It’s time for another poll. Today we want to ask you about disk defrag tools. What program do you use to defragment your hard drive?
Anyone who’s owned a Windows PC for a long time will probably agree that eventually you have to defrag the hard drive. As you move files around and keep installing new programs your disk gets fragmented. Fragmented files take longer to run and results in slower performance. So if you want to keep the hard drive at its peak performance, make sure to defragment your computer once in a while.
Summer starts today. It’s the longest day of the year and it’s not too late for some last minute spring cleaning. Of course keeping your system clear of junk is always a good idea. However, here’s a quick six step guide to unclutter your system, increase its performance and speed it up.
The image to the left was graciously provided by Roma Flowers via stock.xchng.
Remove excess software through >start >control panel >software. If something won’t uninstall because it was never installed properly in the first place, try Microsoft’s Windows Installer CleanUp Utility.
There is far too much spyware, adware, malware in general. Unfortunately, all of this can be easily received involuntarily. Unfortunately as well, many people do not have sufficient enough programs to make sure these pieces of junk are removed properly and your computer is safely restored. Here I will show you the best free applications to keep your computer secure.
AVG Anti-Virus
Last time I discussed finding drivers for your software programs and also how to set up a printer on Windows. Well today I am going to get onto a more interesting topic - what to put on your computer. I know countless other blogs have done lists like this so this isn’t anything groundbreaking. But I know quite a few people at the moment who are buying their first PC and who are asking me “so what do I put on this PC-thingy-ma-jig then?”. Well, here’s your answer.
So for all the newbies, parents, grandparents, techno-phobes and computer doofs out there, here’s what should be on your computer.
If you’ve owned a PC for a long period of time, you’ll know that eventually you need to defragment the hard drive. As you use the PC more and more, files become scattered across different folders and the system slows down as a result. Defragging may be a pain up the rear but it’s unfortunately a fact of life which you can’t escape from, if you want to continue installing programs, watching video files and listening to music. But there’s a school of thought that says that defragging is unnecessary. I’ll leave that for you to decide whether or not that argument has any merits.
While going through most popular software stats on Download.com, I decided to pull out top 10 most downloaded FREE security AND Windows optimization programs. Not surprisingly, I ended up with 10 excellent FREE programs. Check them out below, most of them seem to be really good. (Note: Program popularity was measured by the total number of downloads during the last week)
TOP 5: Free Security Programs (Antivirus, Spyware Removal, etc.)
(1) AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition Memory-friendly free antivirus program that comes with lifetime free access to virus definition updates. Highlights include automatic update, real-time protection, free virus database updates, and some more. With nearly 1 mil. downloads (926,832) last week alone, this gotta be a good tool.
Yesterday I looked at three tools which you can use to tidy up and speed up your computer.Today I want to put the emphasis more on speed because that is really the most important function of all isn’t it? If you have DSL broadband internet, then you want the speed of DSL, not the speed of a 56k modem. But over time, your computer will start to slow down as you install more and more stuff, download security and upgrade patches and handle files. So on a regular basis, say once a week, you should use the following two tools :
