IT Learning Part 2

I didn't want to have all my videos on 1 page because it might cause it to take forever to load.  So I decided to make separate pages to make this better.  If you have any computer questions or topics you would like me to discuss, please leave a comment.  Also if you like these videos, please subscribe to my Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/mast3rduckyduck

How to Change the Icon Size
This tip is for people who want to change the size of the icons on the desktop.  There are only three options: small, medium (this one is default with your computer), and large.  You can choose to have small icons if you can see that good or if you want to make your desktop look neater by the icons shrinking and getting closer together.  You can choose large if it is better for you to see the icons, or if you like the way it looks.  To learn how to change the icon size, please view the video:

How to Make Folder Icons Invisible
This tip can make your folder icons invisible.  You can use it to prevent other people from finding your folder or just to play a trick on your friends.  To do this, you need to right-click on the folder and go to Properties.  Then go to the Customize tab and select a blank icon and press Ok.  To make the text hidden, highlight the text by clicking on it once, then click on it again.  Then hold the Alt key and press 255.  Now it will be hidden.  This doesn't work perfectly if you have large icons.  Also, if you forget where it is once it's invisible, just click and drag your mouse cursor over the whole desktop and it will get highlighted.  To see a video on how to make folder icons invisible, please watch the video:

How to Change Desktop Themes
This tip will allow you to change your desktop theme to something else.  What this does is it changes your background, your login sound and a few other sounds, window color, and can also change your screensaver.  It can also have a few other backgrounds that change after a certain number of minutes.
To learn how to change destkop themes, please view the video.

How to Change Screen Resolution
The higher your screen resolution, the better quality your screen will look when you watch movies, play games, etc...  Also when your screen resolution is higher, everything looks smaller compared to when you have a lower resolution.  If you have a hard time seeing your screen, you might want to lower your resolution, just keep in mind that your screen won't look as sharp as your highest setting.  If you have Windows 7, your probably have your screen resolution already at the highest resolution.  However, some computers don't automatically come preset with the highest resolution.  This goes especially for people that barely install Windows XP.  You usually have to download the correct video driver and then change your screen resolution.  To learn how to change your screen resolution, please watch this video:

How to Turn Onscreen Keyboard On:
If you do not have a keyboard, or maybe your keyboard messed up,  you can still type stuff into your computer using the onscreen keyboard.  It's an easy process to do and can allow you to still be able to use your computer until you get a new keyboard.  To learn how to turn the onscreen keyboard on, please view my video:

How to Pin Programs to Start Menu
Instead of having icons of programs on your desktop, you can have them pinned to the start menu.  This means, you would just have to click the start button and your program will be somewhere in that little menu.  This is good if you don't want a messy desktop, or if you are used to open programs from your start menu like me.  The process is very simple, you just need either the program itself or a shortcut of that program.  Please watch my video to learn how to do this.

For computer maintenance tips, please click here:

http://how-to-use-the-computer.blogspot.com/2012/12/learn-about-computers.html

Operating System Maintenance

Operating System Maintenance:
 This next subject is self explanatory.  It involves basic maintenance to the computer like cleaning the registry, defragmenting a hard drive, creating backups and restore points, and deleting startup entries.  Also if you like these videos, please subscribe to my Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/mast3rduckyduck

 How to Clean Registry:
The registry is like a database that stores all the information about your computer.  It stores information that you have created, like changing your desktop background.  It also stores information of the new programs that you install.  When you delete these programs, the registry still keeps some of that information.  This causes your computer to take longer to start up.  To fix this, please watch this video:

To fix registry problems, please click here.

How to Defragment a Hard Drive:
When you use your computer and open and close files, your hard drive experiences something called fragmentation.  The way I learned is that it's like a book shelf that is in some type of order (alphabetical, by genre, etc...).  When you take out a book and put it back in the wrong place, it takes longer for the next person to find the book they are looking for.  This is the same concept for a hard drive.  When you open a file (program, Word document, movie, etc...) it used to be in the perfect order, but now some of the files got moved in the wrong area, so it takes longer to find the next time.  This causes your computer to perform slower.  Please note that this is only for mechanical hard drives.  Solid State Drives (SSD) have a different way of storing all their files and are way faster than mechanical hard drives so they don't need defragmenting.
*Never defragment a Solid State Drive*

To learn how to defragment a hard drive, please watch this video:
 

To download Auslogics Disk Defragmenter, go to this site:
http://filehippo.com/download_auslogics_disk_defrag/


How to Delete Temporary Files in Windows 7

When you download stuff from the internet or run programs, your computer will save them to a file called "Temp".  It's not a big deal, but over time the files inside that folder get big, and cause a slight slowdown with your computer.  Deleting these files will not harm your computer.  It actually tells you that you can't delete certain files because they are currently in use.
Please watch the video to learn how to delete temporary files.

How to Uninstall a Program
When you have programs that you will never use again, you are just wasting hard drive space.  The reason you'd want to delete them is because it'll make your computer run a little faster because there is less stuff on your hard drive.  This means that it won't take as long for your computer to find the files that it is looking for when you are using a computer.  Also, when your disk becomes fragmented, the slow effect will be less on a hard drive with less files in it than one with a lot of files.
Please watch the video to learn how to uninstall a program:

How to Delete Files That Are in Your Recycle Bin
When you delete a file you don't want anymore, you don't actually delete it.  What your computer does is that it saves it in the recycle bin just in case you accidentally deleted it.  I believe that the recycle bin holds the file for a certain time period and then deletes it, but don't quote me on that.  When it's saved to the recycle bin, this means that your hard drive didn't free up space because the file is still in your hard drive.
To delete these files, please watch this video:

How to Restore Deleted Files From Recycle Bin
As stated in the above paragraph, your files that you delete aren't actually deleted until you delete them from the recycle bin.  If you accidentally deleted them, please view this video to learn how to restore those files:

P.S.  If you are wanting to recover files that have already been deleted from recycle bin, do a search for "Recuva" from Piriform.  You can find it at filehippo.com or the piriform website.  It's free and it works really well to recover your files.  I'll be posting a video on that in the near future.

How to Overclock Your Processor
I will be explaining more on this soon, but for now I am just showing this video on how to do it.  Please be careful when overclocking because you can damage your processor or motherboard if you do not have proper cooling.  Also if you have a newer processor like a Core i3,5, or 7, or the AMD FX processors, you probably don't even need to overclock anyways because those processors are fast to begin with.  I have a Pentium 4 (super slow) processor so I overclock mine.  Eventually I will be upgrading to a Core 2 Quad :).

How to Change Power Options
The purpose of changing power options will mostly benefit laptop users, but it still has some benefit for desktop users.  The main reason for changing the power options for laptops is to make your battery life last a little bit longer.  On a side note, if you want to make your laptop last longer on a single charge, turn off your wireless switch when you are not using the internet.  Keeping it on uses more battery because it's constantly connecting to the internet or constantly trying to find a wireless connection.  Now back to the power options.  There are 3 different power options that come with Windows 7: Power Saver, Balanced, and High Performance.  Power Saver is the good one for laptop users that aren't plugged into the charger.  Power Saver increases battery life because it lowers your computer's performance wherever it can.  Balanced pretty much means that it balances between saving power and high performance.  It will give you more performance than Power Saver, but you will get less battery life.  You will also get more battery life, but less performance than High Performance.  That's the best way I can explain Balanced mode.  Now high Performance is what will benefit desktop users who are in to gaming.  Now if you're just a casual internet surfer, you can keep your desktop on Power Saver if you want, but High Performance is perfect for desktop users.  You get the most performance out of your computer, but you don't have to worry about battery life because it's constantly being powered by your outlet.  For laptop users, it's only recommended to use High Performance when you are plugged in to your charger, but you can still use it unplugged if you want.  You just need to remember that your laptop will run out of battery way sooner than on Power Saver.  Now to learn how to change your power options, please view my video:
Notice that I have 4 options, the different one is called Gaming Mode Power Plan.  That is from Gamebooster.  It is used to make your games run faster.  To learn more about gamebooster, look it up online or leave a comment for more information.

Also if you have any computer software related problems, I recommend trying out this software.




P.S.  I know this is not relevant, but I am also selling ebooks with master resell rights at a low price.  If you are interested in buying them and selling them for 100% profit, please click here:
 http://buylowpriceebooks.blogspot.com/2012/12/buy-e-books.html

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IT Learning

Introduction:
My name is David Cantu and I have an Associate's Degree in Computer Maintenance.  I will be teaching you how to use the computer and also some basic steps for fixing computers.  Some of the stuff might just be little computer tips and tricks, while others will include basic computer maintenance and fixing any issues you might encounter.  If you encounter any computer question, please feel free to leave a comment.  Also if you like these videos, please subscribe to my Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/mast3rduckyduck

Build a Computer:
If you are interested in being able to build a computer, please view my other blog that explains step-by-step instructions.  If you don't know much about which parts to buy for building your computer, please leave a comment because not all parts are compatible with each other.
How To Build a Computer:
http://buildacomputer.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-build-desktop-computer.html

Operating System Tips:
The next subject I will be explaining is some basic operating system tips.  I will be talking about computer topics like mapping a network drive, hiding desktop icons, and hiding desktop gadgets.

How to Map a Network Drive:
Mapping a network drive is pretty much being able to access another computer's folder from your computer, and having it easily available like your C: drive.  This is most practical in a work environment because workers usually have a folder from the server where they save all their work to.  Before watching the video, please make sure that you are on the same domain or workgroup as the computer you are wanting to map the network drive from.  Also make sure that the folder you are wanting to map is shared by that computer.  Also on 0:09 of my video, make sure that the option "Reconnect on logon" is checked.  This means that every time you restart your computer, it will automatically connect to the drive.

 

How to Hide Desktop Icons:
This is just a little tip for people like me that are too lazy to delete desktop icons.  All this does is hide the icons, you can easily unhide them and they will appear exactly the way they were.  Please view this video tutorial to learn how.

How to Hide Desktop Gadgets:
This tip shows you how to hide your desktop gadgets if you want your desktop to look clean without deleting your desktop gadgets.  Please view this video tutorial to learn how.

How to Move Taskbar:
You can move the taskbar to the right,top, or left side of the screen if you want.  I prefer the default bottom position, but you can change it to whichever position you want.  Please watch the video to learn how to move the taskbar:

How to Hide Taskbar:
If you want a little bit more room on your screen, you can hide the taskbar.  The only thing that could get annoying is that, if you move your mouse towards the bottom of the screen, it will show up and get in the way of the bottom of the screen.

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How to Change Folder Icon:
This tip is used to customize your folder icons to look different than just the plain folder.  You can make it look like a star, power button, caution sign, and many more.
To learn how to change a folder icon, please view my video:

How to Create a New Folder
Watch this quick video to learn how to create a new folder.  You can create a new folder on your desktop or anywhere in your C: drive.

How to End Tasks in Task Manager
This is for when you are trying to close a program that's not responding.  You can end it with the task manager and it'll end it most of the times.

STEPS:
Right-click on the taskbar and select "Task Manager".  Under Applications tab, click on the program that you want to end and then click on the End Task button.  If the program you're looking for isn't there, then go to the Processes tab and find it there.  Click on the program and then click on the end process tab.

For the next set, please read Step 2 by clicking here:

http://computertechinstructions.blogspot.com/2013/01/learn-about-computers-part-2.html

To learn about basic computer maintenance, please click here:

http://computertechinstructions.blogspot.com/2012/12/operating-system-maintenance.html

I will eventually be adding more tips soon, like:
How to change the theme
Where to download themes
How to change the background
How to make folder icons invisible
How to change your login password
How to enable onscreen keyboard
How to change desktop resolution
How to change power options

If there's anything Windows 7 related that you'd like me to show, please leave a comment.


If you have any software problems on your computer, such as slow computer performance, I recommend you try out this software.

P.S.  To buy ebooks with master resell rights and sell them online for 100% profit, please click here:
http://buylowpriceebooks.blogspot.com/2012/12/buy-e-books.html

 

Also if you want to learn some good tips on how to lose weight, please click here:

How to Remove a Virus.

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