Easy Fixes for Slow Computers

Computer running about as fast as a speeding... tortoise? More powerful than a... light breeze? Able to... well, not do very much at all without crashing?  Here are a few easy fixes for your constantly slow computer:

1) Cleaning out your PC - As time goes on, your computer can become bogged down with files and information that you no longer use.  By using Windows Disk Cleanup, your computer will identify what programs and files are rarely used and no longer needed, and ask you if you would like to get rid of them.  To run Windows Disk Cleanup:

Click Start  and open the menu; click All Programs; open Accessories; open System Tools; choose Disk Cleanup; choose which system you want the computer to clean up (usually the C: drive) - click OK; the computer will determine how much space can be cleaned up, which may take a few minutes; decide which of the provided files you wish to delete (done so by clicking the boxes on the left of each file system - turns into a check mark when clicked); click OK.

2) Decrapify it! - Just like files, your computer can run incredibly slowly when there are programs that you don’t use and software that comes pre-installed still on your computer.  Thankfully, the PC Decrapifier has been invented!  The program is free to download and helps the user to un-install and get rid of junk that has built up on your computer over time - even BRAND NEW PCs can benefit from a good decrapifing. The Decrapifier will walk you through, step-by-step, to ensure that you are the one deciding what does and does not get removed.  

To download the PC Decrapifier, visit http://pcdecrapifier.com/ and get started!

Caution: When running the Decrapifier program, only delete files and programs that you are positive you will no longer need. We recommend that you create a System Restore Point first, so that in case you do accidentally remove something, you can restore your computer to a point before those programs have been removed.  

To create a System Restore Point in Windows Vista or Windows 7:
Click Start  and open the menu; click Control Panel; click System and Security; choose System; click System Protection; click Create; type a description of the Restore Point you are creating (i.e. Before Decrapifier), click Create.

You can also perform this manually through Add/Remove Programs, and clicking Uninstall a Program.

3) Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware software - Obviously, everyone knows that you need a good anti-virus program on your PC to ensure that your information and your computer is safe. There are tons of software available to the average computer user - both free and pay for - but here in the computer lab, we’ve got our favourite: Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE).  The reason that we encourage the use of MSE is that -
a) It’s FREE
b) It’s been designed to run with your Windows PC easily in the background
c) It has comprehensive anti-virus coverage - automatically updating its virus database once a day
d) It does the work for you - MSE tracks any attempted virus or malware (malicious software designed to access your personal information) attacks and notifies you only if action is needed; giving you the final say in what happens on your computer.

Other options out there include other freeware like AVG or Avast, but users often find that those programs become “nagware”, constantly asking you to upgrade to the paid-for versions.

Paid-for virus protection like McAfee and Norton often boast superior protection, but for the price you’re paying, we don’t find they’re worth it. Plus, if you do ever decide to get rid of the software, un-intalling the programs have been known to cause problems on computers, and in one case we’ve seen, even prevented the computer user from accessing the internet entirely!

You can always download the free MalwareBytes program to run extra malware protection if you’re doubting any anti-virus software you have installed - this is the only supplementary protection that will run with existing anti-virus protection.

Just remember, what ever route you decide to go, if you already have existing anti-virus software on your computer you will need to remove that before you can download another program.

4) Closing Background Tasks - Upon starting your computer, there are often tasks that begin automatically whether or not you need to use them. These tasks sit open on your computer chewing up valuable resources. For example, Skype often starts up automatically on your computer and uses a TON of memory that you could be putting towards the task that you are currently attempting to complete. These programs often hide on your taskbar at the bottom of the computer screen, under the “Show Hidden Icons” button  . Exit any programs that you do not need running (i.e. Skype, Windows Live Messenger) by right-clicking on the icon and clicking Close Program or Exit Program.

5) Auto-Updates - Programs that you have on your computer that are constantly checking for updates can also cause your computer to lag.  By asking the programs to remind you to check for updates, or by turning off auto-updates completely, you can cut back on the amount of background work that your computer is doing while you’re trying to complete your own tasks.  Remember, if you turn off auto-updates completely, you’re going to need to check for updates manually every couple of weeks!  The top programs that take advantage of auto-updates include Windows Updates, Java, Adobe and Flash.

6) Defragmentation - if your computer is running on an operating system older than Windows 7 (Windows 7 will defrag automatically), a simple and often very effective solution for helping your computer get some of its pep back is to Defragment. XP and Vista run the defragmenter on a schedule, but defragmenting manually can help. To do so:

Click Start  and open the menu; click All Programs; open Accessories; open System Tools; click Disk Defragmenter; choose Defragment.

Remember, for those of you still using Windows XP, it’s important to get switched over to Windows 7 - Windows 8 will be shipping in October 2012, and from what we’ve heard, not many people like it. If you haven’t upgraded to Windows 7 by then, you’ll be stuck using Windows 8.  Also, according to Network World, “most organizations should try to eliminate Windows XP by 2012”, due to the fact that newer versions of software and programs will not be compatible with XP and Microsoft will no longer be making security updates for XP, leaving your computer vulnerable. (http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/060210-gartner-windows-xp.html)

7) Saving to an External Hard Drive - Having an external hard drive to save your large files like music, photos and videos to can be an extremely handy tool when it comes to speeding up your PC. Although cleaning out your hard drive does not INCREASE the speed of your PC (you would need to upgrade your RAM), according to Tips4PC,  “If you find yourself downloading a lot of files it is always better to remove them from your computer to store somewhere else. This way your computers performance will not be effected by storing unnecessary files, data, and movies”. (http://tips4pc.com/articles/computer%20basics/what_is_an_external_hard_drive_a.htm)

By keeping the biggest, most plentiful files that you have but don’t access all the time on an external hard drive, you’re cutting down the amount of work your computer has to go through every time it starts up and wants to perform functions.  Just think, it’d be a heck of a lot easier to find your favourite book on your shelf if you kept all those old books you’ve already read stored in a different room!

External hard drives range in size from 320GB (currently $59.99 at Best Buy) to 4TB (currently $299.99 from Tiger Direct). To decide how much space you need, take an inventory of the files you think you might be moving over and see how much space they’re currently taking up.  Once you’ve seen how much space you’re currently using, imagine how much space that could multiply to over the next few years, and judge how large an external hard drive you might need from there. Here in the computer lab, we think the average computer user could have a 320GB or 500GB external hard drive and would be set for quite a few years.

And there you have it folks!  A few easy (and relatively cheap) ways to get your computer back on the right track. Any further questions or comments, don’t be afraid to leave a post and one of our qualified computer interns will get back to you as soon as possible!

Twitter and the Little Blue Bird

Have You Seen These?
 

The little blue bird is everywhere. Perhaps you’ve seen it popping up on a friend’s Facebook newsfeed, or maybe at the end of a television advertisement, on promotional flyers for your favourite stores and restaurants, it is even popping up on some of your favourite athlete’s uniforms and gear. What is this little blue bird? It seems like its taking over the world.

It is.

The little blue bird that you are being bombarded with is the international symbol for Twitter. What is Twitter?

 

In order to understand how to use Twitter, you need to learn the lingo so lets begin with a series of definitions:

“Tweet”: A Tweet is a 140-character post. Tweeting is the fuel for Twitter. Tweet about what you are doing, where you are, shout out to your favourite restaurants or stores, provide links to websites, interesting articles, cool pictures, videos, quotes, the possibilities are endless!

“Follow”: When you sign into Twitter you are faced with a newsfeed, similar to what you are used to seeing with other social networking websites such as Facebook. You can see the posts from your other friends. In Twitter, you can see the Tweets of the people that you “follow”.  To choose a follower, type in the name of the person or organization that you wish to “follow” in the search field. Once their name pops up click the “Follow” button beside their name.

“Followers”: Followers are the Twitter users that follow you on Twitter.

“Username”: Your username is your unique Twitter ID. It allows other users to “Follow”, “Tag”, “Reply” and “Retweet”/”RT”  to you.

“@”/”Tag”: The “@” character is used to “tag” another Twitter user in your tweet. To use this feature, key in the “@” symbol immediately followed by the username of the person that you wish to tag with no spaces (i.e. @username01). Next you write out the rest of your tweet as usual. Once you finish, click on the “Tweet” button your friend will receive a notification saying they have been tagged and providing them with a link to your tweet.

“Reply”: The “Reply” feature allows you to respond to another person’s tweet by tweeting and tagging them in your response. Underneath of the tweet that you wish to respond to, click on the reply button.

A second window will appear where you can respond. This window will automatically have the username of the person that you wish to respond to with the “@” symbol. Once you finish typing in your message, click “Tweet”.

Once you have clicked “Tweet”, the user that you are replying to will receive a notification letting them know that you have replied to their tweet.

“Retweet”: If a user that you “follow” has tweeted something really interesting and you would like to share it with your “followers”, you have the option to “Retweet”, by clicking the “Retweet” button below the interesting Tweet.

This again will bring up a box, this time, with a confirmation of the message, showing you how it will appear on your Twitter page. Click “Retweet”. The original poster will be notified that you have “Retweeted” their tweet.

“Trending Topics”: A trending topic is a word or phrase (“hash tagged” or not) that has the twitterverse abuzz. The trending topics change on a regular basis and differ in various geographic locations. A trending topic can be a name, a word, a question, a funny one-liner etc.

“#”/“Hash Tags”: A hash tag is used to define the topic or theme of your tweet. By including a hash tag, you and your followers are given the option of clicking on the tag to see what other users have posted about the same topic or theme.

Note: Hash tags have no spaces. If you have input a hash tag correctly it will appear as a different coloured link.

Once it has been posted, the text will look like this:

Its for Businesses Too!

Twitter is not just for individuals, it can work great as a marketing tool for small businesses and charitable organizations as well! (See post “Small Businesses & Social Media: To Tweet or Not to Tweet?”).

For more information on how Twitter works and what you can use it for, check out this video posted on Twitter’s YouTube page.

If you would like more instruction on how to use Twitter, give us a call at the Picton Branch Computerlab and our staff would be more than happy to show you how everything works!

#HappyTweeting!

Google Chrome - Your Browsing Companion

Google Chrome is the newest internet browser to become available for free. Although it does not come installed on any computer, you can easily download the browser by visiting http://www.google.com/chrome. For detailed instructions on how to download and install Chrome please see the previous blog post Internet Browsers... What’s the diff?

Once Chrome has been downloaded and installed, to start up Chrome you can simply double-click the shortcut  for Google Chrome or go into your Start Menu and click Google Chrome.

Now that Chrome has been launched, you can begin browsing the internet however you would like.  The first function that you need to know is how to enter the address of a website you would like to visit.

Entering an Address
1) Click on the Chrome address bar which will highlight the current address
2) Type the address of the website that you wish to visit (eg. www.google.ca) and press Enter

This will then take you to the website you wish to view.  If you do not end up on the website you were trying to access, please make sure that you have spelled everything correctly and that all parts of the website address are included (i.e. www.google.ca, not just google)

Bookmarking Websites
Once you’ve located a website that you visit often, you can add the site to your Bookmarks so that you only need to click a link to retrieve it, as opposed to typing in the website address every time.  

To add a website to Bookmarks (or Favorites):
1) Navigate to the website that you wish to Bookmark by entering the address into the address bar and pressing Enter.
2) Once on the correct website, click the blank star located in the right-hand corner of your address bar
3) After clicking the star, it will become a solid yellow colour and verify that your bookmark has been added - it will also ask you to input a Name for the website and to verify what folder you would like the bookmark stored in.  If you do not have a preference, you can leave the information Chrome already inputs into those fields.

4) Once satisfied with your information, press Done.

Adding and Deleting Toolbars
A Toolbar is a strip of icons that are located underneath or above the address bar in your web browser that, when clicked, allow you to access different functions or commands. In Chrome you have one toolbar option - Bookmarks Bar.

Bookmarks Bar: This is the toolbar that shows you what websites have been bookmarked, and allow you to access those websites without having to enter in the web address. The toolbar will appear underneath your address bar, and will provide you with the name of your bookmark as well as an icon. To add this toolbar, click the small Tools icon located next to your address bar . Scroll down to Bookmarks, and then click Show Bookmarks Bar (CTRL + SHIFT +B).
Toolbars that are created by websites or programs can also be added to your web browser (e.g. AVG Anti-virus Software Toolbar, Google Toolbar, Yahoo! Toolbar, Ask.com Toolbar etc).  Always read the information when downloading a program or software, because often a toolbar is included in that download.  This toolbar will be installed in your web browser unless you specifically un-click that option.

Setting Your Homepage
The first web page that your internet browser brings up when  you start it is called your Homepage

Setting your homepage is easy!
1) Click Tools .
2) Scroll down to and click Options - this will open another tab within your Chrome window.
3) Enter the address of the website you wish to set as your homepage next to homepage where it says Open This Page (eg. http://peclibary.org).
4) Exit out of the tab - your settings changes have automatically been saved!

Clearing Your History

Another important function you should know about your web browser is how to clear your information from it.   When browsing web sites, your computer automatically saves information about each visit.  It is important to know how to clear this information so that anyone who uses your computer, lawfully or otherwise (i.e. friends, family or hackers), cannot access your important information.  

To delete your browsing history:

1) Click Tools
2) Scroll down to and click Options - this will open another tab within your Chrome window.
3) Click Under The Hood - located in the left-hand panel.
4) Click Clear Browsing Data - this will bring up another small window and ask you to Obliterate the Following Items From: - click the drop down menu and select The Beginning of Time.
5) Click Clear Browsing Data

Becoming Firefox Friendly

Mozilla Firefox was one of the first freeware web browser alternatives to Internet Explorer, and is still a popular option today. Although no computer comes with Firefox pre-installed, it is easy to download and install on your own home computer.  To download Firefox, visit http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ and click Firefox Free Download, this should begin the installation of Firefox automatically, and the setup instructions are easy to follow and will walk you through the process.  

Once Firefox has been downloaded and installed, to start up Firefox you can simply double-click the shortcut  that has embedded itself onto you desktop, or go into your Start Menu and click Mozilla Firefox.

Now that Firefox has been launched, you can begin browsing the internet however you would like.  The first function that you need to know is how to enter the address of a website you would like to visit.

Entering an Address
1) Click on the Firefox address bar which will highlight the current address
2) Type the address of the website that you wish to visit (eg. www.google.ca) and press Enter
This will then take you to the website you wish to view.  If you do not end up on the website you were trying to access, please make sure that you have spelled everything correctly and that all parts of the website address are included (i.e. www.google.ca, not just google)

Once you’ve located a website that you visit often, you can add the site to your Bookmarks so that you only need to click a link to retrieve it, as opposed to typing in the website address every time.  

To add a website to Bookmarks (or Favorites):
1) Navigate to the website that you wish to Bookmark by entering the address into the address bar and pressing Enter.
2) Once on the correct website, click Bookmarks in the top left-hand corner of the web browser, and then scroll down to Bookmark This Page.
3) Click Bookmark This Page (CTRL + D). This will bookmark the page, and allow you to enter information about that page (i.e. Name and the folder you wish to store the bookmark in).
4) Once you have entered the information, click Done. Ta-da! The website has now been added to your Bookmarks, and can be accessed simply by clicking Bookmarks and scrolling down to the correct page.

Adding and Deleting Toolbars
A Toolbar is a strip of icons that are located underneath or above the address bar in your web browser that, when clicked, allow you to access different functions or commands. In Firefox, you have 3 toolbar options - Menu Bar, Navigation Toolbar, and Bookmarks Toolbar.

Menu Bar:  This brings your File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks, Tools, and Help options into a tool bar above your address bar for easier access.  Normally, this toolbar is already showing.  If not, to add this toolbar simply click View, then scroll down to Toolbars, and then over to Menu Bar and click it.  To remove it, follow the same process and un-check Menu Bar.
Navigation Toolbar: This is the bar that allows you to enter in web addresses to navigate from website to website.  Normally, this toolbar is already showing. If not, to add this toolbar simply click View, then scroll down to Toolbars, and then over to Navigation Toolbar and click it. To remove it, follow the same process and un-check Navigation Toolbar.

Bookmarks Toolbar: This is the toolbar that shows you what websites have been bookmarked, and allow you to access those websites without having to enter in the web address. The toolbar will appear underneath your address bar, and will provide you with the name of your bookmark as well as an icon.

In this image you can see Fantastic Fiction is bookmarked underneath the navigation toolbar with not only the name of the website but its icon  as well.

Toolbars that are created by websites or programs can also be added to your web browser (e.g. AVG Anti-virus Software Toolbar, Google Toolbar, Yahoo! Toolbar, Ask.com Toolbar etc).  Always read the information when downloading a program or software, because often a toolbar is included in that download.  This toolbar will be installed in your web browser unless you specifically un-click that option.

Setting Your Homepage

The first page that your internet browser brings up when you start it is called your Homepage .  Usually you want your homepage to be the website that you visit most, that way you don’t have to waste time navigating to it.

Setting your homepage is easy!  
1) Click Tools in you menu toolbar.
2) Scroll down and click Options.  This will open up a smaller window.
3) In the smaller window click the General tab.  Enter the address of the website you wish to set as your homepage next to homepage.
4) Click OK.

Clearing Your History

Another important function you should know about your web browser is how to clear your information from it.   When browsing web sites, your computer automatically saves information about each visit.  It is important to know how to clear this information so that anyone who uses your computer, lawfully or otherwise (i.e. friends, family or hackers), cannot access your important information.  To delete your browsing history:

1) Click Tools in your menu toolbar.

2) Scroll down to and click Clear Recent History.

3) Make sure that it will clear Everything and click Clear Now.