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Actually, if you make it to the Desktop, everything went just peachy so far! If you didn't, the most obvious culprit is a disk in your floppy drive, and there will be a message to that effect! Whatever is wrong, there should be a message giving some explanation.
Now for the hard part, finding your way around this labyrinth! Well, let's just dive in! Our first stop is 'My Computer'.From here, you can find your 'My Documents' folder, the 'C Drive', 'A Drive', 'D Drive', as well as your printer(s).
One of the wonders of the computer age is how easy it is to do stuff now that use to be really difficult or time-consuming, or both. It used to be that there won't even be Video Professor® or my humble little addition to your confusion!!
Now that you've become familiar with the contents of the C Drive, you'll not tremble in fear when told to go back there.
Those of us reared in DOS or Windows 3.1 (I was a DOS neophyte {non-expert} myself, before my stroke) take some time to get used to the XP way of doing things. Eventually, you'll get used to the new way of life.Top
The easiest way to the to the Display area of the Control Panel is to right-click on a blank part of the Desktop, go to Properties and hit Enter. Viola! You're there! See how easy that was!
| Arrange Items By Menu |
| Making Room on the Desktop |
| Refresh |
| Run the Cleanup Wizard |
This is a very convenient menu. You can sort the program icons by:Top
- Name
- Type
- Size
- Modified (Date)
About halfway down is another useful item: 'Auto Arrange'. This means you won't have to keep rearranging the icons manually every time you add or delete anything.
Another very useful item. If you ever have more than a few items of the same catagory, like Games or Utilities or Applications, this menu item will make your life easier.Here is how you do it:
- Right-Click on an unused portion of the Desktop.
- Pick 'New' (near the bottom)
- On the resulting menu, pick 'Folder' (at the top--Microsoft is nothing if not INCONSISTENT!!)
- When the 'New Folder' shows up, Right-Click on that and choose 'Rename'.
- Type in te new name for the folder and you're almost done!
- Now, drag-and-drop (put your cursor on the icon, click and move it over the folder and let it go. If you did it right, it'll appear in the folder. If you didn't and the icon is still on the desktop, it means you released the button too early.
- This will work no matter what section of the compute maze you're in.
This is one of those menu items that you won't realize you need until you NEED it! If you expect something to show up on the desktop and it doesn't, this might be the menu item to select.Top
You should run this about once a month, if not more often. You'd be surprised how quickly detritus (garbage, junk) accumulate.Top
Downloading Files
You'll also learn is that a lot of programs do not put their files in the
most convenient place. (Microsoft is not the only idiot on the block!)
You can counter this tendency by paying particular
attention to where the files are 'supposed' to go and put them in a place
of your choosing. The Program Files folder is the logical place.
Knowing where the files actually are will help you a great deal when any
problem occurs and you have to go into that directory to fix things. And
you will need to fix things! Constantly!
Once you've made it to the Net and are sitting there wondering
what to do, take heart. There will be TONS of programs that Microsoft either
decided they didn't want to put in Windows or did such a terrible job of
programming that you will probably spend half your life making up for their
stupidity/foolishness.
Another one of those 'Sure Glad I Have This' programs! You can set a Restore' point that you can then return to if you need to. You can also restore to the last time the computer said if you want to! Very easy! Takes a few minutes, is all.
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Calling for Help!
Eventually (but hopefully not too soon) you'll need
to call for help. Here are some sites to visit!
Fix it Yourself!
If you're going to try to fix the computer all by yourself, there's not much help I can give you. There are some general thoughts I'd like to share, for what they're worth:
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If you've come this far, I sympathize with you! eBay has a recycling program, and most of the computer manufacturers will also recycle their old machines either for free or a low price. Here are the web sites for the major companies:
| Compaq |
| Dell |
| eBay |
| Gateway |
| HP |
| IBM |
| Sony |
| Toshiba |
A good friend of mine just told me I'm forgetting a major alternative to junking your computer: donating it to a local group or charity! They are constantly in need of working computers, even yours! Check the yellow pages for non-profit groups or charities.
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