I have nothing against Macs! However, I'm a PC user. While Macs are now capable of much (most?) of what PCs can do in terms of statistical computing, the PC has been the platform of preference for statistical analysis. Students are welcome to use PCs or Macs as they prefer, but I'm unable to provide advice and support to Mac users.

Students should be familiar with the standard conventions of the Windows operating system. Even though everyone will have had experience with Word Processing, Internet Browsers, and heaven only knows what else, I've found that many students remain unfamiliar with some of the basics.

These basic skills must be mastered in order to use the computer effectively.

• How to navigate around a disk drive. The basic structure of a hard disk is straightforward--there are folders within folders. To see them, click on My Computer on the desktop, and then click on the icon for the disk drive C:. Every time you click on a folder icon, you reveal the folders the icon contains. You can also click on the Start button, click on Programs, and then click on Windows Explorer. This shows the same information in a tree structure.

• How to locate files. Often, when files are created by a specific program, they can be accessed by starting the program, clicking on the File menu, and looking for a menu item with a name like "Recently used files".

  If all you want to do is find a file from part of its file name, there is no more effective tool than the Everything search engine. It finds files faster than you can type their names! It uses minimal resources and works by taking advantage of the way computers store the directories of NTSF drives (the system used by most PCs of recent vintage). However, it cannot search the contents of files.

  Otherwise, a general technique for finding a file is to use Windows' Find function. To access it, click on the Start button, choose Find, and then choose "Files or Folders". The file name need not be specified completely. Fragments may be given, with the asterisk used as a wild card. For example, if grant proposal were somewhere on your disk drive and you weren't sure of the file name but you knew it contained the string grant, you could search for grant*.*, grant*, or even grant. The "Look in:" box often defaults to the folder "C:\Windows". To change it, click on the browse button. A panel opens displays the computer's disk structure in the style of Windows Explorer. The search can be as broad as an entire drive or as narrow as a single folder.

  The Find function can also be used to locate files that contain a specific string of text and/or were modified on a specific date or within a specific range of dates, so you could look for that term paper by searching for all *.doc files modified in the last week.

  Microsoft "improved" the Find function in Windows XP so that it no longer behaves as expected. The Find function will not search through files unless their types (the part of the name after the period) are registered with Windows. So, don't try using Find in Windows XP to locate the SAS command file that contains the string "proc report" because Find won't find it. There are ways to register file types, but they are tedious. A better option is to use a utility that has no such constraints. Agent Ransack is free and does the job well. File manager programs such as Total Commander also have this capability.

• The difference between Save and Save as applied to an already existing file. Save saves the current version of a file, overwriting original version. The original is lost. Save as saves the current version of a file under a new file name specified by the user. The original version is not changed.

• How to load and maintain virus detection software. Get some anti-virus software! Each year, at least one student loses the entire contents of a hard drive to a malicious virus. There are two free virus detection packages, AVG and Avast, that can be downloaded. I've been using AVG for years after reading a favorable review in PC World. The latest version can degrade performace considerably, but there is a work-arond. Choose a Custom Install and uncheck the box for automatic link scanning. Automatic Link Scanning visits AVG's database to check out any sites you plan to visit. While it does offer some degree of additional protection, it has also created an Internet traffic jam! Both programs update themselves automatically. Most important, Avast and AVG stay out of the way of my other programs.

  For my latest netbook, I decided to give Avira AntiVir a try. I don't know if there's anything to recommend it over AVG, but it seems to be doing fine so far.

  I have a strong personal dislike for Norton Antivirus products. They "take over" a computer to the point where they can conflict with other software. I am not alone in being unwilling to try to fix a misbehaving computer that has Norton Antivirus installed. In those rare occasions where I will make an attempt, the first thing I do is remove Norton Antivirus...if I can. It's often a lengthy, picky process. If you've already got it installed and are paying for it, there's no reason stop using it unless problems develop.

  In case of emergency, viruses can be detected and cleaned automatically over the WWW at http://housecall.antivirus.com, a free service provided by Trend Micro. I do this every 6 to 12 months "just in case" something has been able to avoid my safeguards and conceal itself from my resident antivirus software.

  I've become a BIG fan of the freeware WinPatrol as a supplement to antivirus software. Rather than search for specific viruses, adware, and spyware, WinPatrol notifies users whenever startup programs, IE helpers, or scheduled tasks are added to the system. It also simplifies the process of identifying start up programs and active tasks when a computer starts behaving oddly. In addition to listing start up programs and active tasks, it offers a simple description of each one, which makes it easier to identify suspicious programs. An optional Plus service provides detailed information for a one-time charge of $29.

  Get a router! Even if you have only one computer. Most people think of routers in terms of their primary function that allows many computers to share a single Internet connection. However, a router does something even more important: it acts as a firewall! When you install a router, the Internet sees the router and not your computer. This makes the computer invisible to outside probing and attacks. A router also eliminates most users' need for firewall software that can conflict with other software unpredictably.

  There is an important function firewall software can perform that the typical router can't. It can alert you if your computer starts sending out things out when it shouldn't be. Often, malicious software will attempt to use an infected computer to send other viruses or spam over the Internet. A router typically will not detect this where firewall software might. Those who practice safe computing (antivirus software, a router, and staying away from dubious websites), can probably forgo firewall software without running much risk.

  Some routers are both wired and wireless. They will have 4 to 8 connections for attaching computers as well as a wireless signal that can be used by any computer within range. If you get such a router, use the installation program to either turn off the wireless or protect it with a password. This will prevent unauthorized users from gaining access and slowing down your connection or--worst case depending on what they do with that connection--getting you a visit from a law enforcement agency.

While you're at it

• Get a flash drive. I suspect that by now most people have them, but just in case... Flash drives are storage devices that plug into a computer's USB port. Once attached, they behave like any other disk drive. Think of them as mp3 players with drag-and-drop capability and no player.

  It's rare for a week to go by without a news story about the unauthorized release of personal data and the possibility of resulting identity theft. If you will have any involvement in studies with human subjects (and you almost certainly will), be sure you have the ability to encrypt data that might be copied to your flash drive. Some flash drive models, such as the Lexar Jump Drive Secure, automatically encrypt anything stored in a user-defined portion of the drive. You also have the option of using third party software to encrypt and decrypt individual files if you are comfortable working that way.

  If you lose data files that contain subject identifiers, you will have to report it to the Univeristy's Institutional Review Board (IRB). It is likely that the loss will have to be reported to The Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP, aka o-herp [accent on the 'o'], aka "Washington"), the US Health and Human Services agency that authorizes and oversees all human subjects research. You do not want to have to go through that exercise.

• Get an external hard drive and use it to backup your computer regularly! Backups used to be a thing of dread. They were at best inconvenient. They were time-consuming and involved tape drives or stacks of floppy disks, CDs, or DVDs. Few people did them regularly, if at all. Some got religion upon hearing of someone who managed to accidentally erase a hard drive or whose hard drive went bad, losing years of work, photos, and music, but rarely went beyond buying backup software.

  Today, external 250+ Mb hard drives appear on sale regularly for under $100. Many have their own power buttons so that they can be left plugged into the USB port and turned on or off with the single press of a button. Some come with backup software that runs automatically when the drive is turned on.

  I chose my backup software because it has a setting that erases files from the backup drive that no longer appear on the source drive. This eliminates the bloat that comes from incremental backups. I know that someday I'll backup the computer before I realize an important file is missing from my source drive and then lose it from the backup, too, but it's a risk I'm willing to live with. I have not named the program because software that is rich in options comes with risks. Severe damage can result if options are used improperly. However, there is no reason to worry about using the default setting of software that comes with most drives or is intended for novice users.

  $100 may seem like a large expense. However, anyone who has ever lost an important document, let alone an entire drive full, would gladly have paid many times that to recover it. Some have paid $1,000+ to send their failed drives to companies that specialize in recovering lost files.

  There are many ways to backup a drive.

  • One method is ghosting, named after the Norton Ghost utility, which creates a mirror image of a drive so that it can be copied bit-for-bit to a blank hard drive in case the original is goes bad.
  • Another method compresses the files in one form or another, either by zipping them or by using a proprietary format.
  • I prefer programs that do no more than copy files, that is, make copies that look just like the originals. This way, I can copy files to any computer to which I attach the backup drive.
  • This is a very personal opinion, but it's my web page: Avoid backup programs that store data in proprietary formats, that is formats that only the backup programs can read. It will be impossible to restore the data without the software. The backup will be useless if the only copy of the software is on the drive that fails! Also, files can be restored only to computers that have the software installed, which can be a major incovenience. Finally, it is not unknown for backup software to have problems reading its own proprietary format. 'Nuff said!

• Create an "Installation Programs" directory on your hard drive. Use it to keep a copy of the installation files for the programs and utilities that you download from the WWW. It can be invaluable when you get a new computer. Sometimes programs become unavailable. Sometimes we (me, anyway) forget where we got them. Even if we know where they came from and they are still available, it can be a day's work figuring out what they all are.