Thanks Night for the response, and a good question I should have addressed. I'll edit the post now so that the question is answered
It's been awhile. I'm going to finish off a lot more of "(My) Computer" properties today. I'll first go over Windows
, and then I'll go over Vista/7. Note I'm not going over Windows 8 anytime soon.
USERS::
Use the previous post to get to My Computer properties. And then read below for all the settings in there and what they do, what you can do to them, etc.
Automatic Updates
These are simply updates for the Windows Operating system and (mostly) Microsoft applications, such as Microsoft Office or .NET Framework. Assuming you have a legal and legitimate copy of Windows
, set this to "Automatic (recommended)". There is no reason that you should avoid the Windows updates for
as they're all pretty useful in keeping it stable. They do still make a few updates for
still, but expect this to stop in 2014.
Optionally, you can set the setting to something else. What they say are self explanatory so I won't explain them here.
You do have the option to
hide updates. This keeps the Windows Update from installing these updates, or bugging you for that matter. The only update you may need to hide - if you don't want to fix it - is the .NET Framework SP1 update. This has caused many problems for people recently to where it won't go through and it keeps saying it fails to install. It's not
important so you can set this to hide.
How do you hide an update? Well, if you have it set to automatic, let you choose to install, or just notify you, then you'll see the yellow shield pop up in the taskbar (eventually), near the time in the bottom right corner. Click the shield once, click "advanced" or "let me choose" (forgot what it says). uncheck any updates you want to hide, and then click next. It'll pop up with a window giving you the option to not remind you about the updates ever again. Tell it to not remind you and you'll officially hide the updates!
Remote
Remote refers to the idea of having someone controlling your computer from another location. No, this does not mean trojan's. It simply means that they have a compatible operating system to where they can have remote access to the computer, assuming you ALLOW it. So the first thing you will see is a checkbox saying "allow remote assistance invitations to be sent from this computer". If you sometimes have someone that helps you with remote assistance, keep it checked! If you never let anyone ever remote into the PC, just uncheck it. There's no point in keeping it on. The option simply lets *invitations* to be sent to someone else to have remote assistance to your computer.
You'll see "Advanced..." right next to it (if it's checked, you can access it). This just allows you to set the maximum time they can be invited in for and whether the PC can be controlled while remoted into. If you just want someone to see what's going on, but have no control, this is the option to consider.
The above was only for Remote Assistance, not Remote Desktop. The latter allows for someone to literally control the computer as if it's their own. As long as the computer is turned on, it can be controlled from them when they try to remote into it. There are no invitations to it. Again, however, you must have the box checked for them to remote in. The checkbox I'm referring to is the one that says "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer".
Want to set it up so you can have it remoted into from another location? Well, check the box and click select remote users. I'm not going to go into "Select Remote Users..." because this is a different subject... Just google how to do remote desktop if you're interested - or wait for who knows how long for me to explain it in here.
Computer Name
We already went over General and System Restore, so let's continue at Computer Name.
The computer description is just a description for the network to know who's computer this is or what it's for. By network, I'm referring to a group of computers connected to a central location - such as a normal household with high speed internet access.
Network ID is just something for joining Domains and that's a different topic - let's not get into that one this time.
"Change..." is good for changing the computer name. You'll need to reboot the computer after trying to rename it. Ignore the "More..." and Domain/Workgroup area - again, a different topic.
Hardware
This is where you can access:
*Device Manager, a tool to manage all your drivers on the computer
*Driver Signing, to set the option on whether unsigned drivers can be installed or not
*Windows Update, which refers to drivers not the general updates
*Hardware Profiles, a button you'll never need (or better not need) to click so we won't discuss it.
Device Manager and installing drivers will be discussed in the next post, but I'll discuss the two options under "Drivers".
Driver Signing:
First, what is a signed driver? A Signed Driver is simply a driver that has been approved by Microsoft to be safe, compatible, and in working order for the operating system you're installing it on. What is a Driver? A driver is a software means to accessing a hardware component on your computer. Without drivers, your hardware wouldn't be usable in the operating system.
You can set whether a driver must be signed or not for installation. By default, this option is set to Ignore - which I highly recommend. You can put it on Warn so it reminds you that a driver is unsigned and then gives you a warning that'll frighten the the the the the out of you. The other option is Block, to where you will only install Signed drivers. The last thing is a checkbox that says "Make this action the system default." Just keep that checked.
Windows Update: This'll allow you to select whether you want to look through Windows Update for a new driver. Say you plug in a new device and it pops up with the "Hardware Wizard". Assuming you have it set to "ask me..." , you'll see the option that says "Yes, this time only." which means to check Windows Update and find the driver for you!
So, by default, it's set to "ask me..." which I think is the best option. You could set it to automatically search on Windows Update, but there are occasions where you won't it to do this because you have a CD or downloaded software/driver that you want to install instead... and you don't want to accidentally downloaded some other driver. The other option is "Never search...". You can get away with this one if you know what you're doing all the time when installing drivers, but again - I recommend leaving it on the default choice.
Advanced
Alright! I don't want to get into this stuff because they're all separate topics to be honest. I'll just let you know that this stuff is for advanced things going on in the Operating System
So keep waiting!
VISTA/7 USERS::
Read the previous post to get into Computer properties.
There are five things to go over. To access where I'll start, you should see the button that says "Change Settings" to the right of where you see your computer name and information. Click on that.
Computer Name
The computer description is just a description for the network to know who's computer this is or what it's for. By network, I'm referring to a group of computers connected to a central location - such as a normal household with high speed internet access.
Network ID is just something for joining Domains and that's a different topic - let's not get into that one this time.
"Change..." is good for changing the computer name. You'll need to reboot the computer after trying to rename it. Ignore the "More..." and Domain/Workgroup area - again, a different topic.
Hardware
This is where you can access:
*Device Manager, a tool to manage all your drivers on the computer
*Device Installation Settings (or Windows Update Driver Settings), which refers to how the drivers are installed
Device Manager and installing drivers will be discussed in the next post.. For now, let's go over Device Installation Settings (or Windows Update Driver Settings).
First, what is a signed driver? A Signed Driver is simply a driver that has been approved by Microsoft to be safe, compatible, and in working order for the operating system you're installing it on. What is a Driver? A driver is a software means to accessing a hardware component on your computer. Without drivers, your hardware wouldn't be usable in the operating system.
By default (at least for me) this option is set to "No let me choose what to do" and then "Never install driver software from Windows Update." I don't remember the default default, so don't take my word on it matching yours. Honestly, for Windows Vista/7, it isn't a bad idea to just set this to "Yes, do this automatically" because then all the driver installations will be done for you in the background. Of course, you may still have devices that it can't find any drivers for, so you'll still need to do your own searching on the Internet. Note that it'll probably be trying to find Signed Drivers instead of any driver possible.
The checkbox that says "replace generic device icons with enhanced ones" means that it can download some higher resolution icons for the device you plug in. So instead of getting a generic printer icon for some printer you installed, you might be able to get an icon that looks just like the printer you actually have installed. Checked or not checked, this is up to you.
Advanced
Alright! I don't want to get into this stuff because they're all separate topics to be honest. I'll just let you know that this stuff is for advanced things going on in the Operating System
So keep waiting!
We already went over System Protection.
Remote
Remote refers to the idea of having someone controlling your computer from another location. No, this does not mean trojan's. It simply means that they have a compatible operating system to where they can have remote access to the computer, assuming you ALLOW it. So the first thing you will see is a checkbox saying "allow remote assistance invitations to be sent from this computer". If you sometimes have someone that helps you with remote assistance, keep it checked! If you never let anyone ever remote into the PC, just uncheck it. There's no point in keeping it on. The option simply lets *invitations* to be sent to someone else to have remote assistance to your computer.
You'll see "Advanced..." right next to it (if it's checked, you can access it). This just allows you to set the maximum time they can be invited in for and whether the PC can be controlled while remoted into. If you just want someone to see what's going on, but have no control, this is the option to consider. Also you'll see a checkbox that only allows for Vista or higher operating systems to create invitations. I'll leave that up to you (self explanatory)!
The above was only for Remote Assistance, not Remote Desktop. The latter allows for someone to literally control the computer as if it's their own. As long as the computer is turned on, it can be controlled from them when they try to remote into it. There are no invitations to it. Again, however, you must have the option selected for them to remote in. The selections I'm referring to are the ones that say "Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop" and "Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication". In simple words, your choices are "No", "Yes", "Sometimes".
Want to set it up so you can have it remoted into from another location? Just google how to do remote desktop if you're interested - or wait for who knows how long for me to explain it in here.
