PCTips Box

If you have a spare U.S.B. flash drive with at least 256 megabytes of free space on it, you can use it to give your Windows Vista-operated PC an extra cache of memory to help increase speed, using the Windows ReadyBoost feature. Just plug the drive into a U.S.B. 2.0 port, and if it is fast enough to work with ReadyBoost, the system will prompt you to set it up. You do not have to erase any existing files on the drive and can indicate how much space you want to use for storage. The feature also works with Secure Digital cards.

Windows ReadyBoost can use storage space on some removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer. When you insert a compatible device, the AutoPlay dialog box will offer you the option to speed up your system using Windows ReadyBoost. (more…)

If you get a brand new PC with Vista, the chances are that you will also have a new screen. That screen will most likely be a flat TFT screen with a huge resolution like 1440 x 900. You should always use TFT screens at their “native resolution” but some people then find that the writing is too small to read comfortably. DO NOT be tempted to change the screen resolution like you use to do with the old CRT screens. This may make the writing bigger, but it will be fuzzier.

You can make the writing and icons bigger whilst keeping the crispness by using the following procedure: (more…)

The problem of slow or delayed shutdown is very commonly faced by most of the windows XP users. If you are using windows XP for a long time, you are more likely to have such problem.

Why Slow shutdown?

In Windows XP certain registry keys are responsible for determining how long windows will wait before shutting down all the opened programs and services after the shutdown command has been given by the user.

Lets see how we can fix the slow shutdown in windows XP.

You need to optimise some registry keys values in order to speed up the shutdown process. (more…)

Windows needs a pagefile on its boot partition that’s large enough for a debugging file called a memory dump. A dump file, however, contains highly technical information that’s useful only to system administrators and very advanced users.

A 2MB pagefile is enough for Windows to write out the minimum amount of information necessary to help an expert identify the problem. You can create a pagefile this small on your boot partition, and then add a larger pagefile on a different drive for code swapping to improve performance.

If you decide to make your boot-disk pagefile this small, you’ll need to follow these steps: (more…)

For power users Command Prompt is where you go to get work done quickly and efficiently. If you spend a lot of time using Command Prompt, why not customize the appearance and operation to your preferences? There are actually a few Command Prompt customizations that will make it more useful and good looking.

Just follow these steps to customize your Command Prompt:

1. Click on the Start Button and key in Command Prompt and hit Enter. (more…)