As a long-time personal computer user, I learned the importance of backing up my data long, long ago.
There are just too many things that can go wrong when you’re working on your computer. Whether it is a hard drive that goes bad (or a floppy, in the old days), or a mental lapse on the [...]

If you don’t already have a home computer network and want to set up one, it’s easy. In fact, it’s so easy that I recommend that ANYONE using a high-speed Internet connection should use a router for the added security that it gives their computer.
A wired or wireless router (wireless routers normally have 4 wired [...]

Once we have our home network set up, often, our next desires are to be able to copy files from one computer to another and to be able to share a printer among multiple computers.
Sharing files is usually an easy step, except that Windows likes to protect us.
The first step is to open My Computer [...]

EJ wrote to ask about backing up his computer:
Terry, what program do you use to back up your files
I use two programs routinely.
First, every evening, I use Karen’s Replicator (www.karenware.com, free for personal, non-business use) to copy my data files to another computer across my home network. Not only does [...]

Why should I network the computers in my home?

Convenience, so you can share files and/or printers and/or the Internet connection
Backup, so you can copy critical data files (e.g., your Quicken data) to the other machine for backup
Computer access, so you can surf the Web while your spouse or kids are doing email or playing games

Basic [...]

Do you search the web using Google? I do. It’s easy and you can find the answer to almost any question via the web.
Some people, though, are intimidated by the search engines at Google.com, Yahoo.com and Live.com (the renamed MSN.com) among others. The only real problem between them is that they don’t all use [...]

Subscriber Fran wrote recently about a problem she was having:
When i go to control panel. Then i click on network internet connections. It just flickers. I can’t change any of the settings,or my home page. Also when i click on tools then i click internet option. It just flickers. what can [...]

Many times, we want to print the contents of our computer monitor — not just the contents that will print when we use the File > Print function or press the Print icon (in a program that has one).

Tech Tip
There’s another way to trigger a program to print, assuming that the program can print. You [...]