Important Tech Terms Every Computer Users Should Know

The world has totally become dependent on digital systems today. Analog technologies are only used only in those rare cases where it is of huge significance. With all the importance that they are gaining today, we seriously need to get more and more updated with these technologies. We also need to understand that there might be serious issues while dealing with them. So just getting used to them will not be enough, we would also need to have quite a lot of knowledge regarding them. This is to ensure that whenever you run into a problem, you would not need to call the technical support guy, and even if you do, you would have a pretty good idea about what he is talking about.

Let us learn a few things about computers and the use of internet services that we all should know. Here are some of them and they have been described in as much detail as possible:

1. Browser

A browser is an application that is used to look at the millions of the web pages that are available on the internet. A web browser has the capacity to turn the markup language codes into meaningful and usable information that can be processed and understood by human beings. Different browsers have different capacities and would interpret the underlying code differently. So what becomes an issue for one browser may not be so for the other and you could get the task done easily.

You would find that most computers have a default browser. Windows computers come with Internet Explorer and you have got Windows 10, then you would find Edge. Apple computers on the other hand have Apple Safari. There are also various other choices of web browsers for you. You could opt for Chrome or Chromium from Google and even Firefox from Mozilla. These are some of the best options you have. Mostly, Linux have Mozilla Firefox set as their default versions but you can install and update to other browsers. Browsing the internet without a standard browser is not possible.

Browser Version – Browser versions play an important role in determining if they would create an issue or not. With each release or version, these software are updated and the problems with the previous versions are fixed. The technical support guy on many such occasions might ask you about the version of the browser and you could find this information on the ‘About’ section of the browser. If you are using the following browsers, you could get the information in the following way:

Microsoft Edge – Go to Settings and at the bottom of the browser, relevant details is given.

Apple Safari – The Safari icon should be selected and the ‘About’ should be selected.

Chrome – Select the hamburger menu (the 3 horizontal lines) and select ‘Help and About’

Firefox – Select ‘About’ from the hamburger menu.

2. Cookies / Cache

Cookies are tiny files that would be downloaded to your computer when you visit a website and would help to improve your online experience. This is because these cookies store information about your details and the next time you visit the site, your preferences would be remembered and you would be given relevant details.

Temporary files are created in the system when a program is being used. These files are created to give quick access to the important information and also for recovering useful data.

Cache is stored on your computer and it stores information of the website and helps it download faster. You can clear cache if you want an updated version of the website.

You can do all of these on your own, like clearing previous data, depending on your website. Let us take a look:

Microsoft Edge – Go to the ‘Settings’ option on your browser and select ‘Clear Browsing Data’.

Safari – Clicking on the Safari icon and ‘Clear History and Data’ will do the job for you.

Chrome – You would need to select ‘More Tools’ from the menu. Next you would need to go to the ‘Clear Browsing Data’ option and then make relevant selections.

Firefox – After you go the ‘Options’ tab, you would need to click on ‘Advanced’ and then ‘Network’. When you find the ‘Cached Web Content’, click on ‘Clear’.

You would get options to remove cookies, cache and other data like passwords. Select them accordingly as and when you want to clear.

3. HTML

HTML is another interesting and important topic that you should know about in a little details. It stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. A markup language determines the context of your website and how they would be displayed. Therefore a knowledge of HTML and other languages are needed to make websites on the internet. There are, however, many software available in the market now that can help you to create web pages with much less effort. So a little knowledge about this markup language is not going to hurt. Often there might be minor malfunctions that could b dealt with easily and knowing HTML could be just the answer you need.

4. FTP

Like Hyper Text Transmission Protocol or http, there is another one that is known as File Transfer Protocol or FTP. This protocol is used to transfer files from the web server to a computer. There might be files or pictures on your computer that you want to be uploaded or transferred online. You might want your server to host the data along with your website and necessary information. In such a case, FTP is used. At a point of time, FTP programs were needed to upload and host websites to servers, but nothing as such is required nowadays.

However, there might be certain issues when you do not upload the files in correct order or the required directory. These issues generally come to light when you are referencing to files that are not present in a certain directory. You could make changes in the code to direct the control to the proper place. However, the easier way is to just place the file in the correct location.

5. Templates

Templates have revolutionized the way websites can now be made and created. Previously, creating a website needed a lot of knowledge about the markup languages and other scripting languages, thus making it a thoroughly difficult process for the normal people. Templates and themes provide a lot of pre-defined text and images that allow you to make content without much effort. There are many such management platforms like WordPress and others that enable you to do that with considerable ease. But care need to be taken that not all templates and plugins can be used universally with all web browsers.

6. Add-ons or Plugins

Now you need to understand that there are many such functionalities that cannot be undertaken by your browser alone. Your browser would need some help from other scripts to get these done. There are thousands of different add-ons that are available nowadays. They can help you get a lot of your job done and thus, improve your overall experience. But you need to understand that you could face with a significant number of issues while using these. This is simply because some of them do not work well with others.

These are some of the niches that you should take care of while handling your personal computer. Knowing these little things will go a long way in helping you get rid of various issues.

[Image via: Google Images]