Dear PC Doctor:

            I have a new Vista computer and in doing the setup I somehow ended up having to log in whenever I turn the computer on.  No one else uses the computer but me and I would like to have it just start up to the desktop.  Is there a way to do that?

                        Sandy

Dear Sandy:

            Click the Start Orb or button and in the search box (which is at the very bottom on the left) type in ‘control userpasswords2’ (don’t put in the quotation marks though) and then hit the OK button.  A User Accounts window will open, click the Users tab and uncheck the box that says ‘users must enter a user name and password to use this computer’.   Click Apply.  Now you will be asked for your administrator password if you have one.  Type it in if you do or click OK if you don’t.   Reboot the computer and when it comes back up you should not have to log in.

                        PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

            One of the computers at work crashed and the person lost all their stuff because they weren’t backing it up.  Now I’m kind of nervous about mine and I went out and bought an external hard drive to back up onto.  I’ve installed it following the directions that came with it but my question is what am I supposed to be backing up?  The whole hard drive?

                        Tim

Dear Tim:

            It kind of depends on your particular system.  If you back up the whole computer it will take a long time plus if it crashes you will be restoring some of the problems that caused it in the first place.  It also takes a lot of space on a backup drive.

            What I do is to just back up my documents, photos, Quicken files and any data files that I couldn’t replace elsewhere.  The programs / software itself (like Word, etc.) can be purchased anywhere and reinstalled.  My word documents cannot so I want to be sure to have another copy in a backup. 

            You want to be sure that you actually have copies of those software programs on your computer so check to make sure that you have the Word disks or game programs that you use.  Also you want to make sure that you have the disks that came with the computer itself.  If you did not get disks, now might be the time to contact the computer company and ask for a set of disks for you to use in the case of a crash.  Usually they will send you a free set.  The time to get them is now when you are not having a problem.

            One good way to check that you are backing up all the important data is to look at your desktop and the All Programs section in your Start button.  Notice the programs you use all the time and where the data is being saved. Actually look at any program you have used to determine if that data should be saved.   That way you can be sure that every program is included in the list of things that you are backing up.  When you open up the backup program software that came with your new external drive, it usually asks what files you want to back up.  Check all those that you want and save it so from them on it will include them in each backup.

            PC Doctor

Until next time… happy computing!

© July 01, 2009 ~ Athol Public Library ~ 568 Main Street ~ Athol, Massachusetts 01331 ~ contact us