A slow booting computer is a major pain in the neck. You simply do not have a lot of time to waste, sitting around and waiting for Windows to get around to booting up completely. If you notice that your computer is taking a longer and longer amount of time to get up and moving completely, then it is time to take some measures to correct the problem before it gets worse...or you pull all of your hair out. And fortunately, you do not need to expensive computer training courses or to run out to the local computer repair shop to get the problem taken care of!

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The first time you look inside a desktop computer's case can be a little overwhelming. So many wires, so many delicate parts...so many expensive things that can break and have to be replaced. The fact of the matter is that if you have a computer, at some point, something is going to go wrong with it, whether you like the idea of that or not. Your best bet, in the case, is to be prepared. Forewarned is forearmed, so if you have good, useful computer repair knowledge under your belt, when something goes wrong with your computer's hardware or software, you will be able to fix the problem yourself. That means no more worrying and no more paying other people to do something you can do yourself!

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Computers are a huge part of daily life for almost everyone now, and that means everyone is seemingly always in need of a good computer repair technician to keep things running properly and smoothly. It does not matter if the company in question is a huge multinational corporation or the mom and pop grocery down on the corner – if they have computers, the computers will have problems at some point, and they will need to get those problems taken care of.

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IT is a fast growing field that shows no signs of slowing down. It's also a field that thrives somewhat on “non IT” people thinking there's no way they can do the same job as well as the IT people with degrees can. After all, if you knew how to fix your computer when it crashes yourself, then you wouldn't need to call a computer technician to get it straightened out, right? Everyone, from huge corporations to small businesses to the recreational PC user, needs access to people knowledgeable in computer repair. And while it makes good sense for those huge corporations to have a staff of IT people to take care of their systems – they can afford it, and they are busy doing other stuff, anyway. At the same time, though, it does not make sense for the average computer owner to also rely on those techs, since we obviously do not have access to the budget that the big companies do.

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On the initial setup for Windows Vista, you're asked for a password to link with your account. Every time after, on startup, you're asked to enter the password before you can begin. This can be a great protection for business computers, or computers with multiple users (especially parents with a separate account for their children).

It's a great feature, especially if you want to keep your information private, or if you're worried about your computer being stolen. But if you're the only user on your computer, especially if it's a home desktop, entering a password every time can get a bit tiresome. But you're in luck! Windows Vista offers the option of deleting the password associated with the account, and therefore skipping the entire login process. Below is the series of steps you need to follow to delete your Windows Vista password.

1) Click on the Control Panel (Start - > Control Panel)
2) Click User Accounts/Family Safety (If your control panel is in classic view, you won't see this; so you'll go directly to the next step)
3) Click the User Accounts option.
4) Look for the section called “Make Changes to User Account.”
5) Click “Remove Password” for your account username

At this point, for security purposes, you'll need to re-enter your password.

6) Confirm you are deleting your account password by clicking “Remove Password.”
7) Close the window.
8) Shut down your computer safely (via Start - > Shutdown).
9) Turn the computer back on, and voila! No password necessary!

BE AWARE: When you delete your account password, you are making it accessible to anyone who can reach the power button. This means all of your files, your documents, your emails, everything. If you are in a secure location (home, etc) and don't expect to have your work area compromised, then this should be no problem. But if you are in a business environment, or using a laptop computer, it's highly recommended you keep the system password protected. The few seconds you spend entering the password may save you a lot of headache later if your system is compromised.

There is nothing more annoying than a computer that takes forever to get around to booting up. Maybe you just have 5 minutes before you have to run out the door, but you absolutely must check your email before you go – if your computer takes 5 minutes to boot up completely, well...you're out of luck. This is a frustrating problem that many computer users face, and if you are experiencing this issue, you likely want to get it taken care of as soon as possible. The good news is that there are many things you can do to speed up your computer's boot time yourself, and you do not have to take it out to the local computer repair shop and pay an arm and a leg to have it done. You can fix the problem yourself!

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By now, you know the importance of defragging your hard drive on a regular basis. As your hard drive gets used over time, you add and remove programs and files, install applications and uninstall them, and generally take up space on the hard drive. Removing things opens up space, but when you put a new thing onto the hard drive in its place, you often end up with not enough room all in a row for all of the information. So your computer will instead place bits and parts of information in several places on the hard drive – this results in your drive being fragmented. The more fragmented the drive, the slower your computer system will eventually become. The reason for that is that your computer needs all of those pieces of information to open a program or file when you ask for it, and if the bits and pieces of information it needs are scattered around the drive, it takes your system a lot longer to hunt around to get all of them and eventually open the program or file. So we use the Disk Defragmenter utility to correct this problem as much as we can – running the utility lets the system find bits of information and move them around to be closer to other bits of information, freeing up larger spots of open space for you.

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When you are running a Windows operating system on your computer, you will likely encounter the cumbersome and somewhat annoying process of opening “unknown files” periodically. You know the one – you have a file that you want to open, but Windows does not recognize the file type. It lets you know by popping up a large window that asks you to choose from a bunch of different programs and applications to open the file, as well as giving you the option of searching the web for a program or application associated with that file type that you might be able to use.

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The digital age has broken a lot of barriers when it comes to communication, and while that has been terrific for the education, entertainment, and critical communities, it's proven to be quite a challenge for the security community. Open communication can create a false sense of safety and familiarity, and that can open doors for people you'd otherwise never allow into your home. However, some simple preventative medicine (including a healthy skeptical attitude) can often be your best line of defense. When you receive emails, consider the following:

1.) Do you know the sender?
◦ Does the tone of the email match their usual style (spelling, grammar, word choice, etc)?
◦ Do you notice any changes in their normal tone?

Even if the person is familiar to you, that doesn't instantly imply safety. Some viruses can temporarily take control of a person's email system, and spam everyone in their address book with virus-ridden files. If anything in the email raises a warning flag in your mind, or if the email comes from an unfamiliar source, proceed to the second set of questions.

2.) Is the email making a request or an offer?
◦ Do you see a “call to action?”
◦ Is there an attached link or file?

Most people aren't aware of this, but many viruses cannot simply arrive in your email and begin working. In order for them to take effect, it requires some action on your part. It may be something like visiting a link provided in the email, or even as simple as opening a file attached. Please note: the file does not need to be a .EXE or other program file in order to infect your system! Viruses come in the form of many kinds of files (examples below).

.EXE, .COM, .SYS (executable files)
.ZIP, .RAR, .GZ (archived files)
.DOC, .XLS (document files)

This is by no means a comprehensive list of potentially infected files. Instead, it's an example to help you understand the mindset necessary to stay on guard: the attacks can come from unexpected places, and in fact are designed to do so. Therefore, the best defense against a virus attack is the right attitude and the right awareness. In the next installment in this two part series on how to avoid email viruses, we will examine some of the more subtle ways that people can try to take advantage of you and your computer system via your email.