At Ducktoes, we use optimization tools up the ying-yang. One we dream about in our sleep is Auslogics Boost Speed. According to recent reviews, Auslogics speeds up computers by 15 to 20%. The reviewers used PC Mark to measure before and after results. And guess what all? Each computer lost over 20 lbs. and could fit into their old skinny jeans. Nah, Ms. Ducktoes has been going to Weight Watchers too long, and has skinny jeans on the brain, but the computers did lose the dead weight of needed tweaks and adjustments Microsoft failed to implement for speed. They ran 15 to 20% faster. Check it out here.

Before and After with PC Mark

Also AVG has recently partnered with Auslogics and incorporated Boost Speed into its PC Tools. Read about that here in a press release with PR Web. If you get PC Tools with AVG, you can use it once for free. According to AVG’s top programmers, the optimizations are also quite safe.

CNET Reviews Editors give Auslogics Boost Speed five stars. That’s the highest rating.

If you bring your computer in to Ducktoes, we’ll run all the optimizations for you. Then you’ll have to buy your computer a new pair of jeans. Or we can do this remotely for you, the optimizations, and, lol, even the shopping. Call 403-483-0105.

I’ve had to uninstall Mcafee Anti-virus products several times in the last week or so. People have let their licenses expire but that doesn’t keep the the anti-virus from running in the background and using up tons of resources. And when I try to remove it the usual way, by going to Start>Control Panel>Add and Remove Programs, it won’t uninstall. One older laptop computer I fixed in the last week had both expired Mcafee and Norton running, neither of which would uninstall. The poor computer was quite beleagured. And running very sloooo-ow.

So what I did was to go to the Mcafee site and search for their uninstall program. It works quite nicely, thank you very much.

Here it is http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100507

Follow Step 2, if you’ve tried Step 1 already.

One of the easiest things to do to increase your computer’s performance is to put in more ram. That’s the computer available to running processes while the computer is turned on. When you have more, your computer can do more, and in less time.

All you have to do to put in more ram is turn off and unplug the computer and open the case. Look for a long rectangular (sometimes two or more) strips of circuit board sticking up perpendicularly from the motherboard. They’re about three inches long. Each one has two holding pins on each end. Release the pins and voila, you’ve unseated the ram. Try not to touch the end with metallic connectors. Take the ram to your favorite computer parts store. Show it to the sales associate and say you want to increase the ram. Tell him or her how many sticks of ram are in the computer. They will recommend what to buy. Sometimes you can get a stick for $25 dollars or less.

Reseat your new ram in the same slot you took the old ones out. Match the indent on the ram stick to the plastic protusion sticking up on the slot. Push down firmly until the end pins snap into place. Put the case back on. Reboot the computer. It should run much faster now.

Oops, somehow I missed How to Speed Up Your Computer – Part 6. So here it is:

Another way to speed up your computer is to run Checkdisk. The process is easy and fun to do (what I think is fun may seem strange to you). But, fun or not, at least this tunes up your computer and should be part of your regular computer maintenance.

Go to the Start button, then to Run. In the text box that appears, type “cmd “ (but without the quotation marks. This will bring up the dos prompt. Type this in: chkdsk c: /f /r /x
You have to type this in exactly. Hit enter. It will ask if you want to run this next time you start your computer. Type Y for yes. Restart your computer. Now go do something non-computer related. The process can take 30 minutes to a couple of hours.

This is Part Five of a five part series about how to speed up your computer. Here are the other four posts.

Why should you clean the registry? The registry is a listing of all the settings and options in Windows. They are listed in the form of “keys”. When the registry gets cluttered with unfunctional and useless keys the computer still has to refer to and process them and this slows booting, running applications and going on-line. To fix this and speed things up, you can delete or edit the keys manually, which is tedious and risky, since changing the registry is a good way of messing up the computer completely, if you don’t know what you’re doing.

There is a free registry cleaner called EasyCleaner by Tony Arts. It works well. If you use it, please leave the creator/owner a donation. You should use EasyCleaner as part of your regular computer maintenance routine.

The best registry tool is jv16 PowerTools by Macecraft. The trial of 30 days is not limited but gives you access to the full version. In some computers, it is the tool that makes the most significant difference in speed. Use both the Registry Cleaner and the Registry Compacter components.

Ducktoes to the rescue!!

I know that among some people, this suggestion will be a very unpopular, but if your computer is too slow you really ought to remove your free file sharing music and video P2Ps, such as Bearshare, Grokster, etc. If just reading this advice makes you howl and scream on the floor, you might, after you pull yourself together, reconsider. All that free music is filling up your hard drive and making your computer more cluttered than it needs to be, plus it allows other people access to your computer. This traffic uses up resources and slows your computer down. It also degrade your network performance, making going on-line a lengthy process. You can always buy music from iTunes for 99 cents each, which is much cheaper than all the computer maintenance, troubleshooting, and computer hardware will cost you in time and money. Also using legitimate music sources will force you to be more selective and download only songs you really like. How many songs can one person listen to in a lifetime anyway? Paying for downloads gives royalties to your favorite musicians, which might inspire them to record more albums.

Some diehard P2P lovers tell me that the artists only get a small percentage of the money–the corporate record labels get most of it. True. Yet who is going produce albums and promote groups if it is not profitable enough for corporations? Also almost all peer-to-peers have adware and spyware attached to the software downloads. If you think corporations are bad, cyber-criminals are worse. They steal from ordinary people without doing anything positive in return.

Speaking of spyware from filing sharing P2Ps, you’ll need to use a good anti-spyware like Spyware Doctor or Webroots Spy Sweeper to get rid of the mess. Yesterday I removed Grokster from a client’s computer. I had to buy a Spyware Doctor license ($30) for the client. Not only did Spy Doctor find and delete the Grokster application, it also deleted all these all these programs that installed with Grokster: Active Delivery, Casino Outlet, ClipGenie, Commonname, CyDoor, DelfinMedia Viewer, Downloadware, eAcceleration, eUniverse, FavoriteMan, Flashtrack, Gator, IGetNet, IGetNet ClearSearch, Incredifind, IpInsight, Look2Me, Lycos SideSearch, Network Essentials, SC Bar, PeopleOnPage, RVP, Search Enhancement, SearchEnhancement, TOPicks, VX2/e, VX2/f, and WebEnhancer.

That’s a whole heck of alot of c***!! (Of course, that’s caca, lol!!)

To uninstall your P2Ps or any programs, go to Start, then Control Panel, then Add or Remove Programs. Wait for the list to form. Select the name of the P2P you want to uninstall and click remove. After you delete your file sharing program, you’ll need to run your anti-spyware to get rid of the spyware and adware. Spyware and adware do not show up in the Add and Remove Programs tool of the Control Panel, since the creators and promoters of such applications, don’t want you to be able to remove them.
So get rid of the illegal file sharing P2Ps and use iTunes or Napster or other legal music downloader instead.

Sometimes as techies, we want to keep programs from running at startup. This helps get rid of spyware that is running in memory. Once stopped, we can eliminate malware with Spybot, for instance, without running Spybot again on reboot, which is time-consuming. Also techies often are asked by clients to speed up old computers or new computers running Vista (lol!!), and stopping unwanted programs from running at startup is a good way of doing this. Using msconfig is another way, but problematic since it turns off System Restore, which is another useful tool to return to a computer to more pristine state without reformatting.

Here is a site that tells you how to stop startups by editting the registry. I have found it extremely helpful. However, only edit the registry if you make a backup first, since editing it incorrectly can cause major damage or problems.

Windows works best and is most secure when Automatic Updates are turned on, so the most recent updates from Microsoft are installed regularly.

To turn on the updates, open your Internet Explorer (Blue “e”) and then go to Tools on the menu bar at the top, next to Favorites. On the Tools drop-down menu you’ll find Windows Update. (If, as is sometimes the case with Internet Explorer 7 , the menu bar is not visible, go to the Tools (with the small picture of a grey gear by it) on the far right of the browser, just about the open browser window. Click on Tools. On the drop-down menu, click the words “Menu Bar” so a check mark appears next to the words. Now your menu bar should be visible back at the top left.)

When you click the Tools on the menu bar, a drop-down menu appears. Click on the words “Windows Update.” The Microsoft Windows Update webpage will open. If your Windows Updates are turned off, you’ll see a red shield and the warning “Help protect you PC.” Underneath you’ll find a button that says “Turn on Automatic Updates.” Click it. A new smaller window will open. Select the time when you want your computer to download the updates. Mine is set for “Everyday” at 12 p.m. Click “Okay.”

If you’d like to install the Updates right away, go back to the Windows Update website and click, “Express Updates.” Follow the instructions that Microsoft gives you.
If you have any questions please e-mail me. Or if you have any comments please click “Comments” below.

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After you run Disk Cleanup (see Part One), you’ll want to defragment the hard drive.

Hard drives have arms that retrieve data much like those on old phonograph players. (Some of us actually remember those!) Except instead of staying in one place as a phonograph arm and needle does as the record goes around underneath it, hard drive arms move back and forth across their round platters. When data is too scattered, the hard drive arm has to move excessively to retrieve it, therefore wearing out the hard drive prematurely. (I learned this from my friend Ken Wicker who was a computer teacher at Swainston Middle School in North Las Vegas when I was an ECS there. Ken is amazing a hardware expert!) So fragmention also slows down the computer.

Defragging puts files together saving time and wear and tear on your hard drive. Contiguous files are much easier and faster to retrieve and process.

To defrag in XP, from the Start button, go to All Programs, then to Accessories. Under Accessories you’ll find System Tools. Inside System Tools, you’ll want Disk Defragmenter.

The Disk Defragmenter window will open. You’ll be presented with a list of volumes. Select one to start with, that is, if there is more than one listed. (C:) is usually the main drive, but there also may be (D:) and (E:). Then click the button “Defragment.” Defragging a drive can take a long time, so outside and go for a walk or play with your kids or dog.

I’ve learned from my friend Zenon, of Computer Junkyard, to defragment over and over again, until–in XP–all the blue is together and the red has vanished. The red are the fragmented files. One of the unfortunate things about Vista is that you can’t see the defragmentation process happening. Here’s what Mauricio Freitas has to say about this. I know, I know, only a geek would like to watch the defragmentation process. But I find it satisfying somehow, where all the blue lines come together into a blue band, like a solution being forged from disparate ideas, or the papers in a “to be sorted box” collected into the proper folders in your filing cabinet.

Speaking of Vista, defragmentation is set to run automatically, every Wednesday, at 1 a.m., unless your computer is powered off. You can modify the settings by going to the Start button, All Programs, Accessories, and System Tools.

What if your computer doesn’t have spyware or viruses, but it is still way too slow? This blog’s for you.

The first thing I do to speed up a computer, is clean up the hard drive. If your hard drive has no room to run swap files, this can significantly slow down your operating system. Running Disk Cleanup on a regular maintenance basis can really enhance system performance (that includes speed!).

To start, click the Start button, then All Programs, then Accessories. Among the categories listed on the Accessories, is System Tools. And within System Tools, you’ll find the one you want, Disk Cleanup.

You will be presented with a drop-down menu. Select the disk you want to clean. If you have two hard drives or your hard drive is partitioned into two or more virtual drives, you’ll want to clean up all of them.

After you select the drive, click the OK button. Disk Cleanup will analyze the drive and see how much room can be freed. Now be prepared to twiddle your thumbs, since this can be a loooooong process depending how much stuff you have on your hard drive. And you know the old adage about watched pots never boil, a watched computer process never “boils” either, so go grab a cuppa or have quality time with your significant other (the one you’ve been neglecting while going online with your so slow computer.)

After the drive is analyzed, you will be presented with a list of items to be selected for cleanup. Select them. Get them outta there.

Now you’re finished for today. Stay tuned to this blog for future posts of How to Speed up your Computer.

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