5 Basic Things Everyone Should Know About Their Computer

1. Backup your files
This is something simple that can help you in the event of a catastrophic failure of your computer. In the event that your computer gets a fatal virus or your main hard drive fails from use, having a complete system backup will be crucial to restoring all your personal or work files. Before you start you will need a few things: an external hard drive and backup software.

An external hard drive is where you will store your backup image that you can use to restore your computer in the event of a fatal error or system crash. They are very cheap and you will most likely be able to purchase one with enough storage to make a complete system backup for less than $100. Setup of the hard drive couldn't be simpler, just plug it in and Windows 7 or Mac OS X will do the rest.

As for backup software, you can purchase software that will give you some advanced features. But for now we will just use the free software included with Windows 7 and Mac OS X 1.6 or later. For Windows you will use Backup and Restore. For Mac you will use Time Machine. These can be setup to automatically backup your system an any interval you need. For example, you can set it up to backup your system every day or every month. I would recommend that for most people every week should be fine, but if you rely heavily on your computer for keeping financial records and banking you may want to backup daily.

I will be posting a more in depth tutorial on how to do this step by step at a later time.

2. Use internet security software
Internet security is very important in keeping your private information exactly that, PRIVATE! Windows 7 has a built in suite of internet security options including a firewall and antivirus. What is a firewall? A firewall is simply a security fence for your computer. It only allows certain types of information from certain locations on the internet to be received. This helps with deterring hackers from getting into your system and stealing your information. The antivirus software will scan downloaded files to make sure they are safe to store on your computer. If you feel your computer is running slowly, I would run a virus scan using your antivirus software. The built-in security suite for Windows 7 can be found in the Control Panel in your start menu.

In addition you may want to get a third party internet security suite to add an extra layer of protection for your computer. You can purchase popular software such as Norton or McAfee internet security. I personally have a second antivirus program call avast! which can be downloaded for free. I find that the built-in security combined with avast! is adequate protection that will not noticeably slow your computer down. Links to purchase or download recommended internet security software will be posted at the end of this article.

3. Setup power saving features
Everyone is going green these days, but going green can actually save you money. I know a lot of people that leave their computers on and running all day, every day. That can add more than $40 per month to your electric bill depending on the computer! Why don't you just visit your control panel and set up some power saving options. If you feel the need to keep your computer on all the time you can make sure to use less power by making your monitor turn off after a few minutes of idle time, or put your computer to sleep after a few minutes of idle time. I have my desktop set up to turn my monitor off after 5 minutes of inactivity and to put the computer to sleep after 10 minutes of inactivity. To get the most savings on your electric bill, just turn off your computer when you are done with it.

4. Clean up and organize your desktop
Just like everything else in your home or office (file cabinets, closets, workstation etc.) organizing your computer can help you save valuable time. The most common problem I find with most beginner computer users is that they have a very cluttered desktop. I'm going to give you a few tips to help organize and make your computer use more efficient.

First is folders. Most families have multiple users using only one user account on the computer. Make folders on your desktop dedicated for each person where they can store their own things like pictures and videos. Also, organize your work or financial documents in folders by Month-Day-Year. Use hyphens between the month, day, and year because Windows will not allow you to use forward slashes in folder names.

Second is to delete all program shortcuts from your desktop. Program shortcuts can be identified by an arrow in the bottom right corner of the icon. When deleting these shortcuts you do not remove them from the computer. Instead of using the desktop shortcuts, use the new search feature in Windows 7. Just click on the start button and type whatever program you need to use and it will show up almost instantly! You can also use "Pin to Taskbar" for the most frequently used programs such as media players and web browsers.

Organizing your desktop not only makes things easier to find and more efficient, but it will also help with your computer start up time. It won't be a huge improvement in boot up speed but you will notice the difference.

5. Remove unnecessary programs from automatically starting after logging in
There should be only a couple things that should start automatically when you log into your computer. Those should be your internet security suite and Windows Update. Everything else will dramatically slow down your start up time. I have several friends who have half a dozen programs loading when they first log into their computer and it takes up to 10 minutes for Windows to finish loading before they can use it! If you only have those things you use everyday without actually using them everyday (software updates, antivirus, firewalls, etc.) then you will have much faster start up times. Keep Spotify and Facebook chat set to "Do not start automatically when Windows starts" and only start those programs when you need them. You may just need to pay some bills quickly before you go on a trip, so why would you need to load your favorite chat program when you just want to visit your online banking site?

Links
Norton Internet Security
McAfee Internet Security
avast! Antivirus Free