Frequently Asked Questions
Computers are new to me. Where do I start?
Where do I get help on all the software on my PC?
Does my PC bite?
How do I download stuff from the Internet?
What's a "zipfile"?
How do I open a zipfile?
I use BuzzTools to open zipfiles. Is this a good idea?
What are all these different types of files used on the Internet?
Do I need any special software to view or save pictures?
How do I convert my pictures to GIF or JPEG format?
How do I open different types of files on my PC?
My PC keeps on locking up on me!
My PC seems to be getting slower and slower!
Computers are new to me. Where do I start? All Windows operating systems have a comprehensive set of help features. Press the Start button and select Help. You'll certainly find all the information you need to start you off in the right direction. Top Where do I get help on all the software on my PC? Almost all software products have a help menu (located as the right-most menu). Here you are likely to find reference material and tutorials. In most cases you will even be given information on using this software's Help facility. Top Does my PC bite? No, and your mouse has also been domesticated. Don't be afraid to try new things with your computer. We all mess up occasionally and it's nothing to worry about. Just about all software, including Windows, have "undo" features, so if you accidentally do something you didn't want to do, undo it. You'll find the undo command in the Edit menu (normally second from the left). Top How do I download stuff from the Internet? In most cases all that's required is a single click on the icon. If what's behind the icon is "downloadable" (as opposed to an icon which links you to another web page), your PC will ask what you want to do - Open this file from its current location or Save this file to disk. The default is to save the file to disk on your PC. If you press OK the Save As dialog is presented to you. A default folder and file name is offered and all you do is press Save. In most cases you would leave the file name as it is, but you would probably want to change the Save in destination folder to somewhere else, or even create a new folder to save this file in. Top What's a "zipfile"? A single file that holds a number of other files. It's much easier to move one large file across the Internet than it is to move hundreds of little files. A major advantage of adding a bunch of files into a single zipfile is that you can add almost any type of computer related file - programs, images, documents, there is no restriction. You can even add zipfiles to zipfiles. Another very big advantage is that all the files are compressed to a much smaller size in the zipfile. This makes transporting across the Internet much faster. When you receive a zipfile, you extract all the files inside and they are expanded to their original size and type. Top How do I open a zipfile? The most commonly used product is WinZip of which a fully featured trial version is freely available from WinZip.com. Top I use BuzzTools to open zipfiles. Is this a good idea? No! BuzzTools only shows you some of the files. Products like WinZip and PkZip on the other hand, show you all of the files. Zipfiles almost always include images and documents which you will not see using BuzzTools, so you've been missing out on a huge amount of information. Top What are all these different types of files used on the Internet? To get information across the Internet as quickly as possible, various methods are used to "squeeze" files into smaller packages without losing data. Zipfiles are one way, and there are also a few ways to send individual images. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format and was developed by CompuServe specifically to carry pictures across the Internet. The pictures can be compressed into very small files, ported to your PC (which will decompress it automatically), and show the original picture without any loss of quality. GIF files are most commonly used for small animations (like the dancing pencil on the homepage). The only disadvantage of using GIF files is that they are restricted to 256 colours, so are not really suited for photographs. JPG's or JPEG's where developed by the Joint Photographers Expert Group as a way to transport photographs. JPEG's have the advantage of allowing the creator to balance up quality and file size. Almost all images and backgrounds seen on the Internet are JPEG's. This is also the most common format for sending images from one person to another as an email attachment. Bitmaps which have a file name extension of BMP are the way images are presented to you by your PC, even if they came in a different format like GIF or JPEG. Each individual spot (or pixel) on your monitor can be set a specific colour, so the PC simply maps out these spots (bits) to create images. Bitmaps are not suited for transmission over the Internet because they are too large, that's why we squeeze them into JPEG format. Top Do I need any special software to view or save pictures? No. Your browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape) will display most types of images commonly used on the Internet and on PC's. If you see a picture on the Internet that you like and there is no associated download button or icon, simply right-click over the image and choose Save picture as from the popup menu. Top How do I convert my pictures to GIF or JPEG format? You PC will almost certainly have all the tools you need for simple manipulation of images. All versions of Windows have MS-Paint which is suitable for tasks like resizing and reformatting. If you have MS Office installed, you will have use of MS Photo Editor or Wang's Image Editor, but you have to install these products separately off the Office CD. For more professional work you would probably want to get hold of one of the many graphics tools available on the market today. Pay a visit to Corel, Adobe or Ulead. These company's are the leaders in Graphics software, although there are many others who offer good competitive products. Top How do I open different types of files on my PC? Simply double-click on the icon. Your PC will know what to do, and if it really doesn't, it will ask you what program you want to use to open this file. If that's the case, you don't have the required software to begin with and you'll have to ask around. Top My PC keeps on locking up on me! You are probably running two or more software products at the same time that give conflicting instructions to Windows. Try using only one product at any one time and this problem will almost certainly go away. If your PC locks up only when you use a specific piece of software, make sure it was designed to run on your version of Windows. If it was, you may need to reinstall the software, or as a last resort, reinstall your Windows operating system. As a precaution, backup all your data files before doing this. Top My PC seems to be getting slower and slower! With the software that's out there today, you need at least a Pentium-II with a minimum of 128Mb of memory. Regardless of whether or not you already have a fast modern PC, there are a few things you could do to help speed things up that don't involve spending any money. Before doing anything, you should backup all your data files! If you feel even slightly unsure of following these steps, better leave things as they are. Close down all software that you have open, then discard all useless files that tend to materialize over time. This can be done as follows: From Windows Explorer (My Computer), go to C:\Windows\Temp (for Windows NT4/2000 go to C:\Winnt\Temp) and delete all the files. Make sure that you don't delete the TEMP folder itself, just its contents. Regardless of which version of Windows you are using, ensure that you really are in the TEMP folder. From Internet Explorer, select Internet Options from the Tools menu, go to the General tab and delete all Temporary Internet files and Clear the History. Click Start, Search, For Files or Folders named ~*.tmp and delete all of them. Empty your Recycle Bin and then defrag your hard drive. Disk Defragmenter can be found by pressing Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools. Top
