9/8/2014

Organizing Computer 1. Protect your computer Files & Folders

September 11 • A computer should always 4pm, 6:30pm or anytime afterwards have the most recent having trouble finding things updates installed for on your computer? spam filters, wondering what the best way is to begin getting organized? anti-virus and

At 4pm watch live from your local library or from anti-spyware this link http://alturl.com/g69zz

At 6:30pm come to Newton and participate Presenter: software and with a live audience. Nathan Carr, •Watch the recorded presentation anytime after the IT Supervisor, a secure firewall. 11th at http://alturl.com/ph9xw at the Newton

Public Library http://cdn.greenprophet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/frying-pan-kolbotek-neoflam-560x475.jpg

If your computer is a mess, you’re probably already aware of Disclaimer it. But just in case you’re not, here are some tell-tale signs:

• Everyone has their own favorite methodology of • Your Desktop has over 40 icons on it organizing and filing, and it’s all too easy to get • “My Documents” contains over 300 files and 60 into “My Way is Better than Your Way” folders, including MP3s and digital photos arguments. The reality is that there is no perfect • You use the Windows’ built-in search facility whenever you need to find a file way • You can’t find programs in the out-of-control list of • the tips I have described here are only my programs in your opinions of ways of doing it. Hopefully some of • You save all your Word documents in one folder, all these tips will work for you too, but please don’t your spreadsheets in a second folder, etc read this as any sort of “right” way to do it. of • Any given file that you’re looking for may be in any one getting things organized. of four different sets of folders

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To get things off the desktop Use the Quick Launch Bar as a Application and File Launcher That Quick Launch bar (to the right of the Start button) is a lot more useful than people give it credit for.

http://cdn8.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/592x515x1sample.png.pagespeed.ic.EIFMhBvl4W.png • Most people simply have half a dozen icons in it, and use it to start just those programs. Does your desktop look like this? But it can actually be used to instantly access just about anything in your

http://computertutorflorida.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/desktop.jpg filing system:

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Move your documents onto a separate hard drive Did you know that it’s actually possible and only use the “C:” for the operating System For redirecting personal system folders, Windows 7 has a built-in procedure. to store your files on the D: drive and Here is how it works: -Open the Start menu and click your user name to open the User folder yet access them as if they were on the -Right-click the personal folder you want to redirect to another location. -Select “Properties” C: drive? And no, -Click the tab “Location” The dialog box shown below will open I’m not talking about shortcuts here Click the button “Move” -An Explorer dialog “Select a destination” will open (although the concept is very similar). -Browse to the location where you • By using the shell command mklink (make link), you can essentially take a want to redirect this folder. You can folder that lives on one drive and create an alias for it on a different drive select another location on this (you can do lots more than that with mklink) computer, another drive attached to • You must run these commands from a command prompt this computer, or another computer – click the Start button, type cmd and press Enter) on the network • It may be that the only files you wish to store on the D: drive are your -Click the folder where you want to movie collection. store the files (not the root of a drive) You could locate all your movie files in the root of your D: drive, and then -Click the button “Select Folder” link it to C:\Files\Media\Movies, as follows: -Click “OK” http://1.bp.blogspot.com/- In the dialog that appears, click “Yes” ge4cX902vGI/UXRfbJd66uI/AAAAAAAALN0/cAeAp_nE3dg/s640/How+to+remove+My+Documents,+My+Pictures,+My+Music+and+My+Videos+folders+fr mklink /d c:\files\media\movies d:\ om+the+Computer+folder+in+Windows+8.1.png to move all the files to the new location. http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-move-windows-7- personal-folders-my-documents-another-drive.htm

consider these common tasks that are not Never Use the “My Documents” folder? achievable with desktop search software: • It sounds heretical, but: Don’t ever use your “My Documents” folder http://www.bayviewbelmullet.com/files/5013/3838/8391/search-icon.jpg • Find files manually. Often it’s not convenient, speedy or even possible to utilize your for files that are important to you! Remove your icons/links to “My desktop search software to find what you want. It doesn’t work 100% of the time, or you may not even have it installed. Sometimes its just plain faster to go straight to the file you Documents” and replace them with links to the folders you created want, if you know it’s in a particular sub-folder, rather than trawling through hundreds of and you actually care about! search results. • Every data file (document, photo, music file, etc) that you create, own or is important to you, • Find groups of similar files (e.g. all your “work” files, all the photos of your Europe holiday in 2008, all your music videos, all the MP3s from Dark Side of the Moon, all your letters no matter where it came from, should be found within one single folder. you wrote to your wife, all your tax returns). Clever naming of the files will only get you so far. Sometimes it’s the date the file was created that’s important, other times it’s the • that one single folder should be located at the root of your C: drive file format, and other times it’s the purpose of the file. How do you name a collection of (as a sub-folder of C:\). In other words, do not base your folder structure in standard files so that they’re easy to isolate based on any of the above criteria? Short answer, you folders like “My Documents”. can’t. If you do, then you’re leaving it up to the operating system engineers to decide what folder • Move files to a new computer. It’s time to upgrade your computer. How do you quickly structure is best for you. grab all the files that are important to you? Or you decide to have two computers now – one for home and one for work. How do you quickly isolate only the work-related files to • Every operating system has a different file system! move them to the work computer? In Windows 7 your files are found in C:\Users\YourName, • Synchronize files to other computers. If you have more than one computer, and you need to mirror some of your files onto the other computer (e.g. your music collection), then whilst on Windows XP it was C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\My Documents. you need a way to quickly determine which files are to be synced and which are In UNIX systems it’s often /home/YourName. not. Surely you don’t want to synchronize everything? • Choose which files to back up. If your backup regime calls for multiple backups, or • These standard default folders tend to fill up with junk files and requires speedy backups, then you’ll need to be able to specify which files are to be folders that are not at all important to you. backed up, and which are not. This is not possible if they’re all in the same folder.

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Never Use the “My Documents” folder p2 If you only have one hard disk (C:), then create a dedicated folder that • “My Documents” is the worst offender. Every second will contain all your files – something like C:\Files. The name of the folder is not important, but make it a single, brief word. piece of software OR VIRUS you install, it seems, likes to There are several reasons for this: create its own folder in the “My Documents” folder. – These folders usually don’t fit within your • When creating a backup regime, it’s easy to organizational structure, so don’t use them! In fact, decide what files should be backed up – they’re don’t even use the “My Documents” folder at all in the one folder! all. Allow it to fill up with junk, and then simply • If you ever decide to trade in your computer for a ignore it. new one, you know exactly which files to migrate • You will always know where to begin a search for – Once this has been done, and all your files live any file in one folder, all the other folders in C:\ can be • If you synchronize files with other computers, it thought of as “operating system” folders, and makes your synchronization routines very therefore of little day-to-day interest for us. simple. It also causes all your shortcuts to continue to work on the other machines. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen-and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen-and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization

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Don’t be Shy About Depth (use Sub-Folders) • Create as many levels of sub-folders as you need. Don’t be Name Files and Folders Intelligently scared to do so. Every time you notice an opportunity to group a set of related files into a sub-folder, do so. Examples might • Do not allow files to be created that have meaningless include: All the MP3s from one music CD, all the photos from names like Document1.doc, one holiday, or all the documents from one client. or folders called New Folder (2). • It’s perfectly okay to put files into a folder called C:\Files\Me\From Others\Services\WestCo • Take that extra 20 seconds and come up with a Bank\Statements\2009. That’s only seven levels deep. Ten meaningful name for the file/folder – one that levels is not uncommon. accurately divulges its contents without repeating the • Of course, it’s possible to take this too far. If you notice yourself creating a sub-folder to hold only one file, then you’ve entire contents in the name. probably become a little over-zealous. • Example: • On the other hand, if you simply create a structure with only Clients\Johnson\Sales Figures\2009\March.xls two levels (for example C:\Files\Work) then you really haven’t achieved any level of organization at all (unless you own only When you need March’s sales figures for Mr/Mrs six files!). Your “Work” folder will have become a dumping Johnson you can find it directly ground, just like your Desktop was, with most likely hundreds of files in it.

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Starting a Filename with an Underscore Watch Out for Long Filenames Brings it to the Top of a List • If you name that “Miscellaneous” or • Another way to tell if you have not yet created “Other” folder in such a way that its enough depth to your folder hierarchy is that name begins with an underscore “_”, your files often require really long names. then it will appear at the top of the • If you need to call a file Johnson Sales Figures list of files/folders. March 2009.xls (which might happen to live in the same folder as Abercrombie Budget Report • The screenshot below is an example 2008.xls), then you might want to create some of this. Each folder in the list sub-folders so that the first file could be simply contains a set of digital photos. called March.xls, and living in The folder at the top of the the Clients\Johnson\Sales Figures\2009 folder. list, _Misc, contains random photos • A well-placed file needs only a brief filename! that didn’t deserve their own dedicated folder:

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USE SHORTCUTS like a Pro USE SHORTCUTS like a Pro P2 • This is probably the single most useful and important tip. • The “correct” place for a file, according to our organizational rationale, is very often a very inconvenient place for that file to be located. Just because it’s correctly filed doesn’t A shortcut allows a file to be in two places at once. mean it’s easy to get to. Your file may be “correctly” buried six levels deep in your sub- • folder structure, but you may need regular and speedy access to this file every day. You Why would you want that? could always move it to a more convenient location, but that would mean that you would Well, the file and folder structure of every popular operating need to re-file back to its “correct” location it every time you’d finished working on system on the market today is hierarchical. This means that all it. Most unsatisfactory. objects (files and folders) always live within exactly one parent • A file may simply “belong” in two or more different locations within your file structure. folder. It’s a bit like a tree. A tree has branches (folders) and For example, say you’re an accountant and you have just completed the 2009 tax leaves (files). Each leaf, and each branch, is supported by return for John Smith. It might make sense to you to call this file 2009 Tax exactly one parent branch, all the way back to the root of the Return.doc and file it under Clients\John Smith. But it may also be important to you to have the 2009 tax returns from all your clients together in the one place. So you tree (which, incidentally, is exactly why C:\ is called the “root might also want to call the file John Smith.doc and file it under Tax folder” of the C: drive). Returns\2009. The problem is, in a purely hierarchical filing system, you can’t put it • That hard disks are structured this way may seem obvious and in both places. Grrrrr! even necessary, but it’s only one way of organizing Fortunately, Windows offers a way for you to do exactly that: data. There are others: • It’s called a “shortcut” (also known as an “alias” on Macs and a “symbolic link” on UNIX systems). Shortcuts allow a file to exist in one place, and an icon that represents the Relational databases, for example, organize structured data file to be created and put anywhere else you please. entirely differently. The main limitation of hierarchical filing In fact, you can create a dozen such icons and scatter them all over your hard disk. Double-clicking on one of these icons/shortcuts opens up the original file, just as if structures is that a file can only ever be in one branch of the you had double-clicked on the original file itself. tree – in only one folder – at a time.

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USE SHORTCUTS like a Pro P3 Use Shortcuts like a Pro P4 • So your collection of most often-opened files can – Consider these and should – become a collection of shortcuts! two icons • If you’re still not convinced of the utility of http://cdn8.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/178x123xshortcuts.png.pagespeed.ic.9degQBjHIv.webp shortcuts, consider the following well-known areas • The one on the left is the actual Word document, while the one on the right is a shortcut that ‘represents” the Word of a typical Windows computer: document. Double-clicking on either icon will open the – The Start Menu (and all the programs that live within it) same file. There are two main visual differences between the icons: – The Quick Launch bar (or the Superbar in Windows 7) • The shortcut will have a small arrow in the lower-left-hand – The “Favorite folders” area in the top-left corner of the corner (on Windows, anyway) Windows Explorer window (in or Windows 7) • The shortcut is allowed to have a name that does not – Your Internet Explorer Favorites or Firefox Bookmarks include the file extension (the “.docx” part, in this case) • You can delete the shortcut at any time without losing any Each item in each of these areas is a shortcut! actual data. The original is still intact. All you lose is the Each of those areas exist for one purpose only: ability to get to that data from wherever the shortcut was. For convenience – to provide you with a collection of the files and folders you access most often. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen-and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen-and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization

Use Shortcuts like a Pro P5 How to create a Shortcut Method #1 Copy/Paste Shortcut • Shortcuts allow us to invent a golden rule of • Right click the file and select “Copy” file and folder organization: • then in the folder you want your shortcut right “Only ever have one copy of a file – never have two click and select “Paste Shortcut” copies of the same file. Use a shortcut instead” Method #2 Right Click Drag/Drop • Right Click and hold and drag the file to the folder you wish the shortcut to reside then let • (this rule doesn’t apply to copies created for go of the Right mouse button then select backup purposes, of course!) “Create shortcuts here” You can rename the shortcut icon later if you wish.

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Want to make you folders easier to tell apart? Separate Application Files from Data Files • Any digital organization guru will drum this rule into you. Customize your folder icon images

Application files are the components of the software you’ve installed • You can easily change the icon on most folders (e.g. Word, Adobe Photoshop or Internet Explorer).

in Windows Vista and 7. Simply right-click on

Data files are the files that you’ve created for yourself using that software the folder and select properties. (e.g. Word Documents, digital photos, emails or playlists). • Click the Customize tab, and then click the • Software gets installed, uninstalled and upgraded all the time. Hopefully you always have the original installation media (or downloaded set-up file) kept somewhere safe, and can thus reinstall your software at any time. Change Icon button. • This means that the software component files are of little importance. Whereas the files you have created with that software is, by definition, important. This will open the standard dialog • It’s a good rule to always separate unimportant files from important files. to change your icon. • So when your software prompts you to save a file you’ve just created, take a moment and check out where it’s suggesting that you save the file. • If it’s suggesting that you save the file into the same folder as the software itself, • The steps are very similar to then definitely don’t follow that suggestion. change shortcut icon images. File it in your own folder! In fact, see if you can find the program’s configuration option that determines where files are saved by default (if it has one), and change it. http://cdn8.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/405x515ximage196.png.pagespeed.ic.riB7QWJzgY.png

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Tidy Your Desktop The Desktop is probably the most abused part of a Windows computer (from an organization point of view). Synchronize P1 • It usually serves as a dumping ground for all incoming files, as • If you have more than one computer, you’ll almost well as holding icons to oft-used applications, plus some regularly certainly want to share files between them. opened files and folders. It often ends up becoming an uncontrolled mess. See if you can avoid this. Here’s why… • If the computers are permanently attached to the • Application icons (Word, Internet Explorer, etc) are often found same local network, then there’s no need to store on the Desktop, but it’s unlikely that this is the optimum place for multiple copies of any one file or folder – shortcuts them. will suffice. • The “Quick Launch” bar (or the Superbar in Windows 7) is always • visible and so represents a perfect location to put your However, if the computers are not always on the icons. You’ll only be able to see the icons on your Desktop when same network, then you will at some point need to all your programs are minimized. It might be time to get your copy files between them. application icons off your desktop… • For files that need to permanently live on both • if your Desktop is not acting as your “Inbox” folder, then there’s computers, the ideal way to do this is to no reason for it to have any data files or folders on it at all, except perhaps a couple of shortcuts to often-opened files and folders synchronize the files, as opposed to simply copying (either ongoing or current projects). Everything else should be them. moved to your “Inbox” folder. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen-and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen-and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization

Sychronize P2 Synchronize P3 In short, there are several different types of • A great advantage of synchronization solutions is synchronization: that once you’ve got it configured the way you • Where the contents of one folder are accessible want it, then the sync process happens anywhere, such as with Dropbox automatically, every time. • Where the contents of any number of folders are – Click a button (or schedule it to happen automatically) accessible anywhere, such as with Windows Live and all your files are “automagically” put where Mesh they’re supposed to be. • Where any files or folders from anywhere on your • If you maintain the same file and folder structure computer are synchronized with exactly one on both computers, then you can also sync files other computer, such as with the Windows depend upon the correct location of other files, “Briefcase”, Microsoft SyncToy, or (much more like shortcuts, playlists and office documents that powerful, yet still free) SyncBack from link to other office documents, and the 2BrightSparks. This only works when both computers are on the same local network, at synchronized files still work on the other least temporarily. computer! http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen -and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen -and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization

Clean Up those CD-ROMs and (shudder!) Floppy Disks • Have you got a pile of CD-ROMs stacked on a shelf of Useful Folders to Create your office? Old photos, or files you archived off onto • This next section suggests some useful folders that you CD-ROM (or even worse, floppy disks!) because you might want to create within your folder structure. I’ve didn’t have enough disk space at the time? personally found them to be indispensable. • In the meantime have you upgraded your computer • The first three are all about convenience – handy folders to and now have 500 Gigabytes of space you don’t know create and then put somewhere that you can always access what to do with? If so, isn’t it time you tidied up that instantly. For each one, it’s not so important where the stack of disks and filed them into your gorgeous new actual folder is located, but it’s very important where you folder structure? put the shortcut(s) to the folder. You might want to locate • So what are you waiting for? Bite the bullet, copy the shortcuts: them all back onto your computer, file them in their • On your Desktop appropriate folders, and then back the whole lot up • In your “Quick Launch” area (or pinned to your Windows 7 onto a shiny new 1000Gig external hard drive! Superbar) • In your Windows Explorer “Favorite Links” area

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Create a Folder for Files and Folders that You Regularly Open Put a Shortcut to Windows Explorer into • You will always have a few files that you open Your Quick Launch Bar regularly, whether it be a spreadsheet of your • This is only necessary in Windows Vista and Windows current accounts, or a favorite playlist. These are not XP. The Microsoft boffins finally got wise and added it necessarily “current projects”, rather they’re simply to the Windows 7 Superbar by default. files that you always find yourself opening. • Windows Explorer – the program used for managing • Typically such files would your files and folders – is one of the most useful be located on your desktop programs in Windows. Anyone who considers Why not collect all such themselves serious about being organized needs shortcuts together and put instant access to this program at any time. A great them in their own special place to create a shortcut to this program is in the folder? Windows XP and Windows Vista “Quick Launch” bar: • You would want to locate • To get it there, locate it in your Start that folder somewhere Menu (usually under “Accessories”) and convenient. then right-drag it down into your Quick Launch bar (and create a copy). http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen-and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen -and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization

Data storage systems What Should I store my Backups on? Methods of organizing backups listed above are appropriate when it is a relatively small amount of data in question, within the range of a few hundred gigabytes. Otherwise, it is reasonable to consider a variant of DSS (data storage systems) application: • Hard Disk arrays - actually similar to backup servers, specially designed for data storage. Such arrays consist of multiple spacious HDDs. • Tape drives (also known as streamers) - just like with tape libraries, data is written to special cartridges (magnet tapes encapsulated in plastic box). • Tape libraries - intended for automated backup creation. Simultaneous operation of several taping devices increases the library’s performance and reduces the time needed to carry out read and write operations on backups. It is also worth mentioning that online cloud backup services are attracting a steadily increasing demand these days. Such services are based on using remote backup servers operated by third party providers via the Internet. Particularly, more and more companies rely on a virtual private server (VPS), which combines functionality of both product server and backup server in one package. Such solution is fail-safe to a greater extent and is more economically reasonable, since it eliminates expenses connected with purchasing and upgrading the hardware, while providing an extra advantage, namely an opportunity to access the data from any point in the world.

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Types of Backups The Windows backup utility supports five methods of backing up data on your computer or network. Copy backup A copy backup copies all the files you select, but does not mark each file as having been backed up (in other words, the Top 5 reasons a back up failed archive attribute is not cleared). Copying is useful if you want to back up files between normal and incremental backups because copying does not affect these other backup operations. Daily backup A daily backup copies all the files that you select that have been modified on the day the daily backup is performed. The backed-up files are not marked as having been backed up (in other words, the archive attribute is not cleared). 1. The backup copy was corrupt Differential backup A differential backup copies files that have been created or changed since the last normal or incremental backup. It 2. Human error does not mark files as having been backed up (in other words, the archive attribute is not cleared). If you are performing a combination of normal and differential backups, restoring files and folders requires that you have the last normal as well as the last differential backup. 3. Nobody knows the encryption password Incremental backup An incremental backup backs up only those files that have been created or changed since the last normal or incremental backup. It marks files as having been backed up (in other words, the archive attribute is cleared). If you use a combination of normal and incremental backups, you will need to have the last normal backup set as well as 4. Not all the data was backed up all incremental backup sets to restore your data. Normal backup 5. Only one backup was made A normal backup copies all the files you select and marks each file as having been backed up (in other words, the archive attribute is cleared). With normal backups, you only need the most recent copy of the backup file or tape to restore all of the files. You usually perform a normal backup the first time you create a backup set. 1. Backing up your data using a combination of normal backups and incremental backups requires the least amount of storage space and is the quickest backup method. However, recovering files can be time-consuming and difficult because the backup set might be stored on several disks or tapes. 2. Backing up your data using a combination of normal backups and differential backups is more time-consuming, especially if your data changes frequently, but it is easier to restore the data because the backup set is usually stored on only a few disks or tapes. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784306(v=ws.10).aspx

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