Nobody wants their computer to be a target and open for viruses and malware, but often it not that easy to understand. So when I came across this helpful article at Geeks.com I thought it is a great a idea to pass the information on.
It is important to use protection and if you can’t afford to buy it, give some of the free ones as try. In all the years I have been using a computer, I have been quite successful in protecting my system with free programs.
The one thing to be very vigilant about is to keep the program always current. That is usually quite easy to do, as most of the programs have an option to automatically keep it up-to-date.
Tags: malware, protection, virus
I just came across this wonderful assortment of Free Online Applications and Services at Gizmo’s Freeware site.
Online applications come now in many different flavors. The program I am using right now to write this blog post is the Chrome browser, which is an online program. That means I did not install it on my computer’s hard drive, I access it over the Internet or in other words the cloud. Also if you have a Netbook computer you don’t have that much storage space, in that case online applications are definitely the way to go. So rather than filling up my hard drive with programs that I will have to constantly update or buy newer version, I use the online application that always uses the newest and most up-to-date version. The benefit of this list is that these are all FREE applications.
I really would like to hear from you and hope that you find something that is helpful for you.
Tags: applications, free, online, services
I find it hard at time remembering all those Firefox keyboard shortcuts. Then I came across these links with all the shortcuts for Windows/Mac/Linux all in one place.
originally posted in March 2008
I like to use the quick launch bar in Windows and at one point I just had too many items, so I went looking for a way to sort them into folders. I found it and did it and then promptly forgot how I did it. Then when I wanted to make changes I had to go search for the info all over again. So now I am writing it down for myself and others as the place to edit it is not in the place where you normally would go looking for it.
The settings for the quick launch bar are found in your user settings in the C drive where Windows is installed. It is user specific, so where it says ‘username’ below select the one for the user you want to sort the quick launch bar for:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Now you can sort your folder to suit you like mine in the example below
quicklaunch bar
June 22/2007
Tags: quicklaunch bar, Windows
Don’t have an ftp program? You can use the Windows Explorer as ftp program.
- Open your Windows Explorer by pressing the Windows key and E
- Now your are usually at your C drive and the address bar says c:\
- To access your ftp site all you have to do is replace the c:\ with ftp://yourwebsite.com and a pop up menu will ask you for the login info: user name and password.
- Enter that information and you will be logged in at your site’s root directory
- Now you can simply move files from your computer to the ftp directory.
This is very handy.
originally post on Dec 16/2003
Tags: ftp, windows explorer
I have often tried to sort my favorites in Internet Explorer, but found it time consuming and thought there has to be a better way. Well there is a better and easier way:
Use the drop down Favorites from the tool bar (next to VIEW) and not the one with the little picture beside it.
To sort all the folders inside Favorites
- Click on the Favorites name then
- right click on the first link or folder and
- from the drop down menu select
- sort by name
now all your folders will be alphabetically sorted, quickly and easily
To sort all folders inside a subfolder
- Click on the subfolder then
- right click on the first link or folder and
- from the drop down menu select
- sort by name
March 8/2004
Tags: favorites, Internet Explorer
Since I switched to using Firefox and Thunderbird for surfing/mail respectively, I found that they worked differently than IE and Outlook when I came to backing up the data. Some research revealed that I could just copy the whole folder under the username to make a backup copy.
Here is the location where it is on the harddrive:
C:\Documents & Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
C:\Documents & Settings\username\Application Data\Thunderbird (for some reason this one is not in my Mozilla folder, but could be in yours)
So copy them on a regular basis for a backup copy.
my beaded Firefox icon
originally posted on 23-6-2007 in the old site.
Tags: backup, Firefox, Thunderbird
Here are some links that I found to be very helpful in getting started and as reference.
Also check out my TYPO3 tutorial. It gives basic instructions on how to make changes on a TYPO3 based website.
Tutorial Links For Beginners
- ActDen Tutorial Site
Outlook Express Internet Explorer - Computer Training Tutorials
Hardware Software Internet Email The Web - GeekGirls Guides
Basic Computing Windows 9x and Me Word Processing Spreadsheeting Databases VBA& Office Net Guide
Online Typing Tutors
I have no connection to any of the typing tutors listed below. I have just noticed that when I am teaching people to use the computer it helps a lot when they already know how to type. So here are some free online sites to help.
- Mr. Kent’s Typing Tutor
This is a simple online typing tutor - Touch Typing Online Typing Tutor
This is an online typing tutor that can also be downloaded as program to your own computer. - Learn 2 Type
To use this free typing tutor you have to long in to the site. - http://www.keybr.com/
Tutorial Links For Programs
- ActDen Tutorial Site
Office 2000 Powerpoint 98 Front Page 2000 - Nerdy Books
Daily email and newletter with tips for Word 2000, Excel 2000, Powerpoint 2000 and Windows - Tutorial Find
Tutorials galore - Free Microsoft Office Training Manuals
for Office 2003, 2007 and 2010
Tutorial Links For WebDesign
- HtmlGoodies
Webdesign info: html, css, javascripts etc. - HtmlPrimer
Basic webdesign html info - WebReference
HTML with style
Reference Links For Fonts
Reference Links For Graphics
- Microsoft ClipArt Gallery Live
- ClipArt Warehouse
- Desktop Publishing.com
- Flickr
Free online photo storage site - Picasa
Free online photo storage site - Gimp
Free graphics program instead of Photoshop - Inkscape
Free vector program instead of Illustrator
Reference Links For Virus Scan
- Windows Defender
This is the 3 item in my mix to keep the computer safe. This program together with Spyware Terminator and an antivirus program is a great combo. - Windows Security Essentials
Free Virus and Spyware protection from Microsoft. - Spyware Terminator
Use this in combination with a Virus program, it works great and is free. - Avast Antivirus Program
Nov 2008: this year AVG has become too bloated for my liking. I found this free program for home use to be a great replacement - AVG Virus Program
This is a free virus program that works really well. Unfortunately, it is only free in North America. - Panda Software
This site has a superb online virus scan called ‘Panda Active Scan’. I only works with Internet Explorer as it uses Active X to scan your computer. This is really great, when the virus has attacked your computer’s virus program and disabled it. It is very thorough as it scans every file on your system and desinfects it and it is free.Here is a direct link to ‘Panda Active Scan’ and a utility to remove selected virus’.
Reference Links For Shareware & Freeware
Reference Links For Open Source Programs
- WordPress
Easy site to use to create free blog or website - Blogger
Easy site to use to create a free blog or website - SourceForge.net
SourceFoge.net is the world’s largest Open Source software development site. - OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice is the free Office Suite based on Open Source Code. - TYPO3
Typo3 is a free Open Source content management system to create websites.
Tags: beginners, fonts, freeware, graphics, links, Microsoft Office, Open Source, programs, shareware, typing tutors, virus programs, webdesign
Facebook Privacy
I just came across this easy to use tool to check your Facebook privacy setting
With the constantly changing defaults of Facebook’s privacy settings, how is one supposed to keep up with it and know if you picked the right settings.
This tool makes it easy and takes away the guess work. I just used it in both Firefox and Chrome without problems. Just follow the instructions and it works.
Tags: privacy settings
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