Comp-U-News from Comp-U-Talk
May 2011
The Good News: my grass is beautiful. The Bad News: it is in my strawberry patch!
Spring is here and I want to finish my inside work as fast as possible so I can go outside and play. I thought I would share some tips for speeding up a computer, just in case you are as obsessed with being outside as I am.
First some Vocabulary: Drag -this means you should hold down the left mouse button as you move the mouse. The end result is what you are pointing to will move in the same direction as the mouse.
Double Arrow -this appears when the mouse hovers over a border. A double arrow can point Up & Down, Left & Right, or diagonally. A double arrow always means the object can be resized by dragging in the direction the arrow points.
Minimize, Maximize or Restore, Exit -every window has them in the top right corner. Minimize (1st on left) reduces the window to a box on the task bar, Maximize or Restore (middle button) will either make the window fill the monitor or make it smaller (restored mode). While in restored mode you can drag on the borders with a double arrow to make it any size you want. And of course the X stands for Exit.
Lets start with Disk Cleanup. To get here, Click on My Computer. Do a Right Click (Other Mouse Button) on Drive C:, click on Properties with a normal left click, on the General Tab click Disk Cleanup. (see figure to left) Review the files to be removed and click OK. This process can take several minutes and will automatically close when done.
Is your desktop cluttered? The more stuff you have saved to the desktop, the slower your computer will run. Remember the days of seeing how many people could fit inside a telephone booth? Or worse, how many people could fit into a Volkswagen? Did you ever participate in the sport? How well did the Volkswagen accelerate when there where dozens packed into the passenger area? Storing your pictures and music and "stuff" to the desktop does the same thing to the computer's acceleration.
To move items off of the desktop, Open My Documents. If the window fills the screen, click the minimize button in the top right hand corner. Drag the borders to make it even smaller if necessary. Arrange the placement of this windows by dragging the Title Bar (the top banner of the window). Place the window towards the right edge of the screen. Now drag the icons from the desktop into the Documents window. This will remove the file from the desktop and place it into the documents folder. This is similar to pushing one of the occupants out of the Volkswagen! You have just made it easier to accelerate.
Need even faster? We would love to set you up with a new computer. Suggested options are on the back. Trust me! It's true. A new computer is way more fun than mowing strawberries!
~Janet