When there are no power outlets there's nothing more frustrating than a dying laptop battery. We have all in that situation where we have a couple hours of work left to finish but our battery life is only estimated to last one more. Good news. Often times these situations can be avoided by optimizing the battery performance. Here are the 20 tips that helps your laptop battery last longer.
Use Antivirus
Most laptops ship with at least some sort of anti-virus software like Norton or McAfee, but these frequently expire after a short time. Viruses and spyware can be crippling to a computer, and have a tendency to build up over time and get worse. Running weekly scans can nip these problems in the bud. If you don't feel like ponying up for a paid subscription service, there are plenty of free ones, such as AVG.
Calibrate
Calibrate your battery - Most laptop batteries these days have internal processors that provide an estimate of your battery life. Calibrating your battery so it shows the correct battery time and percentage is the first step in getting the most performance out of your laptop battery. Ideally, you should do this 3-4 times per year and should consult your owner's manual for instructions.
Charging
Charge Fully, Your First Time And Every Time. Store the Battery partially charged.
Battery memory effect is what causes your laptop to stop charging before the battery reaches 100%, or to turn off before it reaches 0%. This is caused by not charging your battery fully or not discharging it fully – the battery "remembers" where it stopped charging/discharging and doesn't go any further. Modern Li-Ion batteries are thankfully not subject to this, but if you've got an older battery avoid this effect at all costs. It can render a battery frustratingly useless. It's important to keep your battery in good condition through occasional use. If you typically use your laptop plugged in, you are not using your battery, and this can cause the capacity to shrink.
At least once a month, your battery will benefit from a full charge/discharge cycle. This keeps the battery stronger, the capacity fuller, and helps its overall longevity. When you open your new laptop for the first time, it's always a temptation to turn it on and begin playing with it. Resist this temptation!
Proper conditioning of your battery by charging it fully before its first use and then discharging it completely and repeating once or twice ensures that your battery's capacity starts at its highest. Your battery also has a preset number of charges/discharges, so it's important to charge/discharge fully to extend the life of your battery too.
Buy the Right Processor
The type of CPU can have a huge impact on how long your laptop will last on a full charge, Newer CPUs even shut down parts of the chip to conserve power. Intel chips tend to be more powerful than the AMD ones with their larger L2 cache but use more power, but you can get your work done faster so the total power used is about the same either way. The newest 65nm Memrons by Intel are extremely powerful and power efficient. Dual cores with 4MB cache and low power. The AMD Turion 64 line when they come out will compete with the Intel Memrons as they will have chips that are even more power efficient. The Pentium M chips use even less power but not as powerful since they are not dual core.
Defragment
Defragment Your Hard Drive. Decrease hard drive activity - When your hard drive spins it uses power. Defragmenting it regularly will put less demand on it because data is found more quickly.
Hard Disk
Keep 5-10% of Your Hard Drive Empty. By the time you've had your laptop for a few years, your hard drive will seem impossibly small. It's important, however, to keep at least a small percentage of your hard drive empty at all times. Operating systems use a portion of your hard drive space for Virtual Memory, and if you don't leave them any room your computer will slow down tremendously, potentially overheating or crashing under the stress. Key life-extending features like System Restore require empty space to function as well. When you save something on your computer, it gets physically written on a portion of your hard drive. As time goes on and your hard drive fills, this storage becomes somewhat disorganized, and your hardware must work harder and spend longer to find data. Defragmenting your hard drive rearranges the data into an organized structure. Defragmenting regularly will extend the life of your hard drive as well as make everything on your computer run just that much smoother.
Hibernate
Don't standby, hibernate - Not only does using hibernate instead of standby conserve battery power, but it also automatically saves and shuts off your laptop. Standby mode still uses power.
Jolts
Protect Your Laptop From Jolts With a Case
Keyboards
Like the displays, with proper care a keyboard should easily outlast the life of the laptop, but a silly accident can render it useless. Many laptops today are "spill resistant", but I wouldn't recommend testing it – don't drink around your laptop. Don't eat around it either, as crumbs or grease can fall between the keys and cause malfunctions. Hit the keys gently and dust them once in a while and your keyboard should last year after year.
Take Care of the LCD.
Less is more - Next time you're in the market for a new laptop, think twice about that 17in widescreen. You'd be much better off opting for a smaller machine that won't devour half of a battery just to power up.
Dim your screen - One of the fastest ways you can kill your battery is by leaving your screen brightness high. Dim your screen to the lowest level you can possibly manage.
LCDs on laptops are designed to outlast the usefulness of the laptop they're connected to, but can be easily damaged by a simple careless mistake. Don't lift the laptop up by the display (it will bend) and be easy on the hinges. Only clean the display with something soft and never store anything under the LCD when its closed. These precautions seem obvious but you basically need only treat the LCD with care and it will last for as long as you need it to.
Power Saving Options
Adjust your settings - Just about every new laptop will have some kind of advanced power options settings. Optimize these settings for maximum performance. Go to Control Panel > Power Options. Now adjust the power schemes according to your need, like if you are using the laptop for presentation, used Presentation Mode.
Use a Surge Protector When Charging
Spare Carry a spare device or battery - This seems like a common sense thing to do, but make sure you always carry a spare device or battery. It will come in handy in case of an emergency or long stretches between power outlets.
Temperature
Keep a watch on temperature of the laptop. Don't leave it in sunlight - Batteries are sensitive and exposing them to extreme temperatures can cause major damage. Not only can it completely ruin them but it will also suck the life out of them. Avoid placing your laptop in direct sunlight. Watch Your Fan.
Avoid Extreme Temperatures
Keep operating temps down - Batteries perform better when they're cool. Clean your air vents and avoid placing your laptop in a position that will restrict airflow (such as your lap).
Extremes in temperature can be extremely dangerous for a laptop. I mentioned that heat is a battery killer, but the display can be damaged by extreme conditions as well. Using the laptop when the environment is too hot can cause failures from overheating, and using it in an environment that is too wet and humid can cause similar malfunctions. Modern rugged laptops excluded, your laptop is meant to be used on a desk in your home or office. Keep it somewhere temperature controlled and this will never be a problem.
Your battery was designed to work at a certain temperature, and it's completely normal for it to heat up a little during use. Subjecting your battery to extreme temperatures it's not prepared for can damage its life. Cold temperatures are not good for it, but excessive heat is the real battery killer. Simply making sure not to leave your laptop in your car during the summer could save you from buying a new battery the next day.
Fan is responsible for cooling your CPU so that it doesn't overheat in normal conditions. A large number of problems related to overheating are solved simply by moving the laptop to a new position where the fan's exhaust is not blocked. Even if there is nothing large obstructing it, it's important to make sure dust doesn't build up in the fan as that can cause overheating too. Make sure your fan is clear to fan away excess heat and your laptop will live longer, guaranteed.
Travel
Laptops are sensitive instruments, and they are never more vulnerable than when they are traveling. Constant bumping and shaking can cause parts to shift and can permanently damage the laptop. Using a cushioned laptop bag will preserve it from the shocks of travel, and storing it in a laptop bag when not in use can help prevent any number of accidents. This is virtually the only item in the list that isn't free, but it's a small price to protect your computer and the bag can last for a lifetime of laptops.
Avoid Un-necessary Hardware
Avoid using the CD/DVD player - Using the CD/DVD drive on your laptop should be avoided at all costs. Even having a disk in the drive uses power. Try copying what you need from a disk to the hard drive before hand. Don't watch DVDs or play games - If you're going to be away from a power source for more than a couple hours it's a good idea to avoid watching DVDs listening to music, or playing games. These can be serious drains on your battery.
Turn off wireless and Bluetooth –Turning off your Bluetooth and wireless won't save you a whole lot of power but in certain situations every bit counts.
Turn off speakers - If you must listen to music use your iPod instead, just make sure it's not plugged into your laptop.
Limit external devices - USB devices or anything else you have plugged in uses battery resources even when they're not in use. Now is probably not the best time to try out your new USB hand warmer.
Using external hardware, such as a monitor, hard drive, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc., can help extend the life of your internal hardware by preventing wear and tear. At the same time, it can provide a more comfortable experience at home. While this can be expensive, if you regularly use your laptop you may find the investment worth your while.
Avoid Un-necessary programs
Use Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware Software
Be selective with software - Some software programs suffer from bloatware and will eat your battery super fast. Avoid using things like Adobe Photoshop, your digital camera software, and other image editing software.
Only run programs you need - Having multiple programs running at the same time seems like an unnecessary way to drain your battery. Instead consider running only program at a time. In other words, if you're browsing the web don't leave your email client running in the background, check it when you're done surfing the web.
Disable unnecessary programs - You know all those programs that automatically run on startup? You probably don't need them or use most of them anyways. So just turn them off before they eat into your battery resources.
Update
Often software will come out with a new version that is just the same thing with more graphics, which can be a drain on an older computer. For non-essential items like chat programs and the like, sometimes using an older version can help your computer run smoothly and error free. If you want to try this, check out http://www.oldversion.com, a great free resource for this.
Your computer was up to date when you bought it, but unless you've set up regular updates that was the last time. Beyond your anti-virus software, which should be kept up strictly, both Microsoft and Apple offer regular updates for their operating systems to correct bugs and plug up vulnerabilities. Updating your software regularly will help keep your laptop in working order and stop many problems before they can threaten the usability or potentially the life of your computer.
Maintenance
Use the battery - Once it's charged, don't let your laptop battery sit for extended periods of time. Never let it go more than 2-3 weeks without discharging and recharging. This is especially important for non Li-Ion batteries. Use the Battery At Least Monthly.
Clean battery contacts - Proper battery maintenance includes cleaning the battery contacts that connect your cells to the laptop. Battery power is transferred through the contacts and keeping them clean allows for a more efficient transfer of power. The best way to do this is with rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs.
If you're not going to be using your laptop for an extended period of time, it's a good idea to remove the battery and store it. Batteries discharge slowly over time, but storing a battery fully charged/discharged can permanently damage the battery by causing it to lose capacity or worse, go entirely dead. Charging the battery to 40% minimizes the negative long term effects of storing.
The above tips will help keep your battery in good shape, but there are tons of things you can do to cause your computer to consume less energy. Dim the LCD, mute the speakers, turn off features like WiFi if you're not using them, make use of the power settings and be sure to use both hibernate and standby where appropriate. This is only a start, but using as little power as possible while operating on batteries can help you squeeze some extra time out of your battery's capacity.
Make Your Computer Faster Two Times Faster
Computers allow us to do many things but things that comes in through our internet connection stop up our system. Here is a a step-by-step guide for making computer two times faster.
If this causes trouble viewing any favorite sites, click the Trusted Sites icon of the Security Tab and use the Sites button to add the URL's of sites that are exempt from these requirements. The purpose of these changes is to tighten the security of your system so that not so many malicious programs make it to your system.
- Download Microsoft's Anti-Spyware program, Adaware, and Spybot Search and Destroy. Microsoft's program can be downloaded at Microsoft Windows Defender. Adaware can be downloaded at Lavasoft Downloads. Spybot can be downloaded at The Home of Spybot-S&D. All of these programs are free.
- Install Microsoft's anti-spyware program now, but not the other two.
- Run MSconfig. To do this, select Start>Run and type msconfig into the space. Select the Startup tab and get rid of all unnecessary programs. The way to determine this is to go to ProcessLibrary.com and check it against their database.
- Boot into Safe Mode. To do this, restart the computer and press F8 continuously. Select the Safe Mode option from the list and continue to desktop.
- Delete any spyware programs from your add/remove. To do this, select Start>Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs. Check all unknown programs against SpywareGuide.com.
- Locate the temp folder in your computer and delete everything in the folder. This is located, usually, in C:\Documents and Settings\Username\local settings.
- Still in Safe Mode, install Adaware and Spybot. Run Adaware, Microsoft's anti-spyware and Spybot. Update to the most recent definitions in each program and run them in full scan mode. Microsoft's program cannot be installed in Safe Mode. You have already installed it.
- Reboot into standard Windows mode.
- Download HijackThis. You can get this program here Merijn.org. Install and run it. Click Do A System Scan and Save A Logfile. HijackThis will analyze processes that are running on your computer and alert you when there are things running that should not be there. It will also let you know when there are programs running that are not malicious but can safely be gotten rid of because they are not needed.
- Post the logfile in the Automated Log Analyzer at HijackThis.
- After determining what's safe and isn't, check appropriate boxes and click Fix Checked.
- Run the Microsoft Anti-Malicious program, which you can download at the Microsoft Download Center. This program is designed by Microsoft to detect and remove programs whose sole purpose is harming your computer. The technical term for this type of program is a rootkit.
- Download and run BLBeta Expert. This can be downloaded at F-Secure Blacklight. Make sure to carefully review anything it detects before removing. BlBeta is another program that is designed to get rid of rootkits.
- For Internet Explorer, click Tools> Internet Options> Security Tab. Click on the Internet Globe icon and select Custom Level. Disable the following:
- Download Unsigned ActiveX Controls.
- Initialize And Script ActiveX Controls Not Marked As Safe.
- Active Scripting.
- Scripting Of Java Applets.
- Also click High Safety under Java Permissions.
If this causes trouble viewing any favorite sites, click the Trusted Sites icon of the Security Tab and use the Sites button to add the URL's of sites that are exempt from these requirements. The purpose of these changes is to tighten the security of your system so that not so many malicious programs make it to your system.
- For Firefox, type about:config in the address bar. Right click in the window and click New and Integer. In the first box, type privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins. In the second box, type 2. This will prevent Flash popups in Firefox.
- Open Regedit by clicking Start>Run and type in regedit.
- Once Regedit is open, click the plus symbol next to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder, the plus symbol next to Control Panel, and then click the Desktop folder icon to display its contents. In the right pane, double-click MenuShowDelay to change its value. (This Registry location is referred to as HKEY_CURRENT_USER\CONTROL\PANEL\DESKTOP\MENUSHOWDELAY.) The default Value Data is 400, or 4/10 of a second. Change the Value Data to 0 for the least delay, and click OK. This will make menus appear instantly on your computer instead of having a delay.
- Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\FILESYSTEM. Right-click Filesystem, select New, and DWORD Value. Rename NewValue#1 on the right-side pane to DisableNTFSLast-AccessUpdate. Double-click this new entry, change the Value Data field from 0 to 1, and then click OK. This disables the constant updating of the dates when a file or folder were last updated. This will speed up the system.
- Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\EXPLORER. Create a new DWORD Value called DesktopProcess, and set its Value Data to 1.
- Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER, expand Control Panel, and click Desktop. Double-click the AutoEndTasks string and change the value to 1. This causes all of the components of the explorer to run in one process, making your computer faster.
- Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, expand SOFTWARE, expand Microsoft, expand Windows, and expand CurrentVersion. Right-click Explorer, expand New, click Key, and name the new key AlwaysUnloadDLL. Click AlwaysUnloadDLL, double-click the Default string, and change the value to 1. Windows tries to keep some DLL's in memory when the program uses them. If a user has low memory, this can cause performance issues.
- Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER, expand Control Panel, and click Desktop. Double-click the HungAppTimeout string and change the value to 1000. Now, double-click the WaitToKillAppTimeout, string and change the value to 2000. This sets your system up to more efficiently handle application hangups. It also will optimize the amount of time a system takes to close a program when you try to end Windows.
- Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, expand System, expand CurrentControlSet, and click Control. Double-click the WaitToKillServiceTimeout string and change the value to 2000. This optimizes the time that it will take for Windows Services to close when the system is set to shut down.
- Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER, expand Control Panel, click Desktop, and double-click the MenuShowDelay string in the right-hand pane. Change the value to 100. This will cause Desktop menus to appear almost instantly.
- Close regedit.
- Set Recycle Bin to 1-3 percent of the hard drive space. To do this, right click on the Recycle Bin. Select properties. Move the slider down to the desired amount and click Ok. By default, the Recycle bin takes up too much of your space.
- To ensure DMA is in use, click Start, right-click My Computer, click Properties, select the Hardware tab, and click Device Manager. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers entry, double-click the entry for the channel where your hard drive is installed (most likely the Primary IDE Channel), and use the Transfer Mode drop-down menu to select DMA If Available if PIO Only mode is selected. Click Ok, reboot, and recheck the setting to make sure it sticks. When this is enabled, it will allow information from your CD/DVD to go straight to memory, bypassing the system processor and speeding up the system.
Five fast ways to make your computer work faster
Here are five simple tips to improve performance of your computer. Browse further to get more details
- Shut off unneeded services or start-up programs. Click for instructions on Mac, Windows and Linux.
- Clean your system regularly.Clear your browser's cache and delete temporary files. Uninstall unused applications. Back-up then get rid of large files appropriately. Clear icons off the desktop.
- Run regular scans to get rid of spyware or virus infections, such as Ad-Aware, Spybot and AVG Anti-Virus.
- Turn off visual effects, such as Mac OSX's "genie" animation or Aero's transparent window borders in Vista.
- Increase RAM. If you have less than 2 GB left, it's time to add more random access memory. You can get 4 GB of memory for as little as $40 from an online retailer like Newegg.com or TigerDirect.com.
How to Downgrade from Vista to XP
Start from Scratch
Without a true XP Setup disc, you won't have the luxury of the Recovery Console. Your other option is to use your PC's recovery disc, applicable, of course, only if your PC originally shipped with Windows XP.
Before you begin, you'll need to back up any files you want to keep. Unfortunately, you can't use any of Vista's built-in backup software for this, because XP doesn't include any tools that can read Vista backups—understandable but a shame. Your best bet is to copy your data onto an external hard disk manually (via a USB or eSATA connection) so that you can easily get it back once XP is up and running. Make sure you back up the entire C:\Users folder, which will catch your Documents directory, anything on your desktop, and application data such as stored e-mail.
Recovery procedures vary widely, so consult your PC's manual for details. Typically, the recovery software wipes the hard drive clean and then places a preinstalled copy of Windows onto the drive, complete with all the drivers and demo software that you got with your PC when it was new. When it's done, hook up your backup drive and copy your files back into position.
Without a true XP Setup disc, you won't have the luxury of the Recovery Console. Your other option is to use your PC's recovery disc, applicable, of course, only if your PC originally shipped with Windows XP.
Going Virtual
Microsoft Virtual PC has preconfigured virtual machines for many popular operating systems.
Before you begin, you'll need to back up any files you want to keep. Unfortunately, you can't use any of Vista's built-in backup software for this, because XP doesn't include any tools that can read Vista backups—understandable but a shame. Your best bet is to copy your data onto an external hard disk manually (via a USB or eSATA connection) so that you can easily get it back once XP is up and running. Make sure you back up the entire C:\Users folder, which will catch your Documents directory, anything on your desktop, and application data such as stored e-mail.
Recovery procedures vary widely, so consult your PC's manual for details. Typically, the recovery software wipes the hard drive clean and then places a preinstalled copy of Windows onto the drive, complete with all the drivers and demo software that you got with your PC when it was new. When it's done, hook up your backup drive and copy your files back into position.
How to Downgrade Vista to XP Without Reformatting
Of the two approaches to downgrading Windows, the first is more convenient, as it doesn't require you to wipe your hard drive. You will need a genuine Windows XP installation CD; if all you have is a recovery disc, use the "Start from Scratch" process that follows.
Before you proceed, make sure you have several gigabytes of free space on your boot drive (usually C:). Take a moment to back up your entire hard drive; if you have Vista Business or Ultimate, you can do so with the Complete PC Backup and Restore tool, making it easy to get back into Windows should this process hit a snag.
Start by booting to your XP disc: Just insert the disc into your drive and turn on your PC, then press the spacebar when it says Press any key to boot from CD... If you don't see this message, you'll have to enter your PC's BIOS setup screen and change the boot options so that your CD drive appears above your hard drive in the boot sequence list. Consult your PC's manual for details. (If you can't boot from your CD, you can download free XP Setup boot disk files by searching for Q310994 at support.microsoft.com.)
When XP Setup starts, press R on the first page to open the Recovery Console. If you are asked to choose a Windows installation, type a number (usually 1) and press Enter.
In some cases, you may be asked for the Administrator password at this point. If you don't know it, you'll have to boot back into Windows Vista, open the Start menu, type lusrmgr.msc, and press Enter. Open the C:\Users folder, double-click on the Administrator account, and turn off the Account is disabled option. Open the Start menu again, type Control userpasswords2 into the Search box, and press Enter. Next, click the Reset Password button, choose a new password, and start over.
Now. at the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following commands to prep your hard disk for XP:
fixboot
fixmbr
cd \
ren windows winvista
exit
When your PC restarts, boot onto your XP CD once again, and then proceed with setup normally.
When setup is finished, you'll have to move everything manually. This includes your documents, the contents of your desktop, and any other personal data that you'll need from Vista's now-defunct C:\Users folder into XP's C:\Documents and Settings folder. You'll also need to reinstall all your applications and device drivers, and eventually delete the abandoned C:\Winvista folder.
Before you proceed, make sure you have several gigabytes of free space on your boot drive (usually C:). Take a moment to back up your entire hard drive; if you have Vista Business or Ultimate, you can do so with the Complete PC Backup and Restore tool, making it easy to get back into Windows should this process hit a snag.
Start by booting to your XP disc: Just insert the disc into your drive and turn on your PC, then press the spacebar when it says Press any key to boot from CD... If you don't see this message, you'll have to enter your PC's BIOS setup screen and change the boot options so that your CD drive appears above your hard drive in the boot sequence list. Consult your PC's manual for details. (If you can't boot from your CD, you can download free XP Setup boot disk files by searching for Q310994 at support.microsoft.com.)
When XP Setup starts, press R on the first page to open the Recovery Console. If you are asked to choose a Windows installation, type a number (usually 1) and press Enter.
In some cases, you may be asked for the Administrator password at this point. If you don't know it, you'll have to boot back into Windows Vista, open the Start menu, type lusrmgr.msc, and press Enter. Open the C:\Users folder, double-click on the Administrator account, and turn off the Account is disabled option. Open the Start menu again, type Control userpasswords2 into the Search box, and press Enter. Next, click the Reset Password button, choose a new password, and start over.
Use XP's Recovery Console to replace the Vista Boot Manager with the older version compatible with XP Setup.
Now. at the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following commands to prep your hard disk for XP:
fixboot
fixmbr
cd \
ren windows winvista
exit
When your PC restarts, boot onto your XP CD once again, and then proceed with setup normally.
When setup is finished, you'll have to move everything manually. This includes your documents, the contents of your desktop, and any other personal data that you'll need from Vista's now-defunct C:\Users folder into XP's C:\Documents and Settings folder. You'll also need to reinstall all your applications and device drivers, and eventually delete the abandoned C:\Winvista folder.
Quicken Windows start-up by Lightening System Tray
Remember when your computer was new? It took mere seconds to greet you with the Windows desktop. But today, the time it takes for your computer to start seemingly takes forever.
This is pretty common. One area of your computer that gets bloated over time is the Start menu. Fortunately, it's fairly easy to clean up.
Let's look at what happens when you turn on your computer. First, you hear whirring and clicking. Those sounds are made by the computer's hardware turning on and performing diagnostic tests. After all systems are a go, Windows starts.
As Windows boots up, other programs automatically begin running as well.
It's advantageous to have some programs automatically start. For example, your anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall should always be active. Imagine if you opened an e-mail with an attached virus or inadvertently downloaded some rogue program.
But unnecessary programs also start automatically. Less than five programs running in the background are okay. But too many programs running simultaneously will slow down any computer - no matter how fast the processor and regardless of the amount of memory.
How do these programs get there? You may give them permission to start automatically when you install them. The biggest culprits tend to be music players and instant messaging programs. Many other programs also offer the automatic start. In most cases, that feature has little value.
So how do you know what is running? Check the lower right-hand corner of Windows--the notification area, formerly called the system tray. You should see a few icons there (you may have to click an arrow to display all icons). If you place your cursor over an icon, the program's name will appear.
The notification area only tells part of the story. There may be other programs (also called processes) running that are represented with an icon in the notification area. To find these, press Ctrl+Alt+Del.
This will show the Windows Task Manager dialog box. Select the Applications tab. If you just started your computer, it may not show any programs running. Now click the Processes tab. You might be surprised to find a long list of programs running.
Problem is, the processes aren't listed in clear English. For example, you might see a process called realsched.exe. That program schedules update checks for the multimedia software, Real Player.
How do you identify a process? Process Explorer (www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html) and Process Library (www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/) are two free ways. You can also research a process using a search site, such as Google or Yahoo.
Once you identify the process, you can restrict it from automatically starting with Windows. Each program is different, but you should find an "automatically start with Windows" option. If you can't, check the offending program's help section.
There are other ways to stop such programs. You can delete the program's icon from the Windows Start folder. This doesn't always work, though.
You may need to dig deeper. Most programs that start with your computer can be stopped by using the Windows utility, MSConfig. To find it, click Start>>Run. Enter "msconfig" (without the quotes) in the box and click OK.
Select the Startup tab. Uncheck boxes for programs you don't need to have running (RealTray, Winamp or other audio utilities are good candidates).
You're not deleting the program, just preventing it from automatically launching. But be cautious, as there are a few programs that should be running (including SystemTray and your firewall, anti-spyware and anti-virus software).
MSConfig is part of Windows 98, Me and XP. It is not present in Windows 2000, but there is a free way to get it. Download StartUp Control Panel (http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml).
This is pretty common. One area of your computer that gets bloated over time is the Start menu. Fortunately, it's fairly easy to clean up.
Let's look at what happens when you turn on your computer. First, you hear whirring and clicking. Those sounds are made by the computer's hardware turning on and performing diagnostic tests. After all systems are a go, Windows starts.
As Windows boots up, other programs automatically begin running as well.
It's advantageous to have some programs automatically start. For example, your anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall should always be active. Imagine if you opened an e-mail with an attached virus or inadvertently downloaded some rogue program.
But unnecessary programs also start automatically. Less than five programs running in the background are okay. But too many programs running simultaneously will slow down any computer - no matter how fast the processor and regardless of the amount of memory.
How do these programs get there? You may give them permission to start automatically when you install them. The biggest culprits tend to be music players and instant messaging programs. Many other programs also offer the automatic start. In most cases, that feature has little value.
So how do you know what is running? Check the lower right-hand corner of Windows--the notification area, formerly called the system tray. You should see a few icons there (you may have to click an arrow to display all icons). If you place your cursor over an icon, the program's name will appear.
The notification area only tells part of the story. There may be other programs (also called processes) running that are represented with an icon in the notification area. To find these, press Ctrl+Alt+Del.
This will show the Windows Task Manager dialog box. Select the Applications tab. If you just started your computer, it may not show any programs running. Now click the Processes tab. You might be surprised to find a long list of programs running.
Problem is, the processes aren't listed in clear English. For example, you might see a process called realsched.exe. That program schedules update checks for the multimedia software, Real Player.
How do you identify a process? Process Explorer (www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html) and Process Library (www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/) are two free ways. You can also research a process using a search site, such as Google or Yahoo.
Once you identify the process, you can restrict it from automatically starting with Windows. Each program is different, but you should find an "automatically start with Windows" option. If you can't, check the offending program's help section.
There are other ways to stop such programs. You can delete the program's icon from the Windows Start folder. This doesn't always work, though.
You may need to dig deeper. Most programs that start with your computer can be stopped by using the Windows utility, MSConfig. To find it, click Start>>Run. Enter "msconfig" (without the quotes) in the box and click OK.
Select the Startup tab. Uncheck boxes for programs you don't need to have running (RealTray, Winamp or other audio utilities are good candidates).
You're not deleting the program, just preventing it from automatically launching. But be cautious, as there are a few programs that should be running (including SystemTray and your firewall, anti-spyware and anti-virus software).
MSConfig is part of Windows 98, Me and XP. It is not present in Windows 2000, but there is a free way to get it. Download StartUp Control Panel (http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml).
Extend Your Laptop’s Battery Life
Laptops tend to lose their charm quickly when you're constantly looking for the nearest power outlet to charge up. How do you keep your battery going for as long as possible? Here are 15 easy ways to do so.
1. Defrag regularly - The faster your hard drive does its work - less demand you are going to put on the hard drive and your battery. Make your hard drive as efficient as possible by defragging it regularly. (but not while it's on battery of course!) Mac OSX is better built to handle fragmentation so it may not be very applicable for Apple systems.
2. Dim your screen - Most laptops come with the ability to dim your laptop screen. Some even come with ways to modify CPU and cooling performance. Cut them down to the lowest level you can tolerate to squeeze out some extra battery juice.
3. Cut down on programs running in the background. Itunes, Desktop Search, etc. All these add to the CPU load and cut down battery life. Shut down everything that isn't crucial when you're on battery.
4. Cut down external devices - USB devices (including your mouse) & WiFi drain down your laptop battery. Remove or shut them down when not in use. It goes without saying that charging other devices (like your iPod) with your laptop when on battery is a surefire way of quickly wiping out the charge on your laptop battery.
5. Add more RAM - This will allow you to process more with the memory your laptop has, rather than relying on virtual memory. Virtual memory results in hard drive use, and is much less power efficient. Note that adding more RAM will consume more energy, so this is most applicable if you do need to run memory intensive programs which actually require heavy usage of virtual memory.
6. Run off a hard drive rather than CD/DVD - As power consuming as hard drives are, CD and DVD drives are worse. Even having one in the drive can be power consuming. They spin, taking power, even when they?re not actively being used. Wherever possible, try to run on virtual drives using programs like Alcohol 120% rather than optical ones.
7. Keep the battery contacts clean: Clean your battery's metal contacts every couple of months with a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol. This keeps the transfer of power from your battery more efficient.
8. Take care of your battery - Exercise the Battery. Do not leave a charged battery dormant for long periods of time. Once charged, you should at least use the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Also, do not let a Li-On battery completely discharge. (Discharing is only for older batteries with memory effects)
9. Hibernate not standby - Although placing a laptop in standby mode saves some power and you can instantly resume where you left off, it doesn't save anywhere as much power as the hibernate function does. Hibernating a PC will actually save your PC's state as it is, and completely shut itself down.
10. Keep operating temperature down - Your laptop operates more efficiently when it's cooler. Clean out your air vents with a cloth or keyboard cleaner, or refer to some extra tips by LapTopMag.com.
11. Set up and optimize your power options - Go to 'Power Options' in your windows control panel and set it up so that power usage is optimized (Select the 'max battery' for maximum effect).
12. Don't multitask - Do one thing at a time when you're on battery. Rather than working on a spreadsheet, letting your email client run in the background and listening to your latest set of MP3's, set your mind to one thing only. If you don't you'll only drain out your batteries before anything gets completed!
13. Go easy on the PC demands - The more you demand from your PC. Passive activities like email and word processing consume much less power than gaming or playing a DVD. If you've got a single battery charge - pick your priorities wisely.
14. Get yourself a more efficient laptop - Laptops are getting more and more efficient in nature to the point where some manufacturers are talking about all day long batteries. Picking up a newer more efficient laptop to replace an aging one is usually a quick fix.
15. Prevent the Memory Effect - If you're using a very old laptop, you'll want to prevent the 'memory effect' - Keep the battery healthy by fully charging and then fully discharging it at least once every two to three weeks. Exceptions to the rule are Li-Ion batteries (which most laptops have) which do not suffer from the memory effect.
Bonus Tip #1: Turn off the autosave function. MS-Word's and Excel's autosave functions are great but because they keep saving regular intervals, they work your hard driver harder than it may have to. If you plan to do this, you may want to turn it back on as the battery runs low. While it saves battery life in the beginning, you will want to make sure your work is saved when your battery dies.
Bonus Tip #2: Lower the graphics use. You can do this by changing the screen resolution and shutting off fancy graphic drivers. Graphics cards (video cards) use as much or more power today as hard disks - Thanks Andrew
Speedup Secrets of Windows Vista
One of the great strengths of Windows Vista is its flexibility, but because it can do so much, you may miss out on time-saving features, useful utilities and other goodies because you just don't know they're there. As we'll discover over the next three web pages, it's easy to eliminate irritations, speed up everyday tasks and prevent the kids from seeing things they shouldn't – if you know where to look.
Whether you want your PC to start more quickly, to squeeze more power from your laptop battery, or just make your PC a more pleasant tool to use, you'll find the answers in our selection of Windows Vista secrets.
Bypass the log-on screen: If you're the only person who uses your computer, it's easy to get shot of the log-on screen when Windows Vista loads. You'll need to be an administrator to do this one: click Start and type netplwiz in the Start Search box, press Enter and clear the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer box. When you click OK, you'll be asked to enter your password and then confirm it. Once you've done that, Windows Vista will log you in automatically the next time you start your PC.
Change the Start Menu: You don't need to stick with the default options if you don't want to. Right-click the Taskbar, click Properties > Start Menu and then click Customize. This enables you to add and remove items (including bringing back the old Run command) or change how they are displayed, so for example you can display the Pictures link as a menu that shows the contents of Pictures when you click it.
Check boxes to select files: In addition to keyboard shortcuts – Shift-clicking to select a group of files and Ctrl-clicking to select individual files – Windows Vista has secret check boxes to use when selecting things. In Windows Explorer, bring up the menu bar by pressing Alt then go to Tools > Folder Options > View. In Advanced Settings, tick Use check boxes to select items then click OK. When you return to Windows Explorer, hovering the mouse over a file or folder reveals a check box to the left of its name.
Create quick shortcuts: Do you find yourself using the same folders or Control Panel features again and again? Drag their icon from the left of the Address Bar and drop it over the Desktop or the Quick Launch bar.
Sort out start-up items: Can't stop programs from launching every time you boot? Here's how to banish them...
1 LAUNCH MSCONFIG It couldn't be easier to see what programs run every time you switch on your PC. Click Start, and in the Start Search box, type msconfig. Press Enter and OK the User Account Control dialogue that pops up.
2 EXAMINE STARTUPS If you click the Startup tab, you'll see a list of every program that runs at system startup – it's often surprising to see how many programs there really are. Media players in particular are persistent offenders.
3 BLOCK IT To prevent a program from launching at startup, without having to actually uninstall it, simply clear the box next to it. Click OK and the changes will take effect the next time you restart your computer.
Save time with previews: The preview pane in Windows Explorer does more than show you a pretty picture of a file. It enables you to see the contents of the file, too – so if it’s a photo you can see the picture, if it’s an Excel spreadsheet or Word document you can read its contents, and if it’s a video you can watch it. To display the preview pane, click Organize > Layout > Preview Pane. You can resize it by dragging its left-hand edge with the mouse to make it bigger or smaller.
Turn off thumbnails: If you find thumbnails slow down your PC, turn them off. Go to Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Folder Options and select the View tab. Now, select Always Show Icons, Never Thumbnails. You can use this tab to turn off the Preview Pane, too.
Tweak your power plans: If you’re using a laptop, Windows Vista knows when it’s plugged in and when it’s running on the battery, and it adjusts the system performance accordingly. The defaults are pretty good, but you can tweak them to make them even better, squeezing even more minutes from your battery or just reducing your PC’s energy use. To change your energy settings, go into the Control Panel and choose Hardware and Sound > Power Options, select the plan you want to change and click Change Plan Settings.
You can also use these settings to change how your PC behaves when you press the power button or close the laptop lid, and you can get Windows Vista to ask for a password when your PC is woken from sleep mode. Top tip for laptop users: if you change the power plan so that Windows Vista cuts the display brightness to 50% when you’re running on battery, that alone can give you around 20 more minutes of battery life.
Shortcuts to working faster: Launch programs and scale icons at top speed
1 QUICKER LAUNCH: The Quick Launch bar is a handy place to put applications you use all the time, but you don’t need to use the mouse to launch them. Just hold down the Windows key and hit the number keys. Win + 1 launches the first application in your Quick Launch bar, Win + 2 the second, and so on.
2 ENLARGE THE BAR: You don’t need the icons in the Quick Launch bar to be visible when you’re using keyboard shortcuts, but if you don’t have a good memory, it’s a good idea to expand the Quick Launch bar so you can see the order in which the icons appear.
3 SCALE ICONS: One of our favourite things about Windows Explorer is that you can view icons in sizes ranging from tiny to absolutely massive, but there’s a faster way to resize them than by using the Views menu. Simply hold down Ctrl and use your mouse wheel to change the icon size.
Display RAW images: Got a fancy digital SLR? Wish you could view RAW files in the Windows Photo Gallery? Click File > Update and you can download the necessary converters for the RAW files already on your PC – or just download the converter for your camera from www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/codecs.aspx.
Tame the pop-ups: If you’re using your laptop to deliver a presentation (and you’re not running Home Basic), you don’t need to waggle the mouse to stop the screensaver kicking in or worry about Security Center pop-ups distracting your audience. The Windows Vista presentation settings (Control Panel > Mobile PC > Windows Mobility Center > Presentations) can disable such interruptions when connected to a projector or external monitor.
Enable Parental Controls: Windows Vista includes some excellent features to stop the kids seeing things they shouldn’t or going glassy-eyed in front of a screen, but many people don’t know they’re there. The best way to use them is to create a separate account for each family member, log in as the administrator and go to the Control Panel and choose User Accounts and Family Safety. Here, you can set options for each person, so you can block or allow programs, filter the websites they use, or even prevent the PC from being used at specific times.
Silence the Security Center
If Security Center is a little too keen to tell you every little thing it thinks about, launch it via the Control Panel then look at the left-hand side of the window. If you click Change The Way Security Center alerts me and select Don’t notify me, but display the icon, you’ll still know when things need your attention, but you won’t get pop-ups.
Tweak User Account Control
Change how User Account Control behaves without sacrificing security
1 LAUNCH UAC: The User Account Control can stop nasties from getting on to your PC. However, if you’d like to reduce the frequency of its ‘are you sure?’ messages, click Start and type Local Security Policy in the Start Search box. Press Enter and OK the warning prompt.
2 EXAMINE OPTIONS: In the left-hand pane, go to Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options. In the righthand panel there are lots of options. We want User Account Control Behaviour of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode.
3 DISABLE PROMPTS: This option is responsible for the ‘Windows needs your permission to continue’ messages, and it’s safe to disable them if they’re getting on your nerves. To do that, right-click the option and select Properties.
4 NO MORE POP-UPS: You’ll see three options: Elevate Without Prompting, Prompt for Credentials and Prompt for Consent. If you select Elevate Without Prompting you won’t get the UAC messages when you try to run administrative tools.
Encrypt your hard drive
If you have Windows Vista Ultimate, you can encrypt your hard disk so that ne’er-do-wells can’t access your data if they pinch your PC. In Control Panel > Security > BitLocker Drive Encryption click Turn On BitLocker. Have a USB flash drive handy; you need it to store the encryption key that lets you into your protected PC.
Split your hard disk
There are all kinds of reasons to partition your hard disk. You might want one drive for system files and one for data, or you might want to dual-boot your system. In the old days you needed a dedicated disk partitioning program, but Windows Vista has one built-in. To use it, click Start, right-click Computer, then click Manage. In the left hand panel, click Storage > Disk Management, and right-click the box that corresponds to your hard disk. Choose Shrink Volume and enter the size you’d like to shrink your primary partition to; once done, right-click the Free Space box and select New Simple Volume. Windows Vista creates a new volume from the remaining space on your drive. Choose a drive letter, choose a format – NTFS is the default – and you’ll have a new, blank partition that your PC sees as an extra drive. As with all disk management jobs, make sure you’ve backed up your important data before even thinking about repartitioning your hard disk.
Rename multiple pictures
Fed up with endless images with meaningless names such as DSC001.JPG, DSC002.JPG and so on? Select them in Windows Photo Gallery, right-click and select Rename. Type the new name in the box and Windows Vista will rename all of them. So if you type ‘baby pic’ they’re renamed baby pic (1), baby pic (2), and so on. The same trick works in Windows Explorer for any kind of file, provided they’re all the same type, so you can rename a bunch of Word documents, text files or anything else.
Search in plain English
The Start Search box understands plain English, but you need to enable the feature in the Control Panel. Go to the Control Panel and choose Appearance and Personalization > Folder Options then click Search. Select the Use Natural Language Search box and you can now use terms such as ‘music radiohead or portishead’. File names only tell you so much, but if you add tags to things, they’re much easier to find in the future. For example, you might tag work documents with the name of the project you’re working on, or you might tag a photograph with the names of every person in the picture or the location at which it was shot. Once you’ve done that you can search for those tags, quickly locating everything to do with a project or all the photos of a particular subject. Add tags in the Details Pane of Windows Explorer (or for photos, in the Info Pane of Windows Photo Gallery).
Bring back Start > Run
Remember the Run command? It’s still there but hidden…
1 START RUNNING: If you’re a longterm Windows user, you’re probably used to running applications and utilities by clicking Start > Run, but there’s no Run command in the Windows Vista Start Menu. Adding it couldn’t be easier, though. Right-click the Taskbar and choose Properties.
2 BRING IT BACK: In Taskbar and Start Menu Properties, click Start Menu. You can use this tab to revert to the Classic Windows Start Menu too, but we’re quite happy with the new version. Click the Customize button to bring back Run.
3 ENABLE RUN: There are stacks of check boxes that allow you to enable or disable links on the Start menu, and you can also specify whether particular items should appear as links, menus or not at all. To add the Run command, tick the Run Command box. Click OK and then click Start. It’s back!
Whether you want your PC to start more quickly, to squeeze more power from your laptop battery, or just make your PC a more pleasant tool to use, you'll find the answers in our selection of Windows Vista secrets.
Bypass the log-on screen: If you're the only person who uses your computer, it's easy to get shot of the log-on screen when Windows Vista loads. You'll need to be an administrator to do this one: click Start and type netplwiz in the Start Search box, press Enter and clear the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer box. When you click OK, you'll be asked to enter your password and then confirm it. Once you've done that, Windows Vista will log you in automatically the next time you start your PC.
Change the Start Menu: You don't need to stick with the default options if you don't want to. Right-click the Taskbar, click Properties > Start Menu and then click Customize. This enables you to add and remove items (including bringing back the old Run command) or change how they are displayed, so for example you can display the Pictures link as a menu that shows the contents of Pictures when you click it.
Check boxes to select files: In addition to keyboard shortcuts – Shift-clicking to select a group of files and Ctrl-clicking to select individual files – Windows Vista has secret check boxes to use when selecting things. In Windows Explorer, bring up the menu bar by pressing Alt then go to Tools > Folder Options > View. In Advanced Settings, tick Use check boxes to select items then click OK. When you return to Windows Explorer, hovering the mouse over a file or folder reveals a check box to the left of its name.
Create quick shortcuts: Do you find yourself using the same folders or Control Panel features again and again? Drag their icon from the left of the Address Bar and drop it over the Desktop or the Quick Launch bar.
Sort out start-up items: Can't stop programs from launching every time you boot? Here's how to banish them...
1 LAUNCH MSCONFIG It couldn't be easier to see what programs run every time you switch on your PC. Click Start, and in the Start Search box, type msconfig. Press Enter and OK the User Account Control dialogue that pops up.
2 EXAMINE STARTUPS If you click the Startup tab, you'll see a list of every program that runs at system startup – it's often surprising to see how many programs there really are. Media players in particular are persistent offenders.
3 BLOCK IT To prevent a program from launching at startup, without having to actually uninstall it, simply clear the box next to it. Click OK and the changes will take effect the next time you restart your computer.
Save time with previews: The preview pane in Windows Explorer does more than show you a pretty picture of a file. It enables you to see the contents of the file, too – so if it’s a photo you can see the picture, if it’s an Excel spreadsheet or Word document you can read its contents, and if it’s a video you can watch it. To display the preview pane, click Organize > Layout > Preview Pane. You can resize it by dragging its left-hand edge with the mouse to make it bigger or smaller.
Turn off thumbnails: If you find thumbnails slow down your PC, turn them off. Go to Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Folder Options and select the View tab. Now, select Always Show Icons, Never Thumbnails. You can use this tab to turn off the Preview Pane, too.
Tweak your power plans: If you’re using a laptop, Windows Vista knows when it’s plugged in and when it’s running on the battery, and it adjusts the system performance accordingly. The defaults are pretty good, but you can tweak them to make them even better, squeezing even more minutes from your battery or just reducing your PC’s energy use. To change your energy settings, go into the Control Panel and choose Hardware and Sound > Power Options, select the plan you want to change and click Change Plan Settings.
You can also use these settings to change how your PC behaves when you press the power button or close the laptop lid, and you can get Windows Vista to ask for a password when your PC is woken from sleep mode. Top tip for laptop users: if you change the power plan so that Windows Vista cuts the display brightness to 50% when you’re running on battery, that alone can give you around 20 more minutes of battery life.
Shortcuts to working faster: Launch programs and scale icons at top speed
1 QUICKER LAUNCH: The Quick Launch bar is a handy place to put applications you use all the time, but you don’t need to use the mouse to launch them. Just hold down the Windows key and hit the number keys. Win + 1 launches the first application in your Quick Launch bar, Win + 2 the second, and so on.
2 ENLARGE THE BAR: You don’t need the icons in the Quick Launch bar to be visible when you’re using keyboard shortcuts, but if you don’t have a good memory, it’s a good idea to expand the Quick Launch bar so you can see the order in which the icons appear.
3 SCALE ICONS: One of our favourite things about Windows Explorer is that you can view icons in sizes ranging from tiny to absolutely massive, but there’s a faster way to resize them than by using the Views menu. Simply hold down Ctrl and use your mouse wheel to change the icon size.
Display RAW images: Got a fancy digital SLR? Wish you could view RAW files in the Windows Photo Gallery? Click File > Update and you can download the necessary converters for the RAW files already on your PC – or just download the converter for your camera from www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/codecs.aspx.
Tame the pop-ups: If you’re using your laptop to deliver a presentation (and you’re not running Home Basic), you don’t need to waggle the mouse to stop the screensaver kicking in or worry about Security Center pop-ups distracting your audience. The Windows Vista presentation settings (Control Panel > Mobile PC > Windows Mobility Center > Presentations) can disable such interruptions when connected to a projector or external monitor.
Enable Parental Controls: Windows Vista includes some excellent features to stop the kids seeing things they shouldn’t or going glassy-eyed in front of a screen, but many people don’t know they’re there. The best way to use them is to create a separate account for each family member, log in as the administrator and go to the Control Panel and choose User Accounts and Family Safety. Here, you can set options for each person, so you can block or allow programs, filter the websites they use, or even prevent the PC from being used at specific times.
Silence the Security Center
If Security Center is a little too keen to tell you every little thing it thinks about, launch it via the Control Panel then look at the left-hand side of the window. If you click Change The Way Security Center alerts me and select Don’t notify me, but display the icon, you’ll still know when things need your attention, but you won’t get pop-ups.
Tweak User Account Control
Change how User Account Control behaves without sacrificing security
1 LAUNCH UAC: The User Account Control can stop nasties from getting on to your PC. However, if you’d like to reduce the frequency of its ‘are you sure?’ messages, click Start and type Local Security Policy in the Start Search box. Press Enter and OK the warning prompt.
2 EXAMINE OPTIONS: In the left-hand pane, go to Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options. In the righthand panel there are lots of options. We want User Account Control Behaviour of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode.
3 DISABLE PROMPTS: This option is responsible for the ‘Windows needs your permission to continue’ messages, and it’s safe to disable them if they’re getting on your nerves. To do that, right-click the option and select Properties.
4 NO MORE POP-UPS: You’ll see three options: Elevate Without Prompting, Prompt for Credentials and Prompt for Consent. If you select Elevate Without Prompting you won’t get the UAC messages when you try to run administrative tools.
Encrypt your hard drive
If you have Windows Vista Ultimate, you can encrypt your hard disk so that ne’er-do-wells can’t access your data if they pinch your PC. In Control Panel > Security > BitLocker Drive Encryption click Turn On BitLocker. Have a USB flash drive handy; you need it to store the encryption key that lets you into your protected PC.
Split your hard disk
There are all kinds of reasons to partition your hard disk. You might want one drive for system files and one for data, or you might want to dual-boot your system. In the old days you needed a dedicated disk partitioning program, but Windows Vista has one built-in. To use it, click Start, right-click Computer, then click Manage. In the left hand panel, click Storage > Disk Management, and right-click the box that corresponds to your hard disk. Choose Shrink Volume and enter the size you’d like to shrink your primary partition to; once done, right-click the Free Space box and select New Simple Volume. Windows Vista creates a new volume from the remaining space on your drive. Choose a drive letter, choose a format – NTFS is the default – and you’ll have a new, blank partition that your PC sees as an extra drive. As with all disk management jobs, make sure you’ve backed up your important data before even thinking about repartitioning your hard disk.
Rename multiple pictures
Fed up with endless images with meaningless names such as DSC001.JPG, DSC002.JPG and so on? Select them in Windows Photo Gallery, right-click and select Rename. Type the new name in the box and Windows Vista will rename all of them. So if you type ‘baby pic’ they’re renamed baby pic (1), baby pic (2), and so on. The same trick works in Windows Explorer for any kind of file, provided they’re all the same type, so you can rename a bunch of Word documents, text files or anything else.
Search in plain English
The Start Search box understands plain English, but you need to enable the feature in the Control Panel. Go to the Control Panel and choose Appearance and Personalization > Folder Options then click Search. Select the Use Natural Language Search box and you can now use terms such as ‘music radiohead or portishead’. File names only tell you so much, but if you add tags to things, they’re much easier to find in the future. For example, you might tag work documents with the name of the project you’re working on, or you might tag a photograph with the names of every person in the picture or the location at which it was shot. Once you’ve done that you can search for those tags, quickly locating everything to do with a project or all the photos of a particular subject. Add tags in the Details Pane of Windows Explorer (or for photos, in the Info Pane of Windows Photo Gallery).
Bring back Start > Run
Remember the Run command? It’s still there but hidden…
1 START RUNNING: If you’re a longterm Windows user, you’re probably used to running applications and utilities by clicking Start > Run, but there’s no Run command in the Windows Vista Start Menu. Adding it couldn’t be easier, though. Right-click the Taskbar and choose Properties.
2 BRING IT BACK: In Taskbar and Start Menu Properties, click Start Menu. You can use this tab to revert to the Classic Windows Start Menu too, but we’re quite happy with the new version. Click the Customize button to bring back Run.
3 ENABLE RUN: There are stacks of check boxes that allow you to enable or disable links on the Start menu, and you can also specify whether particular items should appear as links, menus or not at all. To add the Run command, tick the Run Command box. Click OK and then click Start. It’s back!
Windows 7 to get parallel-processing tweaks
Microsoft has shared bits and pieces of how it is adding new features to its development tools to better support parallel processing. But the next release of Windows client and server also are going to incorporate changes designed to improve their parallel-processing support.
While Microsoft execs and those who've managed to get their hands on early builds of Windows 7 have focused largely on user-interface tweaks in Windows 7, there will be some under-the-covers changes, too. Microsoft officials have said on the record that deep-level changes between Windows Vista and Windows 7 will be kept to a minimum, in order to insure application and driver compatibility. Yet Microsoft officials acknowledge that Win32, the core of Windows, is not suited for asynchronous, concurrent computing.
Microsoft is taking the first steps toward remedying this limitation with Windows 7 and its joined-at-the-hip sibling, Windows 7 Server (the product currently known as Windows Server 2008 R2). In the longer term, as I've blogged previously, the game plan is to find a way to exorcise Win32 from Windows and replace it with managed code — preferably a set of programming interfaces that are better tailored to handle parallel-processing tasks across many processors. (That's where the incubation projects codenamed RedHawk, MinSafe and Midori all come in. But don't expect to see the fruits of any of these projects appear in Windows until Windows 8, at the earliest.)
At the upcoming Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in late October, Microsoft execs are slated to discuss "the key architectural changes Microsoft is making to Windows to enable the efficient execution of parallel software," according to a session description on the PDC Web site.
I asked Microsoft for more specifics as to what's changing in Windows 7 with regard to parallel-processing support. A spokeswoman said "Microsoft is not commenting on this level of detail regarding Windows 7 yet."
I got a few hints about what's on the drawing board, however, from Craig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer.
"Win32 was never designed for highly concurrent, asynchronous processing," said Mundie during a recent interview I had with him last week at the Emerging Technology Conference in Cambridge, Mass.
"Parallelism requires adjustments at every level of the stack," Mundie acknowledged. It involves "the repartioning of different tasks to different layers….So look for a rebalancing of roles and runtimes. We need to formalize that in the operating system. Expect thei first pieces in the next generation of Windows."
As one example of one Windows feature that needs this kind of rebalancing, Mundie cited the user-mode scheduling model. The existing Windows scheduler has "too much overhead," Mundie said. He noted that Microsoft has introduced a new trial model as part of its Robotics Development Kit runtime. Microsoft's robotics toolkit includes new concurrency and coordination (CCR) and decentralized software services (DSS) runtimes that are optimized for distributed/multicore computing.
According to Wikipedia, Microsoft already made some initial modifications to the scheduler in Vista:
"Windows NT-based operating systems use a multilevel feedback queue. 32 priority levels are defined, 0 through to 31, with priorities 0 through 15 being "normal" priorities and priorities 16 through 31 being soft realtime priorities, requiring privileges to assign….The scheduler was modified in Windows Vista to use the cycle counter register of modern processors to keep track of exactly how many CPU cycles a thread has executed, rather than just using an interval-timer interrupt routine."
While Windows today can handle machines with a few cores, it's not designed to exploit machines with 8, 16 or 32+ cores. I'm doubtful Microsoft will make too many tweaks to the lower-level operating system layers with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in order to keep user disruption to a minimum. But the early seeds designed to make Windows a better parallel/asynchronous-processing platform are being sown, starting in 2009.
Any guesses on what Microsoft might do in the Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 timeframe to improve Windows' parallel-processing abilities
While Microsoft execs and those who've managed to get their hands on early builds of Windows 7 have focused largely on user-interface tweaks in Windows 7, there will be some under-the-covers changes, too. Microsoft officials have said on the record that deep-level changes between Windows Vista and Windows 7 will be kept to a minimum, in order to insure application and driver compatibility. Yet Microsoft officials acknowledge that Win32, the core of Windows, is not suited for asynchronous, concurrent computing.
Microsoft is taking the first steps toward remedying this limitation with Windows 7 and its joined-at-the-hip sibling, Windows 7 Server (the product currently known as Windows Server 2008 R2). In the longer term, as I've blogged previously, the game plan is to find a way to exorcise Win32 from Windows and replace it with managed code — preferably a set of programming interfaces that are better tailored to handle parallel-processing tasks across many processors. (That's where the incubation projects codenamed RedHawk, MinSafe and Midori all come in. But don't expect to see the fruits of any of these projects appear in Windows until Windows 8, at the earliest.)
At the upcoming Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in late October, Microsoft execs are slated to discuss "the key architectural changes Microsoft is making to Windows to enable the efficient execution of parallel software," according to a session description on the PDC Web site.
I asked Microsoft for more specifics as to what's changing in Windows 7 with regard to parallel-processing support. A spokeswoman said "Microsoft is not commenting on this level of detail regarding Windows 7 yet."
I got a few hints about what's on the drawing board, however, from Craig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer.
"Win32 was never designed for highly concurrent, asynchronous processing," said Mundie during a recent interview I had with him last week at the Emerging Technology Conference in Cambridge, Mass.
"Parallelism requires adjustments at every level of the stack," Mundie acknowledged. It involves "the repartioning of different tasks to different layers….So look for a rebalancing of roles and runtimes. We need to formalize that in the operating system. Expect thei first pieces in the next generation of Windows."
As one example of one Windows feature that needs this kind of rebalancing, Mundie cited the user-mode scheduling model. The existing Windows scheduler has "too much overhead," Mundie said. He noted that Microsoft has introduced a new trial model as part of its Robotics Development Kit runtime. Microsoft's robotics toolkit includes new concurrency and coordination (CCR) and decentralized software services (DSS) runtimes that are optimized for distributed/multicore computing.
According to Wikipedia, Microsoft already made some initial modifications to the scheduler in Vista:
"Windows NT-based operating systems use a multilevel feedback queue. 32 priority levels are defined, 0 through to 31, with priorities 0 through 15 being "normal" priorities and priorities 16 through 31 being soft realtime priorities, requiring privileges to assign….The scheduler was modified in Windows Vista to use the cycle counter register of modern processors to keep track of exactly how many CPU cycles a thread has executed, rather than just using an interval-timer interrupt routine."
While Windows today can handle machines with a few cores, it's not designed to exploit machines with 8, 16 or 32+ cores. I'm doubtful Microsoft will make too many tweaks to the lower-level operating system layers with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in order to keep user disruption to a minimum. But the early seeds designed to make Windows a better parallel/asynchronous-processing platform are being sown, starting in 2009.
Any guesses on what Microsoft might do in the Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 timeframe to improve Windows' parallel-processing abilities
Windows 7 to get parallel-processing tweaks
Microsoft has shared bits and pieces of how it is adding new features to its development tools to better support parallel processing.
But the next release of Windows client and server also are going to incorporate changes designed to improve their parallel-processing support.
While Microsoft execs and those who've managed to get their hands on early builds of Windows 7 have focused largely on user-interface tweaks in Windows 7, there will be some under-the-covers changes, too. Microsoft officials have said on the record that deep-level changes between Windows Vista and Windows 7 will be kept to a minimum, in order to insure application and driver compatibility. Yet Microsoft officials acknowledge that Win32, the core of Windows, is not suited for asynchronous, concurrent computing.
Microsoft is taking the first steps toward remedying this limitation with Windows 7 and its joined-at-the-hip sibling, Windows 7 Server (the product currently known as Windows Server 2008 R2). In the longer term, as I've blogged previously, the game plan is to find a way to exorcise Win32 from Windows and replace it with managed code preferably a set of programming interfaces that are better tailored to handle parallel-processing tasks across many processors. (That's where the incubation projects codenamed RedHawk, MinSafe and Midori all come in. But don't expect to see the fruits of any of these projects appear in Windows until Windows 8, at the earliest.)
At the upcoming Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in late October, Microsoft execs are slated to discuss the key architectural changes Microsoft is making to Windows to enable the efficient execution of parallel software, according to a session description on the PDC Web site.
I asked Microsoft for more specifics as to what's changing in Windows 7 with regard to parallel-processing support. A spokeswoman said Microsoft is not commenting on this level of detail regarding Windows 7 yet.
I got a few hints about what's on the drawing board, however, from Craig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer.
Win32 was never designed for highly concurrent, asynchronous processing, said Mundie during a recent interview I had with him last week at the Emerging Technology Conference in Cambridge, Mass.
Parallelism requires adjustments at every level of the stack, Mundie acknowledged. It involves the repartioning of different tasks to different layers.So look for a rebalancing of roles and runtimes. We need to formalize that in the operating system. Expect thei first pieces in the next generation of Windows.
As one example of one Windows feature that needs this kind of rebalancing, Mundie cited the user-mode scheduling model. The existing Windows scheduler has too much overhead, Mundie said. He noted that Microsoft has introduced a new trial model as part of its Robotics Development Kit runtime. Microsoft's robotics toolkit includes new concurrency and coordination (CCR) and decentralized software services (DSS) runtimes that are optimized for distributed/multicore computing.
But the next release of Windows client and server also are going to incorporate changes designed to improve their parallel-processing support.
While Microsoft execs and those who've managed to get their hands on early builds of Windows 7 have focused largely on user-interface tweaks in Windows 7, there will be some under-the-covers changes, too. Microsoft officials have said on the record that deep-level changes between Windows Vista and Windows 7 will be kept to a minimum, in order to insure application and driver compatibility. Yet Microsoft officials acknowledge that Win32, the core of Windows, is not suited for asynchronous, concurrent computing.
Microsoft is taking the first steps toward remedying this limitation with Windows 7 and its joined-at-the-hip sibling, Windows 7 Server (the product currently known as Windows Server 2008 R2). In the longer term, as I've blogged previously, the game plan is to find a way to exorcise Win32 from Windows and replace it with managed code preferably a set of programming interfaces that are better tailored to handle parallel-processing tasks across many processors. (That's where the incubation projects codenamed RedHawk, MinSafe and Midori all come in. But don't expect to see the fruits of any of these projects appear in Windows until Windows 8, at the earliest.)
At the upcoming Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in late October, Microsoft execs are slated to discuss the key architectural changes Microsoft is making to Windows to enable the efficient execution of parallel software, according to a session description on the PDC Web site.
I asked Microsoft for more specifics as to what's changing in Windows 7 with regard to parallel-processing support. A spokeswoman said Microsoft is not commenting on this level of detail regarding Windows 7 yet.
I got a few hints about what's on the drawing board, however, from Craig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer.
Win32 was never designed for highly concurrent, asynchronous processing, said Mundie during a recent interview I had with him last week at the Emerging Technology Conference in Cambridge, Mass.
Parallelism requires adjustments at every level of the stack, Mundie acknowledged. It involves the repartioning of different tasks to different layers.So look for a rebalancing of roles and runtimes. We need to formalize that in the operating system. Expect thei first pieces in the next generation of Windows.
As one example of one Windows feature that needs this kind of rebalancing, Mundie cited the user-mode scheduling model. The existing Windows scheduler has too much overhead, Mundie said. He noted that Microsoft has introduced a new trial model as part of its Robotics Development Kit runtime. Microsoft's robotics toolkit includes new concurrency and coordination (CCR) and decentralized software services (DSS) runtimes that are optimized for distributed/multicore computing.
Download Free Vista and IE8 Application Compatibility Toolkit
From the perspective of a platform developer, Microsoft has to maintain an equilibrium between the innovation it introduces with its software products and support for legacy applications. Both Windows Vista and Internet Explore 8 offer an ample example of the Redmond giant struggling to achieve such a balance. This is why the company is lending a helping hand to customers migrating to its latest products. In this regard, the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 is designed to sniff out and permit the mitigation of incompatibility issues. The collection of tools, as well as the adjacent documentation included in the toolkit, are tailored to Windows Vista releases via Windows Update and Internet Explorer.
"ACT helps customers lower their costs for application compatibility testing, prioritize their applications, and deploy Windows Vista more quickly. You can use the ACT features to: verify an application's compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, or a Windows Update, including determining your risk assessment; become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your risk assessment with other ACT users; and test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to the Windows Internet Explorer Internet browser," reads an excerpt from the toolkit's description.
In tandem with the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit, Microsoft has also made available for download Internet Explorer Application Compatibility documentation. The resource delivers an intimate insight into the application compatibility events logged by both Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8. The documentation accompanies the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool which is included by default with the Application Compatibility Toolkit.
"The Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool logs information about your browsing session in Internet Explorer. As you browse Web pages, Internet Explorer logs events that indicate potential application compatibility issues for Internet Explorer 8. The tool logs the name of each event along with a short description of what each event is. Each description also contains a link to this document. The intention is that users of the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool use this document to find out more about each event and what they can do to remediate the identified compatibility issue," Microsoft indicated (Documentation available from Microsoft)
"ACT helps customers lower their costs for application compatibility testing, prioritize their applications, and deploy Windows Vista more quickly. You can use the ACT features to: verify an application's compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, or a Windows Update, including determining your risk assessment; become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your risk assessment with other ACT users; and test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to the Windows Internet Explorer Internet browser," reads an excerpt from the toolkit's description.
In tandem with the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit, Microsoft has also made available for download Internet Explorer Application Compatibility documentation. The resource delivers an intimate insight into the application compatibility events logged by both Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8. The documentation accompanies the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool which is included by default with the Application Compatibility Toolkit.
"The Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool logs information about your browsing session in Internet Explorer. As you browse Web pages, Internet Explorer logs events that indicate potential application compatibility issues for Internet Explorer 8. The tool logs the name of each event along with a short description of what each event is. Each description also contains a link to this document. The intention is that users of the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool use this document to find out more about each event and what they can do to remediate the identified compatibility issue," Microsoft indicated (Documentation available from Microsoft)
Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit is available for download here.
Internet Explorer Application Compatibility can be downloaded from here.
Speed Up Windows Vista (and XP)
Windows Vista is a great looking operating system with some awesome features, but it can be slow, unless you've got a hugely powerful PC to run it. For most computers however, a few quick Vista tweaks can make a massive difference in the speed of Vista for everyday use.
Here are the list of recommended Vista performance and speed tweaks:
1. Turn off Windows Search Indexing
Windows Vista search indexing is constantly reviewing files on your system to make their contents available for quick searching. This is handy, but can severely impact system performance.
To disable this constant indexing:
* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the C: Drive
* On General Tab, Uncheck Index this drive for faster searching
* On the subsequent dialog box, Select Include subfolders and files
2. Turn off Remote Differential Compression
Remote Differential Compression measures the changes in files over a network to transfer them with minimal bandwidth rather than transferring an entire file that has previously been moved. By constantly checking for file changes, this service can hinder system performance.
To disable this service:
* Open Control Panel
* Switch to Classic View
* Select Program Features
* Choose Turn Windows features on and off
* Scroll down and uncheck Remote Differential Compression
3. Turn off Automatic Windows Defender Operation
Windows Defender real-time protection against malware continues to run despite having Automatic operation disabled.
To disable this feature:
* Open Control Panel
* Select Windows Defender
* Choose Tools from the top menu
* Select Options
* Uncheck Auto Start at the bottom of the window
4. Turn off Automatic Disk Defragmentation
Windows Vista and its always-on defragment feature isn't really that necessary and can cause system slow down. Just remember to run a defrag manually every week or so.
To disable this:
* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the C: Drive
* Select the Tools Tab
* Uncheck Run on a schedule
5. Add a 2GB or higher USB Flash drive to take advantage of Windows Ready Boost (Additional Memory Cache)
Ready Boost is Microsoft's name for using a USB thumb/flash drive to provide some quick access memory the operating system can use as extra RAM. The Ready Boost system can significantly improve system performance.
To set this up:
* Insert a USB Flash Drive (preferably 2GB or more)
* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the USB Drive in My Computer
* Select the Ready Boost Tab
* Choose Use this device
* Select as much space as you can free up for RAM usage vs. Storage
6. Turn off Windows Hibernation
Windows hibernation background services can use a large amount of system resources. If you don't use the Hibernate feature on a regular basis you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance
To disable Hibernation: boost.
* Select the Control Panel then Power Options
* Click Change Plan Settings
* Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
* Expand the Sleep selection
* Expand the Hibernate After selection
* Crank the selector down to zero
* Click Apply
7. Turn off System Restore
Analysis and restore point creation by Windows Vista can eat a fair amount of system resources. Disabling this service will obviously mean the system restore feature in Vista will not be available in the event of a system crash. Change this at your own risk.
* Control Panel>System
* Click System Protection on the left panel
* Uncheck the main system drive
* Agree to the confirmation
8. Disable User Access Control (UAC)
This much-loathed new Vista feature attempts to protect your system from malware infection by making you manually confirm a whole host of everyday user operations. While it doesn't directly impact performance, it can be annoying and might be more hassle than good.
To disable User Access Control:
* Click Start then Control Panel
* Select User Accounts
* Select Turn User Account Control on or off
* Uncheck User Account Control Box
* Restart as recommended
9. Disable excess Windows Services that Auto-Launch at Startup
Just like Windows XP, Vista ships with all kinds of services enabled that load at startup and may never be used by most users.
To see what loads at startup and disable the ones you likely won't be needing (they can always be started manually later):
* Click Start then Control Panel
* Select Administrative Tools
* Choose System Configuration
* Click the Services Tab
* You can safely deselect:
- Offline Files (unless you're using Offline File Sync)
- Tablet PC Input Service (unless you have a tablet PC)
- Terminal Services
- Windows Search (If you have already disabled indexing)
- Fax (unless you're using a fax modem)
10. Disable Excess Windows Features
Windows ships with other features that are listed separately in the Vista operating system from the startup services.
You can view and disable these features by:
* Clicking Start then Control Panel
* Select Program Features
* On the left panel, select Turn Windows Features on or off
* You can safely deselect:
- Indexing Service
- Remote Differential Compression
- Tablet PC Optional Components
- Windows DFS Replication Service
- Windows Fax & Scan (unless you use a modem for faxing)
- Windows Meeting Space (unless you use the Live Meeting Service)
Here are the list of recommended Vista performance and speed tweaks:
1. Turn off Windows Search Indexing
Windows Vista search indexing is constantly reviewing files on your system to make their contents available for quick searching. This is handy, but can severely impact system performance.
To disable this constant indexing:
* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the C: Drive
* On General Tab, Uncheck Index this drive for faster searching
* On the subsequent dialog box, Select Include subfolders and files
2. Turn off Remote Differential Compression
Remote Differential Compression measures the changes in files over a network to transfer them with minimal bandwidth rather than transferring an entire file that has previously been moved. By constantly checking for file changes, this service can hinder system performance.
To disable this service:
* Open Control Panel
* Switch to Classic View
* Select Program Features
* Choose Turn Windows features on and off
* Scroll down and uncheck Remote Differential Compression
3. Turn off Automatic Windows Defender Operation
Windows Defender real-time protection against malware continues to run despite having Automatic operation disabled.
To disable this feature:
* Open Control Panel
* Select Windows Defender
* Choose Tools from the top menu
* Select Options
* Uncheck Auto Start at the bottom of the window
4. Turn off Automatic Disk Defragmentation
Windows Vista and its always-on defragment feature isn't really that necessary and can cause system slow down. Just remember to run a defrag manually every week or so.
To disable this:
* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the C: Drive
* Select the Tools Tab
* Uncheck Run on a schedule
5. Add a 2GB or higher USB Flash drive to take advantage of Windows Ready Boost (Additional Memory Cache)
Ready Boost is Microsoft's name for using a USB thumb/flash drive to provide some quick access memory the operating system can use as extra RAM. The Ready Boost system can significantly improve system performance.
To set this up:
* Insert a USB Flash Drive (preferably 2GB or more)
* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the USB Drive in My Computer
* Select the Ready Boost Tab
* Choose Use this device
* Select as much space as you can free up for RAM usage vs. Storage
6. Turn off Windows Hibernation
Windows hibernation background services can use a large amount of system resources. If you don't use the Hibernate feature on a regular basis you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance
To disable Hibernation: boost.
* Select the Control Panel then Power Options
* Click Change Plan Settings
* Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
* Expand the Sleep selection
* Expand the Hibernate After selection
* Crank the selector down to zero
* Click Apply
7. Turn off System Restore
Analysis and restore point creation by Windows Vista can eat a fair amount of system resources. Disabling this service will obviously mean the system restore feature in Vista will not be available in the event of a system crash. Change this at your own risk.
* Control Panel>System
* Click System Protection on the left panel
* Uncheck the main system drive
* Agree to the confirmation
8. Disable User Access Control (UAC)
This much-loathed new Vista feature attempts to protect your system from malware infection by making you manually confirm a whole host of everyday user operations. While it doesn't directly impact performance, it can be annoying and might be more hassle than good.
To disable User Access Control:
* Click Start then Control Panel
* Select User Accounts
* Select Turn User Account Control on or off
* Uncheck User Account Control Box
* Restart as recommended
9. Disable excess Windows Services that Auto-Launch at Startup
Just like Windows XP, Vista ships with all kinds of services enabled that load at startup and may never be used by most users.
To see what loads at startup and disable the ones you likely won't be needing (they can always be started manually later):
* Click Start then Control Panel
* Select Administrative Tools
* Choose System Configuration
* Click the Services Tab
* You can safely deselect:
- Offline Files (unless you're using Offline File Sync)
- Tablet PC Input Service (unless you have a tablet PC)
- Terminal Services
- Windows Search (If you have already disabled indexing)
- Fax (unless you're using a fax modem)
10. Disable Excess Windows Features
Windows ships with other features that are listed separately in the Vista operating system from the startup services.
You can view and disable these features by:
* Clicking Start then Control Panel
* Select Program Features
* On the left panel, select Turn Windows Features on or off
* You can safely deselect:
- Indexing Service
- Remote Differential Compression
- Tablet PC Optional Components
- Windows DFS Replication Service
- Windows Fax & Scan (unless you use a modem for faxing)
- Windows Meeting Space (unless you use the Live Meeting Service)
Vista Tip: Speed Up Start Menu
This is a quick tip to speed up the start menu in Vista. I wrote a previous article about helping the user interface more snappy. This tip concentrates on the start menu but will have a similar effect. So if you employ both strategies the UI will run more smoothly. This tip requires a registry edit so as always when doing a registry edit make sure to create a restore point and/or backup the registry settings.
Click on the Vista Start icon and type in regedit in the search field. You can also use the RUN Command provided it has been enabled. Press Enter.
This opens the Registry Editor. Where you will see the various registry folders in the upper left side as shown below.
From here we need to expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Click on Desktop
This opens several values in the left panel. We want to Double click on "MenuShowDelay".
After double clicking "MenuShowDelay" you will get the following Edit String window which should have a default value of 400. Delete that and change it to 0. Click OK and exit out of the Registry Editor.
That is it! Now the Start menu will launch much faster!
Click on the Vista Start icon and type in regedit in the search field. You can also use the RUN Command provided it has been enabled. Press Enter.
This opens the Registry Editor. Where you will see the various registry folders in the upper left side as shown below.
From here we need to expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Click on Desktop
This opens several values in the left panel. We want to Double click on "MenuShowDelay".
After double clicking "MenuShowDelay" you will get the following Edit String window which should have a default value of 400. Delete that and change it to 0. Click OK and exit out of the Registry Editor.
That is it! Now the Start menu will launch much faster!
Create a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox
Up until a couple of years ago, virtual computing was more aligned to the business world. Corporations began to consolidate multiple computer server operating systems on to lower amounts of physical hardware. Instead of having 10 smaller servers, a company could put 10 operating systems on 2 servers with the use of virtual computing, thus saving time and money administrating these systems.
But what does virtual computing mean for the home user? Much like the corporate environment, it can be used to test software, without altering your installed operating system. Virtual computers can run alternate operating systems without the need for running a dual boot computer, and repartitioning your hard drive. Perhaps one would use it to simply surf the Internet on one copy of Windows XP that, if ravaged by spyware, can be deleted instead of having to rebuild their entire computer.
Enter Innotek's Virtual Box. Virtual Box is software that can help get one's feet wet in the arena of virtual computing. The installation of the software takes very little time, and setting up your first virtual computer will not destroy a weekend. We will walk through the initial steps in creating a new virtual machine. I will be using Ubuntu Linux as my test virtual operating system.
When your start Virtual Box for the first time, you will be greeted with a modest window and a blue button labeled New. Click on the New button to begin the virtual machine wizard.
The first thing you will need is a name for your computer. I recommend adding either the word Virtual, or an abbreviation like VPC, the first time out, just to help tell the difference between your real computer and your virtual computer. It is important to note, in the following screen, that you will need to know what your virtual operating system will be (Windows, Linux, etc.). The drop down box will help you pick your operating system.
The next screen asks you to choose the amount of memory you want to use with this virtual machine. Here is a basic formula to keep in mind. The amount of memory you select here will be used by your virtual computer, when it is in use. For instance, your real computer has 1 GB of RAM and you allocate 512 MB for your virtual computer. When the virtual machine runs, it will have 512 MB available, and your real computer will now have 512 MB available. Allocate too much RAM to the virtual machine, and Windows will fire off a low memory error when your run your virtual computer.
Now we need to create a virtual hard drive. You have two options for this step. You can create a dynamic or fixed-sized hard drive. Here is the run down: A dynamic hard drive only uses as much space as it needs. You install an operating system that needs 2.14 GB, that is all that shows up as used on your real hard drive (C:\ for example). A fixed-sized hard drive takes up the space you assign it. If you create a fixed virtual hard drive at 30 GB in size, it will show as 30 GB being used on your real hard drive regardless of when you install or add into the 30 GB space.
First we will click on New to create a boot hard disk.
To make the first installation quick, we will choose a dynamic setup.
Add a name for the hard drive image file, and click on the small yellow folder icon to locate the hard drive file somewhere other than the default setting, if you want. Use the slider to adjust the hard drive size, or simply type in the text box on the right-hand side. Remember, since this is a dynamic hard drive, it will start small, we are just assigning a maximum size right now. When finished, click Next.
Once you are done with the hard drive, this was the last step in the initial setup for the virtual machine. To add an operating system, you can use an installation CD, or DVD; or an ISO image file. First click on your system name, which will show up on the let hand side of the original startup window, then click on Settings. Once here, click on CD / DVD-ROM.
For this example, we will click on the yellow folder, and browse to find an ISO file. After clicking on the folder icon, we will choose the CD/DVD images tab to add an image. Click on Add to locate the ISO file. When finished, click on Ok on the bottom of this screen.
It seems like a long process, but we are ready to boot your virtual computer! Back on the main screen, click on your virtual computer, then click on Start. Done correctly, you will see a boot splash screen, and you are ready to install your virtual operating system.
Create and install a virtual machine using Sun openxVM
Create and install a virtual machine using Sun openxVM
I have always wanted to run a UNIX OS on my PC but I was always daunted by the thought that I will need to do the usual creation of a UNIX file-system partition and creating a dual booth system. With tools like Partition Magic and Booth Magic you can do that easily but the trade off is that to be able to switch between OS, you will need to reboot your computer.
Also you will need to reformat a portion of your hard disk to another file system that is not compatible with your existing Windows OS (like the Linux X file system). This is hard to manage on the hardware side and also you will not be able to use both OS at the same time on the same machine.
openvXM let's you get away from the multi-boot hell. To get the software go to http://www.openxvm.org/ there you will see that this project is community supported with backing from Sun. Sun recently has been active on "open-source" projects like OpenSolaris. Also, check out my previous post about VirtualBox, another free tool to create a virtual machine.
Some of the IT experts think they do this "free software" strategy to get a bigger market share like what they did with the programming platform Java. Expect to have frequent updates to this software since many developers from Sun and the open source community are working to add more features and functionality.
Once you downloaded and installed the software, you can press CTRL-N to start the virtual machine creation:
NOTE: You will only need to do this once for each of the OS you want to run.
The new virtual machine wizard will open. Read the descriptions on the windows that will follow to get the hang of it on each step:
Type in the name of the virtual machine. This is arbitrary but make sure to name it to something you will easily remember. Also choose the type of OS that you plan to run on this virtual machine. In this example I entered UNIX as the name and Solaris as the OS Type:
Next enter the base memory of the machine (this will be taken from the RAM of your computer so you might need to add more physical if you want to use a significant amount of RAM for your virtual machine):
The virtual hard disk screen will ask which existing virtual hard disk will be used. Since this is a new setup, I clicked New to create a new virtual hard disk:
There are two types of virtual disk, one is dynamic and one is fixed. I chose dynamic for this example:
Make sure to allocate enough hard disk space for your machine. If you plan to install large applications on your virtual machine, put in a minimum of 16GB and add more depending on your software's requirement:
After that the virtual hard disk is created and you can now use it as a boot hard disk:
A summary screen will appear, make sure to review the details and hit back if you need to correct anything:
After the creation of the virtual machine you will see your new machine on the left side of the main interface:
To start using the virtual OS, you will need to mount a CD where the installer of the OS is located. In my case I have my drive F contain the Solaris OS installer suitable for my 386 AMD processor. Click Mount the CD and then click Start:
You should see the installation screen on the virtual terminal:
All standard input output of the OS you use are sent to the virtual terminal and you can send keyboard commands to it like an ordinary machine.
With VirtualBox you can run any OS on top of any OS. You can emulate Windows Vista on a Linux computer or vice versa. The good thing is that you won't even have to reboot your computer to be able to use more than one OS at a time. This is very ideal for users who often need to manage more than one OS on the same machine at the same time. You can save electricity costs and also a great amount of resource (i.e. another physical computer).
Also, since this is a virtual computer, the interface allows you to shutdown the virtual computer like a real computer. To do this click Machine and then ACPI Shutdown:
Since this is a virtual computer you can have an option to pause it unlike on a real computer where everything happens real-time.
If you need to use a floppy drive or CD/DVD drives on the virtual machine, use the Devices menu to mount them:
You can get detailed information about the virtual machine by clicking the Machine menu and then Session Information:
You can use the above screen to validate your virtual machine's parameters. I was very happy with this free "virtualization" software and I am sure it will be on my PC for a long time.
Do you know any other ways to run multiple OS on the same machine at the same time? Post your tips here on the comments section.
Make your computer as fast as Television
Why can’t a computer be more like a television? When you push the power button on a TV, it just turns on. Computers, on the other hand, boot—as in, they take so long to get started that you want to stick your boot into them.
You would think that the march of technological progress would have reduced boot times over the years, but newer operating systems can take longer—Microsoft Vista actually tends to boot more slowly than its predecessor, Windows XP. (Microsoft claims its next-generation operating system, Windows 7, should provide drastic improvements in boot time.)
Additionally, boot times increase with a computer’s age. As you use your PC and more programs and devices are installed, the startup process gets even longer. And these slow boot times can lead to bad behavior. Many users become so frustrated that they leave their computers on constantly, wasting electricity and delaying valuable OS security updates.
But take heart: There are steps you can take to speed things along. Depending on the configuration of your computer, many of the various system checks and processes that take place during boot-up may be unnecessary or irrelevant to you. A variety of tricks of varying sophistication can reclaim valuable minutes or seconds of get-up-and-go time. We tested expert tactics on three well-used computers in PM’s tech lab.
As a general rule, an uncluttered computer is a fast computer. The easiest step to speed startup is to remove software that you no longer use. Many of these seemingly fallow programs are running active background processes that launch every time you push the power button. This doesn’t just slow down your startup, it chews up RAM and drags down the overall performance of your PC.
To get a full list of installed software, check Control Panel in Vista and select Remove Programs (in XP go to Add/Remove Programs). If you find programs that you’re not using or that support equipment you no longer own, eliminate them.
One of our test computers, a 3-year-old XP machine, had more than two dozen programs that hadn’t been used in years. After we removed them, the machine’s boot time was reduced from 2 minutes 45 seconds to 2 minutes 21 seconds. Across all three of our computers, the biggest offender was AIM instant-messaging software. Removing it shaved an average of 8 seconds off boot time.
Even brand-new PCs can be junked up with useless applications, known as trialware, that load processes at startup. Since these programs aren’t formally installed on your system, they may not show up in your Remove Programs list. That shouldn’t stop you from getting rid of them if you have no intention of using the software.
The easiest way to purge unwanted trialware is by using a program called, believe it or not, PC Decrapifier. This free, downloadable tool specifically targets trial software and puts it on a chopping block for you to eliminate.
On a Dell laptop
we analyzed, Decrapifier found several programs imploring users to “Get High Speed Internet!” from service providers angling for new business. Delete!
Some startup slowdowns come from software that you do use, but don’t necessarily need running in your system’s background. Many programs have components that load at startup, then monitor your OS constantly. That makes perfect sense for antivirus software
There are a few ways to check which programs are muscling into your startup sequence. In Vista, you can manage startup applications through Windows Defender, Microsoft’s built-in program that monitors for spyware, pop-ups and performance drags. Defender has an integrated tool called Software Explorer that lets you check programs that load at startup and disable anything unnecessary.
You can also access the list of startup applications in either Vista or XP through the Msconfig utility (type “msconfig” into the Run box in the Start menu). Select the Startup tab, then uncheck any applications you think might be slowing your startup.
Both options allow you to disable a program’s startup component without completely removing it. So if you disable something and then discover that it was vital to the operation of your PC, you can always turn it back on.
Inevitably, you’ll find programs in your startup configuration that you’ve never heard of before. To sort it all out, consult an online reference such as Sysinfo. This site categorizes startup entries according to how necessary they are. On one of our test PCs we found avgtray.exe configured as a startup operation. This miniprogram was a part of the AVG antivirus software suite and was designed to launch AVG from an icon in the system tray at the bottom right of the Windows home screen. SysInfo categorized avgtray.exe as “User’s Choice,” meaning that it’s not imperative to the PC’s operation but could be useful, so we decided to keep it. Many of the items we found in the startup menus of our test PCs were software that could be started on an as-needed basis, but didn’t need to be launched at startup, so we disabled them. that must continually watch for suspicious activity on your PC, but it’s probably not necessary to have the software that came with your digital camera always running so that it can instantly offload pictures.
You would think that the march of technological progress would have reduced boot times over the years, but newer operating systems can take longer—Microsoft Vista actually tends to boot more slowly than its predecessor, Windows XP. (Microsoft claims its next-generation operating system, Windows 7, should provide drastic improvements in boot time.)
Additionally, boot times increase with a computer’s age. As you use your PC and more programs and devices are installed, the startup process gets even longer. And these slow boot times can lead to bad behavior. Many users become so frustrated that they leave their computers on constantly, wasting electricity and delaying valuable OS security updates.
But take heart: There are steps you can take to speed things along. Depending on the configuration of your computer, many of the various system checks and processes that take place during boot-up may be unnecessary or irrelevant to you. A variety of tricks of varying sophistication can reclaim valuable minutes or seconds of get-up-and-go time. We tested expert tactics on three well-used computers in PM’s tech lab.
Ditch Dusty Programs
As a general rule, an uncluttered computer is a fast computer. The easiest step to speed startup is to remove software that you no longer use. Many of these seemingly fallow programs are running active background processes that launch every time you push the power button. This doesn’t just slow down your startup, it chews up RAM and drags down the overall performance of your PC.
To get a full list of installed software, check Control Panel in Vista and select Remove Programs (in XP go to Add/Remove Programs). If you find programs that you’re not using or that support equipment you no longer own, eliminate them.
One of our test computers, a 3-year-old XP machine, had more than two dozen programs that hadn’t been used in years. After we removed them, the machine’s boot time was reduced from 2 minutes 45 seconds to 2 minutes 21 seconds. Across all three of our computers, the biggest offender was AIM instant-messaging software. Removing it shaved an average of 8 seconds off boot time.
Even brand-new PCs can be junked up with useless applications, known as trialware, that load processes at startup. Since these programs aren’t formally installed on your system, they may not show up in your Remove Programs list. That shouldn’t stop you from getting rid of them if you have no intention of using the software.
The easiest way to purge unwanted trialware is by using a program called, believe it or not, PC Decrapifier. This free, downloadable tool specifically targets trial software and puts it on a chopping block for you to eliminate.
On a Dell laptop
we analyzed, Decrapifier found several programs imploring users to “Get High Speed Internet!” from service providers angling for new business. Delete!Reconfigure Pushy Software
Some startup slowdowns come from software that you do use, but don’t necessarily need running in your system’s background. Many programs have components that load at startup, then monitor your OS constantly. That makes perfect sense for antivirus software
There are a few ways to check which programs are muscling into your startup sequence. In Vista, you can manage startup applications through Windows Defender, Microsoft’s built-in program that monitors for spyware, pop-ups and performance drags. Defender has an integrated tool called Software Explorer that lets you check programs that load at startup and disable anything unnecessary.
You can also access the list of startup applications in either Vista or XP through the Msconfig utility (type “msconfig” into the Run box in the Start menu). Select the Startup tab, then uncheck any applications you think might be slowing your startup.
Both options allow you to disable a program’s startup component without completely removing it. So if you disable something and then discover that it was vital to the operation of your PC, you can always turn it back on.
Inevitably, you’ll find programs in your startup configuration that you’ve never heard of before. To sort it all out, consult an online reference such as Sysinfo. This site categorizes startup entries according to how necessary they are. On one of our test PCs we found avgtray.exe configured as a startup operation. This miniprogram was a part of the AVG antivirus software suite and was designed to launch AVG from an icon in the system tray at the bottom right of the Windows home screen. SysInfo categorized avgtray.exe as “User’s Choice,” meaning that it’s not imperative to the PC’s operation but could be useful, so we decided to keep it. Many of the items we found in the startup menus of our test PCs were software that could be started on an as-needed basis, but didn’t need to be launched at startup, so we disabled them. that must continually watch for suspicious activity on your PC, but it’s probably not necessary to have the software that came with your digital camera always running so that it can instantly offload pictures.
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