Silver Spring PC likes to put some thoughts down on paper (well electronic paper) from time to time. Hopefully the rantings will come in handy.
If you are going to be sharing your computer with the kids then I would like to recommend the following....DON'T DO IT.
Lets face it kids are an inquisitive bunch. Always seeking knowledge, looking for the shiny object (ooow pretty), clicking on links their friends send them cause a friend told them if they did it would lead to untold riches and free songs!
Well the next thing you know your computer is slowing to a crawl, or not working, or possibly working just fine but recording your every move on the world wide web. I think it best (if the budget permits) to have a machine for the adults of the house (with a sign placed atop the monitor...do not touch unless you are over 30) and another machine for the kids of the house to fight over.
Also, do not forget to get yourself some filtering software for the Kids PC while you are at it. Filtering software can help to block sites that your inquisitive crew may accidentily run across on the net. There is no reason to have young Timmy asking questions about what strange and wonderous things he found on the internet...let his college roommate deal with those issues.
Hmmm...thats funny my computer used to turn on. Not much fun when your machine dies and you cannot get to any of your files or email or music or (insert missing item here). Sure a broken PC is a real drag but its compounded exponetially (big words for emphasis) when you may have just lost your secret family recipe for hagus! No need to worry if you have a good backup.
But its hard and complicated and I may have to learn something new you are thinking to yourself. Well maybe at first but it doesn't have to be. Copy and Paste is the easiest solution to backing up. Insert a USB thumbdrive into your computer, copy the important files you can't live without, and paste. Not sure what a USB thumbdrive is. How about an even easier backup method. Open a free Yahoo or GMAIL email account, attach some critical files to an email, and send them to your new Yahoo or GMAIL account. You will be limited by file size and storage amount on the free account but if its the only way you can think of to backup that novel you have been writing for the last 20 years than start emailing.
A better solution might be to learn how to burn a CD/DVD if you have a burner in your machine. Then of course the latest technology is the external hard drive. Lots of storage and easy to do (well sort of...sometimes it helps to have a PC expert or a 7 year old near by in case technical questions arise). There are also some online storage places that you can back data up to as well. They usually cost a few $$ per month (There are some free ones available too). The only downside to these is storing your personal data on someone elses machine. Not everyone wants to do this but this can be a good solution.
No matter what you choose to do you should always keep a set of backup data off-site (Technical term for someplace other then your home). But why? Well if you get robbed and someone takes your laptop/desktop I doubt the criminal will be nice and leave your external hard drive behind (bummer). Also, if you have a fire your backups will go up in smoke along with your PC. So send grandma some DVD's with a copy of your stuff for safe keeping. You dont have to do this that often but do it at least once since having most files is better than having no files.
So your computer is running a little slow and is just not behaving like it should. Its got a few miles on it (well keyboard clicks I guess would be more appropriate) and you think maybe it needs some cleaning up and fixing. Sure I buy that. Maybe its got a virus or some spyware making it behave poorly. Or maybe you have a whole load of programs that are loading up when you start the machine and they are eating up precious resources.
So what to do? Buy a new machine? Pour money into fixing this machine? Well I will tell you I think the best solution can often be a good old fashined reformat and reinstall of the operating system. No new machine and no fixing the old one. Its like stepping back in time when you first purchased your computer. Fresh operating system, all the updates installed, and a clean slate to start from again. The only downside to this (but a good one) is that you need to BACKUP every impportant file and email before you do this to your system. If you forget to backup then you will lose all your data (not good). You will also need to reinstall your applications (like word or quicken) so make sure you have the iinstallations disks.
It may seem a little extreme but it beats having someone chasing ghosts in your current system. Also, you end up with a near new computer (well not really but new if you went back in time) without the big cash outlay.