The 'Arrange Icons By' Options

Hi People

Did you try the tip on the last post?

If you did you would have seen much more than what we dealt with.

I mean look at the picture below,  the Arrange Icons By
(Note here that you left click to set an option - a tick will appear when an option is set - see below)

The Right Click Options  From The Desktop - The 'Arrange Icons By ' section

As you can see there are a lot more options, so let's go through them.

The Sort By Section
The top four items are the sort order, which allow you to sort your desktop items by Name, Size, Type, or Modified.




The first three are probably quite self explanatory (type is the type of file it is for example a program file, a shortcut for a picture, or drive).

The 'modified' option is the one which may cause some scratching of heads.
It refers to how recently the files have been used.  This might need a bit of explanation. OK, so when a file (or folder) is created, the date and time is kept as TWO values (the 'creation' date/time and the 'modified' date/time - exactly the same at the start).  Now every time the file is used the 'modified' values for date/time are changed to the exact date/time it was opened..

Next up the Arrangement Section


The 'Show in Groups' is greyed out and not available on the diagram.
The 'Auto Arrange' option will move all the icons ( in the order set in the Sort By Section), as far left and then down the desktop.  Any icon moved will pop back to the group on being dropped.

The 'Align to Grid' will place each icon at a set distance from its neighbours.  The 'Grid' is invisible and inactive unless this option is ticked.

The Other Options Section


You may be surprised to learn that you can actually have all your icons removed (visibly) from the desktop.  To do this just left click on the 'Show Desktop Icons' (this will remove the tick next to 'Show Desktop Icons')

The 'Lock Web Items on Desktop' option is only if you have used the 'Web' tab on the 'Customise' button from the 'Properties' menu (more on this on a later post).

Finally you can 'Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard' which will remove the little used icons from the desktop for you.

So there you have it so far

Any comments please leave them below

And Thank You for your kind attention

Prometheus1618

















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Want More At Your Finger Tips?

Hi People

Frequently, I find that people are amazed at the simplest things, that I do on their computers.

How did you do that? Or can you show me how to do that? Or can you wait until I get a pen and paper.

It happens frequently, so over the next few entries we will go over some useful BASIC bits and bobs

Let's start with

How to create a folder


Folders are exactly the same a physical folders, in that they contain files or other folders and files.

To create a folder on the Desktop:

• Simply RIGHT click on an area of the desktop (not on an icon or the taskbar)
• LEFT click on 'New'
• LEFT click on 'Folder'
• Now type the name you want for the folder (by default it is called 'New Folder'
• Once you  have finished press the 'Enter'  key or simply click anywhere outside the newly created folder.
• To open it quickly, you need to DOUBLE LEFT click.  If it does not open you have not been quick enough with the double clicking.

Next time we willl go through the other Right Click Options for the Desktop.


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A Now For Something Completely Different

Hi People


The title is a little mysterious, isn't it?

This post is slightly outside the normal range of topics for this particular blog, but useful all the same.

Have you ever locked yourself out of your car? Frustrating isn't it?

And to make matters worse you have a spare set of keys, but maybe they are at home, or your partner, spouse, friend has them

Well you could be saved, if the spare set are with or within reach of the person who has them (or at home) and the keys are the remote lock type (you know the button on the key fob and beep beep the car is open).

They also need a phone as will you. Why you may ask? Some of you may be ahead of me here but if you ring them and get them to put the key fob next to the telephone speaker and you place your mobile or cordless next to the drivers door.

Now get your friend, partner or spouse to press the open button on the key fob and Presto your car door should open and away you go!

The other person may have your keys the other side of the world and this would work, all things being ok.

Marvellous tip I think.

Leave a comment to let me know what you think

Hope this helps

Thank You for your attention

Prometheus1618


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Photo editing for FREE ( no Adobe Software required )

Do you have photos you need to edit?  And you don't want to pay out for Adobe Photoshop or its smaller cousin Photoshop Elements.

Well take a look at the video below and see what you think




The FotoFlexer program has some useful toys, particularly the smart resizer and the morphing facility can be fun for the children/teens.

Having said that it is an online program (which means it has low overheads) and it is possible that your photos could end up with third parties, if the site/code gets hacked.

For simple photo-editing that is free, have a look at Picasa as it can be used to organise edit and display your photos all in one relatively neat package. Oh and I forgot to mention it is FREE as well.

The GIMP is very powerful and quite complex, do not use this if you are a beginner and/or not willing to spend some time (lots of it), getting to know the package. Photoshop users will like this one as it has a lot of features and benefits.

That's all for now

Thank You

Prometheus1618

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Laptops - the pros and cons - part 1

Hi People

Recently, I was asked about a laptop situation which, I had not thought about before (more about this later).

This prompted me to think about why people choose laptops/notebooks (and I mean laptops not netbooks) over a good old tower / desktop (though desktops are rare these days).  What are the benefits and features of a laptop when considering a computer purchase?

Positive points for laptops (some of which may not be considered when getting one).

• They are portable.  This is probably the number one reason why most people get one.  Being able to work in situations where 
• power is not available
• a place to put the laptop is not available near power
• show people quickly, some data, pictures, presentation, movie without having to find a power point
• send emails / surf the internet from public places
• They run most programs that towers can run
• Everything is contained within one case (within reason)
• If the power should suddenly go off (brownouts or blackouts), work is not lost and user may continue to work for sometime (usually a couple of hours after power off - if the battery is good and fully charged)
• The charging unit may prevent power surges from damaging the laptop, by taking the surge and all the damage (not passing it on to the laptop)
• Quick setup of a visual display for demonstration purposes or entertainment
• Usually even the cheaper laptops have more features than a cheaper tower, for instance
• card reader
• webcam
• microphone
• 1394 port (firewire)
• card bus slot
• additional VGA port for a second monitor
• bluetooth
• wireless card (attached to the motherboard internally)
• internal modem  (dialup - for places which dont have the internet available wirelessly or even to make telephone or chat communications - though not a good idea for video communications as it is too slow)
• video camera connection (s-video)
• Quick data, music, picture recording (most laptops these days contain a DVD/CD writer, if not all).

So the above seems to cover the majority of the plus points for getting a laptop over a desktop and whilst the list is fairly comprehensive, laptops do have their weak points.

We will look at these in the next part of this article

Thank You for your attention

Prometheus1618

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Laptops - the pros and cons - part 2

Hi People

We looked at the positive side of buying a laptop, and again I must stress laptop/notebook as opposed to netbook.  In this item, we are going to look at the reasons not to get a laptop

Here are some of the reasons NOT to get a laptop.

• They are portable and as such can be lost or stolen easily and they have been lost in some high level and highly visible incidents
• Laptops are not particularly upgradeable (and this was what the laptop situation was about that started me thinking about this in the first place).  They have limited upgrade (within the case and outside) possibilities.
• Memory can be upgraded, though generally only two memory slots are available, and especially in low end systems, 4GB memory is what they can use (2 * 2GB memory modules).  Also they tend to lag behind in terms of the faster memory (this being produced for tower systems - more notably file servers etc.).
• Hard drives can be upgraded, though again limitations are met, in that as a larger hard drive is installed, more heat needs to be drawn away from the system.  This can be achieved with a docking station or cooling platform (which runs from the USB - hold that thought).  Also 2.5 in hard drives may reach the 3-400GB size but the heat output will be very great at these sizes.  Also in general, 1 hard drive can be mounted internally (there are some which can take two drives - twice the heat output).
• USB ports are present and usually 3-4.  Now going back to the  cooling platfform (these are like a tray with fans in the structure to help get rid of excess heat), it uses USB power which if the laptop is using battery power will drain the battery more quickly.  This applies to all other USB devices attached.  A further point here is that you cannot add extra USB ports other than by using USB expansion docks (Towers usually have the facility to add more by using dedicated sockets on the motherboard and if necessary a PCI riser card for more)
• Video cards ARE NOT upgradeable.  Yes it is true you can attach a video extender to the USB port, but these enable you to attach more monitors to the laptop, not increase your video memory or indeed the Graphic Processor Unit (GPU).  This is what the original call was about.  
• Generally the Central Processor Unit, CAN NOT be upgraded as the motherboards are designed to take a certain processor (some upgrades can be done within a processor family - though again these are not always available and possible).  A further issue here is a larger processor, means more heat to be lost and the heat sink from the original processor may not cope.
• Dust and fibres clog up the heatsink more easily, so make sure you can get to the heatsink and fan quickly to remove the heatsink 'bed covers' that seem to accumulate.
• Laptops are not designed to be 'gaming' systems, or indeed for heavy duty video or CAD work. This is where Towers really excel, in that high end processors can be matched with plenty of top end memory,  high end graphics cards,  and super fast hard drives.
• Whilst it is possible to use a laptop as a server, again the tower or server blade are kings in this area, because of processor / memory / hard drive speeds / and sizes, not to mention additional cooling.
• If you want to have additional drives / cooling / external webcams etc., you will need to have your laptop hooked up to the power or your battery will rapidly drain.  This in turn reduces its portability.
• A number of users I have seen with laptops also seem to be unhappy with using the touchpads for moving the mouse and instead rely on an external USB mouse ( more for the battery to supply).
• All the additional ports available on a laptop can be installed on a tower system (although it will cost more).
• If you damage a screen, it is a costly repair as is a motherboard fault, best course of action is to look at a new laptop (repairs can be anything up to 50% the cost of the original laptop, which could be invested in a new laptop).  The reason for this is that they are proprietry (only available from the laptop maker).  They do this to make their product a little different and use different components and make it look more appealing.

So there you have it, weigh up the options when you look for your new computer and make sure you know what you want it to do for you before venturing into the local PC store or purchasing online.  Ask if your not certain what you want and DONT be SOLD the latest 'SPECIAL' as it may be old stock or low end equipment and not capable of doing what you want it to do.

Further more, NO supplier will cover your data (or loss of business however caused), it is your responsibility to get your data backed up frequently and regularly.  The supplier will cover the hardware only for usually a 12 month period from the date of purchase on new systems only.  Second user systems, vary wildly.

That's all for now

Thank you for your attention

Prometheus1618

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Booting up slowly

Hi People

When you get a new computer (or do a fresh re-install of your operating system), you may be amazed at how quick it is at boot up.  After some time (months or a couple of years) you could be looking at being able to make a cup of your favourite hot drink whilst it finishes booting up.  Something can be done about this.

First of all, make sure that you have no corruption of files on your system  (I will not go into details as this needs an experienced hand).

If you have no corrupted files or have corrected the situation, then next thing is to clear out some the startup items (in windows XP) you would use the  msconfig utility, to remove all but the basic startup programs (ALWAYS ALWAYS include your ANTIVIRUS/ANTISPYWARE/FIREWALL software in the startup as these are essential to keep your PC free of nasties from the bootup stage onwards).

Note: When you reboot your system, you will have a splash screen displayed, telling you that the 'System Configuration Utility' has been used, just click in the little box (bottom left of splash screen) to not have this displayed again, before clicking 'OK'

Next on your list would be a hard drive surface check (again an experienced hand would be needed here) and this may need a reboot to get it started (you would be notified of this).

Finally (for now), after the above, run a defragment program (either the internal one or a third party)

That's it for now
Thank You for your attention

Prometheus1618


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