May 10, 2013
Just as shorting a computer out will ruin it, making it run in temperatures it was never meant to take will cause it to malfunction. SpeedFan is a free utility for Windows designed to help you keep a close eye on just how hot your computer is getting, down to the individual component level.
Keep Reading »
March 17, 2013
The system tray is a pretty big deal in Windows. I love having an application that allows itself to dock there rather than just sit in my taskbar, because that gets cluttered quickly. There are even third-party alternatives that will help send any and every application into your system tray. In modern versions of Windows, there are two parts to the tray - hidden icons and shown icons.
Keep Reading »
December 9, 2012
Understanding your PC is the first step towards improving its health and overall performance. Out of the box, Windows does offer basic system information and tools like your Device Manager, but that’s often not the most efficient way to take a good look at all of this data. You’re probably familiar with tools like EVEREST, [...]
Keep Reading »
July 12, 2012
Do you sometimes find that you waste time digging around the PC because you can't quite remember how to check one setting or another? Well, I'm glad to inform you that the folks at Foolish IT (an funny domain-name when you put it into one word though...) have come up with a very cool swiss-army knife application for PC technicians called D7.
Keep Reading »
February 21, 2012
For all of you who are conscious about your power usage, you probably tend to check over your power settings often to make sure that you're being as energy-efficient as possible. This is even more the case with laptop and netbook users, who benefit from tight, energy-saving power rules to extend the amount of time they can run on battery power.
Keep Reading »
January 6, 2012
One of the fun things about being a computer geek is showing off with multiple displays going on all at once. These might include scrolling text across various windows, and a second screen full of real-time graphs rolling from right to left, showing every last detail about the status of every computer system on the network - CPU usage, battery levels of all of the laptops, and remaining hard drive space on all systems.Wouldn't it be cool to have an application that would offer such a display?
Keep Reading »
January 4, 2012
One of the things that I find myself doing much more often since diving into IT is monitoring and checking the status of services running on computers that are running across the company. There is the standard way of managing services which most people use because it's well-known and fairly easy. But what about another way?
Keep Reading »
December 16, 2011
When computers work well, things are pretty cool. Every component of your PC just....works. But when you get one of those nasty little downloads - one of those little scripts or apps that dig its way deep down into the heart of your computer - it can be unnerving. Luckily, there is a new tool you can use to manually go through and clean up those evil processes.
Keep Reading »
July 4, 2011
Months after you purchase and use a Mac—or any computer for that matter—it may stop performing at a rapid speed like it did fresh out of the box. Magician Monitor is a little application that you can park anywhere on your desktop and click on it to get an overall view of how your Mac is running.
Keep Reading »
February 3, 2011
Netbooks, and other small ultra-portable computers including Windows tablets, are well loved because of their small footprint and light weight. However, netbooks are far less powerful than the typical notebook PC, which means they can have trouble running applications that other PCs have no problem with. This means that anyone who wants a snappy netbook [...]
Keep Reading »
November 18, 2010
What is your computer doing in there? On the exterior it is a mass of plastics and metals, roughly pressed together to provide your PC with a protective case. But is it protecting your PC from the outside, or is it protecting you from the strange and arcane things happening inside your PC? Perhaps it [...]
Keep Reading »
September 24, 2010
Windows Task Manager has evolved into a reasonably good utility. It offers a lot of information about what your computer is doing at any particular moment; the programs running, the load on the processor, and network activity are displayed. There are limits to what Windows Task Manager can do for you however. If you’re interested [...]
Keep Reading »
August 13, 2010
One of the biggest problems with being addicted to new software is the tendency for “leftover” processes and files to remain throughout my PC – sometimes even viruses, adware or malware. One of the reasons I was most motivated to write this article for MakeUseOf was because I found that my computer startup time was [...]
Keep Reading »
August 5, 2010
Applications are an integral part of any operating system. They give your machine specific abilities and enhances your computer using experience. Today, there are virtually applications for almost every kind of task that you can think of. During the years of my interactions with computers, I’ve found and tried countless applications of various magnitudes; from [...]
Keep Reading »
July 3, 2010
As computers have become such a big part of our everyday lives, we have grown to expect faster and faster desktops and laptops for our daily activities. One of the problems with those fast processors and hard drives is that since they have to fit more power into increasingly smaller spaces, they end up reaching [...]
Keep Reading »
