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.

The 25th Anniversary of The Macintosh Computer

A major anniversary happened over the weekend which maybe you
missed.

25 years ago this past Saturday, the very first Apple Macintosh was
released.

Now if you're not a Mac fan, you may wonder why should you care?

Well, it was a major computer milestone that profoundly affected how
you use your computer -- even if you use Microsoft Windows.

You see, the Macintosh, when it debuted in 1984 after the still-famous
"1984" Superbowl commercial, was a revelation. And it changed the way
people used computers.

When you use a computer today, it's normal to see things like icons,
have a trash can or recycle bin icon you can throw files into, be able to
use a mouse to move files around and navigate the computer, and be
able to do everyday things like write a letter and be able to chose
different fonts (styles of print) on the screen and see something very
close to what you'll get when you print the letter out.

Not so before the Mac; since it was the computer that introduced all
of these things as standard parts of a computer. Amazing things at
the time, which seem commonplace today.

This all was possible thanks to something called a "graphical user
interface" or "GUI" (pronounced "gooey") which is a fancy way of
saying using the computer through menus, images, and icons, rather
than the old way of typing on a "command line" in a system that
often wasn't even *able* to show graphics (images). Just plain text
on a black background.

I remember vividly when I was about thirteen or fourteen, I saw my first
Mac. It was a completely different experience than any computer I'd used
before. I know many of you think of the computer as something that's
very hard to use and learn, but believe me, it's a cakewalk compared to
what it was like before the Mac.

No need to memorize a list of obscure commands and type them in on
a black screen with glowing green lines of text with no graphics. Instead,
you could just point the mouse at what you wanted to open, and double-
click it.

If you wanted to throw something away, you just dragged it into the
trash, and just like a real trash can, you could pull something back out
again if you still needed it. With the computers I used before, you had to
type in a command to delete a file, and once you hit the enter key, it was
pretty much gone for good.

I think the thing that most amazed me was using the word processor.

I had used one before, but with those older type of programs, everything
you typed looked the same -- you could chose from a few different fonts,
but you couldn't see what they looked like until you printed.

You could make things bold, or italic, but again, it all looked the same on
the screen, so you really had to use your imagination to guess at what
you'd get when you printed it out on one of those slow, old-fashioned and
very noisy "dot matrix" printers they had in those days.

It's hard to convey just how amazing this all was to me and other people
back then if you only started using computers after the early 1990s when
all of these things finally became mainstream when Windows started to
become the most used operating system.

Apparently back in the day, Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak (co-founders of
Apple) invited a young Bill Gates (co-founder of Microsoft) over to show
off their new Mac before it made its first public appearance.

He sat down, used a mouse for the first time and saw the future.

And promptly ran back to Microsoft to start a long-time habit of recycling
Apple's ideas.

Now to be fair, the mouse was invented in the 1960s, and Apple got
some of their core ideas about using the mouse & menus, etc. from
Xerox (who didn't seem to think anything much would come out of their
ideas). But Apple took those elements and transformed them into a
simple system that was *far* easier to learn and use than anything that
came before.

So even if you don't use one of Apple's Macs yourself, be thankful for
making the computer into what it is today.

Of course, while it's still much easier now than it was back in the old
days, it's OK if you need a little help and guidance. That's what I'm
here for.

You can learn a lot from my newsletters, and even more with my easy
video lessons for Apple Mac & Windows PC. If you haven't tried them
out yet, you can find out more at:

http://www.worthgodwin.com/

Well, I've got to grab a quick bite to eat and head out to meet my friend
and help her enjoy her last night on the island.

until next time, take care, and enjoy,

Worth Godwin

P.S. Remember, the old prices for my CDs won't be around for much longer, so take advantage of them while you can.

New customers can find out more at: http://www.worthgodwin.com/

Follow-Up to Previous Newsletter About Arranging Icons

This is just a quick follow-up to the newsletter I posted over the
weekend where I answered Linda's question about arranging the icons on
her computer's desktop.

My friend visiting from the mainland was nice enough to offer to spend
the night with some mutual friends here on the island yesterday so I
could get a little caught up with my work, so I'm writing this before
heading up north on the island a little later this afternoon to meet up with
her and our friends so we can go out on her last night here on the island.

I'm writing this follow-up because I was recording a video lesson last night
for my Gold Club members, demonstrating the same steps I outlined in
the last email (after all, it's *much* easier to learn from seeing it done,
rather than just reading about it!). While recording the steps, I realized I'd
left out something important.

On Macs, in addition to the steps I outlined in the last email, there is one
additional setting that decides whether the icons can be moved freely, or
if they're kept always arranged in a specific order (like alphabetical order).

This can be found by clicking once on the desktop to make sure you're in
the Finder (again, you can confirm this by looking at the menu right next
to the Apple menu -- it should say Finder). Then go to the View menu,
and click "Show View Options".

This will open a new window with several settings in it. The one you want
to either keep the icons on the desktop always arranged in a certain
order, or to let them move freely is the menu at the bottom of the
window.

Click the menu and chose "None" if you want the icons to move freely,
or click one of the six options at the bottom of that menu to arrange by
that category (i.e. by name (alphabetically), by size, etc.).

Just wanted to post this quick follow-up since I accidentally left that info
out.

I'm going to be sending out a second regular newsletter today too, so
don't be surprised by me sending out two emails in one day. And I haven't
forgotten the other questions I was sent recently; I'll be answering them
soon.

until then, take care, and enjoy,

Worth Godwin

P.S. If you're not a easy computer lessons Gold Club member and want to
get in on this month's set of CDs, I'm still prepping the 2nd of the two
disks to send off to the duplicator service over on Oahu, and will be
finishing them Tuesday night after my friend leaves for the mainland. So
any new signups before then will get a copy of this month's CDs.

You can find out how by visiting the following link to learn more about my easy
video lessons.

Answering Computer Question About Arranging Icons on Your Desktop

In this newsletter I'm going to answer the next of the questions I have
waiting in my inbox from the ones that were sent in after my latest
monthly computer question and answer live event that I held last
Sunday.

I'll be answering more of these in future newsletter issues in the coming days,
so keep an eye out for them.

This question comes from one of my consulting clients here on the
island, Linda Tellington-Jones, who writes:

"Hi Worth, brilliant idea. I'll join in. I do have a question. A
friend organized my desktop with the folders in nice neat rows.
However, they are not alphabetical, AND I cannot move them
around. I need my old disorganized desktop back so I can edit and
move them in the order I need them. Help!!!!
Linda"

Linda has one of Apple's Macs, and there's an easy fix to her
problem. I'll cover the steps for a Mac first, then follow with the
steps for Windows PCs.

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


On a Mac what you want to do is click once on the desktop to
switch you to the Finder (that's the part of Mac OS X that shows the
desktop and its icons, and lets you browse through files and
folders). You can make sure you're in the Finder by glancing up to
the menu next to the Apple Menu in the upper left corner of your
screen and make sure it says "Finder" -- that menu next to the
Apple Menu is very handy because it always says the name of
whatever program you are in.

Once you're in the Finder, you can go to the View menu at the top
of the screen (3 over from the Apple Menu) and in that menu you
will find a menu option titled "Arrange By" and when you put your
mouse over "Arrange By" a side menu will pop out.

Chances are, you'll see that one of the options in this side menu has
a check mark next to it. You can either click on that line that has
the check mark (which will uncheck it) and this will free up your
icons to move around as you please, OR you can click one of the
other options to arrange them by name (alphabetically), by the
kind of file, etc.

On a Windows PC, you can do pretty much the same thing:

Click on the desktop, then RIGHT-click (use the right mouse
button to click) anywhere on an empty spot on the desktop, and
you'll get a menu with several options in it.

In Windows XP the option you're looking for is "Sort By" and in
Windows Vista, it's called "Arrange By" (two ways to say the same
thing in other words) and when you put your mouse pointer over
that option, a side menu will pop out with four main options
including "name", "size" and "modified" (when it was last saved in
other words).

Just click any of these options and it will reshuffle all of your icons
into that order.

Windows XP users will have another item in this side menu that's
worth mentioning: "auto arrange". If this has a check mark next to
it, it keeps you from manually dragging and dropping icons on your
desktop; if it's unchecked, you can move them freely.

Each time you click that particular menu option it will "toggle"
between checked and unchecked -- toggle just means it works like
a light switch, so you can turn it on or off (toggle it on or off).

I usually try to stick to concepts, general advice & tips, etc. in these
emails, since it is *so* much easier to see step-by-step instructions
rather than read them (which is exactly why I created my easy video
lesson CDs in the first place), but hopefully that all makes sense.

That's it for this installment of my newsletter. As I mentioned
above, I'll be getting to the other questions waiting for me in future
newsletters.

Right now though, I'd better get back to being a good host because
my friend from the mainland is giving me dirty looks because I'm
on the computer instead of spending time with her. But I wanted to
get another newsletter "out the door" so I could keep helping you
guys get better at your computers.

until next time, enjoy,

Worth Godwin

Answering a question from James about virus infection: Important information about protecting your computer

As you may know, on Sunday I had one of my monthly computer
question & answer live events where I answer people's computer
questions live "on the air" during a broadcast you can listen in on
via the web or by phone during the event.

During the call (between some coughing and sniffling on my end
due to a cold) I answered a number of questions sent in by my
subscribers, including ones from new Gold Club member Tim here
on the Big Island, George from Scotland, Art in the Phillipines, and
others.

I had a number of questions sent in by email after the event was
over, one of which I'll be answering in this newsletter, and I'll be
getting to the others in coming days.

Gold Club members will also be getting a copy of the entire call on
CD along with the latest video lesson CD when they ship later in the
month. Gold Club members will find the recording in the
*permanent* archive of *all* of my computer Q & A live events
located in the Gold Club member.

On to the question:

"Dear Mr. Godwin,

I'm not sure whether or not you have time to answer personal
emails, but I'll give it a shot. Last night a disturbing event
happened as I was doing some research in FireFox. Without any
provocation, I was suddenly invaded by an antivirus program
(Internet Antivirus Pro) attempting to push their product on me (I
already use Norton). Nor only could I not get rid of it on my
computer, but it messed up FireFox as well as Microsoft Explorer.
Both were rendered useless. So, I'm ending up setting up my
computer from scratch. Was this a type of virus; if so, why didn't
Norton catch it? I'd appreciate a response when you get time.
Thanks for your kindness. - James Staudt"

Well James, I'm sorry to hear you ran into this situation.

You unfortunately fell victim to a very common threat that has infected a
huge number of computers in recent months. According to statistics
published by Microsoft 400,000 computers had this cleaned off of them
in December alone (and that's just the ones Microsoft's software
removed, and doesn't count any infections removed by different means).

What probably happened, based on what you've told me, and what I've
seen myself and read about, you probably went to a website which
offered to scan your computer, and then went ahead and scanned your
computer even when you said no, and then insisted on pushing that
malicious program on you even when you said no.

If that's not exactly what you experienced, it was probably something
similar.

This is a really big problem to a lot of people because the site you visited,
and others like it, use *very* dishonest tactics and basically set things up
so that no matter what you click, it still results in the program getting
onto your system.

As it happens, I just did a video lesson on this very topic on December's
Gold Club video lesson CD. I recorded the lesson after stumbling onto a
site like the one you ran into, to help protect my clients from sites like it.

It's really not possible for me to share everything I showed in the lesson in
an email, since a lot of it relies on you *seeing* exactly what I'm talking
about, to help recognize when you've run into one of those sites.

One thing I can tell you is this: if you ever find yourself on a site that tries
to scan your computer for problems, you should get out of there
immediately, especially if the scan happens without your permission.

The fact is, the scan is actually *fake* in the first place, and that should
be a big warning sign.

The best thing to do in a situation like that is to close the web browser
immediately, since clicking on almost anything on the web page (even a
button saying "no" or "cancel" etc.) will still put the damaging program
on your computer.

So instead of running the risk of accidentally clicking a fake close button
(the red X) what you can do is use the keyboard shortcut to close the
browser immediately.

On a Windows PC this is done by holding down the ALT key and then
pressing the F4 key (the key labeled F4 at the top of your keyboard, not
the F key and the 4 key) then releasing both.

On one of Apple's Mac computers, the same thing is done by holding
down the Command key on the keyboard (this either says Command, or
has an Apple logo, or has a "propeller" logo, or all three, depending on
your keyboard) then type the letter Q and release both.

So that's ALT-F4 on the PC, or Command-Q on the Mac.

That will get you right out of there, and minimize the risk of getting
infected.

As for your Norton Antivirus, well, the fact is, Norton is really not that
good a program. It's used a lot because Symantec (who makes Norton)
pays HP or other computer makers to include their program, and so most
people use Norton or McAfee purely because it's what's there, *not*
because it's the best program!

It's kind of like the way that the majority of people still use Microsoft's
Internet Explorer (the blue E icon) even though it is definitely not as safe
as, say, Mozilla Firefox, or even as good a program in general.

What I suggest is to use the antivirus program Kaspersky. It's what I use
on my Windows computers, and what I recommend to my clients.

For more information about using the right web browser, the right
antivirus program, and more, see my special report "5 Common & Costly
Computer Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Making Them Yourself". The
audio CD of this report is included for free with all orders of any of my
bundles of CDs.

The video lesson I mentioned above is so important for everyone to see
(including Mac users who *currently* don't need to worry about viruses),
that I am thinking about making it available for everyone to view for a
while in a special area of my website. This will likely be for a limited time
only, but I will make an announcement if I decide to do this.

It will definitely be made available to Gold Club members in the exclusive
Gold Club member area of my site.

I hope that helps make some sense of what happened, and maybe gives
you a useful tip or two to avoid problems in the future.

I will be getting to some of the other questions I got by email in the next
few days. Right now I need to run out the door to the airport to pick up a
friend visiting from the mainland.

Until next time, take care, and enjoy,

Worth Godwin

P.S. I am finally getting caught up with all of the stuff I wanted to finish
three weeks ago (between being sick and some unfortunate technical
roadblocks I ran into, I couldn't avoid it). Watch your email for some
exciting new announcements including the relaunch of the new and
improved Gold Club member area, and more.

I should also probably warn you that as soon as I'm able to get caught up,
which should be a few more days, I will finally have time to raise my prices
on my Ultimate Beginner's Bundle and the Plantinum Bundle of easy lesson
CDs available for either Windows PC or for Apple Mac.

The price of these CDs, while still being a bargain, will go up substantially
in a few days. I am also going to eliminate my standalone free trial Gold
Club membership entirely.