Computer Info – July 21, 1999

CREATE A FOLDER FOR YOUR DESKTOP

    Why should I create a folder for the desktop. To help organize and eliminate the cluster of too many icons on your desktop. To create a folder, place your mouse cursor on an empty area of the desktop, click the right mouse button and choose NEW – then choose FOLDER. This will place a yellow filefolder on your desktop with the words below it in blue reading NEW FOLDER. Immediately type the name that you wish to give this folder and then press ENTER.

CREATE ICONS FOR YOUR DESKTOP OR YOUR FOLDER

Right click on the START button.
Choose OPEN.
Double click on the PROGRAMS icon (folder)
Double click on the folder containing the program that you wish to place on your desktop.
Right click on the program that you wish to place on your desktop.
Choose COPY.
Right click on an empty area of the desktop (or your new folder).
Choose PASTE.

MANAGING INTERNET EXPLORER’S CACHE

    Internet Explorer saves a copy of every page and file you download in a complex structure of hidden subfolders within the Temporary Internet Files folder. The cache serves two performance-boosting purposes --- When you return to a page you previously visited, IE can load the cached copy. When you choose Work Offline, you can browse cached pages by loading them directly from your hard disk – which is always faster than downloading them from the Net.
    There’s a limit on the size of the cache. In a perfect world, IE would discard the oldest file to make room for the new content. In practice, though, that’s not the way it works. Sorting through 50 MB to 100 MB of cached entries would slow the system down unacceptably. Instead, IE uses an algorithm that tries to ensure that recently viewed pages stay in the cache. It doesn’t always succeed. To ensure that only the recently viewed pages stay in the cache ---- clean out the cache before you browse.

AGP

    AGP stands for Accelerated Graphics Port. This new bus interface delivers high performance graphics, including better three-dimensional imaging.
    Today’s computers come with PCI buses on the motherboards. PCI is the Intel way for fast communication among the system’s central processing unit and peripheral components.
    AGP operates at a minimum clock rate of 66 megahertz compared to the average PCI slot that typically runs at 33 MHz. This means AGP 1X transfers data at more than 256 megabytes per second whereas PCI tops out at 132. Most computer systems released last year will support the new AGP 2X standard, which transfers data at nearly twice the other rate or 512 megabytes per second. AGP is expected to reach transfer rates of 1 gigabyte per second by next year.
    Despite this drastic speed improvement, AGP technology isn’t designed to replace PCI but to act as a supplement. With the memory-intensive graphics information transfer removed from the PCI bus, other PCI devices should experience better operation because of access to substantially more bus bandwidth.
    Generally AGP motherboards have one AGP slot, which takes up one of the spaces usually reserved for a PCI slot. Although the AGP slot’s shape and size are similar to PCI’s , it is distinguishable. The AGP slot uses a separate connector and is further from the motherboard’s edge than the PCI bus.
    Because the AGP connector is different from the PCI, you cannot upgrade the PCI systems without replacing the entire motherboard.

RETRIEVING OR OPENING A FILE

    In the program you are running, you would choose FILE from the top menu. In many programs, the most recently used files will be listed at the bottom of the FILE menu. Just click on the one that you would like to open. This is the easy way – you do not have to locate the file on your hard drive or floppy. If the file that you wish to open is not listed there, then you would choose OPEN from the FILE menu. This will open a window called OPEN. Next to where it says LOOK IN: - will be listed the directory that you are currently in – and the large box below it will list all of the files that are in that directory. If the file that you are looking for is not in that directory, then you can click on the down arrow located on the right side of the box next to LOOK IN:. – this will show you your list of drives and allow you to determine where you wish to look for the file. When you find the file that you wish to open – you can double click on it to open it – or click once on it (this will highlight it) and then press the open button. Please notice the file types box at the bottom of the open window. Sometimes when you are looking for a file and know that it should be in that directory but it is not listed – you may have your file types set to look for only specific types of files (ex. *.txt - *.doc - *.jpg). To see all of the files in the directory, the file types should be set to *.* or "all files".
    Many programs will have an icon that will allow you to open files – so that is another way to get to the open file window.

SAVING FILES

    To save your changes to the document that you are working on – or the new document that you created, you would choose FILE from the top menu. Then you would choose SAVE AS. This would open the SAVE AS window. This window will look similar to the OPEN window. The directory that your file will be saved in, is the directory that is listed in the box next to the words SAVE IN: - but you can change this location the same way that we explained above. If it is a new document, you will have to give it a filename – and be sure to check the file type – to be sure that it is what you want.
    When saving a file, be sure to pay attention to the filename before you press the OK button. In MS-WORD you will notice that the file will be given a name that comes from the title (or first few words) of your document that you were typing. In NOTEPAD, your file will be named untitled.txt. In WORDPAD it will be named document.txt. In PHOTOPAINT your file will be called new-1.cpt.
    Be careful when using the SAVE instead of the SAVE AS feature. Once your document has a name – and you retrieve it to make a change or two, the SAVE feature will automatically write over the document that you opened. This is fine, IF that is what you had intended. What if you had wanted to keep the original document and give the revised document another name (ex. letter.txt letter1.txt) – using the SAVE feature would not pause to consider this – with the SAVE AS feature at least the program pauses for you to make the decision.

Save a Little Disk Space

    Here’s one way to win back some hard drive space. If your system has a directory called C:\PROGRAM FILES\ONLINE SERVICES --- delete it. It could be taking up as much as 14 MB and the included versions of America Online and CompuServe aren’t even current. You can also delete the Online Services program group and Desktop icon.

Speaker Icon on the Taskbar

    If your speaker icon disappears from your taskbar – or you don’t have one there and would like one --- then look here to place it on the taskbar. Open the CONTROL PANEL. Then open the MULTIMEDIA folder. On the AUDIO tab, you should see a checkbox that says "Show volume control on the taskbar". Place a check in the box, click on OK and the speaker icon should appear on your taskbar.