Tag: boost
The time it takes for your computer to start up and run has been massively improved under Windows Vista. One of the reasons older versions of Windows, such as Windows 95 and Windows 98, took so long to boot up was because those versions of Windows were running on top of another operating system MSDOS.
With Windows Vista this is no longer the case, so start-up times are a lot faster. If you have a brand new computer or a fresh installation of Windows Vista, it will take no time at all for your PC to start up, so you can begin using your favourite programs at once. Unfortunately, after a while, with the more programs you install and the more files you have on your PC, you may begin to notice that your computer takes longer and longer to start up. Before you know it, you’ll be able to get up, make a cup of tea and drink it while waiting for Windows Vista to load. When things get this bad, you know you have to do something about it.
We recently asked visitors to the pctipsbox.com website how long it took for their PCs to start. The results varied from less than a minute to over ten!
There are plenty of factors that could make your PC startup grind to a halt, so there are plenty of tweaks to try to get your PC starting up in a flash. It’s all very well listing these tweaks, but do they work? Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
January 09, 2009 by
Jason While Outlook 2007 offers many new features that do indeed offer real benefits it can come at a price – performance.
On my Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM Outlook 2007 originally took a good 20 seconds to fire up from a fully booted PC and appeared to be constantly sluggish. So what can be done about it?
Tip 1: Delete attachments
A little-known feature in Outlook is the ability to keep an email but delete one or several attachment. Firstly, sort your inbox by file size (descending) and open a message (by double clicking so it opens in a new window) where you no longer wish to keep the attachment. Right click over the attachment and select Remove. Now save the email, repeat with all relevant emails in this mailbox and then repeat in any other mailboxes (including your sent items). Read More»
Posted in Office | 3 Comments »
January 06, 2009 by
Jason Microsoft is optimizing Windows 7 in order to increase performance, and, in this context, the dispatcher lock is one of the components that has got cut off . According to the Redmond company, fewer hardware locks are synonymous with boosted parallelism, namely a new level of efficiency when it comes down to taking advantage of modern processing architectures. This is valid for Windows Server 2008 R2, namely Windows 7 Server, and, naturally, also for the Windows 7 client, since the two operating systems share the same code base.
“With Windows 7, the dispatcher lock is replaced with several finer-grained synchronization techniques, thus effectively distributing resource contention. The main benefits for applications include increased system performance and more optimal use of available hardware resources,” Phil Pennington, Windows Server Technical Evangelism, revealed.
Evolving from Windows Vista, Windows 7 is embracing the many core CPU world, delivering the promise of enhanced performance through the advantage represented by parallel computing. However, in order for Win7 to be tailored to many core processors, the platform’s kernel had to be freed from past relics such as the dispatcher lock. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 1 Comment »
October 04, 2008 by
Jason Registry tweaks can fix problems, boost performance and improve Windows features, and the risks are minimal as long as you follow our advice.
There are many ways to change your settings and your applications within Windows. You might click Edit > Preferences or Tools > Options, right-click on a system tray icon, or just poke around in your Control Panel. But the end result is almost always the same. When you’ve tweaked an option and clicked OK, the new setting will be stored in a central database called the registry.
Normally you don’t have to worry about low-level technical details of individual registry settings. But occasionally they can come in useful. If a program won’t start or can’t be reinstalled, for instance, it could be down to a corrupt registry setting: change it and you might fix the problem. Other applications have useful settings that can only be accessed from the registry, too.
There is a potential down side, though. If you delete the wrong registry setting you could corrupt an application, and even prevent Windows from loading on your next reboot. But then Windows Explorer can be dangerous, too, if you start randomly deleting things from the Windows or Program Files folders. Don’t worry though, as long as you’re cautious and sensible – registry editing actually poses very little risk. Read More»
Posted in Computer | 1 Comment »
February 29, 2008 by
Jason
I tend to be wary of programs that purport to make computers go faster, fix problems and so on. The vast majority of them are worthless snake oil. I’m also a bit suspicious of Russian software – they’ve still got a reputation for dodgy programs and scams and anything that comes from a company called Loonies is bound to set the alarm bells ringing so Actual Booster doesn’t get off to a very promising start.
Nevertheless, after giving it a fairly thorough road test I can tell you that Actual Booster really does liven things up a bit. It’s also free, and as far as I can see there’s no iffy content and it doesn’t try to phone home. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Software | 1 Comment »
January 17, 2008 by
Jason Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) is not scheduled until the second half of 2007, and Microsoft’s first shot at its successor, Windows Vista, may not be due out before “early 2007.” Meantime, many system builders (and their clients) will be keeping today’s WinXP SP2 systems running for some time.
That makes now the perfect time for revisiting your deployed XP boxes and making sure your clients are getting the best possible performance from their systems. Your clients will be happy with a faster-running OS; some may even be amazed. This is also a golden opportunity for system builders to check in with clients and pick up a little extra income from performing just such tune-ups. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 7 Comments »
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