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It's a New Year - Get a Fresh Start! (Part 1) |
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Aaah, new year’s resolutions! This is the year I will… (fill in your pet resolution here). For anyone whose list contains the words “get organized”, here’s some help to organize your computer. Let’s start at the beginning: with the cluttered desktop that confronts you when you first start your computer. You probably have icons on your desktop that you’ve never used, and you don’t even know what they’re for. But you’re afraid to delete them because… you’re just not sure. If you have Windows XP, here’s a quick, low-risk cleanup: right-click anywhere on a blank area of your desktop. In the popup menu that appears, click on Arrange icons by. That will pop up another menu, from which you can choose Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard. Follow the instructions in the windows that appear, and all your unused shortcuts and icons will be moved to a new folder on your desktop named Unused Desktop Shortcuts. If you ever need them again, they’ll be there, and the rest of your desktop will be beautifully uncluttered. If you have other Windows versions, you can still do a cleanup. The secret is that any icon that has a little curly black arrow in the lower left corner is a shortcut. Shortcuts can be deleted without harming any of the programs on your computer – in fact, if you delete one, you’ll get a message reminding you that you’re only deleting a shortcut, not removing a program. If you need to, you’ll still be able to get to programs whose shortcuts you’ve deleted, by using your Start button and clicking on All Programs. If you want or need to remove programs, use the Add or Remove Programs item in the Control Panel (available from the Start menu). But be careful when removing programs – unlike deleting a shortcut, removing a program actually makes permanent changes to your computer’s software. Another handy tool for cleaning up your desktop is the Auto Arrange function. This useful tool automatically arranges all your icons in nice, straight columns, all evenly spaced. You can get to Auto Arrange by right-clicking on a blank area of your desktop, and clicking on Arrange icons. When you do, you’ll see the Auto Arrange option. Clicking on it will line up all your desktop icons and shortcuts. Once you turn Auto Arrange on, any new shortcuts will be arranged automatically as well. Sometimes this can be annoying, because your icons “jump around” if you try to move them manually. The easiest way around this is to use Auto Arrange to organize your icons, and then turn it off by following the same procedure as you used to turn it on (it toggles on and off, showing a checkmark beside it on the menu when it’s turned on). Your icons will be placed by Auto Arrange, but you can move them wherever you want once you’ve turned Auto Arrange off. That’s it for the desktop – stay tuned for next month’s article, when we’ll talk about organizing email! By: Diane Henders, Bright Ideas Personalized Learning Inc. For more information or computer training services, please call Bright Ideas Personalized Learning at (403) 692-2255. |
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