Computer
Tune Up
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Tune
Up Your Computer
Before the Smelly
Stuff
Hits the Fan
By
David Taylor
The logo above is from the site
http://www.majorgeeks.com,
which provides one-stop shopping for a variety of
freeware utilities
for your computer. You'll also find a help forum there for
when the
smelly stuff hits the fan. And as any online student or teacher knows,
it is only a matter of time before that unfortunate event happens.
Which brings us to another point: In the beginning of an online course,
some students will usually experience computer and connection issues.
Welcome
to online education, which requires more computer resources and more
care than normal web surfing does. Updating and revitalzing your
equipment may well be an important outcome for many in this course.
As
a start, please ensure that you can perform the maintenance and tune-up
steps on the page below. As
a home user, you must learn to be your own tech support. Here are some
of the things I've learned along the way--the hard, smelly way:
* Set your web
browser's cache (temporary files) to empty
each time you close the browser.
In
Internet
Explorer, do
this by going to Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced
tab.
Scroll down until you see the option "Empty Temporary Internet Files
folder" and select it. Click OK.
In
Firefox, clear
your cache by going to Tools -> Options -> Advanced panel
-> Network tab -> Clear Now. Click OK.
In
Chrome,
auto clear your cache by going to Tools (wrench icon) ->
Settings -> Under the Hood -> Content Settings ->
"Clear cookies and other site and plug-in data when I close my
browser." ->Click OK.
* Delete any
"freeware" that came with your machine
unless you are sure you will use it. Especially delete AOL, McAfee and
Norton. On Windows machines, the uninstall program function can be
found at Control Panel--> Add or Remove Programs. The AOL,
McAfee
and Norton programs (with approval of Microsoft!) often resist
deletion. If one or both programs are in use, they can set up
conflicting firewalls with your system's firewall, slow you down and
result in repeated dropped connections. The best way to stay safe on
the web is not to open anything from anyone you don't know and not to
click on any screen that says "your computer has a problem, click here
to fix it."
Especially get rid of "free" browser toolbars from
Google, Yahoo! Chrome, and the others. These function as spybots that
collect data on your web usage and provide significant obstacles to
safe, fast web usage.
To delete programs that resist
deletion, you
can use a PC Decrapifier--a program that lists
programs on your
computer that can be deleted with a few clicks: http://www.yorkspace.com/pc-de-crapifier/
* Perform the
following weekly maintenance tasks without fail (before
your machine does):
1. Empty
Recycle Bin.
2. Go
to Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> Free
up space on your hard disk.
WARNING: If you have
not performed this function in a while or never at all, be prepared
to
wait. Your machine could be so clogged up that it takes the tool an
hour or more to collect the trash. When you click to delete the trash,
it could take another hour for your machince to complete the work.
3. Go
to Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance ->
Rearrange
items on your hard disk to make programs run faster. This is known as
defragmenting. Do it, even if the analyzer says you don't need to. Windows
Vista and Windows 7 offer automatic
defragging whenever your system is in an idle state, keeping your hard
drive optimized at all times. There is also a freeware tool that does the
same thing for Windows 7,
Vista, and XP: IObit Smart Defrag 2.8.0.1211.
4.
Check
the list of installed programs at Control Panel -> Add or Remove
Programs. Delete any program that you or your children added or tried
out during the week that you no longer need/want.
Also
Weekly:
* Inspect your
startup processes.
If it seems like your computer is taking too long to start up, try
this: After the initializing is finished, right click on bottom
tray/taskbar and select "Task Manager" then select the "Applications"
tab. A window will appear that shows every application your computer
started when powered on.
Check especially for programs that
connect automatically to the web. RealPlayer and Adobe Reader, for
example. If you haven't disabled them, Real Player and Adobe Reader
will attempt to connect and maintain background connections to
their web sites so that you can get "news" and "updates." It's
great to
have these free programs on your system, but you don't need to
be
constantly connected to their sites, wasting your bandwidth and slowing
you down. Your goal on startup is to launch only the
minimum programs
you need.
To
stop unwanted applications from starting up and running in the
background:
Windows
XP:
1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type in "msconfig" (without quotes)
4. Select Startup tab
5. Uncheck the box of any application that you don't need on start up.
Look especially for sites of applications like Adobe, Nero, Logitech,
iTunes, Real Player ("realsched") and so on. Not having these programs
launch on start up does not affect their performance in any way, but
shutting them down will improve your computer's performance.
6. Click OK.
Windows
Vista & Windows 7:
1. Click Start button
2. Type in "run" (without quote marks)
3. Type in "msconfig" (without quote marks)
4. Follow steps 4-6 above.
There are freeware programs that also do this, but
why add another application if you don't have to?
* Run CHKDSK. Windows
comes with a built-in application that checks your internal hard drive
for sector errors and repairs them when it can. It is a good idea to
run Chkdsk every few months or anytime your hard drive seems to slow
down. Here
is how to run Chkdsk on an XP system. Here is how to do it
for Windows Vista & 7.
* Keep your
registry free of unused or unwanted entries. You
can find excellent registry cleanup programs at: http://www.majorgeeks.com.
But my favorite general-purpose clean-up tool is Piraform's free CCleaner
("C" is usually the letter assigned to your hard drive). CCleaner is
one of the tools that I run weekly on the computers I
maintain. In
addition to the registry cleaner, the "Cleaner" tool clears out
temporary files from your other applications.
* Don't just
defrag your hard drive and registry--consolidate and optimize! There
are a number of free, effective and trusted maintenance tools available
today. I highly recommend downloading the suite of free tools available
from Auslogics:
On the landing page, click on "Products" at the top navbar and pull
down to Freebies.
Download and install the free defragmenter, registry cleaner, and
registry defragmenter.
* Install a
suite of free maintenance tools and use them 2-3 times per week. As
mentioned above, Auslogics
offers as excellent set of free tools. Install them. Another excellent
set of free tools are from
Wise
Care 365. On the Downloads page, I highly recommed Wise Care
365, Wise Registry Cleaner, Wise Disk Cleaner, and Wise Memory
Optimizer. Wise
Care 365 used with Auslogics
can keep your computer optimized.
It is also a good idea to periodically sweep your computer for malware.
For this job, I use the free version of MalwareBytes.l
* Add memory.
If your computer has only 516K or 1GB of RAM, add
memory yourself. More
than any one thing you can do, adding RAM will improve your computer's
speed and performance. The tools at Crucial
Memory and 4All
Memory.com
and similar sites will analyze your RAM slots, recommend which memory
chip to buy, and show you how to insert it. If you can screw in a
lightbulb, you can add a memory chip to your machine. Memory is dirt
cheap these days, and there is rarely an excuse not to fill your slots
to the max so you can get the most out of your computer.
* Get an
External Hard Drive.
As anyone who works in multimedia knows, you cannot expect your
computer's internal hard drive to serve as a storage closet for the
large, complex files you create and manage for a multimedia learning
object. Like RAM, external hard drives are dirt cheap these days. Best
practices dictate an external hard drive to store the assets
(photos,
music, sound effects, video clips) and the files for he projects you
create. Use your computer's internal hard drive only for your software
and the current project you're working on.
Keep
your internal hard drive stripped down (no data, only software), clean
and defragmented. And never completely fill an external hard drive:
three-quarters capacity should be the limit and keep it defragmented as
well.
Surf safe. Surf fast.
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