Basic Computer Skills

Unknown partitions can appear after performing an operating system installation or upgrade on your PC. The unknown partition takes up space on your hard drive, regardless of whether or not you are...

Although the majority of the computers sold today can both read and write DVDs, a few recently manufactured computers are only able to read DVD discs. If you purchased your computer used, you may...

Without additional tools and without making certain precautions a matter of habit, you can expose your computer operating system (and therefore your data) to several kinds of threats. Protecting...

Using your own digital photos as the background or wallpaper for your computer is a nice and easy way to surround yourself with loved ones on a daily basis. Seeing a familiar face can really help...

MPG (or MPEG) is a format created by the Moving Picture Experts Group for video and audio transmission. This format is one of the most common formats for video on computers and other devices.

An administrator account provides full access to a computer's files and folders. The administrator access is mandatory for many tasks; for instance, some software installation or certain tasks of...

With Windows 7, Microsoft introduces it's new approach to home networking called the Homegroup. Once you join a computer to a homegroup, you can share resources with others computers in the...

Determining how old your computer is may sound like a simple task, but there's actually a lot to consider. For one thing, your computer is made of various parts--any of which were possibly...

Removing the password from your laptop through the Windows Operating System is an easy step that takes a small bit of know-how and computer skill. Many people who use laptops do not need a...

You can find out the IP address of a friend from the emails he sends you. All emails contain the IP address of the sender. The IP address of your friend may vary from time to time depending on the...

Computer processing speed is very important when it comes to running programs and downloading information such as music and video files. Processing speeds are usually measured in hertz, which is...

With Windows 7, Microsoft introduces it's new approach to home networking called the Homegroup. The Homegroup makes sharing of files, folder, printers, and media very easy. When you first setup a...

The Microsoft Certified Application Specialist program is a new addition to the Microsoft Business Certifications. Certification is attained through a series of tests that are focused on a...

Hertz is a calculation of the number of cycles per second. The measurement was name after Heinrich Rudolf Hertz due to his work with radio waves. A common need for understanding hertz in terms of...

A .eap file is an Enterprise Architect Project file created by Sparx Systems's Enterprise Architect software engineering tool, to store information on collaborative or group software or system...

Wondering how to hide computer files? People hide files on their computer for a variety of different reasons. Being secretive isn't the only reason people want to hide files on their desktop....

No matter how experienced you are in using computers, being asked by a friend or family member to recover information from a computer that they are locked out of because of a forgotten password is...

Whenever you have a document printing in Windows Vista, the operating system will store the job in the print queue, or spooler. The jobs are stored based on the first-in-first-out principle....

Everyone loves shortcuts, so why not use it when you are typing away on the computer? With most Windows desktops, one can use these keyboard shortcuts when your computer's mouse is down, or when...

Have you ever shared your computer with someone else or have you ever used computers that are accessed by other people? Do you know that other people can actually see which websites you have been...

If for some reason your computer operating system is damaged and unrecoverable, there are ways to recover your operating system. If your backup system to restore your operating system does not...

ASCII stands for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It was created with the intention of establishing a universal index of characters that can be displayed by a computer. As...

The first thing to remember about typing is that it takes time. Learning to type without staring at the keyboard isn't something you learn to do overnight. Much practice is required. When you do...

A picture collection is often the most personal item that a person stores on his or her computer, and that which would be most heartbreaking to lose. To avoid this scenario, maintaining a backup...

Because file extensions are selected by programmers and software engineers based upon their own personal preferences, it is possible for unrelated types of files to share a common file extension....

The Solaris operating system holds the host name information in multiple text files. Instead of changing each file individually, the system administrator can use the "sys-unconfig" command. This...

The CD drive is not a thing of the past, but the process was certainly beginning, as of 2009. Already netbooks and laptops without optical drives are quite common. But most installation CDs for...

Although the Windows printing options have remained relatively the same over the years, the print command is slightly different in Vista. With Windows Vista it is possible to print what you want...

Customizing your computer wallpaper has never been easier. Use a personal photo or an image from the web and with only a few clicks you can put it up as your desktop background. Keep it there...

Although computers are essentially extremely complicated math machines, it can be surprisingly difficult to type a complex equation on one. For example, due to the limited space available for...

Unix is a type of operating system that is commonly used on servers that support websites. A number of files are associated with Unix, including .man files.

Have you ever wondered how to take an image of your computer screen? Maybe you have seen others do it on websites you've visited, but you still can't seem to figure it out. Well, wonder no more....

Using manners on the internet is important. It is so important that it now has a name - netiquette. It is etiquette for the internet. Here are some suggestions for how to use netiquette on Twitter.

A screen saver is a program that displays a moving image on your monitor after a specified period of no input. A screen saver may consist of moving text or images. Microsoft Windows comes with a...

Whenever you create a new file, be it in the Windows or Mac OS X operating system, you have the option to give it a desired name or the name will be automatically assigned. Sooner or later there...

E-mail money transfers are an easy way to send or receive money using an online financial institute and your e-mail account. Canada has five big banks whose institutions offer EMTsthrough a...

Having a virus on your computer can be very frustrating and annoying, here is how to delete an Alpha Av virus from your computer.

It may be a simple thing for most people, I mean considering if you made it to the internet, what could be so hard about a simple defrag of the computer? Well, I for one have seen people get on...

When first turning on a new PC you will be presented with the option of giving your computer a name. This can help you to better recognize your PC within a network, or to identify it if stolen. A...

Keyloggers are programs or devices that capture text entered from a keyboard. They are generally used to spy on computer activities or steal passwords and credit card information. Keyloggers can...

Dell computers and keyboards manufactured for the US market, like all US keyboards, do not have keys to type foreign currency symbols such as the Euro symbol (€). To maintain compatibility...

The extremely high resolutions that can be displayed by today's computer monitors are both a blessing and a curse. The default font size can appear too small for some, causing irritation and...

Computers made in the United States are, understandably, US-centric. There are only so many keys on the keyboard that can be devoted to symbols, which results in some useful symbols being left...

When composing a document it is necessary to choose an appropriate font that is easy to read. If you are composing a flier, for instance, you need the font to be eye catching. Sometimes you may...

Pictures can be added to emails by a variety of methods. Some email programs provide designs or built-in stationary that can be used instantly. Other pictures can be found by searching online...

As technology continues to advance, increasing numbers of tasks will be done by computer. An example is in the area of research. Using computers and the Internet, it is possible to access a wider...

The Windows and Mac operating systems come preloaded with a set of wallpapers, or desktop background pictures. You can also set any desired image as the background, whether it's a personal photo...

"Wallpaper" is jargon for the background picture on the desktop of your computer. A particular picture or design is usually supplied as the default wallpaper by your operating system, such as...

Depending on what you are writing and space considerations, your font size may need to be smaller than your system's default. Decreasing the font size is one way to fit more information on the...

Have you tried using Microsoft cliparts for your presentation and documents? Do you know that we can edit cliparts such as removing the backgrounds and other objects that are not relevant to the...