How To Make My Computer Fast

How To Make My Computer Fast

Since defragging the disk won't do much to improve Windows XP performance, here are 23 suggestions that will. Each can enhance the performance and reliability of your customers' PCs. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing.

To decrease a system's boot time and increase system performance, use the money you save by not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in Windows defragmenter works just fine -- and instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133 or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.

If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.

Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you're not sure, here's how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This process may take a while; it's important that the computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.

Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword index." As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system.The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want. Windows XP's built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is looking for.Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least one server. But if you're a typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.Here's how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching." Next, apply changes to "C: subfolders and files," and click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as "Access is denied"), click the Ignore All button.

Update the PC's video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS. For more information on how to configure your BIOS properly, see this article on my site.

Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can "prefetch" portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That's fine. But over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire contents are safe to delete.

Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here's how: Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button -- it's just to the right of the Capacity pie graph -- and delete all temporary files.

In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to "DMA if available" for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel.

Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the cabling requirements to achieve these performance boosts have become more stringent. Be sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with the connectors properly assigned to the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A single device must be at the end of the cable; connecting a single drive to the middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signaling problems. With Ultra DMA hard drives, these signaling problems will prevent the drive from performing at its maximum potential. Also, because these cables inherently support "cable select," the location of each drive on the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable is designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.

Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any updates before starting your search. Anything either program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your customer really wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it. For more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News page.

Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup routine using the MSCONFIG utility. Here's how: First, click Start, click Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don't want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the filenames using Google or another Web search engine.

Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many different settings in this area. Here's how to do it: First click on the System icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select the Settings button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer -- only its responsiveness.

Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel.

If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editing their registry, try some of the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.

Visit Microsoft's Windows update site regularly, and download all updates labeled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.

Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on their computer. The more fonts they have, the slower the system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, too many fonts -- that is, anything over 500 -- will noticeably tax the system.

Update the customer's anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.

Check the system's RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory automatically after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more than one), and run the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.

If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer's Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it's free.

Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP's NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition, and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an operating system. The same excuses people offer for using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For example, instead of putting all your data on the D: drive, put it in a folder called "D drive." You'll achieve the same organizational benefits that a separate partition offers, but without the degradation in system performance. Also, your free space won't be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will be limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This means you won't need to resize any partitions, ever. That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost data.

At least once a year, open the computer's cases and blow out all the dust and debris. While you're in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more information on this leaking-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles on my site.

If you're sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to "Launch folder windows in a separate process," and enable this option. You'll have to reboot your machine for this option to take effect.

Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that your customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for Windows XP configurations.

Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to the performance and reliability of your customers' computers. If you still want to defrag a disk, remember that the main benefit will be to make your data more retrievable in the event of a crashed drive.

Installing Process of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 troubleshooting

Installing Process of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 troubleshooting

How To Install Windows 7 in my system.

This week, Microsoft rolled out Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7.

A service pack is like a giant first-aid kit for an operating system: Microsoft rolls up hundreds of bug fixes, patches and plugs for security holes into a single package, tosses in some new features, and delivers it in a multi-megabyte update.

Usually, I advise people to wait a while before installing a service pack, just in case the service pack delivers its own set of problems. But SP1 for Windows 7 is unlike any previous service pack in one significant way: it’s almost a non-event. Really there’s very little in here to write home about. The few major changes it contains will be of interest to network administrators and folk in large companies, but for the rest of us, it’s entirely humdrum.

What a welcome change this is! It is proof of how good Windows 7 is and how, from the start, Microsoft got most things right with this operating system. That’s not to say there aren’t problems with Windows 7, but all in all, it’s a solid, reliable operating system. You certainly couldn’t say that about its predecessor. Vista was almost unbearable to use until its first service pack was released and, even then, it still needed major fixing up with later service packs.

Although SP1 doesn’t deliver anything exciting, it’s still definitely worth installing. By installing it, you’ll ensure that your system is fully up to date and with known security issues fixed. You may also find, as I did, that the service pack makes your system run a little better. I found that it addressed several little niggly problems I thought I’d have to live with forever.

Back up first

SP1 may not be a major update in terms of content, but installing it is still a major process. It replaces a bunch of core windows files and the whole update will take from 30 to 90 minutes, depending on your system.

Whenever you install a service pack, you should take the precaution of backing up your data – your whole system if you’re being cautious – before you proceed. For most people, the process will be smooth sailing, but it’d be sad if you were the rare one who encounters a problem and you have no recent backup.

Also, make sure you have enough disk space to proceed. Depending on your system, you’ll need between 750 megabytes and around a gigabyte to install it using Windows Update (and up to 7.4 gigabytes if you use the standalone download method). You can use Disk Cleanup to clear out files you no longer need:

Click Start, type disk cleanup in the search box, and click Disk Cleanup in the results list.

Select your system drive (almost always C:) in the Drive Selection dialog box and click OK. Disk Cleanup will search your system for files it can delete.

Tick (check) each of the items you wish to delete and click OK.

Installing SP1

To install SP1:

Close all other programs.

Run Windows Update (click Start, type windows update and press Enter).

Click the ‘Important updates are available’ link, tick Windows 7 Service Pack 1 in the list and click OK.

If you tick the option to ‘Automatically restart the computer’ you can leave your computer unattended while the update is in progress.

Testing

After you install SP1, try it out on your system for a few days. If everything seems to be working okay and disk space is tight, you can use Disk Cleanup to delete the backup files, which consume somewhere between a half a gigabyte and a gigabyte of space. To remove the SP1 backup files, you’ll need to take an extra step when you use Disk Cleanup.

Click Start, type disk cleanup in the search box, and click Disk Cleanup in the results list.

Select your system drive  in the Drive Selection dialog box and click OK.

When the Disk Cleanup for System dialog box is displayed, click the ‘Clean up system files’ button. This will search for additional items, including the Service Pack backups.

When the list of files to delete is displayed, tick ‘Service pack backup files’ and then click OK.

Uninstalling SP1

If you find a problem with your system after you’ve installed SP1, it’s possible to uninstall it provided you have not run Disk Cleanup in the meantime.

To uninstall SP1:

Click Start -> Control Panel -> Programs -> Programs and Features -> View Installed Updates.

Click ‘Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB 976932)’ and click Uninstall.

If the service pack is greyed out in the list, you won’t be able to uninstall it. In that case, the only way to remove the service pack is to reinstall Windows 7.

When you can’t install SP1

Sometimes the installation itself doesn’t work. For example, I ran into a problem where the service pack download failed each time it reached 18 percent. A quick Google search showed that others were experiencing the same problem.

If you encounter something similar, try rebooting your modem and router:

Switch off your computer.

Remove the power cords from your modem and your router.

Wait a minute or so.

Reconnect your modem and wait for all the lights to cycle (it usually takes about a minute).

Reconnect your router and wait for its lights to cycle (about another minute).

Turn your computer back on.

Now try the download once more.

If Windows Update still fails, give the Windows Update troubleshooter a whirl:

Click Start -> Control Panel and type ‘troubleshooter’ in the search box.

Click Troubleshooting and then, in the System and Security section, click ‘Fix problems with Windows Update’.

Manual installation

Click Start, right-click Computer and select Properties to check whether SP1 has been installed on your computer.

If you still can’t download the service pack using Windows Update, try a manual download of the standalone version. If you have a 32-bit computer, download windows6.1-KB976932-X86.exe; if you have a 64-bit computer, download windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe. (If you don’t know whether your computer is 32 or 64-bits, click Start, right-click Computer and select Properties, and check your ‘system type’.)

If you use the standalone installation package, make sure you first install Windows Update KB2454826, from update.microsoft.com, before installing SP1.

How to find enable Hidden Themes in windows 7

Windows 7 by default has only few themes available for customization. There is some hidden themes available for certain regional countries such as Australia, Canada, Great Britain, United States and South Africa.

To get those do the following steps

1. Open Windows Explorer and click Organize.

2. Select Folder and Search Options and navigate to the View tab.

3. Select Show hidden files, folders and drivers and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). Click Yes, if prompted for confirmation.

4. Click OK and now browse to the folder: Windows\Globalization\MCT.

5. There are five folders here with the name with format MCT-XX (where XX is AU, CA, GB, US, or ZA)
which represents globalization settings for each region. Go into the folder that you want to activate its theme.
Note that AU, CA and ZA regions have the same themes.

6. Open the Theme folder inside the selected region folder.

7. Double click on the XX.theme file to apply the theme to the Windows 7 desktop system. Once a theme is executed and activated, the theme will be available and saved into Personalization options, so that user can select this theme directly from the personalization settings.

8. Now to go to Folder Options to reverse the first 5 steps to hide the hidden and protected system files and folders again.

Interesting facts, Tricks and tips of WINDOWS 7

Interesting Facts , Tricks and tips of WINDOWS 7

* Windows key + Left: docks current window to the left side of the screen.

* Windows key + Right: docks current window to the right side of the screen.
    * Windows key + Up: maximizes and/or restores foreground window.

    * Windows key + Down: minimizes active window.

    * If you want a more Vista-esque taskbar rather than the superbar (why anyone would revert is beyond me), right-click the Taskbar, go to Properties, check the ‘Use small icons’ option, then change the “Taskbar Buttons” option to ‘Never combine.’

    * Windows 7 now burns ISO files themselves instead of making users grapple with third-party applications.

    * For those lucky people with a multi-monitor setup, Windows + SHIFT + Left (or Right) will shift a window from monitor to monitor.

    * Gone is the “Add Font” dialog. It’s been replaced with a much nicer system. Download a font and double-click it (you’ll be greeted with the familar font window, but you should notice it now has a ‘Install’ button).

    * Windows 7 now includes Gabriola. This is an elaborate display typeface that takes advantage of OpenType layout to create a variety of stylistic sets.

    * If you press Windows + 1, it will create a new instance of the first icon in the task bar. This is handy if you do a lot of coding and need to open several instances of a program.

    * If you right-click on a Taskbar icon, it brings up the much talked about Jump List. However, the same can be done by clicking with the left mouse button and dragging the icon “out” (so to speak). This was specifically designed for touch-enabled computers, such as your lovely HP TouchSmart PC.

    * To run a program as an Administrator, it’s now as easy as holding CTRL + SHIFT when you open the application.

    * you can now create a ‘System Repair Disc.’ This is a CD bootable version of Windows 7 that includes the command prompt and a suite of system tools. Very handy for those really tough spots (which, with this still in beta, could be just around the corner). To get to this, simply open the Start Menu and type: “system repair disc” in the search field.

Windows Keyboard Shortcuts With Start Button

Just pressing the windows key alone will show the ‘start’ menu. But you can also use this key for many other shortcuts when combining this key with another letter. Here are the list of windows key shortcuts.

Win key + R : To open ‘Run’ box in Start Menu
Win key + F : To ‘Find’ window in Start menu
Win key + E : To open Windows Explorer
Win key + Pause/Break : To open System Properties
Win key + M : All open windows will be minimised
Win key + Shift + M : All minimised windows will open
Win key + D : Will show all minimised windows
Win key + Tab: Will rotate and select programs in the task bar

Windows 7 Shortcut Keys

Here are some useful shortcut keys for Windows 7 users.

Windows key + Up Arrow = Active window will be maximized

Windows key + Down Arrow = Active window will be minimized

Windows key + Left Arrow = Active window will be moved to the left

Windows key + Right Arrow = Active window will be moved to the right

Windows key + Home Key = All windows will be minimized. If already minimized they will be opened.

Windows key + T = The first application in task bar will be given focus. If you press T continuously the focus will be switched to other applications in that order.

Windows key + Space bar = If you keep pressed, Windows Startup will be shown.

Windows key +  1-9 any number key = The respective application in the task bar will be given focus.

Windows key +  Plus key = Window will be zoomed in

Windows key + Minus key = Window will be zoomed out.

Adjusting Windows Task bar size: In Windows 7

Adjusting Windows Task bar size: In Windows 7

In Windows 7, the usual size of the Windows Taskbar is a bit larger than usual. This takes some extra space at the bottom of the computer screen. This makes selecting the applications easier as the buttons are bigger. However for those who are using smaller screens this may be a bit annoying as it takes more space on the screen. If you want you can make the size of the taskbar smaller by following the steps below.

*In a blank space in the taskbar right click and select properties.

*You will see the ‘Taskbar and Start Menu Properties’ dialog box with many tabs.

*Here click ‘Use small icons’ and select it.

*Now click OK and close the dialog box.

Now the task bar will occupy smaller space. If you want you can also hide the task bar when not required. If you want to hide the task bar, in step 2 above, select the ‘Taskbar’tab, and in ‘Taskbar appearance’, select ‘Autohide the taskbar’. If you choose this, if you bring the mouse to the bottom of the screen the taskbar will appear and if you move away from the task bar, it will be hidden.