Have you just purchased a new desktop or laptop computer? Congratulations, and hopefully you will get plenty of use out of your new machine, whether it is for business, finance, research, multimedia, or purely entertainment (or a little of all the above).
But wait – don't open the boxes, plug in the cords, and try to start surfing the Internet just yet! Take a few minutes and follow these 5 steps that can help increase your computer security and possibly remove some potential headaches down the road.
read more: 5 Things to Do As Soon As You Purchase a New Computer
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When it comes to the Windows System tray, I like to have items displayed that I absolutely need. One item that I usually keep minimized in the tray is the capability to view hard drive activity using Sysinternals Process Explorer.
When minimized, Process Explorer displays the current hard drive disk activity (I/O) by identifying the process and the amount of read and write bytes (displayed in Kilo Bytes) written or read from disk.
read more: Monitor Hard Drive Disk Activity From Windows System Tray
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I regularly use Skype to keep in touch with my friends and family. Recently I noticed that almost all of my contacts never pickup Skype calls, but then if I ring their phone they answer. This means that their computers are being left on, even though they are not using them.
When you consider that most computers use typically 70-200 Watts of power across the nation the accumulative waste of electricity must be monumental.
Most people would say that that the amount of electricity is minimal – it’s about the same as 2 or 3 light bulbs. The same could be said for other appliances left on standby, such as DVD players, TVs, and phone chargers. I recently heard a report that 2/3 of all the electricity consumed by mobile phones from the chargers being left plugged in 24 hours a day.
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In a previous tip, I showed you how you can use Firefox to browse your hard drive for files and folders. This tip works great when you want to keep the number of applications open to a minimum or you are using Firefox on a portable USB Drive
Another cool feature is the capability to view files and folders or play music and video files in Firefox simply using drag and drop.
read more: FireFox Tip: Use Drag And Drop To View Files And Play MP3 Music
Filed under Computer How-To, Ubuntu And Linux Tips, Windows Vista Tips by
Like many people, including myself, the first thing I do after purchasing a computer, electronic gadget or appliances is rip open the box and throw everyhing away that's not important.
Including the manuals.
Usually that ends up being a mistake down the road when I need to reference the manual.
Fortunately in today's world we have the Internet Google and can easily find information on almost anything. But when it comes to finding manuals, SafeManual.com is usually where I start.
read more: Lost Your Computer Manual? Find It On Safemanuals.com
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Recently, I was shopping for a new MP3 player
Instead I just decided to purchase a simple Sandisk Sansa
So what happens?
read more: Do Too Many Features Take the Excitement Out Of Using Your New Gadget?
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It never fails – awhile back, perhaps it was a few years, perhaps it was only a few months, you bought a new super-fast, top-of-the-line desktop or laptop computer. At first it ran fantastic – there were few software crashes, browser pages visually popped on-screen, and games ran smoothly at high frame rates.
Unfortunately as the computer got older, problems started occurring. Crashes became more frequent, web pages took longer to load, games appeared slightly jerky, and the overall computing experience lost its luster.
Why did this happen? Is there a conspiracy among computer and software manufacturers to make computers run slower so you'll give up and buy a new machine?
While conspiracy theories are questionable, here are seven valid reasons why your computer may start to run slower as time passes:
read more: 7 Reasons Why Computers Run Slower As They Get Older
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If you access web-based services such as social networking websites, message forums, or online banking applications, you've probably had to register for a user account. This sometimes drawn-out process required you to enter a login name as well as a password (or get one assigned to you), providing some sense of security when accessing the service.
Since good passwords (not the words 'computer' nor 'secret') can be almost impossible to remember (such as a ten character combination of letters, numbers, and punctuation), many services now use a "security question" you can answer in case you forget your username and/or password and need to retrieve or reset them. By offering a security question, these services can help ensure it is really you when a request is made for your login information.
Some websites may even require answering this security question as well as your password every time you use their services, offering a supposed second level of account security.
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