January tip

Anti virus

It is very important that you keep updating your anti virus program regularly. Viruses are being created all the time and you could find yourself with a computer with so many infected files that it just won’t work anymore.

Once you have bought your anti virus program, you are usually provided free of charge with the latest update as long as you remember to go onto the Internet every week. Some programs are set up to automatically download the latest update every Friday, but you must go on to the Internet. It won’t happen by itself.

If you have not taken advantage of this and the first twelve months have gone by, you can still download the latest version by going online but this time you will have to pay. It is certainly worth the money.

If you don’t know how to do this or have any questions at all about viruses and/or the protection against them, please give me a call on 0418 421 202

February tip

Backup

Although computers these days are fairly reliable, every now and then the disaster you weren’t expecting happens and the file on your hard disc is corrupted i.e. when you try to open your file, it won’t open and a very frightening message comes up which tells you that the file is no more.

Not to worry as you have backed up your files on to a series of floppy discs or onto your zip or CD drive.

Oops! The only thing you have been backing up is your car?

Well, now is the time to learn how to do it. It is never too late to start your regular routine of backing up your discs

1. Open the window where you have saved your latest work.

   You may either copy a whole folder across or certain files.

2. Open the drive that you are backing up to – floppy, zip or CD.
3. Right click on the file or document
4. Left click on Copy.
5. Right click in the folder or window you are copying to.
6. Left click on Paste.

March tip

Frozen Computer

I hope that you have all been updating your antivirus program each week and backing up regularly as you learned to do in the January and February tips respectively.

We will deal with a different problem this month – a very frustrating one.

You are in the middle of an important document and the computer freezes. You wobble the mouse and the pointer doesn’t move. You shout at the computer and it doesn’t respond. You bash the …. No, you wouldn’t lose your cool.

Well, you could ring me straightaway and I could tell you how to get your computer unfrozen or…

1. Press Escape

   If nothing changes, then

    

2. Hold down the Control and Alt keys at the same time with the first and second fingers of the left hand and tap the Delete key with any available finger of your right hand. Let the Control and Alt keys go.

   This brings up the Close Program window where you are given the option of Ending the task, shutting down or cancelling. The highlighted program in the list is the one causing the problem.

    

April tip

Save first

You are all updating your antivirus programs regularly (each Friday) via the net, backing up and I hope that you haven’t had to use the Control Alt Delete combination too often.

Now for this month. This seems such a basic thing to do that I hesitated to put it in as a monthly tip but it seems that there are still a lot of people out there who wait until they have finished a document before they save it. Sometimes they don’t bother to save at all because it is a one off and they only want to print it out.

BIG MISTAKE!!

I always save a new document as soon as I create it. This way if there is a sudden powercut or the computer freezes or some such, then I have only lost the last few minutes of what I was typing. How? Because when you save, you set the automatic saving option working. This saves your document every 10 minutes.

Computer Tip for May

Defrag

So far we have dealt with updating your antivirus programs regularly (each Friday) via the net, backing up, what to do when your computer freezes and saving before you start work.

This month sees us looking at defragmenting. (As one of my interests is our language, the computer vocabulary fills me with delight.) Defragmenting is when you combine all the fragments of a file into one file in one location. How they come to be fragmented is when you delete a file, it leaves a gap and the gap fills up with fragments of new files that you save. This slows down accessing your files as they are not in one place.

To defragment, go to Start and go up to Programs. Follow the arrow across and up to Accessories and then follow this arrow across and down to System Tools which is where the Disk Fragmenter is at. Try to do this late at night before you go to bed once a week and it will be completed when you get up in the morning

Computer Tip for July

Thank you to those of you who have shown your appreciation of my monthly tips by contacting me by email or telephone. I hope I have been able to be of help.

There seem to be some very virulent viruses around at the moment which manage to disable your antivirus program. Once this happens they are free to wreak havoc in your system. The main problem seems to be that as a result of either poor or insufficient advice, people are not upgrading their antivirus files every week. The trouble with viruses is that they are created every day and if you don’t update regularly then last week’s antivirus files can’t deal with this week’s virus.