Straggler's Computer Guide- Useful tips

Hello everyone and welcome to my 3rd guide. Today I'm going to talk about a few things that are useful to know personal computers. It's going to be broken into 3 sections:

STRAGGLER'S MISC COMPUTER GUIDE

Sec 1- HOW TO TYPE THOUSANDS OF EXTRA CHARACTERS THAT YOU MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN EXISTED

Sec 2- HOW TO CLEAR SPACE ON YOUR COMPUTER & MAKE IT RUN FASTER

Sec 3- HOW TO PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER FROM VIRUSES/TROJANS/ETC

Sec 4- HOW TO ACCESS LOTS OF FREE TV AND MUSIC ONLINE- LEGALLY!

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Sec 1- HOW TO TYPE THOUSANDS OF EXTRA CHARACTERS YOU MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN EXISTED

Basically, have you ever seen somebody type a character like this? ∞ or like this? ♫ They're called alt character codes, and anybody with Windows has them. All you have to do is hold down the ALT key and push down a couple numbers on your little square keyboard in the corner.
This one:


Now, the most useful ones IMO are the accent keys, especially if you have to type in another language. This page shows the codes for the most useful characters, including accents, foreign money, and math symbols which are not on the ordinary keyboard.
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codealt.html#accent

Other cool symbols: • - alt263 (bullet point) ♫ - alt782 (musical note) ☺- alt729 (smiley face).

So now you know about alt keys, if you didn't.


Sec 2- HOW TO CLEAR SPACE ON YOUR COMPUTER & MAKE IT RUN FASTER

Can't download a torrent because the "disk is full"? Computer running slow? Too much saved, but unused? I'll show you how to delete some stuff.

First, go to START, then MY COMPUTER:


Click on Local Disk (C, and you'll get here:


Go to the top left and click Add Or Remove Programs, and you'll get here:


Now, you can see where it says sort by. You can sort these items by frequency of use or last use, so you get an idea of which programs you still actually need. If you don't need something, delete it! Your computer now will have that much more space for whatever you want.


Sec 3- HOW TO PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER FROM VIRUSES/TROJANS/ETC

In this section I'm going to tell you how to avoid viruses and trojans. First off, never download something you're unsure of until you scan it. Programs that do this include:
http://us.mcafee.com/root/landingpa...842&siteID=qBNKlhsBsB4-k2wkG5C/nqD8Y96ygkl4vQ
MCAFEE IS SUGGESTED BUT IT'S NOT FREE.

http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition

AVG is also good and IT IS FREE. BUT NOT THE FULL VERSION.

Also, never open an email with an attachment unless you know who it's from and what the attachment is. An attachment email will have a little paperclip next to it, like so:


Also, don't open links on Sythe that claim to have a download to some sort of cheat, or anything, until you have scanned it or somebody you highly trust has confirmed it. These are probably the most common ways to get a virus, not scanning downloads and opening virus emails.


Sec 4- HOW TO ACCESS LOTS OF FREE TV AND MUSIC ONLINE- LEGALLY!

For music- Use http://www.pandora.com/

Just register, then you'll get tons of free music. Only problem is that you can't download it on to iTunes. It's a good system though, espically because it's 100% legal.

For TV- http://www.hulu.com/

You probably know about it, but if you don't, it has lots of free TV episodes and links to places where you can watch them. Also 100% legal.



So anyway, this guide has basically been a display of some of the tricks and tips I've found to be useful on the computer. I hope you've learned something, and please give me feedback, because I will edit this guide if need be. Thanks!