How to shrink pictures (Please be patient while this loads, could take a minute.)

I've partitioned the hard drive into three partitions:
C: Windows
D: Swapfile (used by Windows as a temporary storage space)
E: Applications

Always install new applications to E: drive. Always store documents, photos, music, etc. (basically everything) on E: drive.
You'll find that when you try to install applications, they normally default to C:/Program Files
always look for a 'Custom' or 'Browse' button near the start of the installation process, and use that to navigate to E:/Applications, then install the application there, such as:
E:/Applications/Winamp

I have made four 'images' of C: drive at various stages of the Windows installation:
1: Basic Windows installation without Windows updates loaded
2: Basic Windows installation with all drivers installed
3: Windows with all Windows updates installed
4: Final version with applications installed (Winamp, PowerDVD, etc.etc.)
These images are saved on the E: partition of your hard drive, but also backed up to DVD+R, so you're doubly safe!

I can re-install an image file in about four minutes. If in the future you find the PC is running slowly, or gets stuck like your old one did, all we have to do is re-install image no. 4, and it will be exactly the way it was when you first got it. But you will need to reinstall any new applications you have loaded since receiving the PC, but all your photos, music, etc. will still be untouched on E: drive. (That's why you should put everything like that on E: drive).

I've installed Zone Alarm which is a free firewall - you will sometimes see a popup message in the bottom right of your screen, which says 'Such and such a program is trying to access the internet - 'Allow' or 'Deny''. This means that a program on your PC has started, and is trying to access the internet. If a malicious program gets onto your PC, it may try to access the internet and send your personal information to scammers, which is why Zone Alarm informs you every time a program tries to send data to the internet. If you have just started a program, such as Internet Explorer, Zone Alarm may ask you if it's okay to allow it to access the internet. As you obviously need to access the internet, you would click 'Allow' in this case, and you can leave the box 'Do this from now on' ticked (or whatever it says), so the next time you use Internet Explorer, the Zone Alarm box won't pop up, as you've already told it to 'Allow' Internet Explorer to access the internet from now on.

I've installed AVG Antivirus which will keep your laptop safe. From time to time go into the little icon on the bottom right hand corner, for AVG, and do a manual scan, to check all of your hard drive is okay.

Use this to convert audio CDs to MP3 files. Go into the 'Preferences' menu to tell it where to save the MP3 files.

This will allow you to copy commercial DVDs (films). Use DVD Shrink to 'rip' the film from the DVD, make sure you remember where you have saved it, then use Nero to burn the files to a DVD, using 'DVD-Video' mode.

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