Computers have become so commonplace, we often take them for granted. We use them to communicate at work, to friends and family, and even for entertainment purposes. But, we forget that they may contain important documents and files that need to be backed up. If you have ever lost an important document or precious photo because of a computer crash, you know how important backing up your computer can be.
Some people think that backups are only for computer geeks and nerds, but backups are important to everyone that owns a computer. Even if you have never had a problem with your computer, you still need to perform routine backups. A virus can attack your computer at any time and you can lose valuable information. You can even accidentally delete a file or it can become corrupted and if you do not have a backup, it is lost forever.
If one day, your hard drive is destroyed beyond repair, one of two things can happen. You can purchase a new hard drive for your computer, but it will be blank, except for maybe the system software. You will either suffer a great loss of everything – files, software, photos, music, etc. – you had on your computer. Or, if you were diligent in making backups, you will only have to reinstall everything from CDs or DVDs. While restoring everything is a slight annoyance, losing everything can be devastating. (more…)
Prior to Windows XP, if you had a version where users needed to logon into the system, the user would need to type both their userid and password. When the XP version came out, windows enhanced the logon feature to allow users to click on an icon and then enter in their password. The logon feature was also added to the xP Home Edition so multiple users in the house could more easily share the same computer.
I love the logon feature in the home edition, but do not like the fact that I am giving out part of the information needed to log into the computer. For example, let’s say that someone was trying to steal some important information off of your computer. You already gave them 50% of the information. Now all they need is your password. Take the situation where your child is off to College and is sharing a room with other students that they do not know. You child may have some information stored on the computer that you would not want any of the students to access.
I don’t want to make it any easier for someone to break into my account which is why I like the classig logon screen. Here is how to turn it on:
- Click on “start” in the lower left hand corner and then click on “Control Panel”.
- Look for the “User Accounts” icon and double click on it.
- After the previous step you will see a window that says “User Accounts” in it upper left hand
side.
- Click the “Change the way users log on or off” button.
- Look for the “Use the Welcome screen” checkbox and un-check it.
- Click the “Apply Options” button.
Now go ahead and reboot your computer. When Windows loads up you will now have the classic xp login screen where you will need to enter in both the user id and password.
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!
Did you ever wonder how your friends have the same email signature all the time? Maybe they have a favorite quote or something similar. Creating an email signature using Outlook Express is very easy to do. Here’s how you do it:
- Go to tools, then options, then click on the signature tab
- click on the box that says “add signatures to all outgoing messages”
- in the “text” box type in the text you want to include on all email messages
- click OK
If you are using Microsoft Outlook (full version), just follow the below steps
- Go to tools, then options, then click on the mail format tab
- Click the button that is labeled “Signatures”.
- Click New and give your signature a name. Use the blank format as your template.
- Click OK when done.
- On the mail format tab, look at the bottom of the window where you see the label “Signature for new Messages” and “Signature for replies and forwards”. Choose the signature that you created and click “OK”.
It’s easy to remove the signature if you don’t want to include it on a specific message -just highlight it and hit delete.
Email signatures are also great if you have your own business. You can include your business name and contact information in all outgoing messages and don’t have to spend a lot of time retyping it every time you create a message.
When you setup a hotmail account, windows creates an entry in your internet explorer to make it easy to get to your account. I had a customer call me this evening that was panicking because she could not find it.
If you cannot find your icon for hotmail, just open up your internet explorer and type the following in the address bar: www.hotmail.com. This will bring you to the login screen for hotmail.
