Elmer's Top 10 Tech Tips

Elmer's Top 10 Tech Tips

10 things you can do to make life with your PC more enjoyable.

1. Reboot your PC once a day. Even if you turn your PC off every night (see tip #2) it will perform better if rebooted once during the day.  I reboot mine when I go to lunch.
2. Turn your PC off at the end of the day.  If you do not have a reason for leaving your PC running all the time, shut it down when you leave the office for the day.   Leaving it running all the time can lead to crashes of the operating system.
3. Save your work frequently and often.  Get in the habit of hitting 'save' every five to ten minutes.  There is nothing quite as frustrating as losing hours of work because the file was never properly saved.
4. Save files on the network.  Everyone has network storage space, use it.  Files saved on the network are backed up nightly to tape and can be recovered with an assortment of utilities not available on your desktop PC.  As a bonus, you can access the files from home via FTP.
5. Crash Recovery.  When your PC crashes or hangs there are some things you can do to recover besides hitting the power button.
   1. Tap the <Num Lock> or <Caps Lock> key and see if the light on the keyboard goes on and off.  If it goes on and off that means the keyboard is still working and you can probably recover using the next step.  If the light does not change, then the whole system is probably hung, but still try the next step.
   2. Hit <Ctrl><Alt><Del>.  This will do either of two things, bring up a list of running programs or give you a blue error screeen.  If you get the program list, look for one that is "not responding".  Highlight this entry and click the "End Task" button.  This should shutdown the offending prgram and give you control of your PC again.  You may lose the data you were working on, so remember tips #3 & #4.  I would shutdown everything else and reboot.  If you get a blue error screen, hit <Ctrl><Alt><Del> again a couple of times more until the PC reboots, the rror that occured was unrecoverable.
   3. Do not just hit the power button unless all other attemps to shutdown or recover fail.
6. Printer problems.  If you experience any sort of printing problems like files that will not print or print jobs that die part way through, I would shut everything down and reboot the PC.  Once a problem occurs with the printing system it cannot be relably restarted without restarting the PC.  If the same problem occurs with the same file, the file is probably corrupt.  Contact the helpdesk.
7. Open a minimum number of applications.  One of the cool things about the Windows environment is that you can open lots of programs.  Resist the temptation.  Only open those applications that you need at the moment.  The more programs you have running, the greater the chance of a crash.
8. Do not use applications that are constantly connected to the Internet.  Things like RealPlayer, WinAmp, ICQ, while nifty, keep open Internet connections on your PC.  These can interfere with other necessary applications like PeopleSoft, Euclid, and mainframe access programs that also require open network connections. 
9. Be careful with attachments.  Using email attachments is often a very efficient way of sharing information with others, but use care in dealing with attachments.  Many viri come as attachments.  If you receive an unexpected or unexplained attachment or an attachment from someone you do not know, do not open it.  Confirm with the sender that they meant to send it to you.
10. Call the Helpdesk.  If you any sort of problem or question and none of these tips work or cover the problem, contact the Helpdesk at footprints@els41.law.emory.edu  or 7-5321.