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Computer Tips
Q: Why does my monitor go black after about 15 minutes of not using the computer?
A: Windows has a Power Management setting that will shut your monitor off after a specified amount of time. If you don't like when it's shutting the monitor off, you can change it by doing the following:
1. Hit the Start button, Settings, Control Panel (XP users: hit the Start button, Control Panel, then go to Performance and Maintenance link). Then, open the Power Management icon.
2. Look for the "Turn off monitor" drop box. Select the amount of time you want the computer to wait before shutting off the monitor, or tell it not to shut the monitor off at all.
--------------------------------- Q: What does the PrtSc button do? Does it do anything?
A: This should only happen to you Win XP and 2000 users out there. When you install a patch or update, Windows makes a directory for files you'll need if you decide to uninstall the update/patch. In other words, it's an escape hatch in case their update messes up your system.
Do you really need these files? Probably not. I had 184 files taking up 33MB of space!
If you want to get rid of them on your computer, it's pretty easy.
Go to My Computer / C: / Windows and they should be there (probably in blue). If you don't see them, you need to have hidden files displayed (in a folder go to Tools / Folder Options and make sure the radio button for "Show hidden files and folders" is selected. If not, choose it then click the "Apply to all folders" button.)
Next, select the "$NtUninstall..." directories and Delete. Bye bye unnecessary folders, hello hard drive space.
You might want to do this every couple of months, or at least a week after each update.
-------------------------------------- Q: I wish there was a way to alphabetize all the programs under Start/Programs?
A: Well, save your wishes for something good, because you can! Here's how:
1. Click the Start button, Programs. Highlight any program group (i.e. menu item) that's listed there.
2. Now, just right-click and select "Sort by name" from the resulting menu.
That's it. Remember that you can still drag and drop program groups around if you want to manually specify which ones sit at the top of the list.
---------------------------------------- Q: My IE favorites are getting out of hand! Is there a way to sort them?
A: If you use Internet Explorer, you know this problem well. Here are some tips and tricks you'll appreciate (note that some of these tips will not work with older versions of Internet Explorer):
1. To put your favorites in alphabetical order, right-click any favorite and select "Sort by name" from the resulting menu. All the favorites in that folder will be sorted alphabetically. NOTE: This only works if you click Favorites from the top toolbar, not from the "Favorites" menu on the side (don't ask me why).
2. If you have tons of favorites, you should probably put them in groups using folders. For example, if you love tomato plants, and have bookmarked all 12 internet sites that feature them, you can put all of these favorites into a folder.
To create a new folder, click your Favorites menu and select Organize Favorites. A screen will open that lets you create new folders, as well as move around your favorites.
OR
You can do the same thing by right-clicking your Start button, Explore. That should open Windows Explorer with focus on the Windows directory. If you're using XP, it will put focus on your personal directory (this tip works the same either way)
Next, open the Favorites folder. Now, right-click the right-hand pane and select New, Folder from the resulting menu. Name the folder and hit Enter.
Now just drag & drop the favorites that belong in that folder straight to it. Seems like this would be quicker to me.
3. If you would like to rename one of your favorites, (you know, the one that just says "homepage" or "Untitled document") to something slightly more descriptive, you can do so from that same Organize Favorites screen we mentioned earlier.
Open up the Organize favorites screen again, select the favorite you would like to rename, and click the "Rename" button. If you're not sure what the favorite is for, when you click it you'll see that you get a little info in the box on the left, including the URL. If that still doesn't help, double-click the link and Explorer will open the link for you.
-------------------------------- Colorful Title Bars
Would you like to make your window title bars (the area on a window that has the min, max, & close buttons on it) different colors? Try this:
1. Right-click your desktop and select Properties.
2. Your display settings should pop up. Select the Appearance tab. XP users, hit the Advanced button.
3. Click the drop down box labeled "Item".
4. Select "Active Title Bar" from the list.
5. To the right of that drop down box, you should see two additional drop down boxes labeled "Color" and "Color2"
6. The first Color box is the first color on your title bar. The second is the color that the first fades into. Set them how ever you like, you can preview the results in the little preview window above the settings.
----------------------------- Q: How can I print what appears on the screen completely? Many times it will cut off some of the right side of the material.
A: Many web designers are conscious of the fact that some people will want hard copies of their web pages. For these sites, you can just print in regular "portrait" mode. At other sites, however, part of the text gets chopped off in regular page orientation. Before you print anything it is a good idea to preview the page first. Just go to File / Print Preview.
There you can make sure that everything will print correctly. If you see that part of the page will be cut off, just click the "Page Setup" button (it looks like a page with a gear on it) or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+U.
You can then change your page layout to landscape. Your browser is, after all, in landscape format, so why not go with the flow. Go down to where it says "Orientation" and click the radio button next to "Landscape".
Click OK.
Print Preview will change to show the new layout. Is everything there now? If for some strange reason there is still stuff being cut off, you could go back to Page Setup and change the paper size to legal, then send a nasty email to the webmaster of that site telling them to re-take Web Design 101.
------------------------ More On Carets
Here's a quick one for you! If you often save different versions of the same file in different folders on your computer, you should try using this simple tip. I promise, you won't be disappointed!
When you go to save the file, after the regular name, type ^1 behind it. This makes it a version one. To get the caret (^), hold down the Shift key and hit the number six on your keyboard. For the second version, type ^2, after the file name. For the third, type ^3 and so on.
Now, go and do a search by clicking the Start button, followed by Search. In the search criteria box, type ^ (just the caret). When the search is finished, you can sort your list by name by clicking View and then Arrange Icons By > Name.
You now have a list of all the files you save “in versions" and in order, by version number. You can now delete the ones you don't need. That's pretty convenient, isn't it? Give it a shot!
----------------- Proper Removal
Are you one of the many who use a flash drive these days? I mean, really, how can you resist? They are so simple to use and just as convenient as can be. So, tell me, when you go to remove your flash drive from the USB port it's in, how do you do it? Do you just yank it out of there and go on with your day? If you do, that's not really the proper way to do it and if you keep doing it that way, you could end up ruining your flash drive. Well, lucky for you, I have come bearing instructions on how to properly remove a flash drive from your computer.
There are actually a couple different ways you can do this. I suggest that you read through them and choose the one that you feel the most comfortable with. The first one has a few less steps than the second, so we'll start there. When you're ready to take your flash drive out, double click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and find the drive that your flash drive is listed under. (It will usually be listed under a "Removable Disk" letter). Right click on that drive and choose Eject. You can then remove the flash drive with no risks of ruining anything.
The second way is to use your Safely Remove Hardware icon, located in your bottom system tray. Double click on that icon (it's a little green arrow with a little gray disk underneath it). Highlight the choice that says "USB Mass Storage Device" and click on the Stop button. Next, find the entry for your flash drive and click on it so it's highlighted. Click OK. You will then see a little pop up window in the bottom of your screen telling you that it's now safe to remove the hardware. Once you see that, you can remove the flash drive and go on your way. As you can see, both ways are very easy to do, but you need to make sure you do at least one of them, in order to keep your flash drive safe!
----------------- Restart Shortcut
Okay, get this! How would you like to have a shortcut right on your desktop that allows you to instantly restart your computer? That's right, with just a double click, you could do a quick reboot, without all the extra hassle. Awhile back, I ran a tip for a shutdown shortcut (http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/2994) and ever since, you all have been begging for the restart instructions. Well, wait no more. Here they are!
In Windows XP, right click on your desktop and go to New, Shortcut. In the wizard box for "Type the location of the item," enter this in: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r. (It may be best to copy and paste this into the box to make sure you have it correct). Click Next when you're done. Now, in the box that says "Type a name for this shortcut," enter in whatever you'd like. For example, you can name it "Restart My Computer" or just simply, "Restart." Click Finish to complete the process.
You will then see a new icon on your desktop and you can test it out by double clicking it. Your computer will restart for you, just like it would if you went to Start, Restart. Now, just in case you were wondering, the -r in the code above is used for the restart parameter. If you wanted to shut down your computer, you would use -s, which you can see from the tip linked above. Restarting your computer has never been so easy. Give it a shot!
---------------------- Lost Icons
How much do you depend on certain icons on your desktop? I'm talking about the icons from the likes of My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places and so on. Those are a few of the icons that you probably usually use on a regular basis, so if they're not there, what are you supposed to do? Well, the best answer is, "Get them back!"
Now, there are a couple different ways you may have lost the icons. They could have disappeared when you installed a certain program or even when you upgraded to a new operating system. Either way, you need them, so let's find them again! To enable those icons and more, right click on your desktop and choose Properties. Click on the Desktop tab and hit the Customize Desktop button. Next, under the General tab, check any of the icons you want to appear on your desktop.
Once you do that, they will all be returned to your desktop in full view. You can choose from the icons of My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places and Internet Explorer. Now, on the other hand, you may want to take some of these icons off your desktop. If that's the case, just uncheck them and they will then be out of your way. Easy enough, don't you think?!
-------------------- Q: How do I insert a hyperlink in an e-mail?
A: Have you ever needed to hyperlink something in an e-mail, but just weren't sure how to do it? Okay, let me back up for just a second first. You might be wondering what a hyperlink is. In case you don't already know, a hyperlink is just another word for a link. It's the colored link within a text document that you can click on to be taken to a Web site or to an e-mail.
Now that you know exactly what I'm talking about, let's learn how to create one of your own in an e-mail. You can do this whenever you want to share a certain Web site address with someone or if you want to give them someone else's e-mail address. You can go ahead and have it linked for your recipient, so all they have to do is click on it and they'll be whisked away to the right spot in no time! It's very convenient.
In most e-mail programs, you can type out a URL (for example, www.worldstart.com) and it will automatically hyperlink for you as soon as you hit the space bar. If for some reason it doesn't, you can do it manually as well. To do this, start a new e-mail and when you're ready for the hyperlink, click on the icon that looks like a globe with a chainlink around it.
It looks like this:
A box will then appear and you just have to type in the URL yourself. If it's a Web site, make sure you have http:// selected and if it's an e-mail address, have mailto: chosen. Click OK when you're done and the link will then show up in your e-mail. It will then be transferred to your recipient for easy opening.
Now, one more thing. If for some reason you can't click on the hyperlink icon, you can always go to the Insert menu, Hyperlink choice. That will bring up the same dialogue box for you and you will be able to get the link in place.
I did find out a couple of other things while I was researching this tip. Gmail does have the hyperlink option, but the icon in that program is just a chainlink. It doesn't have the globe, so if you use Gmail, keep an eye out for that. Also, I wasn't able to find a way to hyperlink in Hotmail. I may have passed over it, but there wasn't any real obvious way to do it.
Like I said, most e-mail programs will hyperlink automatically for you, so you usually don't have to worry about it. But, if the situation does arise, you'll know how to complete the task yourself now!
------------------- Q: Is there any way I can change the way my date and time are displayed in my system tray?
A: There sure is! It's always nice to change things up a little, even with your date and time display, so let's go for it! Most computer users have the date shown as a long date format (day of the week, month, day, year) and the time usually goes by the hh:mm (hour, hour, minute, minute). Well, if you want something different, you can change the way your date and time appear with just a few quick clicks.
To get started, go to Start, Control Panel, Date Time, Language and Regional Options. Once in there, click on the Regional and Language Options link. Next, click on the Customize button. This will bring up four different tabs that you can choose from, but for this tip, we're just going to focus on the Date and Time tabs.
Let's start with the date. Click on the Date tab and you will see the options for a short date and a long date format. As I said before, most of you probably already have the long date version of the day of the week, the month, the day and the year. (For example, Tuesday, July 11, 2006. Notice that this shows up when you mouse over the timestamp icon in your bottom system tray). If you'd like to change the long date format, use the drop down menu to select a new version. You can have it as a dd MMMM, yyyy format, which would be 11 July, 2006 or you can change it up another way. It's all up to you. You can also choose a short date option if you want.
Once you're done with that, click on the Time tab. Under the Time format drop down menu, choose which time display you'd like to have. You can have everything from the hour all the way down to the exact second. You can even have the AM or PM symbol shown. There is a little time guide down at the bottom of this box as well, so refer there if you have any questions about what each letter stands for.
When you've changed everything to the way you want it, click OK twice and the changes will be made. Happy date and time changing!
-------------------------- Q: Is there any way I can check the speed of my DSL Internet connection? I'm just curious to know how quick it is.
A: That's a very interesting question and I'm glad you asked. As we all know, dial-up is being phased out (although, there are several of you who still use it, which is fine!) and broadband connections are taking over the Internet world. So, as we all have faster connections, our curiosity may just get the best of us in knowing how fast it really is. Because of this, there are different speed tests users can take to find out how quick their connection runs. If you're interested in learning more about this, keep reading!
As I said before, there are a variety of different speed tests that are available for anyone to take. Your operating system may have a test built right into the Control Panel, but these honestly aren't very accurate. Some software companies even offer certain programs like these to monitor your speed, but again, these are sometimes demos, so you only get a limited version of it. So, the next option is to just use the Internet to find a speed test. Many Web sites have speed tests that users can take and most of them are different, so you can find a specific one that works best for you.
Speed tests work by having your computer download a large file (either a picture or a large document) to see how long it takes for the download to complete. The test times your computer and then divides the file size by the time it took to download to come up with your connection speed. That's pretty much all there is to that.
To find a speed test, do a quick search in Google (or whatever your favorite search engine is) and see what you can come up with. For example, I entered " DSL speed tests" in the search box and it came up with several test choices. I was pretty impressed! Once you get your results back, take some time and look through the different options and find the one that will carry out the tasks you want done.
Now, you may be wondering what a good test result is. This obviously depends on several different factors, but most consider a reading of 150 kbps (kilobits per second) and up to be a good result. Obviously, speeds will be slower if you test your bandwidth between the peak hours of the day (late afternoon and evening) because of the extra Internet usage, so it's better to test in the early morning or really late at night.
The next thing you might be wondering about is the actual reliability of a speed test. Do they really work? Well, they seem to be pretty reliable, but there are some downsides to it as well. With broadband connections, speeds are constantly changing, so it's difficult to get a clear picture of what your speed actually is. If you're not happy with the results you get, you may want to try running the test three or four times to get an average speed that you can be satisfied with.
After reading all of this, you may still be wondering why you should test your speed. Well, the main reason you should perform regular speed tests is to find out when your computer's connection speed is the fastest. You can then use those times to download large files or get an extra amount of work done, without interruptions or hesitations. Also, if you are having connection problems, you can use a speed test to find out if it's your computer or the connection that is slowing you down. It's a type of troubleshooting in that aspect. And if you are just a speed maniac, you can compare your speed with other services and see which one suits you the best.
One last thing: keep in mind that sometimes your test results will be lower than you'd really like. The main reason for this is that you may have done a test during a slow time or even during a down time, which will altar your results. These times are usually caused by maintenance work or damaged lines. When this happens, just be patient and try it again later.
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