7 Great Computer User Tips - For Windows Users Only

Posted by The Popular News Today on Wednesday, August 10, 2011

By Angela Jacobs


An Easy Performance Enhancement

If you're using the NTFS filing protocol on your system, instead of FAT32, you can get a bit more speed by disabling Windows Indexing. The downside to this is that searching your drive for a specific file might take a moment or two longer, but everything else should run faster.

To disable this feature open My Computer system and then correct click on the drive you wish to reset - commonly C-drive. Now click on Properties after which uncheck "Allow Indexing Service." It'll take Windows a couple of moments to accomplish this task, based on your processor speed. When you have other difficult drives, perform the same process for them. Soon after this is completed, it is a good notion to empty the Recycle Bin after which Defragment your challenging drive(s).

Totally free Software program

If you have a system and it does not have an office suite, such as Microsoft Office, and you don't want to pay several hundred dollars to have one, try Open Office. This is a great alternative to other suites, and it's free! Simply direct your browser to www.openoffice.org and follow the instructions for downloading and installation. Make no mistake, this free office suite is an extremely powerful set of software tools - easily a match for any competitor.

Internet Explorer (Microsoft's Web browser) is unarguably the common in computers. This is why hackers develop numerous malware applications to invade it. When you use a diverse browser, you've significantly less chance of an invasion by malicious software. There is an excellent alternative offered, and it is free. You'll be able to download a copy of Firefox at www.mozilla.org/products/firefox. You could even move your World-wide-web Explorer settings into Firefox automatically - so you do not shed your Favorites, etc.

Laptop Printer Fix

If you're using a laptop that is running Windows ME, and you're having trouble printing through the USB, try this simple fix. Go to the website for the company that manufactures your printer. If you use a Hewlett-Packard, for example, go to www.HP.com and download the appropriate drivers and install them. ME has drivers that recognize the USB printer is present and attached, but not the drivers needed to make it print. Which drivers you download and install will be dependant on your printer. After installing new drivers, update the printer as necessary in the Control Panel.

Save $$$ When Shopping On-line

If you're making a obtain on-line, and you know the item you need to obtain, you are able to simply compare pricing all across the world wide web. This can quantity to a quite substantial savings.

At this writing, I went to www.mysimon.com and typed in that I wanted to buy a printer: a Canon PIXMA iP4000. The service instantly checked the web and returned prices ranging from $62.00 as much as $286.00. This type of value spread is not at all unusual, specially for computers and electronics.

The My Simon web page service only checks pricing, it doesn't supply a platform for buying something, although it does link to such locations. It also gives a rating for the sellers and other users' input relating to their experiences using the business. You can order the outcomes of the search for your product by cost, to ensure that you'll be able to quickly find the lowest cost from the highest rated dealer.

Windows XP Professional Only

A feature of Windows XP Professional, that is not available in the Home Edition, is the ability to encrypt files. This encryption prevents others from opening the files in the folder you encrypt. To encrypt one or more a folders, follow these easy steps.

Click Start, then My Documents. Now locate the folder you wish to encrypt and suitable click on it and pick Properties.

On the General tab, click on Advanced. Put a tick mark inside the box for Encrypt Contents to Secure Data. Click okay two times and the confirmation dialog box will appear allowing you to select the folder, the folder and all files, and/or the subfolders inside it.

Now you'll have the ability to place files in this folder (or folders) and because they're encrypted, others won't have the ability to access them.

Web Safety

You should never reveal your username or password to anyone who e-mails you and asks for it. This information is frequently asked for by an Internet scheme called "phishing."

In a common phishing scam, you receive an e-mail that looks quite official. It usually appears to come from a bank or credit card company. A common title for these e-mails is "We need to verify your account information." Another is "Please logon to your account and verify your settings." If you do click where instructed, you'll end up on a site that appears to be the real one. If you fill in the username and password for of your on-line banking account, you can expect serious problems within twenty-four hours.

Should you think that a business or company which you do on-line organization with definitely does call for your data, then just contact them. This way, you might know where you are sending your information, and what it's going to be applied for.

CD Burning Error Fix

Burning music, video, and information CDs has develop into fairly preferred over the past couple of years, and the evolution with the supporting technology has yielded hardware and software that's much better than ever - and incredibly reasonably priced. CDs offer a fantastic location to store substantial amounts of data in a small, effortlessly retained format. They also give us new control over aspects of our entertainment.

A somewhat widespread error received during CD burning informs you that the CD can't be burned, or that there was an error for the duration of burning. Naturally, you could essentially have a defective CD drive, but this is commonly not the case.

If you receive a message indicating that your CD cannot be burned, go to the website of your CD drive manufacturer. Look for the list of CD types (manufacturers/numbers) that are compatible with your device. Most often, you'll find that your CDs are not listed. The two types that seem to have the least difficulty being burned are manufactured by Sony and TDK. These cost a bit more, but they burn very reliably.

Along the same lines - H-P has introduced a new CD burner. This new burner requires the use of special CD blanks, but after you burn your data into the CD, you can flip it over and close the drive again. Then you can use the laser to burn a title for the CD directly onto the CD itself. It's new technology, but perhaps it will catch on and we'll see newer, better such devices in the near future.




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