There are lots of ways to save money on computer expenses including free software, reducing the amount of printer ink you use, and inexpensive internet service.

Below I summarize several new and previously published tips from our customer blog that you can implement immediately to start potentially saving hundreds of dollars each year.

• Free Microsoft Office alternative office suite If the Office trial that came with your computer ran out or you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars to upgrade to a new version, a free alternative includes a word processor and programs for creating spreadsheets, presentations and drawings.

• Free Anti-Virus / Anti-Spyware protection There’s no need to keep paying companies like Norton, McAfee or Trend Micro an annual fee to inform you about virus threats which may be on your computer. There are free programs which work just as well (if not better).

• Cheaper internet If you are paying over $20 per month for high-speed or dial-up internet service, there are cheaper alternatives. AT&T currently offers high-speed internet service as low as $10/month for new customers or $20/month for existing customers. Those prices are for 768 Kbps service – most casual internet and e-mail users would not notice a difference if downgrading from a faster, more expensive plan.

• Save money on printer ink Most of the time there’s no need to use color or print at a high-quality setting when printing a web page or e-mail. Follow my tips on how to save ink and money.

• Get free on-line backup Mozy charges just $4.95/month for a service which automatically backs up an unlimited number of files on your computer to a secure online storage area. If you need less than 2 GB of files backed-up they offer a free service plan.

• Get the best deal on a new computer If you are in need of a new computer, I tell you what extra features and add-ons you can avoid so that you can get the best deal.

• The best bang-for-the-buck computer upgrade Adding RAM (Random Access Memory aka “Memory”) is the usually the best bang-for-the-buck hardware upgrade to make your computer faster.

Adding RAM (Random Access Memory aka “Memory”) is the usually the best bang-for-the-buck hardware upgrade to make your computer faster.

After you start your computer, the operating system (Windows) and various background programs such as anti-virus and other programs that are evident by icons in the system tray by the clock are loaded from the hard drive into RAM. Once you start opening programs such as your internet browser or word processing software, those programs also load into memory. It’s not uncommon to have 50 or more programs running on your computer before you start your first program. At some point you can have so many programs running that the RAM becomes full. At that point rather than just keeping you from starting any more programs your computer will then start to run programs from virtual memory which is a dedicated space on your hard drive. Using virtual memory dramatically slows down your computer, and puts excess wear on the hard drive.

To prevent needing to use virtual memory and slowing down your computer, RAM can be added to most computers. RAM prices have come down over the years, and it’s now possible to upgrade to up to 1 GB (1024 MB) of RAM for under $50. Computer Techs can install the memory for you in about 1/2 hour or less.

You can check to see how much RAM your computer has by going to Start > Control Panel > System and looking on the General tab. These days to get the best computer performance you should have a minimum of 512 MB to 1 GB (1024 MB) of RAM, depending on what programs you use on your computer.

If you’d like Computer Techs to help speed up your computer by adding more RAM, give us a call. We can acquire the memory that is compatible with your computer and install it for a part+labor total that is often less than $100.

Microsoft has released the latest version of Windows Live Mail (a program similar to Outlook Express) that adds spam/junk e-mail filtering and easy photo sharing capabilities.

Windows Live Mail offers customizable junk (spam) e-mail filtering including an option to only allow mail from a Safe Senders List into your Inbox.

The Photo E-mail composition window lets you easily insert pictures from your computer, which get converted to thumbnail-size and you can add captions and borders. If you sign-up for a free Windows Live account, or have a current live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com account, your full-size photos will be automatically uploaded to a private online storage area and held for 30 days. The advantage of the online storage of the full-size photos is that it lets you send more photos in an e-mail which are small file size, without getting close to the 10MB-per-email size limit imposed by many e-mail service providers.

For example I recently sent an email with approximately 20 pictures. If I had sent the e-mail with another program without down-sizing the pictures, the combined size of all the pictures would have been over 10 MB. However sending the pictures using Windows Live Mail, the thumbnail-size pictures embedded in the e-mail only added up to 200KB. When I sent the e-mail Windows Live Mail it automatically uploaded the 10MB+ full-size photos online. The e-mail recipients can click on the pictures in the e-mail to be taken to a web page with full-size pictures which they can view as a slide show or download any or all pictures to their computer.

Windows Live Mail also has a handy search feature for email messages or contacts that narrows down the the list of search results as you type. A calendar lets you organize your schedule and syncronize it to an online calendar.

You can get Windows Live Mail and other Windows Live software from the Windows Live Downloads website. If you would like Computer Techs to install Windows Live Mail and show you how to use it, please contact us.

Copying files to a CD can be accomplished in a few steps using the CD burning software included with Windows. Before starting, make sure the file(s) or folder(s) you want to copy will fit onto the space available on a CD. To do this, right-click on the file(s) or folder(s) and select Properties. The size will be shown in Megabytes (MB). The amount CD’s can hold is up to 650 MB. If you use Windows Vista you can burn to a single-layer DVD as well, which holds up to 4500 MB.

1. Select the file(s) or folder(s) you want to copy, right-click on one of them and select Send To > (your CD/DVD writable drive).

2. A balloon will pop-up in the system tray.

3. Click the balloon, and you will see a window displaying files ready to be written to the CD. Click on the link “Write these files to CD” under CD Writing Tasks to launch the CD Writing Wizard.

4. Follow the simple steps shown by the CD Writing Wizard, including naming your CD and inserting a blank CD-R disk if you haven’t already done so.

Finally, put your CD in a safe place. To backup all of your data with greater ease and safekeeping, read our automatic backup tips.

One of the most controversial programs being sold for computers is regsitry cleaning software. While there are legitimate registry cleaners, many of them advertised on the internet are scams that provide false information to lure people into buying their product – similar to the fake anti-virus programs that are causing widespread problems with people’s computers.

In a recent review of legitimate registry cleaners in PC World Magazine, the author advises that the programs require careful analysis of the results that they display. More time is required to back-up the registry before making any changes, and paying attention to any computer glitches that may occur after cleaning the registry. It’s a time-consuming process which may or may not speed-up your computer.

From my experience, registry cleaners provide little or no performance benefit. The results are often difficult to interpret, and what action to take based on the results is confusing. Cleaning the registry can cause more harm than good. Bottom line, avoid registry cleaning programs and let the professionals at Computer Techs make a recommendation based on a thorough analysis of your PC. When tuning-up our computer we rarely use a registry cleaner, we use several different cleaning tools and manual setting adjustments depending on the job to improve the speed of your computer. Occasionally backing up your data and re-installing Windows, your programs and your data is the best way to bring your computer back to the way it performed when you first got it.

When you send an email message to more than one person, if you do not address the recipients as Blind Carbon Copy (BCC), you may be contributing to the spam email problem.

A common way spam and viruses are spread is via email. If you send a message to multiple email addresses without using Blind Carbon Copy, all the email recipients’ addresses are visible to all other recipients – and to any virus or spambot that may be on any of the recipients’ computers. Many viruses and spambots gather e-mail addresses from infected computers to redistribute viruses and spam.

Letting email addresses be visible to others is also a privacy concern – there may be people in your address book that don’t want their email address spread around for others to see.

You may be unknowingly spreading false information

Many urban legends are spread via email – often in the form of chain letters that urge you to forward the message to everyone that you know. Useful websites that help separate factual from fictional email chain letters are Snopes.com, TruthOrFiction.com and Hoax-Slayer.com.

Interestingly, I’ve received emails with a subject “Advice from Snopes.com” – but Snopes denies that it’s something they’ve distributed. Even if the email says that the information was verified on Snopes.com, do yourself and your email recipients a favor by investigating it on Snopes first.

If you haven’t yet upgraded to the new AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0, you’ve likely seen the message pictured below come up on your computer. Despite earlier notices that updates will no longer be available as of May or June, AVG is now announcing that the end of updates for version 7.5 is the end of 2008 August 31, 2008.

We recommend upgrading to the new Free Edition 8.0 as mentioned in this earlier blog post as soon as possible. The new free version includes added anti-spyware protection as well as an anti-virus, a more user-friendly interface, less obtrusive updates and more comprehensive scanning without slowing down your computer.

AT&T recently announced the availability of their enhanced TV service in the Reno/Sparks area. Before the announcement AT&T only offered TV service via DISH Network Satellite TV. Now AT&T has it’s own TV system – U-verse TV – which gets to your home via the same copper telephone wires that carry telephone and internet.

AT&T is offering their U-verse TV as part of U-verse services, which is a bundle of communication services that includes TV, telephone and internet at a package price – similar to what Charter has been offering for a few years in the Reno area.

See http://uverse.att.com for more information and to check availability in your area. At this time I can’t get the U-verse service, but it’s available about 10 houses away from me.

Online maps have come a long way since Mapquest was the most popular website where you could print turn-by-turn directions from one point to another.

Google has gradually been making improvements to their online mapping website Google Maps, and they have recently taken street-level pictures of most roads and highways in the Reno area. With Google Maps you can now type in just about any address in the Reno area and see a traditional map, terrain map, satellite view or street view map as well as turn-by-turn directions from one point to another. In larger cities you can even view traffic maps.

Check out www.googlemaps.com and find your house.

UPDATE: DUE TO INSTALLATION ISSUES WITH WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 3 ON HP/COMPAQ COMPUTERS WITH AMD PROCESSORS – I DO NOT RECOMMEND MANUALLY INSTALLING IT AT THIS TIME. AT SOME POINT IT WILL LIKELY AUTOMATICALLY INSTALL AS PART OF OTHER WINDOWS CRITICAL UPDATES, AFTER A PATCH HAS BEEN APPLIED.

May 7 – In the past week Microsoft has released Service Pack 3 for Windows XP which is primarily a cumulative update of security and reliability patches that have been released since Service Pack 2 was released in August 2004. Service Pack 3 is currently available as a manual installation from Microsoft’s windowsupdate.com website, or it may have already been downloaded onto your computer which can be manually installed by clicking on the yellow shield and exclamation point icon which is in the system tray by your clock in the lower-right corner of your screen. If you hover your mouse over the yellow shield, a balloon pop-up will say “Updates are ready for your computer.”

Installation typically takes under 30 minutes. If you decide to put off installing Service Pack 3 manually, it will likely be automatically installed within the next few months. At this time I suggest most users wait until it is automatically installed.

Below is a description of Service Pack 3 from Microsoft…

Windows XP SP3 combines all previously released performance, security, and stability updates. It also provides a limited number of new and enhanced functionalities, although it does not significantly change the Windows XP experience or bring functionality from newer versions of Windows to Windows XP. The goals of Windows XP SP3 are to:

• Provide a new baseline for customers still deploying Windows XP, to help them avoid the inconvenience of applying individual updates.

• Fill gaps in the updates users might have missed by declining individual updates when using Automatic Updates, and to deliver updates not made available through Windows Update.

Windows Vista provides the most advanced security and management capability, but for PCs that cannot be upgraded to Windows Vista right now, Windows XP SP3 ensures these PCs have all available updates and allows these PCs to leverage some new Windows Server 2008 capabilities, such as Network Access Protection (NAP).

If you’re interested in a more detailed description about the changes in Service Pack 3 you can read Microsoft’s PDF file Overview of Windows XP Service Pack 3.