All of the Windows Operating Systems, though great, usually require maintenance. Fortunately, it isn’t hard to keep your operating system in check with a few great tools and a little bit of tweaking. Today, I will be talking about this and how to have your operating system running as fast as ever. Let’s do it!
Hibernation is, if you haven’t used it before, a method of “sleeping” your computer and have it stay on, but in a type of halfway on position, so that you can - especially with laptops - save battery and lower power consumption without turning off your computer.
The Windows shutdown process may be as slow as the start up unfortunately. But, due to Windows amazing ability of user managed settings, you can change that! So, how can you speed up your Windows Shutdown process ?
(There have been previous articles - in the WinHack column - on how to Speed Up Windows twice, here and here.)
WARNING : BEFORE making any changes to the Windows registry, it is highly recommended to make a backup in case anything goes wrong. To backup your Windows registry, tap your Windows key on the keyboard and “R”. When the Run box comes up, type regedit. When the Registry box comes up, go to ‘File’ then ‘Export’. Save the resulting file to your hard drive.
I have been saying repetitively how wonderful Windows is. The registry particularly can make customization easy and definitely fun. Today, we will be looking at just a few registry tweaks that can increase your ability to customize Windows to an extreme level.
WARNING : BEFORE making any changes to the Windows registry, it is highly recommended to make a backup in case anything goes wrong. To backup your Windows registry, tap your Windows key on the keyboard and “R”. When the Run box comes up, type regedit. When the Registry box comes up, go to ‘File’ then ‘Export’. Save the resulting file to your hard drive.
The current Windows operating systems are far from perfect, One is 7 years old and the other is.. well.. Vista. There are often situations where you would want to change a particular setting (or settings) on your system, you Google for a solution, find one and then you have to mess with the registry.
Enter Xpy, to take care of your tweaking needs!
Xpy allows you to tweak a number of Windows settings easily and improve the overall Windows performance. All you have to do is place a check mark next to the setting you wish to change and then hit “next” and Xpy will take care of the rest.
Slow, cluttered up, lots of dangling shortcuts, invalid registry entries, long startup times, these are all common problems for Windows users. Keeping track of everything and performing maintenance tasks can get cumbersome sometimes but not if you use “Glary Utilities”.
Glary Utilities presents you with a bundle of tools to take care of these common problems and makes system maintenance a breeze! It’s an approx 6MB file which you can download from here. Install and fire it up and you get a host of utilities that help you take care of the most common problems.
Today we will be taking a look at nCleaner. It is a free Windows system cleaning application. This app will let you clean your system, applications, free more disk space, boost your system’s speed and get more stability and privacy protection. All for the low, low price of free…
Who could say no to all of that?
Plus in case you’re wondering how this differs from apps such as CCleaner, read on for a full list of what Ncleaner will do for you….
If you have spent anytime at all customizing your Windows machine to act and function exactly as you want it to then you have definitely come across registry entries. They are all over the net. Ranging from simple changes to exotic or wacky mods. Every single one of them is preceded by a warning that normally looks something like this:
Changes made to the Windows registry happen immediately, and no backup is automatically made. Do not edit the Windows registry unless you are confident about doing so.
Microsoft have issued the following warning with respect to the Registry Editor:
People like nosing around. People like to go through other people’s stuff. Whether they are your family, friends, colleagues, or some anonymous guys in a basement in Japan, it’s something you want to avoid.
Whether it’s because you like your privacy or you think you have a reason to ‘erase your tracks’; in the end it’s all the same.
Luckily for you and I there are apps that can help you protect your privacy and your files, i.e. erase your tracks and put a nice big lock on all of your stuff.
Your computer running Windows isn’t running in the same speed that it used to run when you first used it. It’s slower, crappy, takes a while to start and tests your patience like anything. There are many reasons for this, let’s try fixing up a few things on your slow Windows PC:
Slow Start Up
There can be a variety of reasons to Windows loading slow during start up. Go to Run, type msconfig and hit enter. Under the ‘Start Up’ tab, uncheck the unwanted programs and press OK. Things should be a bit fine the next time Windows boots.
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.
1. HowTo: Setup Quick Searches in Firefox.
Last month I posted about my favorite Gmail feature, well this one is my TOP 1 for Firefox. Probably the most underestimated (and yet VERY USEFUL) Firefox feature ever.
2. Three Awesome Firefox Quick Searches (via JimmyR.com)
3. Quickly Find and Download FREE MP3s from Google (using FF Quick Search) (via JimmyR.com)
for Windows
4. HowTo: Hide Files inside JPG images
5. HowTo: Speedup Windows Star Menu
Quick registry tweak that lets you speed-up Start Menu navigation.
Before we continue with our registry tweaks, why not put a shortcut to the registry on your desktop? It sure beats going through the start menu…
Just right-click on the desktop, choose ‘new‘ then ‘shortcut‘. In the target box, enter ‘C:\WINDOWS\regedit.exe‘ . Click ‘next’ and enter your shortcut name (such as “Windows Registry”) then save and close. You now have a desktop shortcut to the registry.
OK, now using that shortcut, let’s see how else we can tweak Windows to our advantage…..
Bypass the Win XP welcome screen and automatically log into your Windows account
While I am busy compiling some more Registry tweaks for you, I realised that there are some tweaks you can make to your PC without ever having to touch the Registry at all. So here’s some off the top of my head.
1. Tweak your trash bin
If you right-click on your trash bin and choose “properties”, you can tweak a few trash features. For example, you can turn off the eternally annoying “are you sure you want to delete this?” dialogue (I love being rid of this stupid feature). You can also reduce the space in your trash bin (to prevent it from filling up too much) and you can even disable the trash bin so that anything you delete bypasses the trash and gets deleted off the system immediately (I would use this one with caution though).
For those brave enough to face the Windows registry, the possibilities to alter your Windows operating system is endless. When your PC is made at the factory, Microsoft sets everything at what they think is the best. But nine times out of ten, the default settings that Microsoft chooses on your behalf are downright irritating. Do we really need to be asked “are you sure you want to delete this file?” (no, I hit the delete button for kicks). Do we really need to wait an eternity for the start menu to start moving?
As I delve further and further into how the PC works and I start to get involved in more technical projects, I am finding myself increasingly using the command prompt window. These days, the command prompt window is kind of made redundant by the fact that everything can be done by clicking on a link or icon. Let’s face it, why type in C:\Program Files\Skype\Skype.exe in the command box when you can just go to the start menu and click on the link?
Back in 2002, my computer was drowning. Drowning in countless start-up programs, temp files, cookies, caches, out-of-date Windows Registry entries, viruses, spyware….you name it, I had it. The Windows trash bin was full to bursting and the Clipboard was jam-packed. After only really embracing the internet in a big way the year before, I was having the time of my life, downloading and installing everything I could get my hands on. An executable email attachment called “Naked Britney Spears”? I’ll take that! A complete stranger telling me to download his “special new program”? Sure thing! Yes I was naive and very stupid back then.
Subscribe to MakeUseOf and get daily updates about new cool websites and programs in your email for free. Plus get free cheat sheets to your favorite programs.
