Tuesday 20th July 2010  13.50pm

5 Quick Tips in the interim

!. Shutting down Windows quickly and easily.

More often than not, I will have lots of different apllications open at the same time. For example, I may be logged on to msn and yahoo, I may have several webpages open, I could be playing a game, have windows explorer open, I could be playing music and even have one or two Word documents open, all at the same time. Do I shut down each application down separately ?  Of course I don't. Do you ? This is all you have to do to shut them down easily, quickly and safely.

Left click Start, then press 'U', then press 'U' again, get up and walk away ! Watch windows shut all your open programs down for you, just like magic.

2. How cool is this ?

How do you get the accented é for café ?

Hold down Alt Gr and press e  .... hey presto.

3. How to get to Windows explorer quickly.

Hold down the Windows icon and press e .... hey presto again.

4. Power Surge Proctected Extension Leads.

Do you have one ?  

One way you can damage either your Motherboard or Hard Drive is by getting a power surge of electricity through your mains socket. Some years ago it happened to me and yes I had to buy a complete new computer. Yes there are tools to restore data today but,  if your hard drive is damaged this may not be possible.

So, for the sake of a few pounds I always advise to connect your pc to a Surge Protected Extension Lead. It makes sense !  This applies to both Desktops and Laptops !!   One more thing to consider and I was only just made aware of this but, they dont actually last forever !  So a good practice is to renew them every 2/3 years.

5. Backing Up to External Hard Drives.

A high percentage of advisors and manufacturers will advise you to back up your critical data to an External Hard Drive.

Look closely at the company and whats in it for them. I know quite a few people who have lost their data on an External Hard drive. How can this be so I hear you ask ? Thousands of companies are selling external hard drives, surely this cant be right ?

You think that your external hard drive is a completely separate piece of hardware from your main pc, yes ?  And, it is, but.  To transfer any data from your main hard drive to your external hard drive you have to connect them both with a cable. So now they are not separate, they are linked !!  Now supposing you want to download something straight from the internet onto your external hard drive and it contains a virus of some sort. Bang, you could be in trouble !  There are a few ways or reasons why you could get infected and it does depend on how your pc is set up.

I am merely only trying to open your eyes and make you realise that they are not always 100 % safe.  And you could lose all your data.

My book will explain to you why and how you can have 100 % safe data, without the need  for expensive external hard drives, and without the need for antivirus protection. Remember, your pc is an important part of your life now. For the sake of spending a few extra pounds now, it could save you a lot of hassle and money in the future. Knowledge is good especially if it helps you understand how your pc works.

I have NOT written this piece to aid my sales. It was written just to make you aware of potential problems.

Ask a professional his/her advice. Ask, is an external hard drive 100 % safe ?  Watch their face .... they CANNOT say 'YES'.  

Positive feedback suggests there is a lot of interest in my free helpful hints pages.

I am presently writing a ebook (a pdf file which you can download straight onto your pc) which will be full of hints, tips and clever little tricks, all for a minimal outlay.

Please watch this space.

Joe.

Onetimefixuk