Tag: Maintenance
October 08, 2009 by
Jason
Windows 7 may be Microsoft’s most anticipated product ever. It builds on Windows Vista’s positives, and eliminates many of that OS’s negatives. It adds new functionality, too all in a package that is less resource-hungry than its predecessor. And whether or not you’re upgrading from Vista or skipping it altogether and moving up from Windows XP, you’ll need to know how to make the most of it in your environment.
1. Pick Your Edition. Most business users do not need the more expensive Ultimate Edition; stick with Professional unless you specifically need BitLocker.
2. Upgrading? Go 64-bit. As the second major Windows release to fully support 64-bit, the x64 architecture has definitely arrived on the desktop. Don’t buy new 32-bit hardware unless it’s a netbook.
3. Use Windows XP Mode. Yes, it’s only an embedded Virtual PC with a full copy of WinXP but it’s an embedded Virtual PC with a full copy of Windows XP! This is the first profoundly intelligent use of desktop virtualization we’ve seen and a great way to move to Windows 7 without giving up full Windows XP compatibility.
4. Use Windows PowerShell v2. More than just a shell, this is the administration tool you’ve always wanted: Parallel, distributed processing for administrative tasks! Manage 100 machines literally as easily as you manage one with the new Remoting feature. Windows PowerShell v2 ships for the first time in Windows 7, and within six months will be available for older versions of Windows. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 4 Comments »
Are you tired of waiting for your computer to catch up to your life speed?. While it seems that you are always waiting for your computer to catch up, there are things that you can do to get things back on track and bring back your PC to it’s normal state. Here are 3 very simple steps that can help you optimize your computer.
1. Remove unnecessary programs at at startup. When you start your computer there are lots of programs that loads at the same time. Many programs automatically adds themselves to your startup programs. Keep those startup programs to a minimal amount, you can do this by changing the settings of the programs you do not need at startup. Find the options on your program that say’s “run at startup” or something to that effect and uncheck it. You can also remove some programs by opening “msconfig” (Go to Start -> Run) and going into “startup” tab. Under the startup tab you can see the programs that loads when you boot your computer. Remove all unnecessary programs by unchecking it. This will lower the load your computer needs to sort thru at start up. Read More»
Posted in Computer | No Comments »
January 21, 2009 by
Jason What, exactly, are supercomputers? The clue is in the name, really: they’re powerful computers capable of calculating many millions of floating operations per second (FLOPS) essentially, they’re very, very fast.
While any array of powerful computers, such as a modern-day web server which consists of several motherboards (the main circuit board of a computer) running in parallel can be considered a supercomputer, generally the term is reserved for machines that dedicate their entire hardware to one complex task at any given time.
Take the NEC Earth Simulator in Japan, for example, which was created specifically for modelling weather problems associated with global warming. Or the world’s fastest computer, BlueGene/L at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, which simulates the behaviour of biomolecular structures and protein folding. It’s capable of 600 trillion FLOPS (tera-FLOPS or TFLOPS), whereas, the six-year-old Earth Simulator is only capable of 36TFLOPS. BlueGene/L won’t hold the top spot for long, though. Supercomputers twice as powerful will be online soon. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Hardware | No Comments »
January 14, 2009 by
Jason For those of you who have waited long for the beta release of Windows 7, Micosoft has finally released the link for you to download a copy to test. In case you have not downloaded, here is the link:
The file size is about 2.4GB in size, so make sure you are on a broadband connection and have several hours to spare. You will have to burn it into a DVD to use it.
Once you have downloaded it, you will have to install it on a working machine in order to access the full functionality. As this is still a beta release and not suitable for daily production use, it is not wise to erase or upgrade your existing Vista to Windows 7. A good way is to create a dual boot system where you can choose to boot into Vista or Win 7. Here’s how it’s done:
Read More»
Posted in Windows 7, Windows Vista | 1 Comment »
October 22, 2008 by
Jason
If it seems like your computer has gotten slower since you bought it, it probably has. One of the biggest factors that slows down your computer’s performance is fragmentation, a situation that occurs over time, in which files on your hard drive become divided into small pieces. Your computer must read a file to open, save, or close it. So when it reads each piece of a fragmented file separately, the effect is that the file can seem “slow” when you’re working with it.
Defragmenting your hard drive is the process of putting all the scattered pieces of files back together. Microsoft Windows XP includes a tool that will defragment your hard drive for you. To keep your system performing well, it’s a good idea to have Windows XP automatically defragment your hard drive every week. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 2 Comments »
September 09, 2008 by
Jason Performance Information and Tools lists your computer’s Windows Experience Index base score, which indicates the performance and overall capability of your computer’s hardware.
Open Performance Information and Tools by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Performance Information and Tools.
The base score can help you buy programs that match your computer’s performance level. The base score only pertains to the performance aspects of the computer that affect how well features in Windows and other programs will run on this computer, and does not reflect the overall quality of your computer. For more information, see What is the Windows Experience Index?
Individual hardware components, such as your computer’s central processing unit (CPU) and random access memory (RAM), are tested and receive a subscore. Your computer’s base score is determined by the lowest subscore. Read More»
Posted in Computer | No Comments »
September 08, 2008 by
Jason The Windows Experience Index measures the capability of your computer’s hardware and software configuration and expresses this measurement as a number called a base score. A higher base score generally means that your computer will perform better and faster than a computer with a lower base score, especially when performing more advanced and resource-intensive tasks.
Each hardware component receives an individual subscore. Your computer’s base score is determined by the lowest subscore. For example, if the lowest subscore of an individual hardware component is 2.6, then the base score is 2.6. The base score is not an average of the combined subscores.
You can use the base score to confidently buy programs and other software that are matched to your computer’s base score. For example, if your computer has a base score of 3.3, then you can confidently purchase any software designed for this version of Windows that requires a computer with a base score of 3 or lower.
The base scores currently range from 1 to 5.9. The Windows Experience Index is designed to accommodate advances in computer technology. As hardware speed and performance improves, higher base scores will be introduced. However, the standards for each level of the index stay the same. For example, a computer scored as a 2.8 will remain a 2.8 unless you decide to upgrade the computer’s hardware. Read More»
Posted in Computer | 1 Comment »
Save energy
Leaving your PC on wastes both energy and cash: running it overnight could cost you more than £100 a year. It’s time to stop sinning and make some savings.
Step 1: Click Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Power Options. If your system uses the High Performance power plan then you can save a little energy by selecting Balanced.
Step 2: Selecting Very low power delivers a real energy cut, but mainly by limiting the work your CPU can do, so it’s best used on laptops or PCs that aren’t running anything too intensive.
Step 3: Click Change plan settings for your plan. Windows Vista normally turns the display off after 20 minutes of inactivity; cut this to 10, perhaps set the PC to sleep after 20 minutes or so. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Windows Vista | 2 Comments »
Volume Licensing is just one of the modalities to acquire Microsoft software, but perhaps, as customers are concerned, it is also the most appealing because of the cost savings it implies. In contrast to the retail copies of Windows Vista, the main benefit of the Volume Licenses is that it takes the cost of the packaging and of the media out of the price equation of the product. And this, of course, is not valid just for Vista, now complete with Service Pack 1, but also for additional Microsoft solutions that make the object of Volume Licensing. In the Redmond giant’s perspective, one of the most relevant benefits for volume license customers is the ability to acquire Software Assurance.
“Software acquired through Microsoft Volume Licensing is a software license only. A software license provides the right to run a Microsoft software product. Savings above retail boxed software prices can be realized by participating in a Microsoft Volume Licensing program. Read More»
Posted in Software, Windows Vista | No Comments »
Registry Cleaning and PC maintenance software has got a bad name with so many ‘scareware’ products popping up on websites, telling you that your computer needs attention and offering to put it right. Woe betide anyone who takes up the offer and more often than not you’ll end up with a infected PC, or a bill for a piece of useless software. The other problems is that maintenance software often makes little or no difference, and don’t be misled into thinking they will somehow restore the performance on a terminally sluggish or cluttered machine, that just doesn’t happen in the real world. On the other hand, running a decent cleaner every so often can help to avoid problems later down the line, by removing redundant files and Registry entries, and one freeware utility I have been trialling recently seems to do a pretty good job. Read More»
Posted in Software | No Comments »
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