MCM001:  Democrat

(July 1, 2007) —

Question: I want to clean out my temp file, but it keeps telling me that certain files can't be deleted as they are being used by someone else. This is strange as I am the only one using this computer.

Now the computer is telling me that my virtual memory minimum is too low. What does this mean and what do I do about it?

Marlene in Victor

Answer: The problem with your temp files is perfectly normal, Marlene. Whenever a program opens in Windows (I'm assuming you're using Windows), it usually also opens a temp file or two (or four). If that program then is closed, those files can be erased. But if that program is still open, then those files are "locked" and cannot be deleted until the program is closed.

So, basically, don't worry about the ones you can't delete this time around; you'll get them next time around.

As for the virtual memory problem, fixing that depends entirely on your version of Windows. If you have Windows XP, then buying more memory will solve the problem. If you have any other version of Windows, or you can't add memory at this time, then you'll have to clear out some space on your hard drive (this is also, I suspect, related to your need to clean out your temp files).

Keeping a lot of free space on your hard drive is essential to running Windows well. First, clean out old e-mails. Just drop any that you don't need into the trash. If you do a lot of trading of cute pictures or programs with friends, you may have several copies of each. In addition, if you get an e-mail with several cute pictures, then forward that e-mail to others, and your e-mail is set to keep a copy of all sent messages, you've got two copies on your hard drive. You might be able to clear up quite a bit of space by deleting e-mail from your Sent folder.

If you have a lot of pictures on your hard drive, you can clear up quite a bit of space by backing up older ones to CDs or Flash drives, then deleting them from your computer.

If you don't know how to do this, the best place to get free help is from your local user group. The nearest one to Victor is the Rochester Computer Society. You can find their Web site at http://rcsi.org/ (Related) . Click on the Program link at the top of the page to see when the next meeting is.

Dear Nick: I run Windows XP on a computer with an Athalon 3000+ chip and 512 meg of ram. I have been thinking of changing to Linux (Ubuntu) for security and just to get rid of the bulky XP operating system.

I have an installation disc that lets you run Ubuntu from the disc before installing. If I decide to install it, is there a way to partition my hard drive and keep XP in case I need to go back to it? If Ubuntu works I would eventually like to wipe XP off my computer altogether. Is there a way to find out before installing Ubuntu if my printers, scanners and some business software will work on it?

Michael in Rochester

Answer: Ubuntu is a terrific operating system. It's a version of Linux, which, like Windows and the Mac OS, is the underlying software that makes your computer work. Ubuntu is free and comes with more than 21,000 (yes, that's not a typo) programs. It includes the OpenOffice.org suite, which has word processing (like Word), spreadsheets (like Excel), presentation software (like PowerPoint), and a database (like Access).

If you want to partition a working Windows system so that you can run either Ubuntu or Windows, talk to the folks at Rochester's local Linux group, LUGOR. Their Web site is at http://lugor.org/ (Related) . Check the site for information about their next meeting.

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