davidjk Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 ok when you get a new pc its lovely and fast, and at some point it slows down to a crawl. now lots of people may shout viruses, spyware or malware. and this may be the case, but it is not always the case. some of it may be down to routine maintenace, or even software installed. so 1 virus protection: essential piece of software to have, make sure it is upto date, but did you know that when you switch on your pc most antivirus programes will run a scan which will slow your pc down while it scans. you can get around this by runnign a full scan then setting the virus scanner to "ON ACCESS" which means that when ever a file is opened closed modified or created it is checked for viruses. you need to know what you are doing though, and if your not sure leave it alone. spyware protection. windows xp upwards (although you have to download it for xp from ms update) has windows defender, which is its own anti spyware program, and this runs ON ACCESS also. note. if you do get infected with a virus or spyware, update all your protection programes, then disconnect from the internet, and run full scans at least twice, as some hide. also if you have a home network it is worth checking the other pcs also, as some spyware and viruses spread across peronsal networks. 2 software the more software you install the slower your machine will become. this is for several reasons. take my word for it an explanation is very long winded and will probably leave you scratching your head even more. new addons for your pc are terrible for this. for example my printer . if i do a fast/easy install it installs 12 pieces of software. 4 of those pieces of software run automatically when i start my pc and slow it down. the rest slow down my pc by being installed i only actually need 2 pieces for the printer to work, and 1 extra which lets me print on cd/dvd surfaces. when you install new softaware, only install what you need, and if you dont use it, uninstall it. consider using microsofts built in software instead of third party. windows photo gallery is very simple to use, and very effective and fast, no need for extra software to import photos. if you camera works as a mass storage device, then it needs no drivers to work, or even consider getting a memory card reader and let windows photo gallery handle it. zip files. windows 98 onwards was been able to cope with zip files (compressed files) so and other compression utilities are pointless. if you use other compression methods, then winrar is an excellent program for that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidjk Posted September 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 zwinky icons mouse pointers. most of these programes are actually spyware and monitor pc usuage, and are bundled with ad services. ever noticed how internet explorer pops up with more than 1 window when you open it. never let your kids download software unless you know what it is an easy way to find out is to go to a search engine and type in the softwares name followed by "review" without the speech marks this will usually tell you if it has ad ware in it. and once you get one piece of adware you usually get loads. internet toolbars: some are very usefull, most are a pain in the backside, take a few extra seconds and open a new window to do a search. never ever ever tick always trust software from "organisation name" the company may be safe, but you can easily fake a digital signature. i could write a piece of software that your pc would assume came from microsoft. when you tick the always trust box, the software gets installed automatically without you knowing. disk defragment trust me it speeds up your pc. once a week is good for most people. google fragmented files for an explanation widnows vista onwards has it set to auto run once a week. if your pc is still slow, then how about more memory? from personal experience windows 95/98/me 256mb minimum 512 MB maxum windows 2000/xp 768mb minimum 3gb Maximum windows vista 2GB minimum 3gb max for 32 bit 8gb max for 64bit RAM is like short term memory, and the more programes you open the more that gets used. now when it is full some of the older used stuff gets written to the hard disk in a swap file. a hard disk is way way slower than RAM so the more RAM you have the less the hard disk is needed, and the faster your pc is. want to see an example of this open a program, and time how long it takes to open it. then close it and open it again and time it. the second time it will be way faster because it is stored in RAM memory. the first time it is reading it from disk, and this is what happens when you fill up memory, it writes it to disk in the swap file. my credentials. i have had a pc before bbc micros. i have taken neumerous courses in microsoft software i worked for the government for many many years in IT support. the thing about the governemt IT support is that you dont have 1 specific task, you do what is needed. and i love pcs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valkyries Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 well done David lol you write it so even i can understand and thats not easy lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidjk Posted September 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 well done David lol you write it so even i can understand and thats not easy lol my mother is 62 and frequently requires help, if i can help her then i shoudl be able to help anyone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Good tips david .... Rep added Memory limits on Vista 64 will depend on the version you are running by the way:- Home Basic - 8gb Home Premium (most people) - 16gb Business and Enterprise editions - 128GB This said for most people, it is not recommended to run with more than 8GB unless you are fairly good with system componants. For more than 8 you will require a decent PSU to run it and some good cooling in your system in order to maintain system stability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 great tips david! added to rep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidjk Posted September 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Good tips david .... Rep added Memory limits on Vista 64 will depend on the version you are running by the way:- Home Basic - 8gb Home Premium (most people) - 16gb Business and Enterprise editions - 128GB This said for most people, it is not recommended to run with more than 8GB unless you are fairly good with system componants. For more than 8 you will require a decent PSU to run it and some good cooling in your system in order to maintain system stability. thank you i should have said 8gb will be more than enough for home users. tbh if you use more than 4gb you must be up to some serious computing. man i would love a pc with 128gb of ram in it. lol mind you there are a heap of pc parts ii would like like a solid state drive in a raid setup sadly my wife wont let me spend stupid amounts of money on pc parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 128gb of ram would cost more than my PC and I'm well setup LOL ... I have 8gb in mine as it comes in handy having serious computing power when running mutiple instances of visual studio lol.... Other than that Im just gready lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidjk Posted September 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 lol. i dont run anything like that. infact the most greed prog i run is photoshop, and that gets by fine on 4gb, and its only a single instance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Really need to learn photoshop properly .. Its an excellent program Ive just never had the time to delve into it properly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidjk Posted September 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2009 well i have onyl just scratched the surface of it, but i have done some pretty good things with it. unfortunatley i dont have it now, but i made a light sabre fight video with my son and his friend, god that took foreve. and the results where amazing. yes i know how incredibly geeky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valkyries Posted September 12, 2009 Report Share Posted September 12, 2009 lol think this is one thread that lost me from the start x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskydo Posted March 1, 2010 Report Share Posted March 1, 2010 another useful tool to get is registry mechanic. If know where to find it. (mail if need more info) you can get the trial versions for free but really need full version so it can delete them all auto as i believe the free version does the first 5 or so. this clears out your registry and speeds your comp up a little more. you will be suprised at all the registry problems you will get and never know about. adaware is also free and a good tool in its self and being free you can't grumble. these basically just do a scan of your computer find things wrong, highlight the problems and you just tell it which ones you want to get rid of. Normally everything. thats it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taz291819 Posted March 1, 2010 Report Share Posted March 1, 2010 Also, if you believe you have malware on your PC, do a scan, reboot into safe mode, and scan again. Booting into safe mode also helps when you can't run a scan, because the malware software has taken over. When you boot into safe mode, Windows only loads the essentials, hence, you should be able to do a full scan then. And whenever you install a large program, like a game, immediately do a disk defrag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted March 1, 2010 Report Share Posted March 1, 2010 Also, if you believe you have malware on your PC, do a scan, reboot into safe mode, and scan again. Booting into safe mode also helps when you can't run a scan, because the malware software has taken over. When you boot into safe mode, Windows only loads the essentials, hence, you should be able to do a full scan then. And whenever you install a large program, like a game, immediately do a disk defrag. Just to add to this, the same goes for uninstalling. In fact more so... For those of you who do not know what defragging is or know the importance there is a simple way to explain it ....... Look at your harddrive like it is a tape. A highly fragmented (one that needs a defrag) is the equivelant of recording one song at the beginning, and one at the end. To get to the one at the end you have to fast forward through the tape and look for it. You harddrive is the same, and when you defrag your harddrive it simple copies all the data to the beginning of your harddrive and therefore making them faster to access Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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