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Use Email Filters to Organize Email

If you receive more than a few email per day, you could probably benefit from using email filters. All major email programs can be used to look at your email as it comes in and then shift it to a designated folder or even delete it.

Before starting to use a filter, set up some email folders to organize your messages. Simply having an Inbox that collects all incoming mail can be cumbersome to work with and makes it easy to lose important messages.

In my email program, I have set up over 25 folders that collect and organize everything from listener mail, newsletters, daily tips that I receive, mail from specific contacts and more. When I check for email, the program applies the rules (filters) that I have setup and shifts the mail to where it belongs.

Cookies…are they dangerous, harmless or do they just taste good?

Cookies are small (very small…hundreds of cookies will take up less than a tenth of a megabyte on your hard drive) text files that are deposited on our computer systems by some web sites. For example, the polling service I use for our listener poll will deposit a cookie on your hard drive to prevent more than
one vote per question, but that is all it does.

In the majority of cases, cookies pose no threat to you, your computer, or your privacy. Cookies contain as little data as your Internet providers identifying address or your name and preferences for a web site (like Amazon.com or a personalized Yahoo! page). There have been instances of some advertising
companies attempting to ‘track’ your whereabouts on the web, but again it is more your ‘number’ than you and the data collected is for statistical information only. And to reiterate, cookie files take up a minuscule amount of your hard drive space.

Stop the Windows password screen

Follow either of these techniques to get rid of the Windows logon password (it doesn’t provide any type of security any way).

I’m going to give a couple of ways to go about it, because it can be quirky and not work the same way on every machine (imagine that).

Technique 1:

1. Click on Start–>Settings –> Control Panel
2. Double-click on the Passwords icon.
3. Click the Change Passwords tab and click the Change Windows Password button.
4. Make sure all three fields are completely blank and click the OK button to save changes.

Technique 2:

1. Click on Start –> Find –> Files and Folders

Remove Password at Startup

Are you annoyed by a ‘password’ screen that starts up every time you start your computer? Did you know that this password affords you NO extra security what-so-ever?

Well, if you are itching to get rid of it, here’s how:

1. Click on Start –> Find –> Files or Folders
2. Type: *.pwl in the named box
3. Click in the Look In box and choose My Computer
4. Make sure the Include subfolders box is checked and then click on Find Now
5. Delete any files that are found and close the Find window
6. Click on Start –> Settings –> Control Panel
7. Double-click on Network

Quick Tweaks to Make Windows Snap

When I make a house or office call during the week to work on a computer, I almost always run through a few quick tweaks to make Windows perform just a little bit better. No matter how new a computer may be, it can’t be too fast. Try these tweaks on your computer to see if you can eek out a little more performance.
Disable Visual Effects

Starting with Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft added visual effects to menus and windows that do nothing but make us wait a little longer to perform our computing tasks. To cut down on these visual effects, do the following:

1. RIGHT Click on a blank part of the desktop

Keep your system running clean

It’s easy to become a digital pack rat. However, using all this space on your computer can contribute to slower performance.

Here are some tips of how to keep your system clutter free.

* Use the Disk Cleanup utility (Windows 98 and Me users) to delete temporary windows and Internet files.
* If you use a digital camera or scanner, archive your older images on a ZIP disk or CDR (also important for backups).
* Keep your email folders cleaned out…especially delete unwanted Sent messages and don’t forget to empty your deleted email folder as well.
* Speaking of email, also delete any unwanted email attachments you have received (AOL users look for your downloaded files under the C drive, then AOL, then Download folder)

Drag and Drop

Over the past few weeks, we discussed the usefulness of cut, copy and paste. Another great skill to have at your disposal is “drag and drop”. With very few exceptions, drag and drop requires your mouse.

To drag and drop an object, click and hold the left mouse button on the file, object, or text and then move (drag) the mouse to its destination. It is the same exact maneuver computer users use every day to play solitaire and move the cards from stack to stack.

Here are some other examples:

* Want to delete an unused icon from your desktop? Click on the icon and hold the mouse button down while dragging it to the Recycle Bin. Once over the Recycle Bin, release the mouse button and the icon disappears.

Delete an Email without opening it

A common question I am asked is how to delete an email without opening it first. Keep in mind that if you keep your anti-virus software up to date AND you don’t open suspicious attachments…even from people you know, you will lower your risk factor significantly.

To delete email without opening it in Outlook Express follow these steps:

1. Click on View from the menus
2. Click Layout
3. Uncheck the box next to “Show Preview Pane”
4. Click OK

Now you have to double-click on messages to read them, but you can delete messages without them opening

Recycling Your Old Computer

If you received or bought yourself a new computer during the holidays (or any time), many options are available for the use of your old computer. In addition to passing on a still useful machine, remember that in many cities throwing out old computers or monitors is illegal.

First and foremost BEFORE giving away your computer, make sure you purge it of any of your personal information. If your computer came with restore CD’s, use them to restore the computer back to its original state. If you don’t have restore CD’s , you will have to uninstall programs manually and delete your email, financial data, etc on your own.

Pull the Plug!!

One problem with technology is that sometimes we let it overshadow our problem solving skills. In particular, errors on our computer such as “lock ups”, illegal operations, erratic behavior, slow downs, and other computer anomalies can be corrected by simply restarting our computers.

The most common way to restart our computer involves clicking on Start–>Shut Down–> Restart. However, sometimes the mouse does not work so try this keyboard sequence: Push the Start key (between Ctrl & Alt), then U, then R, then Enter.

If this doesn’t work, try pushing Ctrl+Alt+Delete up to five times to try and restart.