Technically Easy

Category: Computer

The Three Best Ways To Organize Your Laptop

We spend so much time on our laptops these days. Our personal lives, business lives and social lives are all generally ran by these and our cell phones, which means they can get a little cluttered.

This can be a nightmare as you’ll end up having files you never use and no longer need clogging up much valued space. However, there are ways to organize your laptop both swiftly and effectively.

If you’re looking to create space on your laptop, or maybe even just get a little more “with it” when it comes to your online and desktop accounts, then read our top tips below and kick start your organizing adventure…

1. Get rid of duplicates

We’ve all downloaded attachment files multiple times before, and most of us will have allowed those to just fester there in your Downloads folder.

Removing duplicates will unlock some valuable space on your laptop and can be got rid of so simply. Downloading applications such as Duplicate Detective will do all the hard work for you, discovering all your duplicates meaning all you have to do is click the delete button.

2. Get a password manager

A password manager will not only keep your passwords a little more organized, they’ll also keep your accounts more secure.

There are dozens out there, all with relatively low costs, and work in a way to encrypt all your accounts with unique passwords that are almost impossible to hack. They’ll also often keep your network private, allowing you to bypass any website blocks.

As mentioned, there are a lot out there so it’s worth checking out reviews on sites such as bestonlinereviews.com to find the one that’s most suitable for the purposes you’ll use it for. One thing is for sure though, you’ll never forget a password again and it’ll make your accounts much more organized.

3. Folder files wisely

There’s nothing more annoying than a cluttered desktop. That’s why using folders effectively is a must. Start with more generic main folders that suit what you actually store on your device.

An obvious one and a perfect example is images. You may have a lot of photographs you’ve uploaded onto your laptop, so a main folder for those is ideal.

You can then create sub-folders which can then categorize those images. Firstly, you may have a professional and personal collection. You can then create further sub-folders such as family, friends, years, specific holidays etc.

This can work with almost anything stored on your laptop. Resumes for example can have a main folder which then can be split into years or different positions depending on the jobs you are looking at.

April 4, 2018
The 5 Best PC’s for Gaming

Gaming is one area in desktop PCs that is still as popular as ever, Paint may not have survived but gaming certainly has.

When choosing a gaming PC there’s so many things to look out for. There’s so many things to look out for; a decent processor, a reliable motherboard, high quality graphic and, a solid cooling system, and that’s just internally.

Externally, for immersive gameplay, a large monitor would be the ideal chance, but only if it had a competent contrast ratio. The peripherals also need taking into consideration, whilst the wireless option may seem like the more sensible choice, you may benefit from the wired option.

A decent gaming PC will also allow you to engage with other media such as film and even online games. With the digital age well and truly upon us, online gaming is the norm. Many people now prefer to even gamble online rather than go to the brick and mortar casino. A game such as European roulette is just one of the casino games you’ll be able to play with a good PC.

But what are the best PC’s for gaming?

5. The Digital Storm Bolt 3. 4/5

Paul Salmon

This PC has a modest price tag ranging from £1,235-£2227, however it’s definitely value for money. The desktop’s upgradable slim transparent design is both attractive and practical. The overall performance of the desktop is impressive and its 6th-gen Intel Core i7 processor and powerful graphics make it more than capable of playing even the most demanding of games. And an advanced liquid cooling system will prevent overheating. The only negative is that it’s not as compact as the Digital Storm Bolt 2.

4. Chillblast Fusion Mantis 4.5/5

Paul Salmon

For its affordable price tag of £749 this desktop is inexpensive and doesn’t compromise on its performance. The transparent design is similar to the Digital Storm Bolt’s, and also built with a liquid cooling system, allowing air flow throughout. The fitted Intel Core i5-4690K Quad Core processor makes it perfect for gaming as it is capable of running at a fast speed. The only downside is you have to supply the monitor and the peripherals, hence the price tag.

3. Mesh Elite Skylake PCA 4.5/5

Paul Salmon

This desktop comes in at £999. With its matt black finish and blue downlight which illuminates the desk surface from the bottom of the case, the casing of this desktop is a class above the Chillblast. The Intel Core-i5 6600K Skylake processor produces a near perfect performance without pushing the software to its limit.

2. Maingear Rush 4.5/5

Paul Salmon

Maingear has been described as the Aston Martin of desktops, its alluring design and high-performance machinery make this a more than ideal gaming PC. Intel Core i7 processor is just one of its high end components, and with its cracking run speed and high quality visuals you’ll be desperate to show this off to your fellow gamers. You can even choose your own engine coolant colour!

1. Wired2Fire Diablo Skylake 4.5/5

Paul Salmon

This desktop was so close to scoring a perfect 5/5, but was let down by its lack of features. However, its modern design, a distinctive ridged top panel illuminated in blue makes up for its absence of peripherals. Its Intel Core-i5 6600K processor, and its impeccable graphics card (also used on the Chillblast) makes this the ultimate gaming PC. Whilst this desktop isn’t fitted with a liquid cooling system, it’s twin fan combo ensures an enhanced cooling system system. Get yours for just £758.

April 23, 2016
From Zero to Hero: How to Become a Computer Guru

The guru in the spiritual world is one who has achieved an enlightened state. It’s a Sanskrit term that implies that someone is a “teacher, guide or master” of certain knowledge. A guru helps to share their knowledge and to build the knowledge of others, so a computer guru is basically the Om Shanti Om of all things motherboards and cloud.

You need one, or better yet – you need to be one. It’s not that hard (certainly not as hard as achieving enlightenment) and can be achieved with just a few simple steps. Want to learn? Read on…

Tip one: Google is your guru

Ok, so I said before that you’ll be the guru. This is partly true. The other part of this is that a huge majority of what makes up being a savvy computer person is using the internet to your best advantage. Ask anyone who knows what they’re talking about with computers how they learned it, and the vast majority of them will say: I Googled it. True story.

It’s not just a simple matter of saying that Google has the answer to your questions, because you need to know how to phrase things to get the information you want from Google.

For example, if there’s something you don’t know about, check Google’s first few hits to get the gist of it. Wikipedia is a great resource for this too, and you can often get yourself into a click-hole searching for things.

When it comes to most things computer, from how to deal with viruses to how to speed up your Mac, chances are that someone has done it, knows how to do it and has made a tutorial/YouTube video/step-by-step guide. Follow them, and you can do no wrong.

Tip two: Up-skill

If you’re not content with being a Google Guru (and that’s perfectly fine – many people want to achieve the Yoda-like status of computer guru) then you need to hit up a TAFE course (visit www.tafecourses.com.au for a great resource) or online school. You’ll come out of this basically glowing with enlightenment and gigabytes.

Tip three: Just do it

If you’re wondering about something on a computer and thinking, ‘will this work?’ then just give it a go. Always, of course, have a backup of your computer before you do something drastic, but you can’t really permanently break a computer by trying something new.

If you’re a parent and your child likes the play with computers, don’t risk them breaking the family Mac, why not just buy something cheap online and let your child play around with it?

Tip four: Read the manual

Ok, this might seem like a bit of a simplistic one, but you’d be surprised. Just as nobody reads the terms and conditions on an Apple purchase, so too do few people consider reading the manual to programs or computers.

You’d be surprised how much information is contained within, so if you want to get more familiar with Windows or Mac, read the tutorials, dig deep into the learning material, and watch the huge amounts of material available online.

If all else fails, there’s always YouTube, where the information comes thick and fast.

Tip five: Get familiar with shortcuts

If you want to look like the computer guru that you know you are, make sure you can use computer shortcuts and use them well. It will make navigating and getting around things a lot faster, which will in turn give you more time for surfing Reddit.

Tip six: Help others

If you want to learn more about computers, get out there and help other people. You’ll learn something new every time, and you’ll also increase your computer guru status. Win win, really.

Good luck with your computer guru search and enlightenment. May Google be with you.

February 24, 2016
Burning CDs from Albums

Technology is quickly changing, even more so today. Many of you have found that while music has advanced to the CD, and actually honestly beyond that to simply MP3 files stored on devices such as IPODS and your personal cell phones, that there is a large stack of records just sitting in your basement. When growing up all of the records played music that you found relaxing or catchy, but now their technology is outdated and over the years the music has just become nostalgic and worth more to you. This presents a larger problem than just the storing of the music, but now you crave it again and want to hear the hits that you grew up to, without having to potentially wear down the remaining albums you have through repeated use or even risk breaking the albums or record player. Following these simple steps you can fix that problem and burn your classic albums onto CD-R disks.

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February 24, 2012
Ten Tips to Improve the Quality of Your Technical Support Experience

If you haven’t had a direct experience with technical support services yourself, then you’re at least no doubt familiar with the tech support experience of someone you know. In these digital days, it’s as inevitable as jury duty.

If the desktop computer doesn’t give you reason to call, then your mobile phone or wireless router will. Usually this entails time spent waiting for a support team member to become available, time spent explaining the problem to the team member, and time spent solving the problem. All the while real work and home related problems that need the dysfunctional device to be solved wait.

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July 28, 2011
10 Essential Things You Need to Build a Computer

Fancy getting a high spec computer for a fraction of the price you’d obtain it for in a shop? Then why not build one yourself. If you have the time, patience and interest to devote to building your own computer, it will prove a very rewarding experience.

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May 12, 2011
Sleep Mode and Hibernate: What is the Difference?

If you have ever owned a laptop, netbook, or another device that runs on a battery, chances are you have put that device to “sleep” when you have disconnected it from a power source. Many times when we use the device after putting it to sleep, it starts really quickly.

Operating systems support a sleep mode as well as another power down state called hibernate. Both modes are different in how they store data and the amount of power they use. Understanding the difference can help you determine which state you should leave your computer in once you are done using it.

Sleep Mode

For those that use a laptop, or similar device, on a regular basis, you are probably familiar with this mode – especially if you even talk about putting your laptop to “sleep.”

When a computer enters this mode, the data remains in RAM (memory) so when the user uses the computer again, the computer instantly starts up from where they left off.

In this state, the RAM in the computer still remains powered to retain the information that is stored in memory. This means, that while power is reduce, or cut off from the rest of the system, there is still power being used for the RAM.

For laptop computers, the battery is still being drained to keep the RAM powered. The benefit is that the computer starts up really quickly since there is no need to reload the operating systems again along with any programs. The drawback is that if power is ever lost – the battery is drained – all work that wasn’t saved would be lost.

To avoid losing any data, you can put your computer into a hibernate state.

Hibernate

While the sleep mode of a computer keeps data in memory, and also keeps the memory powered, the hibernate state moves the data from memory and stores it on the hard drive, and then powers down the computer. Once the computer is restarted, the data that was previously stored in memory is moved from the hard drive and back into memory.

Since the local hard drive is not volatile, meaning it won’t lose the data when the power if turned off, this helps to prevent any loss of data. The one drawback is that a computer restart isn’t as fast as sleep mode because the data must be copied from the hard drive to memory before the user can use the computer. Hibernate is faster, however, than starting a computer from a cold boot (from a complete shutdown).

Also, because the contents of memory must be copied to the hard drive, you must have enough space on the hard drive equivalent to the amount of memory. If you have 4 gigabytes of RAM installed, then you must have 4 gigabytes of hard drive space. Windows creates a hibernate file on the computer when the hibernate option is enabled.

Hybrid Sleep

The hybrid sleep mode is a mix between sleep mode and hibernate. The contents of memory stays in RAM, and is also transferred to the hard drive. The memory of the computer remains powered.

When the computer is restarted, and no power was lost during sleep mode, the computer will start up instantly because of the data being stored in memory.

If, however, power was lost while in sleep mode, the data that was once stored in memory (which is now lost because of the power outage), is retrieved from the hard drive, just as it does with hibernate.

Naming Conventions

Since computer began providing a means of entering a sleep mode, the actual name of the sleep mode has changed. Here is a list of what various operating systems have called sleep mode:

Sleep Mode Name Operating System

Suspend Windows 95
Linux

Stand By Windows 98 – Windows 2003

Sleep Windows Vista – Windows 2008
Mac OS 8 – OS X

Regardless of the naming convention that is used, putting your computer into sleep mode, or in the hibernate state can be a good idea to conserve power and provide a quicker startup.

April 6, 2011
Backing Up Your Mac

Backing up your Mac is an important task, and develop a robust data backup solution is a good idea. Imagine this scenario. You’ve just completed your Quarterly Business Review, a 20-page document with many graphs indicating the growth of your business over the last quarter. You’ve slogged over this document for a week and finally, you’re done.

By some freak accident, your kid drops your hot cup of coffee on your Mac and there’s a shorting in the wires. You are stuck now; your document was ready to be emailed to your business associates who were probably waiting for it right that minute but your computer is not accessible till it’s fixed.

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April 5, 2011