Computer Repair

It seems that the longer you own your pc, the slower it gets! A lot of individuals will maintain their personal computer until it gets so slow that they feel they need a newer, faster model. Some feel like the reason it is getting slower is because it really is obtaining older, when that is just not the case. Your personal computer ought to run just as quick as the day you brought it home should you follow these 10 Easy Actions to Speed Up Your Personal computer.
Empty the Temp directory regularly. Each time you launch a program, it creates a temporary file, until you either save or close the file. The reason it does this is in case your program crashes or gets turned off (prior to saving the file), it’ll be achievable to recover the unsaved file you were working on. This is a good thought, but rarely works. Every time your program crashes, locks up, or gets turned off whilst you have open files, these temp files get created and just sit there inside the Temp directory. Then, each time you launch a program, it looks via all of the temp files (to see if one wants to be recovered) and slows the open method, and in some rare cases, even locks up when trying to launch. In any event, the launch procedure is slowed.Other methods of acquiring unneeded temp files is by installing programs. Most programs that get installed extract temp files (needed during the installation) to the temp directory, but lots of times do not get deleted when the installation is complete.Windows also uses the temp directory for its temp files, for recovery purposes and ongoing use.Following a short while, the temp directory fills up with hundreds (and I have even seen thousands) of temp files that often get scanned over when Windows starts up and when programs launch. This slows everything down immensely.Rule of thumb for Temp Files: If you don’t have any programs open (and absolutely nothing minimized inside the bar below), then you shouldn’t have ANY temp files in your temp directory. Should you do, delete them.To delete Temp files, make certain NO programs are open, and…
In Windows 95, 98 or Me, go to C:\Windows\Temp and delete every thing inside the Temp folder.In Windows 2000 or XP, it really is a bit trickier. Initial, ensure that you can see hidden folders. Double-click My Pc. Click on the Tools pull-down menu, and then on Folder Alternatives. Click on the View tab. Scroll down and click on Show Hidden Files and Folders. Click Ok. Now you’ll be able to go to the C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp folder. Delete every thing here. Also, look within the C:\Windows(or Winnt)\Temp or Tmp folders. Delete every thing here, as well. Note: this assumes that your logon ID is Administrator. If the principal account is not Administrator, or if you’ll find more than one account, substitute “Administrator” for the account names, and delete the temp files from all the C:\Documents and Settings\(account name)\Local Settings\Temp folders.Empty the Temporary World wide web Files regularly. This is similar to the Temp directory, but for images and cookies while browsing internet sites. Each time you go to a site, your browser will look by means of your list of temporary Internet files, to see when you have all the images needed to view your requested internet page. If it is a really lengthy list, it’ll delay your view time. Nonetheless, when you have a dial-up, this is the lesser of two evils. In the event you already have the needed images, it is quicker (for a dial-up) to look through your temporary World wide web files, than to download new images every time you pay a visit to a website.However, if you have a broadband Internet connection (highspeed CableModem, DSL, Wireless, etc.), and you would like just a little a lot more snap inside your surfing, then you ought to delete your Temporary Web Files on a standard basis, and select to Check for Newer Images on Every Go to to a internet page.To empty Temporary Web Files, go to your Control Panel, by click on the Start\Settings\Control Panel (or in Windows XP, just Start\Control Panel) and double-click the internet Options icon. Choose to Delete Cookies, and to Delete Files. This can clear all of your Temporary Web Files.To have World wide web Explorer always check for new images and content on every go to to a web page, to the correct of the Delete Files button, is the Settings button. Click this button and select Every Pay a visit to to the Internet Page. This option in no way has Internet Explorer look by means of your Temporary Internet Files to see in the event you already have the images needed. This way, Internet Explorer will just automatically download each image, every time, with out looking via a list. For those who have a great World wide web connection, this is the far better approach to go. Do not forget to delete your Temporary Internet Files each when in a whilst (see above).Check your hard disks for issues. There are two different sorts of disk checks: one can be a file check, which checks the state of your operating system, checks all of your files, your file structure, and other software checks. If you will find software program issues (such as a corrupt FAT (file allocation table), etc., this check will attempt to fix it. The other can be a physical hardware disk check. This checks the surface of your tough disks, to see if there are bad sectors (sections) of your hard drive, to see if your drive is physically experiencing problems. This disk check will attempt to repair the poor sectors, but if it can’t, it will mark the sector as poor and attempt to move the file(s) or file “pieces” to a great sector(s) of the disk. By marking the sector as poor, it knows not to write any future files to this section of the hard drive.To run a disk check (or scan disk), here are the actions:
For Windows 95, 98, or Me, double-click My Pc. Right-click the C-drive and click on Properties. Click on the Tools tab and select to check the personal computer for problems. In the event you select to do a Thorough Scan, this can do the hardware check for physical disk damage or sector damage. Otherwise, the Standard Scan does the software file check. In either case, you’ll be able to choose to have the scan automatically fix any errors it finds. The Thorough Scan does take very a bit longer. You may want to let this run over night. Only do the Thorough Scan once you feel there could be a difficulty with your drive itself, or in the event you haven’t run it in a couple of months, otherwise, run the Regular Scan when a week or so.For Windows 2000 and XP, double-click My Pc. Right-click the C-drive and click Properties. Click on the Tools tab and pick to check the computer for problems. Click on Check Now. You’ll then have two check boxes. The leading alternative is for the file check, and the second alternative is for the hardware (physical disk) check. Check either 1, or both. A minimum of check the leading one. Once more, should you think you might be having issues with the tough disk itself, then check the second 1, also. And just like the Windows 98 Thorough Scan, this can take very a bit longer to run, so let it run over night. 1 thing, though: For Windows 2000 and XP, you won’t have the ability to run the check right then. Right after clicking the Start button (when the check boxes are checked), you may have to reboot to run the disk check. It’ll ask you if you would like the program to run the CHKDSK on reboot. Select Yes and reboot. Just prior to acquiring back into Windows, the program will do its CHKDSK, and depending on which choices you chose, will take either a few minutes, and sometimes up to an hour or so, to run. Let it run.An even much more thorough disk check (and tune-up), could be to use a 3rd party utility (a stand-alone program outside of Windows) to check every thing for you, automatically. One of my favorites is TuneUp Utilities 2004. It expenses $39.99, but they do provide a Free download trial of 15 days, to check it out to see if it speeds up your computer and/or fixes any problems. This program does a really great job of not merely checking your computer’s file structure, master boot record, file allocation table, and files, but also an very excellent job of detecting and fixing bad sectors of your physical disk drives. And not only that, it also tunes up your program for increased speed, checks and cleans your registry, adjusts memory for you, tweaks your Internet settings for faster downloads and browsing (regardless of whether you use a dial-up or broadband), and streamlines your operating program for peak performance. I extremely recommend this program. Should you do not have it, you’ll be able to download it HERE.If you do not desire to get the TuneUp Utilities 2004, you can do several of the performance tweaks your self, when you have Windows XP. By default, Everything is turned on in Windows XP. It is not really streamlined for performance, but rather for appearance. You’ll be able to turn off several of the unnecessary attributes, and Windows will still work just fine, and maybe a little quicker.To do this, right-click on My Pc and click on Properties. Click on the Advanced tab. Under the Performance section, click on the Settings button. On the Visual Effects tab, you will see a list of check boxes. By default, these are all on. You really do not need any of them. In the event you select among the radio buttons at the leading, say, Adjust for Greatest Performance, then all of the check boxes will turn off. This may noticeably speed up your personal computer. You’ll be able to go through the check boxes 1 by one, and decide which ones you are able to and can’t live without. The one which will make the greatest effect is the very last one within the list. This is the Themes. If you turn it off, it’ll free up plenty of program resources and provide you with quite a bit a lot more memory to work with, but Windows XP will look much more like Windows 2000. For a lot of people, this is not a issue. It’s all eye-candy, anyway. Your fairly green pasture picture will disappear your pretty green and blue buttons and task bar will go to a gray. In the event you can live with these things, then you’ll have significantly much more performance. You will discover that menus open up much much more swiftly and every thing responds much more instantly.Turn off Active Desktop. Active Desktop turns your desktop into a web page, and enables you to have things like a real-time calendar, and up-to-the-minute weather or stocks. These issues are actually neat, but your program takes a performance hit when they’re running in the background all the time. As well as should you do not use Active Desktop for anything, just having it active can cause a performance decrease. Turn it off.
In Windows 95, 98 and Me, right-click on the desktop and in the pop-up menu, choose Active Desktop. Inside that option, uncheck Active Desktop. If there is no check next to it, then it is not on. Don’t select it. Instead, just click the desktop once again to obtain out of the menu.In Windows 2000, right-click on the desktop and in the pop-up menu, select Active Desktop. Inside that choice, uncheck Show Internet Content. Again, if there’s no check next to it, then it is not on. Do not check it.In Windows XP, right-click on the desktop and inside the pop-up menu, select Properties. On the Desktop tab, pick Customize Desktop. Now, on the Web tab, make certain that there are no web sites chosen here. If there aren’t any, then Active Desktop isn’t on. Cancel and go back to the desktop.Install and run a good AntiVirus program (frequently) to keep out viruses and Trojan horses that will take over your system. When you have a virus(s), your system performance may be significantly decreased. Viruses can do all kinds of nasty things to your computer. They can take over your computer, erase your hard drive, use your personal computer as a server, provide you with a bunch of illegal music or programs and tell all of their buddies to download it all from you leaving you holding the bag and supplying the pc space and bandwidth for their hobby. So, safeguard your self with a great AntiVirus program. One of my favorites is AVG. It is not only a really good AntiVirus program, but it is also Free of charge! Should you do not have any AntiVirus software on your pc, get AVG AntiVirus NOW by downloading HERE. Should you already have an AntiVirus program, and you want to use AVG instead, don’t install AVG. Very first, uninstall your existing AntiVirus program, reboot and install AVG. You don’t desire to have two AntiVirus programs installed at the same time. They’ll work against each other and can cause problems.Get rid of Spyware. Plenty of pc users have Spyware and don’t even know they’ve it, a lot much less how you can get rid of it. If your computer has been taking you to websites that you don’t wish to go to, or in the event you get pop-ups when you are not even on the internet, or if your computer has been running very slowly lately, for no reason, you most likely have Spyware.On all of the computers that I setup, I install two different AntiSpyware programs: AdAware SE and SpyBot. These two programs are extremely suggested by TechTV (G4) as well as other computer authorities (including my own analysis on Spyware) and work really well together. They compliment one another and catch Spyware that the other misses, but together, do a extremely excellent job.SpyBot isn’t only a great program for getting rid of Spyware, but also as a preventative Spyware-catcher. It sits there and looks for known Spyware coming into your system, in addition to suspicious-looking content. If you use the Tea-Timer feature, it could be a little annoying, but ANY suspicious-looking program, attempting to be installed on your system, is flagged and your permission is asked for it to be installed (now and always). Should you do not have this program installed on your pc, get it NOW by downloading HERE. Download all updates and run the Immunize choice a couple of times (for preventative purposes). Scan with it each and every day should you can.AdAware SE has just a little far better Spyware database in it, but just isn’t setup as a preventative AntiSpyware program. It does do a good job once you maintain up on the updates and manually scan your system with AdAware. If you do not have this program on your computer, get it NOW by downloading HERE. Download all updates and run the Intelligent Scan every day (if not, at least weekly).If, right after downloading and installing, updating, and running both of these AntiSpyware program, you still cannot get rid of your Spyware, you might must enlist the services of a professional. Some Spyware is so intelligent that it looks to see if AntiSpyware programs delete the Spyware part of its programming and, if it’s gone, reinserts it back in place. This may be really frustrating for the user (and in some instances, even for the professional). There are stronger measures that will be taken to get rid of the Spyware, in circumstances like this, but can be extremely devastating to the user’s pc, if not handled perfectly. At this point, leave it to the professional. Call a local computer repair company and have them come out to your residence or business and get rid of the Spyware for you.In some instances, when the Spyware has turn out to be too entwined into your system, even a computer repair technician cannot get rid of the Spyware. At this point, it is far better to just backup only what you need and have the operating system reinstalled. Think me, when your personal computer gets to this point, you do not wish to just put a “band-aid” on it. Just begin from scratch having a clean system. It’s the very best method to go.Streamline MSCONFIG. One factor that truly causes a Large performance decrease would be to have unnecessary programs running in the background. Some of these programs can be observed inside your System Tray (located next to the clock, within the lower-right corner of your screen). These are tiny programs that are robbing you of memory and processing power. Some of them you’ll need, although most you don’t. Some of the programs you Don’t want are printer icons, CD burning icons, shortcuts to programs (like video settings), AOL, any Instant Messaging Programs, etc. Just simply because these programs are not often running, doesn’t mean that you still cannot print, burn CDs or Instant Message. They can be run when you want them, from a shortcut.You can use a utility, called MSCONFIG, to turn OFF unnecessary Start Up items.
In Windows 98, Me, and XP, click on Start\Run and type msconfig. Click on the Startup tab. This can be a list of every thing that is running inside the background, some of which show up inside the Program Tray. Now, be careful, some of these you do want. Some items to keep are Ctfmon.exe (XP), Scan Registry (Win98, Me), Job Monitor (Win98, Me), Program Tray (Win98, Me), LoadPowerProfile (Win98, Me), Rundll.32, any AntiVirus programs (like McAfee, Norton, or AVG). Other people, you’ll be able to uncheck, such as NeroCheck, ypager, qttask, AOL, and any other Instant Messaging programs, or printing programs. Bear in mind, if something does not work, because you turned it off, it can often be turned back on. You just need to reboot each and every time you make a change here. But, as you uncheck the unnecessary programs that run in the background, you’ll see that Windows loads significantly faster, that you will find less icons inside the System Tray, and that your system is a lot more “snappy” and quick to respond.In Windows 2000, MSCONFIG wasn’t supplied. You really have to download and run an MSCONFIG utility. Here is really a site which will let you download the MSCONFIG utility. Click HERE to Download. And should you copy it into your C:\Windows(or Winnt)\System32 folder, you are able to access it the exact same way as Windows 98 or XP (by the Run command inside the Commence menu). Or, you can just double-click it and use it that way, too. See above for what to leave checked and unchecked.After you reboot, you will have a window that says that the configuration utility was edited. Just check not to show that within the future, a check box at the bottom.This just indicates that there was a change created to the MSCONFIG.Defragment your hard drives. When you have never carried out this, or it has been a couple of months because the last time, this step is among the most crucial issues that will give you more performance. As you use your computer, your drives become fragmented, by developing and deleting files. Just simply because a file is 10mb in size, does not mean that it’s sitting there on the drive (all 10mb) all in one spot on the drive. It fills in from the inside of the drive, outward, as the drive finds room. So your 1 file could be in pieces, in a number of spots on the difficult drive. Don’t worry, your file allocation table keeps track of where the pieces are, however, it takes longer to access a file that is in pieces (fragmented), than a file that is all in 1 spot on the difficult drive. This is where defragmenting comes in. When you defragment your difficult drive, this method copies all of the pieces to temporary spots on the tough drive, and then fills in all of the files (in their entirety) from the inside, out, so that no files are split into pieces. This dramatically speeds up the seek time, as well as speeds up the use of your files and programs. NOTE: to efficiently defragment a difficult drive, it likes to have 25% free of charge space. It can still do the defragmentation with only 15% free of charge space, but it takes really a bit longer. If you can, delete any unnecessary files before degramenting your drives.
To defragment your difficult drives (in any Windows operating program), double-click on My Pc. Right-click on the c-drive and click on Properties. Click on the Tools tab and pick the bottom button, to Defragment Now… Click on the appropriate drive, and then on Defragment. This can take some time. Depending on your processing power, the quantity of RAM you have obtainable, the size and speed of your drive, and a few other issues, this method can take 20 minutes, or hours. It’s greatest to let this one run over night, also, but it is well worth it.