Most of us have come to depend on our computers for letter writing, photo editing and Internet use including e-mail, accessing bank accounts and more. I have been a keen user for many years and during my time with Flintshire County Council I was the IT coordinator for Trading Standards.
This page is intended to provide hints and tips to keep your computer (and you!) happy, working efficiently and free from viruses and other mal-wear. All these tips should be easy for even inexperienced users to apply and are tried and tested on my Windows XP PC. I shall try to add something new every few weeks, building up an index of tips. Happy computing, Phil.  

Cookies help your computer work efficiently on the Internet by allowing sites to record how you use your computer, but some restriction on which sites do this is advisable. This setting gives a compromise which should work for most users.   
In Internet Explorer click on the “Tools” option and choose “Internet Options.” Click on the “Privacy” tab and drag the settings slider to “Medium High.” Click on the “Advanced” tag and tick the “Override Automatic Cookie Handling” option. Click the “Prompt” button for “First Party Cookies” and the “Block” button for “Third Party Cookies.” Tick the “Always Allow Session Cookies” button. Click Apply and OK and you have finished. You also have the option to block pop ups from this screen. Personally I find this more hindrance than benefit because it blocks things I want to see. Try it if you want to, you can easily change the setting later.

Internet Explorer 7: Now available as a free download, Explorer 7 offers a bigger browsing pane showing more of the web page, tabbed browsing saves opening new pages in a new Explorer window, a preview pane shows miniature versions of each loaded page.  Significant improvements over earlier versions. Windows Vista & XP only.  Download & more information from here.

Online shopping rights.  Which? Magazine have published a guide to your rights when shopping online. Read it HERE and shop online with confidence!    

Power Saving.
If you use your PC intermittently during the day should you switch it off and on? Frequent startups can reduce the life of electronic components, but leaving it on could cost you 3p per hour. I would say leave it on if you will use it within 2-3 hours, but use power saving features available.
Go to your Start menu, select “Control Panel” and “Power Options.” The settings I use are (1) turn monitor off 10mins, (2) turn hard disks off 10mins, (3) System standby 20mins, (4) Hibernate - Never. Click the “Advanced” tab. Choose if you wish to use a password when resuming from standby, set the Power button to “Hibernate” and the Sleep button to “Stand by.” Click the Hibernate tab and “Enable Hibernation.”  Click “Apply” & “OK.”
Note: You can select Standby (the Sleep button, for short periods)  or Hibernate (the Power button, longer periods) whilst using your software (i.e. mid way through a letter etc.) and Windows will return to where you left off. To restart from Standby press “WakeUp” and from Hibernate press the “power” button on your PC.  This option may not work on older or pre Windows  XP PCs.

Safer Online Banking
If you use online banking but are concerned about privacy, improve your browser’s security level. Launch Internet Explorer, click on the Tools menu and select Internet Options. In the dialogue box, click the Advanced tab and then scroll down to Security and find the “Do not save encrypted pages to disk” entry.  Click to place a tick in the checkbox. This prevents the information about your bank account or transactions being saved on your pc.  

Shopping. How to find the best price!
Recent surveys have confirmed that you can still save lots of money by shopping on the Internet. But how do you find the best price amongst the numerous suppliers? Fortunately there are several search engines out there that search all the major suppliers and give you the “best price.”  Try these: Froogle, PriceRunner, Shopping, & Kelkoo. Do check that prices include VAT & what postage charges will be, but if you don’t save £100s over high street prices your not trying!  Remember, most goods bought online can be returned within 7 days for a refund just because you don’t like them and with no explanation. If you buy on the high street you are only entitled to a refund if the goods are faulty or not as described. See Distance Selling Regulations for your rights.   

Site Access - Quick.
If you access a small number of web sites regularly, you will find this quicker than using the favourites list. From the “View” menu in Explorer 6 (or7) go to “Toolbars” and make sure there is a tick against “Links” by clicking on it. Now with the “Favourites” pane open click on one of the sites you use frequently and while holding the mouse button down, drag it onto the “Links”  toolbar. Do this for your most used sites. To select a site, click onto the “Links” toolbar to quickly display your most used sites.    

Viruses, Spy-ware, Ad-ware, Firewalls.  
If you “surf the net” without good anti-virus protection your computer is at risk. Viruses cab be a nuisance taking you to web pages you don’t want to see, or worse, make your computer totally unusable. In April ‘08 I was horrified to find that my McAfee Internet Security suite had let me down and my PC was infected. After hours of trying to correct the problem I discovered two alternatives which in independent tests (Computer Shopper) were found to be more effective. According to these tests you should consider Steganos or AVG  as the most effective way of protecting your PC, your privacy and your sanity! Be sure to update your anti-virus software frequently to keep your protection effective.