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icon Tips from Mike

&

icon Recommended weekly maintenance


T i p s
 

icon Use quality electrical and phone line surge supressors. If you are in an area that experiences frequent power shortages and outages, a Uninteruptable Power Supply can save you much aggravation.
 
icon Always shut down Windows before turning off the computer.
 
icon Use the uninstall that loaded with program to uninstall. If no uninstall was loaded, use the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs.
 
icon Realign the print heads whenever you change a ink cartridge in the printer. (if required)
 
icon Keep printer turned off unless you are going to use it.
 
icon Keep magnets away from the computer area.
 
icon Keep cellular phones away from the monitor.
 
icon If cleaning computer, monitor, or keyboard, do not allow any liquid to get inside. Do not use alcohol based products on monitor.
 
icon Periodically remove and clean the tracking ball inside the mouse.
 
icon During thunderstorms, shut down computer, turn off surge supressor and unplug phone line to computer.
 
icon If installing multiple programs, restart computer between installations.
 
icon Always shut down computer before adding or removing peripherals, except USB devices.
 
icon Use a personal fire-wall with Cable or DSL connection to the Internet.
 
icon Always shut down computer before moving it.
 

W e e k l y   M a i n t e n a n c e
perform in this order ...
 

icon Open Windows Explorer \ (C:)
Remove files with .chk extension from drive C:\
Remove files from C:\Windows\Temp folder.
If you use Paint Shop pro, you can remove files with the .jbf extension that are in Program Files \ Paint Shop Pro. These are created when you use the browse function for images on a CD-ROM. However, removing them will slightly slow down your next browse of that CD as they are recreated.
 
icon Empty Recycle Bin
 
icon Restart computer. (This will clear the windows swap file.)
 
icon Disable your screen saver
Close all programs running in the background except Explorer and Systray. Use Ctrl-Alt-Del, highlight and click End Task for Fast Find, Virus Scan, Backup, etc.
 
icon Run scandisk and defrag:
double click on My Computer
right click on (C:) or (drive you want to do)
click on properties
click on tools tab
error checking status - click on 'check now'
  normally set on standard and automatically fix errors

Defragmentation Status - click on 'defragment now'
(Win95) When block comes up with 'Drive is % fragmented' click on start, even if Windows says you don't need to defrag now
(Win98) recommend starting at night and just turn off monitor.
 
icon Update virus program dat files and run virus scan
 
 

 
D O W N L O A D this information!
 

icon 1) This link will take you to a 4kb text file, available to print, or save to your computer. Contains the above tips and maintenance information. You'll have to hit your 'back' button to return here.
 
2) This link is a 6kb PDF file, save it to your computer and read it with Adobe's Free Acrobat Reader.
 

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Located in Macomb County
in Roseville, Michigan

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