What are you thankful for this year?
I have a lot to be grateful for. I am so thankful that I am in a position that allows me to meet people who become my clients, and more importantly, friends. Thank you for your business and support through all these years. It’s been an amazing ride!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!!
How Often Should I Shut Down My Computer?
I am asked this question all the time. All sorts of factors come into play. Essentially, it boils down to your own personal preference. Here are some things to consider:
Wear & Tear — Computer parts are designed to be extremely durable and last for years, but as with all machines that have moving parts, things do eventually break down. In a PC, the cooling fans are the primary components that will be in constant use if you never turn the machine off. Hard drives also continue to spin when the computer is not in use, and they can eventually die out.
Too Many Processes — If you leave your computer on all the time, it is still running all manner of processes, even if no programs are open. Over time, these processes lead to memory errors that build up, which can cause crashes and programs to freeze. Shutting down your computer when it’s not in use can help limit that kind of poor performance.
What does Tara do?
I shut my computer down every night.
Trash & Recycle Bin
Just putting something into the Trash or the Recycle Bin doesn’t actually delete it. You then have to *empty* the Trash or Recycle Bin. (Once a year, I hear about somebody whose hard drive is full, despite having practically no files. It’s because over the years, they’ve put 79 gigabytes’ worth of stuff in the Recycle Bin and never emptied it.)
iPhone/iPad Typing Shortcut
On the iPhone (or iPad), hit the Space bar twice at the end of a sentence. You get a period, a space, and a capitalized letter at the beginning of the next word. Try it!
When was the last time you checked? Do you have a backup of all
That picture to the left is an extreme case. BUT, If you’ve had your PC for more than a few months, it’s probably filled with dust, dirt, and worse. Especially by the fan on the back of the computer or underneath the laptop. Dirt buildup can affect PC performance. Cleaning all of the muck and dirt out of a system can be pretty gross, at least the first time around, but doing it regularly ensures optimal cooling performance and stability. A great tool to have is canned air. Also, a Dustbuster, small brush, and Fantastik will work wonders to keep your friend clean.
whether it be a new computer, iPod, or that brand new scientific calculator! I didn’t always have these gadgets during my school years though. So I grew up knowing life before technology and then with technology. This is how I can understand both sides and it gives me an upper hand at helping you learn something with which you didn’t grow up.
What’s that?
Everyone has become more impatient thanks to the instant gratification we all enjoy every day on the Internet. However, because of this impatience it is not uncommon for users to click Ok or Next without reading what they are agreeing to. Make sure you read every prompt before agreeing, or you may be agreeing to install new browser toolbars, a program you didn’t intend to install, or other crapware.
What history am I talking about? Your Internet History. Have you ever wanted to revisit a website you looked at a few days ago, or weeks ago, but don’t remember how you found it? Use the History feature in your Internet Browser. For Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, press Ctrl on your keyboard and then simultaneously press the ‘H’ key. This will bring up a list of websites you’ve visited organized by date. In Safari, click History on the top menu bar.
Great question, complicated answer. There are many reasons your computer may be running slowly. It could be a hardware issue, memory, hard drive space, viruses, malware, too many programs running, too many startup programs, unused programs, a fragmented hard drive. As you can see, there are a lot of things to look into. Maintenance is the key!
VERY good question. If you care at all about the files on your computer, pictures, music, videos, documents, even internet bookmarks and favorites, you need a backup. This way, if something happens to your computer, a virus attack, a dead hard drive, you have all your files saved in another location. Which is the best way to go? I recommend an external hard drive backup AND a cloud based backup (storing your files in the ‘cloud’).
How Do I Keep Track of All My Passwords?
Have you noticed that icon pictures are starting to take over as replacements for certain words? For instance, instead of seeing the word “Print”, you’ll see a small printer icon. That has been around for a long time, but have you noticed the 3-line icon? It’s called a “Hamburger Menu” and signifies a menu from which you will find many options. Google Chrome uses this as do many websites and apps.
Windows 10
*TRICK #1* Posting a photo on Facebook (using your PC computer)
*TRICK #2* Posting a photo on Facebook (using iPhone or iPad)
Many of my clients have been asking me whether they should install (or not) Windows 10 which has just come out a few weeks ago. My advice right now, is to hold off. The operating system is new. There can be bugs that make the OS incompatible with certain software or devices that you use. And this would not be good, obviously. While these bugs are being worked out by Microsoft, stick with what you have. I will alert everyone when it’s OK to upgrade to Windows 10!
Did you know that if an app is causing a problem (it’s frozen or just won’t work right), there are a few things you can do? First close the app. Now I don’t mean just getting out of it and going back to the Home screen (the screen with all the little square icons). While your phone is on, double press on the Home button. You will see smaller rectangles showing the apps you have open. Using your finger, swipe up the screen from the rectangle. Now you’ve officially closed the app. Press the Home button to return to the Home screen. Reopen the app and see if this has solved the problem.
This scam can also come in the form of a message that pops up on your screen with a phone number to call. Please don’t call that number and call me instead.
To understand files and folders on the computer, take out a Manila folder from your desk. The Manila folder from your desk is the same as a Folder on your computer. It opens up and you can put pieces of paper into it. Those pieces of paper are called Files on the computer. Grab another Manila folder from your desk and put it inside the first Manila folder. Now you have put a folder inside of a folder. And other pieces of paper can go inside that second folder. This is the way files and folders work on your computer. Folders contain files and can also contain more folders to help organize your “Files”.
Basically, the Cloud is the Internet. When something is in the Cloud, that means it is stored on servers (or other computers) on the Internet, instead of on your computer. It lets you access your calendar, email, photos, files and more, from any computer or device that has an internet connection. You may not realize it, but you are using the Cloud when you check your Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Verizon or Comcast email because you would be able to check your email from any computer connected to the internet – not just your own. Some examples of the Cloud that you may have heard of are Google Docs, iCloud, DropBox, and more. Here’s a short video to give you more information about the Cloud: 
I notice this all the time. So I wanted to set the record straight! When you are typing text into different boxes, such as your name, email, address, etc., you click inside the box first. But you do not have to click at the very beginning of the box. You can actually click anywhere inside the box – the center, the right, it doesn’t matter. You will still see the blinking cursor! Then type! This way, you don’t have to be so concerned about clicking exactly at the left edge of the box!
What’s the difference between these two?
Which term should you use? You can think of a website like a book. A book consists of a collection of pages. So does a website. The pages within a website are called web pages and are linked together by Links. NYTimes.com is a website. Each individual article you view would be a web page.
A Homepage refers to the first thing that you see when you go onto the Internet. When you open Internet Explorer or Google Chrome (or Firefox or Safari), what is the first thing that you see? That page is called your Homepage. Your Homepage can be changed to whatever you want it to be. Most people like to have a search engine as their homepage.
PDF stands for Portable Document Format. So what does that mean exactly? When you create a file in Microsoft Word, for example, you may include formatting (colors, fonts, etc). If you send that Word file to someone else, they may not see it exactly the same as you do. Maybe they don’t have the font that you used. Not all computers have the same fonts. Instead of sending the Word file, a PDF file can be used. The PDF file will look exactly the way you’ve set up the Word file to look. It will look just like a printed copy. PDFs open up in the program Adobe Reader.
Microsoft Office, the suite of programs that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more, has always been a program that you had to buy to add onto your computer. Computers don’t come with it installed, unless there is a trial version that gives you access to the program for a certain period of time. It is still a program that you have to buy for your computer, but I recently discovered that there is a free option and it is called Office Online. If you are interested in learning more about this, please let me know and we can look into it together! 
CompuTara's Corner 