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Showing posts from June, 2011

How-To Restore a Deleted Recycle Bin

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My Recycle bin is GONE! My Recycle Bin is GONE! I accidentally deleted recycle bin! Where is the recycle bin?  Its not on my DESKTOP ! My windows recycle bin is GONE! I have done that myself, and don’t worry we will get it back! Today’s How-To Guide for the Computer beginner is: how to restore recycle bin, because you might have deleted the recycle bin by accident!   Dumb Delete Option for Recycle Bin Delete Recycle Bin If you look at the picture you can see that right clicking on the recycle bin gives you an option to delete. Don’t ask me why they came up with this bright idea, but they did. The first time I deleted the recycle bin I never even caught the ‘delete’ option that is pictured.  AFTER I was finished freaking out I had to learn How to recover the recycling bin.  How frustrating! How-To Recover the Windows Rec...

What is a USB Flash Drive?

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Picture of a common USB Flash Drive Today’s lesson for the computer beginner is my attempt to explain the USB Flash drive. What is a USB Flash Drive?  Its is a Data storage device that you can take with you! USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. When I was in college all we had to save our work on was a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk .  In time we had used a 3.5 inch floppy disk which were nicer.  Next came the CD Rom , and now we have the USB Flash Drive. With each generation of storage devices that we have had they got more durable, had more storage space, and are easier to everyone to use.  USB Flash drives can come in all colors, spaces, and even sizes. When you create a file on your computer?  It could be a letter, presentation, picture, etc you can save that on your hard drive. The hard drive, disk drive or in most cases is also called your C drive .  YES they can all mean the same thing. How often d...

What is a URL?

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What is a URL?  That is a fancy way of saying the website address.   U is for Universal, R is for Resource, and  is for Locator.   What is a URL Address   Every page on the internet has its own unique URL address.   Today I’m creating a page named, “What is a URL?”  We will go over the basics of ‘what is a URL’ is first, and then I will explain what I mean by each page as its own different address. Most websites start with:  http://             as part of the URL address.   This is called the protocol .    ‘http’ stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol You would just pronounce it ‘http’ (just the letters – not my quote marks) The ‘://” part is pronounced: dot dot backslash backslash   so together they would be pronounced with letters separately, and then use the words:   h t t p dot dot backslash backsl...

Setting Up New Computer–Assembly Your Computer

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Now that we have found our, ‘Location, Location, Location’ for our computer its time to unpack everything.  Getting excited yet? Lets move to the next step of setting up our new computer.  Unpacking our new computer! One thing I have noticed it seems ever since the Tylenol  scare is unpacking of anything is nothing less than frustrating!  When you first setup your computer?  You have tons its seems like to unpack.  Take your time and put on your patience hat! Computers have come a long way from the past, but you still want to be sure that food and drinks are not in places that are going to spill during the setup of the computer. What I have done in the past is keep all the boxes and packing material for a while, in case something is wrong and needs to be returned.  I normally keep the biggest box in tact, and just dump everything else inside of it.  All the boxes, bags, packing material. I normally pick up computers that I purch...

Setting Up New Computer – Pick a Location

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When my novice friends get a new computer I normally get a phone call to come, and help them set the new computer up.   Setting up computers at first can be very intimating it seems with all the different parts, wires, etc.  I want to go over some important parts, before we rip open that box and get down to business with setting up the computer. I will try to break this down in a couple of articles of setting up the computer. The first important step of setting up your new computer? LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! Yes you guess it!  We need to think about WHERE we are going to place our computer. Don’t invest in a new computer if you are going to place it in a damp room, on a wobbling card table where it very unstable.  Damp or dusty rooms can lower the life expectancy of your computer.   Placing it on unstable furniture you take the risk of the table collapsing, or the computer falling off. Location for your computer setup is al...

Setting Up New Computer–Ports, Wires, Cables OH MY!

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Welcome Back to setting up a new computer!   So far we have spoke about the location of our new computer , and unpacking of our new computer .   The picture is what is called the rear computer panel.  Keep in mind not all rear computer panels look the same, but generally they will all have similar parts that will be referred to as connectors, ports.   Some computers may have all the ports and connectors on the rear panel of their computer as pictured, and some not have as many ports and connectors.  That’s fine!   When we are done YOU will be able to impress all your friends with your computer rear panel knowledge!  How does that sound?   For Safety reasons, I do need to stress its ALWAYS a good idea to completely shut off your computer, and unplug it from its electrical source.  We don’t want to get electric shocks or worse!  You also will take the chance of damaging your computer as well, but personally?  I t...