Yesterday (or 5 minutes ago, or a week ago) we gave you a list of our favorite programs that you could play with. By now, if you've been really adventureous, you should have run into at least one computer-related error (spilling coffee on the keyboard doesn't count). Recovering from such errors without losing all the important work one has done is important, and such recovery techniques will be our focus today.
Click this. If you clicked it, you are a fool1. The link is not a link, but a piece of code that will essentially freeze your browser2. The only way to get out of it will be to kill your browser: do ctrl-alt-delete, Task Manager>Applications>Select Browser>End Task. There are some people that disable right-clicks on their web site by running this code if you try to right click:
image with protection:click me!
It's really quite juvenile. The ctrl-alt-delete works for most everything that refuses to respond.
If ctrl-alt-delete doesn't work, because the entire desktop is "frozen" and won't respond, then you have essential one option: do a hard shutdown. You can wait for a few minutes if the mouse is moving, because ctrl-alt-delete may work, but most cases of a frozen computer will need you to reboot. Rebooting entails pressing the same power button that you press to start up your computer, and perhaps holding it for 5 seconds or more.
In cases like these, you'll lose the information you've been working on. If you're used to using ctrl-s, then it won't be too bad: perhaps a few lines off a document. If you haven't been using ctrl-s, then you should get in the habit of using it often, perhaps everytime you finish a paragraph. It'll save you from having to tell a fantastic story on how you lost a night's work after you were nearly done with a project, all without saving, and your computer crashed.
In this case, the "error" could be entirely natural, such as in a severe storm. If power is merely cut off, then you can boot back into your computer and continue on your merry way (once power comes back, of course).
In the event of a power surge, though, you might be in a bit of a pickle. If you skimped and didn't buy a surge protector3, then your cpu (well, anything in your computer) might be fried. It depends: try booting back up. If something happens, then you might need to replace a part. Determining which part might be easy (no internet? perhaps a fried ethernet card) but replacing it is beyond the scope of this tutorial. My advice is to go find your local hardware nerd, take him to lunch, and have him take a look.
If you overloaded a power strip4, well, then that's your fault. Go get another strip and stop being cheap with your power.
Back in the dark ages of the internet, I got a worm5. Yes, one of the writers. It was a particularly bad worm, garnered media attention. It would shut down your computer after a few minutes, and if you tried to update your computer using the usual windows site, then it would crash some more. Somehow, after Microsoft released a patch, we stayed online long enough to get the update and save the day.
That's the second line of defense in the face of a nasty piece of malware: make sure your computer is updated. The first is to have a healthy firewall and virus scanner, and use common sense. The third... well, there really isn't a third line of defense6. You can just wait.
This is it: the error to end all errors. The BSOD7. The BSOD is the this sort of screen:
text
or, as an image:
image
which could signify one of several things:
The only thing to do is follow the instructions on the BSOD, and perhaps google the technical information, or ask on some support forum.
Now that you have an inkling of what to do when an error strikes (don't sit there and stare and the screen), we'll move onto a happier topic: the internet9.