• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Section B. File and ProgramOrganization
Using your laptop is probably going to be something that you do at least oncea day. This means that you’ll be using it more than any other device! You’re goingto want using it to be as pleasant an experience as possible. The computer mega-corporations like Mac and Microsoft know this – that’s why all their newest softwarelooks so neat and cool. It’s all a psychological thing. You might have heard thewords “sleek interface.” This is the idea that less is more attractive (take a look atthe google home page or the iPod – it’s the “less flare is better” idea). Well, it justso happens that this idea, while attractive, is also a healthy way to manage yourdata. Clean, sleek, organized, and clear.
a.Give the Librarian a Break!
Here’s an analogy about data storage:Imagine that all the information stored in your laptop is like books stored in a library.Each item has its place, and is categorized in a certain order. There are sections,rows, aisles. When you want a book, what do you do? You ask the librarian (or justuse the computer search system, but let’s keep this simple, eh? :P) . The librariangoes and retrieves your book for you. Viola! When you’re finished using the book,you give it to your librarian and he returns it to its proper place.Now, let’s translate this to tech terms: Your computer most likely has two partitions (or “drives”). Find and open “MyComputer”. Now, you will see several “drive” icons, but you will definitely see adrive labeled with the letter “C”. This is the C drive, and it’s where most programsare installed by default. There should be another labeled “Data” or “D”. Exactly, asyou would expect, is for data. Data is: Pictures, music, movies, games, documents,and downloads. That’s pretty much everything you’ll be using, right? So what arethe two different drives for? Think of the librarian. If you had a library with one million books and only onelibrarian – he would be really busy all the time! Especially if visitors like you needhim to find several books at once – like iTunes, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Word allat the same time! What happens is, over time, your librarian will start leavingbooks in the wrong places and then he’ll be forgetting where he put them the nexttime you need them. It will take him longer and longer to retrieve your books(programs), and you’ll end up waiting longer and longer for him to return with whatyou want!
 
So, end result: Your programs start to take longer to load up. Your computer takeslonger to start up. Well, we don’t want this to happen! So how do we prevent it?We help the librarian out! Get a second librarian (your “Data” drive) and say to him,“I want you to be a specialist to this section over here – (data) - all you’re going todo is concern yourself with this type of stuff.” Now, your first librarian can focus onprograms that are important for a good-running computer, like startup programsand windows operating system programs. This will allow your computer to runquickly and your programs will never load speed will never slow down over time. Your second librarian, will be devoted to retrieving the data and applications thataren’t as critical to system operations, like music, pictures, documents, movies, andcertain types of software (this software is discussed later, in Part 2).
The Golden Rule
:
Don’t put, save, install, or download files to the C drive because you will slowlybog down the speed of your computer and programs. There are a few exceptionsthat I will discuss in part 2, but hold onto this rule as the golden rule. Instead,place everything on the Data drive (or “D” drive).Here’s how to do this:1.
Open
Start>Computer>C Drive>Users
2.
Open the folder with your user name – this is the default location that all your datagoes to (which is what we don’t want). Now, we need to do some re-routing! It’s assimple as cut-and-paste.
3.
Right-click
Documents
4.
Click
Cut
5.
Open
Start>Computer>D Drive
6.Right-click anywhere inside the content box (the white space)
7.
Click
Paste
Finished with that one! Now all your documents will save to the D drive instead of the C drive. I suggest that you move the following folders to the D drive: Pictures,Videos, Music.Now, you’ve gone a long way to keeping data off your C drive and ensuring thatyour computer keeps running strong. One thing to remember in the future – you willbe installing new software that looks cool or interesting or useful. As you install newthings, always click the “custom install” when given the option. Sometimes, therewill be a message saying “this is for advanced users” or “not recommended formost people”. Well, you know have the knowledge to consider yourself an“advanced user” as far as installations are concerned!
 
Always pick “custom” so that you can decide where you want the software to install– the C drive or the D drive. Always install to the D drive, unless it is one of theexception programs that I talk about later.
b.Keep that Desktop clean!
By clean, I mean don’t put any extra icons or shortcuts on it. You want as little onyour desktop as possible. Think about Mac computers. Know how the desktop on aMac looks so sleek and minimalistic - there’s only a few icons on the screen? There’s a reason for this aside from the visual appeal. The desktop is a part of your C drive, and as you just learned the less data you haveon your C drive the better your computer runs. This is another of the many factorsthat contribute to Mac’s having a reputation of being good-running machines. Theyare, no doubt. However, your PC can be just as reliable and efficient as any Macwith the proper practices that I’m teaching you.I’ve only two icons on my desktop: My Computer and My Documents The My Documents folder actually holds all the data that I have on my D drive. If Ineed to get to any of my data I just open this folder. However, I have several otherprograms that I use frequently and I don’t want to waste time opening up tenwindows to make the program run – but I also don’t want to put a shortcut on theDesktop! What do you do? There are two good places to put “launch” icons: The task bar and the start menu.
Using the task bar:
Right click on the dark-grey bar on the bottom of your screen – make sure you’re clickingempty space, not an icon. You should see a check mark to “Lock the Taskbar”. Click thiscommand. Now, the task bar is unlocked and any icon can be dragged and dropped into it.You can expand and retract the space on the taskbar by clicking and holding on the groupingof dots that appeared when you unlocked the taskbar. Double-click and hold on the dots thenmove left and right: This is the task bar expanding and contracting.
I put the programs I use the most on the taskbar. They are: Internet Explorer,Mozilla Firefox, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Word. They now become quicklaunch icons. I only need to left-click once on them and the program launches.
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...