Best of Tech Tips - Part One

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This month's issue has the first part of the best of the Tech Tips articles from previous issues of Ray's Computer Tips. The articles below are the full articles.

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When the Computer Freezes

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        You are watching a video on your computer and running a few programs in the background. All of a sudden the video freezes or slows down. What do you do?
        When this happened to one guy, he turned off his computer. When he turned it back on, it would not work properly. Even after using a restore program, it still would not work. Since one of my programs was running in the background, he blamed it on my program. The real problem was that he reacted incorrectly.
        1) The first thing that you should do when the computer freezes is wait. If the above person had simply waited a few minutes everything would have been OK. In the early days of computers, all we did was wait on our computers, but now computers are so fast that if a person has to wait a few seconds he thinks something is wrong. Before you do anything, wait five or ten minutes.
        2) If after waiting, your computer is still running slowly, you should close down all of the programs that you are not using. A computer can only do so much at one time. Closing down programs that you are not using frees up resources so that your computer can run better.
        3) Next, try pressing the three keys: Ctrl, Alt, Delete. This is often called the three finger salute. Only press them once and press them all at the same time, then wait. Eventually, the Windows Task Manager window will be displayed. This lists the applications and processes that are running. You can use this to close down more applications or processes that may be hogging resources. If you have viruses or spyware running in the background, they will usually be listed in the processes section and you can close them from there. Processes connected to running applications or Windows processes should not be closed down, but viruses and spyware should be closed.
        When you close an application using End Task, it will inform the application and the application may respond with a message, like "Are you sure you want to quit". If you answer the message given by the application, End Task will quit closing it down, so if you want End Task to force close the application, do not answer the message given by the application. End Task will wait for ten seconds or so and then close the application.
        4) Try closing Windows. Sometimes the only alternative to a frozen system is to restart Windows. Close Windows in the normal way.
        5) It is dangerous to shut down the computer without first closing Windows, but if you can't get Windows to close, you may have to shut down your computer. This should only be done as a last resort. This can be done on most computers by holding the Power button in for five seconds.

Downloading 101

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        Downloading is the process of copying a file from a larger computer to a smaller computer. When you copy files, programs, and games from the internet to your computer, that is downloading. Copying files from one place to another on your computer is copying, not downloading.
        Downloading a file is simple, but here are some tips that will help you download.
        To download a file, find a download link on a website (usually it will say something like, "Click here to download") and click on it.
        You may be asked if you want to Save the file or Run (sometimes the word, Open, is used instead of Run) it. I prefer to Save the file and not to Run it, but Running it is easier if it works.
        If you Save it, the file will be put on your hard drive for you to use later. After you choose Save, an Open dialog box will appear asking you where to put the file. Remember where you choose to put it. You will need to know this later. I usually put all of my download files in the same place so that they will be easier to find. A progress bar will pop up and show you the progress of the download. When it is finished, a screen may remain that says, Download Complete. This screen has a Run button on it. If the Run button is there, click on it; otherwise, you will have to find the file on your hard drive using Windows Explorer and double click on it to run it.
        If when asked to Save or Run a file, you Run it, the file will be downloaded to a Temporary location on your hard drive and then it will run automatically. There are two disadvantages to downloading this way. Number one is that it doesn't always work. And number two is that if you want to use the downloaded file again, you will have to download it every time that you want to use it.
        Your computer may not ask you whether to Save or Run it. In this case, it will just do what it wants to. To force a download saving the file to your hard drive, right click on the link and choose "Save Target As...".
        There is a bug in Windows where clicking on the download link will sometimes give you a quick progress bar and then say the file is downloaded. When you run the file, it gives you an error saying that it is corrupted. To get around this, right click on the download link and choose "Save Target As..." from the popup menu.
        The working part of a zip or exe file is at the end. If after downloading the file, it runs, you can be sure that you received the entire file (I don't know of downloaded files missing sections in the middle). But if it does not run, it is because the download for some reason or another did not complete and you did not get the entire file. In these cases, you will usually get an error message saying that the file is corrupt and to download it again. If redownloading doesn't work, try the right click trick (mentioned above).
        One last point - if you are having Windows run the file, you will probably get a security warning message saying, "The publisher could not be verified..." Most files will be this way. That does not mean that they are bad.

Windows Explorer (The Basics)

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        In the earliest versions of Windows the main tool was Windows Explorer (I think it was called the File Manager back then). If you wanted to run a program or open a file, you had to find it in Windows Explorer and run it from there. Now Microsoft seems to hide Windows Explorer, but it is still a good tool to know about. You can find it in WinXP by clicking on the Start button, going to All Programs, than to Accessories, and then clicking on the Windows Explorer item (an easier way to get to Windows Explorer is to right click on Start and select Explore from the popup menu).
        Even though Windows hides it, Windows Explorer is still often used by Windows. For example, every time you do a search, open a file, or save a file, Windows Explorer is used.
        Windows Explorer shows the structure and contents of your drives. Each drive starts with a root directory. For the C drive this is C:\. There are files and folders (folders are also called directories) in the root directory and each folder may also have files and folders in it.
        When the location of a file or folder is written out, it is written first with the drive letter, then a colon and a slash, then all of the parent folders, that it is in, separated by slashes ( \ ), and then the filename. For example, there is a regvac.exe file in the RegVac folder which is in the Program Files folder, which is on the C drive. So the location of regvac.exe is C:\Program Files\RegVac\regvac.exe. This is called the file path.
        If you have a file path and you need to find it in Windows Explorer, first start with the drive letter. The drive letters are listed under My Computer in Windows Explorer. You may need to click on the plus sign in a square to expand My Computers and see the drives. Then you look for the first folder in that drive, then the next folder in the first folder and so forth and so on. When you click on a folder in the left box of Windows Explorer, its contents (folders and files) will be listed in the right box.
        There is much more to this topic than will fit in this article, so in future issues I will explain the many aspects of Windows Explorer and even give some little-know tips to optimize its use.

Windows Explorer (Extensions)

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        An important part of a file's name is the extension. The extension is the period near the end of the file name and the letters that come after it. So in the filename regvac.exe, .exe is the extension.
        In the olden days the file name was limited to 8 letters for the main part and 3 letters for the extension. Even though file names can be up to 255 letters long on most modern computers, most extensions are still three letters long.
        The extension tells Windows what to do with the file when it is run or opened. .exe signifies an executable file and so Windows runs it. .txt signifies a text file and so Windows runs a text editor like Notepad and puts the txt file in it. There are several lists on the internet, like www.filext.com, which index extensions. You can look up an extension there and it will tell you what the file is.
        The way that Windows links a program or action to an extension is called associations (or more recently, File Types). Windows Explorer allows you to specify and change associations, but associations can be quite complex and so it is best not to mess with them. When you install a program, it usually sets up its own set of associations for the files that it will use. This way all you have to do in Windows Explorer is double click on one of its files and the proper action will be taken. Associations are stored in the registry and usually number in the hundreds, if not thousands.
        Windows Explorer by default hides the extensions from you and just shows different icons for the different extensions. If Windows Explorer is set up this way on your computer and you look in the RegVac directory, you will see two to four files with the same name, regvac. Each has a different icon and even though Windows Explorer shows the same name for each, they really have different names. The actual names of the four files are regvac.exe (the program file), regvac.ini (the settings of RegVac), regvac.hlp (the Help file of RegVac), and regvac.cnt (also a Help file).
        I prefer to have the extensions showing so that I can see the actual name of each file. If you want to unhide the extensions in Windows Explorer, you can do so by going to the Tools menu of Windows Explorer and selecting Folder Options. In the Folder Options dialog click on the View tab. Scroll down to "Hide extensions for known file types" and uncheck it. Then click on the OK button.
        Hopefully, the next time you look at a file name it will not look so foreign to you but instead you will be able to tell by its extension what kind of file it is.

Cut, Copy, Paste

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        What do you do when you find something on the internet that you want to jot down? Do you get out a pencil and paper and start copying the information? If so, there is a much easier and faster way. If you know which keys to press, in a few seconds it could be saved to a file. This is just one of the hundreds of situations where you can use Cut, Copy, and Paste of Windows' clipboard to save you time and money.
        Windows' clipboard is a utility that saves data in a hidden location for later use. It works great for transfering data from one program to another. Almost all programs are compatible with Windows clipboard. This allows you to view text or a picture in one program, copy it into the clipboard and then later paste it from the clipboard to a different program, to an email message, or to just about anywhere you want it.
        Even though we will only discuss how to work with text in this article, most of these instructions can be used for copying and pasting many other items, like pictures and files, too.
        First, you must select what you want to put in the clipboard. The way you select text is by highlighting it. If you want to copy all of the text, you can use Select All in the Edit menu (or sometimes pressing the Ctrl and A keys at the same time will do this) to highlight all of the text. If you just want to highlight part of the text, you can click at a beginning or ending point and drag the cursor to the other end.
        To get the selected text into the clipboard you need to either cut or copy it. The difference between cut and copy is that cut removes the highlighted text and copy doesn't. Both put a copy in the clipboard.
        There are a couple of ways to cut and copy. One way is by using the menu items. These are usually located in the Edit menu and are called, Cut and Copy. An easier way and a way that most programs support (whether or not they have an Edit menu) is just to press the Ctrl and X keys to cut or to press the Ctrl and C keys to copy. This puts the highlighted text in Windows' clipboard.
        One thing I should mention is that the clipboard is invisible. When you copy data to it, nothing will happen visually. You may expect a clipboard to pop up and show you what is in it, but it doesn't. You just have to have faith and know that it is there.
        Another thing is that when Windows shuts down whatever is in the clipboard is emptied out of it, so when you start Windows, the clipboard is empty.
        Next, you need to go to where you want the text pasted. This could be another location in the same program or a different program altogether (Notepad is good for pasting text into and Paint is good for pasting pictures into). Put the cursor where you want the text to go (remember, even though you can't see it, the text is in the clipboard) and either click on the Paste item in the Edit menu or press the Ctrl and V keys at the same time (notice that these shortcut keys, X, C, V, are next to each other on the bottom row of your keyboard). Shazaam, the text appears where the cursor was.
        If you have never done this before, stop right now, open the browser and Notepad, and try this. It is something you need to learn here and now.
        These Cut, Copy, and Paste tips will work with just about any program that deals with data whether it be a text editor (like MS Notepad), word processor (like MS Word), graphic program (like MS Paint), web browser (like Internet Explorer), or Windows Explorer. If you want to move or copy data, Cut, Copy, and Paste can do it for you easily and quickly.

What is Defrag?

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        It occurred to me the other day that since we have been mentioning defrag recently in this newsletter that I should explain what the term means.
        Defrag is short for defragment and is the process of cleaning up fragmentation. A drive gets fragmented when files are deleted and added to it over and over again.
        Here is a simplified explanation of how that happens. When files are put on an empty hard drive, they are put at the beginning side by side. But what happens when one of these files is deleted? It leaves a hole or space the size of the deleted file. As more files are deleted more holes appear. As files are added to the drive, they are either put at the end of the drive or in the holes. When a file is too big to fit in a hole, it is split up and stuffed in several holes. In time instead of having entire files side by side on the hard drive, you have fragments of files side by side. When the computer reads a file, it must find each of the fragments and piece them together in memory. This can slow your computer down, and if the hard drive gets too fragmented, errors may occur.
        To remedy this problem Windows comes with a defragment tool, Disk Defragmenter (see the Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools menu). This tool first of all analyzes a drive and shows you how fragmented it is. If you want it to defrag the drive, it pieces together fragmented files and puts them in a temporary place at the back of the drive, thus clearing out room at the front. When there is enough room at the front, the entire files temporarily stored at the back are moved to the front. This process goes on until all or most of the fragments are gone and what you end up with is entire files sitting side by side on the drive.
        Some people obsess about defragging and defrag all of the time. But you can go for years without defragging and not notice much of a difference. Defragging once a year is probably plenty often enough.
        With drives as large as they are today, defragging can take many hours, so make sure you have the time. Besides Windows defrag tool, there are defrag tools made by other companies which claim to do a much faster job. I prefer to stick with the Windows tool since it is free and I don't defrag very often.
        The Windows' Registry can also become fragmented. With the registry, the holes are never filled in, so the registry only gets bigger and bigger, never smaller. Defragging the registry is the only way to make the registry files smaller. Our WinRescue and RegVac programs defrag the registry.
        Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of what it means to defrag the hard drive and the registry.

Shortcuts 101

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        One element of Windows is shortcuts. A shortcut is a small file that does nothing but link to another file. Its appearence takes on the same appearence as the icon of the file that it is linked to with the addition of a small box in the lower left corner of the icon with an arrow in it. When you double click on a shortcut, it double clicks on the file that it is linked to.
        Shortcuts are good for putting frequently used programs in more convenient places to run. For example, you may have a program that you run everyday but to run it you must click on the Start button, then go up to the All Programs item, wait for the menu to expand, go to the folder of the program, wait for it to expand, and then finally click on the program's icon. If you had a shortcut on your desktop or in the Quick Launch area of the task bar, you could just click on it to run the program. To accomplish this, some people just drag the program file from Windows Explorer to the desktop. That is not the correct thing to do because it can lead to all kinds of problems. What they should do is make a shortcut.
        There are several ways to make a shortcut. One way is to find the file that you want to link to in Windows Explorer and then right click on it. Select the Create Shortcut item on the popup menu. This will immediately create a shortcut with the words, "Shortcut to" added before the filename that you right clicked on. If you want that shortcut to be somewhere else, you can drag it to where you want it. You may want to rename it to.
        Another way to make a shortcut is to right click on a blank space, like the Desktop, and select New and then Shortcut from the popup menu. This will start the Create Shortcut wizard. Follow the instructions in the wizard to create a shortcut.
        Get to know shortcuts and they can make your computer life much easier.


Questions on our Discussion Board

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• Adobe flash player
  
• IE8 problem
  
• A1Click does not start
  
• CD Drive Does Not Work
  
• RegVac
  
• registration of regvac
  
• How to purge WMP of all DRM files?
  
• Internet Explorer 8 didn't install right
  
• how to uninstall Speed Startup
  
• openDNS
  
• RegVac/A1Click at the same time
  
• Multimedia controller
  
• Change Laptop Hard Drive
  
• Instant Share Device
  
• wmp11 wants to make a checkpoint
  
• Unclean shut down when closing XP
  
• Loosing Icons when moving from desktop to folder
  
• SpeedStart
  
• Track CPU usage
  
• Computer Problem
  
• RAM
  
• Connecting PC to TV
  
• MSvcrt
  
• corel word perfect 11
  
• WinRescue Backup
  
• AT&T DNS poisoning
  
• How to set up RegVac to ignore a program
  
• computer fix
  
• MicroSoft's Silverlight
  
• virus
  
• no tab for restore point
  
• Consider using SeaMonkey?
  
• Cannot Move, Cut or delete .mov file!
  
• WinRescue SOFTWARE key could not be copied
  

Thanks for reading,
Ray Geide