3 Simple ways to speed up your PC

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Does your formerly fast computer take forever to start or open simple programs? If it feels like you’re waiting an eternity between clicks or seeing the Windows hourglass too much, you’re probably ready to spring for a new computer. Not so fast!

Before you spend any money on a new computer, there are free proven things you can try to give it a bit more gas. You can bring your computer back to its former speedy glory before you know it.

Tip in a Tip: Before I go on, however, I do have an important note. If the computer in question runs the old Windows XP, then it really is time to upgrade. Microsoft ended support for XP months ago, and it really isn’t safe to use.

Now, there are three simple ways to bring back new life into your computer. If you’re ready to get started, let’s look at the first way. You won’t believe all that starts when you start your computer.

1. SPEED YOUR STARTUP
Does this sound familiar? You start your computer first thing in the morning, and it’s almost ready to use when you come home from work. That’s not uncommon on older machines.

Over time as you install more and more programs, they attach themselves to your computer’s start sequence.

No wonder your computer is slow and bogged down! It’s trying to run a sprint carrying lead weights. Take a load off your computer and fire up a program like Autoruns. This tells you exactly what is starting along with your computer.

You can tell unimportant programs not to run with a click. Be ruthless; even programs you do use regularly probably don’t need to load first thing. And don’t worry; you aren’t uninstalling any programs.

So, if you find you disabled a program that should load at startup – like security – you can re-enable it. That was just an example, by the way; don’t actually disable any of your security. That’s one thing that you definitely want to load at startup.

Just want to delay some items for a bit? TopWinPrio is a handy program for delaying less important startup items. Click here to learn more about speeding up your computer’s startup.

If you’ve got a handle on that already, keep reading.

2. FREE UP DRIVE SPACE
As a computer’s hard drive gets full, it will slow down the entire computer. You don’t even have to fill it up completely – even dropping below a gigabyte of free space can be a drag.

If you find yourself with a full hard drive, it’s time to take action. A program like WinDirStat can tell you what files and folders are taking up room. You can then move the larger or infrequently used files to an external hard drive. Or just delete them.

It may be that you have duplicate files clogging up your folders. A program like Duplicate Cleaner can make quick work of those.

You might find that Windows’ temporary files and folders have grown out of control. In that case, a program like CCleaner can clean them out fast. It’s a quick way to free up some space. Just be careful to note everything it wants to clean.

If you don’t know what something is or aren’t sure you want to clean it, uncheck it.

3. USE A FASTER BROWSER
You might find that your computer drags most when you’re surfing the Internet. It might just be your connection – click here to find out if you’re getting the speed you’re paying for.

However, an old version of your browser could also be a culprit. Click here to make sure your browser is up to date.

If you’re using Internet Explorer 8, then you’re running Windows XP and need to upgrade your computer. However, in the meantime, switching to Firefox or Chrome will give you a nice speed boost.

Your browser might also be clogged with unwanted toolbars. Learn how to easily remove toolbars from your browser.

If your computer is still slow, your computer will need a proper tuneup. Sometimes slow computers are caused by viruses, software corruption or not enough memory to power your powerful anti-virus software such as Norton.

Give us a call or bring your computer in. We can perform a full hardware and software assessment. Speed up your computer, so you can enjoy it once again.

5 Common causes of lockups & solutions

Your computer was working fine, but then suddenly started locking up (freezing), rebooting itself (crashing) or shutting down spontaneously? If you know only too well what I am talking about, then read on! Performing the simple steps below can fix the majority of lockup cases.

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Boost Wireless Signal Yourself

If you have a large house, and your wireless signal is not cutting it…It’s amazing what a few sheets of tinfoil can do for the strength of your wireless signal. By carefully folding tinfoil into a parabola, you can boost your wireless strength tremendously. The fellas in the video saw gains from 82% to just under 100%, though I only saw boosts of around five percent, so your mileage may vary. This project should only take about three minutes and will hopefully leave you with impressive results.


3 Very Useful & Free Windows Softwares

1. File Restoration

Undelete files you accidentally trashed from your hard drive, USB drive, or camera’s flash card with Restoration. Since deleting files from your PC doesn’t actually delete the bits that make them up, undelete utilities like Restoration can scan “unused” disk space and cobble together fragments of files past. However, if your computer overwrites even a bit of the file, you’re toast?but it should be your first stop the moment you realise you needed that file you just emptied out of the Recycle Bin.

Download Restoration Here

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2. Duplicate File Finder

Are you running out of hard drive space? One way to save space is to deleted those duplicate files you have hanging around. The two programs below are great for scanning your hard drive (or specific folders) and identify which files are exactly the same. Especially great for deleting doubles or even triples of your MP3 or photo collection.

Download Doublekiller Here
Download Easy Duplicate Finder Here

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3. Backup your files automatically

Automate your data backups with SyncBack freeware, a robust backup utility that backs up or synchronises data between your hard drive and an external drive or FTP server (for off-site backup.) Configure it to run at times you schedule, and get email notifications if something goes wrong.

Download SyncBack here

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How to repair and Rar or Zip file

Step 1:

Open WinRAR (Download it Here) and browse to the folder with your .rar/.zip file.

Step 2:

Find the file you want to repair and click the “Repair” button from the tool bar.

Step 3:

In the pop-up window, select “Treat the corrupt archive as RAR or Zip” depending on which type of archive you are trying to repair.

Step 4:

If you get a “Suspicious Entry” pop-up. Select All. This may happen several times while repairing.

Step 5:

After repairing is complete, click on Close.

Step 6:

To extract your file, highlight your new rebuilt archive.

Step 7:Next select Commands>Extract without confirmation

Step 8:

The files will start extracting.

Step 9:

The archived files will be extracted to the same folder as the repaired archive.

This instructions was originally written by Adam Roper is the founder of GlobalFusion

Password Protect Folders in XP

If you share a computer with other users, you will probably be familiar with user accounts and passwords. But since every user have access to windows explorer, having seperate user accounts does not always stop others from accessing your data. Here’s an article?on how you could add some extra security on your folders?using Windows XP’s own password protect tools.

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http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/232

Save Time – Change Windows Default Save As or Open Location

While working in Microsoft Office, when you try to open or save a document, it opens the default documents folder to open or save the file.

This tutorial will teach you how to change this default location to your desired drive or folder, so that you don’t need to browse to that folder each time. It’ll be save your precious time.

So here we start:

For Microsoft Office 2000, XP and 2003:

1.Open any Office application like Microsoft Word and click on “Tools -> Options”.
2.Click on “File Locations” tab and select “Documents”. Now click on “Modify” button:
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3.It’ll open browse window. Navigate to the desired drive or folder which you want to set as default location and click on OK button. It’ll change the file location. Now click on OK button and you have done.
NOTE: You’ll need to follow these steps for all Office applications separately.

For Microsoft Office 2007, 2010 and 2013:

1.Open any Office application like Microsoft Word and click on Office ORB (Big round button) or FILE menu at top-left.
2. Now click on “Options”, it’ll open Options window. Click on “Save” tab and in right-side pane, you can change the “Default file location” by simply typing the exact path or by selecting the desired drive/folder using Browse button:
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NOTE: You’ll need to follow these steps for all Office applications separately.

Easily Create Password Protected Folders in Windows 7

This tutorial will guide you through the steps required to create a locked folder in Windows 7 – without installing any additional 3rd party software.
While the steps below will guide you in creating a hidden and password protected folder, this method is not 100% secure. It will deter the average computer user enough, but an advanced user will be able to access the contents of this folder. If you want to create a truly secure and encrypted place to store files and folders that absolutely nobody will ever be able to access.
Create a new folder and name it whatever you would like.

Open the folder, right-click on a blank area in it, then select New -> Text Document from the pop-up menu.

Open the text file you just created by double-clicking it and copy/paste in the following text:

cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Private
if EXIST “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Private goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure you want to lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p “cho=>”
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Private “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”
attrib +h +s “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to unlock folder
set/p “pass=>”
if NOT %pass%== PASSWORD_GOES_HERE goto FAIL
attrib -h -s “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”
ren “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” Private
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Private
echo Private created successfully
goto End
:End

In the above code, replace the key PASSWORD_GOES_HERE with the password you want to use to unlock the folder. For example if you want the password to be 123456, the line should look like:

if NOT %pass%== 123456 goto FAIL

Save your new file in the .bat format with the complete file name being locker.bat. To do this, make sure to change the Save as type: to All Files (*.*).

In the folder you created back in Step #1, double click the locker.bat file and there will now be a new folder named Private where you can put anything you want.

Upon exiting, double click the locker.bat file again. It will prompt you to answer whether you want to lock your folder or not. Press Y and the private folder will disappear.

In order to retrieve the Private folder, all you have to do is double click the locker.bat file and enter the password which you set in Step #4 and the folder will appear again for you to access.

That’s it!

Turn your computer into an internet TV

Miro is a beautiful program that can turn your computer into a internet TV.

Miro Logo

It plays any video type (much more than windows media player). Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and other major online video channels. It support HD as well.

Miro guide

Miro playing

Oh yeah its free…

Click here to found out more about Miro