Tiplet expert tips & tech support

February 28, 2009

How to Take a Screenshot and Edit It Using Picasa

Filed under: applications,photos and video — Tags: , , , — admin @ 6:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

Did you ever wish you could share what you’re looking at on your computer screen right now with someone else? Maybe you just beat your all-time high score in Solitaire, or you really like the new theme you just installed on your desktop. Did you know that you can make an image of anything that is displayed on your computer monitor, including Web sites, files, and pictures, manipulate it, and save it onto your hard drive in a format that’s easy to email or upload to the Internet? Taking a screenshot, as this is called, is very easy.
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How and Why to Move the My Documents Folder to Another Drive

Filed under: computer performance,Windows — Tags: , , — admin @ 2:00 pm

by David Hakala

Most Windows users store their personal data in the My Documents folder. By default, this folder is located on the same drive as the Windows operating system, usually the C: drive. This poses certain problems.

First, your data collection – documents, pictures, music, videos, etc. – will keep growing while Windows overall does not. Performance degrades as the drive fills up. Eventually, you will run out of hard disk space. Then you will have to delete some files, a hard choice and a tedious exercise.
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February 27, 2009

How Can I Avoid Being Fooled by Internet Myths?

Filed under: Internet,privacy & security — Tags: , , , — admin @ 6:00 pm

by Gabe Goldberg

The Internet is often like a big echo chamber: some yodels never die out — they echo from user to user, growing ever fainter, until someone sends them to a new mailing list or set of friends and they come roaring noisily back to life. Google “Craig Shergold” for an example of something that was real, is long outdated, and which keeps circulating.

If you’ve been online for a while, you likely receive abundant email every day, including jokes, spam, hoaxes, and alleged urgent warnings of terrible danger. But how can you tell a real threat from a bogus hoax?
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How to Clean the Hardware on the Inside of Your Computer

Filed under: computer hardware,computer performance — Tags: , — admin @ 2:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

Dust is the enemy of computer components – but ironically, computer components seem to attract an inordinate amount of dust, which traps heat and clogs up the fans that work to keep your system at the right temperature. If your computer gets too hot, it will shut down to protect itself, but it could still be damaged by excessive heat. It’s a good idea to open up your computer from time to time and clean out dust and detritus.

The most useful tool for cleaning out the inside of your computer is a can of compressed air. This is available at most computer supply and office supply stores. Once you have your compressed air, shut the computer down and unplug it. You may want to take the computer outside for cleaning so you don’t spread the dust around your work area.
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How to Compress and Uncompress Archive Files

Filed under: computer performance,Windows — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 9:00 am

by David Hakala

If your hard drive is filling up, you can recover quite a bit of space by compressing files that you do not use often, or by compressing all the files in selected folders or an entire hard disk. Windows XP Pro and Home Editions support file compression natively. There are a few things to consider before compressing files, however.

You must have your drive volume (i. e., C:) formatted with the NTFS file system. Compression is not supported on FAT16 or FAT32 volumes.
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February 26, 2009

How Do I Find Out What Hardware I Have in My Computer?

Filed under: computer hardware,Windows — Tags: , — admin @ 2:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

If it’s been a while since you purchased your computer, you may have lost track of what’s in it – how much RAM? How big was that hard drive? What kind of motherboard was that again? And so on. It’s helpful to know what you have in order to diagnose any problems or to upgrade. You’ll need to know what kind of RAM your computer takes, for instance, when you want to replace it or add more. The owner’s manual doesn’t always help, especially when you’ve already upgraded or replaced some parts.
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How to Install Recovery Console After Installing Service Pack

Filed under: computer performance,data storage and recovery,Windows — Tags: , , , — admin @ 9:05 am

by David Hakala

The article is a supplement to the Tiplet on how to Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP. This one covers the case in which you receive an error message while installing Recovery Console similar to this one:

Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD.
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Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

Filed under: computer performance,data storage and recovery,Windows — Tags: , , — admin @ 9:00 am

by David Hakala

When something goes horribly wrong and you cannot get Windows to load at all, the Recovery Console can be your salvation. The unthinkable alternative is to re-install Windows, formatting the drive and wiping out all your data and added programs. Every Windows PC should have the Recovery Console installed.

But the Recovery Console is not installed by default. Here is how to add it and use it to recover from catastrophe:
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February 25, 2009

How to Install a Second IDE Hard Drive

Filed under: computer hardware,data storage and recovery — Tags: , — admin @ 2:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

If you’re running out of hard drive space, one option is to install a new internal hard drive. You don’t have to take your computer to a professional to have this done. It’s much more economical to do it yourself. If you’re intimidated by that thought, don’t be. Opening up your computer and putting in a hard drive is actually pretty easy. These instructions are for installing a second IDE hard drive on a computer with an existing IDE hard drive.
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How to Burn MP3 Music Files to CD Using Windows Media Player

Filed under: applications,computer hardware,digital media,Windows — Tags: , , , — admin @ 9:00 am

by David Hakala

To make a data or Audio CD, a laser beam literally burns tiny dimples into the surface of a disc. That is why making a CD is calling “burning.” Windows Media Player supports burning of CDs in both data (ISO) format and CD-Audio (CDA) format.

CDA is the format in which commercial audio CDs are burned at the factory. A CDA disc can hold 70 to 80 minutes’ worth of music, regardless of the size of the original music files. CDA is a lossless format, so CDA files are faithful to the quality of the original file. CDA is needed if one plans to play the CD on an older CD player that does not support other file formats.
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February 24, 2009

How to Use an External Hard Drive to Back Up Photos and Other Important Files

Filed under: computer hardware,data storage and recovery,privacy & security — Tags: , , — admin @ 2:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

If you’re in need of extra storage space for your digital photo or music collection, or you’d just like to back up those files in case the inevitable hard drive failure happens, one of the easiest ways to add more space to your PC is by adding an external hard drive that connects via USB. An external hard drive is inexpensive, portable, and very easy to use.
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