Tips For Improving Your Windows Experience

1. Turn off unnecessary animations. When maximizing and minimizing windows, Windows does a little animation before the window goes away. Going into the “System” section of the Control Panel and turning this off in the Advanced Features section can reduce the amount of memory used by Windows, resulting in a more responsive operating system. Also, in this section, turning off shadows for the mouse cursor and shadows for windows can reduce memory and increase performance. This is definitely worth looking into.

2. Turn off startup items. Turning off items that start whenever you log on can decrease logon time drastically. QuickTime likes to start itself the second you log on, so turning it off is a good idea; if you don’t use QuickTime at all then you won’t ever need the process, and starting QuickTime manually is always an option. Other startup items to look out for are Google Update and instant messengers.

3. Run as few applications at once as you can. Just because you have a dual, quad, or even octo core processor doesn’t mean you should abuse it. Leaving applications open when you’re not using them can make for a cluttered taskbar and a slower experience. Leaving memory intensive applications like Photoshop or video editing software open while you play games is not needed and will reduce the speed of the computer.

4. Create your own task menu. It is possible to pin shortcuts to the taskbar, which allows you access to documents, applications, and other files. This lets you create a replica “Start” menu where only your most used applications are. You can more quickly find applications such as disk cleanup, defrag, and backup using this method. Right clicking an application or window on Windows 7 allows you to pin it to the taskbar, and a click will open this instantly a very worthwhile feature.

5. Last, regularly check your computer for anomalies. Having an anti-virus is all well and good but it can miss files. Checking the “Processes” tab and “Network” tab in Task Manager can allow you to spot unusual processes and high bandwidth usage when not surfing the Internet. Anything you don’t understand can be checked up on Google by simply entering the process name “regsvr32.exe” (for example), which will bring up a list of sites with information regarding what the process is for and whether or not it is viral.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How To Avoid Hacker Attacks On Firefox

Security problems with Microsoft’s dominant Internet Explorer browser helped pave the way for Mozilla Firefox to emerge as a perfect alternative for Web surfers. However, Firefox users should be aware that hackers can exploit software flaws and design features to launch drive-by attacks. Following are steps to disable various features in Mozilla Firefox. Note that some menu options may change between versions or may appear in different locations depending on the host operating system. You should adapt the steps below as appropriate. The following configuration changes, can disable various features and set up the browser to run in a secure state, limiting the damage from malware attacks. To get started, select Tools, then Options. firefox You will then see an Options window that has a row of categories along the top. The first category of interest is the General category. Under this section, for instance, you can set Firefox as your default browser. firefox Under the Privacy category, y...
Read more

Firefox, now on TV

It’s remarkable enough that the Internet has come so far that an ad about a browser isn’t out of the ordinary, but it’s even more remarkable that these ads were made by Firefox fans off their own back, and paid to air by the same. It all started last year when the Mozilla foundation started the Firefox Flicks campaign, in an effort to drive grass-roots support and generate short, fan-made, 30 second clips. Naturally, these could be shared across the Net and drive awareness for the browser. The program was so successful over 200 entries were submitted, and while there are plenty that wouldn’t have a hope of seeing the light of day, some are actually quite well made and genuinely entertaining. The full list of entrants starts here and includes funny and humorous entries including this one that actually cracked me up. You’ll also find the bizarre, ninjas (can’t go wrong there), the clubby, the crazy, the animated, and I swear I know people like this. There’s even an Aussie themed entry. T...
Read more

How to run Microsoft Update using Firefox

The IE Tab extension lets you switch between Firefox and IE rendering. Once installed, I had no trouble using the IE Tab add-on to run Microsoft Update. According to Mozilla’s Web site, the IE Tab works with Firefox versions 1.5 through 3.0a5. I used it with 2.0.0.6. To install the IE Tab, go to the add-ons site using the above link. Choose Install Now. The installer will restart Firefox when finished or prompt you to do so before the changes will take effect. To add the IE Tab button to your Firefox Toolbar, right-click the toolbar and choose Customize. Drag the IE Tab icon and drop it where you want it. When clicked, the IE Tab button will swap rendering engines. Once you’ve done this, you can use Firefox with Scheduled Tasks in XP; however, keep in mind that only administrators can install updates. The scheduling steps are slightly different from the ones provided in the last issue: Step 1: Choose Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scheduled Tasks. Step 2: In the Schedu...
Read more