Leslie's Un-Geek Windows XP Newsletter

Leslie's Un-Geek Windows XP Newsletter Volume #6 ~ correction

2010-06-16T16:45:59Z

Greetings, Dear Readers!

Wow! Guess I need a proof reader!

The link to Beautypedia in the bottom section of the letter is dead. Here's a good one:

Cheers!

Well, that's about it for now. Again, please send me all your questions and I'll use them in the next issue. CLICK HERE to email me. And don't forget to visit my website here ---> Computer RX of Eastern Washington

Happy computing!
Leslie, The Un-Geek

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Leslie's Un-Geek Windows XP Newsletter Volume #6 ~ June 16, 2010

2010-06-16T04:35:11Z

Greetings, Dear Readers!

As usual, I got some really good questions from you this month. I also received a request for a gadget review. Let's dig in.

How do I uninstall a program?
Website not behaving?
Create a folder within a folder.
Want to install something?
Bonus product review

HOW DO I UNINSTALL A PROGRAM?

Click on your "Start" button to open your start menu, then click on "Control Panel".

Now click on "Add or Remove Programs".

You get this:

It might take a minute for this list of programs to load completely, especially if you have a lot of programs installed. Be patient. Now scroll to the program you want to uninstall and click on it ONCE (not a double click).

Here I've clicked on a program called "Billeo". As you can see it has expanded, become highlighted, and a "Remove" button appears on the bottom right. Click on the "Remove" button and you'll probably be asked for a confirmation.

Here you have the opportunity to change your mind. Nice! Anyway if you are sure, click the "Yes" or "Uninstall" button and then various dialog boxes will appear with instructions and buttons that will talk you through the uninstall process. Different programs may have different dialog boxes, so depending on which program you are uninstalling, your process may or may not look just like uninstalling Billeo. Let's go ahead and complete the uninstall so you can at least see an example of what you may experience.

I'll click on "Uninstall" and in this case the process completes very quickly, resulting in this:

Here I have the choice to see the "details" and I don't really care to, so I'll just click "Continue".

In this case a webpage immediately opens up asking me if I want to cancel my Billeo account. This type of thing will happen with some programs and not with others. Some programs open a webpage asking you why you unistalled their program. You can choose whether or not to answer. If you do it may help the developer of the program make changes to the program to improve its usability. If you don't want to, that's perfectly fine and you can just close the browser. You may get a message stating you need to restart your computer to complete the uninstall. This is fairly common. If this happens, do restart your computer.

If this or any other instructions you receive in any of my newsletters is in any way unclear, confusing, or otherwise not consistant with your experience or needs PLEASE do let me know! Click here to email me.

WEBSITE NOT BEHAVING?

Ever click a link to a website expecting something specific to happen when you get there but nothing does? Look for this little bar at the top of the page:

This is Windows protecting you from websites that might download and install software onto your computer without your permission or knowledge. If you did, however navigate to the website intentionally and for a purpose, chances are you'll need to click the bar and then click "ok" or "allow" or "install" in order to be able to accomplish what you went there to accomplish.

Once you click on this option either the website will proceed to do whatever it is you need it to do, or you will be presented with other little dialog boxes with choices for you to make in order for you to enable the website to do what you are there for.

If you see a box like this on a website you are unfamiliar with or aren't sure whether or not to install, feel free to click on one of the other options to find out what is trying to install itself on your computer. Maybe you don't want it, maybe you do.

CREATE A FOLDER WITHIN A FOLDER

Is your "My Documents" folder full of all sorts of junk you'd like to organize into specific, seperate folders? It's easy to create new folders and name them whatever you want.

Open your My Documents folder.

Click your RIGHT mouse button inside the white space and you'll get a little drop-down menu.

When you hover over "New" another menu opens up where you can then left click on "Folder".

Your new folder appears with the name "New Folder", which is highlighted. Now type the name you want for the folder and your typing will replace the highlighted name, "New Folder". I'll type "Junk".

Notice the name is inside a little box wtih the cursor still flashing at the end of it. Just hit "Enter" on your keyboard and the name is set.

Now you can open it by double clicking and put anything you want in there.

WANT TO INSTALL SOMETHING?

If you click on a link in a webpage expecting to download &/or install something specific but get a page full of ads and can't find your download, you might have another bar at the top of the page again, that you'll need to click on to activate your download.

Click on the bar and you should get a box asking you whether to run, save, or cancel. You decide.

The simplest thing to do is to just click the "Run" button and the installation will start. You will be walked through a series of steps to complete the installation. Sometimes at the end you will be asked to restart your computer. Do.

You can click "Cancel" if you change your mind and the little box will just go away and nothing else will happen.

If you click on the "Save" button a navigation box will open where you can choose a folder in your computer to store the installation file. I like to choose this option most of the time so that if I ever need to reinstall the program for any reason I can just double click on the installation file where I stored it and begin the reinstall without having to go online and try to find it there again. I created a folder in My Documents labeled "downloads" just for these installation files.

Double click on the "Downloads" folder to open it (or wherever you want to store the file) and then click "Save".

You'll see this while the file is downloading:

And this when it is completed:

Now you can click on the "Run" button to start the installation. If you ever do need to reinstall the program again from your stored installation file please do go to "options" or "preference" inside the program after it is installed and check for updates. Software developers are constantly improving their programs and if your installation file sat in your folder for very long, chances are now the program needs updating.

OFF TOPIC - PAULA'S CHOICE

As with software, I would never recommend any product I do not use and love, myself. I am proud to announce that the best skin care line, ever, has accepted me as an affiliate. The product line is called Paula's Choice and it is owned and run by Paula Begoun from Seattle, WA. She started out years ago as a product review writer and in the process learned so much about what makes a good product she finally decided to formulate her own. Her pet peeves are high prices and false or exaggerated claims. So it follows that her products are very affordable and what you see is what you get. She bases her formulas on hard science and publishes a great product review newsletter called Beautypedia, which can be found here. What's more, she actually recommends other companies' products if they are good, too.

What does it mean that I am an affiliate? It means that if you click on a link to her website from this newsletter or my website, Computer RX of Eastern Washington, and buy anything, I will receive a 15% commission, which is very cool, but honestly, even after spending way too much on really upscale products, I've ended up using Paula's Choice exclusively because it it truly the best I've ever tried. So check out her newsletter and website if you're interested (She has mens' products, too!) and get some samples to try before investing in full-sized products if you like. And don't forget to use the link from my newsletter (below or in the right sidebar) or website, please. ENJOY!

Happy computing!
Leslie, The Un-Geek

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Leslie's Un-Geek Windows XP Newsletter Volume #5 ~ April 8, 2010

2010-04-08T06:52:13Z

Greetings, Dear Readers!

I got some great questons from you this month. Here are a few.

Save a page in "favorites" so you can access it quickly next time
Save pictures you receive in an email
Run chkdsk utility because you receive a corrupt file notification

SAVE A FAVORITE PAGE

We all have certain web pages we visit frequently. Internet Explorer provides a way to save links to these pages so they are easy to access without having to search for them every time.

Once you have the page open that you want to save click on the "favorites" button on the top of your browser:

Your "favorites" sidebar opens. Click on "add to favorites".

You get a little box with the name of the page filled in.

Just click the "Add" button and then next time you click on "favorites" it will be in there.

HOW DO I SAVE PICTURES THAT I RECEIVE IN EMAILS?

I did a brief tutorial describing the "drag and drop" method in my first newsletter, but a lot of you probably didn't get that issue and the question has come up again so I'll do a more complete tutorial here.

Drag and drop is the easiest way, but it doesn't always work. There are a lot of factors involved, many of which you have no control over, like how the pictures were attached or inserted into the email, what email program sent them, etc. So there are a few ways to try. Also, many people do not know how to resize photos before sending, like we did in the last issue, so the pictures they send you are HUGE! So you may have to resize them after you have saved them so that they are easier to see.

First let's review the old drag and drop:

This will probably work if the pictures you want to save were attached, not inserted. You'll see the difference as we go. Open the folder you want to put the pictures in. With the email containing the pictures open, click your left mouse button and HOLD IT DOWN. While holding it down drag it across into the white space inside the open folder. Release the mouse button.

This will "drop" the picture into the folder.

Easy-peasy! Unfortunately it doesn't always work that way. If the sender "inserted" the picture instead of "attaching" it, it won't appear in the attachments line below the subject line. It will just be showing in the body of the email. Sometimes you can drag and drop these but chances are it won't work. If it doesn't you can "save as". Here's how.

Right click on the picture inside the email and you'll get a little menu. Click on "Save Picture As".

and you get a navigation box.

If the navigation box doesn't open to the folder you want to save the picture in you'll have to navigate to the right folder. Notice the File name is weird. You might want to change it to a name you like better like "cats".

Then click the "Save" button and the picture will be saved in the designated folder.

THIS KEEPS POPPING UP ON MY COMPUTER: "THIS FILE OR DIRECTORY (NAME OF FILE FOLLOWS) IS CORRUPT AND UNREADABLE. PLEASE RUN CHKDSK UTILITY." WHERE DO I FIND THE CHKDSK UTILITY AND HOW DO I RUN IT?

Click your "START" button and then click on "My Computer"

Right click on C: (Local disk) to get the drop down menu, then click on "Properties"

You get a window with a whole bunch of choices in it. Click the "Tools" tab at the top.

This window open:

Click on "Check Now". You get this:

Click inside each (both) of the little boxes and check marks will appear.

Click "Start" and you get this:

Click "Yes". Then click on all the "OK"s in all the open boxes to close them. Restart your computer. It'll start up on a blue screen like this:

The white text will grow and change, working its way through all 5 stages. It takes a while and gets really boring. This is a good time to walk away and do something else. Get a cup of coffee, do the dishes, feed the dog, whatever you like. Or if you prefer to sit and watch the screen you may end up having a nap you didn't count on. When it's all finished it will start up like normal and if there were any errors or corrupted files they should be fixed. If this doesn't solve your issue, then further troubleshooting is needed.

Happy computing!
Leslie, The Un-Geek

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Leslie's Un-Geek Windows XP Newsletter Volume #4 ~ March 11, 2010

2010-03-11T12:00:00Z

Greetings, Dear Readers!

Greeting, Dear Readers!

I include lots of illustrations in my newsletters so you can see what your screen should be doing. Nowadays some people are using Vista or Windows 7, which look very different from Windows XP. Please let me know if you are using one of these newer operating systems so I can customize your newsletters to look like your screen.

In this issue we will deal with questions from you:

How do I resize photos for email?
How do I resize photos in the built-in Windows image editor?
How do I insert an image in an email so it opens inside the message?
How can I send a fax without having to buy a fax machine?

LET'S RESIZE IMAGES!

When you import photos from your camera into your computer they are HUGE! What this means is that if you send them to your friends in an email or try to upload them to a website for sharing it will take way too long to make the trip from your computer across the internet to wherever they are bound, and your email program may even refuse to send anything so large. If you were to print the photo in its native size it would probably be bigger than a piece of notebook paper! So you will want to make them smaller for sharing. I'm not going to have you change the actual photo to a smaller size, but rather save a copy that will be smaller so that you can still preserve the original large photo as well. This is a good idea because any time you resize a photo your smaller version will lose a little quality. Not enough to see with the naked eye, but enough to see if you were to, for instance, blow it back up to a bigger size again. You never know. You just might want to make a poste r of it some day! So let's save the big original AND a little copy for sharing.

If you just want to email your photos your email program can actually resize them for you. There are two ways to do this. First you can navigate to the picture(s) you want to send and right click on the photo, and you will see a menu like this:

Hover your cursor over "Send To" and another little menu will appear like this:

Click on "Mail Recipient" and you'll get a little box giving you some options like this:

Make your selection by clicking on the little round button to the left of your choice so that it has a green dot in the middle of it and then click "OK". Now a new email message will open up with a small copy of your image already attached! Pretty cool!

That message is put in there automatically and you can erase it and add your own.

But what if you want to INSERT the photo instead of ATTACHING it, so that it shows up right in the email? This is where the other way of resizing photos comes in handy.

Windows gives us a dandy little program called "Paint". It is an image editing program that doesn't do very much, frankly, but it does resize images. If someone tells you to spend $400 on Photoshop tell them to go jump in the lake!

Let's start by making a copy to work with so that if we screw it up the original will remain intact and pristine. You can actually use this method to copy just about any file of any type, not just images. Navigate to the folder containing the image and right click it once to see a menu like this:

Click on "Copy". The little menu disappears! Never fear, you didn't do anything wrong. Now right click on the blank space inside the folder and another little menu appears.

Click on "Paste" and your copy appears right there in the same folder with a new name: Copy of challenger.

Now you can double click on "Copy of challenger" to open it for editing and the original "challenger" photo won't be touched.

Once you've opened "Copy of challenger" by double clicking it you'll see it in a window with a row of icons on the bottom. On the right, just before the liittle blue question mark there is a little aqua colored icon. If you hover your cursor over it, it says "Closes this program and opens the image for editing." Click that. And your image opens in "Paint" like this:

As you can see, your image is so big, only a small corner shows up in the window. You can see the whole image by scrolling up and down, left and right just like you would in a browser window.

Next you want to click on "Image" on the top menu bar, which opens a little menu like this:

Click on "Stretch/Skew..." and another little window with some choices will open up like this:

Now the fun starts. The little numbers in the little boxes are there for you to change to whatever you like. The top "Stretch" section is what we want to change. It is important to keep the two numbers the same so that you won't end up with a misshapen image. I suggest starting with 50% to see how it will look. Just change the two little "100% to 50% and then click "OK".

Now you're beginning to see the image.

Now there are lots of things you can do. You can make the "Paint" window bigger by dragging the bottom right corner or by clicking on the square in the top right corner to see the whole image. You can click on "Image" on the top menu bar again, then click on "Attributes" to see the new dimensions of your image.

This little box gives you all kinds of info. Now you can just click "OK" or "Cancel" to make the little box go away, or "Default" to put the image back to its original size. You can change the numbers here, too, and click "ok" to save the change, but I wouldn't. Since the numbers aren't in percent, you may distort your picture. Let's just click "ok" to keep the new dimensions and make the little box go away.

Here's something really cool: You can click "Edit" on the top menu bar and then "Undo" at any time if you want to undo the last action you performed. You can "Undo" as many times as you want. Also, if you accidentally close the "Paint" window before you're ready to save your changes you'll get a little box asking you if you want to save the changes and if you click "No" the image will go back to it's original state. So don't worry about wrecking your image. Besides, this is just a copy of the original, anyway, remember? Nothing you do to this will affect your original image.

So if you're happy with the new dimensions you can save your new image and I'll show you how to do that in a minute. First let's make it even smaller. You will click on "Image" and then "Stretch/Scew" again and the little box will open up again.

Notice that the values in the little boxes are 100% again! But you already reduced the size by 50%, right? So now you're reducing the reduced version, so if you type in 50% again you'll end up with an image that is actually 25% of the original size. Let's do that.

Now that's a nice size! Let's save it. Click on "File" on the top menu bar to see a menu like this:

Now just click on "Save" and voila! Your "challenger" photo remains unchanged and your "Copy of challenger" is 25% smaller and will fit into an email nicely or upload to the web quickly. You'll need to click the red "X" in the right hand top corner to close the "Paint" program.

HOW DO I INSERT A PHOTO INTO AN EMAIL INSTEAD OF ATTACHING IT?

If you attach any kind of file to an email, whether it be a photo, text document, or whatever, it will just show up right under SUBJECT as an attachment that needs to be opened to be viewed, like the photo we attached to the email at the beginning of this newsletter. If you insert a photo, it shows up when you open the email. Here's how:

Open a new mail message. Click on "Insert" on the top menu bar, and click on "Picture" like this:

A new little box will open up like this:

Relax! You don't need to know what to type in the box where the cursor shows up. Just click on the "Browse" button just to the right of it and you'll get a navigation box like this:

This is the contents of my "My Documents" folder. Now you need to navigate to the folder containing the photo you want to insert. In my case I will click on "My Pictures" and then on the "Open" button on the bottom right corner of the window. Your little navigation box might not open on your "My Documents" folder. Whatever folder it opens on, you'll need to navigate to where your photo is. If you don't know how to do that, let me know and I'll include a tutorial on that in the next newsletter.

Here's my folder containing my photo.

Now just click once on the photo you want to insert to select it and then click on the "Open" button on the bottom right corner of the window. Now you're back to the same little box you had before, but the location of the photo is typed in for you.

Look at the choices you can select. Play around with these choices to see how you can change the look of the photo in the email. If you type something in the "Alternate Text" box that text will show up when the recipient hovers their cursor over your photo. If you put a number in the "Border Thickness" box a little frame will appear around your photo. All the illustrations in this newsletter have a border of "1". The higher the number you type in, the thicker the border. If you leave it blank there will be no border or frame. Under "Spacing" you can type numbers inot the boxes by "Horizontal" and Vertical" to specify a blank space around the picture so that when you type your email message it won't run too close to your photo. Or it's ok to leave them all alone and just.click "OK" and Voila! Your photo is INSERTED into your email.

Now you can type a message above or below the photo and send it.

NEED TO SEND A FAX FROM HOME?

I don't know about you, but I'm not about to invest in a fax machine for my home. But I recently had to send a fax, so rather than drive down to KINKO or wait to use the fax machine at work I let my fingers do the walking and went on a search for a cheap online fax service. I found several, but only one that was truly FREE! Here's the link:

Happy computing!
Leslie, The Un-Geek

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Leslie's Un-Geek Windows XP Newsletter Volume #3 ~ February 9, 2010

2010-02-09T12:00:00Z

Greetings, Dear Readers!

Hello, Dear Readers. And an extra special welcome to my new subscribers. Please send in your questions and comments to me by clicking here. I really love hearing from you.

Winter is almost over and Spring is on its way. And with Spring comes Spring cleaning. Let's get a head start and clean up our computers before it gets warm enough to focus on your yards. In this issue I'll tell you how to

1) Clean up your email program

2) Clean up your desktop.

MY EMAIL OPENS REALLY SLOW NOW. WHY AND WHAT CAN I DO?

By default Outlook Express saves copies of all the emails you send in a folder called "Sent Items" and all the emails you delete in a folder called "Deleted Items". Over time these folders grow and grow, and every time you start up your email program it takes longer and longer for these folders to load as they become more and more bloated. There are two different possible solutions. If you want Outlook to stop saving them at all so you don't ever have to worry about it, you can tweak the settings to make it that way and I'll show you how. The problem with this solution is that if you ever need to access a deleted or sent email at a later date you can't. They're gone. The other option is to let Outlook Express go ahead and save everything and then clean out the folders manually. The only problem with this method is actually remembering to do it. But if this is your preference there are ways to do it quickly and easily and I'll show you how.

First let's look at the settings in Outlook Express. Click one time on the "tools" button on the menu bar, then "options".

You'll get a neat box with tons of options for customizing Outlook Express behaviors. Explore and play with these if you're so inclined. Here's how to make Outlook Express stop saving sent and deleted emails. Click on the "Send" tab at the top of the box and you'll see this.

See the option at the top "Save copy of sent messages in the 'Sent Items' folder"? Click on the little check mark to the left of it and the little check mark should go away and the "Apply" button at the bottom should light up like this:

Click the "Apply" button.

Then click on the "Maintenance" tab at the top. The top option in this window is "Empty messages from the 'Deleted Items' folder on exit." The little box to the left of it is blank. Click one time in the little box and a check mark should appear and the "Apply" button at the bottom will light up again.

Click "Apply" and "OK". The box will go away and Outlook Express will no longer save your sent or deleted emails.

You'll still need to clean out your bloated folders. Clean out the "Sent Items" folder first because when you delete those emails they will be deposited into the "Deleted Items" folder. If you were to clean out the "Deleted Items" folder first you would end up having to do it twice.

In the left hand column click one time on "Sent Items" and all your sent emails will appear in the next column over.

Now instead of deleting them one by one (and chances are you have hundreds!) you can do it all at once. Here's how:

Highlight the first one by clicking one time on it.

Scroll down to the last email. Now press down the "shift" key on your keyboard and hold it down while you click one time on the last email. Now they are all highlighted! Cool!

Now all you have to do is hit the "delete" key on your keyboard and they all go away.

If you want to keep a few in the folder and not delete all at once there is still a quicker way than deleting them one by one. Press and hold down the "Ctrl" key on your keyboard and while holding it down click one time on each email you want to delete. This will highlight just the ones you click on, the ones you want to delete.

Now hit your "delete" key and only the highlighted ones will be deleted.

Now to the "Deleted Items". If you want to clean out the folder completely there is an even quicker way! Click on the "Edit" button on the top menu and then halfway down the little menu find and click one time on "Empty 'Deleted Items' Folder".

You'll get a little pop up asking if you're sure because this is a permanent action and after this none of these emails will ever be retrievable again.

If you want to take another look to see if there's anything in there you might want to keep just click "no" and your emails will stay in the "Deleted Items" folder. If you're sure, click "yes" and voila! They all disappear! If you want to only permanently delete certain ones you can follow the same procedure as you did in the "Sent Items" folder.

Now your email program should load fast again (provided your internet connection is good).

MY DESKTOP IS ALL CLUTTERED UP WITH ICONS AND I WANT TO SHOW OFF MY NEW WALLPAPER BUT STILL HAVE ACCESS TO MY PROGRAMS. WHAT CAN I DO?

Again, there are two good solutions. You can safely delete the desktop icons you don't use. They are only shortcuts to the programs and deleting them won't effect the programs at all. All your programs will still have shortcuts in your START menu so you can access them from there.

BUT if you want a really clean desktop with nothing but your awesome wallpaper showing and don't want to have to hunt through your start menu for your favorite programs there's a really cool option. You can hide all your desktop icons. Right click on any blank space on your desktop and you'll get a menu.

How do you like my wallpaper? These are my Baby Beastie Boys. Anyway, the top choice on the little menu says "Arrange Icons By". Hover your cursor on that command and another little menu will open up.

Click on "Show Desktop Icons" and the little check mark next to it will disappear and so will your icons!

Nice and clean! "But how do I access my shortcuts?" you cry. Here's the coolest part!

Right click on the bar at the bottom of your screen and you get a menu.

See the "Toolbars" option on the top? Hover your cursor over that and you get another little menu.

Click on the "Desktop" option. Now on the right end of the bar appears the word "Desktop".

See the little arrow just to the right of the word "Desktop"? Click on that and you'll get a whole list of all the icons that you disappeared off your desktop. Just click on any one of them to open it!

Now you can enjoy your beautiful picture without anything cluttering it up but still have access to your programs super quick. If you ever want to get your icons back onto your desktop just follow the same procedure you did to hide them but this time when you click on "Show Desktop Icons" they will reappear.

As you can see it is a general rule that just about anytime you right click on something you'll get some kind of menu. Also just about every program has some sort of "options" or "preferences" menu you can use to customize the behaviors of your programs to suite your particular needs. Explore and play with all the options you can find. It's fun and you'll learn about tons of things your computer can do that you never imagined.

Happy computing!
Leslie, The Un-Geek

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Leslie's Un-Geek Windows XP Newsletter Volume #2 ~ December 28, 2009

2009-12-28T12:00:00Z

Greetings, Dear Readers!

Hello, Dear Readers.

I hope your holidays were joyous and wonderful. Check out the neat new gadgets at the end of the newsletter now that you can use to share the newsletter with friends &/or receive it in your RSS reader. I have accumulated some really good topics for this issue from things that come up in my daily life and the lives of my pepes, plus I got some really good quesions from you, the readers. I'll start with questions from you.

WHEN I TRY TO RUN A CERTAIN PROGRAM I GET AN ERROR THAT SAYS I HAVE TO BE LOGGED IN AS ADMINISTRATOR AND IT WON'T RUN. WHY, AND WHAT CAN I DO TO GET IT TO RUN.

The answer to "why?" is pretty much "Beats me!" Some programs just don't seem to recognize you as administrator, even when you are. Here's what to do: If you're using a Windows XP machine all you have to do is right click the icon for the program and you'll see a menu like this:

Click on "run as" and you'll see a dialog box like this:

Now you can click on the radio button by the administrator of the computer (probably you), enter password if you need to, and click "ok". The program should probably run now.

If you're using a Vista or Windows 7 machine the first menu will look like this:

Click on "run as administrator" and you'll probably get one of those boxes asking if you're sure and you just click "ok" and the program should run. Hopefully after you've gone through this process once you won't have to again for that particular program.

WHAT DOES THE DEFRAGMENTER DO, HOW OFTEN SHOULD I RUN IT, AND IS IT SAFE TO RUN IT MORE OFTEN?

Everything on you computer consists of bits of information "written" on your hard drive. Bits that work together to run programs and display information are grouped together so that when you ask your hard drive to run the program or provide a function your hard drive can find everything it needs to obey your command quickly and easily. But through daily use the groups get split apart and scattered around so that they aren't together anymore and it's a little harder and more time-consuming for your hard drive to find and round up all the bits it needs to obey your commands. This is called "fragmentation". The defragmenter puts all the little bits back together in groups where they belong so that your hard drive is faster and more efficient again at obeying your commands. Some activites produce more fragmentation than others. Photo editing, video editing, loading music on your computer do cause more fragmentation that r eading and writing email, word processing, and surfing the web. So if you mostly only do the latter three activities you really don't need to defragment more than once a month. And if you do lots of the former three activities, once a week would be better. These are general estimates and not strict perameters. The built-in defragmenter that comes with Windows XP is really cool. You can run the "analyze" function and it will tell you if you need to defragment or not. The defragmenter built into Vista and Windows 7 is designed to run automatically in the background and is set to run once a week by default. This is perfectly acceptable. You can actually defragment your C drive as often as you like without doing any damage, but it's unnecessary and won't improve performance unless it was needed in the first place.

There are two really important things to remember:

NEVER DEFRAGMENT IF YOU HAVE OR MAY HAVE A VIRUS!!! Run a virus scan and let your anti-virus program get rid of any viruses before you defragment. If you defragment first, there is a chance your anti-virus program will no longer be able to find and destroy the virus. It's also a good idea to run the disc clean utility first, too, but not necessary.
NEVER DEFRAGMENT YOUR RECOVERY PARTITION!!! Your recovery partition is probably designated as drive D and is much smaller than your main C drive. The Windows XP defragmenter looks like this with the drive letters listed at the top:

Unfortunately I don't have a recovery partition for you to see in the example above, but if I did it would be listed right under the C drive, probably as the D drive. Before you defragment make sure your C drive ONLY is highlighted by simply left clicking on it once. That will tell your defragmenter to defrag the C drive only. If you defragment your D drive there is a chance it won't work if you ever need it to reinstall your OS from.

HOW DO I RUN THE DISC CLEAN UTILITY?

I think the easiest way to access it is to double click on your My Computer icon on your desktop, then right click your C drive and you'll get a menu:

Click on "properties" and you'll get a dialog box like this:

Now just click on the "Disk Cleanup" button and that will start the process. You'll see a little box with a progress bar and after it runs for a minute it'll go away and you'll see this:

Check all the little boxes, then the "ok" button. You'll get a little box asking "Are you sure...?". Click on "yes" and let it run til it's finished and disappears on its own. It may take a really long time if you've never done it before. Run it every week and it won't take that long ever again. This along with defragmenting are two very simple utilities that can significantly improve your computer's performance, especially if you've never done them and your computer is slowing down &/or crashing, freezing, hanging, etc.

HERE'S A LITTLE KNOW FACT FOR LAPTOP OWNERS:

Your battery is good for about 500 charges, give or take. Most people leave the battery plugged into the laptop all the time, even when running on AC power. If you unplug your battery before you plug your power cord into the wall you'll save your battery and improve its life significantly. When you use the battery, use it til it's dead, charge it, and then unplug it until you need to run on battery power again. That way you'll get the most out of your 500 charges. If you leave it plugged in all the time, it charges every time you plug in the power cord, thereby using up your 500 charges before you ever even use them.

A LITTLE NOTE FROM ME:

If at any time I'm not clear in my explanations feel free to ask for clarification. It's hard to know sometimes how you're coming across or being understood in print vs. in person.

Well, I'm tired of typing, so that's it for this issue.

Happy computing!
Leslie, The Un-Geek

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Leslie's Un-Geek Windows XP Newsletter Volume #1 ~ November 19, 2009

2009-11-19T12:00:00Z

Greetings, Dear Readers!

Hello, friends.

This is my first newsletter and to tell the truth, I'm not sure what to write. What I am sure of is that I am writing it for you, the subscribers, and I want this to be YOUR newsletter. So please let me know if you have questions &/or comments you would like to see included in the next one. I will give your suggestions, requests, questions, etc. priority. Remember: there is no dumb question or silly problem. If you've wondered about something or had a problem of any kind with your computer, you can bet someone else has, too, and if you go ahead and bring it up here you'll be helping them, as well. Click here to submit your input.

Also, I don't really know how often I'll publish new issues. I guess the more questions I get the more often I'll need to publish.

The right hand sidebar with the "recommended software" links is there because these are software programs I use and love and do recommend. But in the interest of full disclosure I need to let you know that if you click on one of these links and buy the software I will get a commission. So, yes, I am selling software, but I honestly will not sell anything I do not truly believe in. Most of these programs have free versions, anyway, so don't spend your hard earned money unless you need to.

In this first newsletter I'll just give answers to some questions people have asked me before.

MY SOUND DOESN'T WORK! HOW DO I GET IT BACK?!
I had a lady whose sister had muted her computer and she couldn't figure out what to do.
On your system tray (the right hand side of your little bar at the bottom of your screen with all the little icons of programs running on your computer) there is a tiny icon that looks like a picture of a speaker. When your computer is muted the little speaker has a red circle with a line through it. Unfortunately, it's so small you might not be able to find it. If you had eyes like my cat it would look like this:

But if you have eyes like me it really looks like this

So IF you can find it - click on it and you should see this:

Then you can click on the little checkbox to control the "mute" function &/or click on the little slider thingie and push it up or down to control the volume. When you're done if you just wait about 5-10 seconds the little box with the slider and mute checckbox will disappear by itself.

HOW DO I SAVE PICTURES I RECEIVE IN EMAIL?

(This is assuming you are using Outlook Express or Windows Mail. Other providers or internet mail may behave differently.)

The easiest way to save email attachments (pictures) is to drag and drop. Here's how:
Drag and drop:
1)      Open the folder you want to put the pictures in.
2)      With the email containing the pictures open, left click on a picture in the “attachment” line just under subject. This will ”grab” the picture.
3)      Now with your left finger still down on the mouse button drag the mouse (the picture you have clicked on) into the white space inside the folder.
4)      Release the mouse. This should copy the picture into the folder.
5)      Do this with each picture.
6)      Open the pictures you have just dropped into the folder to verify they are really there and then you can delete the email if you wish.

This isn't the only way. If you've tried this and it isn't working for you, let me know and I'll describe alternate ways.

HOW DO I CREATE A NEW FOLDER INSIDE ANOTHER FOLDER?

Open the folder in which you want to create the new one.
Left-click on the empty, white space inside the folder and you should see this:
Hover your mouse over the word "new" and you should see this:
Click on "folder" and a new folder will be created named "new folder'.
Here's the tricky part: Without clicking on anything, while the name is highlighted like that, you can just start typing and type any name you want to give the folder. Then hit "enter" and you have a new, empty folder with the name you gave it.
If you didn't successfully rename your new folder, never fear. You're not stuck with the name "new folder" forever. You can right click on your new folder and you'll see this:

Now you can click on "rename" and then the name "new folder" will be highlighted again and you can change it to whatever you want.

WHAT IS RAM AND WHY SHOULD I GET MORE OF IT?

RAM stands for Random Access Memory. RAM provides space for your computer to read and write data to be accessed by the CPU (central processing unit). When people refer to a computer's memory they usually mean its RAM. If you add more RAM to your computer, you reduce the number of times your CPU must read data from your dard disk. This usually allows your computer to work considerably faster, as RAM is many times faster than a hard disk.

What it actually is is a little piece of hardware that is installed in your motherboard. You can find out how much you have, if you can add more, and what to buy by going to your computer manufacturer's website. You can usually buy enough RAM to significantly improve your computer's performance for less than $100! If you're interested I'll help you do this and install it too for $25.

So that's it for the first ever "un-geek" newsletter. I really hope y'all enjoy it and send me stuff to add to it.

Happy computing!
Leslie, The Un-Geek

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