PC Maintenance Class 13

Tonight we had a look at some of the features in Windows 7 that many may not have come across, or have not known how to use properly. The agenda tonight was to look at the following:

• Jump Lists
• Libraries
• Aero Peek and Aero Snap
• Windows Ready Boost

Jump Lists—new in Windows 7—take you right to the documents, pictures, songs, or websites you turn to each day. To open a Jump List, just right-click a program button on the Windows 7 taskbar. (You can also get to Jump Lists by clicking the arrow next to the program name on the Start menu.)

What you see in a Jump List depends entirely on the program. The Jump List for Internet Explorer shows frequently viewed websites. Windows Media Player 12 lists commonly played tunes. Is your Jump List missing a favorite? You can "pin" whatever files you like there.

Jump Lists don't just show shortcuts to files. Sometimes they also provide quick access to commands for things like composing new email messages or playing music.

Libraries -  in previous versions of Windows, managing your files meant organizing them in different folders and subfolders. In this version of Windows, you can also use libraries to organize and access files regardless of where they're stored.

The navigation pane, showing the Pictures library with three included folders

A library gathers files from different locations and displays them as a single collection, without moving them from where they're stored.

Here are some things you can do with libraries:

·       Create a new library. There are four default libraries (Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos), but you can create new libraries for other collections. 

·       Arrange items by folder, date, and other properties. Items in a library can be arranged in different ways using the Arrange by menu, located in the library pane (above the file list) in any open library. For example, you can arrange your Music library by Artist to quickly find a song by a particular artist.

·       Include or remove a folder. Libraries gather content from included folders, or library locations. 

·       Change the default save location. The default save location determines where an item is stored when it's copied, moved, or saved to the library. Peek gives you the power of X-ray vision, so you can peer past all your open windows straight to the Windows 7desktop. Simply point to the end of the taskbar and watch open windows instantly turn transparent, revealing all your hidden icons and gadgets.

Aero Peek, Snap and Shake.

Aero Snap

To quickly reveal a buried window, point to its taskbar thumbnail. Now only that window shows on the desktop.

Peek, part of the Aero desktop experience, is included in the Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions of Windows 7. If you like it, check out two new related features: Shake and Snap.

Snap is a quick (and fun) new way to resize open windows, simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen.


Depending on where you drag a window, you can make it expand vertically, take up the entire screen, or appear side-by-side with another window. Snap makes reading, organizing, and comparing windows a...well, you get the picture.

Ever need to cut through a cluttered desktop and quickly focus on a single window? Just click the top of a pane and give your mouse a shake. Voila! Every open window except that one instantly disappears. Jiggle again—and your windows are back. (Who says the old mouse can’t learn a new trick?)

Shake, part of the Aero desktop experience, is included in the Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions of Windows 7.

Windows Ready Boost

Want a simple way to speed up your PC? Just plug in a USB flash drive or card and let ReadyBoost borrow it. ReadyBoost is designed to help when your PC's memory is running low. Low memory can make your computer sluggish because Windows, which needs a place to stash data, turns to the hard drive. Flash memory offers a speedier alternative.

ReadyBoost works with most flash storage devices. In Windows 7, it can handle more flash memory and even multiple devices—up to eight, for a maximum 256 gigabytes (GB) of additional memory.

Using memory in your storage device to speed up your computer

ReadyBoost can speed up your computer by using storage space on most USB flash drives and flash memory cards. When you plug a ReadyBoost-compatible storage device into your computer, the AutoPlay dialog box offers you the option to speed up your computer using ReadyBoost. If you select this option, you can choose how much memory on the device to use for this purpose.

When you set up a device to work with ReadyBoost, Windows shows you how much space it recommends you allow it to use for optimal performance. For ReadyBoost to effectively speed up your computer, the flash drive or memory card should have at least 1 gigabyte (GB) of available space. If your device doesn't have enough available space for ReadyBoost, you'll see a message telling you to free some space on the device if you want to use it to speed up your system.

You can enable or disable ReadyBoost for a specific flash drive or other removable storage device. For more information, see Turn ReadyBoost on or off for a storage device.

The ReadyBoost tab lets you decide how much storage space on a removable device to use for boosting your system speed.

PC Maintenance Class 12

Tonight’s session was going to be a practical session. I had been able to borrow from one of my schools a set of 8 netbooks. Netbooks are obviously ideal for this kind of practical session, as they take up very little space in the back of my car! Which makes all the difference when it comes to the location of our classroom, on the top floor of the school!

In the past we have done a similar exercise, but using network cables, and creating a wired network. For tonight’s class I thought it would be good to set up a wireless network.

The first thing we did was have a look at the settings of the wireless router. Logging into the router via it’s IP Address in a browser window, we were able to view all of the settings. Under the wireless settings section, we were mainly concerned with the following three items.

• SSID name
• Encrytion Type
• Encrypted Password

The SSID is reffered to as a network name because it is a name that identifies a wireless network. Many these days by default will be have some reference to the ISP being used, perhaps BT, Sky or Virgin Media, or the manufacturer such as Linksys or Dlink. You can use any name you like, although personally I would suggest something non-descript that doesn’t tend to identify you.  Our class router had the name ‘Pickled Onions’. Why not??

The Encryption type, is the security encryption used to connect wireless devices to it. There are various different types including WEP, WPA and WPA2.  Most of us will be using the encryption protocol WPA2. It is the stronger of the aforementioned protocols.

The encrypted password is a password that meets the requirements of the chosen encryption method. I would suggest that you set a strong password for this, making it difficult for anyone to guess what it is. A strong password is made up of numbers and letters, sometimes symbols, and it is quite common to substitute numbers for letters in a password such as P4SSW0RD. A mixture of lowercase and uppercase letters combine to make an even tougher p4sSw0Rd.  Get the idea? Remember, with this code, anyone can connect to your wireless network, and not only steal your bandwidth, but potentially access your files, so do not disclose this password to anyone.

After handing out the netbooks, the first thing I needed the class to do was to create System Restore ‘save points’.  This would allow us to roll the machines back to how they were at the end of the class, undoing any change anyone would have made during the class.

The next thing I instructed the class to do, was to give each of their netbooks a unique name. You cannot have two computers with the same name on the same network – it causes a conflict.

The icon with the two people in it, denotes that the folder is shared in Windows 7 (in other words it's available to many people). In Windows XP the folder that is shared, is represented with a 'hand' under the folder.

Each of the students were able to successfully connect their netbooks to my wireless router, however there seemed to be a problem when it came to accessing shares, on each of the machines. This was just my luck….one can never plan for when things don’t go to plan! I salvaged the best of a bad scenario by linking my own laptop directly to the wireless hub with a cable, and as a group we were able to successfully access the folder from which I had shared, and copy and create documents within it. We then finished off the session by talking about ‘exclusive’ access to files, to stop things being overwritten.

 Additional information on sharing folders can be viewed by clicking on this link.

Further reading on the subject of setting up Windows for networking can be found in the recommended class textbooks. Whichever one is applicable to your operating system.

PC Maintenance Class 11

Have the holidays finished already? I cannot believe it!

For our first class back after Christmas, it was a kind of refresher class. We went over the previous term’s session on Wi-Fi and Networking session. We went through the presentation, examining the different types of equipment required if you are going to ‘network’ any of your computers or peripherals.

The whole point of networking is to share common resources. No longer do we need to have an attached printer connected to each computer. We can share them out over a network.  In our homes it’s entirely likely that most of us will not have in excess of 5 home computers, and typically when one uses the phrase computer network we conjure up the image of lots and lots of workstations. The term ‘workgroup’ is a phrase which is used more commonly, or a small peer-to-peer network.

Most people who are likely to consider some form of network in the home generally have either data or peripherals they wish to share or access from a second or third computer.  Initially, many will be sharing a common internet connection that comes into the house. It is not necessary to have separate internet connections and subscriptions for each computer. With a typical computer connected to the Internet, an Internet service provider such as British Telecom or Virgin Media, would have usually supplied in the past, a standard cable modem of sorts. This would typically be connected direct to the back of one computer, either via the USB connection, or the LAN connection. The latter being typical of the connection used by Virgin Media, of who are my own Internet Provider. When the ability to connect a wireless item, such as a laptop, is required, a product known as an Access Point or Wireless Router might well be plugged into the cable modem, thus giving Internet access to mobile devices.  To physically join to computers together, one would simply use something like a 5-port mini switch.

As technology got better, the two devices, plus the functionality of a mini switch were combined into the one gadget that we know these days as the ‘Wireless Router’.

A key thing to remember is that a computer needs a unique name to be connected to any form of network, in order that it can be identified. But we will discuss this more in next weeks class when we create a work group in a practical session.

Other such hardware we re-discussed were the Powerline adapters that we mentioned last term. Powerline adapters of course, being adapters that make use of your home’s electrical wiring, to bridge a link in your networks topology. They are very handy because you do not need to drill holes in walls unnecessarily and run cables everywhere. As long as the electrical wiring is on the same circuit, you should have no problem whatsoever. I have my Wireless Router located upstairs in one of the bedrooms, and I use a pair of Powerline adapters, to get an Internet connection to my Xbox games console which is downstairs in the living room. I have a relatively short cable going from one of the network ports on my Wireless Router and then plugged into one of the Powerline adapters.  Then respectively downstairs, the other Powerline adapter is plugged in down behind the television and Xbox, with another network cable making the link to provide connectivity. They work very well indeed.

The remainder of the class, was an ad-hoc questions and answers session posed by various members of the class.