Most people, irrespective of their technological skill, are familiar in some way with Microsoft’s Windows operating system. It has been included with most new PC’s for 15+ years. Windows users are often curious about their main rival - Apples Macintosh. Many of my clients ask me the differences between the 2 computers, and have inspired me to write this post. (more…)

Microsoft Windows organizes computer files by placing them into folders. Well what are folders your may ask? Folders are simply containers - thats it. Folders can contain 2 things, files, and other folders. Thats right, a folder can contain another folder - this hierarchical nature is the basis for most computer filing systems. Think of folders in Windows similarly to folders in your office filing cabinet - folders organize the documents in which they contain. The folder itself is not valuable. Hence if a folder is empty (contains no files), then it can be safely deleted and nothing of value is lost. However folders are not usually empty, since their main purpose is to organize and group different kinds of computer data. For example, we can create a folder called “Pictures” which will store all of our picture files. Similarly, we can create a folder called “Music” to contain all of our music files. More specifically, our Music folder can contain several other folders specifying genre - For example, the sub-folders could be called “Rock”, “Dance”, and “Rap”. This way, we could further organize the music into categories. Yet all the while, the Music folder would still contain everything. Got it? (more…)

If you have to enter your password to login to Windows everytime you start your computer, you may be wasting your time. Entering a password to get into the Windows system may be good for some applications, however unnecessary for most single-user home machines. For example, passwords are a must in the world of corporate security at work; you don’t want just anybody jumping on the machine and accessing the data. In contrast, most people at home don’t want the hassle of having to enter their password every time they start up the machine; its just another time-consuming step. Unless, of course you want to keep your children off the computer, and your childrens’ friends, and their friends… In this case, keep the passwords right where they are! Otherwise, say adios password screen. On that note, we are going to walk through the process of disabling the Windows login screen. If you don’t want a password on your system, REMOVE IT (more…)

The famous Microsoft Double Click. Computer users across the globe have become accustomed to double clicking on EVERYTHING! It’s like we were born a bred to double click on a computer; quite frankly I don’t ever remember being taught to do this. It was instinctual Seriously though, many computer beginners, novices, and even intermediates still do not know where they should be double clicking, and where they should be single clicking. Well, today we are going to make things a whole lot simpler. It is a little known fact that Microsoft has provided the option to single click where you would otherwise have double clicked. We are going to walk through the simple process of setting this up on a Windows XP / Vista based machine. I think this option is great for seniors who sometimes do not have great finger dexterity. Heck, it makes life easier for everybody - Even I use the single click option! (more…)

Power saving features have existed in computers for donkeys’ years. With the current trend of “going green,” the newest generation of Operating Systems have provided users nice options when it comes to saving electricity. A lot of computer users are switching to laptops as well, which run on batteries if not plugged into a power source. This is even more motivation for Operating Systems to offer great power saving features. In this article we will look closely at the power saving features built into Windows XP and Windows Vista. Particularly, we will be discussing the differences between Standby Mode, Hibernate Mode, and Sleep Mode. (more…)

We’ve all been there before. The computer freezes for one reason or another, and its very frustrating. Why the computer freezes is another topic all on its own; it can happen for a variety of reasons. Nontheless, here is a quick strategy that you can use to avoid the dreaded “hard reboot” (physically switching the computer off, and back on again). Instead of pulling the plug, first try the Windows Task Manager. (more…)

Computer beginners can usually grasp the concept of the mouse - it’s intuitive. Just point, and click. The mouse makes getting around on your Windows based computer quite easy. Modern day computers are very graphical in nature. You have windows, menus, buttons, scroll bars, etc. All of these features were designed with the intention to be user friendly. Human beings should be able to easily interact with the computer. After all, computers were invented to make our lives EASIER, right? Of course they were! And the mouse is one of those devices which makes things a heck of a lot more convenient for us computer users. (more…)