Tweak My Computer

Tips to Speed Up Internet Connection

2009-07-21T11:33:00.009+08:00

Computer users sometimes ask: "How can I speed up my internet connection?"
Well, there are several factors that can determine your connectivity speed to the internet.
You may be limited by what Internet Service Provider (ISP) you're using, what type of service plan you're using, if you're on dial-up or broadband and even geographical location.

However, there are a few tweaks and tips you might do in Windows that could help to improve internet connection speeds. (I've used all these tweaks and utilities mentioned here with good success, but as a precaution though, make a System Restore checkpoint just in case something messes up and you wanted to revert back to your current settings).

In this post, I will outline a few relatively quick and easy things you can try that may help to improve your internet connection speed.

TCP Optimizer:
Go to the following page:
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

For XP, download the "TCP Optimizer" utility. Run the program, click the "Optimize" button, ok now Apply Changes, close the program and restart computer for the new settings to take effect.

For Vista, download and run the "SG Vista TCP/IP Patch" on that page instead. Restart computer for the new settings to take effect.

Fresh Download Manager:
For a good, and free, download manager that can greatly help in improving speeds for downloading files, check out Fresh Download:
http://www.freshdevices.com/freshdown.html

Browser Tweaks:
I may have mentioned a couple of these already in previous posts, but I thought I'd put these tips together with this post.
If you use FireFox, there's some tweaks you can do to help make webpages load a bit faster:
http://www.aokpc.com/ff01.html
and:
http://www.aokpc.com/ff04.html

For Internet Explorer browser:
http://www.aokpc.com/ie03.html
and
http://www.aokpc.com/ie02.html

After applying the tips in this post, you may notice a good improvement in your internet connection speed, how fast web-pages load in your browser and also in the speed of downloading files.

Tips to Reclaim Disk Space

2009-07-18T08:35:00.009+08:00

I often hear from computer users the complaint that the space on their hard-drive seems to be "shrinking", and sometimes they can't figure out why or what they can do to reclaim disk space.

Outlined in this post are are few useful suggestions on how you can help to reclaim disk space on your hard-drive(s).

Uninstall Programs:

Uninstall programs you don't use and you're sure that Windows doesn't need.
In Windows, click on Start, then open up your Control Panel. In the control panel click on the "Add or Remove Programs" in XP, or for Vista it should be under "Programs / Uninstall a program" or in classic view it's "Programs and Features".

After the list of installed programs loads in, scroll through the list and see if there are programs listed there that you don't use. If you're not sure of what a program is for or what it does, for the time being, I'd suggest to leave it alone as it could be an important program for Windows or some hardware to operate properly. You could do some research for what an unknown program is to get an idea of what it is for and if you need it on your computer or not.

So if you are sure it's a program you don't use or is not needed, click on it to select it, and often times a "Remove" or "Uninstall" button will appear that you can click on. After uninstalling the program(s), it's good practice to re-start the computer to help ensure all changes take effect and clean the memory.

Recycle Bin Tips:

Empty your recycle bin. Of course first be sure there's no files in it that you will need.

By default, the Windows Recycle Bin takes up around 10% of your hard-drive's space.
For instructions on how to reduce this wasteful setting and reclaim some of your HD space, visit the following link:
http://www.aokpc.com/recycling_bin.html

System Restore Tips:

System Restore can also take up a large chunk of disk-space over time and can grow way too large. To reduce this, you can check out the following site for instructions on how to do this.
For Windows Vista, visit the following link for details on how to do this:
http://www.vista4beginners.com/System-Restore-Space-Used

In XP, it's easier to do:
To resize windows restore, right click on “My Computer” and choose “Properties” then “System Restore“.
Click on “C drive” (the Drive that you want to resize) then “Settings..” button. On “Disk space usage”, move the slider to the left to decreace the amount of disk space for System Restore. The better size is about 1000-1500mb or may be less that it. Then “Ok” to confirm.

Delete User Account Temp Files:

As you use Windows and various programs on a user account, some temporary files and folders may automatically be created. However, these temp files are not always deleted when they are no longer required, and over time this can add up to a sizable amount of disk-space they use.

So here is a quick and easy way to access these temp file and then you should be able to safely delete them all.

Click Start, then select Run. Now enter the following command: %temp%

This should open up the Temp folder for your user account. You may see a list of folders and files within this Temp folder. These are all temporary folders and files that you can safely delete to reclaim some disk space. Don't delete the actual Temp folder itself, only all of the folders and files within it.

To select all of the files for deletion, click on the top file on the list to highlight it, now scroll all the way down to the last file, hold your Shift key, then click on the last file. This will highlight the whole list. Now right-click on any highlighted file and select "Delete". If a file is currently in use, perhaps an open program is currently using one of these temp files, then you may get a warning that you can't delete it. You can then skip that file, or close any applications running that may be using it then try again.

Once you choose to delete all of these file, they may be moved into your Recycle bin. Once they are in the Recycle Bin, then you can simply empty it to permanently delete these files and reclaim some disk space.

Crap Cleaner to Remove Junk Files:

I also suggest getting a good and free utility that can easily help clean up junk from your computer and regain disk space, CCleaner:
http://www.ccleaner.com/
It also has a nice registry cleaner feature too.

IE Temp Files Tips:

Also, if you use IE browser, reduce the storage size setting for temp files. From the Internet Explorer top menu bar click on "Tools" then "Internet Options". From the General tab, the section that reads "Temporary Internet Files", click on "Settings". You'll see a slider that reads "Amount of Disk Space Used". Move that slider more to the left to save disk-space. Then "OK" everything.

Defrag your Hard Drives:

As outlined in one of my previous posts. I'd suggest to run a disk-defrag on your hard-drive(s) about once a month or so to help reclaim some possibly wasted disk-space, as well it will help to keep things running more smoothly.
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Well, there you have it. After following these tips, you will probably have reclaimed a good chunk of your hard-drive space.
Cheers! :)

Clean your PC to Prevent Overheating.

2009-07-14T03:12:00.002+08:00

Many times in helping people fix their computer problems, they complain about their computer randomly shutting down without warning. There could be several causes as to what is the cause of the problem, but often I discover that they've never cleaned their computers.

"What? I'm supposed to clean the computer?" they ask.

"Yes, probably at least once every few months." I tell them.

Nowadays most computers have a safe-guard feature built in so if the internal components start getting too hot, then the computer will automatically shut itself off. If over time dust and dirt builds up on the fans and venting areas, it can prevent the natural air-flow that would normally help to cool a computer, and then the computer can start to overheat. So, it's important to try and keep your computer clean and cool.

Tips for Cleaning a Desktop Computer:

Turn off the computer and unplug it. Unplug all of the devices and set your computer someplace with lots of space around it for easy access (such as on a table top).

Slide-off the cover of the computer. This can be a different procedure according to what type of computer model you have, but typically there are a few screws located at the back of the computer that holds the case on that you will need to remove. Once you have the screws out, then the casing cover, or part thereof, should easily slide off.

Look inside the computer and you can probably see lots of dust and dirt built-up on the various components if it hasn't been cleaned in a while. Have good lighting so you can see what you're doing.

Use a can of compressed-air (which most computer shops sell), and give a good blow throughout the inside of your computer, especially the fan(s) and venting areas. Don't hold the compressed air for too long in any one spot, as the compressed air is very cold and it's possible if concentrating on one spot for too long, that it could damage something, so keep moving the spray-can in gentle constant motion while using it so as to not overly "freeze" one spot.

You can use a dry cloth to wipe away dust and dirt, as well as a cotton-swab for those hard to reach areas.

If you have a vacuum-cleaner, you could put on a soft-attachment onto the end of the hose, and using it gently, suck away the dust and dirt.

Just go slow, careful and gentle with the whole cleaning process, and everything should be okay.

Once you're done, slide the cover back on, put the screws back in, plug everything back in, turn the computer on and it should be running a lot cooler now.
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For Laptops:

Pretty much the same advice I gave for cleaning a desktop computer, except removing the cover can be very difficult for a laptop, or for some laptops the cover is really not meant to be removed, so in this case you would need to try to clean it without removing the cover. So in this case, use a can of compressed air, give a good blow into all of the various openings, and you can still use a vacuum-cleaner on the vent areas to help suck out the dust and dirt too.

Also, in using a laptop, avoid placing it on any soft surfaces, such as carpet or a bed, as this can block the vent areas and cause the computer to overheat as well. When the computer is not being using, I would recommend to turn it off.

Some computer-shops may also sell a type of "cooling platform" that are made for laptops, so that is something else to consider if you use a laptop a lot.
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Well, there you have it. Keep your computer clean and cool. It will help to avoid overheating problems and extend the life of your computer.
Cheers! :)

Remote Assistance a security risk.

2009-07-02T21:33:00.004+08:00

By default, Windows XP and Vista has a "feature" enabled called Remote Assistance.

While this may come in handy for some company to allow remote technical support for their PC's, for the average home user this feature will probably never be used and is actually a security risk which may potentially allow an opportunity for hackers to gain access to their computers.

So I would recommend to turn-off this service to as another way to help improve security on your computer. Turning off this service may also help in adding a little bit of additional performance to your PC as well as it's one less unnecessary service that would be wasting some system resources otherwise.

For Windows XP, an easy way to do this is to click on the "Start" button, then select "Run", then enter in the following command: "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes).

The System Properties control panel should appear. Click on the "Remote" tab.
You will see a check-box next to a sentence that reads "Allow Remote Assistance invitations to be sent from this computer". If there is a check-mark in the box, be sure to remove it so it's not checked. (See picture below of what this should look like):

Once you have ensured there is no check-mark in the box, then click "OK" to close.
Well, there you have it, just one more way to help keep your computer safer.
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For Windows Vista, it's a similar procedure. You can do the following steps to disable Remote Assistance:

1. Click Start, and select Control Panel.
2. Within the Control Panel, System and Maintenance.
3. Click System.
4. From the list of tasks, click Remote Settings.
5. Under Remote Assistance, remove the check-mark beside the option to Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer.
6. Click OK.

If for some reason you ever needed to enable the Remote Assistance feature again, simply go back into the System Properties again the same way and then add the check-mark in the box. But chances are if you're using a home computer, you'll probably never need to use this service.

Stay safe. Cheers!

Game Booster: Freeware Utility

2009-07-01T10:06:00.002+08:00

If you like playing games on your PC, and you want to try and utilize every bit of power your system has to help improve gaming performance and speed, you can download a great little freeware utility called Game Booster. I use it on my PC while playing some games, and I often notice an improvement.

Here's a little more info on Game Booster and where you can download it for free:

Designed to help optimize your PC for smoother, more responsive game play in the latest PC games with the touch of a button, Game Booster helps achieve the performance edge previously only available to highly technical enthusiasts. It works by temporarily shutting down background processes, cleaning RAM, and intensifying processor performance. That means you can keep all the features of Microsoft® Windows Vista® and XP® ready for when you need them, but turn them off when you are ready to get down to serious business – gaming. Game Booster makes it simpler to enjoy the latest games and take your experience to a new level. All systems go!

You can download it at the following page:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Game_Booster_d6148.html

History of the Internet

2009-06-30T12:17:00.002+08:00

Here's a really interesting and informative video I found about the History of the Internet and how it evolved from it's early beginnings of Arpanet, to what it's become today. I learned a few things watching it.

It's really amazing how quickly the internet has evolved and continues to grow and evolve.

Just click on the video's Play button to watch it. Enjoy!

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

How to remove a program that doesn't seem to be able to un-install.

2009-06-27T11:58:00.003+08:00

When you are working on your computer and installing a new program, the installation suddenly fails. Now you are left with a partly installed program. You try to install the program again, but you are unsuccessful. Or, maybe you have problems trying to remove an old program because the installation files are corrupted.

Do not worry. Windows Installer CleanUp Utility might be able to help. You can use the utility to remove installation information for programs that were installed by using Windows Installer. Be aware that Windows Installer CleanUp Utility will not remove the actual program from your computer. However, it will remove the installation files so that you can start the installation, upgrade, or uninstall over.

Click Here to go to the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility page.

Want your computer to run at lightning fast speed and performance? Find more useful Tweaks, Tips, PC Utilities, Security Anti-Virus Software and Freeware Games at my PC site at: www.Tweaks4PC.com

Speed Up Windows (part 8)

2009-02-14T09:21:00.003+08:00

Here's another post of my continuing "Speed Up Windows" series of tweaks you can try in Windows that may help to speed up your PC. This post is a long one and contains a few tweaks that you may try that can greatly help to Speedup the Windows Shutdown Process. I found that after applying these tweaks that my computer now shuts down very quickly, usually within a few seconds.

These instructions are for use with Windows XP. You will probably need to be logged onto a user account with Administrator level access to do this tweak.

Reducing "Timeout"

Windows XP stores a couple of values in its registry which are responsible for determining how long to wait before shutting down open applications and services once the shutdown command has been given.

By editing these two settings and changing them to lower values, you can considerably decrease the amount of time that Windows XP needs to successfully shut itself down. The first part of this tweak deals with setting the amount of time Windows will take to kill open applications on shutdown.

Open REGEDIT (Click "Start", then select "Run" then enter "regedit")
and navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\’
Highlight the ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’ value.
Set it to a numerical value of 1000
Now highlight the HungAppTimeout value and set it to 1000 also.

The second part of this tweak changes the same settings, this time for all users on the system.

Open REGEDIT again and navigate to
‘HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\ControlPanel\Desktop’
Highlight the ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’ value.
Set it to to a numerical value of 1000
Now highlight the ‘HungAppTimeout’ value and set it to 1000 also.

In the third part of this tweak, we will alter a second registry setting to decrease the amount of time Windows XP will wait before shutting down active services after receiving a shut down command.

Open REGEDIT again and navigate to
‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\’

Highlight the value ‘WaitToKillServiceTimeout’

Change this value to 1000

This should help to considerably speed up the time Windows XP takes to shut itself down.
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Auto kill tasks on shutdown

By default, Windows XP will prompt the user for input if there are one or more applications which have crashed or are not responding and it receives a shut down command. This halts the shutdown process entirely until the user approves the stopping of the non-responsive app.

By altering the registry slightly, Windows XP can be set to close crashed applications automatically. While this does not technically speed up the shut down process, it does streamline it, and ensure that the user will not give the shutdown command then get up and leave, only to find the PC still powered on because Windows never received input on what to do with a hung application.

To allow Windows XP to close non-responsive applications automatically upon shutdown:

Open REGEDIT and navigate to
‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop’

Highlight the value ‘AutoEndTasks.’

Change the numerical value to 1

XP will now be able to close hung applications without user input during the shutdown process.
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Disable Terminal Services

If your Windows XP system slows or even stops when you shut it down, there's a good chance that Terminal Services is the reason. Users often overlook Terminal Services as a possible source of shutdown problems because it works quietly in the background.

Terminal Services is the brains behind such things as Remote Desktop, Remote Assistance, Fast User Switching, and Terminal Server. If you're not using any of these programs, you can disable Terminal Services. Here's how:

1. Right-click My Computer and select Manage.
2. In the Computer Management window, open the Services And Applications branch in the left pane and click Services.
3. In the Services pane, locate and double-click Terminal Services.
4. In the Terminal Services Properties dialog box, set the Startup Type setting to Disabled.
5. Click OK and then close the Computer Management window.
6. Restart Windows for the new settings to take effect.

If you don’t find Terminal Services in the Services pane, or if it is there but is already disabled, or Windows still hangs during shutdown even after you change the Startup Type setting, then the source of your shutdown problem is probably not related to Terminal Services.

FireFox Browser RAM Tweaks

2009-02-07T01:48:00.001+08:00

By tweaking the way Firefox handles some caching functions, you can dramatically improve page load speed and even prevent Firefox from hogging your system resources while minimized.

Type in: "about:config" (without the quotes) in the Firefox Address bar and press Enter. You may get a warning message, so if you wish to continue, click on the "I'll be careful, I promise" button on the warning page.

Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for its cache:

1. Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer”
2. Set it’s numerical value to “0“ (Zero without the quotes)

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Reduce RAM usage to 10MB when Firefox is minimized:

This tweak will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:

1. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
2. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize” (without the quotes). Press Enter.
3. Now select True and then press Enter.
4. Restart Firefox Browser for the new changes to take effect.

Speed Up Windows (part 7)

2009-02-04T08:13:00.004+08:00

These instructions are for use with Windows XP. You will probably need to be logged onto a user account with Administrator level access to do this tweak.

You might consider making a System Restore checkpoint or a backup of your registry before making any changes you're not sure about in case something seems to cause problems in which case you could restore your settings from the checkpoint or backup.

* Note: This tweak might cause problems with ATI graphics cards.
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These Settings will fine tune your system's memory management.
At least 512MB of ram or more installed on a PC is recommended to try this tweak.

Click on "Start", then select "run" and enter "regedit" (without the quotes), and then navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

Now make the following changes:

1. DisablePagingExecutive: Double-click it and change the Decimal to a number of 1. This will allows XP to keep data in memory now instead of paging sections of ram to the hard drive and should help to yield faster performance.

2. LargeSystemCache: Double-click it and change the Decimal to a number of 1. This will allow XP Kernel to Run in memory which should help to improve system performance.

Reboot your computer for the new changes to take effect.

Windows XP Page Defrag.

2009-01-30T21:30:00.004+08:00

Doing a Page Defrag once in a while may help to improve performance on a Windows XP based PC. Here's some information about a free utility that can do a Page Defrag on Windows XP.

For more details about the PageDefrag utility and to download it from MicroSoft, click on the following link:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx

The following information was excerpted from Wikipedia:
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PageDefrag is a program, developed by Sysinternals (now distributed by Microsoft), for Microsoft Windows that runs at start-up to defrag the virtual memory page file and the Registry files.

If these files are defragmented, this may improve performance. Since PageDefrag only affects a small number of files, it takes a relatively short time to run when compared to entire-disk defragmenters like Windows Defrag, so long as the page file is not fragmented. If the page file is fragmented, PageDefrag can take as long as Windows Defrag, or even longer.

PageDefrag does not defragment the contents of the Registry files, only the placement of these files on the hard drive.
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Speed Up Windows (part 6)

2009-01-17T10:27:00.003+08:00

Continuing with another tweak you can do in Windows that may help to speed up your PC. Again, the instructions are for use with Windows XP, but can probably be done in a similar way on other versions of Windows. You will probably need to be logged onto a user account with Administrator level access to do this tweak.

Enable DMA on Hard Drives

Some Windows systems may not be configured to use DMA, a mode in which your hard drive bypasses the CPU and accesses memory directly from RAM. DMA enables the CPU to work less and therefore faster. Do the following steps to enable the DMA option on your system:

Go to Device Manager (Start | Control Panel | System | Hardware | Device Manager)
and look for the IDE ATA Controllers section.
Click the Plus sign to expand, then double-click Primary IDE Channel.
Click Advanced Settings.
Make sure the DMA option is selected for both Transfer modes.
Click OK.

Repeat for the Secondary IDE Channel.
Click OK.

You may need to restart your computer for the new settings to take effect.

Speed Up Windows (part 5)

2009-01-13T04:02:00.004+08:00

Here is another suggestion that you can do in Windows that should help to speed up browsing folders on your computer. This suggestion is for use in Windows XP, but should probably work the same way in most other versions of Windows as well.

Speed up Folder Browsing

You may have noticed that every time you open "My Computer" to browse folders that there is a bit of a delay. This is usually due to Windows automatically searching for network files and printers every time you open Windows Explorer. If you do not want Windows to search for network files and printers, then you can disable this option to increase browsing speed significantly by doing the following steps:

1: Open "My Computer" (Click "Start" then select "My Computer")
2: Click on the "Tools" menu
3: Click on "Folder Options"
4: Click on the "View" tab.
5: Uncheck the "Automatically search for network folders and printers" check box
6: Click "Apply"
7: Click "Ok"
8: Reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

Allow 10 Simultaneous Downloads in IE Browser

2009-01-07T12:11:00.005+08:00

You can configure Internet Explorer to allow 10 simultaneous downloads (the normal maximum is 2). Copy and paste the code below into Notepad and save it as 'Downloads.reg' (remember where you saved it to):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]

"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:0000000a
"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:0000000a

Make sure all Internet Explorer windows are closed then double-click on the 'Download.reg' file and click Yes to enter it into the Registry.

Internet Explorer Browser - Resize Window

2008-12-31T13:50:00.001+08:00

Internet Explorer 4x has several undocumented JavaScript 1.1 commands to resize your browser. Just enter one of these commands in the Address/Location URL box:

javascript:resizeTo(640,480);
javascript:resizeTo(800,600);
javascript:resizeTo(1024,768);
javascript:resizeTo(1152,874);
javascript:resizeTo(1200,1024);
javascript:resizeTo(1600,1200);
javascript:resizeTo(1792,1344);
javascript:resizeTo(1800,1400);
javascript:resizeTo(1972,1600);

Now just hit Enter to see the effect.
* Note: you can only use the screen resolutions supported by both your video card controller and monitor.

Disable Flash Popup Ads in FireFox Browser

2008-12-29T08:09:00.002+08:00

Lately it seems that more and more popups are managing to get through Firefox. It seems that the Macromedia Flash plugin allows webmasters to launch popups in a way that bypasses Firefox’s built-in blocking mechanism. Simply follow these steps to disable this annoyance:

1. Type "about:config" (without the quotes) into the Firefox Address Bar. You may get a warning message, so if you wish to continue, click on the "I'll be careful, I promise" button on the warning page.

2. Right-click on the page and select "New–>Integer"

3. Name the new value "privacy.popups.disablefromplugins" (without the quotes).

4. Set the numerical value to 2

FireFox Browser Keyboard Shortcuts

2008-12-19T07:16:00.004+08:00

Sometimes it's quicker and easier to use a Keyboard Shortcut to perform an operation in FireFox browser. Here is a list of Keyboard Shortcuts for use with FireFox Browser and the operations it will perform.

Help: F1
New Mail Message: Ctrl+M
Homepage: Alt+Home
Web Search: Ctrl+K
Bookmarks: Ctrl+B / Ctrl+I
Go Down One Line: Down
Add Bookmark: Ctrl+D
Go Down One Page: PageDown
Back: Backspace / Alt+<-
Go Up One Page: PageUp
Forward: Shift+Backspace / Alt+->
Go To Bottom Of Page: End
Reload: F5 / Ctrl+R
Go To Top Of Page: Home
Stop: Esc
Open File: Ctrl+O
Full Screen: F11
Open Link: Enter
Cut: Ctrl+X
Save Page As: Ctrl+S
Copy: Ctrl+C
Save Link Target As: Alt+Enter
Paste: Ctrl+V
Print: Ctrl+P
Undo: Ctrl+Z
Downloads: Ctrl+J
Redo: Ctrl+Shift+Z / Ctrl+Y
History: Ctrl+H
Delete: Del
Page Source: Ctrl+U
Close Tab: Ctrl+W / Ctrl+F4
Move To Next Frame: F6
New Tab: Ctrl+T
Move To Previous Frame: Shift+F6
Next Tab: Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+PageDown
Select All: Ctrl+A
Previous Tab: Ctrl+Shift+Tab / Ctrl+PageUp
Select Location Bar: Ctrl+L / Alt+D
Open Link In New Tab: Ctrl+Enter
Increase Text Size: Ctrl++
Open Address In New Tab: Alt+Enter
Decrease Text Size: Ctrl+-
Close Window: Ctrl+Shift+W / Alt+F4
Restore Text Size: Ctrl+O
New Window: Ctrl+N
Complete .com Address: Ctrl+Enter
Open Link In New Window: Shift+Enter
Complete .net Address: Shift+Enter
Find Again: Ctrl+G / F3
Complete .org Address: Ctrl+Shift+Enter
Find Previous: Ctrl+Shift+G / Shift+F3
DOM Inspector: Ctrl+Shift+I
Find In This Page: Ctrl+F
Caret Browsing: F7

Speed Up FireFox Browser

2008-12-16T21:39:00.003+08:00

The following FireFox Browser Tricks will probably only work if you have a high-speed / broadband internet connection. If you have a dial-up internet connection, then even if you try the following tricks, chances are you wouldn't notice any difference after applying these tricks.

By default, FireFox browser is already a fairly fast browser, but here we will offer some "tricks" that you can do to help speed it up a notch.

Type in: "about:config" (without the quotes) in the Address bar and press Enter. You may get a warning message, so if you wish to continue, click on the "I'll be careful, I promise" button on the warning page.

On the "about:config" screen, scroll down to the "network.http.pipelining" options.
Firefox normally processes all HTTP requests sequentially. Once it sends one out, it waits for a response before sending the next request to a server.

Set the "network.http.pipelining" and "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to a value of "true".

Now set the "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" option to 30 and Firefox will now send up to 30 HTTP requests at once, theoretically, although not always, making your browser that little bit faster.

Before you close the window, right-click anywhere on the "about:config" page and select "New->Integer". Then type in "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" (without the quotes) and enter 0 as its numerical value. Firefox will now render pages immediately instead of waiting its default 250 ms, a slight but noticeable difference when you're surfing the Web.

Speed Up Windows (part 4)

2008-11-30T13:09:00.002+08:00

Sometimes even after doing many various tweaks that you can do in Windows, you may notice only just a little improvement in overall speed and you feel that your computer is still running slow.

Doing the various Windows tweaks that I've suggested previously should still help, but sometimes the computer hardware itself may be limited in what it can do.

So in this post I will give a couple of suggestions of "hardware upgrading solutions" that you may consider trying. Though if your computer is fairly new with an ample amount of RAM installed and a good Graphics Card already, and your computer already seems to be running fairly fast, then there's probably no need to do these suggestions.

* Install More RAM:
One big cause of slowdown on a computer is that it simply may not have enough RAM installed. After turning on your computer and then Windows along with other Startup programs loads in, a big chunk of the RAM memory may already be taken up, and your system will then seem slow and sluggish to run more programs or to even perform seemingly simply tasks.

RAM sticks nowadays are usually reasonably priced and can be bought easily at most computer shops.

There are so many different types of computer cases and the motherboard layout can vary depending on the model, so the process of accessing the RAM slots can vary. And depending on the type of model the computer is can determine the certain type of RAM stick that you need. So you will need to determine the specific type of RAM that you'll need if you want to upgrade and add more RAM.

Below is a video I found on YouTube that gives an example of how you might check for and then install more RAM on a computer system. But as I mentioned above, this procedure can vary according to the type of computer that you have:

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* Install a good Graphics Card:
The other suggestion I might make is to upgrade to a good graphics card. If for example you are only using your computer's built-into-the-motherboard graphics port, then chances are it's not very powerful. It may be fine for running simple applications, but if you are into playing modern games that tend to be very graphic and resource intensive, then having a low-end graphics card would not be of much use in this case.

Below is another video I've found one YouTube that gives an example of how to install a Graphics Card:

The ATI and nVidia brands seems to be a couple of the more popular types of graphics card that gamers tend to use. Over the years, I've tried both ATI and nVidia models, and personally, I prefer the nVidia models better as in my experience it seems to be a bit "less buggy", I found it tends to be a bit more compatible with games and overall I've had a more smoother and better gaming experience using nVidia graphic cards. I would suggest a graphics card that has a minimum of 512MB built into it (or perhaps more), and a card that is fairly current to easily handle 3D gaming. A good graphics card can help to take the load off the computer's CPU and resources and can also help in making the overall system run faster. I can't recommend any specific model, as that is a personal choice for each user according to their computing requirements as well as their budget limitations too.

Speed Up Windows (part 3)

2008-11-28T23:12:00.005+08:00

Here's another post of my continuing "Speed Up Windows" series of tweaks you can try in Windows that may help to speed up your PC. Again, the instructions are for use with Windows XP, but can probably be done in a similar way on other versions of Windows. You will probably need to be logged onto a user account with Administrator level access to do some of these tweaks.

In using our computers, over time lots of crap can build up on the hard drives; things such as temporary files, left-over registry entries that are no longer valid (perhaps still remaining after uninstalling a program), traces of your online Internet History, unneeded programs that waste space, etc...

Today I will suggest a handy little Freeware utility I sometimes use to help clean up the unneeded junk from my PC. It's called "ccleaner" sometimes referred to as "crap cleaner", as its namesake suggests, it can help you to quickly and easily find and remove the various "crap" on your hard-drive that tends to gather over time.

Visit the following link to find out more information of what it does, how to use it and to download a free copy: http://www.ccleaner.com/

After installing and running this program, you will see four main choices on the menu:

- "Cleaner". Good for getting rid of various left-over junk such as temporary internet files, cookies, history, empty the recycle bin and so on. You can selectively choose what options to scan for and then to remove from your hard drive. You might be surprised at how much useless junk files it finds that you can remove. Choosing to then remove the files will help to get rid of these unnecessary files, therefore freeing up extra hard-drive space and perhaps helping to give a little extra boost of speed and performance.

- "Registry". As we install programs, uninstall, update, move things around and so on, sometimes there are unnecessary registry entries that get left behind. Over time as these orphaned entries that tend to point-to-nowhere or are redundant, they build up clutter and space on Windows registry that will lead to more wasted space and tend to slow things down. This option helps you to safely scan for and then remove these useless registry entries. It also has a handy built-in registry backup feature that you can choose to do before actually fixing-up the registry problems that ccleaner finds.

- "Tools". From this option, you can select "Uninstall", which is a quick and easy way to remove old installed programs that you may no longer need or use. Again, getting rid of old unneeded programs will help to recover wasted disk space and perhaps help in speeding things up a little more. The other choice is "Startup", which basically shows you a list of items that will start-up when you turn on your computer and Windows loads in. This is basically the same as if you were to run the "msconfig" command to access the "Startup" list as I explained in a previous post, but perhaps a little more easier and convenient.

- "Options". Which is fairly easy enough to figure out. Just go through the different choices and configure the various settings as you prefer.

After running this "ccleaner" utility and doing various clean-ups with it, then restarting your computer, chances are you will probably notice a bit of an extra boost in speed and performance on your system.
To help keep your computer running more smoothly, you might want to run "ccleaner" every couple of weeks or so. I do, and I find it really helps.

Flash Game - Hanna in a Chopper!

2008-11-26T23:03:00.006+08:00

Hi all. Sometimes we just need some time-wasting fun to help relieve the stress while we should probably be working or doing something productive.

Here's a little fun flash game that you can play right now to kill a few minutes.
( If you don't already have "Flashplayer" installed for your browser, you can visit the following link to download and install now for free:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/ )

"Hanna in a Chopper". It starts off easy enough. Use your arrow-keys to fly the chopper up, down, left and right. Use the "Z" and "X" keys to rotate left or right. Use the "Space" key to deploy the winch to grab objects (sheep, people, various other objects) and space again to release a grabbed object. "Enter" key to start a mission, or click "Start" with mouse. "Escape" key to exit game.

Fly through the various levels, complete the tasks and land softly next to the flag to complete a level.

See if you can complete all the levels. Some of them are fairly straight-forward and easy, where others you have to think about a bit. So, why now waste a few minutes, relax and have fun!
(Just click "Bring it on!" to start the game :)

more Flash Games

DailyHaHa

Speed Up Windows (part 2)

2008-11-25T22:51:00.008+08:00

Continuing with more suggestions of tweaks you can try in Windows that may help to speed up your PC. Again, the instructions are for use with Windows XP, but can probably be done in a similar way on other versions of Windows. You will probably need to be logged onto a user account with Administrator level access to do some of these tweaks.

* Adjusting the System Properties' Performance settings.
An easy way to access this built in utility is to click on "Start", then right-click on "My Computer", then select "Properties". The System Properties box should appear.
Click on the "Advanced" tab. Now look for the Performance sections and click on that "Settings" button. (See picture below of what this may look like)

On the "Visual Effects" section, you'll see a number of options:

- "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer". (often the default setting).

- "Adjust for best appearance". (to have all of the visual effects options active, but can cause a reduction in overall performance and speed)

- "Adjust for best performance". (Turns off all of the visual effects settings. You'll get an overall faster performance and speed, but some things may tend to look a bit too bland and unappealing in choosing this option).

- "Custom". (You choose what effects to turn off or leave on. Try and choose for a balance of having things look good visually as well as turning off some options which will help a bit to improve performance and speed).

Personally, I chose the "Custom" option and probably have about half of the items turned off, but some things I leave on because visually it's more pleasing. So I suggest to experiment a bit with turning off some of these options and see if you're happy with the results. If you make a change you don't like, you can always go back and turn-on the various option(s) again to your liking. Once you think you are happy with your choices, you can then press the "Apply" button to see how things look, and then "OK" to accept the new changes.

You could go in and adjust some of the other various System Properties options, but perhaps I'll cover some of those other options in another post. Just be careful about changing some settings you're not sure about as it could have adverse results. You might consider making a System Restore checkpoint before making any changes you're not sure about in case something seems to cause problems. But you could probably most likely just change things back to it's original setting via using the System Properties utility in that case too.

Speed Up Windows (part 1)

2008-11-24T00:24:00.005+08:00

In this post I will give some suggestions that you can do in Windows that should help to speed up your computer and improve overall performance. These suggestions are for use in Windows XP, but should probably work the same way in most other versions of Windows as well. I will give more related suggestions in future posts as well.

Disable unnecessary applications from running when you start-up Windows.

When you turn on your computer, Windows loads in various programs in the background automatically so they will be already running by the time your main desktop finally loads in completely. However, the more programs that Windows loads in, the more it can slow-down the overall loading in and starting up process, the more memory and resources will be used which tends to bog things down and can cause an overall reduction in speed and performance.

Some programs when you install them, they will often try to place themselves on the Startup list of programs that Windows will load in automatically when you turn on your computer. Some programs we WANT to have automatically starting up, such as Anti-Virus, graphics-drivers, Firewall, etc... But some programs we don't want or are unnecessary to have starting up every time we turn on our computer.

So what we want to do is to disable the unnecessary programs from starting up. Some of these programs when you run them, hopefully they will have some option or configuration settings that will give you a choice of if you want that particular program starting up every time Windows loads in.

For example; if you had an instant chat messenger program such as Yahoo Messenger, you could navigate through the menus, I think it's "Messenger" then "Preferences" then on the "General" settings area, you'll see a line that reads like "When I start up my computer - Automatically start Yahoo messenger". So if you really want the Yahoo Messenger program starting up each time, then sure, leave it checked. But if you don't need it starting automatically every time you turn on your computer, you could simply un-check this option.
If you leave that option un-checked, then Yahoo Messenger would no longer automatically run each time you turn on your computer, but you can still run the Yahoo Messenger program at anytime you wanted by simply choosing to run it yourself when you want to use it.

However, and unfortunately, there are some programs that we install that does not appear to have a built-in option to prevent it from automatically loading each time we turn on our computer. And perhaps this is a program or application that really is unnecessary to have starting up each time. So in this case, how do we prevent such programs from starting up when it doesn't appear to give us that option? One simple way is through the System Configuration Utility. An easy way to access this would be to click on "Start" in your task-bar, then select the "Run" command. In the line, type in then enter the following command: msconfig

The System Configuration Utility box should now appear. There are several tabs along the top, but the tab we want to click on is the "Startup" tab.
See the picture below of what this might looks like (picture taken from my own computer):

Looking at the items on the Startup list, the ones that have a check-mark in the box next to it will have that program load in automatically each time. The programs that you want starting up each time, just leave the check-mark in the box. But as you scroll through the list and look at the various items on the list, if you see programs that you don't need or want starting up each time, then simply un-check the box next to that item.

There may be some items on the list that you don't recognize though. You could un-check it, but then it might be an important application that is required for something to work properly. In this case you could simply re-check that item again later if you find that something has appeared to stopped functioning properly.

A good site I found that you can use to look up many common and known programs or files that might be on a start-up list is over at the Task List Programs page at the AnswersThatWork.com site. You can find that particular page at the following link:
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

So, for example; I see on my start-up items list an item I don't recognize, I see the file or application name is "smc.exe". I can then go to the AnswersThatWork page that I mentioned above, click on the letter "S", then scroll down and look for "smc.exe" on their list to see if they have any information and recommendations about that particular file. On their page for the "smc.exe" listing, I see they have some information and a recommendation that reads:
" This is the Sygate Personal Firewall program which runs either as a Task under Win9x/ME, or as a service in WinNT4/2000/XP.
Recommendation :
Essential – if this task is terminated the firewall is not running."

Aha! So now I know this is my Sygate Firewall program and it would be important to have it starting. But some other items on my list may be unnecessary to have starting up and I found the AnswersThatWork.com site a good source of information in finding out what some particular files and programs are that may be on the start-up list or might be running as a task in the background when Windows is running.

When you are finished un-checking all of the unnecessary items on your startup list, you should re-boot your computer for the new changes to take effect. When the Windows loads back in and the desktop returns you, will be presented with a window that reads something like "You have chosen Selective Startup." Just Check the little box next to the "Do not show this window again" option and click OK.

Okay, that's it for now. Following these suggestions you will probably notice a faster boot-up time and bit of an overall improved speed and performance from your computer.

I will soon be posting more tweaking tips that will help improve speed and performance, so be sure to come back again to this blog soon.

Thanks! --- Don.

The Suffering. PC Game now Freeware!

2008-11-22T02:22:00.010+08:00

I'm a long-time fan of "Survival Horror" games since back to my younger days of playing the first few Resident Evil games on my old Play Station. Ahhh, the memories of playing late at night in my room sitting in front of my TV with the lights low, controller gripped in hands, the sound turned up a little while exploring some creepy zombie-infected mansion or town, not knowing when the next onslaught of mindless blood-thirsty creatures would jump out at me from the shadows. I was hooked!

These engaging and thrilling games really got my imagination going, and in the wee hours of the morning after playing for probably too many hours, I would slink off to bed and have dreams of fighting off the relentless zombies while trying to explore and find my way out of some post-apocalyptic landscape.

Recently when browsing the internet, out of curiosity I was looking for some Survival Horror type of games in which I could play on my PC.

I found some references to a game released by Midway in 2003, called
"The Suffering - Prison is Hell".

Below is a link to a video trailer for the game I found on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtNl_bjhXfg

Checking out some pics, video trailer and some reviews, it looked rather promising.
Here's a link to a good review of the game:
http://rr.xbox.ign.com/rrview/xbox/the_suffering/545746/54928/

I was looking for an online store in which I might be able to purchase and download it. But after a little more research I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Midway has now recently released this great game as Freeware! Wow! Now I just had to find out where I can download it from. After a bit more searching, I found a currently active download link in which you can download the full game, over at GamersHell site. The link to the page in which you can download "The Suffering" game can be found at the following:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_33314.shtml

The file size is around 1.26GB, so hopfully you have a fast internet connection (otherwise it could take a rather long time), and be sure you have enough free space on your Hard-Drive before downloading.
Once you arrive at The Suffering download page on GamersHell, scroll down that page a bit and you should see several buttons that link to various download locations. Pick a link that may be closer to your geographical location for hopfully a faster download connection.

So, what's the catch you ask? Why is Midway now giving away such a cool game for free? Well, from what I can find, I guess it's one way in which they can help to promote their more recently released game of this series "The Suffering 2 - The Ties that Bind".

Also, appearantly, the now free version of The Suffering game is ad-sponsered. How is this supposed to work? Well, after installing the game and before launching it, you'll have to be sure your internet connection is active otherwise you won't be able to play the game as supposedly upon starting the game you'll see a short video-ad that streams from the internet and the same upon closing the game. However in my case, I've never once yet been bothered with any advertisments while playing the game. Perhaps it has to do with my geographical location (in SE Asia)? Or perhaps the streaming advertisements are no longer being served? Also, after playing a couple of times without seeing any advertisements, I had my Firewall software to simply "block" the connection that the game was trying to make, and I can still play the game fully without any problems.

You get to play a character who goes by the name of "Torque". He's a prisoner on Death-Row, who may or may-not-have murdered his family. One cool thing about the game is that by the choices you make during game play, such as being helpful to other people in need or brutally killing them, will later have an affect on the story and portraying if Torque is actually really guilty or not of murdering his family.

The game is brutal and bloody and not recommended for younger players or players who don't want to see graphic violence in a game. The game is a few years old now, but still fairly current with good graphics, sounds and playability. The mouse control seemed a little "choppy" at times, but after a while of playing it didn't really bother me much.

Overall I'd give the game a score of 7 out of 10. And hey, for a Freeware PC game, it's probably one of the best I've played.

Enjoy! :)

Secure your computer!

2008-11-20T06:06:00.010+08:00

With so many computer viruses, hackers, phishers, spammers, spyware, adware, malware, rootkits and various other nasties lurking about on the internet, it's important to take measures to help secure your computer and the information on it.

In this post I will suggest a few really good free programs that can help to protect your Windows PC.

Before installing or running any new programs though, I might suggest you make a "System Restore" checkpoint of your system, as well as having any important files backed-up. That way if anything seems to screw-up, you can do a roll-back to that checkpoint if need be.
In XP, you can do this by clicking on "Start", then select "All Programs", "Accessories", "System Tools" then choose "System Restore". Upon running, you will see an option to make a new Restore point.

Anti-Virus:
First off, you definitely should have an active and up-to-date anti-virus program on your system. You should only have one anti-virus program installed on the same system at the same time, otherwise having more than one anti-virus programs installed and running may give conflicts to each other as well as causing unnecessary usage of your system's resources as well as perhaps causing a slowdown of speed and performance.

If you don't already have an anti-virus program installed, or if you're looking to try a different anti-virus program, then I highly recommend trying AntiVir. I've been using it for the last few years now on my computers, and I find it works great, only takes up a little resources and doesn't seem to slow down my system compared to other anti-virus programs I've tried in the past (such as Norton's and Mcafee's). And best of all, you can download a totally Free version.
Visit their site at: www.free-av.com
Click on the "Product" link on their site, then choose the "Avira AntiVir Personal - FREE Antivirus" in which you'll then be taken to a page for a download link.

The free version works great, you can check for updated definitions anytime you like or set it to check on a schedule. They do have a pay-for "Premium" version which has a few more features if you'd like instead.

A couple of things that may bug you a little about the free-version is the pop-up nag window to try and convince you to buy the Premium version every time you check for an update. But this is a minor annoyance considering it's still a great program that you're using for free. Also, sometimes when they release a big update, the free-version sometimes can take longer to connect to their update servers. However in that case if you can't connect to update, you could still go to their website, download the update file, then choose to have the program manually update from that file. There is also a fairly active forum they have there if you need some help or more information.

Anti-Spyware / Anti-Adware / Anti-Malware:

Spyware and Adware (also generally known as Malware ) can also be quite nasty, and in a way is much like a virus, but I guess the main difference is that a virus will attempt to spread itself to other computers (usually through harvesting your email lists and trying to email a copy of itself to your contacts, or via instant-messengers type programs), or by spreading through whatever other networking connections it may have available. Whereas spyware / adware / malware type of programs tend to focus on the computer it has infected and tries it's best to harvest your information and send it back to big-brother via internet, or to just simply cause damage or to perhaps try to convince you to buy some piece-of-crap software that will most likely end up installing more junk on your system.

Here are links to a few good free utilites that you can use to help protect against, and/or scan for and remove these types of malwares.

Ad-Aware from lavasoft.com
Look for the "Download Ad-Aware Free" link on their page. You'll then be taken to a page in which you can download the free version, or if you so wish they have an "Ad-Aware Plus" version which is free to try, but you'd have to pay for it after the trial-period expires.
After installing, be sure to check for updates to have the most current definitions.
I find Ad-Aware to be a fairly good program that scans for and in most cases can easily remove most malware.

SpyBot Search & Destroy from spybot.com
First click on the language of choice from their main page (In my case, English).
Look under the "Products" and you should see a link to "SpyBot Search and Destroy".
After clicking that, you should be able to find the download link.
Though SpyBot works in a similar way to Ad-Aware for scanning for and removing junk, SpyBot seems maybe not quite as easy-to-use as Ad-Aware. But it does have more features and options. Also, it has a special added bonus with a little utility you can opt to install called "Tea Timer", which will help to protect your computer real-time against various malwares. So the Tea-Timer can work something like an Anti-Virus program, but it's more like an Anti-Spyware program. Anyways, it only takes up a little resource and gives more active protection to your system.

SpywareBlaster from javacoolsoftware.com
This nice little utility will help to protect against spyware junk from being installed on you computer before it has a chance. After installing, check for updates to get the most current definitions. Then choose to "Enable All Protection". Read their page for more info on how it works.

FireWall:
The last few Windows versions has a built-in Firewall feature, but it's a little bit like swiss-cheese. It seems to do an "ok" job, but it still let's lots of stuff slip through some "holes" it may not cover and the user has little control of any options other than turning it on or off.

The firewall program that I have been using for many years is a free version of "Sygate Personal Firewall". I think perhaps the program may no longer be actively supported, but once installing it I've never had a need to update it anyways and it works great and with some good features. You'll need to "train it" at first of which programs are good to allow connection to the internet, but after that training-period, if you check the box for "Remember this setting" and "Yes" to allow a good program (Such as your browser), then afterward it will automatically know which programs to allow.
An active link in which you can still download their free version is
SPF from TuCows.com
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Oh yes, if after installing any anti-virus and anti-spyware programs and you want to do a full scan to check for nasties that may be lurking (viruses and spywares and such), I might suggest to do the scanning in Safe Mode, as when Windows boots in normal mode, IF a computer did have any virus or malware, a lot of times they try to hide and/or protect themselves from being detected or removed. Whereas booting into Safe-Mode, only the bare-minimum Windows drivers and such will load in, and usually viruses and malwares can't load in Safe-Mode (but that's not always the case).
Anyways, to enter Safe Mode, when you first turn your computer on, try tapping the "F8" key a few times before the Windows logo appears, and hopefully you'll see a boot-up menu. Use the up-down arrow keys to highlight the "Safe Mode" choice from the menu, then "Enter" key to select. Once in Safe Mode, you should hopefully be able to more thoroughly run your scans.

Whew! Well, there ya go. That's a few great programs that I use to help protect my computers.
I guess everyone's got their personal favorites of what they prefer and seems to work good for them. But I thought I'd throw out a few options that are FREE to download and use, plus in my personal experience of using them I find they work great.

Remember, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"! Be protected to help prevent problems from happening. So, be smart and play safe.

Best wishes, --- Don.