Computers, Did you know?

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I’m not the brightest when it comes to computers, but I have picked up a few tips over the years.

WARNING
The following is only a guide to help clean up your computer. It may not work on some systems; therefore, no responsibility is accepted if it fails.

Always consult an IT expert if in doubt.

My system is Windows XP with a Compaq Presario hard drive. My main web site is Google Chrome.

Tip No.1

Did you know that every time you use the internet the information is stored in another part of your computer? This can take up valuable space and needs to be cleared from time to time.

The clearing process is easy, just follow these instructions.

Go to the internet site and click on tools, this could be shown as a symbol of a spanner in the top right corner. Note, this may not be on every system.

A menu will come up.

Scroll to and click on History.

This will show all the web sites that you have ever been on. You can clear the lot by clicking “edit items’ and then clicking “Clear all browsing data”

Or alternatively click on the square adjacent to the particular item and then click “remove selected items”

Remember, this may not work on all computers.

Also remember that once you have deleted the information, you can’t get it back.

Another thing to think about before deleting is that if you have been to a website recently, then by going to this function, you can go back to it without having to try and find it in the normal way.

Tip No.2

Have you ever been on the computer and the mouse indicator has frozen or disappeared.

Easy to fix. Press the power button on the main consul and hold for 8 seconds.

This will turn off the computer and then you can restart as normal and all should be ok.

Note, you will lose any unsaved data that you were working on before the mouse froze.

There may be other ways of doing this, but this way works for me.

Once again, I reiterate that this may not work on all computers, so exercise caution.

Tip No.3

Outlook Express has a “sent file” when you send emails.

This should be checked on a regular basis as I know of one user that had over 500 messages in the file.

Once again, this takes up valuable space and can actually slow down the speed of the unit.

To clean up this file and dispose of all the sent items, press and hold the ctrl key and click on all the items you don’t want.

When this is done, press delete and all will go.

Once again, when you do this the items are gone and can’t be retrieved.

Tip No.4

When you delete an unwanted item from your mail box it will go into a Deleted Item file.

To get rid of the information in the delete file, click on “Edit” at the top of the page, then click `Empty Deleted Items Folder`

Once again, when you do this the items are gone and can’t be retrieved.

Tip No.5

Buy an external Hard Drive, they are around $100 and is money well spent. Do a back up of all your important information and remember the photos.

As an extra precaution also make paper copies of documents and emails that you want to keep.

Some computer experts can retrieve lost information, but it is expensive to do.

Lastly, if you are disposing of your computer either by selling or in the rubbish, the internal hard drive contains everything that you ever put on the computer. Always best to have an expert delete it all for safety sake and piece of mind.

Never open an email unless you know who it is from. Best to delete it than introduce a virus or something that can corrupt your computer.

I hope this will assist some members, but remember, if you are not sure then DON’T.

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