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Viruses and malware are the most troublesome part of owning a computer. Not only are they sometimes difficult to remove, but they are potentially damaging to your privacy, your computer, and your data. If you think you may have a computer virus, follow the simple steps below to attempt to remove it and get your computer back up and running smoothly.

1. Try an online virus scan

Many companies make available an online virus scanner for identifying any viruses or malware on your computer. They often couple this with offering software to remove the virus or malware. In some cases these scanners will not be able to remove the virus, but can recommend the next steps to take.

2. Install Anti-virus software

If you don’t already have anti-virus software installed, you will want to purchase software or try one of many free options. Two popular free options are Avast and AVG, which are available for download on the internet. There are also many Antivirus suites out there from trusted names like Symantec and McAfee available for purchase online or thru a retailer. Some PC manufacturers such as Sony often include an Antivirus software package pre-installed onto the hard drive with the operating system.

3. Update the software

If you already have anti-virus software installed, make sure it is up-to-date. Run the update routine to ensure it has the most recent virus database information. If you are installing software for the first time, it will usually include a scan for updates in the install routine. Having up to date Virus software is really the #1 key to keeping your computer running smoothly.

4. Do a full scan of the computer

Some anti-virus software only scans certain areas of the computer on a regular basis. To ensure you get the most thorough scan, manually choose to do a full scan of the hard drive. This should detect any viruses or malware on your system, no matter where it is located. This type of scan can take a while but is very through.

5. Remove the virus

If the software detects a problem, it will give you instructions and options for removing. Depending on the software, it may give you a choice to delete the files or add them to a “vault”. If possible, the best option is to delete the files, but follow the recommendations of the program. Simply storing the item away in a quarantine folder could possibly leave your vulnerable to the virus later, so it is better to completely remove and delete the data.

At this point, if your anti-virus software has confirmed removal of any viruses and malware, then your computer should be clean. If you are still experiencing problems, you may want to seek help from a professional computer repair company. Some viruses can be very tricky to remove, and may require the help of a certified repair technician.
Spare Parts Warehouse Blog

Source: Definition of Delete vs Cancel – Two Commonly Confused Computer Terms
from Worth Godwin’s Computer Training

In this article, I want to talk a little bit about two computer terms that I see people confusing or demonstrating that they don’t understand completely.  People often use the two interchangeably or consistently use the wrong one. These two terms are “cancel” and “delete.”

Let’s start with “delete.” To delete something is the process of taking something such as a file, like a Word document or photograph, and removing it.

The process generally involves moving it to the trash on a Mac or the recycle bin on a Windows machine and emptying the trash or recycle bin. The emptying part is what is actually deleting it.

When you delete an item, if it’s actually been deleted, in most cases for most people, it’s gone. Technically, it’s still there but has been marked as available space on the drive.

Whatever space the file that has been deleted was taking up is marked as available. Until some other file comes along and is saved in that spot, or part of that same spot, the file is technically available and can be recovered with the right program.

However, as far as most people are concerned, once the recycle bin or trash is emptied, the file is gone for good. Until you empty it, it’s still available for you to pull back out and retrieve.

What I see people doing sometimes is use the term “cancel” or “delete” inappropriately. Deleting is the process of taking a file and getting rid of it. It is not the process of closing a window.

I have seen a lot of people refer to closing a window or getting rid of an error message that has come up as “deleting” it. That’s not deleting. If you close a window, you’re simply closing a window.

I’ve also seen people refer to closing a window as canceling. I’ve also seen people refer to deleting an item as canceling it. That’s not the correct terminology.

Canceling is when you have a process that has been started and you “cancel” that process. You stop it from continuing, or interrupt it in other words.  It takes you back to where you were immediately before the process.

What do I mean by that? Let me give you an example. Let’s say you in a word processor, like Microsoft Word. You’ve written something, and then you close the program without saving.

What’s going to happen? Traditionally, the program will pop up a window or dialog box that presents you with some options. It will say something along the lines of, “You’re trying to close, and you haven’t saved yet. Would you like to save, cancel or continue without saving?”

The wording does vary from one program to the next, but something along those lines is what you might see in the situation where you’re trying to close without having saved yet.

Let’s just say the phrasing is, “Do you want to save the changes you made? Your changes will be lost if you don’t save them.” Then you’re presented with three buttons: don’t save, cancel and save.

What would happen in this situation if you tried these different buttons?

If you don’t save, it will simply close the program or window without saving it, and you will lose whatever work you’ve done since the last time you saved. If you click save, it will save the file, and probably ask you for a file name if you haven’t saved it before.

The other option is to cancel. Cancel would cancel the process of closing and take you right back to where you were before you started to close the window.

At that point you could continue writing, you could save and close or you could decide you’re going to close anyway and that you don’t care about saving. Then it would present you with the same three options, and you would be able to hit “don’t save.”

What I’m trying to say here is that if you are presented with a cancel option, it doesn’t mean it’s going to delete anything.

It just means that whatever process you’re in the middle of, in our example exiting a program, it interrupts that. It takes you right back to where you were immediately before that.

It’s not correct to refer to closing a window as canceling it. It’s not correct to refer to deleting a file as canceling it. Canceling only applies to a situation where you’ve started a process (a series of automated steps) which you have the option of cancelling before all the steps are completed.

If you want to get technical, if you hit the cancel button, it does close the little window with the question in it (the little window with the question in it is referred to as a “dialogue box” because it’s asking a question and waiting for a response — trying to have a dialogue with you).

This is probably where the confusion comes from for a lot of people. Closing the window is not correctly referred to as canceling even if sometimes canceling something will close a window.

I hope that makes sense. I know it’s a little confusing sometimes because you see these words out of context, and you don’t fully understand how they work and relate to each other.

I hope that makes some sense and will help you use those computer terms more accurately in the future so you can recognize and understand what people are saying when they’re using them correctly around you in the future as well.

What you’ve just read is an edited transcription of one of an audio lesson I recorded some time ago.  If you like to study written material to learn computers, you might check out my selection of computer training books on Amazon.com or if you prefer a visual approach you might want to check out my easy video lesson computer courses including the Mac Basics course and the PC Basics course here on my site.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Basic Computer Training, Tips & More in Plain English by Worth Godwin

Source: Learn Computer Basics & More With New iPhone & iPad App
from Worth Godwin’s Computer Training

I’m very happy to announce the release of my new app
for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad – Basic Computer Training & Tips iOS app:

Computer Training AppThe app includes hours of my quick & easy video and audio computer lessons that teach you basic computer terms and show you step-by-step how to use the computer in Plain English.

This only came out today, but in future versions I plan to make many more of my lessons available, but this is just version 1.0 – got to start somewhere!

In addition to the lessons in the app, you can submit a computer question to me directly from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and you can also find links (and bonus free lessons from)  my computer training audio albums that are available on iTunes.

I’ve recorded a tour of the app which I’ll post separately.

If you have friends or family with an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, please share this page with them with the share buttons above or below this post!

 

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Basic Computer Training, Tips & More in Plain English by Worth Godwin

Source: Video Tour of Computer Training App for iPhone & iPad
from Worth Godwin’s Computer Training

Yesterday I announced the release of my new app
for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad – learn computers with the Basic Computer Training & Tips app

Computer Basics App 

This iOS app, along with 2 others I’ll be announcing as soon as Apple approves them, is the first version of what may become the main “delivery system” for my computer training video and audio lessons.

Starting with six hours of quick & easy lessons which cover computer terms, online privacy and security advice, as well as step-by-step computer basics specific to Microsoft Windows and step-by-step basics specific to Apple’s Mac computers.

The app also has a built-in way to send me your computer questions and you can check the latest Q&A answers right in the app.

Take a look at the video tour above to see how it works and grab your copy by clicking the blue & yellow button above to open iTunes or the App Store.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Basic Computer Training, Tips & More in Plain English by Worth Godwin

Source: Simple Computer Tips That Will Make Your Life Easier
from Worth Godwin’s Computer Training

Computer users have a wide range of experience and levels of understanding of their computers. The great majority of users have just learned the most basic features of a few of the thousands of programs out there. It really can be a help for you to learn computer basics that you may have been taught.

But that’s nothing to be ashamed of — even the most advanced computer user was at that level at some point, myself included. Even if you’re just using your computer for word processing, learning a few simple skills can make your life a lot easier.

• First and foremost: save often!    If you type a long letter, or make a lot of changes to whatever you’re working on, and the power goes out or something else happens, you could lose everything you haven’t saved!Just imagine how upset you would be if you’d worked on something for half an hour, an hour, or longer, and *poof* it vanished.Just going to the File menu and clicking save can help you avoid losing all that work.
• Save as new versions periodically:   If you’re working on a large project — such as a story or essay, where you write multiple drafts — periodically use the “save as” option from the File menu to save your file with a new name.That way if the third draft had something good you deleted in the fourth draft, you can bring it back for the fifth.For example, if you’re working on a file called My Letter.doc and you’ve made a lot of changes since your last save, go to “save as…” from the File menu, and change the name to My Letter2.doc.This way, you have both versions.
• Remember you can click anywhere in the document with your mouse and make changes wherever you place the cursor (the blinking vertical line which indicates where what you type next will appear).So if you realize you’ve made a mistake two lines back, just click where you want to make the change instead of deleting everything back to the mistake, then retyping it all. When you’re done, just click at the bottom and pick up where you left off.
• Cutting, Copying & pasting:   If you want to move a word, a sentence, a paragraph, or even a page of text, you can cut it and paste it someplace else in the document.To do this, just highlight the section of text you want by dragging your mouse (click and hold the left button, then drag) across the text. You’ll see a highlight appear where you drag.Let go of the mouse button then go to the edit menu.In the edit menu you can select “copy” to make a copy of the text, or “cut” to remove the text that is highlighted.Then go to the part of the document where you want to move or copy the text and click there so the cursor appears where you want your text to appear.

  Go back to the edit menu and select paste.Your text will appear where you clicked.You can use this to move text around in a document, or copy and paste it into an other document or even an email, and vice versa. Copying and pasting also can work with graphics or even files and folders in some situations.

• Undo: if you make a mistake the “undo” option in the Edit menu will allow you to undo the last thing you did. Accidentally highlighted and deleted a paragraph in that letter?Just undo before you type anything else and it comes right back.  Like all of the skills I’m talking about in this article, you can undo in Microsoft Windows, and you can undo in Mac OS X
• Learn the common keyboard shortcuts which work in most applications:
  On Windows PCs, the common keyboard shortcuts include: CTRL-S to save, CTRL-C to copy, CTRL-X to cut, CTRL-V to paste. ALT-F4 will close a window or program (or prompt you to shut down Windows if you are not in a program).On a Macintosh computer, common keyboard shortcuts include: Command-S to save, Command-C to copy, Command-X to cut, Command-V to paste. Command-W will close a window, and Command-Q will quit the program you’re in.

  In all cases, these key combinations are done as follows: hold down CTRL (or Command), type the other key, and release both. Just like using the shift key to type a capital letter. On both Macs and PCs, these and additional shortcuts are typically printed in the menus next to the option.

These are just a few computer basics that can really make your life easier.

For more help, including easy video lessons, check out my computer courses or my new computer training app for iPhone and iPad.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Basic Computer Training, Tips & More in Plain English by Worth Godwin

Source: Four Basic Computer Training Kindle Books Available on Amazon
from Worth Godwin’s Computer Training

I’m happy to announce that the first four of a series of books covering computer basics and online privacy & security advice are now available to order from Amazon.com (and on the overseas “local branches” of Amazon) for Kindle.

You can see cover images and titles for the books – clicking them will take you to Amazon where you can order them and have them instantly delivered to you.

Kindle books are electronic books you can read not only on Kindle devices sold by Amazon, but they can also be read on free software available for Windows, Macs, iPhones, iPads, and many other devices.

You can view my author profile and always see the most current list of books with this link: Worth Godwin Computer Training on Amazon.

I have three more Kindle books I plan to publish later this month, and I’ll also be making all of the books (as well as future ones) available not only on Kindle but on Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble Nook, etc. I’ll post updates here when they become available.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Basic Computer Training, Tips & More in Plain English by Worth Godwin

Source: Computer Question – Why Do You Have to Restart Your Computer?
from Worth Godwin’s Computer Training

This question was asked by Paul Prior. Paul wrote saying, “Out of curiosity, after updates I get a message saying to restart my computer, which I always do. What’s the reason for this?”

Transcription begins:

This is a pretty simple thing to understand when you think about it the right way.

First off, the updates he’s talking about are Windows updates, or software updates as they’re called on the Mac. These are fixes and improvements that have been issued by Microsoft, in the case of Windows, or, in the case of Mac OS X, by Apple.

Generally, on the Windows side, they’re almost exclusively fixes for problems. On the Mac side, they are maybe 50% to 75% fixes for problems, and 25% to 50% are actually improvements and enhancements they’ve added in.

You want to do these updates pretty much any time they come out, especially on the Windows side. It’s not just on the Windows side. I should be fair. Any time there’s a security update on the Mac or Windows side, you always want to do that as soon as you can. Most updates are security updates on the Windows side, generally speaking.

It’s never a bad idea to do a backup first just in case. Occasionally, some people will have problems with these updates. It’s a minority, but some people have run into problems. As a precaution, it’s a good idea to do a backup first.

Doing the updates is a really important thing to do because it fixes problems and security issues. If they’re not fixed, they can cause your computer to get invaded by a hacker, malicious program or what have you. You don’t want to have that happen.
By doing the updates, in many cases, the computer has to restart. Paul was wondering why this is.

Think of it this way. The files on your computer are like a rug. If you’re standing on a rug, can you take that rug, pick it up and clean it? Probably not because you’re standing on it. It’s in use. Files are much the same. If a file is in use, it can’t be picked up and replaced with a new version of the file just as you could not replace the rug with a new rug until you get everything off of it.

Essentially, what happens when you restart the computer after the update is it’s getting all the stuff off the rugs, picking the rugs up and replacing them with new rugs, so to speak. That’s why you have to restart the computer after you do an update.
Basically, it’s just a matter of getting out of the way of the files so they’re not in use and they can be replaced.

Hopefully that makes sense and answers your question.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Basic Computer Training, Tips & More in Plain English by Worth Godwin

Source: Simple Computer Tips That Will Make Your Life Easier
from Worth Godwin’s Computer Training

Computer users have a wide range of experience and levels of understanding of their computers. The great majority of users have just learned the most basic features of a few of the thousands of programs out there. It really can be a help for you to learn computer basics that you may have been taught.

But that’s nothing to be ashamed of — even the most advanced computer user was at that level at some point, myself included. Even if you’re just using your computer for word processing, learning a few simple skills can make your life a lot easier.

• First and foremost: save often!  If you type a long letter, or make a lot of changes to whatever you’re working on, and the power goes out or something else happens, you could lose everything you haven’t saved!Just imagine how upset you would be if you’d worked on something for half an hour, an hour, or longer, and *poof* it vanished. Just going to the File menu and clicking save can help you avoid losing all that work.
• Save as new versions periodically:  If you’re working on a large project — such as a story or essay, where you write multiple drafts — periodically use the “save as” option from the File menu to save your file with a new name.That way if the third draft had something good you deleted in the fourth draft, you can bring it back for the fifth.For example, if you’re working on a file called My Letter.doc and you’ve made a lot of changes since your last save, go to “save as…” from the File menu, and change the name to My Letter2.doc. This way, you have both versions.
• Remember you can click anywhere in the documentwith your mouse and make changes wherever you place the cursor (the blinking vertical line which indicates where what you type next will appear).So if you realize you’ve made a mistake two lines back, just click where you want to make the change instead of deleting everything back to the mistake, then retyping it all. When you’re done, just click at the bottom and pick up where you left off.
• Cutting, Copying & pasting: If you want to move a word, a sentence, a paragraph, or even a page of text, you can cut it and paste it someplace else in the document.To do this, just highlight the section of text you want by dragging your mouse (click and hold the left button, then drag) across the text. You’ll see a highlight appear where you drag. Let go of the mouse button then go to the edit menu.In the edit menu you can select “copy” to make a copy of the text, or “cut” to remove the text that is highlighted. Then go to the part of the document where you want to move or copy the text and click there so the cursor appears where you want your text to appear.Go back to the edit menu and select paste. Your text will appear where you clicked.

  You can use this to move text around in a document, or copy and paste it into an other document or even an email, and vice versa. Copying and pasting also can work with graphics or even files and folders in some situations.

• Undo: if you make a mistake the “undo” option in the Edit menu will allow you to undo the last thing you did. Accidentally highlighted and deleted a paragraph in that letter? Just undo before you type anything else and it comes right back.  Like all of the skills I’m talking about in this article, you can undo in Microsoft Windows, and you can undo in Mac OS X
• Learn the common keyboard shortcuts which work in most applications:
  On Windows PCs, the common keyboard shortcuts include: CTRL-S to save, CTRL-C to copy, CTRL-X to cut, CTRL-V to paste. ALT-F4 will close a window or program (or prompt you to shut down Windows if you are not in a program).On a Macintosh computer, common keyboard shortcuts include: Command-S to save, Command-C to copy, Command-X to cut, Command-V to paste. Command-W will close a window, and Command-Q will quit the program you’re in. The Command key is the one next to the space bar that has the Apple logo on it.In all cases, these key combinations are done as follows: hold down CTRL (or Command), type the other key, and release both. Just like using the shift key to type a capital letter. On both Macs and PCs, these and additional shortcuts are typically printed in the menus next to the option.

These are just a few computer basics that can really make your life easier.

For more help, including easy video lessons, check out my computer courses or my new computer training app for iPhone and iPad.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Basic Computer Training, Tips & More in Plain English by Worth Godwin

Source: Computer Question: What is a Bookmark – Basic Computer Term Explained
from Worth Godwin’s Computer Training

This computer question comes from Mahakali Ramesh Kumar, who writes:

“Dear Worth Godwin,

I want to know what is Bookmark in internet or in computers.

Thanking you,
Yours faithfully Mahakali”

TRANSCRIPT BEGINS:
That’s a pretty simple thing to answer. A bookmark is sometimes also known as a favorite, although originally it was known as a bookmark in most web browsers. Those are the programs you use to navigate around on the internet.

It’s really Internet Explorer that refers to them as favorites. I think they did this originally because they were concerned about avoiding copyright infringement. I’m not positive about that. At any rate, a favorite or bookmark is the same thing.

When the web was created in the early to mid ‘90s, the way we thought about it is like pages like pages in a book. If you have a book you’re reading and you want to get back to a page in that book, what do you do? You bookmark it. It’s the same basic idea.

A bookmark is a way of getting back to a page on the internet that is located on some site on the internet. You just want to get back to it, so you bookmark it.

You do this typically by going to the Bookmark menu. Sometimes there may be a button on the toolbar toward the top of the window that has a little plus symbol on the button. Whatever way you do it, you hit the button or go to the menu that says “Bookmarks” and hit the option that says “Add bookmark” or “Add favorite,” in the case of Internet Explorer.

As a side note, I strongly recommend that you do not use Internet Explorer, for security reasons (instead you could use Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox for example).
Basically, you click “Add bookmark” or “Add favorite” as the case may be.

It creates some record of where you were. It will put in the name of that page as the description, although you are usually given the opportunity to change it to a potentially more descriptive or memorable name if you want to.

Then it gets added to that menu. In some cases it gets added to a horizontal bar called the bookmarks bar toward the top of your browser window. By going back to the menu or to the item on the bar, you would click it, and it would take you back to the page.

That’s basically what a bookmark is. It’s not a really complicated concept, but hopefully that makes sense and will help you get back to the pages you want to get back to in the future. It’s very useful.

I have found that there is a fairly surprisingly high number of people who do not use bookmarks or don’t know how to use bookmarks. It’s no criticism whatsoever. I hope that helps.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Basic Computer Training, Tips & More in Plain English by Worth Godwin

Source: What is a USB Flash Drive – Computer Terms in Plain English
from Worth Godwin’s Computer Training

In this audio lesson & transcript, I’m going to take a question from Mark. He writes and asks, “What’s a flash drive?”

 

Transcript of computer lesson begins:
A flash drive is a type of storage device for a computer. A storage device is the broad or general term for anything that is used to store data or files.

A hard drive in your computer is a storage device. An old floppy disk is a storage device. A CD-ROM or DVD is a storage device, and so is a flash drive.

A lot of people call flash drives by specific brand names. They think that is the correct name for them. Sometimes they’ll refer to them as a thumb drive, jump drive, go drive, key drive or any number of things. These are actually all brand names or partial brand names that people have mistakenly thought was the correct general term for that type of device.

A flash drive is a little piece of solid state storage. That means there are no moving parts. From the outside, it looks basically like a uniform block.

If you dig inside of it, there’s what’s referred to as a disk, but it’s not a disk shape, unlike a hard drive. Inside of a hard drive, there is a physical disk that looks like a disk. Even with floppy disks, I’ve heard people over the years say they aren’t disks. Technically they are. It’s square on the outside, but if you rip open an old floppy disk, you’ll find a disk inside. It would actually flop. It’s not rigid.

Basically, a flash drive uses something called flash memory. That’s solid state, so there are no physical moving parts unlike with a hard drive. That has a physical disk, like I mentioned, which spins much like an old record or a CD does when it’s playing.

That has a little thing called a read/write head that moves around and reads information from the disk and writes information to the disk. There are a lot of physical moving parts.
That uses more electricity than something that’s solid state. It also usually takes up more space than something that’s solid state. The big advantage of flash memory is that it’s very small and lightweight, and it doesn’t use much power.

You get these little devices that can store an increasing amount of information, or data, on them. They only take up a very small amount of room.

Any mobile device like an iPhone or any smartphone typically has some kind of flash memory in it. It wouldn’t make any sense to try to put a miniature hard drive in them. While there are hard drives that could fit in there, it would use way more battery power and run the battery down really fast.

There’s also an increased chance of damage to the disk and loss of files by impact. One of the liabilities of the hard drive is that because it has spinning and moving parts, if something hits it or it gets dropped, it can damage the drive, and you can lose files.

There are safeguards in modern hard drives that make it so they very rapidly will stop the disk spinning to minimize the risk of that damage, but it’s still one of the downsides of them and one of the reasons they’re not used in mobile devices.

The big advantage with flash drives is that they’re very small, light and portable.

In terms of dollar per megabyte or dollar per gigabyte, they are significantly more expensive than hard drives. The difference in price is getting less and less as time goes by, and you’re getting more and more storage space on these little flash drives.

I remember probably in 2002, I spent something close to 0 on a 1 gigabyte flash drive. These days in 2011, not a decade on from them but getting close, I don’t think you can even get a 1 gigabyte flash drive because it’s such a small amount.

The smallest amount you can get is at least 8 gigabytes. I’m not sure. I haven’t looked at this recently. It may be 16 gigabytes by this point. You can get that for a few dollars. That’s just how it is. It’s pretty crazy, but that’s a pretty typical thing with computers.

I hope that makes sense. It’s basically another method of storing files. Typically, you can just plug flash drives into a USB port on your computer and drag and drop files. You’ll be able to then unplug it, plug it into another computer, and it’s a way of transferring files back and forth. It also is a way you can back up your files to make a spare copy of them to protect them.

That’s pretty much what a flash drive is.

You might have heard of them as jump drives, thumb drives, go drives or what have you, but those are all examples of flash drives. It’s not, in other words, the generic term for a flash drive.

Basically, that’s what a flash drive is. It’s a small storage device that’s easily carried around. You can put it in your pocket, plug it in, move files on and off a computer, unplug it, and put it back in your pocket. I hope that makes sense.

You can learn more about USB flash drives and how to use them on these easy video lesson courses:

• How to Back Up Your Mac
• How to Back Up Your Windows Computer
• Apple Mac Basics Course
• Microsoft Windows Basics Course

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Basic Computer Training, Tips & More in Plain English by Worth Godwin