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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, July 8, 2007
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Postcard Scam
Featured Computer Term: Jewel Case
This Week's Topic: Disk Cleanup
Question: Hard Dive Information
Question: Available Drive Space
Websites of Interest: Movie Reviews; Statue of Liberty; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Tropical Glen
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Special Feature: Postcard Scam
From onlinebusinesslaunch.com
Well, these days you cant even open a virtual card without thinking twice! There is a new Internet scam: "You've got a postcard" email.
The subject is usually "You've received a greeting from a family member!", "Your friend sent you a postcard”, "You've got a postcard" or something similar.
The body usually says something like:
You have just received a virtual postcard from a family member (friend, coworker, or even some made-up name)! You can pick up your postcard at the following web address: . . . . .
The email is obviously NOT from postcards.org, and all the hyperlinks are cloaked. Once you click on the link, you start downloading an .exe file that contains a virus, trojans or other spyware.
Never ever follow the hyperlink and open a postcard if you receive it from someone you don't know, or from "your family member", "co-worker", and even “your mother” without actual person's name! On the legitimate post card and ecard sites, a card will be sent with the senders name in the subject line.
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Featured Computer Term: Jewel Case
Question: What is a Jewel Case? I have seen that mentioned several times in relation to computers.
Answer:
That is the plastic case that most CDs come in.
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Today's Topic: Disk Cleanup
Question: What does Disk Cleanup do? Should I do that? If so, how often should I do that?
Answer:
Disk Cleanup will get rid of many unneeded files that are taking up space on your hard drive. It should be done periodically, along with your regular computer housekeeping tasks.
Visit our newsletter Archives for an article on Regular Computer Housekeeping Tasks:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/020407.html
How often you run Disk cleanup and do your regular computer housekeeping tasks would depend on your own computer usage. If you use your computer daily, opening and closing programs, creating and deleting files, you should cleanup weekly. If you are a less frequent user, do these tasks once a month.
Here are the files that Disk Cleanup will delete for you:
Temporary Windows files. Windows creates files that it needs to perform specific tasks. When that particular task is complete, the temporarily file it created should automatically be deleted. Sometimes that does not happen and the file is left sitting somewhere on your hard disk. Disk Cleanup will target these files for deletion.
Temporary Internet files. When you are visiting different websites, temporary files are automatically downloaded to your computer. Deleting these can free up disk space. This will cause your favorite sites to load just a little bit slower, at least until the temp file is downloaded again, but delete them anyway, because these files include many from sites you will probably never visit again.
Temporary Program files. Like Windows, many programs create temporary files that they need to perform specific tasks. These should be automatically deleted when the program is done with them, but that does not always happen. Disk Cleanup targets these files for deletion, but only if they have not been used in the last week.
Downloaded Program files. This is not programs that you downloaded and are using. This refers to files and parts of files that are downloaded along with the Temporary Internet files when you visit web pages.
Recycle Bin. If there are files in the Recycle Bin, Disk Cleanup will delete them.
Setup Log files. When programs are installed, Windows keeps track of what it does and what changes are made through Log files. These files can safely be deleted.
Here are the steps to run Disk Cleanup:
Click the Start button and point to All Programs. Point to Accessories and then System Tools. Click on Disk Cleanup.
If your computer has more than one hard drive, you will be asked to choose the one you want (the main drive is always C:). If not, Disk Cleanup will begin analyzing the hard drive. This may take a few moments depending on the size of the drive and the amount of data on it.
Eventually you will see a window listing the items described above. To the right of each item is a number telling you how much space these files take up. Click on an item and you will see a description of it appear. To choose to delete that item, click the small checkbox to the left of the item.
When you have chosen everything you would like to delete, click the OK button. Disk Cleanup asks if you want to proceed; you must click the Yes button to continue. Disk Cleanup will begin to run.
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Question: Hard Dive Information
My computer is getting older and I am concerned about space. Can I look up how much space I have left?
Answer:
Yes, you can. To see how much space you have left, follow these steps:
Double click the My Computer icon on the desktop.
In the My Computer window, right click on the C: drive icon. In the resulting menu, left click Properties.
The properties window for the drive will appear. This window will display the used space, free space and total capacity on the drive. This information will also be displayed in a pie chart.
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Question: Available Drive Space
I have my computer for several years now and have received many pictures and have written many letters and emails. Will the computer let me know when it is filled up?
Answer:
Yes, it will. It will send you warnings when it is getting filled up.
When you have only about 200MB of free disk space, a message will appear once during each Windows session. You will see it pop up by the clock; in the bottom, right corner.
When you have only about 80MB of free disk space, a message will appear once every four hours, up to two times per Windows session.
When you have only about 50MB of free disk space, a message will appear every five minutes.
Ii is very important to have enough free space on your disk. This is one of the top reasons for hard disk crashes. Rather than waiting for Windows to warn you of low disk space, check on the amount of space you have left.
Read the article on Hard Drive Information in this newsletter. Follow the steps and note the amount of free space in the pie chart diagram. You should see at least one quarter pink. If it is less than that, its time to start cleaning up. Follow the steps in the Disk Cleanup article and then check the hard drive info again.
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Websites of Interest:
Movie Reviews
Get reviews and recommendations before renting or going to see a movie.
http://www.mrqe.com/
Statue of Liberty
Learn all about the Statue of Liberty. Visit this site for history, pictures, fun facts, plan your visit and much more.
http://www.statueofliberty.org/
Astronomy Picture of the Day
At this website, you will see a new, and amazing, photograph or image everyday, along with an explanation written by a professional astronomer.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Tropical Glen
“The best of the top 100 from the golden years of popular music.” Click on your favorite year, click on your favorite song, turn up your speakers and enjoy the music!
http://tropicalglen.com/ |
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