November, 2010 | The Place For Free Online Training Courses

Antivirus Software

A virus scanner is possibly the most important piece of software that is installed on your computer. Protection from viruses is only as good as the last update. Out of date virus protection may as well not be on the computer; sometimes up to 100 new virus a month are released into the wild (term…

Temporary Internet Files and Cookies

Temporary Internet Files: for every website that is visited whilst browsing the internet, files and pictures are stored on your computer. They are stored as cached copies so the website can be displayed quicker if revisited. These files can occupy up to 10% of the total hard drive space. Deleting these files on a regular…

Scan Disk

Scandisk is used to check the integrity of the file system, also to scan the physical hard disk for bad sectors. These bad sectors can lead to data loss or corruption and are one of the first signs of a failing hard disk. When bad sectors are encountered scandisk will attempt to repair these sectors…

Recycle Bin

When a file is deleted from the hard drive it is placed by default in the recycle bin, only when the recycle bin is emptied is the file actually removed from the hard drive and the disk space can be used again. Whilst in the recycle bin deleted items can still be recovered, in case…

Files and Folders

Files are organized on your computer in folders. If it helps, think of your computer as a filing cabinet. There may be drawers that group information or paperwork, e.g. one drawer for household items, another for personal items and so on. Inside the drawers there are dividers for sub groups such as gas, electricity, insurance…

Favorites

Favourites or bookmarks is a list of internet sites that have been visited and kept for future reference. As this list grows it can be come untidy and difficult to navigate. The following section will describe how to delete items and place favourites in folders for easier navigation. Use the buttons below to navigate through…

Disk Clean Up

Disk cleanup can be used to clear unused files on the hard drive and offers more options than just emptying the recycle bin and deleting temporary internet files. Files such as temp, office setup and old restore points can be removed in one operation; this offers more flexibility for file removal. Use the buttons below…

Disk Defragmenter

When files are created on the hard disk they are placed one after another. If a file is reopened and worked on, the new part has to be placed in the next available free space, so the file becomes fragmented. This fragmentation causes the operating system to eventually slow down as it has to reassemble…

Uninstall Software

In common with installation, uninstalling software should always be done in the correct manner to minimise the risk of corrupting the operating system. The following lesson describes two methods of correctly uninstalling software. 1. using the software’s own uninstaller 2. using the operating systems uninstaller. Use the buttons below to navigate through the lesson Click…

Installing Software

The following section will deal with the installation of Microsoft Anti-spyware. Now renamed Windows Defender still available as a free download from www.Microsoft.com. On par with viruses, spyware now infects more computers than ever before. As such spyware scans and updates should be included in a regular maintenance routine. Use the buttons below to navigate…