Clean and Fix a Mouse

Introduction
Computer mice have been around longer than personal computers, and the basic design doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon. When your mouse starts acting up or stops working altogether, it may just need some simple maintenance.

Instructions
Cleaning the mouse
Steps

Step One
Unplug your mouse and flip it over to see what kind it is. The most common type is mechanical; it has a small rubber ball on its underside that rolls on the desk or mouse pad. These kind of mice are notorious for attracting and retaining crud. If your mouse has no ball but a small light, it's optical, so you can skip ahead to step 6.

Step Two

If your mouse has a rubber ball, you can probably release it by rotating a locking ring that holds it in place. Look for an arrow telling you which way to push or twist the locking ring (see A).

Step Three
Remove the ball and carefully clean it with a lint-free cloth or soap and water. Dry it carefully.

Step Four

If you find crud in the mouse case too, scrape it off with a toothpick (see B) or, if you're desperate, a fingernail.

Step Five
Put the mouse back together.

Step Six
Clean your optical mouse occasionally with distilled rubbing alcohol and a paper towel. This type of mouse stays clean longer.

Other possible mouse problems

Steps

Step One
Check the mouse connection at the back of the PC. Is the cable plugged firmly into the correct port? Most newer PCs have a port labeled for the mouse.

Step Two
If the mouse cable looks damaged, borrow a mouse from someone else's computer and see if it works with yours. If it does, then your mouse needs to be replaced.

Clean a Computer Keyboard

Introduction:

A grimy appearance is just one reason to clean your computer keyboard. If dust gets stuck underneath the keys, they might not work properly. And spilled liquids can be your keyboard's death knell if not taken care of.

Step One
Purchase any supplies you need: compressed air (in an aerosol can); a soft rag; Endust for Electronics, or any nonabrasive household cleaning fluid suitable for cleaning plastic; and a dust mask if you're allergic to dust.

Step Two
Check your owner's manual. If the manufacturer has provided specific instructions, follow them.

Step Three
Shut down the computer.

Step Four

Disconnect the keyboard.

Step Five

Use compressed air to clean between the keys. Spray at an angle to dislodge dust and grime.

Step Six

Shake loose dust gently out of the keyboard.

Step Seven
If using Endust for Electronics or another aerosol cleaning fluid, follow the manufacturer's instructions. Otherwise, spray a small amount of fluid onto a rag.

Step Eight

Wipe the keys and chassis.

Step Nine
Wait until the keyboard is dry before reconnecting it to the computer.

Step Ten
Reconnect the keyboard and restart the computer.

Tips & Warnings

* In industrial or other high-dust environments, use a plastic keyboard cover to protect the keyboard.
* If you've spilled a large amount of liquid, or if the liquid is sticky, it's likely that the keyboard won't be repairable, although you can certainly try. To be safest, though, keep drinks far away from your computer.
* If you've spilled liquid on the keyboard, turn it upside down after you disconnect it to let the liquid drain out. If there's a lot of liquid, or if the liquid is sticky, wash out the spill with running water. (Do not immerse the keyboard.) Let the keyboard drain for 72 hours.
* Do not spray fluids directly onto the keyboard.

Clean Dust in CPU

Introduction:

Computer fans pull a lot of dust inside the chassis. If undisturbed, the dust can interfere with ventilation, eventually causing parts to fail. If you have a service contract that covers maintenance, have your computer taken apart and professionally cleaned. Otherwise, follow these steps.


Steps:

1. Check your owner's manual. If the manufacturer has provided specific instructions, follow them.

2. Get any supplies you might need: a can of compressed air, Endust for Electronics or any household plastic or metal cleaning fluid, a soft brush (such as a paintbrush) and an anti-static rag, plus a dust mask if you're allergic to dust.

3. Shut down the computer.

4. Leave the computer plugged into the surge suppressor.

5. Disconnect all peripherals from the computer.

6. Remove the computer cover (see your owner's manual for instructions).

7. Ground yourself to the computer with any professional grounding equipment you have. Otherwise, ground yourself by touching a metal part of the chassis.

8. Spray compressed air on the fan blades, power supply chassis, drive chassis and circuit boards.

9. Gently brush off dust that the forced air didn't dislodge.

10. Brush any remaining dust out from the bottom of the chassis.

11. Spray Endust for Electronics or another cleaning fluid onto an anti-static rag.

12. Wipe the inside and outside of the cover thoroughly.

13. Replace the cover and reconnect the peripherals.

Tips & Warnings

* If possible, work in an uncarpeted area.
* Be careful not to touch any chips. Touch as little as possible inside your machine. Static damage (and even oil damage) may cause a failure months after the incident.
* Some sources recommend using a regular or specialty electronics vacuum cleaner. These appliances could cause magnetic damage or static electricity, or dislodge or inhale poorly secured chips or components.

Memorize Password Easily

* Try the diceware method.
* Change numbers into Roman numerals for more security (i.e. iamcool2 becomes iamcoolii). You can even mix normal numbers and Roman numerals. 1i = 11; 1ii = 12; and so on.
* When coming up with a mnemonic sentence, try and make the sentence funny or relevant to yourself. That way you will find it easier to remember the sentence, so you can remember the password.
* The more complex and longer the password, the less likely it is to be cracked but it is often proportionately harder to remember.
* Mixing letters and numbers is always safer than just using numbers or just using letters.
* Try thinking of a name (BOB). Now use only every second letter, being BB. Then go back and plug any other letter you did not type. Your password would be BBO.
* Take the the first four letters of your name (ex: lydi) and the first four letters of the site/program you are using the password for (ex: wiki) and alternate between using the letters in your name and the company (lwyidkii). Optional: add a set of numbers you have memorized to the end.
* You might combine several of these methods and still come up with a truly memorable yet very strong passphrase. You might use a favorite quotation, song lyric, or the advertising slogan you despise most (preferably six words long or more) and create an acronym by using the first letter of each word (Where Would You Like To Go Today = wwyltgt). You can introduce character-word substitutions, like replacing the 'y' (for the word 'you') with a 'u' or 'U', which would give us wwUltgt. Maybe you would substitute some numbers for characters (as in 'leet' = '1337'). Now your passphrase might resemble wwU17g7 or wwU1797. Add standard rules for your personal method such as always capitalizing the first character (or the second, the third, the seventh, whichever tickles you), or inserting an exclamation point after the second character (left out for those sites that do not allow punctuation). Now, you would have Ww!U17g7 or WwU1797, or some such, as a very secure, yet personally memorable passphrase. Using such a method, "Rock on with your bad self" might be transformed into R0!wy85, r0_wY8$, r0Wy_8$, or any number of others.
* If you prefer to have a word that has no symbols or numbers in it, the best thing is for it not to be a word in the dictionary, like 'wazzup'. Also, you can simply substitute letters so it still can sound the same, like this: Crazy = Kraizee. This is not too challenging.
* The most secure passwords contain lowercase letters, capital letters, numbers, AND symbols. This sounds like a bit of a chore but there is an easy way to make all of your passwords fully mixed and more secure: use one of the above methods to create a password with both letters and numbers, and then hold down the shift key while typing part of it. Make a standard of holding down shift for the first four characters, or characters three through seven, or whatever you like. You won't have to stop and remember where you inserted that pesky exclamation point or whether you replaced the 's' with '5' or '$' this time.
* If you say the letters or numbers to yourself as you type them you will begin to get a rhythm this will help to memorize it.
* If you are so inclined, references from a faith text can make good passwords. Choose a passage you can remember, and use the reference for your password.

Defragment Hard Drive

What is "fragmenting" and why do I need to "defragment" my hard drive?

Imagine a large library of books arranged in volumes. Also imagine that the librarian for this particular library re-shelves the books in a way which moves the individual books in the volumes further apart from each other. As more books are added to library, the further apart and more mixed up the books in the volumes become. Now imagine that you come to the library and want to check out an entire volume of books. You would have to search all over the library to find each individual book in the volume that you want. In computer terms, what is happening when the individual books are re-shelved in this way is called fragmenting, and this is what happens to your computer as you install programs, download files, or just use your computer in general.

When running programs that contains hundreds of files, fragmenting can degrade the performance of your computer. As the clusters of files on your hard drive become fragmented, they grow further apart and it takes longer for your computer to find and assemble all the pieces necessary to run the programs. This is where defragmenting comes in. It rearranges the files on your hard drive so they are back in order, which cuts down on access latency (the time it takes to access your files). It is as if the library has hired a new librarian who goes through and arranges the books so that the volumes are intact and contiguous. This would greatly reduce the time it takes to find whole volumes or individual books in those volumes.

Defragmenting your Windows XP hard drive

1. To defragment your hard drive in Windows XP, open My Computer and right-click on the C: drive. Select Properties, then click on the Tools tab and select Defragment Now...

2. The Windows Disk Defragmenter program will open and all drives are listed in the top window pane. Since the program is going to be arranging files on your hard drive, it is important that no files are being accessed during the process, or the program won't be able to move them. Close all open programs.

3. The C: drive is where operating system files and programs are installed by default, so make sure that it is selected, then click Defragment. While the program is running, it is recommend that you not use your computer. The time is takes to run the defragmenting process is dependent on the size of your hard drive and amount of fragmentation.

While the program is running you will see a graphical representation of the blocks of files on your hard drive being moved and the fragmented segments joined together. Usually the less gaps of free space between the contiguous segments the better, but as long as the fragmented files are put together into contiguous segments, it will help your computer's performance.

4. Once the process is complete, the graphic should display most of the contiguous files on the left and the majority of the free space on the right. Close the Disk Defragmenter window and resume using your computer.

Mp3 Resizer 1.8.4

Do you need more space in your mp3 player? Would you like to have more songs in your mobile phone?

MP3Resizer is the solution. It will compress your mp3 files, so you can store more files in your portable devices.

Thanks to Mp3Resizer you will not need to change your mp3 player when the capacity seems to have reached the limit. Mp3Resizer can compress the files up to a third part of the original size.

And to do it, it uses Lame compressor, so the final quality is guaranteed.

In addition, Mp3Resizer also includes a small player which shows us the information of both two files, the original and the compressed one.

Kaspersky Definition Update 10-23-2006

Thanks to this extension, your Kaspersky antivirus will be able to attack the most recent adwares. This is very important because new viruses arise everyday and your antivirus must be up to date to fight them.

This database includes all the viruses known up today, including the most dangerous torjans, E-mail worms and more.

When you download the product it is reccomended that you select automatic integration, and it will integrate itself with your Kaspersky antivirus automatically.