Enhancing Your Computer

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Enhancing Your Computer
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Meet the Computer
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Tower
Contains all the vital components of your computer
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Monitor
Interprets signals sent from the tower and allows
you to access information
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Keyboard and Mouse
Allows you to send commands back to the tower,
making the computer perform various functions
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Starting Up
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Things to Know Before You Start

• On/Off Switch
• Found on both tower and monitor
• Press to turn on
• If the computer freezes and control cannot be
  regained, this button can be pressed and held to
  perform a cold shutdown.

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Things to Know Before You Start

• Shutting Down
• This is the correct way to turn off your computer
• By shutting down correctly, you reduce the risk
  of losing data not previously saved
• Press Start gt Turn Off Computer gt Turn Off

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Things to Know Before You Start

• Restarting
• This step is sometimes necessary when you install
  new programs or updates
• If your computer is sluggish or is not
  interfacing with one of your components (the
  mouse for instance), you might need to restart
  before the computer is able to locate it.
• Press Start gt Turn Off Computer gt Restart

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Things to Know Before You Start

• Control-Alt-Delete (CTRL-ALT-DEL)
• If the computer becomes unresponsive or a program
  has frozen, you can use these simple keystrokes
  to regain control
• A Task Manager will appear where you can select
  programs to close
• Press and hold each button in the correct sequence

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Your Computer Drives
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Knowing Your Drives

• The floppy disk drive is Drive A.
• The hard drive is known as Drive C.
• The CD/DVD drive is Drive D.
• External media drives, such as external hard
  drives, USB drives, zip drives, etc. receive
  letters E, F, etc. in the order that they are
  recognized by your computer.

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Knowing Your Hard Drive

• Its important to know (or know where to find)
  information concerning your hard drive.
• Go to My Computer, right-click on Local Disk,
  and select Properties.
• You can find out
• The size of the hard drive
• How much free space on the drive is available

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Knowing Your Hard Drive

• Error Check
• You can check your drive for possible problems.
• Its like checking the oil in your car
• Run an error check frequently
• Properties gt Tools
• Defragment
• Reorganize the space on your disk
• Its like cleaning up your garage
• Properties gt Tools

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Knowing Your Hard Drive

• Disk CleanUp
• Will compress files that you havent used in a
  while in order to free up space.
• Local Disk gt Properties
• BackUp
• Save essential files to
• External Hard Drive
• DVD/CD
• Large Flash/Thumb/USB Drive
• Zip Drive
• This protects you in case your hard drive
  crashes. ?

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Desktop Start Menu
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Start Menu

• Adding
• Newly installed programs are added to the Program
  list
• Removing
• Programs can be deleted from the list by
  right-clicking on the item and selecting Delete
• Sorting
• Drag and drop items to sort in order of
  preference, alphabetical order, etc.

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Desktop

• Icons (all over)
• Desktop icons act as shortcuts to your favorite
  programs
• Double-click to launch the program, without going
  through the Start menu
• Taskbar (bottom)
• Shows what programs are currently open
• Allows you to switch between programs easily
• System Tray (lower right corner)
• Keeps track of internal processes, which are
  mostly independent of programs
• Keeps track of programs which may not currently
  be running, but are still active
• Quick Launch (lower left corner, right of Start
  button)
• Icons for your favorite programs can be stored
  here
• A single click opens the program

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Programs

• Uninstalling
• Press Start button gt Control Panel gt Add or
  Remove Programs
• This generates a list of all the programs you
  currently have on your computer
• Remove programs from your computer which you
• No longer use
• Came with your computer when you bought it and
  you dont want them
• Installed them a while ago, but cant remember
  what theyre for

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Display
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Screen Saver

• Settings
• Change the way your screensaver appears
  sometimes its nice to have a change ?
• Password
• You can set up your computer to request a
  password when returning from a screensaver
• Energy Saving
• You can set your computer to hibernate, shut
  down, or stand by

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Background

• Display
• Set a background picture or color that reflects
  your taste or personality
• Windows comes with preset pictures however,
  personal pictures saved on your computer can be
  set as the desktop image

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Theme
You can set a collection of sounds, icons,
background, and other elements that allow you to
customize your computer with one click.

• Background
• Set a color that you would like as a backdrop
• Pictures may also be available to choose from
• Windows
• Set the style of windows you prefer
• Styles vary from the old look to the latest
  layout

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Sound
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Schemes

• Changing sounds
• Set sounds for various tasks (new email, error,
  etc.)
• Windows has preset sounds for each task
• New sounds
• You can set sounds saved on your computer to
  designate tasks

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Computer Safety
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Start-up Disks

• When the computer goes down
• A dead computer is never a fun thing
• Be prepared with a Start-Up or Boot Disk to bring
  your computer back to life
• These disks can help to retrieve important data
  that can be transferred to another computer

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Back-up Data

• Programs
• Always keep program disks. You never know when
  you will need to reinstall.
• Zip Disks
• Similar to a floppy disk, but holds more data in
  an encrypted form
• CD/DVD
• Stores large amounts of data
• Thumb/Flash/USB Drive
• These drives come in various sizes, currently
  ranging from 64 MB to 4 GB
• Useful for moving data from one computer to
  another, using drag and drop technology

Remember Many people say that they can never
remember to back up their files until the
computer crashes, and then its too late.
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Security
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Virus Protection

• Scanners
• Well known programs include Norton and McAfee
• Common Sense
• Some good rules of thumb are
• Double-check that a person (even someone you
  know) sent an attachment via email
• It is very easy for a computer to be infected and
  the user will not even know it
• Never click on pop-ups. They are the easiest way
  for some spyware and viruses to be transferred.

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Internet Safety

• Security Settings (Installed Protocols)
• Set your Internet security to a high level to
  protect yourself from unsavory pop-ups
• Common Sense

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This has been a
Presentation