What's On This Page (sometimes called an Index)

Some Pretty Basic Things
Printing Selected Text
Make Your Printer Behave
Should I Leave My Computer Turned On All Of The Time?
Computer Seems Sluggish And Programs Take Longer To Load
Microsoft Windows Built-In Help
    ~ Viruses, Trojans and Worms
    ~ Windows Updates
    ~ Scandisk
    ~ Temporary Files
    ~ Defrag
    ~ Clearing Your Browser Cache
    ~ Stand Alone Browser
Some Things About Photographs
Sending Email Pictures and/or Text
What Are All of These File Extensions About?

Some Pretty Basic Things . . .

Let's face it .. everything in the electromechanical realm does not operate 'glitch free' all of the time, in spite of what the advertisers tout. When your computer and/or peripherals start acting up, i.e., when they seem to be acting 'funny', take a deep breath and ask yourself, "What do I try first, and what is the obvious symptom staring me in the face?"  A good 'rule of thumb' for troubleshooting that has worked for me during my years with RCA Service Company as a 'tech rep' on Navy ships, is to attack the most obvious problem first even though it might not be the most logical one. In some instances, correction of the obvious problem will be the solution; if it does not fully solve the problem, it may help to point you in the right direction. Sometimes, the obvious problem can be masking or hiding the real problem and correcting the first can help solve the latter.

In many conversations, I have found that many people are afraid of touching anything about their computer aside from the simple things like sending/receiving email, playing games, and the like. They never realize even a small fraction of their computer's capabilities. To me, it seems a waste of their time and their talents to do nothing more than that. They express words like, "...I'm afraid to mess things up if I press the wrong keys". The simplest task outside their realm of knowledge becomes impossible and the wonders and mysteries of the Internet lie beyond their understanding and appreciation. It is myopic vision at its worst!

Becoming computer literate and achieving a full grasp and comfort level with computers is neither 'black magic' nor 'rocket science' -- just utilizing the many help files that every program on the computer comes equipped with and trying to understand at least a modicum of how a computer operates plus some very basic troubleshooting procedures. There is, in my mind, no excuse for anyone working with computers, failing to understand how to highlight, copy, paste, download files (and opening those files), as well as sending/receiving attachments to emails. Also to be able to utilize a word processing program to write letters, address envelopes, develop and maintain an address list used for addressing envelopes and mailing labels. I think one has to understand that knowledge builds on knowledge -- what seems impossible today becomes routine tomorrow after a little bit of searching and experimenting. Does learning something new get frustrating at times -- you bet it does, but keeping your mind active in learning new things also helps in keeping the body from becoming sedentary. Doesn't this make sense to you, Uncle Mary Lou?

If your computer seems to be 'dead', listen for some kind of noise from the mainframe (tower or desktop). You should hear the sound of cooling fans running and in some cases, the hard drive makes enough noise for you to hear. If you hear nothing, and see no lights or other indications that you have power, then check the power bar or AC receptacle to make sure that power is available. This seems rather obvious, and I dislike to belabor the point, but it has happened ... even to the smarter ones who should know better.

If your computer seems to be stuck in 'limbo mode' or in 'la la land', sometimes just turning it off, wait 10 seconds or so, then turn it back on will solve the problem. Computer files get corrupted (as do some humans), and in Microsoft Windows, at least, rebooting the computer will reestablish the correct files for a clean operating system. [Return]

Printing Selected Text

As you surf the Internet and occasionally come across an article that you would like to save and/or print -- how do you do that? Of course you can print an article directly from your screen by clicking on FILE/PRINT, or clicking on the PRINT icon at the top of your screen. A problem with this method is that you will print the entire screen, not just the one article you want.

One way to print just the article or paragraph you want is to highlight the desired text by clicking at the beginning of the article and holding down the mouse button while you drag downwards -- note that the text is being highlighted (selected) while you are dragging. Once the desired text is highlighted, release the mouse button.

Go to FILE/PRINT and on the screen that opens, you should be given the option as to what to print under 'Print Range'. The choices are ALL, PAGES, SELECTION. Choose the 'SELECTION' option and then click OK to print just the text that you have selected.

Also, if you want to copy the highlighted text and paste it into your word processing program for further editing, simply RIGHT-CLICK anywhere in the highlighted text and on the menu that opens, select the COPY option. The selected text will be copied to a section of memory in your computer appropriately called the 'clipboard'.

Open (run) your word processing program and at the point in the document where you want your copied text to appear, click on EDIT/PASTE and the text that you copied to your clipboard will be pasted into your word processing document.

As usual with computers, there are several ways of doing any particular thing. Some very useful keyboard shortcuts are:

TO COPY --- Hit the Ctrl and 'C' keys simultaneously
TO CUT ----  Hit the Ctrl and 'X' keys simultaneously
TO PASTE -- Hit the Ctrl and 'V' keys simultaneously
TO PRINT--- Hit the Ctrl and 'P' keys simultaneously [Return]

Make Your Printer Behave

The same 'shutdown' and 'restart' applies to printers -- sometimes when you're printing something, the system just hangs and refuses to print. Cancel the print job and turn the printer off. Wait a few seconds, turn it back on, and again try to print. It might just work, this time . . .
Speaking of printers, (inkjet printers) are you wasting ink by leaving your print quality in the 'Normal' (default) position? Unless you are printing letter quality pages, 'draft quality' is all that you need for quick printouts of 'stuff' that you copied from the web or emails that you want to show and/or read later. Go to START/PROGRAMS, scroll down to find your printer program and open it. There should be a 'Tools' or 'Configure' tab that you can select and that will give you the option of setting your printer's default print quality to 'Draft' vice 'Normal' that is installed by your printer program. Setting it to 'Draft' will speed up your printing and will not 'squirt' as much ink when you are printing casual notes, emails, etc. It has been said, and I think it true, that the printer manufacturers could give you the printer for free and still make money by selling print cartridges. Those things are expensive as anyone who has purchased an ink cartridge can attest.
If you later need to use the 'Normal' or 'Best' quality, just select the appropriate one under the 'Options' screen that opens up when you go to FILE/PRINT when printing a document. [Return]

Should I Leave My Computer Turned On All Of The Time?

This has been asked numerous times and there are two distinct camps of opinion -- both have merit. The 'leave it on' camp believes that thermal shock from repeated 'On and Offs' cause components to fail more frequently and that "... it does not go out of adjustment" (whatever that means - italics mine). One aspect to consider and that is your electrical costs -- a typical computer utilizes upwards of 200 Watts which is not insignificant.

My thought is to turn it off when it's not being used. Let's look at it this way -- the hard drive in your computer is being spun at something like 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM, and your cooling fans are running. Although the MTBF of today's hard drives is typically 50,000 to 100,000 hours (that translates to roughly 5 to 10 years of continuous operation) so in and of itself does not present a problem. Most computer users would replace their computers long before a hard drive failure.

My rationale for turning it off, in addition to not wanting to pay for the electricity usage, is this: Have you ever opened up your computer and looked inside after a few months of operation? Depending on the cleanliness of the environment in which it's located, you could be looking at a very dirty computer. The constant flow of cooling air that is drawn in by the fans contain dust particles that accumulate over a period of time. Dirt and dust degrade the cooling capabilities of the cooling fans -- especially in and around the power supply and main processor chip. There is very little safety margin in the cooling capacity of most computers, some are marginal at best. Excessive heat can cause major problems in your computer 'innards' and the first symptom you may have of it is smoke emanating from overheated components. I try to pop the sides off of my main computer at least once or twice a year, take a can of compressed air (you can buy this stuff at computer stores), and blow the dust and dirt from the cooling fans, vents, components, etc. [Return]

Computer Seems Sluggish and Programs Take Longer to Load

Every new program that you install on your computer these days seems to want to 'brand' itself on your system. It sticks a shortcut icon on your task bar as well as a shortcut on your desktop. Some programs load themselves following the POST (Power On Self Test), and continue to run in the background thereby robbing precious clock cycles from your main processor. To get an idea of how many programs are running in the background, press the Ctrl, Alt and Delete keys simultaneously. These programs will be displayed on the screen that opens up.

To keep some of these programs from starting at boot up, do the following:

• Go to START/RUN and type the word, "MSCONFIG" (sans quotes, of course) in the dialog box, click OK, and on the screen that opens, click on the STARTUP tab. The programs that are activated when Windows starts will have a check in the box to the left of the program. The only two programs essential to correct operation of Windows are SYSTRAY and EXPLORER -- the rest are running in the background and eating up your system resources. Of course, if you have an antivirus program and have it set to constantly monitor your computer for viruses, it will be one of the programs listed, and you probably will not want to disable it from starting.

• Some of the programs that are running will have readily identifiable names, but many others have names that are sometimes undecipherable. If you desire to eliminate one or more of these, select one and click in the box to the left of it (assuming that box has a checkmark in it) -- the checkmark will disappear. Restart your computer and observe whether anything is remiss, i.e., does the computer seem to be operating normally. If so, then repeat this process of clicking on START/RUN, type in MSCONFIG, select the STARTUP tab, and uncheck another program that you wish to keep from automatically starting.

• In the event that, after deleting a program from the Startup folder, the computer does not behave as it was normally, then repeat the process of START/RUN type MSCONFIG, select the STARTUP tab, and this time when clicking in the box to the left of the program you just deleted, a check mark will appear and that program will be loaded again the next time that Windows starts. [Return]

Microsoft Windows Built-In Help

I'm assuming first off that you are using some version of Microsoft Windows© -- probably Win98, Win98SE, or WinXP.  There are several things that you can (and should) do on a regular basis to keep Windows© running smoothly. These things are not 'rocket science', and if properly applied -- can make your 'computer time' a lot easier and less frustrating. Let's take it a step at a time:

1. VIRUSES, TROJANS, WORMS: If your computer just seems sluggish and programs take longer to load and run than they used to, the first thought that rears its ugly head is, "... do I have a virus on my computer?" In some cases the computer will not even 'boot up' to the desktop screen or you receive a plethora of error messages. It is beyond the scope of this discussion to describe what is involved in disinfecting your computer from the various viruses; however in most cases, a good antivirus program can prevent the infection if it is kept up to date with the latest virus definitions. [Return]

 

2. It is HIGHLY recommended that you buy and install a good antivirus program if you do much surfing on the Web. There are some sick minds among us that delight in promulgating Viruses, Trojans, and Worms, that serve one purpose only -- to wreck havoc to our computers. The cost to consumers and industry, especially the large concerns housing hundreds or thousands of computers is astronomical. It leaves consumers sometimes in a state of shock since, in most instances, they are not equipped with the knowledge to correct the problem. [Return]

 

3. It is also advisable for you, the computer user, to show some degree of precaution when you are surfing the Web or opening email from whatever the source, even from those people you know. Some viruses capture email addresses from your address book and send those addressees a bogus message with the virus attached or embedded. Not too long ago it was safe to tell anyone, "... you can't get a virus from reading email" -- that is no longer true. At least two of the viruses that I know of "kak.hta" and "bubbleboy" embed virus scripts into HTML code associated with email and once those emails are opened (read), the scripts are activated and the virus is in your computer. (Note: while I'm speaking of viruses in the general sense, those types of viruses are more appropriately called 'worms'). If your email program is set to accept text only, you cannot get a virus via email -- viruses cannot be transmitted via plain text, only as HTML code. [Return]

 

4. Windows Updates: You should also keep your Windows Operating System updated as well as your browser. Sometimes there are vulnerabilities in the Windows scripting programs or in your Internet browser that allow hackers to penetrate the security measures and install viruses on your computer. Reputable software developers are always trying to stay one step ahead of the hackers and are constantly updating their programs via critical updates for Windows as well as browser updates.

   To find these updates, do the following: Go online with your ISP (AOL, MSN, AT&T, Juno, Earthlink, etc.), then click on START, scroll up and select "WINDOWS UPDATES". You will be transferred to the Microsoft Windows Update site. Select "PRODUCT UPDATES" and then select "PRODUCT UPDATES" again on the next screen that opens. It will take a few moments for Windows to customize the updates for your computer. After this process finishes, check to see if there are any "Critical Updates" identified by Windows -- if there are, click on the "Download" at the top right of your screen to start downloading the critical update file(s) to your computer. Read any disclaimers, notices, installation instructions, if any, and print the installation instructions for further help during the download and installation. You can also click on the "SHOW INDIVIDUAL UPDATES" to view what these updates are, if you are curious. Usually, these updates go smoothly without problems. You will be prompted to restart your computer once the installation is complete. [Return]

 

5. Scandisk: Click on START, RUN, and in the text box that opens up, type the word SCANDISK, then click on OK. Make sure that the prompts that appear show your hard drive (normally "C:/local disk"), and the box labeled "Automatically Fix Errors" is checked. Click on OK and let the program check for file errors on your hard drive and fix them. (see note 1. if the program does not complete). When scandisk finishes running, exit the program. If you ran scandisk in Safe Mode, click on START/SHUTDOWN/RESTART and let your computer boot up normally. [Return]

 

6. Temporary Files: Let's clear up some misconceptions -- temporary files occupy space on your hard drive but DO NOT interrupt your main processor since they are simply sitting in folders waiting to be used. Windows has a bad habit of continually 'sticking' files into a temporary folder or labeling them as *.tmp files (the "*" is a wildcard and denotes any file with an extension of ".tmp"). They are unnecessary and are what their name implies, temporary files that are created when Windows is running or when you do a shutdown without using the proper shutdown sequence. To remove them, go to START, FIND (or SEARCH), and in the text box that opens, type in "*.tmp" (sans quotes, of course). Make sure that the drive searched is the C:\ drive and the box labeled "Include Subfolders" is checked. Click on "Find Now". Once the search function has completed, look at the bottom left of of your screen and you can see how many temporary files have been found. If you haven't cleaned them out recently, you may find several hundred of these files.

   At the top left of your screen, click on EDIT, then scroll down and select "Select All" -- all of the files in the right of your screen should then be highlighted (selected). Hit the DELETE button and confirm that you indeed want to delete these files. Click on OK and the temporary files will be deleted, freeing up space on your hard drive.

   Next, press either of the WINDOWS KEYs (has a Windows icon on it), and the "E" key simultaneously. This should open up Windows Explorer. Scroll down in the leftmost screen and click on the "+" sign to the left of "C:\" to display the files and folders on the C:\ drive. Scroll down and click on the "+" sign next to WINDOWS. Scroll down and select (highlight) the TEMP folder. The files stored in the TEMP folder will be displayed in the screen to the right. Click on EDIT, SELECT ALL and all the files in the TEMP folder should be highlighted. Hit the DELETE key, confirm that you really want to delete the highlighted files, and click OK to delete them.

   Removing Other Spacewaster Files:  Want to free up some more space on your hard drive(s)? What files could be safe to delete? Here's a short list that covers the major files that might disappear without disastrous ramifications. Instead of deleting the files right off the bat, move them into your recycle bin where they can be restored to their original places if necessary. When you've run your computer without encountering any problems for a couple of months, it is probably safe to get rid of everything in that recycle bin. To find these files, go to START, SEARCH (or FIND), select FILES AND FOLDERS and in the SEARCH FOR FILES/FOLDERS NAMED:, type in "*.XYZ" with .XYZ being the listed extension of the files you want to delete (and highlighted in Blue below). Make sure that the LOOK IN box contains LOCAL HARD DRIVES C: so that you are searching your entire hard drive, not just one folder. Also ensure that the INCLUDE SUBFOLDERS option is selected so that all of the subfolders are searched as well.
   CHK - Scandisk backup file; if there are lost clusters found when you run Scandisk, these files will be created. They will not come back, but new ones can be created with future Scandisk uses. For the average user, they're useless.
   GRP - Program Manager Group file; if you never use Program Manager anymore, why keep these around? They will not come back, but a software installer could create new ones.
   GID - help-related file; when you run a Help file, it creates a "GID" to make future accesses to that particular help file a tad quicker. They're a complete waste of space, and usually the worst disk-hog offenders. You'll have to delete these on a regular basis, as they are recreated with every Help file execution.
   FTS - help-related file; when you perform a search with a Help file, this is created to make all future searches be performed quicker. Eh, not worth having around unless you use HLPs on a daily basis. They'll reappear if you do a search in a HLP file, so these should be regularly scanned for and deleted.
   CNT - another help-related file; ever notice those tables of contents when you launch certain Help files? If you don't need a table to help you navigate through a Help file, delete these. They will not come back.
   AVI and WMV - movie files; if you know how to use Windows, don't keep these things around. Make sure you "watch" them before deleting them, because you might delete a movie you wanted to keep. Still, they could be lurking on your hard drive(s).
   TMP - temporary file; when you exit out of Windows without shutting down everything, these files could be littering your hard drive (typically, they can be found in the Windows\Temp folder). Many programs create temp files to help speed up processes; they're a necessary evil. You might find hundreds of these just waiting to be deleted. ~MP is a variation on the theme.
   BAK - backup file; when a new version of a file is written to the disk, sometimes the program will rename the original version with this extension. Be careful when removing these files.
   OLD is a variation on the backup theme. [Return]

 

7. Defrag: Click on START, RUN, and in the text box that opens up, type in DEFRAG, and click on OK. On the screen that opens, it should show drive "c:\ physical drive" (assuming that your main hard drive is C:\) as the drive you want to defragment. Click on OK and let the program run -- it will take minutes to hours for the program to complete since it is physically (okay, electronically) rearranging hard drive data clusters in a contiguous stream so that programs load and run faster. (see note 2. for an explanation of the defragmentation process and what it does. Also what to do if the fragmentation process keeps resetting and does not complete). [Return]

 

8. Clearing Your Browser Cache: The software program that interfaces between your ISP (Internet Service Provider) program and the Internet server is logically called the browser since it allows you to 'browse' the Internet. Although there are others, Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape dominate the browser market with IE in about 80% of the ISPs and Netscape taking about 10%. Other browsers are used in the remaining 10%. One important function of the browser is to store or cache each web page that you visit while you're surfing the Web. If you later revisit a site that you've been to before, the page is retrieved and displayed from your browser cache vice downloading from the web site, thereby saving time and your page loads much faster. Over time, these cached files accumulate and slow down your ISP functions.

   To clear out your browser cache, bring up (load and run) your browser -- if you're using AOL as your ISP, IE is integrated into the AOL program, therefore, once AOL is loaded and running, the following steps will clear the browser.

   At the top of the AOL screen, click on SETTINGS/PREFERENCES/INTERNET PROPERTIES (WWW). On the screen that displays, click on DELETE FILES. On the next screen that opens select the box labeled DELETE OFFLINE CONTENT, then click OK. The browser cache is now cleared. [Return]

 

9. You are using IE as a stand-alone browser in an application other than AOL: You can clear its cache by clicking on the IE icon in the task bar at the lower left of your desktop screen. Once IE loads, click on the TOOLS button at the top of the IE screen. Scroll down the menu that opens and select INTERNET OPTIONS/DELETE FILES/DELETE ALL OFFLINE CONTENT, then click OK. The cache will be cleared -- then click OK to exit the Internet Options screen. [Return]

NOTES:

(1) In some cases, if other programs are running in the background and writing to the hard drive, scandisk cannot run properly. In such case, you need to run Scandisk in SAFE MODE. (safe mode simply means that Windows does not load all of its drivers/programs that normally run at startup -- only the minimum ones that allow Windows to operate. To go to SAFE MODE, insert a blank disk in the floppy drive, go to START, SHUTDOWN, and when the shut down screen appears, click on RESTART. Click on OK to restart your computer.
When the computer restarts, you will get the error message, "Non Valid disk - not a system disk". Remove the floppy disk, hit the "F8" key three times quickly, and on the screen that displays, select option #3 "Safe Mode". Once in safe mode, repeat Step # 5 above.

(2)A computer hard drive is comprised of several platters of magnetic media that are rotated (typically 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM) by a drive motor. Information is stored on the these disks by electromechanical devices called, "read/write heads" positioned just microns above the individual platters. The bits of stored information are grouped in clusters and a typical program or data file is comprised of hundreds of these clusters. Since the read/write heads have to be repositioned over the appropriate cluster to read/write information to/from the magnetic platters, the data can be transferred more quickly if all the related clusters are arranged in a contiguous fashion on the hard drive. This process is called defragmenting the hard drive. The end result is that your programs load and run faster. (back to Step 7)