search for them each time.
Folders
Your computer is set up to allow you to save text, pictures, and music into folders. To access the folders click
Start.
A window will open and you will see the options My Documents, MY Pictures, and My Music.
My Computer is also an option, but you should not attempt to save folders in it unless you are an advanced
user. How easy your folders are to use will depend on how organized you are in setting them up. When first starting
out there will only be a few folders and they will be easy to locate, but as you add more files you will need to
organize the folders under some system. You can choose your own names for the folders. They may also be renamed
if it becomes necessary.
Creating a new folder is easy. Open one of the categories (My Documents, My Pictures, or My Music) and be sure no
file is highlighted. If a file is highlighted, left click in an empty space to cancel the selection. Now look on the
left side under File and Folder Tasks. There will be an option to Make a New Folder. Clicking this option will
place another folder in the file. You will need to name this new folder. A default name will be in the name box. Delete
the default name and put the name you have chosen in the name box, then hit enter. Your new folder is now ready to
use. You may begin storing files in it. You may create as many new folders as you wish. You may create new folders
inside of folders already in use.
Files which you store in the folders should be placed with files of the same type. The filing system should be set
up like an outline, with main topics, subtopics, etc. keeping the files in order. For example, you might create a
folder in My Pictures with the title "Vacations". Inside this folder might be other folders named "2000","2001",
"2002", etc. where the vacation pictures for each year would be stored. If you do not wish to categorize the pictures
by year, the folders could be named for the places you visited. Creating the filing system and naming the folders
is a personal choice and how each person does it will vary. No matter how you set the folders up, try to stay with
your system. The more organized you are, the easier it will be to find the files later.
Shutting The Computer Down
Turning the computer off and on causes the hard drive to work a little harder every day and the additional wear on the moving parts might cause it to fail sooner.
It might also be bad to leave the computer on all the time due to subjecting it to power surges during thunderstorms or brown outs and the additional heat generated might wear the cooling fans out sooner.
A good alternative is to put the computer in hibernate mode when it is not in use. Placing the computer in hibernate mode causes it to copy the current state to the hard drive then shut down. When the computer is re-started after being in hibernate mode, it reads the information stored on the hard drive and returns to the state it was in before going into hibernate.
To put most computers in hibernate mode, Click Start / Turn Off The Computer. When the small shut down window pops up, hold down the shift key and the left hand option will change from Stand By to Hibernate. Click it and the computer will begin to go into hibernate mode. All power is off when the computer is in hibernation. You can unplug it without losing any data. It will return from hibernation much faster than from a complete shut down when it is re-started.
Another option is to put the computer in Standby Mode, but this option does not turn off all the power and may not be practical if you unplug the computer for any reason unless you have a laptop with good batteries.
The computer should be re-booted occasionally from a complete shut down to re-set the pointers from a clean start up..
Graywolf / 2004