Answering Computer Question About How to Delete Files Safely

Well, it's been a couple of days now since my friend left and I'm
finding a moment to get another computer newsletter out the door
for you. The last couple of days have been even more hectic than
usual for me as I try to play catch-up from where I was already
behind schedule when my friend came to visit.

As a result, I didn't manage to even have *lunch* until about 8PM
either day after running around visiting clients helping them with
their computers, and then after that it was work on my site, my
lesson CDs, etc. which kept me up past 3am the last two nights!

At the moment I'm waiting for a large cup of coffee to brew and rev
my brain up enough to write this newsletter, then take my laptop
downtown to do a few hour's work on my website revamp.

This does mean I'm getting closer to being caught up enough to do all
the work needed to finally be able to raise my easy computer lesson
CD prices to the 2009 levels, so there's only another day or two left
before you won't be able to get them at last year's price.

Anyway, let's get to the latest of my questions sent in by email --
if you have a computer question for me, feel free to reply to this
email and ask. I will add it to the queue and will do my best to
answer everyone's questions in future issues of my newsletter.

This question (slightly edited) is from Trish Hynes who writes:

"Hello well I do hope you get well soon not nice...
well was actually wondering how I can tell what is safe to delete
to make room on my PC and what not to. I'm too scared to delete
as I may delete important stuff... hope you can help me ?
really worries me !!"

Well Trish, I am feeling better (although a bit tired as you can imagine).
Thanks for asking.

Let me give you some guidelines for how to safely delete things to make
some room on your computer. While Trish has a Windows PC, most of
what I will explain here applies equally to Windows or Mac computers,
and I will point out any differences between the two since I know I
have many subscribers who use Windows, and many who use Macs.

I think the best rule of thumb is this: if you didn't put something
there yourself, it's usually best to leave it. There are some
exceptions that I'll get to in a moment.

So in other words, photos, music, Word documents or any kind of
documents you've created yourself or which maybe came via email,
etc. are all generally going to be OK to delete.

In most cases, you can remove any of these items by dragging them
to the Recycle Bin (Windows) or the Tash (Mac). Do remember that
anything still in the Recycle Bin or the Trash still takes up room on
the computer until you empty it, just like a real world trash can has
stuff in it until you empty it.

You can empty the Recycle Bin on your PC by right-clicking it and
clicking the empty recycle bin menu option. On a Mac you can empty
the Trash by holding down the control key on your keyboard and
clicking the Trash icon on your dock. Then release the control key
and click the menu option "empty trash".

----------------------------------------------------
Wish you could actually *see and hear* step-by-step instructions
like the ones in this email, instead of just read them?
Take a look at my easy, Plain English video computer lessons
available for either Apple Mac or Windows PC. Learn more at:
----------------------------------------------------

I find a lot of people have been throwing stuff in their recycle bin or
trash for (in some cases) years and never have emptied it. This can
make a difference.

Now you know how they say that a picture is worth a thousand words?

Well, in a pretty real sense, a picture file takes up about a thousand
times more space than a Word document or similar file. Also, a music
file tends to be in a similar size range.

And if a picture (or music file) is worth a thousand words, well a movie
is worth a million, because those tend to be the biggest single files
you find on most computers.

So in other words, if you're short on space and need to free up some
room by deleting stuff, you might want to start with movie (video)
files first, since they take up the most room, followed by pictures
and sound files. Deleting stuff like Word or Excel documents won't
usually do much to help.

Keep in mind also that if you get a lot of attachments by email they
are taking up room too, even if they're still in the email. And if you
still have the email (or deleted it but didn't empty the trash inside
your email program, which is separate from the trash or recycle bin
for your computer), they still are taking up space.

Beyond that, you might want to remove unused programs. On
Windows computers you need to do this through the Add Remove
Programs icon in the control panel. The steps are slightly different
depending on if you use Windows XP or Vista, but basically you
double-click that icon in the control panel, then select the program
from the list by clicking it once, then click the remove button.

On Macs, you can generally just drag the program icon to the trash
from the Applications folder on your hard drive.

And again, with programs (or applications, which are the same thing)
you usually want to just remove ones put in by you or someone after
you got the computer; sometimes removing ones that came with
the computer can cause problems down the road. Not always; it
depends on the specific program and computer its running on and
how you use it.

Another thing to think about, which I think tends to be the better
option is to upgrade to a newer hard drive with more space. Drives
are cheap these days, and it's better to spend a little to add more
room and potentially extend the useful life of your computer than
it is to remove something you might miss later.

For those of you here on the island, if you need help with upgrading
your computer smoothly, you can give me a call or send me an
email to see when I'm available to make a house call.

For now, I've got to run, but I hope that all made sense and gave
you some helpful tips. If you want clarification or for me to expand
on anything in this article, reply to this email with your question.

until next time, take care, and enjoy,

Worth Godwin

P.S. For an easy method where you can actually *see* step-by-step
how to computer lessons on your screen (for either Mac or Windows)
take a look at my easy video computer training CDs & online computer lessons.

They include lessons on how to delete files, how to organize them,
how to work with your trash or recycle bin, how to find out how much
space you have left (and know if it's dangerously low) and many other
important topics related to what I've talked about in this newsletter,
and more.