Did you know that when you delete a document, photo, or any file in Windows XP that it is not gone? Not gone yet anyway. When you delete an item it is sent to the Recycle Bin. It will remain there until you clean out your Recycle Bin or you fill up your Recycle Bin and Windows will delete older items for newer deleted items.

A full Recycle Bin can also cause your system to run sluggish and take up space. If you have a smaller hard drive or need more space on your hard drive, the Recycle Bin is a good place to start some house cleaning.

Windows XP allocates 10% of your hard drive to the Recycle Bin by default. So if you fill up your Recycle Bin, you are not able to use 10% of your hard drive. On a 200GB hard drive, that is 20GB of space, which is substantial.

I like to set the Recycle Bin size to 2%. That is a small and manageable size, and if I forget to clean out my Recycle Bin, the system will purge old files to make room for new items.

To set the properties of the Recycle Bin, go to your desktop, Windows key + D. Right click the Recycle Bin and select properties.

Once the properties box opens, just move the slider to the desired setting. See below.

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Over the years I have owned many ink jet printers. Ink jet printers were a great improvement over dot matrix printers. Ink jets are affordable (more on that later), easy to maintain, and easy to use. However, over time the cost of printers has decreased and the cost of ink has increased.

One OEM ink cartridge for my Brother MFC 4420c costs $23.45 at Staples. That cartridge will print less than 500 pages. For the home office or small business, 500 pages at $23 is not cost effective.

You can buy non OEM cartridges online for around $10, but I have had mixed luck with these ink cartridges. About 1 in 4 cartridges from InkSell.com are defective and I have to pay shipping to return them.

So, like many savvy computer users, I have bought and used ink refill kits. I have also had mixed results with these kits. First, the ink can be a mess if spilled. Resealing the cartridge can be iffy on some cartridges. I have even had the ink leak out inside the printer which is a task to clean.

After having installed many HP LaserJet printers at work. I began to take notice of the HPs and their quality. We have installed a lot of HP LaserJet 1020 and 1022 printers. These printers are fairly inexpensive for laser jets and they hold up to the heavy work load they receive.

I purchased an HP Laserjet 1020 for my home/office and I have loved it. No more ink to mess with or buying replacement ink every month or so.

I can buy an ink toner cartridge at Staples for $69.99 (cheaper online), that will print 2,000 pages. Thats 0.035 cents per copy compared to my Brother at 0.047 cents a copy. Not only is the HP cheaper per copy, based on ink, there is no messy ink, no replacing the the cartridges as much and the quality of the print is better.

The cost of the printer is a little more than ink jet printers, but I think it is worth it. Check out the HP LaserJet 1020 at Buy.com.

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