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Hierarchies and Roots of Drives on Your Computer

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:47:15 PST

The purpose of this article is to help you better understand what options are available to you for saving school assignments on a personal computer.
A hard drive, your folders and files on your computer are called a hierarchy because one is directly inside another, and is then called a lower file. To begin with, you should know that your hard drive is considered the C drive on most all Windows based computer systems. The hard drive is the home of all programs and folders that are used for the user interface on your computer. So when you open a program, it is directly stored on your hard drive, and in turn is opened there as well. When you download a program, it is always under the hard drive, and then under another subfolder. Your files and programs are easy to change at any time with only a few adjustments.
From the hard drive, which is considered the root or home of all of your programs folders, you will have a list of all the programs that are available. This is true of Windows based and Mac based computers alike. Any folders located under the hard drive are called your top level folders. This means that in order to get to these folders, you have to click on the hard drive to get access.
From the folder called Programs, you can get to the subfolders inside. These will have names according to the type of files located inside. For instance, if you have pictures of your dog in a folder by itself, this is what it would look like: C:/Users/Your Name/My Documents/Pictures/Your Dog's Name. So the root of the file with your dog in it is the hard drive, while the upper level folder is My Documents, and then Pictures. Lastly, the subfolder with your dog's pictures located inside is Your Dog's Name.
There are top level folders in most cases such as My Downloads and Program Files that are ready made with names and locations. These each contain subfolders that can range from programs that have been downloaded under My Downloads, all the way to your user information under Users. Regardless of what file it is that you click under the hard drive, the first click is called a top level folder and any other click beneath that top level folder is considered your subfolders.
If you are going to save an assignment on your computer for school, here is how you should attempt to do so:
Open My Documents and then right click anywhere in the box. This will bring up a new box that will have many options. Go down to and click on New, and then Folder. Now you will have to choose a name for the folder, which should correspond with your class name that the assignment is for. Now you have a top level folder.
Now you should return to the assignment, and save the file. So to do so, if you are in Word, go to the top left of the screen and find the File. Click on this, and then scroll down to Save. You should now find a place to save your assignment. Remember that file you just made? This is where you are going to save your assignment. So you should save under C, which is your hard drive, and then under Users, and choose your user name, which is a top level folder. Now under Users, you will find your subfolder called My Documents. Now simply click on the folder you created with your class name, and you have saved your assignment to your hard drive.

Make Windows XP Remember Your Folder View Settings

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:42:38 PST

You have treasured photos of your children at their most cute,and you like to see them displayed as thumbnails in your folders. You go through your folders one by one and set them all to thumbnails. Some time later you return and.....Filmstrip???. Sound familiar? Despair no more frustrated reader,here is the solution.

Open Control panel and select Folder Options. Select the view tab and check the box next to Remember each folder's view settings. You may think your work is done here,but,alas this is Windows we are dealing with here.Nothing is ever that simple.

Xp is set to remember the settings for only the last four hundred folders that you have visited. In order to rectify this you will have to edit the Windows Registry. A word of warning here. Making changes to the registry can render your Windows installation unusable,so if you do not have your XP disc to hand then proceed with extreme caution. However,having said that,if you follow the instructions exactly then everything will be hunky-dory.

Select Start,Run,and enter regedit in the box that appears. Navigate to HKey_Current_User/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Shell. Right click on Shell and select New DWORD value.A box will appear in the window to the right.Into this box type following exactly as written below:

BagMRUSize

Now right click on your new entry and select modify. Change the number format to decimal and enter 500000 into the value data box to the left.Then click ok.

Now do exactly the same to the registry folder ShellNoRoam.It will be directly below the Shell folder you have just edited.Do not be tempted to set the DWORD values too high as this will result in XP remembering nothing at all. 500000 should be more than adequate and works perfectly.

Close down the Registry Editor and relax. Now you can leave a folder safe in the knowledge that the precious pics of your kids will be exactly as you left them,unlike the children themselves who can get as dirty as a coal miner in the five seconds that you have your back turned.

Practical Tips to Really Speed Up Your Computer

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:36:31 PST

No one wants to wait a long time for his computer to start or to shut down. However, the computer does not always listen to your command to get the job done immediately. Instead, it moves forward at a slow pace to do a task that can often put you in a state of extreme uneasiness and discomfort. In fact, there are many aspects dealing with this problem which causes the operating system to react slowly. Below are tips that could definitely accelerate the speed of your computer.

Erase the Program Completely

It is easy to use "Add/ Remove Programs" to delete some installed programs in the computer. However, it does not help you to remove the registry and fix missing files and entries of the programs, which may also affect the speed of your computer. This is because your computer needs time to look for them. This will definitely cause your computer to become slow. You can use a trust computer booster/ optimizer program to clear out these files in order to stop the computer from wasting time looking for them. "Nortonuninstall", a product developed by Symantec, is good to get this job done. However, this product has been banned from use as it was claimed to destruct some copyrighted software. Due to this issue, Symantec has come out with a new product, Cleansweep, which has a similar function. If you are unable to get this software, you may use some other trusted software with a similar function. Make sure you clean the registry and other unwanted files once a week to keep your computer running smoothly. The more you run this, the more it will fix the errors and problems which will secure good performance of your computer. From this explanation, you will understand that you do not always have to spend money buying RAM because it will not have the function of cleaning these unwanted files.

Check Your Application Software

Some installed programs can make your computer run very slow. In order to check whether these are the reasons that your computer is becoming slow, run Windows in "Safe Mode". Of course, "Safe Mode" should operate slower than when you run in "Normal Mode". Nevertheless, if you realize that your computer runs in "Safe Mode " faster than when you run in "Normal Mode", then the start-up procedures are possible likely reasons for your computer running slow.

Reduce Icons on Your Desktop

If there are too many icons on your desktop, the speed of your computer can also become very slow. This is because the system needs to launch these icons individually while loading them onto the desktop. Similarly, if there is an anti-virus software icon, it will always start by scanning these, which will further reduce the speed of your computer. Try placing as few icons as possible on your desktop. It is recommended to place any other icons in another folder or to simply delete them altogether from your desktop.

Reduce the Storage of Fonts

Though Microsoft Window Operating System enables you to install from between 1000 to 1500 fonts, you will probably face problems once you install more than 500 fonts. Some of the common problems include installed fonts disappearing suddenly and at the same time causing the Windows start-up performance to drop sharply. It is always better to only keep the fonts you want while deleting all unnecessary fonts that may reduce the speed of your computer. To delete the unwanted fonts, you should take note to perform it with care so that you will not delete certain fonts that are required by Windows. Those fonts include Verdana, Arial, Trebuchet, Tahoma, Times New Roman, MS Sans Serif, and Courier New and they should not be touched on your system. To delete any other fonts, go to My Computer and then to your local disk C, double clicking on a window folder, and then double clicking on the font's folder. Highlight the fonts you want to remove, then right click your mouse to select Delete.

Eliminate Background Setting

Are you aware that the beautiful background that you chose for your desktop is indeed a waste of resources? Not only that, but also it reduces the speed of your computer considerably. Therefore, you should disable this setting by right-clicking the cursor on the desktop. You will see a dialog box of the "background"; choose "no" when its window appears. In the "appearance" box, change the dark green color to black or any plain color.

To Accelerate the Operating System

Windows XP

Perform a disk clean up from time to time. Click Start which appears in the bottom left corner of your computer. Next, click Run. In the dialog box of Run, type in "cleaning.exe" and then press OK. This will take you between a few minutes to a few hours depending on how frequent you do a disk cleanup task, but it is definitely recommended.
To load Windows faster, click Start, and then Run. Next, you should type "msconfig" in the text field and press Enter. Click on the BOOT.INI tab at the top. You will see a box labeled Timeout with 30 over to the right. Change the 30 to 3.
To speed up the processing time, simply go to Start, Control Panel and System. Next, click on the Advanced tab and click the setting button under the performance. Now, select the "Adjust for best performance" button, then click Apply and lastly the OK button.
Go to Start, then click Control Panel. Next, click Add/ Remove programs. Browse through the software and highlight the unwanted software to perform a task by clicking "remove".
Download a free copy of AVG's Anti-Virus and Windows Defender to perform the task of removing spyware and viruses. Always update and run your spyware and virus software weekly.
Remember to disable any unwanted programs which will prevent Windows from loading faster. To do this, click on Control Panel, then open Administrative Tools, and select Services. If you are not sure which to disable, consult your dealer for further information.
Always perform the defragment task to improve load speeds. To do this, go to Start, and then click Run. In the Run dialog box, type in "dfrg.msc" carefully in its text field. Lastly, click Defragment to start performing the task.
Convert the hard drive from FAT16 or FAT32 into NTFS to enable faster access time. To perform this operation, go to Start, and then Run. In the Run dialog box, type in "cmd" and then press OK. When the command prompt window opens, type "CONVERT C:/FS:NTFS"(do not include quotes). Then, you follow the instructions to get your drive to convert into NTFS. NTFS drives are only compatible with Windows 2000/NT/XP and Vista.
To speed up the loading of the menus, simply go to Start and click on Run. Next, type in "regedit" (without quotes) and hit enter. Search for "HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop", choose MenuShowDelay and right-click on it. Next, select Modify to reduce the number to 100 but not too less than that.

Windows Vista

Perform disk clean up and defragment your hard drive routinely.
Do not open too many programs at the same time as this will decrease the loading speed.
Use built-in tools such as Task Manager and the Reliability and Performance Monitor to examine which processes utilize more RAM and CPU.
Delete any programs you never want to use in order to free up space on your hard disk. To do this, go to Start button, and then click on Control Panel. Next, click on Programs and then click on Programs and Features. Select the program you wish to remove by clicking Uninstall.
Make sure you always choose as few as possible programs to load at start-up as possible.
Some programs may be loaded automatically at start-up. You should find them and disable them using the Windows Defender. To do this, go to the Start button, click on Control Panel and then click on Windows Defender. Next, click on Tools, and then click Software Explorer. Click Startup Programs that appears in the Category box. Highlight the program you wish to stop from running by clicking Disable. Last, click Yes to confirm this task.
Boost your computer by upgrading its RAM to 2GB or more.
Restart your PC regularly at least once a week to clear out its memory for a better performance. The longer you keep your PC running, the lower its memory will be. So, try to restart your PC after opening many programs, e-mail messages or websites.
Cut down on the visual effects which may cause your PC to run extremely slow. To adjust the visual effects, go to the Start button, click on Control Panel, and then System and Maintenance. Next, click on Performance Information and Tools. This is followed by clicking Adjust Visual Effects. You should type in your password if you are prompted to do so. In the tab of Visual effects, check the box of "Adjust for best performance" and click OK.

Create an Invisible Folder

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 07:47:36 PST

Create a "New Folder".
Press on it with the right mouse button and select "Rename".
Now hold ALT and type 0 1 6 0.
Press on it with the right mouse button and select "Properties".
Select "Customize" and press "Change Icon".
Select Invisible Icon and apply it.

C++ Tutorial 2

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 03:47:38 PST

Have you ever wanted to open a file through a C++ program? Well now you can! The process is simple. All you need to do is:

Include the windows.h library.
Use the following function:

So, here is the complete code to open “file.exe”:

Here is the complete code to open “WordDocument.doc”:

Ok, so you know how to open files, but what if you want to open a folder?

You would do this:

Now, let's open a website:

Yay! Now you know how to open files, folders, and websites through C++ programs!