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Physically cleaning your computer should be done to all computers at least once a month to ensure air flow is getting to your computer and to make sure parts are not overheating. There are some basic cleaning tips that you can follow. Always make sure your computer is powered off and unplugged while cleaning.

1. Do not spray any type of liquid inside of your computer. Use compressed air cans to clean it out. This provides a safe and powerful cleaning method for your computer. It will remove dust and small debri.
2. You can purchase small and portable vacuum cleaners made specifically for computers. These work well and are easy to store away. Do NOT use a household vacuum cleaner.
3. Keyboard brushes and canned air work very well for cleaning keyboards.
4. Microfiber cloths and LCD cleaning solution will work for cleaning monitors and LCDs. Do NOT use just any ordinary rag because this can scratch your LCD monitor.
5. For cleaning the exteriors such as your case, keyboard, and mouse, just use a little bit of warm water on a small rag and wipe them down. Do NOT get any water inside of the computer or in the keyboard.

Installing Windows XP for the first time can be scary for some people. If your computer was infected badly with viruses, your Windows installation was badly corrupted, or if you just want a clean start, then installing a fresh copy of XP will do the trick.

Your computer should always meet the minimum requirements for the installation. The requirements can be found here :

Windows XP Home Requirements

Windows XP Professional Requirements

Now once you are sure you meet the requirements, continue with the installation.

Insert the CD

Insert the Windows XP CD and restart the computer. If your computer does not read the CD then you will have to make sure your boot order is correct. This can be done by restarting your computer and tapping the “Del” key (some computers may be different but will specify the button in your manual). Once in your BIOS options, locate the Boot Order menu and make sure you have CD-Rom drive set as the first, then hard drive, and last floppy drive.

The Installation

Once the CD is recognized, a message will say “Press any key to boot from CD”. Tap any key you wish on the keyboard to enter the setup. Let Windows load the files off of the CD. When prompted, choose New Installation.

You will then have to agree to the terms, press F8 to agree.

Next you will choose where to install XP. You can either install and overwrite the existing partition or create a new one. Make sure the partition has enough space for the install. Choose which one you want and hit Enter.

You will then be asked to do a format of the old partition if you chose one. Choose NTFS format and let the format finish.

Once the format is complete, Windows will start to install the files and will reset the computer once finished. Do NOT press a key to boot off of the CD this time. Let it continue and it will start the final installation for Windows XP.

You will be then taken through the install wizard and Windows XP will be installed. Congratulations!

Creating a screenshot is very simple but a lot of people do not know how to do it. So here it is!

1. Press the Print Screen (Prt Scrn) key on your keyboard. This will copy your screen to the Windows clipboard.
2. Go to Windows Paint, located in Start, All Programs, Accessories, and Paint.
3. Click Edit and then Paste
4. Save your screenshot by clicking File, Save As, and you are done!

SATA drives have a faster transfer rate than IDE. SATA comes in a 1.5Gb/s and a 3.0GB/s speed. Your motherboard must support SATA in order to use it. If there is no connections for SATA, then you will need to use IDE. SATA uses a single cable and IDE uses a flat cable.

6.0GB/s SATA is suppose to be released this year.

An easy way to create a partition is to put in your Windows CD, boot up the installation, create a partition there, and just restart the computer without doing an install. There is also software that you can get to create partitions easily such as Partition Magic. It will allow you to choose the size you wish to make and create the partition for you.

If you have a laptop and you would like to use the hard drive on a desktop computer, then this is an easy fix. Hard drive enclosures can be purchased at most computer stores, this enclosure will allow you to put your laptop hard drive inside so you can hook it up to any computer via USB or Firewire. Generally laptop hard drives are 2.5″ or 3.5″. Just figured out what size you have, purchase an enclosure, take out the hard drive from the laptop, place it in the enclosure, and plug in the cable to any computer. Enclosures costs about $20 and up.

To find out what your external IP address is, just visit http://www.whatismyip.com and it will display your IP.

To have two monitors hooked up to one computer you will need a video card with dual output. Once you have both monitors plugged into the ports you will need to make sure they are being displayed on your desktop correctly.

To do so, navigate to the Display settings for your computer. You will see a box with a 1 and a box with a 2. The first box is for your main monitor and the second box is for your other. Click the second box and you can adjust the settings for that monitor. If you are not sure which monitor is 1 or 2, click Identify Monitor and a 1 or 2 will be displayed on the screen.

CD-R : This is a standard CD format that you can burn information on. CD-R can hold 700MB of data. This is the most common for creating boot discs, music discs, or small file backups.

CD-RW : This is the rewritable version of a CD-R. Information can be burned to it and can then be fully erased so you can put new information on it. This is great for people who want to reuse CDs or are creating daily backups.

DVD-R : This is the standard DVD format that you can burn information to. DVD-R can hold 4.7GB of information. These are great for creating copies of movies, storing lots of files, or storing video projects.

DVD+R : This is the newer version of the DVD format that provides a higher success rate when burning.

DVD-RW : This is the rewritable version of a DVD-R. Information can be burned to it, fully erased, and burned again. Some DVD players do not accept this format.

DVD+RW : Another format of rewritable DVD. Just a higher success rate for burning.

DVD+/-R DL : This format is a double sided disc. It provides you with twice the capacity (9GB). Great for large backups or high quality movies.

Blue-ray : This is the newest format on the market. It is used for extremely large backups and High Definition movies. Though expensive, these hold 25GB on single layer discs, and 50GB on the double layer.

If you do not have any burning software installed on your computer you can use Windows’ built in software that usually works just fine. Just follow the steps.

1. Navigate to the files or folder that you want to burn on to a CD.
2. Right click the files or folder, and choose Send To
3. Find your CD burner in the list (example : CD-RW Drive)
4. A balloon will appear in the bottom right of the taskbar, click it
5. Once the window is open it will show your files to be written
6. Click Write these files to CD, located on the left

7. Follow the easy steps and you are done!

If the balloon disappears from the bottom corner, just click My Computer and choose your CD burner. You can also add more files by copying and pasting files to the list.