TechSlip.net

There are plenty of ways to make sure that your computer is running at its peak performance. Having software that improves the way your computer operates, can have a big impact on the speed of your operating system. For Windows users, Glary Utilities is a great and free tool that will help to keep your computer running at its best.

Glary Utilities works for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, and is 100% free. It is rated as one of the top most downloaded System Utilities on Downloads.com.

This great and simple to use application includes utilities to improve your system’s performance and to protect your privacy. The interface is very simple and user friendly, with only requiring a couple of clicks to run scans. These scans will check files on your computer, unclutter them, free up disk space, fix broken shortcuts, and more.

The registry cleaner that comes with Glary Utilities is a great tool for anyone who is looking to improve their computer performance and wanting to fix registry problems. It allows you to scan, remove, and backup registry entries. You can also use “Track Eraser” which allows you to remove all of your online and Windows traces, although it only supports Internet Explorer. The Track Eraser is a great way to keep your privacy secure.

Glary Utilities includes a lot of other useful tools such as Registry Defrag, Uninstall Manager, Startup Manager, Memory Optimizer, File Shredder, File Encrypter, File Splitter & Joiner, Process Manager, and many more!

If you are interested in this freeware and would like to improve your computer’s performance, please visit http://www.glaryutilities.com/

Changing your screen resolution is very easy to do. You can change it by right clicking the desktop and choosing Properties, and then the Setting tab.

You can also change it by going to the control panel. Click Start, choose Control Panel, and from here click Display.

After you are on the Settings menu, you will see the resolution size and a slider to change it. Make sure you choose a resolution that your monitor can handle. If you choose too high of a setting the screen will go black and Windows will revert the resolution back to the default. Most people with standard size monitors prefer 800×600 or 1024×768. If you have a widescreen monitor, then try 1280×768.

You can make your folders look cool and make them easier to find by adding a picture to the folder. So if you are tired of looking at a list of folders that all look the same, follow these quick steps.

1. Right click on the folder you want to change and choose properties (You can only change folders that you have created)
2. Once the window appears, choose the Customize tab
3. Click Choose Picture and find the picture you want to use

4. Click apply and press Ok

5. You are finished and now your folder will have a picture!

This can happen for a couple of reasons. Either your colors are set to 256 and need to be changed to 16-bit or 32-bit (which can be changed by going to your display settings, the same place you change the resolution). Or you need to install your graphics driver. You can update your graphics driver at the manufacturer website or install the driver from a CD if you have it.

Once you have your updated driver you can install it manually by clicking Start, then choose Control Panel, then System, and Device Manager. In the list you will see “Display Adapter”, right click on your adapter and choose Properties, then select the Driver tab and Update Driver.

Restore points are a great feature of Windows XP. Let’s say you install a program or change files on your computer and later on you decide that you made a wrong move and want to back track. Well Restore Points do just that. You can choose a day from the calendar and restore your computer to how it was that day. Now this is sort of limited and may not remove all things that you have done up until then but it works fairly well. Windows will automatically create a restore point within a 24 hour period or usually whenever a driver is installed, windows is updated, etc. If Windows does not automatically do it, you can manually create your own. Here is some basic how-to’s for Restore Points.

· Click Start
· Click Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore
· You can select to create a Restore Point here manually or restore your computer back to a certain date
· Basically just go through the Wizard, click a date, a time, and it’s as easy as it sounds
· Restart your computer and it will be restored back to that date

If your hard drive is acting up or you are getting errors when trying to open certain files and programs then you may have some bad sectors on your hard drive. Follow these easy steps to scan and fix the problem.

· Click Start and go to My Computer
· Right-click the drive that you want to check and click Properties
· On the Tools tab, click Check Now
· Check mark “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”
· Check mark “Automatically fix file system errors”
· Press Start and let it run
· You may have to restart the computer afterward

So your computer is running very sluggish and your not sure what to do. If you want to save some time and money, you can try these few tips to speed it up. Even if you are not too familiar with computers, it is fairly simple to do and I will explain it to you. I run Windows XP but it should be fairly the same for you.

Defrag Your Hard Drive

I am sure most of you have heard of this term. Defragging your hard drive basically sorts through your drive and makes files more readily accessible. This will make your computer able to bring up programs and files a little quicker. Defrag is usually recommended once a week or so. Follow the steps below

1. Click Start
2. Go To All Programs
3. Go To Accessories
4. Go To System Tools
5. Click On Disk Defragmenter
6. Choose your hard drive from the list and click Defragment
7. Let it run. Depending on the size of the drive and how bad it is, it may take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or more. Usually you want to let it go while it is not in use.

Registry Cleanup

This is a great and quick way to help clean up some files that are not needed on your computer. It also helps get rid of some files that may have errors or are causing problems. Cleanup is as easy as downloading a simple program and running the Wizard. I recommend using TweakNow RegCleaner.

Spyware Cleanup

Scanning for Spyware/Adware helps keep your computer running like new. Files found in your computer may be affecting the performance but you just don’t know it. They could be taking information and sending it to another computer. These are a few things Spyware does. Maybe you have advertisements on your computer and have Adware. Either way here is a couple of programs you can use to get rid of them.

Ad-Aware : One of the best free Spyware sweepers
Spy Sweeper : Another great Spyware program for $29.95

Appearance Tweek On XP

If you are not running a lot of memory (RAM) this tip can help improve performance. It will make the computer not have all the great looks but if you don’t mind that, it helps. You can change the visual theme of the computer to the “Classic Style” of Windows. Making it have that old fashion Grey tool bar and everything. If you want to try it and see if it helps follow these steps.

1. Click Start
2. Right Click On My Computer
3. Click Properties
4. Click the Advanced tab
5. Under Performance, click Settings
6. Choose Adjust for best performance
7. Click Apply
8. Notice the change and see if it helped. If you do not like it you can change it back by clicking the Choose for Best Appearance option instead

So these are a few tips to help improve your performance. Enjoy!

So you are asked what your specs for your computer are and you have no idea. Maybe you want to see what video card you have or other information all on one display. No problem! Check this out.

Windows

1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type in “dxdiag” without the quotes of course
4. If it is the first time doing this you will need to click Yes, it may take a minute or two to gather information
5. Here you will find your computers name, operating system, RAM, processor,DirectX version, etc. And tabs on top to show more additional information you can find useful in some way.

That’s it. Piece of cake!

So you turn on your computer and it is taking FOREVER to load. You see 20 programs start up and you think is there an easy way to turn off these programs at startup. There is and it is easy.

Note : Before you do this please make sure you know what you are disabling. If not please ask someone who does. We don’t want any other problems with your PC.

Windows

1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. In the text box type in this without the quotes “msconfig” and hit Enter
4. Go to the Startup tab
5. Disable programs you don’t want to start up
6. Hit Apply
7. Exit and restart

Now you will notice you probably do not have tons of icons in your task bar and it takes less time to start up. Hope this helps!

Changing your screen resolution can come in handy for viewing different types of sites, pictures, games, etc. It is very simple to do by following these steps.

1. Click “Start”
2. Click “Control Panel”
3. Click “Appearance and Themes”
4. Click “Change Screen Resolution”
5. Drag the bar to the desired size, the most common used now is “1024 x 768″ at 32bit color.

Depending on your monitor you may want to adjust it and see which you like.