Author: Debra Dalgleish

Last December, I got a new laptop, and have been using it for most of my work since then. I store client files, blog posts, sample Excel files for my Contextures website, and a few too many digital photos.

The laptop has about 1 TB of disk space, so I should be okay for a while – or so I thought.

Almost Out of Space

Last week, I noticed that the C drive was almost at capacity – it was showing a red bar in Windows Explorer. Yikes! I didn’t ever run into that problem in the old laptop, and I used it for a few years.

What was filling up the drive? Had I really taken so many photos that I’d hit the limit?

Then I noticed that my storage space had been split into 4 drives, and the C drive only had 186 GB. So, I moved all the photos, and some of the documents to the other drives, and that temporarily solved the problem.

Can’t Open Outlook

Then, a crisis hit – Outlook wouldn’t open because it didn’t have enough disk space.  I moved a few more files to the other drives, emptied the Recycle Bin, and got Outlook running again. Whew!

But I can’t work like that – I don’t want to be constantly worrying about disk space. What was filling up the disk, and how could I get that stuff into a different drive?

Check the Folder Properties

I started through the folders again, checking each one’s properties, and looking for unusually large items. Was a program taking more that its share of the space? Was Windows 8 the culprit.

Finally, I found one of the Temp folders, in the AppData > Local directory, and it looked pretty full. Sometimes an installation file gets stuck in there, and they can be a few hundred MB in size.

I sorted the list in descending order by file size, and was shocked to see this item at the top of the list. It was a text file, named toolbar_log.txt, and it was 53 GB!

Of course, Notepad++ couldn’t open it, because it was so huge, so I couldn’t see what was in the file. A Google search showed that it was a file created by the AVG security software, and other people were complaining about its size.

Delete the Rogue File

The online information indicated that it was safe to delete the file, but AVG would just recreate it.

So, I did, and as predicted, the file came back. As I watched in Windows Explorer, the file size increased every few seconds.

I deleted it again, and followed the advice in one of the online comments – I set the file to Read Only.

Problem Solved

So far, so good – the file is about 500 KB, and holding. I haven’t noticed any effects from changing the file to Read Only, except for the benefit of 53 GB of free space on my C drive.

I’ll sort out the folders and files, to spread things around, not that the crisis is over. And I’ll add a few Libraries, to make it easier to get to my files, after they’re moved.

I hope you never run into this problem, but if you have AVG installed, you might want to check for a file named toolbar_log.txt – and make sure it isn’t eating up your space.

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Most of the time, my iPhone is stored safely in my purse or pocket. Sometimes though, I like to use it as a camera, and I worry about dropping it.

For example, I had a nice view of the harbour from the lighthouse on Hilton Head Island, but stayed back from the railing a bit. I didn’t the phone to fall 90 feet to the ground!

And this week, I held it tightly while shooting this picture from a bridge over a local river. The bridge wasn’t very high, but the landing is a bit wet.

Looking for a Wrist Strap

I looked online for iPhone wrist straps, and wasn’t impressed with what I saw. Most were plugged in to the cable slot, and didn’t seem too secure.

My point and shoot camera has a little wrist strap, and a small slot on the side where the strap is attached. I didn’t see a slot on the iPad, but there is a small flap with a hole, at the top of the OtterBox iPhone case.

So, I found an old neck strap in my office drawer – it came with a USB drive – and pushed its cord through that hole.

Then, I looped it over the lanyard strap, and pulled it tight. Perfect!

Now, when I’m using the phone as a a camera, I can wear the neck strap, and not worry about dropping that very expensive “camera”.

If you’ve found a better solution, please let me know.

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Last week, I got a new laptop, with Windows 8 as the operating system. Every task is taking twice as long as usual, as I fumble about, trying to find things.

I like the laptop though, which is much faster and quieter than the old Dell laptop. I’ve gone back to a 17” screen, after a few years with a 15” screen.

Turn Off the Touchpad

I used to have trouble with the touchpad on the Dell, touching it accidentally, and having strange things happen. However, the problem is much more noticeable on the ASUS, with its gigantic touchpad.

In the middle of doing something, my thumb brushes it, and I end up on the Windows 8 start screen, or in some maximized window, with no obvious escape route.

So, I reluctantly opened the manual, and found a key combination that toggles the touchpad on and off.

Press the Fn key and tap the F9 key.

To help me remember the shortcut, they’ve even put an icon on the F9 key, which you can see in the picture below.

Do You Use the Touchpad?

I’ve only used a computer’s touchpad a few times in my life, and never voluntarily, only when a mouse wasn’t available.

Do you ever use the touchpad?

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