Computer Repair

It appears that the longer you own your pc, the slower it gets! Plenty of folks will keep their pc until it gets so slow that they feel they require a newer, quicker model. Some feel like the reason it’s acquiring slower is because it is obtaining older, when that’s just not the case. Your computer should run just as quickly as the day you brought it residence should you follow these 10 Simple Actions to Speed Up Your Computer.
Empty the Temp directory frequently. Each and every 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 (just before saving the file), it will be possible to recover the unsaved file you were working on. This can be a good idea, but rarely works. Each time your system crashes, locks up, or gets turned off while you’ve got open files, these temp files get produced and just sit there inside the Temp directory. Then, every time you launch a program, it looks by means of all of the temp files (to see if one wants to be recovered) and slows the open process, and in some rare cases, even locks up when attempting to launch. In any event, the launch method is slowed.Other methods of obtaining unneeded temp files is by installing programs. Most programs that get installed extract temp files (necessary in the course of the installation) to the temp directory, but lots of times don’t get deleted when the installation is complete.Windows also uses the temp directory for its temp files, for recovery purposes and ongoing use.Right after a short whilst, the temp directory fills up with hundreds (and I’ve 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: In the event you don’t have any programs open (and absolutely nothing minimized inside the bar below), then you shouldn’t have ANY temp files inside your temp directory. If you do, delete them.To delete Temp files, make sure NO programs are open, and…
In Windows 95, 98 or Me, go to C:\Windows\Temp and delete everything inside the Temp folder.In Windows 2000 or XP, it is a little trickier. Initial, make sure that you’ll be able to see hidden folders. Double-click My Personal computer. Click on the Tools pull-down menu, and then on Folder Options. 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 everything here. Also, look within the C:\Windows(or Winnt)\Temp or Tmp folders. Delete everything here, too. Note: this assumes that your logon ID is Administrator. If the main account just isn’t Administrator, or if you’ll find more than 1 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 frequently. This is similar to the Temp directory, but for images and cookies whilst browsing internet sites. Each and every time you go to a site, your browser will look by means of your list of temporary Internet files, to see if you have all of the images needed to view your requested internet page. If it is a really long list, it will delay your view time. However, when you have a dial-up, this is the lesser of two evils. Should you already have the necessary images, it’s quicker (for a dial-up) to look by means of your temporary Internet files, than to download new images every time you go to a site.On the other hand, if you have a broadband World wide web connection (highspeed CableModem, DSL, Wireless, etc.), and you would like just a little a lot more snap within your surfing, then you need to delete your Temporary Internet Files on a regular basis, and pick to Check for Newer Images on Each and every Pay a visit to to a web page.To empty Temporary World wide 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 web Alternatives icon. Select to Delete Cookies, and to Delete Files. This will clear all of your Temporary World wide web Files.To have Internet Explorer always check for new images and content on each and every go to to a web page, to the correct of the Delete Files button, is the Settings button. Click this button and pick Each Visit to the Internet Page. This option never has Internet Explorer look by means of your Temporary World wide web Files to see should you already have the images required. This way, World wide web Explorer will just automatically download each image, every time, without having searching via a list. When you have a great World wide web connection, this is the much better approach to go. Don’t forget to delete your Temporary Internet Files each when in a while (see above).Check your difficult disks for issues. You’ll find two various types 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, as well as 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 is a physical hardware disk check. This checks the surface of your hard disks, to see if you’ll find bad sectors (sections) of your hard drive, to see if your drive is physically experiencing issues. This disk check will attempt to repair the poor sectors, but if it cannot, it’ll mark the sector as poor and attempt to move the file(s) or file “pieces” to a good sector(s) of the disk. By marking the sector as bad, it knows not to write any future files to this section of the tough drive.To run a disk check (or scan disk), here are the steps:
For Windows 95, 98, or Me, double-click My Personal computer. Right-click the C-drive and click on Properties. Click on the Tools tab and pick to check the computer for difficulties. In the event you choose to do a Thorough Scan, this may 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 quite a bit longer. You may wish to let this run over night. Only do the Thorough Scan when you believe there could be a issue with your drive itself, or should you haven’t run it in a few months, otherwise, run the Regular Scan when a week or so.For Windows 2000 and XP, double-click My Computer. Right-click the C-drive and click Properties. Click on the Tools tab and choose to check the personal computer for difficulties. Click on Check Now. You may then have two check boxes. The top alternative is for the file check, and also the second option is for the hardware (physical disk) check. Check either one, or both. At the very least check the top 1. Again, if you believe you may be having problems with the difficult disk itself, then check the second one, also. And just like the Windows 98 Thorough Scan, this will take very a bit longer to run, so let it run over night. 1 thing, although: For Windows 2000 and XP, you will not be able to run the check right then. After clicking the Start button (when the check boxes are checked), you will need to reboot to run the disk check. It will ask you if you want the program to run the CHKDSK on reboot. Choose Yes and reboot. Just before acquiring back into Windows, the system will do its CHKDSK, and depending on which options you chose, will take either several minutes, and at times up to an hour or so, to run. Let it run.An even much more thorough disk check (and tune-up), would be to use a 3rd party utility (a stand-alone program outside of Windows) to check everything for you, automatically. 1 of my favorites is TuneUp Utilities 2004. It costs $39.99, but they do offer a Free of charge download trial of 15 days, to check it out to see if it speeds up your pc and/or fixes any difficulties. This program does a really excellent job of not only 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 merely that, it also tunes up your program for increased speed, checks and cleans your registry, adjusts memory for you, tweaks your Web settings for faster downloads and browsing (whether you use a dial-up or broadband), and streamlines your operating program for peak performance. I extremely suggest this program. Should you don’t have it, you can download it HERE.Should you do not desire to get the TuneUp Utilities 2004, you’ll be able to do a few of the performance tweaks yourself, if you have Windows XP. By default, Everything is turned on in Windows XP. It is not extremely streamlined for performance, but rather for appearance. You can turn off several of the unnecessary attributes, and Windows will still work just fine, and possibly just a little faster.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 truly do not need any of them. If you choose among the radio buttons at the leading, say, Adjust for Finest Performance, then all the check boxes will turn off. This can noticeably speed up your pc. You’ll be able to go by means of the check boxes 1 by one, and determine which ones you are able to and cannot live with out. The one that can make the biggest effect is the extremely last one inside the list. This is the Themes. Should you turn it off, it’ll totally free up lots of program resources and give you quite a bit much more memory to work with, but Windows XP will look much more like Windows 2000. For many people, this is not a issue. It really is 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. Should you can live with these things, then you’ll have much much more performance. You’ll discover that menus open up significantly much more rapidly and every thing responds much more immediately.Turn off Active Desktop. Active Desktop turns your desktop into a internet page, and permits you to have points like a real-time calendar, and up-to-the-minute weather or stocks. These things are really neat, but your system takes a performance hit when they’re running within the background all the time. And even should you don’t 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 certainly no check next to it, then it isn’t on. Do not pick it. Instead, just click the desktop once more to obtain out of the menu.In Windows 2000, right-click on the desktop and inside the pop-up menu, pick Active Desktop. Inside that option, uncheck Show Web Content. Once more, if there’s no check next to it, then it isn’t on. Do not check it.In Windows XP, right-click on the desktop and in the pop-up menu, select Properties. On the Desktop tab, pick Customize Desktop. Now, on the Web tab, make certain that you’ll find no websites chosen here. If there aren’t any, then Active Desktop isn’t on. Cancel and go back to the desktop.Install and run an excellent AntiVirus program (frequently) to maintain out viruses and Trojan horses that may take over your system. For those who have a virus(s), your program performance could be dramatically decreased. Viruses can do all kinds of nasty things to your personal computer. They are able to take over your pc, 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 friends to download it all from you leaving you holding the bag and supplying the pc space and bandwidth for their hobby. So, protect yourself having 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! If you do not have any AntiVirus software on your computer, get AVG AntiVirus NOW by downloading HERE. In the event you already have an AntiVirus program, and you would like to make use of AVG instead, do not install AVG. Initial, uninstall your current AntiVirus program, reboot and install AVG. You don’t want to have two AntiVirus programs installed at the exact same time. They’ll work against each other and can cause issues.Get rid of Spyware. Lots of pc users have Spyware and don’t even know they’ve it, much less how to get rid of it. If your personal computer has been taking you to websites that you do not want to go to, or if you get pop-ups whenever you aren’t even online, or if your computer has been running incredibly slowly lately, for no reason, you most likely have Spyware.On all of the computers that I setup, I install two distinct AntiSpyware programs: AdAware SE and SpyBot. These two programs are extremely recommended by TechTV (G4) and other pc authorities (which includes my own research on Spyware) and work very well together. They compliment one another and catch Spyware that the other misses, but together, do a very great job.SpyBot isn’t only a good program for getting rid of Spyware, but also as a preventative Spyware-catcher. It sits there and looks for recognized Spyware coming into your program, 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). If you do not have this program installed on your personal computer, get it NOW by downloading HERE. Download all updates and run the Immunize option a couple of times (for preventative purposes). Scan with it every day in the event you can.AdAware SE has a bit far better Spyware database in it, but just isn’t setup as a preventative AntiSpyware program. It does do an excellent job when you keep up on the updates and manually scan your system with AdAware. In the event you don’t have this program on your personal computer, get it NOW by downloading HERE. Download all updates and run the Smart Scan every day (if not, at the very least weekly).If, following downloading and installing, updating, and running both of these AntiSpyware program, you still cannot get rid of your Spyware, you could have to enlist the services of a expert. 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 location. This can be very frustrating for the user (and in some cases, even for the expert). You will find stronger measures that will be taken to get rid of the Spyware, in cases like this, but may be extremely devastating to the user’s pc, if not handled perfectly. At this point, leave it to the professional. Call a nearby computer repair organization and have them come out to your house or enterprise and get rid of the Spyware for you.In some circumstances, when the Spyware has become too entwined into your program, even a computer repair technician cannot get rid of the Spyware. At this point, it is better to just backup only what you need and have the operating system reinstalled. Believe 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 with a clean program. It’s the best approach to go.Streamline MSCONFIG. 1 thing that truly causes a Huge performance decrease would be to have unnecessary programs running within the background. Some of these programs could be seen in your System Tray (situated 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, while most you do not. A number of the programs you Do not need are printer icons, CD burning icons, shortcuts to programs (like video settings), AOL, any Instant Messaging Programs, etc. Just since these programs aren’t always running, does not mean that you still can’t print, burn CDs or Instant Message. They can be run once you want them, from a shortcut.You are able to use a utility, called MSCONFIG, to turn OFF unnecessary Begin Up items.
In Windows 98, Me, and XP, click on Start\Run and kind msconfig. Click on the Startup tab. This is a list of every thing which is running inside the background, some of which show up within the Program Tray. Now, be careful, some of these you do require. Some items to maintain are Ctfmon.exe (XP), Scan Registry (Win98, Me), Job Monitor (Win98, Me), Program Tray (Win98, Me), LoadPowerProfile (Win98, Me), Rundll.32, any AntiVirus programs (such as McAfee, Norton, or AVG). Other people, you can uncheck, like NeroCheck, ypager, qttask, AOL, and any other Instant Messaging programs, or printing programs. Keep in mind, if something doesn’t work, simply because you turned it off, it can usually be turned back on. You just have to reboot each time you make a alter here. But, as you uncheck the unnecessary programs that run inside the background, you’ll see that Windows loads much quicker, that you’ll find less icons within the Program Tray, and that your program is much a lot more “snappy” and fast to respond.In Windows 2000, MSCONFIG wasn’t supplied. You actually need to download and run an MSCONFIG utility. Here can be a web site which will let you download the MSCONFIG utility. Click HERE to Download. And if you copy it into your C:\Windows(or Winnt)\System32 folder, you can access it the exact same way as Windows 98 or XP (by the Run command within the Start menu). Or, you can just double-click it and use it that way, too. See above for what to leave checked and unchecked.Following you reboot, you’ll have a window that says that the configuration utility was edited. Just check not to show that inside the future, a check box at the bottom.This just indicates that there was a alter produced to the MSCONFIG.Defragment your hard drives. When you have by no means carried out this, or it has been several months given that the last time, this step is one of the most crucial issues that can give you more performance. As you use your personal computer, your drives become fragmented, by developing and deleting files. Just because a file is 10mb in size, does not mean that it’s sitting there on the drive (all 10mb) all in 1 spot on the drive. It fills in from the inside of the drive, outward, as the drive finds room. So your one file could be in pieces, in several spots on the tough drive. Don’t be concerned, your file allocation table keeps track of where the pieces are, nonetheless, it takes longer to access a file which is in pieces (fragmented), than a file that’s all in 1 spot on the hard drive. This is where defragmenting comes in. When you defragment your tough drive, this procedure copies all of the pieces to temporary spots on the difficult drive, and then fills in all the files (in their entirety) from the inside, out, so that no files are split into pieces. This dramatically speeds up the seek time, in addition to speeds up the use of your files and programs. NOTE: to efficiently defragment a difficult drive, it likes to have 25% totally free space. It can still do the defragmentation with only 15% free of charge space, however it takes really a bit longer. If you can, delete any unnecessary files prior to degramenting your drives.
To defragment your tough drives (in any Windows operating program), double-click on My Computer. Right-click on the c-drive and click on Properties. Click on the Tools tab and select the bottom button, to Defragment Now… Click on the proper drive, and then on Defragment. This can take some time. Depending on your processing power, the amount of RAM you’ve got obtainable, the size and speed of your drive, as well as a couple of other points, this process can take 20 minutes, or hours. It really is finest to let this one run over night, too, however it is well worth it.