Essential computing tips

Here you will find practical advice on some of the most important and commonly asked about topics in the computing field. Explore these simple tips to improve your computing experience. I hope these tips answer your questions before you even try asking.

Essential computing tips — answering questions before you ask!

1. Are you protecting your computer against versus? If you don't know or you know you don't have protection against versus on your machine, consider researching for virus protection software. Computers without virus protection software are easy target of computer problems (i.e., data loss or theft, computer showing strange messages, and so on).

2. Avoid eating or drinking near computers because if you accidentally spill on your machine or keyboard, you know what will happen.

3. Before sending an email or text message, know it cannot be un-send! Once the message leaves your computing device, it is beyond your control where it ends up and it is used. Make sure the receiver's email address or telephone number is correct before sending.

4. Don't share your personal information (or photos, videos, etc.) online with someone or a website you don't trust. Just because a website form says enter your social security number it does not mean you have to provide that. If there is also any too invasive question or information request, it is probably a good idea to be smart and not reveal such information. Ask yourself is the information being asked relevant to the task you are performing? You should not, for instance, have to enter a social security number when buying a book.

5. Don't believe everything that you read, see, or hear online, especially if it is coming from those you don't know or the claims cannot be verified. Keep in mind, internet does not stop working if an 11 year old claims to be an adult, a woman pretends to be a man or vice versa, you just won million of dollars because you visited a random website, and so on. The point is web surfers be aware internet makes deceiving easy for those who have the skills and knowledge.

6. Don't reply to emails from people you don't know. Even better yet, avoid reading the emails from people that you don't know. In most cases, such emails are just spam. If you reply, you may get many more messages if your email address is forwarded to others to send you more emails. See when spammers send out emails in bulk they don't know if a particular email account is actively used or not. So no wonder they embed HTML (links or images, for example) to figure out whether or not a particular email was opened. Once opened or by clicking on a link in the email, you just have validated your email address. This is an invitation for more such messages.

7. How often do you review the online privacy statement of a website? It should be done because the privacy policies of a website will describe how the information you reveal to the website is used or shared. If the website does not state its privacy polices how will you know your information is protected and how it is used? Reputable websites often have privacy statements, terms and conditions, terms of use, etc.

8. If you frequently communicate using some email address, store them in an address book. The concept of address book is very similar to how your telephone store's other people's telephone numbers (and other contact information). Like on the phone it is much easier to find the contact name and make the call, it is much easier to find the person's email address from the address book. Savings contacts to address book can also enable you to email the same message to multiple recipients with just a few clicks.

9. If you receive a message with one or more attachments, don't open that message immediately. Before opening, make sure you know the sender. If you don't trust the sender, don't open the message. Internet thieves send attachments to trick people. They even use .jpg or .gif file attachments formats to let the receiver believe he received a graphic. Instead, it is a virus program that when downloaded and is run, it may perform any number of undesirable actions such as deleting files, corrupting files, and sending files from your computer. So consider deleting the message to protect yourself.

10. If you receive email from someone you don't know, ask these questions before deciding to open the email. Does the subject make sense? Did the email land in a Spam folder?

11. If you see a locked padlock symbol or https in the web address, it indicates the website is secure. When shopping online or when exchanging any personal information online, make sure to use a secure website. Absence of the clues indicates if you exchange personal information, it can be understood easily by anyone because the information is not encrypted.

12. If you're scratching your head over some weird computer or software error, check the hardware or software vendor website for a solution. Chances are someone else may have experienced the same problem and notified the support team. There may a solution waiting for you.

13. If your screen is blocking the view of some items, you have to use the scrollbars or navigation keys (up arrow, down arrow, Page Up, and Page Down).

14. One of the ways you can stay safe online is by limiting what you share online. Keep your personal information private otherwise you will lose control of its use. Internet makes it possible to share anything and everything instantly with many online users in the world. So if you share with someone online that you feel uncomfortable sharing, it can be quickly passed to many other online users. Of course, you may not find out this is happening perhaps until it is too late.

15. Protect your computer from thieves and virus programs. Thieves can do any number of things when they access your computer. They can steal information delete or modify information on your computer. You may not find out about this until it is too late. So protect yourself by using a firewall, anti-spyware software and anti-virus software. Remember to have those programs up-to-date.

16. Protect yourself from online crime. If you receive an email asking for personal or financial information, it is probably a scam. You should not respond and should not follow any links in the email. What you should do is contact the company directly using a phone number or email address that you know is legitimate.

17. Remember to periodically save your work. You know why it is important to do so if you ever have experienced Microsoft Word, browser or Windows crashes. When the application you are working on crashes, chances are your work will be lost completely or any changes made after last save. Don't risk losing all of your work…remember to hit save.

18. To quickly find specific text in your browser window, hit the Ctrl key and F key [Ctrl + F] from your keyboard for Windows. It will bring up a Find window, simply type the text you want to find and hit the Find button or press Enter. Each browser supports this functionality differently but the end result is the same: the browser helps you find quickly what you are looking for.

19. When writing a message in from popular email providers such as Yahoo! Mail, GMail, or Hotmail, consider writing your message outside of the browser window (in Microsoft Word or Notepad). When you are ready to send the message, simply copy and paste into your email message box. After you hit Send and if you loose internet connection or your browser appears to be unresponsive to your request, chances are you won't loose your message because you have it in an external window. To avoid losing the message, another alternative is to use the Save function inside the email window if your email provider provides this option.

20. When you reply to an email message, hit the Reply button. Avoid typing the recipient's email address because not is a pain to do so but you may also make typos.

21. When you type the URL (web address) of a website, make sure it is the correct address, particularly when you intend to exchange any financial or personal information. If it is the first time, you go to a website observe it is what you are looking for. If a website looks unfamiliar, it may be an indication of that you landed at a wrong website. Don't submit your login credentials (i.e., username and password) at wrong websites because you are risking others to use your credentials to gain access to your accounts.

22. You can sort messages in your email box by descending or ascending order. To activate the sorting function, you need to click on the column that you want to sort. An up or down error is normally used to indicate the direction of sort. For ascending, an up arrow is used and down arrow is used for descending order sorting.