Speed up your computer's boot time

	Computer Care: Cleaning your startup will speed up your boot time By Arthur Glazerglazer.tech@gmail.com POSTED: June 23, 2012 1:00 a.m.
	After Windows loads on your computer, the reason you can’t immediately start clicking on icons or go online is that other applications are still being loaded in the background. If one of those apps is your anti-virus or something else that you use or need on a regular basis like Skype, then it’s best to leave it alone. Unfortunately though, most of what loads are schedulers, updaters or random programs, things that don’t need to be constantly running with Windows. Those rogue background applications, toolbars and widgets that find their way to your startup folder suck the life out of your system. By the time seven or eight unwanted items are loaded, little RAM is left where it is needed. Many (but not all) of these programs are referenced by icons next to the clock in your toolbar. Windows will allow you to terminate what loads after it boots, but there are also third-party utilities for this purpose. Many as usual, are free. Alternatively, there are also commercial versions of dedicated startup managers for Windows. Many all-in-one utilities or suites have a tool to handle startup programs. Let’s start with Windows. In each version, if you click the Start button and type “msconfig” in the Search or Run box, it will open a System Configuration utility. Click on the startup tab and view the list within. Uncheck the items you want to terminate and click “Apply,” then “OK.” You’ll then get pop-up asking you to restart Windows. You can right-click on an icon in the list by the clock to terminate and delete it, but unless removed from the startup list, it will return at the next boot. The only items on the list that you really need are your antivirus and malware utilities. If you use a password manager, it, too, is a keeper. Otherwise, all else is superfluous and may be terminated. Keep in mind that you are not deleting any of these programs from the computer; you’re only stopping them from loading automatically at boot time. Anything that you remove from the list can always alternatively be run from your desktop or Start Menu. If you do want to delete an item for good (they have a way of coming back), download and install the tiny “msconfig cleanup” tool. Only use it when you are sure you know what you are stopping from loading, as it will delete the item from the list, not allowing you to recheck it later on. With “msconfig,” you can always go back and recheck a box should you change your mind. Once you use the “msconfig cleanup” tool, it’s gone. Some other good free utilities to consider are Ccleaner, Autoruns, Starter, Startup Control Panel and Startup Inspector. Another good program is Soluto. It was in beta (testing phase) for over a year, but now has the bugs worked out and is free for up to five PCs. It takes a while to load, but uses little resources once it does. Soluto will explain what each program you have does (if it has heard of it), how much time it takes for each program to load and will give you the option to keep it, delay its loading or to delete it from the startup list. Some utility suites that incorporate a startup manager are Win Patrol, System Mechanic, Advanced System Care, 360 Amigo System SpeedUp and Glary Utilities. All have commercial versions, but many of the free options have functional startup managers as well. Worth repeating is my warning that just because something says it is a free download doesn’t necessarily mean it is a free program. All downloads are free; all programs are not. To avoid the need for any of the aforementioned utilities, all you have to do is carefully monitor each installation on your computer. In most cases, it’s the user that provides permission for these “startups” to be installed in the first place. Scrutinize each check box prior to clicking “Next” and “OK” during program installations. One of those checkmarks may give permission to install a secondary program alongside the app that you are knowingly installing. This is where those widgets, toolbars and screensavers come from that mysteriously appear on your computer. If you let more than one or two slip by, you will need a startup tuner to eliminate them after the fact. Your computer will run faster whether those startup items are quashed at installation, if you run the Windows utility or use a dedicated startup tuner to manage them afterward. By supervising the programs that run in the background after Windows boots up, your computer will be able to run more efficiently. It will have access to the entire amount of system RAM available to it only when what needs to run, actually does. Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly on the Business page and on gainesvilletimes.com.

Speed up your PC

POSTED: May 12, 2012 1:00 a.m.

	Computer Care: Some inside tips to speed up your PC By Arthur Glazerglazer.tech@gmail.com Posted: May 12, 2012 1 a..m
	In the past I’ve written about ways to keep your computer running smoothly, advised you of keyboard shortcuts and shared some little known utilities with you. The truth be known, most technicians won’t kiss and tell and have clandestinely withheld their best tricks from you. After all, this is what we do; we’re not supposed to give away trade secrets. It would be like a magician showing how he saws his lovely companion in half. So without giving away the tech’s secret handshake, I’ll disclose a bit of magic. Before doing any of these adjustments though, it’s always a good idea to create a System Restore Point first. Keep in mind these tweaks are for the more experienced user. Did you ever want to block a nuisance website from showing on your browser? This tweak will work with Firefox, Chrome and Safari. You will want to navigate to the “etc” folder by following this path: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc from “Computer/My Computer.” Open the “hosts” file in etc and choose Notepad or, depending on which version of Windows you have, the option to use a program already installed. Then choose Notepad. After the line with 127.0.0.1, hit Enter and type 127.0.0.1 followed by the name of the site you want to block. If the site is called blockthissite.com, then type 127.0.0.1, followed by the site’s name, then a space and #. Hit Enter to go down a line. It should read: 127.0.0.1 blockthissite.com #. Save it from the File menu and close the dialog box. Next click Start, and then from Run (XP) or your Search/Command box (Vista and 7) type cmd to get a command prompt box. Then type ipconfig /flushdns and hit Enter. Close that dialog box and your browser and then try to get to your site. If you did everything correctly, you will be denied access. If you use Chrome, it’s already quick. If you use Internet Explorer, well, give the others a shot. If your browser is Firefox, there are ways to make it faster. In the address bar, type about:config in and hit Enter. Scroll to network.http.pipelining and set it to true by right-clicking and choosing modify. Do the same for proxy.pipelining. For pipelining.maxrequests, change its value to 30 and close the browser. The next fix is not for the faint of heart. We will change a registry value. There is no undo in the windows Registry, so tread cautiously there. Go to Start, Run or the Search/Command Box and type regedit. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Double-tap on “desktop” and look on the right side for “WaitToKillAppTimeout.” If it has a value of 5,000, right-click on it and choose modify. Change it to 1,000 and hit OK. Do the same there for “HungAppTimeout.” Change its value to 1,000 as well and close the box. That will shave a few seconds off of an unresponsive program when you try to close it. Should your printer queue jam, clear it by opening the command prompt box again (cmd) and type: net stop spooler. Wait for a verification response, then type net start spooler and try to print your document again. If you want to simply unplug your USB flash drive and bypass the “Safely Remove Hardware” process, right-click on the removable USB drive in the Computer/My Computer group and choose “Eject.” Wait for the icon to change and then pull your device from the computer. Some basic, yet necessary tips follow: • Allow your computer to fully load after it boots up prior to clicking on any icons. Doing so will further delay any response. • Don’t clutter the desktop with icons. Everything Windows has to draw uses system resources. Consolidate all Word files for example, to a Word folder. Get rid of icons you don’t use. • Try to keep your wallpaper image under 100k if it is your own photo. A megapixel image will waste resources. • Regularly empty the Recycle Bin, as well as the Temporary Internet folder. • Defragment your hard drive every couple of months to keep it fast. • Create a System Restore Point when everything is running well. You may need to access it one day. • If there is a website you access regularly, drag the URL icon from the browser to the desktop, creating a shortcut. Without a doubt, the single most cost-effective enhancement you could do for your computer is to pull a rabbit from your hat by adding more RAM, system memory, to it. If you do anything more than Web-browse and check your email, you will need it. Even if you don’t work with audio files or photo or video edit, you will still appreciate the bump in speed an extra pair of gigabyte sticks will yield. It is inexpensive and relatively easy to install. The result is not smoke and mirrors. Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly on the Business page and on gainesvilletimes.com.

Speed Up Your PC

Computer Care: Steps to help clean out and speed up PCs

By Arthur Glazer
arthur@glazerthepctech.com

POSTED Jan. 26, 2010 12:24 p.m.

So you bought your spouse a new computer last month and now you realize just how slow yours really is. Or maybe you already knew it wasn’t as fast as it used to be. Even that brand new laptop may be bogged down with unnecessary enhancements. We’ve gone over some of this before, but talking about making your computer faster is worth repeating.

To make some basic adjustments, you don’t need a technician. With a few mouse clicks, your system could be more responsive. There are some trade-offs though. You may have to do without a menu fade or a transparent window. It sure is cool to see your folders spin by on your desktop like a Rolodex, but you sacrifice speed to do it.

What Microsoft calls visual enhancements, I call smoke and mirrors. All it really does in the end is leave you with less system resources to do what you need to do: compute.

Let’s start with XP. Go to My Computer and right-click on it. Go to Properties and choose the Advanced tab and then Settings. Choose Best Performance from there. Then add checks in the boxes with shadow options, leaving the rest unchecked. It just makes it easier to see the pointer and icons with shadows.

Click Apply and then OK. While you are there, look at the General tab to see how much system memory you have installed. About midway you’ll see something like 512 MB or 2 GB RAM. Make a note of it and go back to the Advanced tab where you can adjust the virtual memory.

Click on Change in the center of the box and set both values to 1.5 times what your RAM is, that figure you just wrote down. Click on Set, Apply, OK and close that box. It will then tell you that you need to reboot for it to take effect.

In Vista, right-click the desktop and choose Personalize and then go to Appearance, then Effects. Keep only the shadow option checked.

In Windows 7, right-click on Computer, go to Properties and then Advanced system settings, then first settings option.

A huge resource hog is the Sidebar. If you don’t really need it, you’ll reclaim much lost speed by turning it off. In Vista, click Start and type sidebar and then click on sidebar properties. Uncheck the top box to disable it.

In Windows 7, gadgets are independent of a sidebar. To customize or terminate gadgets, right-click on the desktop and then choose Gadgets.

Some techs don’t believe in defragmenting the hard drive anymore or using registry utilities. The arguments are that with the huge size of today’s drives, it just isn’t necessary to defrag like we used to.

I would agree if you have a 500 GB drive that is only 10 percent full. But there are still 60 GB drives out there and users with huge music and photo collections. They fill up a drive quickly. A hard drive likes contiguous free disk space to operate efficiently and that’s what defragging does. So unless you’ve got scads of empty space, I’d keep doing it.

Speaking of full hard drives; your system won’t run properly if your drive is almost full. Windows needs 15 percent of the disk to create virtual memory or a swap file in order to operate efficiently.

As far as the registry goes, it is indeed a dangerous place to go if you don’t know what you’re doing. In a few clicks of the mouse you can turn a new computer into a doorstop.

But if you use a registry utility cautiously, you can delete unneeded values and reduce the overall size of the registry by defragging it. But know what you are deleting as there is no undo button in the registry.

Consolidate your icons. If you have lots of addresses, docs or pdf icons all over your desktop, create folders for them. Right-click on the desktop, choose New, and then Folder. Name it and just drag the icons into it.

Remember to empty your Recycle Bin regularly and dump your temp files and system caches. There are many utilities that will do it for you.

A bloated system will also slow down to a crawl. If you have programs installed on it that you don’t use, get rid of them. Go to Control Panel and remove them from there.

The best way to speed up your system is to add more physical memory to it. It is inexpensive and (relatively) easy to do. If you’re not comfortable with popping the cover off and looking for your RAM modules, go to crucial.com or memory.com. Those sites will tell you how much memory you currently have, how much your computer can handle and what it would cost to upgrade. In many cases you could double your RAM for $50.

Even if you don’t add RAM, these few adjustments will add responsiveness to your computer. There are more tweaks as well as services to turn off, but like your computer, this column has reached capacity.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly and on gainesvilletimes.com. Arthur welcomes your computer questions and ideas for future columns.