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Computer Basics

  • Compressing and packaging of files
When you want to email several files, it is better to put them into a package (often called a zip file in Windows). To do this, you can download the free compression software 7zip, which is available at both http://www.7-zip.org and http://www.download.com/. After you have installed 7zip, you can left-mouse-click to select the files that you want to compress and then right-mouse-click to select 7zip.

  • Software in zip files
You often will receive or download software in zip format (or other compressed packages, such as *.tar). You need to first expand the packages into a temporary place, such as your desktop, then install the program. It is better not to run the program from the zip files directly (weird things can happen here).

  • Turn off unwanted services
You want to turn off many unwanted or less-used services, such as instant messengers, because they slow down your computer. You can do this in control panel or by running msconfig. You can also look at your the list of your service.

  • login to Linux servers
Putty is a a good ssh-client for remote login to a Linux server. For easy file-transfer between Linux server and your windows computer, you can try WinScp.

  • Open Office
Some students do not have PowerPoint on their personal computers. You can try the open-source version of Office software at http://download.openoffice.org/