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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, June 25, 2006
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Speed Up a Slow Computer
Websites of Interest: Electric Money; Public Record Directory; The Nobel Prize; Word a Day
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Special Feature: Speed Up a Slow Computer
While Windows XP is generally much better than older versions of Windows, one of the major downsides is the fact that it slows down after awhile. Programs are added and removed, files added and removed, and before you know it, your computer is moving at a snails pace.
These are maintenance projects that you can do to keep the computer running at a good speed. These should be done periodically to keep your computer running smoothly and also guard against potential threats.
Virus Scans
Open your antivirus program and ensure that it automatically checks for updates whenever the computer connects to the Internet. Weekly, open the program and run a full system scan.
More about viruses:
http://stsico.com/html/viruses.html
Spyware Scans
Spyware can infect your system and cause all kinds of problems from slowdowns to allowing hackers to get in and take over. You must have antispyware software on your computer and do periodic scans.
More about Spyware:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/062704.html
Defrag
When a file is stored on your hard disk, it's often split into separate fragments. Fragmentation occurs naturally when you use a disk frequently: creating, deleting, and modifying files. At some point, the operating system needs to store parts of a file in noncontiguous clusters. You cannot see the fragments, and you cannot stop this fragmenting from occurring, but it can slow down the speed at which data is accessed because the disk drive must search through different parts of the disk to put together a single file.
However, you can defrag your system. This is the term used for reorganizing the data on your Hard Disk into a more logical sequence, which means taking all those scattered fragments of files and piecing them back together where they belong. This helps free more hard drive space and makes the accessing of files a speedier process; your Hard Disk will work quicker and more efficiently.
In Windows, the defragmenter is located in your System Tools folder. Click on the Start button, point to Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools. Click on Disk Defragmenter.
More about defrag:
http://stsico.com/html/driveclean7.html
Remove Temporary Files
A temporary file is a computer file used to store information for a short time; the file is then supposed to be deleted after its use. Windows often misses many of these files, and they can cause slowdown problems with the computer.
To remove the temporary files, click the Start button and then click Search. Click All Files and Folders. In the All or part of the filename box, type in the following:
*.tmp
Note: that is the asterisk,period, tmp with no spaces.
Verify that Look in box is pointing to the C: drive and not and Document Folders. Click the Search button.
Delete all files that are found.
Note: It is possible that some temp files are being used by programs that are currently running. You may not be able to delete these files until you close the program that is using them.
Delete Cookies
Cookies are small files that are loaded onto your computer when you visit a website. They hold information about your activities and account information with that particular website.
For example if you frequently shop at a specific website, a cookie from this website identifies you and will include your name and items you might be interested in when you visit their website.
If you delete this cookie, the website will show you a generic page and you will have to log in each time using your username and password before you can access your account with them. When you order, you may also have to manually type in your name, address, and any other necessary information that the cookie would put in for you.
Many websites use cookies and after a while, your computer will have so many that the speed will start to be affected.
To delete all the cookies, go to Control Panel (Click Start button, point to Settings, click Control Panel) and open Internet Options. On the General tab, click on the button that says Delete Cookies.
If you’re using Windows XP Category View, click Start, click Control Panel. Click Network and Internet Connections. Click Internet Options. On the General tab, click on the button that says Delete Cookies.
Clear Internet History
Using Internet History, you can find Web sites and pages you have viewed in the last few weeks, days, hours, or minutes. To view history, click the History button on the toolbar. Recently visited website will appear in the left pane of the window. Click on the address to visit that website.
To pick up the pace a little, empty out Internet History. Open Internet Options as instructed above and click the Clear History button in the Internet Options dialog box.
Clear Browser Cache
Internet Explorer and other browsers cache Web pages you have accessed. This means when you return to a webpage, the page will quickly load from your hard drive and not slowly load from the Internet. This is a big time saver when you are surfing the Internet, but these temporary Internet files can add up and monopolize significant space on your hard drive.
Open the Internet Options dialog box as instructed above. Click the Delete Files button in the Temporary Internet Files section. A dialog box will appear asking you to confirm the deletion; click OK.
Clean up Prefetch
Windows tries to preload the data needed for running programs before you open them. This is supposed to make them open faster but what actually happens is that programs you hardly ever use take up space and the wrong data gets prefetched.
To empty out Prefetch, click the Start button and then click Run. In the Open box, type Prefetch. Click the OK button. A window will open with a list of items. All of these can be deleted.
Click Edit on the menu and then Select all. All the items on the list will be selected. Press the Delete key. You will see a confirm box asking if you want to send all the items to the Recycle bin. Click the Yes button.
Startup Folder
Windows will automatically open programs that are in your Startup folder. You will find the startup folder in the Start button menus. Click the Start button, point to Programs, and then point to Startup. Everything you see in there automatically opens when you turn your computer on. (If you don’t recognize everything in there, note that some programs run behind the scenes and you’ll never see them)
While it may be convenient for programs to already be open when you are ready to use them, this process will usually significantly increase the time it takes to start the computer.
Some programs, in the installation process, are designed to put a shortcut in the Startup folder; you may not necessarily want that program to open every time you use your computer. These programs can be removed.
To remove a program, click the Start button, point to Programs, point to Startup. Right click the program that you want to remove. Left click Delete from the resulting menu. You’ll be asked to confirm the deletion; click Delete Shortcut.
Start Up Applications
Task list programs also start when Windows start, using up valuable computer resources. These can be found by accessing the System Configuration Utility dialog box. Click the Start button, click Run. In the Run dialog box, type msconfig in the Open box. Click OK.
In the Configuration Utility dialog box, click the Startup tab.
Remove the check mark by the programs that you do not want to automatically start up with Windows. To help identify what these items are and if it is safe to remove them, visit one of the following websites:
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
http://www.processlibrary.com/
http://sysinfo.org/startuplist.php
When you are finished, click OK. You will be prompted to restart the computer. Upon restart, you will see a message about using Selective Startup. Click the checkbox next to Do not show this message.
Services
A service is a small program running in the background that lets Windows do certain things. Windows XP starts a lot of different services and many of them will not be of any use to you. By disabling all unused services, you can get higher system performances.
Click the Start button and then click Run. In the Open box, type services.msc. Click the OK button. This will open the Services window.
Click the name of a service to see its description appear on the left. To change the Startup type of a service, right click on the name of the service and then left click on Properties. Click the small down arrow to the right of Startup type and click to select Disabled. Click the OK button.
Some services are vital to the performance of the computer and should not be disabled. To help you identify what these items are and if it is safe to disable them, visit one of the following websites:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm#services_disable
http://www.z123.org/techsupport/xpservices.htm
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Websites of Interest:
Electric Money
At this site, visitors can learn about the history of money back to Native Americans using shells for cash and the first use of gold and silver as coinage by Western Europeans.
http://www.pbs.org/opb/electricmoney/
Public Record Directory
With over 5,000 free searchable public record databases, this is a useful site for current information and for genealogy research
http://www.searchsystems.net/
The Nobel Prize
This website lists past and present Nobel Prize winners and also offers articles in which Nobel laureates discuss science, culture and much more.
http://nobelprize.org/
Word a Day
Visit this website every day for a new word, its definition, part of speech, and usage in a sentence.
http://wordsmith.org/words/today.html |
