Is Spring finally here?

NJ Spring?

We had some warm weather today after the torrential rain yesterday and last night.  Hopefully some WARM sunny weather to come.

PC "Tune Ups"

I recently heard a radio ad for a so called PC speed-up program, with a website that claims to rid your PC of junk files, viruses and overall speed up your pc.  Excuse me if I remain skeptical about such programs.  While some may be legitimate, there are some that are malware.  They scan your pc, display a frightening number of "errors" and ask you to "activate" their software for money.

First, you have tools included with Windows to take care of many of these issues.  Look under Accessories/System Tools on the start menu (Windows 8.1 users try right clicking on the window symbol where the start button used to be).  The tools we will look at are Disk Cleanup, and Disk Defregmenter. 

Disk Cleanup will remove "junk files" from your pc.  These files collect over time when you navigate the internet, or if your PC is configured to send deleted files to the "recycle bin"  before complete deletion.  Over time these files begin to take up space.  This becomes increasingly important when your hard drive approaches being filled up. 

Disk defragmenter will reorganize your hard drive so they get as close as possible to being stored in contiguous space on the hard drive.  Hard drives are formatted into sectors.  Picture a circle of pavers on the ground.  Each paver would be a sector.  If your file fits into one sector, great.  If not the computer must store the file in multiple sectors.  Early in your PC's life, these a file may be stored on consecutive sectors (or pavers for our illustration).  Once the disk has been operating for a while, it may not be possible to store the file in consecutive sectors.  Therefore, your file may be stored on one part of a sector, and another part all the way on the other side of the disk.  Having to retrieve these parts of the file located so far away from each other slows down the disk access time because the files are fragmented.  And over time, this becomes noticeable.  Defragmenting the disk will speed up access if the disk is severely fragmented.

So, want to tune up your PC?  First run disk cleanup to get rid of all the unnecessary files.  A window will pop up with a lot of check boxes for stuff like internet files, recycle bin, and others.  Make your selections and click OK.  It will then remove all the files.  There is no use in defragmenting files you are going to delete anyway.  Then run disk defragmenter.  If you do this once a week your PC will never be fragmented.  But this exercise can only do so much.

To make the most impact on your PC's speed, make sure you are not running programs you don't need.  Any program that runs in the background takes up memory.  Some programs need to run like antivirus programs, your mouse pad app for laptops, and others.  But do you REALLY need the weather bug, or a "rate a website" app?? Removing these unneeded programs will free up memory and system processing resources.  Your computer will run faster.  This removal should be done in an orderly fashion using Control Panel/Remove Programs, or an uninstall routine on the start menu under the offending program's selection.

I recommend against using these so-called miracle fixes for your pc.  If you feel comfortable running the windows tools I mentioned, then go ahead.  If not, give me a call.  We can discuss it or I can help either by house call or remote access.  Another thing to remember is that in most cases, these tools are scheduled to run automatically.  The default time for these to run is 3:00 am.  So it would be advisable to leave your computer on overnight once or twice a week.  Those who leave their computers on most of the time make sure to occasionally restart them.  Leaving your PC on will also allow windows update to run.  Any questions please call me at 732-568-4943.

A New Service

I have a new service to tell you about.  I will make custom instructions complete with illustrations on how to do certain tasks on your computer.  If I have the software or if your request is regarding Windows, I will type up instructions on how to do the tasks you want to get done.  For example, I can prepare instructions for you to check things like your Windows Update configuration (See next item below).  Call me at 732-568-4943 to discuss.

How to Check your Windows Update Settings

The model for this example is Windows 7.  It applies to all Windows versions, but may be accessed in a slightly different manner.  First, bring up the start menu, and select Control Panel.

If Control Panel comes up as categories, choose System Security, then Windows Update, then Change Settings in the upper left corner of the window.  Then select how and when you want to receive and install updates.

If Control Panel comes up as large or small icons, look toward to bottom (the icons are in alphabetical order) and click on Windows Update.  Then click on Change Settings in the upper left corner of the Window.

In each case, choose to download and install updates automatically unless you have an overriding reason not to.  Also set the time at which you typically not be using the PC for updates to install.  If you leave your PC on all the time, then the default 3:00 am is ok.  If not then pick a time during the day or evening when the PC is most likely to be on but idle.



Have a great spring!!

Dave