Add your Computer tips here

sandman55 · Guru

Add your Computer tips here

macka17 · Guru

Computer dumb... ME

Only tip I think worthwhile.

When you buy\have whatever. New or second hand.

Swap out the Hard drive for a 120\250gig SSD (Solid state drive)
And double whatever ram you have in there.
16 gig is good figure, 8gig MIN.
It's cheap enuff nowadays.
My Lappie has 12gig.

They will instantly change you from a cuppa coffee while I wait for startup.
to 12\14 seconds to mouse use. MAX.
with correspondingly faster operations.

Really are that good.

I have 120 SSD in both here, With OS and security. Programs, only.
on them.

EVERYTHING else. is kept on 2 Terra 7200 disk speeds External drives.
1 Terra will do job.

Security.
I've used Bitdefender for last 10\12 yrs, advised by my Bank manager.
they use Professional version.

I have TOTAL.
Newby can get for Special, around $89 per 12mth
with 5 items.

I get for less, but long term user.

NEVER ever had an intruder.
they stop.Clean and Quarantine everything.
give choice of what YOU want to do.
Incl Delete, reinstall, the PROG\File that naughty boy was on
and has been cleaned.

Best one I've ever used.

$700 to $4k of Lappie. Free or cheap Basic security
IS a little dumb don't you think.
They ALL only give you a part of basic program.
These give FULL cover. incl net cover\Clean.
for ANY intruder 24\7. And don't seem to slow me down any.

Software.
Computer literate can help everybody more than I can.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Sum of us are on phones or IPads too ?

sandman55 · Guru

Aus-Kiwi wrote:
Sum of us are on phones or IPads too ?

We will have to get some who are familiar with those devices to add their tips

sandman55 · Guru

macka17 wrote:
Computer dumb... ME

Only tip I think worthwhile.

When you buy\have whatever. New or second hand.

Swap out the Hard drive for a 120\250gig SSD (Solid state drive)
And double whatever ram you have in there.
16 gig is good figure, 8gig MIN.
It's cheap enuff nowadays.
My Lappie has 12gig.

They will instantly change you from a cuppa coffee while I wait for startup.
to 12\14 seconds to mouse use. MAX.
with correspondingly faster operations.

Really are that good.

I have 120 SSD in both here, With OS and security. Programs, only.
on them.

EVERYTHING else. is kept on 2 Terra 7200 disk speeds External drives.
1 Terra will do job.

Security.
I've used Bitdefender for last 10\12 yrs, advised by my Bank manager.
they use Professional version.

I have TOTAL.
Newby can get for Special, around $89 per 12mth
with 5 items.

I get for less, but long term user.

NEVER ever had an intruder.
they stop.Clean and Quarantine everything.
give choice of what YOU want to do.
Incl Delete, reinstall, the PROG\File that naughty boy was on
and has been cleaned.

Best one I've ever used.

$700 to $4k of Lappie. Free or cheap Basic security
IS a little dumb don't you think.
They ALL only give you a part of basic program.
These give FULL cover. incl net cover\Clean.
for ANY intruder 24\7. And don't seem to slow me down any.

Software.
Computer literate can help everybody more than I can.

Some good advice there Macka and the Solid state drives are fast but if you computer is only 32 bit then it is no good going past 4 gig of RAM because it wont use the extra, you would need a 64 bit computer to be able to use the extra RAM past the 4 gig.

Desert Dweller · Guru

Best computer tip I was given a long time ago: DON'T BE AFRAID TO RIGHT CLICK.

KevinC · Senior Member

Most new folk are told there's nothing you can do which can't be undone. Thankfully most still exercise a little caution.

-- Edited by KevinC on Wednesday 31st of May 2017 07:38:36 AM

OutbackMK · Senior Member

Each time you change a password (at least every two months) send yourself an email with clues only you can understand to what the password is, ps make sure you have two email addresses so one can recover the other.
Keep the second one limited to minimal usage.

macka17 · Guru

Kiwi and Sandman.

If your Smart phone, tablet are on Wifi.
Bitdefender covers them as fully as the Computers.
Total = 5 items.
I have PC.Laptop,Samsung Tablet. plus 2 x Samsung J1 smart phones.
ALL covered for $29 a yr.

Didn't think anybody would be still using 32 bit nowadays.
That's from the Ark days.
Like the old 286\386 with floppy's hey.
Pre Win.

Thankfully. My Toshiba Lappie has the Start-Zero key.

which brings up dos and sets everything back to factory.

Pheww..... As he wipes his forehead.

AGAINnnnnnnn.

-- Edited by macka17 on Wednesday 31st of May 2017 11:55:20 AM

The Belmont Bear · Guru

You are right AK not all of these tips may be relevent for those of us who use Apple for instance I have never needed to use an anti virus program for my iMac, Macbook, iPad or iPhone devices.

I have been caught before where I changed my email address and forgotten a password to a site, when I requested a new one it was sent to my old email address which no longer existed. I have also had the situation where I did an electronic funds transfer, my banking institution sent me a text with a verification number which I needed to proceed unfortunately it went to an old mobile number so I couldn't retrieve it. This meant I had to spend time on the phone getting things sorted which is not good when its a weekend and the mob you are dealing with are only open on weekdays. My tip is - if for any reason you ever change your email address or mobile No. remember to go straight in and change your details on sites where you are using a password as it may save you some real headaches down the track.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Store all them in notes . Ahh getting asked passwords we set up a few years ago ?? Yahoo , Apple , etc . I often change the last numbers etc so they can't be used . Same with date of birth etc . On Face book etc . It can be used as another ID in your name !! Have to be careful but not be paronoid at the same time !!

markf · Senior Member

When a password change is required most people get a bit stumped and have trouble finding a password that's acceptable. Easy fixed. For any passwords that have to be changed today I'd use "Wed.31.May.17" without the quotes of course. Just use the date with appropriate mix of upper case, lower case, alpha and numeric characters and punctuation marks. Get a password keeping app / programme - I use KeePass Password Safe. Keeps all passwords in one place. Keep a copy of the database on both your smart phone and your laptop/tablet or whatever. It's important to have the database in more than one place for backup. Make the password for that something only you know and is easy to remember.

Hope that all makes some sort of sense to someone...

Cheers, Mark F...

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Yes I have used the address's we have lived at . Our work PC was easy . Living in Penrith it's my NRL team so it was Penrith 1 then next change it was Penrith 2 . Not that easy now though !!!

bill12 · Guru

Belt it with a hammer, and if that doesn,t work, get a bigger hammer........

macka17 · Guru

10 gandkids. Just change them around with dates.
Covers everything for me.

Just remember the one you on at present.

Bottle of Talliskers. 2 bars Chocky.
I'm set.

KevinC · Senior Member

Here's a tip about keeping things neat.

Many older folk are keen about keeping things clean and tidy, and when they look at a list of files in a folder and see ones they didn't create, they are tempted to delete them.
DON'T!
The computer creates its own files and folders for its own use. Deleting them will always have an effect which the user will usually regret.
In short, if you didn't create it you don't have the right to delete it.

That said, if your device becomes a bit slow, it may be time for some maintenance. Use a well respected cleaning program, but only after all your photos and documents are copied onto the thumbstick you keep in the drawer as backup.

meetoo · Guru

Computers can and will die anytime, and shouldn't be blindly trusted. So always have a backup of anything you don't want to lose. (photos and documents etc)

Cheers, John.

The Belmont Bear · Guru

Yes John, I have a 2 Terra external hard disc that is set to do auto backups every 24hrs - just in case the worst does happen. There are over 5000 photos and other important files stored on this machine that I would risk losing if they weren't backed up.

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

Backing up data/photos etc is a basic and sensible action.. No different to keeping important/valuable documents in a secure, fire-safe container ... and having photocopies of those documents in another location also in a secure, fire-safe container.

Similarly, those old paper photos you have tucked away in albums ... one would hope the negatives have been retained and are stored properly and in a place that is not with the albums and/or paper photos. Fire is indiscriminate.

If one is concerned about losing their data/photos/etc then backing-up is critical.

However, if one is serious about backing up their data etc then it should be backed up to two other sources - one needs to remember that various media can failure. Additionally, at least one of those sources should be stored at a different location to the main computer and the the other back-up.

Apart from computer/media failure, in the case of fire etc then a back-up should be stored remotely.

Cheers - John

JayDee · Guru

Slightly of the subject

I was sitting at sons place trying to look at their T.V. no luck

So asked 7 year old grandson, how to watch their T.V.

His answer was.

Grandad, the first thing you have to do is turn on the T.V.

Smart little bugger or more like DUMB old man.

Jay&Dee

I am enjoying this thread re knowledge of computers. Keep it going folks.

madaboutled · Guru

bill12 wrote:
Belt it with a hammer, and if that doesn,t work, get a bigger hammer........

Yes, a brick work's well too, has a bit more surface area so less effort needed!.

Cruising Cruze · Guru

@ Belmont Bear

I would recommend that also you get an other external hard drive and copy every thing what you want to keep
Don't leave it close to your computer give it ( if you have any ) kids or an family member to keep safe

Cheers John

The Belmont Bear · Guru

Not a bad idea Cruising but I wasn't thinking about disasters like a fire just covering the risk of losing my computer. the only problem I can see with having a hard drive in another location would be that you would have to continually update it. I believe that another way is to keep things on the cloud but I am not really that familiar with how that actually works so I don't rely on it as a backup..

Cruising Cruze · Guru

@ Davro

I don't believe in having my stuff in a cloud that's all I'm going to say about it

Regards John

Hylife · Guru

My tips,
never backup,
never do a disk cleanup or defrag,
go buy an apple and foolishly believe the old wives tale that you'll never get a virus,
never buy a book and actually learn how to use your computing device properly, just get behind the wheel and drive it,
buy an Android device and continuously hand over all your usage information to Google for advertising,
waste money on commercial security products you don't need that simply offer their own front-end skin for the inbuilt antivirus and firewall software Microsoft has given you free,

Please do all these things or I won't have a job as a computer technician and earn any money, and then how can I afford to travel for 3 months a year.

sandman55 · Guru

Hylife wrote:
My tips,
never backup,
never do a disk cleanup or defrag,
go buy an apple and foolishly believe the old wives tale that you'll never get a virus,
never buy a book and actually learn how to use your computing device properly, just get behind the wheel and drive it,
buy an Android device and continuously hand over all your usage information to Google for advertising,
waste money on commercial security products you don't need that simply offer their own front-end skin for the inbuilt antivirus and firewall software Microsoft has given you free,

Please do all these things or I won't have a job as a computer technician and earn any money, and then how can I afford to travel for 3 months a year.

The Belmont Bear · Guru

Do Macs get attacked by viruses and malware?

Yes, they do. Mac virusesand Mac-specific attacks have been documented.

But let's be clear, first of all, that Macs are indisputably more secure than Windows PCs. The Mac operating system is Unix-based, and Unix offers a number of security features built in, like the way that executable code and data is stored in separate folders. (This is why deleting an app on a Mac is so simple.) In addition, Apple has included a number of security measures that make attacking a Mac particularly challenging, including Gatekeeper, which blocks any software than hasn't been digitally signed and approved by Apple. If you try to open an app by a developer that Apple hasn't verified you will see the message: "[This app] can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer."

Hilife, I never said you can't get a virus on a Mac I said in all the years that I have run apple devices (since 1988) I have never needed to use a virus protection program (and I have never had a problem). If that ever changes and I do get caught out I will go and see the guys up at Apple to get it fixed not one of the many local computer technicians whose expertise is usually in Windows machines and software.

Dickodownunder · Guru

I had one of those ransom type demands on my Mac laptop.

I just phoned the Mac helpline and a wonderful girl talked me through the fix and at the same time installed a Malware detector so as to prevent further trouble and better still, it is all free, just part of the service.

Can not beat that imo.

sandman55 · Guru

I use a backup too called synctoy http://windowsreport.com/synctoy-windows-10/ which was designed by the Microsoft engineers for their own personal use and then they let it out for free through Microsoft. I have been using it for years. With it I select what data I want to backup and to where. I backup to a second hard drive on my PC and also to an external hard drive it does the two of them together. Here is a quote from their site

Great thing about this application is that you can choose any folder to be your destination or source folder. Youre not limited to your internal hard drive, therefore you can choose a folder on a Portable hard drive, USB flash drive or even a network drive."

With Synctoy you have several choices of what type of back up you want to make you can mirror what is in your source folder to the destination folder deleting any changes in the destination folder or you can keep changes in the destination folder or you can mirror each folder to each other and not delete any changes.

I also use Acronis True Image and make an image of my C: drive which is just the operating system and programs. I keep my data on another partition on another hard drive my D: drive. If I have any problem with my operating system or a hard drive fail I can reinstall the last image and then only have to do any updates and reinstall any programs since the last image was taken and if it was a ransomware demand then I reinstall the image of my operating system and replace my locked data with the data on my external hard drive which is not kept connected to my PC. I haven't looked at backing up to the cloud as yet because of security and uploading so much data would take yonks because uploading is so much slower even though we have the fastest available at the moment ADSL2+ (still goes at a snail pace I think they have slowed it down so that we will appreciate the NBN which will arrive in August)

sandman55 · Guru

One thing I don't know what to do (and I would appreciate any input) is how to make a link on this forum active so that it can be clicked on without having to copy and paste or is that not allowed in this forum. A link such as this

http://windowsreport.com/synctoy-windows-10/