Don’t take chances – back up your system first!

Taking steps to product your data is not an overcautious thing to do – it’s a smart thing. Especially if you’re going to be touching system tools. You never know what can go wrong. If anything does you’ll be glad you backed up your system:

STEP 1: Click Start,
STEP 2: Point to All Programs,
STEP 3: Point to Accessories,
STEP 4: Point to System Tools,
STEP 5: Click Backup.

Follow the Backup wizard. By the way, if you end up losing anything – this is the same way you get to “restore” your computer. In step 5 you just select restore wizard.

CLEARING OUT UNUSED PROGRAMS

After backing up your system you can now begin to make improvements on your Windows XP system. The first area to tackle is clearing out unused programs. If you’re like many people who love trying out programs but end up not using them in the end – you will want to remove them since they take up precious resources on your computer. Removing them is simple:

STEP 1: Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

STEP 2: Click Add or Remove Programs.

STEP 3: Scroll through the list and examine each program. Delete the ones that you don’t use. You will know the usage since Win XP displays this for you.

STEP 4: Click each program you no longer need, click the Remove button, and then follow the prompts to uninstall it. Don’t delete anything that says “update” since this is usually a fix of some sort. You will also want to keep from deleting programs labeled as “hotfix”

Chances are you will be prompted to restart your computer at this point.

DISK CLEAN UP UTILITY

STEP 1: Open up “my computer” then mouse right-click Local Disk. Select Properties.

STEP 2: Select the tab “General”

STEP 3: click on the Disk Cleanup button. Win XP will now examine your computer to determine if there are any opportunities for freeing up space.

STEP 4: A dialog box will open displaying an amount of memory it can free up

STEP 5: Check the boxes of the files you would like to delete – then hit “ok”

DEFRAGMENTATION PROCESS

Every time you delete stuff or a program “moves things around” you end up creating a lot of dead space on your computer. Defragmenting is a great way to improve and free up resources.

Here’s how to do it:

STEP 1: Open My Computer, click properties after mouse right clicking on it.

STEP 2: Select the “Tools” tab

STEP 3: Hit “Defragment Now”

That’s it! Mind you – you may want to do this step just before retiring for bed – since it can take a long time – up to several hours to go through your drive.

KILLING PROGRAMS THAT START AUTOMATICALLY UPON BOOT

Win XP configuration tool is a great way to manage which programs you want to startup. Not to mention it can be helpful if you want to kill nuisance programs that boot up only to remind you to renew your subscription. Some programs boot up to check for updates. Others boot up to save you a few extra seconds if you need to use it.

To kill programs follow these steps:
STEP 1: Go to “Start” then select “Run”.
STEP 2: Type in “msconfig” and hit enter.
STEP 3: Select “STARTUP” tab.
STEP 4: Delete anything you don’t want to startup when Windows XP boots up

TIP: you can always “Google” the program to see if it’s something that you truly don’t need.

Upon exiting you will be prompted to restart your computer. The next time your computer boots up you will get a message box telling you that you are in “selected start up”. This is normal. Before clicking okay select the box “do not show again on start up”. If you don’t the box will continue to pop up each time you restart your computer.

People who are searching for more information about the topic of cheap PlayStation 3, please check out the site that was mentioned in this paragraph.

Registry Cleaners – Rip Off?
By Rowland C O’Connor

Do Registry Cleaners offer value for money or are they just another scam?

Type “Registry” into a search engine and you will find countless testimonials, reviews and recommendations for “Registry Cleaners”. This article is different. We challenge the wide spread conception that “Registry Cleaners” are beneficial for Windows based operating systems.

Background

There are many web sites that promote registry cleaner software and the benefits. Almost all have a commercial interest in doing so (e.g. software manufacturers or affiliate marketers). Search engines are flooded with sites and advertisements trying to persuade people to buy these products.

It is very difficult to find objective and substantiated information on-line regarding the true technical benefits or registry cleaners. The lack of technical data concerned me, and prompted further investigation.

In this article I offer an alternative view (based on my preliminary research) on the real implications of buying and running registry cleaner software for Microsoft Windows.

About the registry

The registry is a large file in Microsoft Windows that is responsible for keeping track of your installed software and internal operations of Windows. It is a mystery (being totally invisible!) to a non-technical Windows user but it has attracted a reputation over the years as being responsible for computer crashes and slow downs.

Promotion & the financial opportunities

To better understand why there is heavy promotion of these products, let’s look at a typical affiliate based commission structure as follows:

A typical affiliate commission for a successful sale of one of the popular on-line products is around $31. Sell 10 (quite possible in a day!), and you make $310. Not bad!

Anyone can set up a website, apply to an affiliate program and start promoting and selling these products on-line. No technical knowledge of Windows or of the registry is needed to start promotion & selling.

Marketing product claims

There are generally two benefits used to generate customer interest in these products:

1) “Fix” (e.g. error message boxes or pop-ups)

and

2) “Speed up” your computer

Assessment of the claims

As a Microsoft Certified Professional, here are my high level views on the benefits used to sell Registry Cleaners:

Do Registry Cleaners “Fix” your computer?

It depends what you mean by “Fix”. If you mean, for example, remove error pop-ups, then the answer is probably “Yes”. If you mean “Fix” where there is an underlying hardware problem such as a failing Hard Disk Drive (HDD), then the answer is probably “No”.

Do Registry Cleaners “Speed up” your computer?

I would suggest that the performance benefits of cleaning the registry are insignificant and would not be perceivable to an average user.

Slight performance gains may be possible by removing redundant registry keys or by defragmenting the registry file itself. However, any gains would be small particularly when comparing to other options for improving Windows performance such as optimizing virtual memory or by defragmenting the HDD.

Furthermore, there is more than anecdotal evidence available on-line that the frequent use of registry cleaner software can cause problems with Windows such as boot up problems (e.g. constant blue/black screens) and other corruption of the underlying operating system.

Conclusion – Too many question marks, dubious messages and conflicts of interest

Testing and independent validation is needed to establish the marketing benefit claims of registry cleaners. Until that time, could it be that, in many cases, these products simply don’t deliver what they promise to customers? As a “Windows Professional”, I have some specific technical questions around the area of the suggested performance gains with registry cleaners. If registry cleaners don’t deliver what they say, this opens up a whole other can of worms around the legalities of selling products that do not solve the problems that they claim to fix. Has anyone complained of not seeing performance gains from registry cleaners? (interesting..)

Selling and promoting of registry cleaner software is unregulated (i.e. anyone can do it) and so, it seems, are the marketing claims used to secure software sales.

I have put my findings so far on the Registry Cleaner market into the public domain as I believe, ethically, that customers should always have the opportunity to make informed decisions before buying. I would suggest that customers ask questions, do research and have a data backup strategy in place before running registry cleaners.

About the author

Rowland C O’Connor has worked as a Microsoft Certified Professional for over 12 years and has over 20 years of experience with Windows. Rowland is the editor at Windows Performance.com – a resource with helpful tips, articles and videos showing you how to speed up your Windows computer.

Sign up for instant notifications of new articles, videos and tips by subscribing to our newsletter http://www.windows-performance.com.

(c) Copyright – Windows-Performance.com. All rights reserved worldwide.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rowland_C_O’Connor
http://EzineArticles.com/?Registry-Cleaners—Rip-Off?&id=2706347

If you have any direct experience (good or bad) with registry cleaners, let us know in the comments box below. We’re especially interested if you can prove performance increases by using a before/after test using a recognised performance measuring tool (e.g. SiSoft Sandra).

For results, post your:

• hardware configuration summary
• operating system
• speed/system test results

before and after using the registry cleaner of your choice.

Please note: Posts with affiliate based Registry Cleaner url links will be deleted - we are looking for the truth about the technical claims made by Registry Cleaners, not posts fuelling the affiliate feeding frenzy for these products:)

Secure your PC

Computer security is one of those subjects that many people are simply not interested in.

Not interested that is until they have problems with viruses, malware or spyware for themselves. Just a little awareness of the external threats to your computer will help you avoid the problems of security breaches before they happen.

This article is a great introduction to computer security and is pitched particularly for Windows.

Basic Computer Security
By Colin Richards

Basic computer security is essential as the internet is constantly expanding and as it does so do the threats from malware, viruses and rogue programs. There are many ways that hackers and well organised criminal gangs will try to infiltrate your system so you need to take a pro-active role in defending your computer against such threats.

Whether you use a dial up connection or high speed, you need a good firewall which will monitor inbound traffic as well as outbound. The built in firewall offers little protection but it is better than no firewall at all and if you have a wireless router, many of these have a built in hardware firewall which can be configured to add another layer of security to your system.

Some advocate that with a router you don’t need a software firewall, but the advantage of a software firewall is that you can easily monitor inbound and outbound traffic. If you use a router, how often do you check your router logs?

You need a reliable antivirus program. The majority of computers come with pre-installed trial versions of Norton or McAfee but these can be a resource drain. There are many free firewalls and antivirus programs which offer excellent protection as well as the option to upgrade to the pro version.

Check your firewall at Gibson Research. This will check your firewall for vulnerabilities, open ports, file sharing and messenger spam, not to be confused with Live Messenger but the inbuilt Windows Messenger service.

Also direct your browser to pcflank where you can run several tests, scroll to the bottom of the page and look at the options recommended based upon your level of experience.

Anti-Virus

Many users have their own preferences and stick with what they know, this is not necessarily the best that is available. AVG has been the most popular for some time, but it has also encountered many problems and has become more bloated but there are many alternatives.

Essentials:

On your Desktop, create a New Folder and rename it ‘Downloads’ so that ALL program downloads are in one easy to find location.

One Firewall, One Antivirus, generally TWO Anti-Malware programs.

Bear in mind that each PC is configured differently, and there is no ‘one size fits all’. What works for one user may not work as well for another, because they have different programs and configurations, so you need to play around to find out what works best on your system.

Tweaking programs allows you to create a balance between the best protection against the minimal intrusion which constantly asks for permissions . It may take a few days for you to get the settings to your liking, but it will be worth it.

Prevention and taking a pro-active role in protecting your PC is the best way to deal with many of the threats from spyware and malicious downloads. Stopping it is much easier than removing it once it has installed itself.

DO NOT click unknown links on websites or in emails and DO NOT be fooled by the promises of programs that can scan and clean your computer or clean your registry, many contain malware and do more damage.

Also ensure you back up your registry in the event you need to restore from a good working copy. Go to Start > Run and type in regedit which will open the Editor, click on ‘File’ and then ‘Export’.

Whatever programs you use, they should prevent spyware installation and virus infections. If they fail to do so, then change programs to ones that will protect your system. Once malware gets installed, eradication can become time consuming and difficult and prevention is much easier than cure.

http://freepcsecurity.co.uk/2009/05/05/basic-computer-security

Colin Richards

Free PC Security

http://freepcsecurity.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colin_Richards
http://EzineArticles.com/?Basic-Computer-Security&id=2341647

Feel free to post your thought, comments or questions on this article below.

In this article we show how you can eliminate unnecessary programs from slowing down your Windows computer.

Applies to Windows versions

The steps in this article relate to:

• XP
• Vista
• Server 2003, 2008
• Version 7

Why is my Windows slower from programs?

Anti-virus, firewall, iTunes and other media player software automatically load into memory when you start Windows. You may not be aware of what is being loaded into memory each time you start Windows.

The more programs that you have installed on your computer, the more likely it is that you have programs loading into memory on startup and therefore slowing down your computer.

Uninvited programs that run on startup

When you install many programs, the installer or documentation does not explain that the program will automatically load into memory every time you start Windows.

Improving Windows startup performance – turn off unnecessary programs and services

You probably don’t need or use some of the programs or services that load into Windows. Disable these for these benefits:

• Faster Windows startup
• Improved general Windows performance

How to identify and disable unnecessary Windows programs or services

1) Log in to Windows as an Administrator

2) Press the “Windows key” and “R” simultaneously

3) Type “MSCONFIG” and press “OK”

4) Choose the “Startup” tab

5) Take a look at each “Startup Item”. Look for items that you don’t recognise.

6) If you find an item that you don’t recognise, use Google to do some more research on what it is.

7) Once you have identified each “Startup Item” and if you need it or not, Uncheck (disable) items that are of no use to you.

8) Reboot your computer.

If you were able to disable some “Startup Items”, you should notice that your Windows startup is now noticeably faster.