Computer & Internet Newbie Guide

Help Defragmenting Your Hard Drive

It’s important to keep your computer running smoothly and one way to do that is to regularly defragment your hard drive.

Defragging your computer simply reorganizes your computer bits to run more smoothly and efficiently. Even your computer can get messy! A good rule of thumb is to do this at least once a month. However, if you find you install new software regularly or move files around a lot, try to defrag more often. Here’s how to defrag your computer:

• Click ‘Start’ for your Start Menu
• Select ‘Programs’
• Select ‘Accessories’
• Select ‘System Tools’
• Select ‘Disk Defragmenter’
• Ensure the correct drive is selected (usually you want to defrag your main drive, the C:)
• Click ‘OK’

The defrag process will now begin. Depending on the size of your computer, the defragmenting process could take some time (even an hour). Especially if you haven’t run the defrag in quite some time.

Things to watch:

Ensure there are no other software programs running. Close everything down before your run defrag, this helps speed up the process.

If you haven’t run ScanDisk for quite awhile (also found in the Accessories folder), you may find you won’t be able to defrag. Simply run ScanDisk first, then when that’s done run your defrag.

Your taskbar is the bar located at the bottom of your screen. Here are a few tips to change things up a bit if you wish:

Hide Your Taskbar

If you don’t wish your taskbar to be visible while working within programs or surfing the net, simply tweak the taskbar to hide until you want to use it. Here’s how you do that:

• Click ‘Start’ on your Start Menu
• Select ‘Settings’
• Select ‘Taskbar and Start Menu’
• Select ‘Autohide’
• Click ‘Apply’
• Click ‘OK’

Now while working or surfing the net, your taskbar won’t be visible until you move your cursor to the bottom of the page. The taskbar will then popup whenever you want access to it, otherwise it’s out of the way.

Move The Taskbar

If you’d rather have your taskbar on either side of your monitor or on top, rather than on the bottom, here’s what you do:

• Click on an empty part of your taskbar
• While holding the mouse button down, move your mouse to the location where you want your taskbar to be (left, right, top or bottom)
• Release the mouse button

Your taskbar should now be placed where you wanted.

Setting A Screensaver Password

Here’s an easy way to password protect your computer when you step away for a bit:

• Right click on an empty place on your desktop
• Select ‘Properties’
• Click the ‘Screensaver’ Tab
• Click the ‘Password Protect’ box (or it may say ‘On resume, password protect’)
• Click ‘Apply’
• Click ‘OK’

Now it’s set that whenever your screensaver is activated, a password will be needed to access your computer.

The password will be the same as your windows logon password.