COMPUTER SYSTEM TOOLS

SCANDISK MICROSOFT UTILITY PURCHASED FROM NORTON, WHICH IS NOW SYMANTEC; INCLUDED WITH MS-DOS 6.2 AND ON AS WELL AS ALL VERSIONS OF MICROSOFT WINDOWS EXCEPT WINDOWS NT. SCANDISK IS A SOFTWARE UTILITY CAPABLE OF CHECKING THE HARD DRIVE OR FLOPPY DISKETTE DRIVE FOR ANY DISK ERRORS. WHEN ERRORS ARE ENCOUNTERED, SCANDISK WILL MARK THOSE SECTIONS OF THE DISK TO HELP PREVENT INFORMATION FROM FURTHER ISSUES.

WORKAROUND TO CHECK THE HARD DISK DRIVE INTEGRITY IN WINDOWS : DOUBLE-CLICK MY COMPUTER, AND THEN RIGHT-CLICK THE HARD DISK DRIVE YOU WANT TO CHECK. CLICK PROPERTIES, AND THEN CLICK TOOLS. IN ERROR-CHECKING, CLICK CHECK NOW.

DISK DEFRAGMENTER FRAGMENTATION MAKES YOUR HARD DISK DO EXTRA WORK THAT CAN SLOW DOWN YOUR COMPUTER. REMOVABLE STORAGE DEVICES SUCH AS USB FLASH DRIVES CAN ALSO BECOME FRAGMENTED. DISK DEFRAGMENTER REARRANGES FRAGMENTED DATA SO YOUR DISKS AND DRIVES CAN WORK MORE EFFICIENTLY. DISK DEFRAGMENTER RUNS ON A SCHEDULE, BUT YOU CAN ALSO ANALYZE AND DEFRAGMENT YOUR DISKS AND DRIVES MANUALLY.

TO DEFRAGMENT YOUR HARD DISK OPEN DISK DEFRAGMENTER BY CLICKING THE START BUTTON PICTURE OF THE START BUTTON. IN THE SEARCH BOX, TYPE DISK DEFRAGMENTER, AND THEN, IN THE LIST OF RESULTS, CLICK DISK DEFRAGMENTER. UNDER CURRENT STATUS, SELECT THE DISK YOU WANT TO DEFRAGMENT. TO DETERMINE IF THE DISK NEEDS TO BE DEFRAGMENTED OR NOT, CLICK ANALYZE DISK. ADMINISTRATOR PERMISSION REQUIRED IF YOU'RE PROMPTED FOR AN ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD OR CONFIRMATION, TYPE THE PASSWORD OR PROVIDE CONFIRMATION. ONCE WINDOWS IS FINISHED ANALYZING THE DISK, YOU CAN CHECK THE PERCENTAGE OF FRAGMENTATION ON THE DISK IN THE LAST RUN COLUMN. IF THE NUMBER IS ABOVE 10%, YOU SHOULD DEFRAGMENT THE DISK. CLICK DEFRAGMENT DISK. ADMINISTRATOR PERMISSION REQUIRED IF YOU'RE PROMPTED FOR AN ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD OR CONFIRMATION, TYPE THE PASSWORD OR PROVIDE CONFIRMATION.

SYSTEM INFORMATION WHAT IS SYSTEM INFORMATION? SYSTEM INFORMATION (ALSO KNOWN AS MSINFO32.EXE) SHOWS DETAILS ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER'S HARDWARE CONFIGURATION, COMPUTER COMPONENTS, AND SOFTWARE, INCLUDING DRIVERS. OPEN SYSTEM INFORMATION BY CLICKING THE START BUTTON PICTURE OF THE START BUTTON. IN THE SEARCH BOX, TYPE SYSTEM INFORMATION, AND THEN, IN THE LIST OF RESULTS, CLICK SYSTEM INFORMATION.

SYSTEM INFORMATION LISTS CATEGORIES IN THE LEFT PANE AND DETAILS ABOUT EACH CATEGORY IN THE RIGHT PANE. THE CATEGORIES INCLUDE: SYSTEM SUMMARY. DISPLAYS GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER AND THE OPERATING SYSTEM, SUCH AS THE COMPUTER NAME AND MANUFACTURER, THE TYPE OF BASIC INPUT/OUTPUT SYSTEM (BIOS) YOUR COMPUTER USES, AND THE AMOUNT OF MEMORY THAT'S INSTALLED. HARDWARE RESOURCES. DISPLAYS ADVANCED DETAILS ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER'S HARDWARE, AND IS INTENDED FOR IT PROFESSIONALS. COMPONENTS. DISPLAYS INFORMATION ABOUT DISK DRIVES, SOUND DEVICES, MODEMS, AND OTHER COMPONENTS INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER. SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT. DISPLAYS INFORMATION ABOUT DRIVERS, NETWORK CONNECTIONS, AND OTHER PROGRAM-RELATED DETAILS.

SYSTEM RESTORE PURPOSE SYSTEM RESTORE AUTOMATICALLY MONITORS AND RECORDS KEY SYSTEM CHANGES ON A USER'S COMPUTER. IT IS DESIGNED TO REDUCE SUPPORT COSTS AND INCREASE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION BY ENABLING A USER TO UNDO A CHANGE THAT MAY HAVE CAUSED A PROBLEM WITH THE SYSTEM, OR REVERT TO A DAY WHEN THE SYSTEM WAS PERFORMING OPTIMALLY.

HOW TO… OPEN SYSTEM RESTORE BY CLICKING THE PICTURE OF THE START BUTTON. IN THE SEARCH BOX, TYPE SYSTEM RESTORE, AND THEN, IN THE LIST OF RESULTS, CLICK SYSTEM RESTORE. ‌ ADMINISTRATOR PERMISSION REQUIRED IF YOU'RE PROMPTED FOR AN ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD OR CONFIRMATION, TYPE THE PASSWORD OR PROVIDE CONFIRMATION.

STRATEGIES FOR FREEING DISK SPACE RUN DISK CLEANUP. THIS TOOL REMOVES TEMPORARY FILES, EMPTIES THE RECYCLE BIN, AND REMOVES A VARIETY OF SYSTEM FILES AND OTHER ITEMS THAT YOU NO LONGER NEED. UNINSTALL OLD PROGRAMS. IN ADDITION TO DELETING OLD FILES YOU NO LONGER WANT, YOU CAN DO THE SAME FOR PROGRAMS THAT YOU NO LONGER USE. DELETE ALL BUT THE MOST RECENT RESTORE POINT. SYSTEM RESTORE USES RESTORE POINTS TO RETURN YOUR SYSTEM FILES TO THE STATE THEY WERE IN AT AN EARLIER POINT IN TIME. IF YOUR COMPUTER IS RUNNING NORMALLY, YOU CAN SAVE DISK SPACE BY DELETING THE EARLIER RESTORE POINTS.

ARCHIVE OLD FILES TO CD OR DVD. IF YOU HAVE OLD PHOTOS THAT YOU WANT TO KEEP BUT DON'T NECESSARILY WANT ON YOUR COMPUTER, CONSIDER ARCHIVING THEM TO REMOVABLE MEDIA, SUCH AS A DVD OR CD. THAT WAY, YOU’LL BE ABLE TO VIEW THEM WHENEVER YOU'D LIKE, BUT THEY WON'T TAKE UP SPACE ON YOUR COMPUTER. ADD ANOTHER HARD DISK DRIVE. ADDING AN EXTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE IS AN EASY WAY TO CREATE PLENTY OF EXTRA SPACE TO STORE DIGITAL PHOTOS, VIDEOS, MUSIC, AND OTHER FILES AND TO CLEAR SOME SPACE ON YOUR PRIMARY HARD DISK. TO INSTALL AN EXTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PLUG IT IN TO YOUR COMPUTER AND CONNECT THE POWER CORD. MOST OF THESE HARD DISK DRIVES PLUG INTO A USB PORT, BUT SOME PLUG INTO A FIREWIRE PORT (ALSO KNOWN AS IEEE 1394). FOR ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS, CHECK THE INFORMATION THAT CAME WITH YOUR EXTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE.

CHARACTER MAP CHARACTER MAP ENABLES YOU TO VIEW THE CHARACTERS THAT ARE AVAILABLE IN A SELECTED FONT. USING CHARACTER MAP, YOU CAN COPY INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERS OR A GROUP OF CHARACTERS TO THE CLIPBOARD AND PASTE THEM INTO ANY PROGRAM THAT CAN DISPLAY THEM.

HOW DO I OPEN CHARACTER MAP? OPEN CHARACTER MAP BY CLICKING THE PICTURE OF THE START BUTTON. IN THE SEARCH BOX, TYPE CHARACTER MAP, AND THEN, IN THE LIST OF RESULTS, CLICK CHARACTER MAP.