March 24, 2008

Screen Savers and Stand By Mode

This lesson is about what your computer can do when you don't use it for an hour or two.

Here is how you access your Screen Saver.

1. Find an area on your desktop.  Your desktop is the main screen of your computer.

2. Right Click on your desktop.

3. Click Properties on the menu that comes up.

4. Click on the Screen Savers Tab. 

5. Click on the down arrow in the screen saver area.   

6. The down arrow will let you see all the different screen savers to choose from.

7. When you find the one you want click apply. 

Here is how you set the power settings.

1. On the screen saver tab click power. 

2. You can choose different settings for the computer to save electricity.  Here are the settings.

Question:  What is "System standby:"

Answer:  Standby is similar to giving the computer a nap.  The computer powers down but comes out of the nap quickly.

Question:  What is "System hibernates:"

Answer:  System hibernates is a deeper sleep than standby.  It uses less electricity.

You can also access Standby and Hibernate by doing the following:

1. Click Start.

2. Click Shutdown.

3. Click the down arrow her to access the different options. 

If your computer goes into hibernate mode or standby mode and won't wake up here is what you can do.

1. Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds.  This will completely shut down the computer.

2. Press the power button again to start the computer.