Are You A "Responsible" Computer User?!
By “responsible,” I mean do you take the time to understand that your computer is only a machine that can do work for you? In other words, the computer can’t read your mind, it can’t open your documents just by you thinking of them, it has no way of guessing where you want them kept, and it has no way of predicting what catastrophe is going to wipe out the last four hours of your work. Do you take the time to understand what you need to do to keep your computer in tip-top running order?
You do read your car’s owner’s manual right? I mean, you took the time to find out what the little buttons on the dashboard do, and what it really means when that funny light turns on? Well – that little piece of electronic real estate on your desk is more sophisticated and more powerful than the computer that put a man on the moon. You should probably get to know it little. Read the instructions, use the embedded “help” tools that came with it (Start --> Help and Support), buy a book (even if it has “…For Dummies” in the title), explore online news groups, read my blogs. Whatever it takes, but do some homework.
Visit the "Computers" section of my web site: http://www.wflinn.com/computers/
Okay – you’re up and running now. Do you know how to save your documents? Did you know that when you hit the “save” icon you actually have to take the time to find out where it is saving the document to? You can also choose an alternate location to which to save it. I have seen many people frantically call their IT support people and rant about how they can’t find their documents – the computer obviously lost them! “Where did you save them to?” the IT person asks. “I don’t know!” (Translation - "that's not my problem, the computer was supposed to figure that out!") replies the frantic customer. Take the time to know where your documents are being saved. Explore ways to organize your “My Documents” folder so that you can easily find things.
“Oh -$#@&-, the power just went out!” That’s OK – when you power your computer up after the outage is over, your document will magically reappear and all will be well. In your dreams, perhaps. Another crazy thing about these electronic gadgets is that they can’t tell the difference between a quick note you are typing up (that you have no intention of saving) and an elaborate spreadsheet with the past million and six lines of data and formulas that you need to keep forever and a day. While you are working on these precious documents – save them! Save them immediately upon creation so that the document gets named and properly saved to a location of your choosing. Save frequently as you go along. Then when the power goes out, you may lose a little of your work, but not the whole last four hours worth. In Microsoft Office products, you can also go to “Options” and tell it to save “AutoRecovery Information” every “x” minutes. I have mine set to 10 minutes.
Being a responsible computer user, particularly if you are in a corporate setting, also means watching what you install on your (er-uh, your company’s computer). Is your computer always broken and you can’t figure out why? Does it seem like your computer never seems to work right? Let me ask a follow-up question: Are you one of those people who always downloads and installs every “free” toolbar, game, or other neat looking gadget? This is one of the leading causes (in my opinion) of computers not working correctly with corporate applications and needless calls to the service desk. You have a responsibility NOT to install unauthorized software at work, and you have a responsibility to yourself to be a little more discerning at home not to install every cool gadget that comes along. Your corporate service desk will tell you it’s unauthorized, and when you call tech support for your home computer’s woes, they may not support you either.
Finally, your computer, again using the car analogy, needs maintenance. You wouldn’t drive your car 100,000 miles without changing the oil would you? Do a periodic “Disk Cleanup” and “Defrag.” These simple tools will help your computer run as efficiently as possible. You can even automate them. Use antivirus software, personal firewalls, and for Pete’s sake – stay patched. Here are some procedures to help you get your maintenance routine started:
You do read your car’s owner’s manual right? I mean, you took the time to find out what the little buttons on the dashboard do, and what it really means when that funny light turns on? Well – that little piece of electronic real estate on your desk is more sophisticated and more powerful than the computer that put a man on the moon. You should probably get to know it little. Read the instructions, use the embedded “help” tools that came with it (Start --> Help and Support), buy a book (even if it has “…For Dummies” in the title), explore online news groups, read my blogs. Whatever it takes, but do some homework.
Visit the "Computers" section of my web site: http://www.wflinn.com/computers/
Okay – you’re up and running now. Do you know how to save your documents? Did you know that when you hit the “save” icon you actually have to take the time to find out where it is saving the document to? You can also choose an alternate location to which to save it. I have seen many people frantically call their IT support people and rant about how they can’t find their documents – the computer obviously lost them! “Where did you save them to?” the IT person asks. “I don’t know!” (Translation - "that's not my problem, the computer was supposed to figure that out!") replies the frantic customer. Take the time to know where your documents are being saved. Explore ways to organize your “My Documents” folder so that you can easily find things.
“Oh -$#@&-, the power just went out!” That’s OK – when you power your computer up after the outage is over, your document will magically reappear and all will be well. In your dreams, perhaps. Another crazy thing about these electronic gadgets is that they can’t tell the difference between a quick note you are typing up (that you have no intention of saving) and an elaborate spreadsheet with the past million and six lines of data and formulas that you need to keep forever and a day. While you are working on these precious documents – save them! Save them immediately upon creation so that the document gets named and properly saved to a location of your choosing. Save frequently as you go along. Then when the power goes out, you may lose a little of your work, but not the whole last four hours worth. In Microsoft Office products, you can also go to “Options” and tell it to save “AutoRecovery Information” every “x” minutes. I have mine set to 10 minutes.
Being a responsible computer user, particularly if you are in a corporate setting, also means watching what you install on your (er-uh, your company’s computer). Is your computer always broken and you can’t figure out why? Does it seem like your computer never seems to work right? Let me ask a follow-up question: Are you one of those people who always downloads and installs every “free” toolbar, game, or other neat looking gadget? This is one of the leading causes (in my opinion) of computers not working correctly with corporate applications and needless calls to the service desk. You have a responsibility NOT to install unauthorized software at work, and you have a responsibility to yourself to be a little more discerning at home not to install every cool gadget that comes along. Your corporate service desk will tell you it’s unauthorized, and when you call tech support for your home computer’s woes, they may not support you either.
Finally, your computer, again using the car analogy, needs maintenance. You wouldn’t drive your car 100,000 miles without changing the oil would you? Do a periodic “Disk Cleanup” and “Defrag.” These simple tools will help your computer run as efficiently as possible. You can even automate them. Use antivirus software, personal firewalls, and for Pete’s sake – stay patched. Here are some procedures to help you get your maintenance routine started:
Your computer, for all its sophistication, is nothing more than an expensive doorstop – until you bring it to life and put it to work. You have to know at least a few fundamentals about it, and you have to know how to take care of it. You and you alone are responsible for where you put things in a computer – I mean you don’t blame your house when you forget where you put your keys, do you?
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