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If you own a computer, you really should know the basics for care, maintenance and protecting your privacy. Here you'll find some computer tips ... quick and easy guidance, most frequently asked questions, and my personal favorites.
When used in computer talk, the term "fragmentation" is not associated with a feature of explosive weaponry, although there are times when we feel like blowing up our computer! Instead, it has to do with wasted space. During the normal process of your computer hard drive operation, the data that is stored on it gets fragmented - that is - it gets spread out over the whole capacity of the drive.
About Defragmentation
How to Defragment Your Hard Drive
Think of your hard drive as a book. It has:
One of the MANY rules is that Chapters and Paragraphs have size limitations. You can have a lot of them (Gigs) but each one can only be so big. As the book is written, you add more chapters.
When you are editing existing data, there may not be enough room at the end of the chapter to add more sentences. When this happens, the hard drive will just put the extra data in a new chapter and change the Table of Contents to link the multiple locations together so that you get the complete sentence when you want it.
It works so fast that you probably don't even notice the delay while the hard drive has to look in several places to get the complete data string.
Over a period of time, these "fragments" take more and more time to handle and the hard drive becomes less efficient (i.e. slower).
When you "Defrag", you reorganize the Chapters, Paragraphs and Sentences into sequential data locations and it becomes much easier to get the data. (Folks, we are talking about micro-seconds, but the time can add up.)
Keep in mind that just as soon as you finish Defragging, the process starts to "frag" again. It is a never-ending cycle.
Defragging will take time - how much time depends on the size of your hard drive, the speed of your system, and the amount of fragmentation that has occurred. The very first time you defrag, it may take several hours (yes, hours!). If you defrag on a routine basis, it should only take 15 to 30 minutes.
Wuzzy's Rules of Instructions: There are at least five different ways of doing any single thing in a Windows-operated computer. I know a few - you know a few. Mine work for me - yours work for you. TOGETHER, we CAN get it done!
1) Close down everything you have open (please don't shut the computer down!). Anything running in the background (such as Antivirus updates, Microsoft updates, email that automatically checks for new messages, etc.) will impact the Defrag process. It's like trying to sort money in a piggy bank while people are putting in more money!
2) Right Click on "My Computer" and select "Manage"
3) Select "Disk Defragmenter"
4) Select "Defragment"
You could also go to:
Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragment
5) Let it Defrag. You will notice that, after a little while, there will be a Graph/Chart that will show you the condition of your drive. It IS a cute little thing and lets you know the overall condition of the fragmentation. Once the Defrag is finished, a screen will ask you if you want to see a report or just close it out.
I suggest that you consider Defragging your PC at least once a month.
You may want to add the Defrag Icon to your desktop as a reminder and so you can start the Defrag function easier. To do this, go to:
Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools
Right-click on "Disk Defragment"
Select "Send to" and then choose "Desktop (create short cut)".
Your computer is a wondrous collection of bells, whistles, services, add-ons, etc. that works like a charm – most of the time.
When the Operating system initiates (starts up) it knows that you have a High Resolution Graphics card and loads the drivers necessary for that great picture you downloaded for your background.
It also knows that there is an Ethernet Card to connect to your ISP, USB drivers that connect to your All-In-One printer, DVD drivers for your movies, Instant Messaging Start up software, and a bunch of other tasks and/or processes that it was told to do.
Keep in mind, a computer will only do what it is told to
do – but it will try to do EVERYTHING it was told to do whether you told
it or someone else did. (i.e. Remember last night when your nephew came over
to download some music?)
There are times that something gets hosed (technical/geek speak for
“goes bad”) and the system will not boot OR reboots continuously OR that
dreaded BSD (Blue Screen of Death) appears. One of the most common
causes of this are drivers for these peripherals that get corrupted and
do not load properly.
Microsoft Windows has a boot process that will allow the Operating
System to initiate in a Very Basic mode with just the bare minimum of
services. This is called Safe Mode. The screen will look different
because it is in a basic 600 x 400 mode, there is no Internet
connection, there are no sound drivers loaded, etc.
Sometimes, just
booting into Safe Mode and allowing the process to complete will clear
the initial problem and a normal boot can be made. Another use would be
to run a Defrag in Safe Mode. This will complete much faster as the
system is not sharing resources – i.e. Drivers that would keep the video
up to speed.
What you can do in Safe Mode is dependant on the version of Windows that
you are running – Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista – AND it
is important that you know the Administrator user password (you did make
one and write it down when you first installed your system, didn’t you?)
Starting Up your PC
Generally, you get into Safe Mode during the POST (geek for Power
On
Self Test) part of the boot process.
When you press the Power Switch, the PC goes through a POST to make sure
that the basic hardware is operational. The mother board is tested for
good BIOS, memory is checked, the floppy, CD-Rom, and hard drive are
checked to make sure they are there, and then a special location of the
hard drive is read (boot sector) which contains the instructions for
loading the Operating System.
Entering Safe Mode
If you watch your PC screen when you power up, you will get a feeling
for the sequence. Right before the boot sector is read, you need to
press the F8 key and a special boot menu will appear. From this menu
you can select Safe Mode. The system will go through a slightly
different boot sequence and will let you know that you are in Safe Mode.
If you miss the menu you may be able to press Ctrl | Alt | Del to reboot –
OR – you may need to power off and start over.
Sometimes it is helpful to toggle the “F8” key continuously while the
POST is running until the menu appears.
1.) Try to avoid listing your email address on the internet, for example, in directories, message boards, or online communities. It's okay to subscribe to e-newsletters and other email lists where you are protected by a privacy policy and your email address is not shared or listed online. There are malicious spam spiders out there with the sole purpose of scanning web pages in order to harvest email addresses. One link they find quite often is "mailto:". In fact, it is hard to find a website that doesn't have an email address embedded in it on at least one of the pages. If you have your own website, use form email instead of an email link. Setup a separate email address from your main one, such as info@your-domain.com.
2) Get SPAM blocking software or use an email account provider that has a very good SPAM blocker in place.
3) Use a free email address for use in online activities and subscriptions (Gmail or Yahoo, for instance). Your main email address can be given to friends, family and other personal or business contacts.
4) It is very common for SPAM email messages to contain an attached file of some sort. And spammers have become very clever about their subject lines and "from" addresses, making the email appear to be from a source you are familiar with or something very tempting to open. DO NOT OPEN ATTACHMENTS IF THE SENDER IS UNKNOWN. And do not provide personal information, account numbers and such. Verify the source first.
You can get spyware in many ways, but the most common are:
a) installing spyware as part of another program you download (such as freeware or shareware)
b) tricking you into clicking a link that downloads spyware or
manipulating options within an already installed program that initiates
spyware programs.
c) surfing to a webpage controlled by a spyware author that attacks the browser and forces spyware installation without your knowledge
Spyware does things as seemingly harmless as monitoring keystrokes or changing the default settings of your internet browser (your keystrokes could reveal a password, for example) to more outright malicious activity like scanning the files on your hard drive or stealing credit card numbers and other personal information. Pay attention to the fine print in the user agreements of downloaded software. Often they refer to spyware that will be installed and sometimes you even have a choice not to install that portion of the program.
What can you do to avoid spyware?
1) Get an anti-spyware program. One of my favorites ... Super Anti-Spyware. Update the program frequently and run scans regularly. This program scours the web for new threats and provides daily definition updates. You can download it for FREE! Run it two or three times in a row until all of the spyware is removed.
2) If you use Internet Explorer, update security patches often and only download programs from reliable sources. It seems that spyware likes to attach itself to IE functionality, so another option is to use a different internet browser such as Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari.
3) Backup your data ... spyware is growing in its maliciousness and cleverness and affects more than 90% of all computers. A worst case solution for severe spyware infiltration is to basically erase your hard drive and reinstall your operating system.
Phishing (pronounced "fishing") is the act of fraudulently acquiring sensitive, personal information such as passwords, account numbers, social security numbers, etc. through emails and online forms. Phishers (professional criminals) can make the email message look legitimate by copying logos and text from real companies, and even providing a link that appears to lead to the actual company website, when in fact it leads to a replica website.
1) Point your mouse to the email link or submit link. The actual website address to which you are being directed is displayed at the bottom left of your browser window. This is a quick way to see if you are being led to a legitimate website or not.
2) Don't click links within email messages ... open a new browser window and manually type in the legitimate website name. Be sure to delete the email message and "empty the trash" frequently.
New computer viruses are created every day that are either annoying or actually harm our computer system. Here are two of the most popular ones:
Trojan - A trojan horse is a program that appears to perform a legitimate function but has malicious code within it meant to cause damage to your computer such as erasing data, corrupting files, spreading other viruses, randomly shutting down your computer, phishing, and logging keystrokes ... to name a few.
Mass-Mailing Worm - A program that propagates by sending copies of itself to recipients via electronic email. Once the recipient opens the email attachment, the malicious program executes on the victim's computer and further propagates itself.
Protect yourself the best you can by:
1) Avoiding the download of anything onto your computer that isn't from a 100% reliable source or sender.
2) Make sure that your operating system is always up-to-date.
3) Install anti-virus software and download updates daily. Select options within the anti-virus program to scan email messages and all downloads.
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