Computer Shoppe

Computers are a great tool, and the more you know the better tools they become. With that in mind, I hope some of these tips will enhance your computer experience. Have you ever been on a website where the font was to small to read? Rather than getting your magnifying glass out, if you hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and tap the “+” key, it will enlarge the page so you can see it better. To make the page smaller again, tap the “-” key while holding down the CTRL key. The “+” and “-” keys are located in the upper right on most keyboards. There are generally two CTRL keys on the keyboard located on lower left and right on the keyboard. You only have to hold down one of them. Do you have trouble double clicking your mouse to run your programs on the desktop? You can set the icons on your computer screen desktop so that you only have to click it once rather than double clicking it to open or run it. Open the Control Panel, click Folder Options, and in the General tab select the single-click to open an item. In the Control Panel you will want either the Classic View or Large/Small Icons to display Folder Options – depends on the operating system. To get to the control panel click on the start button on the lower left of your computer screen and in the list on the right click on Control Panel. Would you like to have shortcuts to programs you use frequently? Easily create shortcuts on your desktop by clicking the program you wish to create a shortcut of, and right-clicking and dragging that icon to the desktop. When letting go of the mouse button you should have an option to create a shortcut there. Do you send attachments with your email? If you sent more that one file you have to attach each one, but if you put all the files into a folder and compress the folder all you have to do is attach the folder which will be easier when sending multiple file attachments. Put all the files you want to attach into a folder then right click on the folder, click on Send to in the box that comes up and, click Compressed folder. Now all you have to do is attach that folder to your email. Hopefully you found a tip that you can put to use. Computer Shoppe is located in Meadow Vista, CA, and provides service throughout placer county.

If you have a computer then you have most likely created a few passwords. If you are like most, you have created a password that is simple so you can remember it. Or you have written it down somewhere, but it is not secure if others can see it or easily guess it. So, how do you create a password that is easy to remember yet very difficult to crack? Here are some basic rules to follow. First, you want your passwords to be at least eight characters in length, and if possible, more characters are even better. Second, you want a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters, e.g., %, *, @. Using a combination of these characters make it very difficult to crack; however, it also is more difficult to remember because of all the combinations of different characters. Here is an example of how you can turn a password that is easy to remember but not a good password into a password that is easy to remember and a great password. Lets say your password is the name of your pet, and the name is Lassie. Terrible password, but that can be changed into a good password by substituting the characters in the name with other similar characters. Lassie can be converted into l@SSi3. L becomes l, a becomes @, ss becomes SS, and e becomes the mirror image of E which 3. This password is getting better, but it is still too short. So, you could combine the name of two pets. So, if your other pet is named Garfield, you could join the two names with && between the two names, and your new password could become l@SSi3&&g@rfi3lD. Now the password is easy to remember but impossible to crack. So use substitutions that make sense to you and be creative.  Creating effective passwords was presented by Computer Shoppe

Are you on a budget? These days it seems most of us are, so I have compiled a list of very useful software tools that are of good quality, yet free of charge. If you are like me, you may ask why are these tools free? There are many reasons; some are free because they are new and are trying to get known. Others try to get you to use their product, so in the future you may buy some of their other products, or buy the enhanced features of the current product. While others are “open source” which means the source code is available to anyone to develop, and some do just that for fun and recognition to further their careers as programmers. The reasons are many, so why not take advantage? So let’s start at the top; are you tired of running the Windows operating system? Are you tired of combating viruses and spyware, but a Mac is not in the budget? Try Linux at www.ubuntu.com or http://distrowatch.com. Do you want to use MS Office, but don’t have an extra $100 to spend? Try open office at www.openoffice.org. Do you wish you could buy Photoshop to edit photos? Did you know it retails for $699.00. Try Gimp at http://www.gimp.org. For those of you running Windows, are you paying for your antivirus and spyware? Try Avast at www.avast.com/index or AVG at http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage for antivirus. For antispyware, try Malwarebytes at www.malwarebytes.org or Superantispyware from the link at the bottom of the page www.computer-shoppe.net/ComputerServices.asp. Want to burn a CD or DVD? Try Infrarecorder at http://infrarecorder.org. Want to see what software and hardware you have on your computer? Take a look at Belarc Advisior at www.belarc.com/free_download.html. Do you backup your computer regularly? Try cobian backup at www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm or www.dropbox.com (2GB free online storage). Are you combating email spam? Try mailwasher at http://mailwasher.net. Need to transfer files between computers? Try www.flexense.com/downloads/windows.html. For many more free software tools you can visit http://download.cnet.com or www.tucows.com. And this is just a small list of many software programs that are available for free on the internet, so have fun trying some of these great software applications.