Want to check 
on a virus, worm 
or a hoax ?

Internet Explorer - Windows 98x, to XP
Instead of clicking inside the address bar and deleting the current web address, type Ctrl-O.  A dialog box will open, allowing you to  type in a new Web address. After typing the address, press Enter or Return to go to the site.
In some browsers, the key combination simply places your cursor in the address bar so that you can begin typing right away. Command-L will work for Macintosh. You can leave off the "http://" part: Most browsers will fill it in for you automatically. For many sites, you can even leave off the "www." portion of that address (e.g., try typing just
"rollinrollin.com").

Another address shortcut
Internet Explorer for Windows: For ".com"
sites, type only the portion of the site's address located between the "http://www." and ".com" portions. Then hold down your Ctrl key and press Enter. Internet Explorer will automatically fill in the missing information and take you to the site. For example, type "rollinrollin," then press Ctrl-Enter to go to rollinrollin.com. Note that this works only if
you're typing directly into Internet Explorer's address bar.

Adding to what ever is already in memory.
Most people know ctrl c = copy, ctrl v = paste and ctrl x = cut, but did you know you can add a portion of text, a sentence or another picture to whatever you just copied to memory? Here is what to do:
Highlight the item you want to copy to the clipboard, do a Ctrl-F3.  Immediately after, do a Ctrl-Z or you will delete the original. Continue the preceding (Highlight, Ctrl -F3, Ctrl -Z) until you have collected what you want. To insert, Place the cursor and do a Ctrl-Shift-F3 and the clipboard will dump what ever you put in memory.

CD Mania
 First there were those large 5 1/4" floppy disks then came 3 1/2" disks with more storage . If you wanted storage for large amounts of data you had to have a tape backup. These were slow and awkward which led to the ever popular Zip drives. Everyone was getting them. Add to that the attempts to put more information on a disk you could use in your  3 1/2" disk drive. 
Then came CD's for mass storage, and just in time.  What with digital camera sales skyrocketing and hard drives getting so large, You may even need a second external drive. Flash drives or thumb drives are the latest hot storage for your files and pictures.

Things you can do with an Optical-Drive:
Back up data and store photographs up to 700 megs per CD. 
Store your MP3 files
Copy all your current favorite tunes to one CD.
Make photo albums.
Exchange large amounts of information with friends.
Create as many 700 meg drives as you have CD-RW CD's. In other words each CD-RW CD you pop into the drive becomes an independent 650 meg drive that you can read and write and rewrite to, over and over again just like a hard drive.
 
Things to watch for:
If you have an old CD-ROM drive, your new drive  may not be able to extract the information needed to copy your music even though it will record data and graphics. Also be sure the software that comes with the drive gives you a choice of making a audio CD, a data CD, a CD to be run on other drives or a CD you can rewrite to, just like a hard drive.
If you use a software to move files from one computer to another your new CD drive will record to a formatted CD like it was a hard drive.

DVD reader/writers:
DVD drives are popular now and are taking the place of CD reader/writers. Many DVD drives will also make your CD-R's and CR-RW's. Caution; don't throw away your old reader/writer, if you replaced it with a DVD drive, until you make sure it will read those old CD's you are saving. According to PC Magazine not all DVD reader/writers will read your old backup CD's. It may say Backward Compatible on the label but the question is "to what". Make sure the company you buy from has a good return policy just in case. Also be aware there are two systems being used and they are not compatible  (CD-R CD-RW and CD+R CD+RW).  They do have drives that read both. They also claim to be backward compatible. Read the literature.

It's late, you need a CD but don't have any blanks.
Did you know a used CD can be formatted to accept files?  You format the CD just as you would if it was a RW CD. You then can drag and drop your files to the CD, There are possibly some drives and their software that will not accept this properly, so do some experimenting.  After you transfer your files be sure that they will transfer back to the hard drive. You may not be able to use these files on another computer. Use at your own risk.