WASHINGTON Personal computers are far from personal when anyone can see what you're doing or uncover what you've done on the PC. But there are steps you can take to protect your privacy -- both while you are working and while you are away. DPA has provided answers to some common questions about how you can make your PC more private.

Q: I'd like to be able to turn on my screen saver instantly so that people who come into my office cannot see what I'm doing. Is there any way I can turn on my screen saver quickly?

A: Yes, it's really quite easy to invoke any screen saver that is installed in Windows. All you need to do is locate the screen saver file on your hard drive and set up a keyboard shortcut to it. Open the Windows find dialogue box by pressing and holding down the Windows key (the one with the Windows logo imprinted on it) and tapping the letter F on your keyboard. In the Find text box, type *.scr, and press Enter. A list of files ending in scr should appear in the results pane. These scr files will probably be located in your C:/Windows directory or in C:/Winnt if you are using Windows NT or Windows 2000.

Each one of these scr files is a screen saver. You can double-click on each, and a screen saver will start. The trick is to bring one of these files onto your Desktop, where you can quickly doubleclick it, and instantly turn on a screen saver. To do this, move your mouse cursor over the file that you would like to use as your screen saver, and click your right mouse button to bring up a context-sensitive menu.

From the menu, click Send To...Desktop (create shortcut). This will create a shortcut to the screen saver file on your Desktop. Now, go to your Desktop (hold down the Windows key and press M to get there quickly), locate the screen saver file, and right-click on it to bring up a context sensitive menu. From the menu, click Properties.

In the resulting Properties dialog box, place the cursor in the shortcut key text box, and press a key combination that you would like to use to turn on the screen saver. Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S, for example. Click OK to exit the dialogue box. Now, when you press the key combination that you defined, your screen saver should start immediately.

Q: I just realized that people can use the Recycle Bin to find out what files I've been working on and that I have deleted. How can I delete something in Windows without having it go to the Recycle Bin?

A: It's true that the Recycle Bin can be your friend when you want to undelete a file that you accidentally wiped out. But if somebody wants to find out what you've attempted to get rid of, he or she can simply open the Recycle Bin, located right on the Windows Desktop, and inspect its contents.

Luckily, it's easy to turn off the Recycle Bin, either permanently or temporarily. To permanently turn off the Recycle Bin, right-click on the Recycle Bin icon, and click Properties from the pop-up menu. Select the check box labeled "Do not move files to the Recycle Bin". click OK to exit. From now on, nothing will be moved to the Recycle Bin. Instead, everything you delete will be removed permanently.

You can also delete files permanently without turning off the Recycle Bin. To do so, select the file or files to be deleted. Hold down the Shift key, and then tap the Delete key. When the files are deleted, they will not be sent to the Recycle Bin.

Q: The Documents item within the Windows Start menu lists all of the documents I've looked at recently on my PC. I don't want people to be able to use this to see what I've been working on or reading. How can I disable this feature?

A: The easiest way to prevent recently-opened documents from being listed automatically in the Documents section of the Start menu is to download Microsoft's Tweakui Tool, at www.zdnet.com/downloads (type Tweakui into the search field).

To install Tweakui, download the file from the location above, and put it in a temporary directory. Extract the contents of the file by double-clicking on it. One of the files that will be expanded is called Tweakui.INF. Right-click that file, and from the pop-up menu, click Install.

A Tweakui entry should then appear in your Windows Control Panel. Open the Control Panel by clicking the Windows Start button and navigating to Settings. Control Panel. Double-click the Tweakui icon. In the Tweakui dialog box, click the Paranoia tab. Click the check box labeled "Clear Document History at Logon". There are lots of other check boxes under the section called "Covering Your Tracks" that will help you protect your privacy as well. Check any that you wish to activate.