What has your PC been doing automatically?
Sometimes, it’s just easier to schedule tasks to happen when you’re not using your computer, especially routine PC maintenance jobs. Don’t remember what you’ve instructed your PC to do on its own? Want to see if those tasks are actually being performed or if your PC was turned off at the scheduled time? XP users, just look at the Scheduled Task log!… Continue reading
Q:
My screen saver collection is taking up too much space in my computer. How can I delete them?
A:
They do accumulate, don’t they? There are two separate methods to removing screen savers, depending on how they’re stored in your system.
If you have installed screen saver collections from a disk or the web, you’ll recover more space if you uninstall the screen saver programs rather than… Continue reading
Sick of the two-step process of deleting objects and then having to empty the Recycling bin? Highlight the item you want to get rid of and Shift + Delete. One step! Just be careful, because it’s really gone!
~ Chris Fisher… Continue reading
Thumb drives, mp3 players, and digital players cameras are becoming exponentially more popular by the day. It seems like everyone has at least one of these items, if not two. Today I’m going to show you some tricks you can do with this Flash Memory technology that I think are going to amaze you, at least a little.
Flash Memory is usually small removable memory storage devices, also called solid… Continue reading
When uninstalling programs, you may be asked to remove shared files. There are two schools of thought:
1. I can always get the dll file back if I encounter a problem later.
2. I don’t want to risk a problem, so I’ll keep the shared files.
If you’re like me and think along the latter lines, uninstall programs rather than simply deleting… Continue reading
Checking up on kids’ web use and clearing your web history
Want to know what sites the kids (or your spouse) have been visiting on the internet? Besides the #1 rule of internet parenting (No child should use the web without at least periodic living human supervision), you can check the sites in History. In Internet Explorer, the icon looks like a clock with an arrow going counter-clockwise.
The… Continue reading
I was amazed at how much space I freed up using Disk Cleanup! I’m terrible at remembering to do this sort of thing. Is there a way to make this happen automatically?
A:
You can schedule maintenance tasks like Disk Cleanup. First, see our tip for settings on Disk Cleanup that will avoid “throwing out” stuff you might need. Go to the Start Menu, All Programs, Accessories
Q:
What are mp3s? I keep hearing about them.
A:
Audio files can be saved in different formats that have different file extensions, just like picture files (.jpg, .gif.). Loosely speaking, you can think of .mp3 as the .jpg of audio. It’s a format for saving sound files.
The .mp3 file extension stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3. MPEG, in turn, stands for Motion Picture Experts… Continue reading
I know that I’ve often found myself searching for the same file over and over again. You’d think I would learn where I put it. What a hassle to go to Search and put everything in again. Well, did you know that you can save a search?
After your search is complete go to the File menu and choose “Save Search”. Give the file a name and choose a location… Continue reading
If you have a DVD burner in your computer and a home DVD player that will play mp3 files then you can make a disk with about 50 hours of music!
Since DVD-R disks can hold around 4.7 GB of data, that means you can select about 1000 mp3 files through your DVD burning software and create one mega music disk.
This also gives you a back-up of your songs… Continue reading
Q:
How can I make certain files available to other users on my network without putting the actual files in my Shared Folder?
A:
Well, you’ll still need to use the Shared Folder, but you can send shortcuts there rather than the actual file. Why would you want to do this? Well, since it is a shortcut, if you alter the original in “My Documents” or any other… Continue reading
Timothy in Arkansas asks:
What’s the difference between “run” and “save” when I download a program?
A:
When you are downloading a file off the internet you may get the option to “Run” or “Save”. Either of these options will lead you to the setup for the program and install it on your computer, but the difference lies in where the setup file opens from.
If… Continue reading
Scratched CD-R/CD-RWs and thier uses
Remember the old days of 45′s? You’d put the record on the turntable and if any scratches were present you’d be greeted with a horrible noise accompanied by a “skip-trip-skip” that would make the music nigh unlistenable. Thank goodness we’ve moved on to CD media where – wait a second, we’re no better off, are we? CDs skip too, and when they do… Continue reading
Q:
When I put in the second disk for a program I get a message asking me what program I want to use to open it. Why can’t Windows see the right program?
A:
If you try to install a second disk that only contains data you might get a message when you double-click the drive asking you to choose a program.
Just cancel and open the… Continue reading
I have so many drives in my PC it makes my head spin—15 to be exact. I have to label them or I would be opening and closing all kinds of drives looking for what I want. You can also assign different icons to drives, or folders, which makes them completely customizable and unique.
What about Removable drives or CD’s? You can label CD’s, but wouldn’t it be cool to… Continue reading
Take CD’s out of your drive when not using them.
If you run Explorer or select File/Open, it will take longer when a CD is in the drive.
In addition, the heat can affect the disk.
~ David
David Samuel Thomas… Continue reading
Q:
Folders in “My Pictures” show little thumbnails on them. I just want a plain folder. Is there a way to do that?
A:
Sometimes you don’t want the contents of your picture folders displayed for all to see but you do want other pictures in the file to be thumbnails.
There isn’t a box to check that will make a folder plain when your picture folder… Continue reading
I’ve done file-sharing programs before—some primarily handle a particular type of file such as Hello the image sharing program, or Grouper used for sending huge files back and forth. Well this download is also a file-sharing program, and like the others, this has its own features and attributes, some of which are quite impressive.
With Foldershare version 2.3.3 you can share, download and even synchronize folders… Continue reading
Most Windows components can be uninstalled by going to Add/Remove Windows Components in the Control Panel. But what about ones that you don’t find? You know that they’re on there somewhere, so how do you get rid of them? Well, it’s actually not too hard to bring these out of hiding.
Bring up Windows Explorer (one way is to right-click the Start button and select “Explore”).
Find your way to… Continue reading
Tired of having your kids clog the hard drive with music downloads? Want more control over how much space users can access? Then you need to enable Disk Quotas in XP.
With Disk Quotas you can limit and monitor disk space usage on your drives. You do need to have the drive formatted in NTFS to do this.
From the “My Computer” window right-click any drive or… Continue reading
We have a tip about the “folders” button…
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/1371
…but several readers emailed saying that they didn’t have that button in the toolbar. Good news! You can easily add it, and other buttons to your folder toolbar.
Open any folder and right-click in a blank area of the toolbar then select “Customize”.
You can then select items from left side to add to the toolbar: Delete, Properties, Copy… Continue reading
You can save space on your C drive by moving your Thunderbird email storage folder to another drive or partition.
First, you need to find out where the folder is hiding. Go to Tools/Account Settings and click on “Local Folders”. You’ll see the location under “Message Storage” where it says “Local directory”. The path will look something like this…
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\ApplicationData\Thunderbird\Profiles\ID #\Mail\Local Folders
Note that the “ID #” folder… Continue reading
Q:
Is there any way to get my Outlook Express email to save on the “D” drive?
A:
Yes, you can move the storage folder for your email program to any drive or partition then point Outlook Express to the new location.
First you need to figure out where OE keeps all your messages. Outlook Express uses small databases to store your information. Once you figure out where… Continue reading
Do you have data on a partition or hard drive that you don’t want tampered with or easily accessible to other users? Well, you can hide any drive/partition in Windows XP, NT, and 2000. That means that they won’t show up in Explorer or My Computer.
If you want access to that drive from your user account you should create a desktop shortcut before proceeding. Once hidden, you can still… Continue reading
A while back we told you about the “Shared Documents” folder in Windows XP. It can be used for files that you want accessable to other users on the computer or a network. Here’s more about it…
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/1574
But, what if you don’t want to have such a folder? Well, you can make it go away in a few easy steps:
Go to Start/Run and type in… Continue reading
We often recommend that when you download files you should scan for viruses. The same is true for attachments sent via email (although, if you have decent antivirus software this should be taken care of).
But do you need to scan your whole computer? No, you can scan just one file with most AntiVirus software.
Just
Q:
I keep getting a message that says a dll file is missing, but I did a search for the file and it was there. How do I get it to work?
A:
Somehow the .dll was deactivated. This can sometimes happen when new software or applications are installed. Thankfully, with Windows ME, 2000, and XP Microsoft made a way to re-activate the dll files called… Continue reading
