Optimizing your computer's performance

Slow computers are the bane of anyone's life these days, fortunately there are ways to combat this gruesome monster. There isn't a computer in the world that doesn't experience some sort of lag in its performance, so here are a few tips to help you get your computer running at peak performance.

Firstly scan your computer for any spyware, adware and viruses. These alone can account for the major slowdown in your computer. Remove any spyware that is present on your computer. If this doesn't do the trick its time to get into the nitty gritty of optimizing your computer, Windows XP and Windows Vista both have built in resources to help combat sluggishness, the first of which is your disk cleanup. To access youe disk clean up hit start--->accesories--->system tools----> disk cleanup. You can easily specify which files you want to clean and this often not only improved computer performance but also removes alot of unwanted files on your system. Once you have completed this task the next thing to do is to delete any temporary internet fils/cookies. The easiest way to do this is to open up Intenet explorer and hit tools--->internet options--->delete files, delete cookies. This will remove added internet based clutter on your computer. I would recommend that you download Windows Defender from the microsoft website. Once you've got this you can use it to manage the programs you are running. The beauty of Windows Defender is that you can see what each program does and even change disable some of your startup programs that you don't need.

Now that you've complete these steps there is one last thing to do and that is to defragment your harddrive. When you install programs in your computer, alot of files get shuffled around and so the computer has to take added time finding necessary files because they are fragmented. By defragmenting your harddrive you ( as the name suggests) defragment these files and make them more consistent. This makes it easier for your computer to search for files and ultimately improves performance. I put this as the last step because it usually takes a long time to complete but in the end it's worth it.

Playstation Emulation

Remember the good old days of the Playstation? If you were wondering whether there was a day to relive those glory days, there is. Playstation emulation isn't really a new thing, there are alot of people however, that have never even heard of it. So what exactly is Playstation Emulation you ask? It is simply software the mimics the hardware and characteristics of a Playstation on your PC. Yes that means you can play playstation games on your pc.

The second question you might be asking yourself is how can I make this happen on my pc? Fortunately good friends I am here to help. First of all you will need the emulation software, I recommend epsxe which can be found here. Secondly, probably the most important step is to get a copy of the playstation BIOS, now you actually have to have a playstation to do this otherwise this is illegal. If you have a playstation you can extract the bios from there and on to your computer. For those who feel rebellious there are plenty of websites that might have these bios files posted, you'll need to do a bit of research, but remember do this at your own risk.

Once you've managed these first two steps, it's time to get the various graphical, sound and other plugins that are essential for your pc to emulate the playstation. All of his can be found here.

Once you have gotten all the plugins you need, everything else is pretty much clockwork. The epsxe has a plugins folder so make sure you extract all plugins there, and put your playstation bios in the "bios" folder. Once you fire up epsxe for the first time, it will take you through configuration of your bios and plugins. Make sure you have a gamepad too, all of the games on the playstation were made with the use of a gamepad in mind and you will need to configure your epsxe so that it can use the gamepad.

Now that you've got the rocket science part out of the way its time to pop in a playstation disc to see of it works. If you downloaded all the necessay files it should work like a charm, but like anything technical tweaking may need to be done, its all about trial and error. As far as games go, it goes without saying that you must own a copy of a playstation game in order for this to be legal, but that being said, there are probably plenty of sites that have these games as ISO files, but again download at your own risk. Other than that enjoy your playstation emulator!

The ISO file

Alot of people come across this type of file called the iso file. Many of your are probably wondering what the heck it is. Firstly ISO stands for internatiional organization of stadardization. But for our purposes it's better known as an image file. More specifically an exact image of a cd rom.


You can create an exact image of a cd or even a dvd. Some of the uses of an ISO file include archiving cd roms or dvds onto a harddrive just in case the data gets lost, another use is to distribute cd's. There are many programs that one can use to read, extract and copy ISO's some of these programs include, power iso (.daa) and magic iso (.uif) both are commercially available and are excellent for burning, extracting and creating iso's. imgburn is a free software that is also good for isos.

Since an ISO is an exact image of a cd or dvd, you can technically run the data on an ISO without the actual disc, this process is called mounting image. It's as though you've got a virtual drive on your computer. Running a setup for a program using this method is often faster than running it from the cd itself , this is because the harddrive is quite often much faster than that cd rom.

Missing dlls

Ever tried to install a program only to find that you get a message saying you are missing a dll? For example you might get a "mss32 dll missing" or a "missing shell dll" . Before we continue it's probably a good idea to touch on the basics of dlls and what they are.

So what is a dll? A dll file is short for dynamic link library. The DLL lets the executable file (exe) communicate with a specific device such as a printer or may contain source code to do particular functions, this lets the executable to be smaller in size and not have to write the function that has already exists.

When you find that you are missing a particular set of dll files, you can firstly find them here. Once you have located your dll file you need to know where to put it, this might require some research, for example, lets take the mss32 dll, after doing some research this dll file is found to be a part of WinAmp and the Miles system sound library it uses. Once you download the dll file you can then place it in the appropriate directory, in this case c/windows/system folder.

Strange folders in the Windows directory

Have you ever noticed some strange looking folders in your Windows directory? Possibly with names like $MSI31Uninstall_KB893803v2$ ? You are probably among milions of people that have the same question. Fortunately you will be pleased to know that this is not spyware, adware, malware or a virus. In fact these are simply installation records of your Windows update files. It's best to leave these folders as they are incase you need to rollback some of these updates. All in all these files are not harmful at all and function to run your computer!

Microsoft Excel Tips

I found a neat website dealing with Microsoft Excel. While there are many excel services out there, you might want to check this website out, it is pretty comprehensive.


http://j-walk.com/ss/excel/usertips/index.htm

Slow Firefox startup

Is Firefox starting up too slow for you? Quite often the simple fix is to clear your temporary internet files off your computer. To do this, click tools and then clear private data. You can specify which data you want to clear as well. Mozzila, has a number of extensions and themes that can cluttter up your browser.

If this doesn't work for you, you can try disabling the Firefox extensions. You can do this by opening up your Firefox browser and clicking tools at the top. From here click "add ons". A list of both your themes and extensions will be listed. From here you can pick and choose which extensions to keep or remove. This should hopefully speed up Firefox loading times.


If you are thinking about going back to ie 7 I would highly recommend you stick with firefox as its security features are better.

Manually removing spyware

So you finally got a hold of some spyware adware removal software, you run your scans but there are still traces of spware on your computer. Although many current anti apyware programs do a fairly good job of removing spyware, manually removing spyware is a sure fire way to completely rid yourself of any and all spyare on your computer. Before we continue of course its important to remember that manual removal of spyware is recommended for people that somewhat know what they are doing, I wouldn't expect anyone to know the full details of the procedure otherwise you wouldn't be here right? :)

on to the steps then.

Before you start anything, make sure your spyware updates are up to date, otherwise your anti-spyware software won't detect it. After updating run your scanning software. If the scan doesn't remove the spyware follow the steps below for manual removal.

• reboot your computer and before it boots up windows hit f8 it will take you into safe mode.
• safemode will disconect you from the net for awhile, this way no other outside threats can come in.
• The first thing to do is remove any programs in your program list that doesn't seem familiar ( ie hotbar, or cashbar), these tend to be spyware based programs.
• The next step is thr arduous step of editing your registry, you can access your registry by going to Start-Run-type in "regedit". Your registry is huge and what you need to do here is remove any registry keys that are linked to spyware, if you don't it generally just comes back. Scan through your registry manually for suspicious files like hotbar, bonzaibuddy, things like that. To get a list of known spyware programs visit this site
  
• Check through your windows folders for spyware software files and delete them, again if you need to, remove these registry keys from the registry.

This is a long and tedious task but it will more than likely remove any traces of spyware on your computer. Reboot your computer and you should be good to go.

Windows Registry cleaning

While manual cleaning of the Registry in Windows Vista ( or XP for that matter) is possible, it's not recommended for people that don't know what they are doing. There are several free to low priced products out there, one that has worked well for me was the Eusing registry cleaner, it is completely free and works wonders on your registry, although there is a whelp of windows registry cleaners, eusing's is my recommendation to you.

Your registry is a sort of record of installed programs and what not but sometimes it gets cluttered with alot of unecessary information, missing files or file extensions. As you imagine this clutter can slow your computer down, so having a clean smooth runnning registry is important.


Below is the link to the download of this software:

http://www.eusing.com/Download.htm


Let me know how you all fare with this one!

Update: Sigma-Tel and Vista compatibility issues

So I realized that in my particular problems with Vista, there were some audio issues that seemed to crop up ( see prevous post). I got to realizing that the audio problem came when I launched a dvd or cd, basically when I used the DVD drive. After many a frustration with this I finally reverted back to XP but I am still continuing to look for fixes for this particular problem. I'm not so sure that this is a sigma-tel issue as much as it may be a DVD-RW drive problem. Those of you with Dell Inspirons like my self may find similar audio problems when launching your dvd's or cd's. I would suspect that this might be a firmware issues and although I haven't tried the DVD firmware for Vista yet, I'm willing to bet that installing the updated firmware will solve the problem. I will be trying it out myself but if anyone else finds this to be a fix, feel free to post your comments here. I'll be doing some Google searches to find some answers as well.

anti spyware removal software

Obviously in this day in age spy ware has become a nuisance. Actually nuisance is probably giving it too much credit. In the midst of all this is a question I'm sure all of you have. Which spy ware software should I be using? Well to put it short, there isn;t really one answer to this. My suggestion is to take a look at the top 10 reviews site, the review all kinds of software including spyware software http://anti-spyware-review.toptenreviews.com/. Some of the best free spyware software includes Spybot SD and AD aware, both provide free anti spyware software downloads but with AD aware they don't offer real time protection . In my opinion Ad aware is a great spy ware removal tool and although the free version provides no real time protection it does a great job of removing spy ware already on your computer. The general consensus about Spybot is mixed some good some bad, on the bad side I hear mostly that it is clunky and a little cumbersome to use, but does its job.


Other paid software includes Spyware Doctor and Spysweeper, For your money Spywseeper is rated one of the best anti spyware softwares on the market. Norton 360 is getting rave reviews as well, it's an all in one security suite, I've heard nothing but great reviews about this one. CNET even gave this one a good review.


All in all, it is really up to you what you want in a spyware program, I find that most people combine two softwares together to get maximum protection. In my case I'm running Norton 360 and Adaware, so far my computer has been running at peak performance. Another thing to note about Norton 360 is that is is relatively light on system resources, that's definitely a welcome addition as the last thing anyone wants is their computers to crash because their anti spyware software is taking up to many resources.

Command and Conquer first decade errors on Vista

If you've ever gotten a "fatal string error" while trying to start this game in Vista, the fix is quite simple. All you have to do is run the exe file in administrator mode. So for example if you have a shortcut to the C&C exe file on your desktop, simplr right click it and hit " run as administrator. This should fix the problem. There has been mention about a patch but I think this method is much easier.

Backing up email in outlook

So you decide to reformat your harddrive and reinstall your OS, but what are you going to do about your precious emails? Back them up of course, easier said that done for alot of people ( myself included). To begin with you are going to want to set your folder options so that you can view hidden folders. To do this go to control panel then to folder options and then view, then click "view hidden folders" . Secondly you will need some sort of removable storage device, like a usb stick, you some mp3 players can store non music data on them as well. Otherwise if you are on a network find some place where you can store your backep up emails so that you can access them when you need to restore them.

OK so how do we back up our email? Firstly you want to find out where your outlook.pst file is. This is usually located in: C:---->documents and settings----> your file ( usually your username)--->application data--->microsoft---outlook. From here you should see a file named "outlook" copy this file and place it on your USB stick or network somewhere.


Now open up outlook and hit: file---.>import and export-----> "import from another program or file"----->personal folder file (pst)----->locate where you copied "outlook.pst"----> click next. From here it will give you a few options as to how you'd like your backup to appear.


voila you have just backed up your email!

Sigma Tel/Vista sound issues

If any of you have noticed a distinct popping noise when you are listening to music or watching dvd's and you are running Vista, chances are you also have the Sigma Tel codec and driver on your computer. As of yet I haven't seen an updated driver from them except from the dell website ( my laptop is an inspiron 1501). I'm not sure if its just on dell computers or if anyone else is experienicing this problem. I've seen a few suggested solutions ranging from disabling the enhancements to outright rolling back to XP. The latter seems to be the only tried and true solution. I will keep looking for posible solutions and keep you posted.

So what the heck is MSO cache anyway?

MSO actually stands for Microsoft Office, you might have noticed this folder in your program files directory ( you'd only be able to see it if you have enabled your computer to view hidden files and folders). If you have Office installed on your computer the MSO allows you to modify Office installations without having to insert the CD again. Is it safe to delete this folder? Absolutely, after all on my computer it ended up taking a good 500MB of my harddrive space.

Screen flickering in Vista

So I've been having this problem with my laptop where everytime the computer comes out of sleep mode the screen flickers wildly. After searching for a fix I finally decided to download the driver for vista, lo and behold it fixed the problem. So for those of you running ATI xpress cards I can only assume that the fix for this problem lies in getting the updated driver for your card. For Nvdia cards I can't say much, more to come.

AMD Cool and quiet on Vista

Now a days most motherboards have a whelp of circuitry designed to optimize the use of CPU fans which help fans automatically regulate when cooling is needed on the computer. That being said many people have been having problems with installing AMD's famous C&C ( cool and quiet) software on a Vista running machine. Why is this? Simle, Vista actually has built in support for C&C functions therefore there is no actual driver needed for it. Go to control panel--->system and then power options. From here there are a variety of ways you can optimize your computers power usage ane performance . If you hit "change when the computer sleeps" You can see another option at the bottom that says " change advanced power settings" Scrolling down you can change the power options for your processor. For example in power saver mode you might set the minimum to 1% of processor use and the max to 100%. If you want to maximize gaming , you might set this to 100% across the board.

Recycle Bin missing

All too often I run across an annoying problem where my recycle bin goes missing from my desktop. At first I would be at my wits end trying to figure out where it went and how I can get it back. There is a very simple procedure than can effectively help you recover that oh so previous garbage can on your desktop. First right click anywhere on your desktop, hit personalize then on the left side of the screen you should see "change desktop icons" you can select from here which desktop icons that you want on your desktop including the recycle bin.

Hope this helps happy computing!

Page file in vista taking up harddrive space?

Your computer has a dedicated amount of memory to run certain programs. Your pagefile specifies the amount of harddrive space to use in case your RAM isn't enough to cover whatever is running on your computer. I typically don't let the computer decide what it should set aside as it seems that everytime i boot up my computer some of my harddrive space gets used up ( this I have yet to figure out). In any case to manually set your pagefile go to start--->right click on computer ---->properties------->advanced system settings----->under "performance" hit "settings"----->advanced tab---->again hit the advanced tab----->under "virtual memory" hit change--->uncheck "automatically set paging file size---->and check custom size.

As a rule of thumb always set the intial to higher than what your actual RAM is, so if you have say 900 MB RAM a good amount to set is say 1025 MB RAM ( a gig or so). For your maximum set it at 1.5 times the amount of RAM you physically have. so for our exampl her, if you have 900MB RAM your max should be set to about 1350 MB RAM. Using this method you should have set a good paging file size and your hardrive space shouldn't decrease. Also turning off system restore seems to help too.

DVD too big to burn

if you like me hav tried to burn a dvd only to find out it won't fit on the disc then you ar probably asking yourself, is there anyway to make it so that I can fit it onto a standard dvd disc? Fortunately there is such a way. There is a nifty piece if softwar called dvd shrink that as the name implies shrinks a dvd down so that it can fit on a standard 4.7 G dvd disc. As far as where to get the program you can do a search on google the find it ( I can't remember where i got my copy). If you have Nero you can integrate it with dvd shrink, after the dvd has been shrunk it will automatically burn in Nero.

I found a great guide for burning dvd's : http://www.mrbass.org/dvdshrink/ follow it closely and you will be well on your way to solving your dvd copy woes!