Year-end
traditionally represents new beginnings. Many of us start by purging our filing
system. We clean up last year's files and sort our papers for the accountant.
Just as you clean up your file cabinet and put away last year's files, so to should
you purge and clean your computer.
Take
the time to delete unnecessary files. Store those you're not sure of on an external
media, such as a diskette. Keep your computer clean and uncluttered. Not only
will this prevent items from being lost, it will help the performance of your
machine by speeding up the search process when you open a file.
Window
provides a convenient way to dispose of unwanted files through the recycle bin.
Typically, when you select Delete your file is sent there. There are a number
of ways to delete a file. Most commonly we enter My Computer and open the appropriate
folder (Microsoft products store files in a folder called My Documents). When
you have found the file to delete, select it with a right click and with a left
click select Delete.
However,
Windows requires a second action - emptying the recycle bin - to permanently delete
a file from your computer. This safeguard protects us from accidentally deleting
the wrong file. If the wrong file is deleted, open the recycle bin can restore
it. Select the file with a left click and select restore from the file menu, your
file will be returned to its original location. Our files stay in the bin until
we empty it. Be careful though, clean this area up from time to time to avoid
overfilling your hard drive with trash.
Your
recycle bin is similar to the trashcan that sits at the side of your desk. You
toss a piece of paper into the trash to throw it out, but it isn't really gone
until you empty your trash into the outside bin at the curb. If you throw something
away you didn't want to, you dig through the trash and pull it out. In Windows
you restore from the recycle bin.
You
can avoid this two step process, however, by pressing the Shift Key while selecting
delete. This will bypass the recycle bin and perform a permanent delete. This
allows you to select on a 'file by file' basis whether to stop over in the recycle
bin.
One
last note, Windows defaults to saving 10% of your hard disk for recycle bin storage.
This can be a lot of trash! You may want to reset this. Right click on your recycle
bin and select Properties. Under properties you will see a slide bar that can
be adjusted to the maximum amount of space you would like reserved. Bear in mind,
as you delete a file and no more space is allocated, Windows will automatically
delete the oldest file in the recycle bin…not the oldest file created, but
the file that has sat in the trash the longest.
