The “My Documents” folder is the default storage location on your PC for any of your personal files including your music and photos. You can place a shortcut to this folder on the Windows desktop by:
- Right click on your Windows Desktop and choose “properties”, or click on “start” in the lower left hand corner and then click on “Control Panel”. Look for the “Display” icon and double click on it.
- After the previous step you will see a window that says “Display Properties” in the upper left hand side.
- On the Display Properties window choose the “Desktop” tab.
- Click on the “Customize Desktop” button.
- On the “General” tab, check the “My Documents” box.
- Click on the “OK” button.
- Click on the “Apply” button.
You will now see the “My Documents” folder on your desktop.
Windows XP has a feature that will automatically remove any unused desktop shortcut icons that have not been used in over 60 days. If you are someone like me who might go a couple of months before using a shortcut, you can follow the below instructions to turn off this feature:
- Right click on your Windows Desktop and choose “properties”, or click on “start” in the lower left hand corner and then click on “Control Panel”. Look for the “Display” icon and double click on it.
- After the previous step you will see a window that says “Display Properties” in its upper left hand side.
- On the Display Properties window choose the “Desktop” tab.
- Click on the “Customize Desktop” button.
- Uncheck the “Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days” box.
- Click on the “OK” button.
- Click on the “Apply” button.
If you do decide that you would like to run the wizard you can get yourself back to the the desktop cleanup wizard option and either click the “Clean Desktop Now” button or check the box again for the wizard to automatically run on a regular basis.
Using a photo as your Windows desktop background is a nice way of personalizing your computer. You can use your favorite photo of your children or any other photo that is pleasing to you. Follow the below steps to easily modify your Windows desktop background:
- Right click on your Windows Desktop and choose “properties”, or click on “start” in the lower left hand corner and then click on “Control Panel”. Look for the “Display” icon and double click on it.
- After the previous step you will see a window that says “Display Properties” in it upper left hand side.
- On the Display Properties window choose the “Desktop” tab.
- On the right side of the window, click the “Browse” button.
- Navigate to the picture on your hard drive and double click on it.
- You should now see your photo in the monitor that is shown in the “Display Properties” window.
- Click the “Apply” button.
Your Windows XP Desktop should now be displaying the photo that you wanted to use as your background.
One of the nice features of Windows XP is the ability to create user accounts. Each member in your family can have their own account to use and personalize for using the computer. When you have your own user account, you are able to personalize ssettings in Windows XP, including your:
- Screen Saver
- Desktop Background
- Personal folder for your word documents and other important files
- Sound settings
- Screen resolution
You are now able to have your desktop and other settings arranged to the way that you prefer. As we all know, everyone has different tastes and preferences. In addition to the personalization, you can also limit what people can do on the computer.
To create a new account, click on “Start” in the lower left hand corner. Then choose “Control Panel” - “User Accounts”. You will be asked to enter in a user name for the account. After that you will be asked whether you want the user to be an “Computer Administrator” or “Limited”. Here is what they mean:
Computer Administrator
- Create, change and delete other user accounts.
- Make system changes.
- Install programs and access files on the whole hard drive.
Limited
- The user can only change their own password.
- Change your desktop settings.
- Access your own files.
- Access files from the shared documents folder.
After you pick the appropriate user account type, click on the “Create Account” to create the new user.
The best part of having different users might just be that you no longer have to look at your teenager’s screen savers or background!
My 14 year old nephew was over the other day using one of my computers on the home network. I worry sometimes about all the problems that children can get into using the Internet, whether it’s in chat rooms or on web sites we might say are “inappropriate” for teenagers. I don’t think my nephew is doing anything on the Internet like this – yet! I wanted to make sure I showed my nephew that his father has the ability to keep track of where he has been on the Internet. Now his father isn’t the most experienced when it comes to using the Internet and computers, but what I showed him isn’t complicated at all and anyone can do it.
While my nephew was using the computer, I went to my router to open up the outgoing log file which I have activated on my router. I asked my nephew to take a look at the log and I explained to him that this was all of the websites that have been visited by people using that computer while surfing on the Internet. He never realized that you can find out (very easily) what web sites have been visited on a computer. I then casually “mentioned” to him that his father can also do the same thing on his home computer.
My point is this - I strongly believe it is very important for parents of children to be educated about the Internet. Computers aren’t all that complicated, and there are many resources available on line that explains in plain terms how to make your computer safe for your children. As children get older they begin to get more and more curios about things. The Internet is a place where a curious, inexperienced child can get into trouble with predators on MySpace or in a chat room. Don’t forget that teenagers are often curious about sex so all the easily accessible Internet Porn sites might be places they want to visit.
Take the time and educate yourself about your computer and the Internet. You don’t have to be a computer whiz to be able to monitor your children’s Internet activity or to install proper Internet protection tools for children. This doesn’t mean you’ll be able to protect your children from all the dangers on the Internet, but it certainly will be a positive step towards safe Internet surfing.
If you have more than 1 computer in your house, you definately should consider networking them together:
- You will be able to work anywhere in your house and in most cases outside the house. Imagine sitting down on your favorite chair on your front porch and being able to use your laptop the check for that important email you were expecting from your kids.
- A home network will allow you to store all your needed documents in one place. How many times has one of your children sat down at the computer to work and the other one comes along and says they need to use the computer because they have homework too. Now the arguement can be avoided because they now access their files from any computer on your home network.
- If your computers are networked, that also means your internet connection is available for any of the computers. No more fighting about who wants to use the internet.
- You can purchase that awesome laser printer and not have to worry about it being tied to a specific computer. Every computer on your network can now print to it.
Hopefully after reading this, we have given you some ideas on the advantages of having a home network.
A NAS (Network Attached Storage) device is an external hard drive that gets connected to your home network either through an ethernet cable or wirelessly using a wireless router. This device is accessable from any computer on your home network. Your are correct in thinking that you can just simply share out your hard drive on an existing computer, but in this situation, the computer must always be on and you also have to configure your desktop firewall so other users to access your computer and it must always be on.
I use a NAS device in my home network because it give me a common location to store all of my files. For example, I just recently purchased a new laptop with built in wireless and now when I am using the laptop, I can go to the NAS device to access my business files and also know that I am getting the most recent versions of the files and then even go to my desktop computer to access the same files.
Network Attached Storage devices are no longer just used by big companies for file storage. The common home network user can now purchase these for under $200.00 and use them for the whole family to store their common files.
We like wireless devices because of the flexability of not needing to run cables, but keep in mind that the wireless NAS devices are going to be slower.
