Obviously, I need to delete some stuff. The problem is, with so many different file extensions, I'm not sure what to get rid of and what to keep. Any ideas on how to figure out what goes and what stays?

A. A lot of folks with hard-drive-space issues are delighted to discover that a fair percentage of real estate can be reclaimed simply by emptying the deleted files in the Recycle bin and flushing out the data picked up from the Internet that build up over time and are stored in a special folder called a cache.

Start by giving the icon for Recycle bin a right click and selecting Empty Recycle Bin. Now, right click the Recycle Bin again and this time pick Properties. In the display that pops up is an indicator showing the percentage of stuff that automatically gets stored for possible recovery. You can make things easier in the future by decreasing that amount from the default 10 percent of the drive's capacity to less, say 5 percent or 3 percent.

To remove the clutter that builds up in the Internet cache, open your Web browser and select Tools and Internet Options. Look for the item Temporary Internet Files in the tabbed box that this summons. Emptying this cache will remove all of the archived Web pages visited in the past, along with all of the support applications, photos, movies, animations and assorted stuff accumulated as Web pages were visited over time.

As with the Recycle Bin, the amount of space devoted to the Temporary Internet Files can be reduced by clicking on a button called Settings on the Options menu. Set this to about 1 percent of the drive, and you will be delighted at the space saved.

Another possible space saver can be removing no longer used programs that were loaded in the past and not used.

Click on Start and Control Panel and then open the Add/Remove Programs icon. In the list of all installed programs you will find a Sort By Command in the upper right of the display. Click on it and change it to Date Last Used. If you find stuff you haven't used in a long time, give serious thought to deleting it. You'll likely be surprised at how much you have loaded on that hard drive that just isn't needed.

Finally, you can decide what data files to keep and what to either delete or save to a CD or some other storage medium.

Click on Start and then on the My Document icon, where your computer stores the files you create using software. Click on View in the My Documents window and then select Arrange Icons By and then pick Modified in the drop-down menu that appears. This sorts all of the files from the time created forward and quickly identifies the oldest stuff for potential deletion.

If you have individual folders in My Documents with a lot of stuff in them, open each and click on View and repeat to see them in chronological order.

Finally, you can use Windows System Tools to clean up unused files and duplicates for deletion and then defragment the hard drive to retrieve hard drive space by rearranging data so it is all packed together tightly instead of being scattered about the drive, as happens during frequent use. Click on Start and Accessories and System Tools to find these tools.

Good ways To Move file to new A computer

OK, so you’ve got a new computer, and now you’re facing the hassle of how to migrate all your stuff — programs, files, settings — from the old machine to the new one. How can you do it in the quickest, simplest manner? Here are three common scenarios and how to handle them.

Windows XP to Windows Vista: Microsoft has built a decent migration utility into the new Vista version of Windows. It’s called Windows Easy Transfer. It allows you to migrate folders and files, e-mail accounts and messages, settings and favorites.

Windows Easy Transfer can be used to manage a migration over a network, via burned CDs or DVDs, or with external hard disks.

But I tested it only with the simplest approach, the one Microsoft recommends:

A special cable called an Easy Transfer cable. The best known of these is made by Belkin. It costs $40, and is available in electronics stores and from www.belkin.com/easytransfercable/.  It works only if your old computer is running the very latest version of Windows XP, called SP2.

In my test, I first installed the software for the Belkin cable on my old Windows XP machine (Vista can handle it out of the box). I then plugged in the cable and used Windows Easy Transfer on both machines, following the instructions as I went along. The process was simple and quick. It transferred over 11,000 files totaling 10.9 gigabytes — documents, music, pictures, videos and more — in about 40 minutes. The files and settings were placed in a new user identity on the Vista PC.

Windows Easy Transfer even lets you select which items to move — and which to skip, if you want. But there are some downsides.

Windows Easy Transfer doesn’t move programs,  so you will have to reinstall these manually.

Microsoft is testing a program that will move programs, called Windows Easy Transfer Companion. You can download it at Click to access

Also, I got a blue-screen crash shortly after the transfer completed, but the computer worked after a restart.

I also tested another program that can use the Belkin cable (or a similar cable sold by its publisher), PCMover by Laplink Software. It costs $50, or $60 with the cable, but has the advantage of moving programs, as well as files and settings. In my tests, it worked fine, transferring roughly 23 gigabytes of programs and files in about three hours. It also set up a new user identity on the Vista PC for the transferred material.

However, PCMover can only move all of your stuff. It doesn’t allow you to choose which items to move.

Worse, one of the transferred programs wouldn’t work on the Vista computer because it lacked some underlying components. Moving programs this way is a hit-or-miss proposition, because of the hideously complicated manner in which Windows stores programs on the hard disk and because some Windows programs won’t “activate,” or run, on a PC other than the one on which they were first installed.

Another alternative is a retractable cable called The Tornado, which costs $60 at www.thetornado.com. The beauty of this product is that it requires no software installation; the software is built in and just appears when you plug in the cable.

The downside is that the software is entirely manual. You have to select, then drag and drop, folders and files between two windows representing the two computers.

In my tests, it worked fine, but was tedious. And unless you’re a techie, you wouldn’t be able to use it easily to transfer settings and programs, because you wouldn’t know where to find all of the files needed.

Windows xp to macintosh:  If you bought a new Apple Macintosh, instead of a Vista PC, the process of moving your files is even easier.

No cable is needed. When you buy a Mac in an Apple retail store, Apple will transfer your pictures, music, movies and other documents from your Windows PC to your new Mac free of charge.

If you bought the Mac elsewhere, including Apple’s online store, an Apple retail store will perform the data transfer for $75.

If you plan to run Windows on your Mac using the $80 Parallels software, from Parallels, the company will soon release the final version of a utility called Transporter. This program can transfer all the contents of a real Windows PC into the Windows environment on a Mac. But it works only over a network, and the files it moves won’t be easily accessible by Mac programs. Details are at www.parallels.com/products/desktop/transporter/.

I haven’t tested either of these procedures.

Macintosh to Macintosh: For years, all new Macs have come with an excellent built-in migration utility that, in my experience, is simple, quick and comprehensive. It works via a Firewire cable available for as little as $4 at electronics stores. It moves all types of files, settings and even programs, and lets you choose which types to move. I have used this process multiple times in recent years. It has never failed me, and typically has required two-to-five hours.

Whatever computer you buy, migration is now easier than ever, if not perfect.

Run Your PC On the Cheap

Veteran computer buyers know the hardware can be the cheapest part of the purchase. Once you have a machine, you also need the software that makes it work.

But before you spend $50 on a one year antivirus solution from McAfee or Symantec and another $399 for a basic version of Microsoft Office that includes Word, IE. Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Consider, one of the many free alternatives available on the Internet.

The free Products can be less robust than their designer counter parts,few spreadsheet programs have the number crunching Power of Excel, for example-but many consumers and small business owners will never notice the limitations.

Here's a guide to some popular free Products:

Word Processing:  AbiWord has plenty of formatting options. It's compatible with Word, so you can trade documents with Office users.

Productivity Suite:  OpenOffice.org offers spreadsheet, presentation, database and word processing software in one package.

Google lovers can try that Company's Docs & Spreadsheets offering.

Protection: 
ClamWin antivirus...software includes automatic updates and a feature that works with Microsoft Outlook to remove infected email attachments.

Also run:a spyware product such as Ad-Aware SE or Spybot Search & Destroy.

E-mail, Browsing:  Mozilla's Thunderbird email program includes junk- mail filtering, automatic updates and spell check as you type.

Mozilla also offers the popular Firefox Web browser.

Cnet.com  offers one stop shopping for Product downloads. Click on "Downloads" and enter the product name in the "Search" box. You can also download the programs separately from individual sites.
By Jaclyne Badal
Highlights & Article layout"on this page" by page author.