Delete a Desktop Shortcut

At times your desktop can get cluttered with desktop shortcuts and program icons making it hard to find things on the desktop and generally makes it cluttered.

When your desktop gets to a point where it is suffering from “desktop clutter” it’s time to delete a desktop shortcut or two.

Deleting a Program Desktop Shortcut

Deleting a program desktop shortcut does not remove the program from your computer. Moving the shortcut to the recycle bin only removes the program shortcut from the desktop.

Windows will remind you of this as you move the shortcut to the recycle bin:

Deleting the shortcut to (program name) only removes the icon. It does not uninstall the program…

Reference: Windows message window as you drop the program icon over the Recycle Bin

Deleting a File or Folder Desktop Shortcut

When you delete a desktop shortcut for a file or folder, unlike a program shortcut, you do not get a message from Windows.

Deleting a file or folder desktop shortcut which you created yourself does not remove the file or folder. It only removes the shortcut from the desktop.

If you downloaded something from the Internet to your desktop, then when you delete the shortcut, you will loose the program or file. See our Saving Downloads article for a better way to do this so you can include the file or program in your backup routine.

How to Delete a Desktop Shortcut

There are several ways to delete a desktop shortcut from the desktop in Windows.

Method 1

This first method to delete a desktop shortcut is quite simple:

  1. Move your mouse over the desktop shortcut you wish to delete and press the left mouse button.

    The icon will become selected and highlighted.

  2. With the icon still selected and the left mouse button still down, drag the desktop shortcut over to and on top of the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop.
  3. Release the left mouse button.

    If it is a program shortcut you are deleting, Windows will show a message (as explained above) and ask for confirmation.

    No message appears if the desktop shortcut is for a file or folder.

That’s it! You are done!

Missed the Recycle Bin? Then just repeat the instructions above, making sure this time you dragged the desktop shortcut over the Recycle Bin.

Method 2

  1. Left click the desktop shortcut to select it.
  2. Right click the desktop shortcut.

    A menu appears.

  3. Left click the Delete item on the menu that appeared.
  4. Windows will ask you to confirm deleting the shortcut.

    Just like our first method, you will get a message from Windows about deleting the shortcut if it is for a program. See the beginning of this article if you missed what the message says.

    For a file or folder shortcut, you will see a message from Windows asking for confirmation.

That’s it for method number 2.

Method 3

  1. Left click the desktop shortcut you wish to delete.
  2. On your keyboard, press the Delete button.

    The delete button is in the bottom left corner of the bank of buttons above your arrow keys, if you are using a desktop computer.

  3. You will get a message from Windows asking for confirmation.

    The messages for this method are the same as the ones for method 2 above.

Now that you know how to delete a desktop shortcut, there’s no excuse for your desktop to become cluttered with unwanted shortcuts.

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Arrange Desktop Shortcuts

Continuing with our desktop shortcuts series, now that you have created a custom desktop shortcut, you are probably wondering how to organize all the desktop shortcuts you have.

  1. Right click your desktop.

    A menu appears.

  2. Left click the Arrange Icons By menu item.

    A new menu list appears.

Arrange Icons By

Once you left click the Arrange Icons By menu item, you have a number of choices.

The top section of the Arrange Icons By menu contains:

  • Name
  • Size
  • Type
  • Modified

The next section contains:

  • Show in Groups
  • Auto Arrange

    This is selected by default by Windows.

  • Align to Grid

    Align to Grid is also selected by default.

The third section in the Arrange Icons By menu contains:

  • Show Desktop Icons

    Selected by default

  • Lock Web Items on Desktop
  • Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard

Arrange Icons by Name

Select Name from the Arrange Icons by menu to arrange your desktop icons by the name underneath the icon.

Your standard Windows icons remain in the top left of the screen. Any other icons added by program installation or you added your self will be arranged in alphabetical order right under and to the right of the standard Windows icons.

If you have not edited the name of your desktop shortcuts you created yourself, then all the Shortcut to icons will be bunched together.

Arrange Icons By Type

Left clicking the Type menu item under Arrange Icons By will sort your icons by type, putting the applications first, right under the Windows default desktop icons.

Arranging by type would be useful to group all like icons together. i.e. all your Excel file types would be together, all your web page desktop shortcuts would be together, etc.

Auto Arrange

With Auto Arrange selected in the Arrange Icons By menu, if you wish to move icons around on your desktop (e.g. manually sort the icons into groups) you will find that Windows wants to pull it back over to the right and to the end of the group of icons it created. Frustrating! But you can arrange the icons any way you want…

To arrange the icons in any order or on any spot on the desktop, deselect Auto Arrange from the Arrange Icons By menu. Now grab the icon with your mouse and drag it anywhere you want on the desktop.

Align to Grid

By default Align to Grid is selected. This forces the desktop shortcuts to align to Windows predetermined grid on the desktop.

When you drag an icon to another spot on the desktop, it will snap to the closest grid spot thus creating typical spacing between icons both vertically and horizontally.

If this isn’t working out to your satisfaction, deselect the Align to Grid item in the Arrange Icons By menu, and then you can put the icons anywhere you like. With Align to Grid deselected you can put the icons closer together if you wish.

Show Desktop Icons

If for some reason your desktop icons have disappeared, select the Show Desktop Icons item in the Arrange Icons By menu. Your screen will flash and the icons will reappear.

Arranging desktop shortcuts is great way to keep your desktop icons sorted and organized. Play with the Arrange Icons By options and see which arrangement works for you.

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Rename Desktop Shortcuts

When you create a desktop shortcut, by default Windows adds Shortcut to in front of the file or folder name the shortcut is for.

If you decide to use Auto Arrange to arrange the desktop shortcuts on your Windows desktop, all the icons with Shortcut to will be grouped.

Also, with Shortcut to added to the beginning of the name of the shortcut, the name of the file or folder the desktop shortcut is for may not be visible. By default, Windows only allows a certain amount of space below the desktop icon for it’s name.

Rename Desktop Shortcuts

It’s quite easy to rename a desktop shortcut.

  1. Left click the icon you wish to edit.

    The icon will become selected.

  2. Gently single left click the desktop shortcut name of the selected icon.

    The name will be highlighted and have a box around it.

  3. Now you can either select and delete the Shortcut to part in front of the shortcut name or select the whole name and retype what ever name you wish.
  4. Left click any empty area on the desktop to accept the new name.

That’s it! You are done!

Now that you have taken the time to rename desktop shortcuts they will be easier to read.

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How to Create a Desktop Shortcut

In this second article about desktop shortcuts we will cover how to create a desktop shortcut for a file or folder on your computer and one for a web page on the Internet. In this article we will cover the following:

Create Desktop Shortcut for a File or Folder

When you use a particular file or folder a lot, placing a desktop shortcut to that file or folder on your computer desktop can save time. A desktop shortcut is also helpful for a novice computer user who might forget how to find a particular file or folder on their computer.

Creating a desktop shortcut for a file or folder requires navigating your way to the file or folder and sending a shortcut to the desktop.

  1. Navigate to the file or folder on your computer.

    If you are not sure where the program saved your file, open the program, create a new file and use the Save As function under the File menu of the program. This will show you the path to where the program saves files by default.

    Generally, Microsoft products will have saved your document in the My Documents folder unless you specifically changed where you wanted the file saved. Some programs do the same, under their specific folder. Others save the files created in with their program files in the Programs folder.

  2. Right click the file or folder.

    A menu will appear.

  3. Skim down the menu that appears and left click the Send To item on the list.

    A new menu appears

  4. Left click the Desktop (create shortcut) item on the list.

    This action creates a desktop shortcut to the file or folder on your desktop.

  5. Close or minimize all open windows.

Once you close or minimize all the open windows, your desktop appears. Look around for your new desktop shortcut. It is there, probably over on the right if you don’t have too many desktop shortcuts already.

The icon will be the program used to open the file if your shortcut is for a specific file. If the shortcut is for a folder, then the icon will look like a folder.

The name under your new file or folder shortcut will start with Shortcut to.

Pretty easy, wasn’t it. Now don’t go crazy adding a ton of shortcuts to your desktop. The desktop will become cluttered and you just might loose the time saving advantage of using desktop shortcuts.

Create Desktop Shortcut for a Web Page

If you visit or reference a web page on the Internet a lot, then you could either add the web page to your Favorites/Bookmarks or use a desktop shortcut.

  1. Open the web page in your browser

    You can practice with this web page.

  2. Left click the File menu item in the top of the browser.

    A list appears.

  3. Left click Send.

    A new list appears

  4. Left click Shortcut to Desktop.

    This action creates the shortcut on your desktop.

  5. Close or minimize the browser window.

    If you are practicing with this web page, then just minimize the browser.

Look on your desktop. There should be a new icon that resembles your browser icon for the web page you just created the shortcut for.

Saving Downloads to the Desktop

When saving downloads from the Internet, some sites will save a shortcut to your desktop

You may have done this yourself using the Save Target As feature.

The problem with saving downloads to your desktop is that it is harder to save the download to your backup. A better way to save downloads is to navigate to a folder you have created just for downloads and adding this location to your backup routine.

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Desktop Shortcuts

Ever noticed when you install a program an icon appears on your desktop? These icons are desktop shortcuts, which when clicked, open the program associated with it.

You can create your own desktop shortcuts also.

In this article we will cover:

Uses for Desktop Shortcuts

A desktop shortcut can be used to:

  • Save time getting to a specific folder on your computer.
  • Be a direct link to your favourite website.
  • A link to a specific program, folder or file on a network.
  • Create an email to person you send emails to regularly.
  • A link to a specific program on your computer or on the network you are
    connected to.

Those are a few ideas what a desktop shortcut can be used for.

Parts of a Desktop Shortcut

There are different parts to a desktop shortcut:

  1. The icon

    The shortcut icon is the picture you see on the desktop. A program specific icon will be specific to the program it is associated with. For example, the desktop icon for Outlook Express looks like an envelope. Internet Explorer’s desktop icon is an e.

    Windows also places icons on the desktop:

    • My Documents looks like a folder with papers going into it.

      This is the desktop shortcut to your My Documents folder on the computer.

    • My Computer is an icon with a monitor and computer tower.

      When double clicked you will see a folder icon for your shared documents, your documents, the hard drives on the machine and hooked up to the machine, the devices attached to the machine which contain or can be used for removable storage and any printers, scanners or cameras attached to the machine.

    • The My Networks icon is a computer monitor with a globe tucked in behind it.

      When the My Networks icon is double clicked, you will see all the computers within your home or office network you have access to. You could possibly also have network connections to the computers at work, if you are working from home or on your laptop.

      If you create your own custom desktop shortcuts,

      • the icon will appear as a folder when associated with a folder
      • the program icon that opens the file if it is a shortcut to a specific document
      • a browser icon with the web page title underneath if a shortcut to a web page
    • The shortcut arrow.

      The desktop shortcut may or may not have an arrow in the bottom left of the desktop icon.

    • The desktop shortcut name.

      Underneath the desktop icon is the name of the program, file or folder the shortcut will open.

    • The path the shortcut uses to access the program, file or folder the shortcut is associated with.

      To see the path of the desktop shortcut, right click the icon and select Properties from the list that appears.

Why Use Desktop Shortcuts?

Desktop shortcuts are quite useful. They:

  • Save time when you use a program, folder or file a lot.
  • Saves you remembering where on the computer, network or net a file is located. You can use the shortcut, instead of searching your computer for the item you wish to open.

The Downside of Desktop Shortcuts

The downside of using desktop shortcuts is that people tend to add too many to the desktop, creating desktop clutter.

To combat desktop clutter, you can:

  1. Arrange the desktop shortcuts into groups manually.

    Group the desktop shortcuts which are related together in a group on the desktop.

  2. Delete the shortcuts you no longer need (or don’t really need).

    When a shortcut is to a specific project file or folder, once the project is complete the shortcut can be deleted.

    Desktop shortcuts to programs on the computer you do not use often can be deleted also.

    The program is still accessible from the Programs list under your Start menu.

Desktop shortcuts are great little helpers when using your computer. Just be careful you don’t end up suffering from desktop clutter.

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Sending Emails

Once you have composed your email, it’s time to send it. You’ll need to set who you will be sending the email to. There are different choices for sending emails:

  • To
  • Cc
  • Bcc

Who to Send the Email To

Before hitting the Send button, determine who really needs to receive your email. Sending the email to just those who really need the information in the email is a more efficient use of everyone’s time.

The To Field

The To field would be those who are directly involved/interested in the topic of the email.

  1. Left click the To icon to the left of the To field of your email.

    Opens your Address Book.

  2. Scroll through the list of contacts in your Address Book until you find the person(s) who should receive the email.
  3. Once you find the contact that you wish to send the email to, left click the name.

    The name becomes hightlighted in the contact list.

  4. Left click the To button on the right.

    The contact is added to the Message Recipients box beside the To button.

  5. Repeat the last 2 steps for each person who should receive the email.
  6. Once you have all the message recipients added, left click the Ok button at the bottom of the window.

    You will be taken back to your email with the To field filled in.

  7. Now, left click the Send button to send your email.

The Cc Field

The Cc (carbon copy) field will send a copy of your email to the selected contacts.

To add message recipients to the Cc field the procedure is the same as for the To field, except this time you left click the Cc button instead of the To button. Contacts selected for a cc will be added to the box to the right of the Cc button while adding contacts from the Address Book screen. Once you are finished, left click the Ok button and your email will now show who you are sending a cc to.

The Cc should be used for those who need to be informed about the message, but do not need to take action on the items discussed.

Don’t cc everyone involved in a project or the group the contacts belong to. This adds unneeded clutter to people’s email mailboxes.

The Bcc Field

The Bcc (blind carbon copy) field sends a copy of the email to additional people but those in the Cc and To fields do not know they received a copy.

Adding contacts to the Bcc field is done the same way as the To and Cc fields, this time clicking the Bcc button once the contact is selected.

Note: Using the Bcc does not fully hide whom you sent a Bcc copy to. A savvy computer user can look at the message source code to see whom the message was sent to.

Sending Attachments

Each email service has a limit on how large of an attachment the recipient is permitted to receive. Your email service will also have a limit on the size of file you can attach to your emails.

Attachment File Size

You may have noticed that your email program will want to reduce the file size for pictures before sending. There are two reasons for this:

  1. Reducing the file size of the attachment will make the email send and receive quicker.
  2. It is trying to save you the trouble of resending the attachment when your mail server or the recipient’s mail server rejects your email.

To avoid sending and receiving problems with your attachments, limit the size of the email attachment to 1Kb. This can be done through a graphics program if it is a picture or by breaking the document into smaller sections.

Sending Emails with Proprietary Format Attachments

Don’t send email attachments that require specific programs to open unless you know for sure that the recipient has the program.

One common problem related to attachments is sending documents that are created with Microsoft Office. Yes, a lot of people have Microsoft Office, but the issue is that you may have a newer version of Office than the recipient(s) do. Case in point: The newer versions of Office use a different file extension than their older counter parts. There is a plug-in a savvy computer user can install to open these files, but a novice may not know this or the recipient may not have the permissions on the computer they are using to add the plug-in.

Sending a PDF of the document might be a safer bet. Again, if you are using the latest version of Adobe Acrobat to compose the PDF your recipients might not have all the features you used in their version of PDF reader.

Sending Emails Efficiently

As you can see from the above instructions there are different ways to classify who receives your email.

Review of Sending Emails

  • Only send emails to those who are truly interested in the message or who you need an answer to /action from on an issue.
  • Don’t use email to spam your marketing message.
  • Only Cc those need to know about the email but does not need to take action.
  • Don’t use Bcc to send out emails when you want to keep the recipient list private. There is a way to use Bcc and keep the recipients private, but that’s for another post.
  • If you care to par take in forwarding jokes and trivial emails, don’t send them from your business email account. This will lessen the impact of your truly legitimate business emails.
  • Limit your email attachment size to 1Kb.
  • Don’t send proprietary format attachments unless you know the recipient(s) have the program.

Sending emails is a common business and personal task these days. Use your and your contacts time efficiently by only using this tool when really necessary.

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Composing Emails

These days email is an important communication tool for your business. In this article we’ll cover some tips to efficiently compose emails.

Composing an Email

A business email should be treated with the same attention to projecting a professional image as any other piece of business correspondence. When composing an email, keep these tips in mind:

Email Subject Line

Writing a clear informative or proactive subject line helps the recipient not only know what you are writing about, but also helps them follow conversations about a specific topic.

Something like Hi! isn’t very clear as a subject line but something like About Your Order #123456 is much clearer.

You do have to be careful how you word a subject line, some spam filters at the web server level or on the recipient’s computer might mark your email as spam and it will be missed or automatically deleted.

Writing Email Subject Lines

Writing E-mail Subject Lines

7 Bad Email Subject Lines

Email Body

Emails are best written short and to the point.

When composing emails, use short paragraphs and make your calls for action stand out by separating them into paragraphs or by using a bulleted list.

If there is a deadline attached to your question or request, state it in your email. This gives the recipient important information on what is expected of them and also gives them the opportunity to convey that they cannot meet the deadline and propose an alternate deadline for consideration.

Sign the Email Professionally

Include a professional signature with each email. This signature should include the following at the very least:

  • Your name
  • Your company name
  • Your contact information

It is possible to set up signatures in your email program to be inserted with each email, or different signatures for different use.

Formatting an Email

When composing emails, keep in mind that some Internet users have their email program to read emails in plain text format only for security reasons or that’s just the way their email software works. Large companies may have a policy like this for security reasons.

Also, the recipient’s email program may be set up to not show images. This is another security measure people and companies use.

So keeping the above in mind, avoid the following when composing emails:

  • Email stationary – it won’t show up if email is read in plain text. It is also sometimes very hard to read an email that arrives that uses email stationary when you allow HTML emails. You might think it’s cute, but the person receiving the email might not think it is very professional.
  • Logo images – these won’t show up if the recipient has images turned off in the email program or if they use plain text to read their emails. You just wasted an opportunity to promote your company.
  • Image signatures – like logo images, these won’t show if images are turned off or the message is read in plain text. The person receiving the email won’t know who sent it. Another wasted opportunity to promote your business.
  • Avoid relying on font formating (bold, italics, enlarged font) to convey a point, these do not show up in plain text. Your effort to emphosize a point will be lost.
  • Don’t use coloured text, this won’t show up in plain text and it does make it hard to read for some recipients.

Another tip when composing emails, is to set the line length to 70-80 characters. This makes reading the email easier.

Before you hit the Send button:

  • Reread the email to make sure you covered all the points you wanted to.
  • All the content is related to the subject line of the email and doesn’t jump into another topic.
  • Spell check your email. There are 2 versions of English, British English and American English. Pick the version that is used in your country and have your email program check the email for that version. The default for most email programs is American English so you will have to check and change this if applicable.

Composing emails that give a professional appearance will also boost the credibility of your business. Take your time when composing emails, they can make a lasting impression on those who receive them.

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Google Chrome Beta is Out

Google has released their Google Chrome browser for download to Windows XP and Vista machines today in approximately 100 countries.

Download Google Chrome (BETA) for Windows

Google Chrome is available for download at the Google Chrome home page.

Before installing, be sure to read the terms of service. ReadWriteWeb has an interesting post about a section of the terms of service. Does Google Have Rights to Everything You Send Through Chrome?.

Matt Cutts tries to clear some of the rumours about the Chrome license agreement, Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome.

September 4, 2008 Update Update to Google Chrome’s terms of service on the Official Google Blog.

September 7, 2008 Update Google posted another article, Making terms of service clearer to further clarify their terms of service for their Chrome browser.

There is a cartoon book also available if you are interested in the technology behind this new browser.

Google Chrome Features

The features list for Google Chrome includes videos on:

  • New Tab page
  • Application shortcuts
  • Dynamic tabs
  • Crash control
  • Incognito mode
  • Safe browsing
  • Instant bookmarks
  • Importing settings
  • Simpler downloads

Google Chrome Help Center

If you need additional help, the Google Chrome Help Center has been setup covering:

  • Getting Started
  • Troubleshooting
  • Using Google Chrome

There is also a Google Chrome Help Google Group.

Google Chrome Buzz in the Internet Community

Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser – Google’s announcement September 1, 2008.

Answers to common Google Chrome objections – from Matt Cutts. All of Matt’s Chrome posts including his live posting from the Google announcement September 2, 2008.

“…This release of Google Chrome does not appear to have been developed with the needs of users with disabilites taken into account, apart from limited keyboard shortcuts, basic support required for accessibility is absent.”

Google Chrome Accessibility – The Paciello Group Blog

So what do you think of the new Google Chrome browser?

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Web Mail vs Email Clients

When new to the internet, the difference between web mail and email clients can be confusing to a person. You may have been shown how to use one way but don’t know how to use the other. We’ll explain here the difference between web mail and email clients.

Both web mail and email clients use the internet to read and send mail. What may be confusing is how each of these work.

When someone sends you an email it is stored on a email server. The email server can belong to a company that offers web based email accounts, your ISP provider or your web hosting provider. How you “pick up” your email will depend on what type of email account you have.

If you are only using web mail, then the emails that you don’t delete are stored on the email server. With an email client the emails are stored on your computer.

Web Mail

With web mail, you read or send email through your browser and the web mail interface.

Some examples of web mail are:

  • Yahoo! Mail
  • Gmail
  • Hotmail
  • The web mail service provided with your web hosting
  • The web mail service provided with your ISP (Internet Service Provider) account

Accessing Web Mail

When you access a web mail account you use your browser.

  1. You will be given a web address to access your web mail. We’ll use Yahoo! mail as an example. The web address to access Yahoo! mail is: https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?&.src=ym.
  2. Next, you will need to login. This requires your user name and password. Continuing with our example, enter your Yahoo! id and password, then left click, Sign in.

    If there is an option to remember your login information, avoid this, particularly if you are using a public computer. The login information is saved to a cookie on the machine. The next person who uses the computer will have access to your web based email account if you use the Remember me feature.

  3. Once logged in, you can now read the emails sent to your web based email acount and send emails from this email address.

Web Based Email Tutorials

Here at Basic Computer Information we have some tutorials for web based email accounts:

You can also set up some web based email accounts to be picked up via your email client. e.g. Gmail, your website email accounts.

A lot of people who have been taught to use web based email find using an email client intimidating, but really, it’s easier than using web based email.

If you are running a business and only know how to use web based mail, it would be a good idea to learn how to use an email client on your computer. This way you could back up the emails from the computer for safe keeping, should your web based email’s server goes down and looses all those important emails.

Email Client

An email client is a piece of software on your computer that you use to read and send emails from your computer. The advantage of using an email client is that the emails are stored on your computer and are accessible faster than using a web based email interface. Also, with an email client you can read the messages you already received without being connected to the internet (a cost savings if you are on dial up). You can also compose email while offline. Once connected again to the Internet, the emails can be sent.

There are various email client programs available. Some of the more common email clients are:

  • Outlook Express – This comes with Windows for free.
  • Outlook – part of the Microsoft Office collection of programs
  • Thunderbird – comes with the Firefox browser
  • Contact management software – may use Outlook Express to send email from the contact management software

Using an Email Client

To use your installed email client you will need to click the desktop icon for it or look in your Programs list for the shortcut.

An email client needs some setting up before you can use it:

  1. Create an email account
  2. Edit the email account

    If your email client has used the url for the email account as the name in your account list, you can edit the account name and other elements of the account.

  3. If you are a travelling type person who takes a laptop with you, you can set your email client on the laptop to leave a copy of emails on the web mail server. This way, when you get back home/to the office, the email client on your home/office computer can pick up the email. This saves you transferring or emailing yourself important emails once you get home.
  4. Like web based email, you can organize and sort email in your email client.
  5. You can also create email signatures in your email client.

So now, you know how to use web based email and an email client. It’s handy to know how to use both of these methods of reading and sending email. E.g. A business person might want to check their email from home or while away from the office. They can use web mail to check emails and leave the messages there to be picked up at the office upon their return or set up their email client at home/on the laptop to leave the emails on the email server so they can pick up the mail at work.

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Schedule a Task in Windows

We keep being reminded to do things to keep our computers in tip top shape (backup our data, defrag the drives, update our virus programs, etc.) but some just don’t seem to get around to doing these things on a regular basis. This is where Task Scheduler, available with Windows, can help you out with keeping on top of these maintenance tasks.

Task Scheduler

Task Scheduler is a free application included with Windows. With Task Scheduler you can schedule any program, document or script to run at anytime your computer is turned on. Task Scheduler starts each time you turn your Windows machine on and runs in the background while the machine is on. A scheduled task will automatically start, if your computer is on (Yes, I have bolded this phrase twice now because some do not understand that when you schedule a task in Windows the computer must be on for the task to be completed).

Why Schedule a Task in Windows?

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, there are certain tasks that need to be done on a regular basis to keep your computer running smoothly and protect your data.

One of the most important tasks to schedule (or train yourself to do it religously) is backing up your data. You can use backup software, which should add a Scheduled Task if set up properly, but if you don’t have a specific piece of software available to do this, Windows does come with a backup application.

Your anti virus definition updates and scans are other important tasks to schedule. Again, your chosen software may automatically set this up for you, if set up properly.

If you are using a free program for backup, anti virus or spyware removal, these might not have an included function to add itself as a scheduled task.

Schedule Task

To schedule a task in Windows you need to first access Scheduled Tasks. Depending on how your computer is set up, Scheduled Tasks can be accessed via:

  • My Computer Icon on the Desktop
    1. Double left click the My Computer icon on you desktop.
    2. Look under the Other section for Control Panel, double left click Control Panel.
    3. Double click the Scheduled Tasks icon in the Control Panel screen.
  • Settings Menu
    1. Left click Start in the bottom left of your desktop screen.
    2. Left click Settings from the menu that appears.
    3. Left click Control Panel from the next menu that appears.
    4. Double left click Scheduled Tasks in the Control Panel screen.
  • Programs Menu
    1. Left click Start in the bottom left of your desktop screen.
    2. Left click All Programs.
    3. Left click Accessories in the list that appears.
    4. Left click System Tools under the Accessories menu.
    5. Left click Scheduled Tasks in the System Tools menu.

Now you should be in Scheduled Tasks. Some of your existing programs may have already added a scheduled task to the list that appears under Add Scheduled Task.

Add Scheduled Task

  1. Double left click Add Scheduled Task.

    The Scheduled Task Wizard screen appears.

  2. Left click Next to continue.

    It may appear your machine has frozen because the next screen takes a minute or so to appear. This is because a list is being compiled of the to programs installed on your computer.

Next there are two ways to continue, schedule a program to run or schedule something else to run.

  • Schedule an Existing Program to Run
    1. Left click the program you wish to schedule from the list that appears.
    2. Left click Next to continue.
  • Schedule Something Not Listed in the Program List
    1. Left click Browse.
    2. Navigate to the folder and file (program, script or document) you wish to schedule the task for.
    3. Left click Open.

Next, you give the task a name and choose when to run the task.

  1. Name the scheduled task.

    Pick a name that will make sense to you later when you want to check the list or make any changes.

  2. Choose when to run the scheduled task.

    There are a number of choices as to when you would like to run the task:

    • Daily – once a day
    • Weekly – once a week
    • Monthly – once a month
    • One time only
    • When computer starts – this before a user is logged in
    • When I log in – runs once you have logged into your computer
  3. Left click Next to continue.
  4. Specify the day and time to run the scheduled task.

    Remember: Pick a day and time of day that the computer will be on!

    If the task can run on it’s own, without your interaction, it can be scheduled while you are having your lunch or dinner.

  5. Left click Next to continue once you have made your time selections.
  6. Name and password of the user associated with the scheduled task.

    You will need to enter the name and password of the user who is authorized to run the task.

    The user associated with the task will need to have the permissions to run the program.

    The default setup is the name of the user currently logged onto the computer.

  7. Left click Next to continue.
  8. Left click Finsih to complete scheduling the task.

Now that you know how to schedule a task in Windows, there’s no excuse for not making sure that all your maintenance tasks (defrag, disk clean up, update anti virus definitions, etc.) are done and all your data is backed up.

Scheduling Task in Windows Further Reading

Advanced Options – click the link at the top of the page to skip down to the Advance Options available when scheduling a task in Windows.

Remove Scheduled Tasks – click the Remove scheduled task link at the top of the page to view the instructions for removing a scheduled task.

Changes to Scheduled Task – on the same page as above, there are also instructions for:

  • Stopping and pausing scheduled tasks
  • Changing settings for scheduled tasks
  • Opening scheduled tasks to modify them

Task Scheduler – a more indepth look at Windows Task Scheduler

Posted in Basic Computer Skills | 6 Comments

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