Protect your privacy

Social networking sites make it easy to keep your friends up-to-date on your life,but they can also broadcast your infomation to people you don't know.
You should regularly check their privacy options to make sure you're not publicising yourself more than you want.On Facebook,click the "Privacy"link at the top right corner of the page to see the dozens of different setting available.The most important ones are under the "Profile" category,but you should also familarise yourself with the site's "Limited Profile"feature,which lets you present a subset of your infomation to people outsite your circle of close friends.
MySpace doesn't provide nearly as many options,but it's still worth checking them: Log into your account,click the "Settings" button in the box below your profile picture,and then click the "Privacy" link to adjust who can see your profile(everybody over 18,or only your friends) and if people can see when you're on line.

Free Stuff?

You will find some of the best,no-string-attached freebies listed at The Free Site.
Everything on the site is FREE.You'll find a lot of computer-related freebies,but there are plenty of other things as well,including newsletters,web space,and fonts.

Minimise on the fly

When you find that you have three or four application windows cluttering your Windows screen,you can quickly gain your sanity by holding down the Windows key and tapping the letter D.
Doing so immediately minimises all open applications,without shutting them down.
Tapping them again opens all Windows just as they were before you minimised them.
This trick works with all recent version Windows,beginning with Windows Me up thru Vista.

Keep your PC clean

Computers are no different from closets,bookshelves or pantries:They accumulate old,unwanted purchases.
A program that you no longer need will only take up valuable disk space,as well as a spot in Windows Start menu or a Mac Applications folder.
So every few months,inventory the software on your machine,decide which programs you still need and get rid of the ones you don't.
On a Mac,you usually only need to drag unwanted programs icons to Trash,but in Windows you'll need to open the Control Panel and click "Add or Remove Programs"to uninstall excess applications.
A system-cleaner application such as the free CCleaner
can help find any program leftovers that uninstallers didn't clean up:Click the Registry button,let it scan your system and click the "Fix selected issues...."button.

Get a virtual keyboard

One of the hidden applications in Windows XP and Vista is a graphical keyboard.
In Vista,launch it by opening the Start menu and type OSK and pressing Enter.
The representation of the keyboard will appear.Thjis is handly for people with disabilities,or if your keyboard starts acting up.

Scroll wheel uses

If your finger is tired of turning the wheel in the middle of a computer mouse to roll through a page,press down on the scroll just moving the mouse up and down.
Click the scroll again to return to normal scrolling.The trick works on many web browsers and in long documents in some versions of Microsoft Word.
Firefox users have another shortcut with the scroll wheel button: Click on a link to open that link in a new browser tab.

Use a paper clip on stuck disk

Sometime you can have a DVD stuck in your computer's drive and it will not eject using traditional methods.
In some cases,all you need to ease open the drive is a paper clip,unfolded.
If you have a computer with a tray-loading CD or DVD drive, look for a small round hole on the door of the drive,then gently push the end of the paper clip through the hole until you hit the internal latch to pop open the drive door.
You may have to adjust the angle of your paper clip while poking.If the door is moving slowly,ease it out and do not yank on it.
If you have a Mac that lacks a hole in the drive door,restart the computer and hold down the mouse button as the machine boots up.