This article concentrates on the crap you download and not the crap that just accumulates over time.

It honestly amazes me how much I download. If you’re like most people (including myself), you probably have a downloads folder where you place everything. Then seemingly all of a sudden the folder contains 6 gigs or more worth of files, with the top 3 culprits (in bigness) being video files, audio files and installation executables.

And forget about organizing the downloads folder you have because every time you think you’ve got it just right, you need another category which means another subfolder. And another. And another.

Here are the 5 ways to keep crap off your computer box.

1. Keep email attachments in email.

Email in today’s modern internet has gigs and gigs of space at your disposal. Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail have ever-increasing file quota sizes. That being the case, if someone sends you a file and you view it once, delete it off your drive afterward. It’s in your email anyway, so if you ever need to retrieve it again, it’s there.

2. Make a habit of archiving installation files immediately after installation.

You download Mozilla Firefox because you want to try it out, and install it. Right after the installation, push the file over to CD, DVD or USB stick and delete it off your hard drive.

Do this for every type of program you download and make a habit of it, else these seemingly smaller executable files can turn into a mess in short order.

3. Periodically search your hard drive for the largest files.

In Windows XP: Start / Run / type explorer / press Enter.

Highlight your primary hard drive (usually C).

Click the Search button or use the CTRL+F keystroke.

Choose to search All files and folders.

Expand What size is it? and choose to search for files 5000 KB or larger.

It should look similar to this:

The search will take time to complete. When finished, click View, then Arrange Icons By, then Size so you can see the largest files first (or last depending on how your list is set up).

Examine what you find. Sometimes you’ll find crap in there you don’t even need.

Here’s an example using my own computer:

The file I have highlighted is wireless drivers for my Dell laptop. I archived this months ago. 80MB of space wasted. I deleted it and got the space back.

Important note: Do not delete anything out of vital system folders, such as C:\WINDOWS, C:\Program Files or anything underneath it.

And if you find a file that looks odd to you, perform a Google search to see what it is. For example, in the above screen shot you see MRT.exe. A Google search for that file reveals that to be a Microsoft-specific program needed by the operating system.

4. Use a compression program for large batches of files.

I recommend 7-Zip to compress files into smaller easy-to-manage archives.

Example: You have a digital camera and take a lot of photos. On your hard drive are 500 of them you want to store.

After installing 7-Zip, go to where the files are, highlight them all, right-click, hover over the 7-Zip menu and select to add to archive. Make your archive and it’s a done deal.

Archiving with a file compression program is not so much for saving space as it is for organization using it in this way. In addition you can encrypt archives and set passwords with 7-Zip. It even has the option to make self-installer executable SFX archives too.

5. Use encrypted volumes that mount drive letters easily.

You know that a store-bought DVD can hold 4.7GB worth of data.

Wouldn’t it be nice to set a drive letter in Windows that was exactly that size, so when it’s full you know it’s time to archive it and make a new one?

With TrueCrypt you can do just that – and do it securely.

Download that software (it’s free) then read the Beginner’s Tutorial on how to create a "container" on your system. While following the directions, make your container size 4.7GB (it’s best to set it to just 4GB so you know it will always fit on a DVD no matter what).

Assign it a drive letter in Windows (the software does this easily and tells you how) and when it’s all filled up, push it to DVD afterward, then just create another.

When the size limit is reached for the container, Windows will let you know by stating it cannot write any further data to the selected drive.

It doesn’t get any easier than this. There is no partitioning necessary, no rebooting, none of that. You get the "extra" drive letter you want at exactly the right size you specify that gives you appropriate warnings when you tap the limit.

Try to keep your computer box crap-free, everybody.

When you like tech, bringing some (or a lot) of it into the car is a big deal. Here’s three ways to bring some or more of your electronic goodness into what you drive without breaking the bank.

Cigarette Lighter USB Adapter

Got something powered by USB that you’d love to have in the car? Use one of these little guys and it will fit the bill nicely. Cheap, too. Only 5 dollars. If you shop around enough you might even be able to score one for less than that.

Non-Slip Dashboard Mat

This little dashboard mat stays put and "sticks" whatever you place on it. They are made of material that is non-slip and "hold" things like cell phones and iPods. No installation required. Plop on the dash, put stuff on it, done deal. If one is not available at your local electronics store, try this eBay search. Prices are as low as 3 dollars. The better ones are washable.

Coffee Cup Power Inverter

Sure, you’ve seen power inverters for cars before that give you "three prong" outlets – but have you ever seen one shaped like a coffee cup? This one is, and it’s only 30 dollars. Sound like a lot? Not really when you realize how convenient this thing is. Usually when you plug in an inverter it is in a decidedly inconvenient spot, not to mention the inverter itself is large and might even scrape up against your leg while in use. This one has its own spot and it’s already in your car. Oh, and by the way, this also has a 500mA USB charging port on it too! You may not even need the cigarette lighter USB adapter above if you get one of these…

Somewhere right now on the internet, at least 25,000 people are blogging, video’ing, Twittering, Facebook’ing, MySpace’ing or whatever other-ing something they really shouldn’t about someone in their social circle. Shortly after what they post these people will encounter the wrath of those they posted about (and probably in less than 24 hours). Nasty emails will be shot back and forth and friendships will be ended.

If you want to avoid internet social mistakes that "deal the drama" as they say, below are my tips for keeping drama at bay.

1. If someone you know does not have a public internet presence, ASK before posting anything about them on the internet.

You attend a party and have a digital camera in tow, so you snap a few pictures. All the pictures are innocent. There’s nothing embarrassing about them whatsoever. You decide to post them to your Flickr account, then email your friends and say, "Hey! Look at all these cool photos I took at the party!"

Chances are you’re going to get some really nasty emails fired back at you in short order demanding that you remove them immediately. Why? Because you didn’t ask to put them on the internet first.

As far as you’re concerned, it’s no big deal. But to others it may be a very, very big deal.

And if you reply to complaints by firing back with, "What’s your problem?", you can count on friendships being broken quickly because of it.

Always ask and save yourself the hassle.

2. Before you post a "rant", understand you may incur the wrath of the internet.

Let’s say for the moment I decided to write a baseless stupid statement such as, "Ford sucks!"

Am I going to get a reaction from this? Yes. I will incur the wrath of the Ford automobile community, called every possible name in 40 different languages and be instantly pegged as a fool for stating such a thing – which I would deserve if I actually meant it.

The internet is full of rants. People sometimes feel the need to just blast away something, be it in written, audio or video form. However what these people don’t understand is that the internet is a social medium and you may get a reaction smacked back at you so hard it’ll make your head spin.

There is this ridiculous belief that you can post anything you want on the internet and that nothing could ever possibly come of it. It’s just the internet, right?

Wait until you stir the hornet’s nest and get back to me on that one. It won’t be pretty.

3. If it’s public, chances are it will be saved before you can hit the delete key and there’s not a thing you can do about it.

Using a reference to tip 1 above, let’s say you complied and decided to remove the photos you took of of the party you went to. Are they gone from the internet at that point? Probably not. You did email all your friends about it, and chances are a few of them saved local copies of those photos. And those friends re-uploaded them elsewhere on the internet. Uh-oh. The damage is done at this point and now it’s out of your control.

Another example: You write a blog ranting about how much you think your job sucks. Like a fool, you mention who you work for, other employees who tick you off and so on. You learn that your boss finds out about this so you immediately delete the post.

Trust me, it’s not gone. He or she saved it. If not the boss, then a co-worker. Possibly several of them. You just gave them all ammunition they can use against you later if you tick them off for whatever reason.

Was that rant worth it? Obviously not.

Always assume anything you post on the internet that can be viewed by others will be saved.

4. Think before you type

You’ve heard this a million times by a million different people. They were all right.

You have the luxury of being able to actually think about what you’re going to post to the internet before it actually happens. It isn’t like when you’re speaking and you blurt something out accidentally.

Here’s my suggestion to those of the "ranty" persuasion: The next time you want to rant about something, be it as a comment, a blog post or your own or otherwise, read it back to yourself out loud before posting it.

When you physically speak what you write before you post, you’ll probably think, "Whoa.. this is really angry. I should probably structure this better." Watch how your commentary drastically improves when you do this. It really does work.

You have the luxury of being able to edit before posting. Use that opportunity.

5. Any attempt by you to be funny will crash and burn if you don’t understand the lack of inflection with written word.

This sounds really technical but it isn’t.

One of the biggest differences between spoken word and written is the lack of inflection.

There is no such thing as inflection with the written word when compared to spoken. This is because spoken uses sound (where the inflection happens) and written uses visual.

The workaround, so to speak, of the lack of inflection in written word is to use punctuation marks, adjusting the style of text and the emoticon.

Examples:

• This is a plain sentence.
• This is emphasized.
• This is directing you to the word boat because it’s bold.
• THIS IS SHOUTING.
• The end of this sentence indicates I am joking! : – )

You get the idea.

And now here’s an example of how you crash and burn unintentionally.

"You’re a dork."

On read, this is insulting and not funny whatsoever. You may have meant it to be funny, but without inflection it come across as a serious statement.

Workaround: "You’re a dork! : – )"

The emoticon, a.k.a. the sideways happy face, in combination with the exclamation point should put the point across that yes, you are joking. I say should because believe it or not, even though the emoticon has been around since September 19, 1982, some people still don’t know it.

In that case, you write:

"You’re a dork! (joking!)"

Yes, very obvious, but sometimes you have to be. Or alternatively, try not to joke to avoid crashing and burning in the first place.

Care to comment?

Experiment with your newfound lack-o’-inflection knowledge by commenting with, "Rich is a dork" the insulting way, or shout it out, "RICH IS A DORK". Or maybe try emphasizing with "RICH IS A DORK"?

Minutes of fun! : – )

Dust is one of those things you simply can’t avoid. It happens and often. You could be the biggest neat freak in the world and you’ll still get dust.

Here are a few tips to keep your computer as dust-free as possible so it lasts longer. Continued

Chances are you’re probably going to stick around with XP until Windows 7 comes along. And even then you may wait. If that’s what you plan to do, no problem. You can do a few things to get XP to look and feel better.

1. Use the Zune theme

The Zune theme is available here:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078

This gives XP a black and orange look. Additionally it’s a complete theme (unlike "Royale" which isn’t and has rough edges here and there).

Here’s an example of what it looks like:

Trust me when I say you will like this.

If you don’t feel like using this theme, the next best thing is "Silver". This is built-in to your XP already and is accessible from the Display icon in the Control Panel from the Appearance tab.

Looks like this:

Silver is arguably the best built-in theme in XP. The standard blue gives XP too much of a toy-like appearance, and the "Olive Green" just doesn’t cut it.

Zune and Silver work well.

Small end note: Using the Zune theme doesn’t mean you have to actually own a Microsoft Zune music player, nor do you have to do any sign-up stuff or any of that crapola. It’s just a theme, plain and simple.

2. Use no wallpaper or tiled wallpaper.

Full-screen wallpaper can actually slow your system down – especially if you’re using dual (or more) screens. The reason for the slowdown is because XP has to keep redrawing the screen with a high-res graphic behind it.

If you use no wallpaper, XP won’t have to redraw as much. And in fact this is true for any OS and not just Windows. Even on Mac OS X and Linux, having no wallpaper speeds up window/screen redraws quite a bit.

Tiled wallpaper (ex: "Coffee Bean" in Windows XP) draws much faster compared to full-screen wallpaper.

TIP: Do a Google Image Search for wallpaper pattern. You’ll see lots of cool-looking stuff there you can try out for wallpaper use.

3. Use the ClearType Tuner Powertoy.

It makes all your fonts look better and easier to read. This is a no-brainer. I use it; it works; it’s free; it’s awesome.

Get it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx

To note: Only people with LCD monitors should use this. If you’re using CRT (i.e. "tubed" monitor), stick with what you have.

4. Adjust Active Title Bar to use a larger font.

When you use a larger font in the title bar area it makes all apps look better and easier to locate.

It’s done like this:

First, go to Display Properties ("Display" icon from Control Panel), click the Appearance tab and then the Advanced button.

Looks like this:

Note the "Advanced" button at the bottom right. Click that.

Where it states "Message Box", click that. The Item listed will be Active Title Bar.

Set the font to Arial and its size to 12 and bold it (the little "B" button). Then next to Active Title Bar, set to 25. THIS SHOULD ALWAYS BE 25. If it’s not it will make icons in the taskbar look "scrunched" and pixelated.

Confused? Match what you see below:

To note, you don’t have to use Arial. Other good fonts are Verdana, Trebuchet MS, Lucida Sans Unicode or whatever is loaded on your system.

Just remember to keep the "size" setting next to "Active Title Bar" to 25 to avoid the scrunch/pixelation of taskbar icons.

5. Adjust "Message Text" and "Menu" to Tahoma.

Tahoma is a built-in font with XP and said honestly is the best menu font it has.

Follow the same instructions above – but click on "Message Text", set to Tahoma, size 8 and for "Selected" use the same settings.

It looks like this:

(Note under Item: that "Message Box" is selected – you want to do the same for "Selected Items" as well from that same drop-down menu.)

For those who have not-so perfect vision, try bolding the menu and dialog fonts. It makes the menus in XP a whole lot easier to see and use.

6. Set the Icon item to bold.

This is in the same section as the others mentioned above.

Looks like this:

The Item is "Icon", the font is "Tahoma", size 32, the font size is 8 and lastly, the "B" is impressed (by clicking on it) to indicate it’s set to bold.

This carries over to the Windows Explorer and makes stuff easier to read, like this:

The icons on your desktop will also have bolded fonts, and will also bold a few things in Internet Explorer (which is not a bad thing at all).

7. Use a useful screen saver.

Fancy screen savers eat CPU cycles and slow down your computer. I stopped using those years ago and instead use the JKDefrag screen saver instead.

Whenever my computer goes into a screen saver mode it automatcally starts defragging the hard drive. That’s useful.

How to do it:

Step 1. Get JKDefrag (free).

Step 2. From the ZIP file, extract two of the files, that being JKDefragScreenSaver.exe and JKDefragScreenSaver.scr, into the main Windows folder (usually C:\WINDOWS).

Step 3. Go to Display Properties from the Control Panel, click the Screen Saver tab and select JKDefragScreenSaver.

Looks like this:

Step 4. Click Settings.

Set your screen saver to "Blank", last defrag to 4 hours and status bar to Full status bar.

Looks like this:

Note that you don’t have to use "Blank", however it is better overall that you use a screen saver that doesn’t eat CPU cycles at all – and "Blank" is it.

When using this particular screen saver, JKDefrag will auto-defrag whenever your computer’s screen saver comes on – unless it was done fairly recently (less than 4 hours ago).

Basically put, you’ll never have to remember to defrag your drive because it will be done automatically. A defragged drive is a happy drive.

Additional tip:

From the Screen Saver tab click the button labeled Power. From that screen set your monitor(s) to turn OFF after a set amount of time (I suggest somewhere between 10 to 30 minutes). This will increase the life of your LCD monitor. There’s no excuse to have it on when not at your computer.

8. Use a bigger mouse cursor.

On every XP computer I’ve ever used I always set the mouse cursor to "Magnified" and enable the pointer shadow.

Looks like this:

This is available from the "Mouse" icon in the Control Panel and via the "Pointers" tab.

The default mouse pointer in XP is too small and you can lose it easily. With "Magnified" it’s easily located. While it’s true this is a non-animated cursor set, believe me when I say you won’t miss it – because seeing the pointer is more important than it doing some frilly animation.

Also be sure to check off "Enable pointer shadow" at the bottom. This does help with visibility.

Alternatives:

Other mouse sets with XP that work well are black and inverted.

9. Enable "Show location" for mouse pointer.

Even with single-screen setups it’s easy to lose where the mouse pointer is. You can take care of this in short order by going to Pointer Options from Mouse properties and checking off "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key".

Looks like this:

Check off the box at the bottom, click Apply, then tap your CTRL key once. You’ll see an animated circle appear around the pointer once.

This is very handy to have enabled – especially if you run a multi-monitor setup where you can lose the mouse a little too easily.

10. Make the taskbar "taller" so day and date is shown.

"One tier" high taskbar:

"Two tier" high taskbar:

As you can see, the date and day of week is shown when it’s "two tiers" high. This is good info to have at a glance.

How do to it:

1. Right click an empty area of the taskbar. A small menu will appear. One of the entries will be "Lock the taskbar". If there is a check next to it, click it to uncheck. If there is no check, leave it be and click outside the menu to close it.

2. Move your mouse to the top of the taskbar so your mouse cursor changes to an up/down double-arrow.

3. Left click, hold, and drag the taskbar up one tier.

That’s it. You should see the day and date at that point.

If you don’t like it you can drag it back down to where it was.

You’ve got a blog and you’re putting a good amount of effort into it. You’re writing away, posting articles and doing what you can to get some readership.

The problem is that nobody is reading your blog. It seems no matter what you do you’re not gaining any traffic. And you know you’re writing good stuff.

What do you do?

Follow the five stupidly easy steps below and watch the traffic roll in.

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In the United States we don’t necessarily have a problem (yet) with what’s known as "capped bandwidth" (i.e. your ISP puts a usage limit on how much data you can transfer per month), but for other places it’s a big deal because once you tap the limit, your ISP slows you down to snail-crawl speeds until next month when the limit is reset.

This information is also useful to those on broadband connections and wi-fi spots where speed counts the most (the less you load the less time you have to wait).

1. Use RSS

Whether you use Bloglines, Google Reader or a client like RSS Bandit, using RSS is faster and uses much less bandwidth than loading a web site directly. PCMech, for example, has article content delivered via RSS.

2. Don’t load Flash content

Concerning file size, text is small, images are relatively small but Flash content is rarely small. You can uninstall the Flash plugin entirely but if you don’t want to do that (and I don’t blame you), use the Firefox extension Flashblock instead where you can turn it off and on at whim.

3. Use an e-mail client instead of web-based mail

Every time you load web-based mail in a browser (no matter what provider you use) it’s full of coding that on load makes it a bit large file-size wise. And if it’s a free mail provider there are also advertisements loaded in as well. If you use a traditional e-mail client like Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird or Windows Live Mail it’s loaded locally and the only bandwidth it uses is when you send or receive mail.

Tip: Have the client download headers only whether using POP or IMAP. This way no mail is fully downloaded unless you specifically instruct the client to do it. This is especially useful if you receive file attachments often.

4. Use a free multi-protocol instant messaging app

Free multi-protocol instant messaging apps don’t load advertisements and purposely don’t have all the "cool" features from-service clients do which cuts bandwidth usage (every little bit counts). Some choices are Trillian, Pidgin, and Miranda.

5. Turn your computer off when not in use

Although this is really obvious, if your computer is making no network requests it’s not using any bandwidth at all. Most of us leave our computers on all the time, but if bandwidth is a concern, turn it off when you’re not using it.