Helpful tips, tricks, and information for improving your computer's
performance and security to keep your system in top condition. Note that these
guides are geared toward people who are a bit more accustomed to changing system
settings.
Your Internet security is always becoming a bigger concern as more
people join the web and new tools are constantly being developed to
infiltrate your computer. Get informed now to make sure your computer is
safe, and the information you need to harden your system to attack.
Test your computer's online security, get full explanations, and
guides and information to windows security from the Gibson Research Shields Up!
pages.
Note: the Gibson Research page provides information on the
following steps, however, they are greatly simplified here for the
sake of your time and understanding. If you have problems, refer
to his page, as it also includes instructions for Windows NT
Get the ZoneAlarm personal firewall. A user friendly, high-quality,
FREE firewall utility that has won many awards for its
performance.
Note: running a software firewall can drain system resources
fairly quickly, so the next idea may be more accommodating for
your needs:
Harden your system, even without a firewall, by fixing a couple of
Window's bad decisions on how to handle the Internet.
In Control Panel, open up the Network Properties window and make
sure that the "NetBEUI" protocol is installed. If not,
install it now.
Then, un-bind your TCP/IP Protocol from file sharing through the
Properties window's Bindings tab, and reboot.
When you come back, go into the Network Properties again, and in
the TCP/IP's properties window under the NetBIOS tab, uncheck
"use NetBIOS over the Internet..." if it is not already
unchecked.
Internet Privacy [ ]
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Many Internet companies just can't seem to get enough information from
"Netizens". Fortunately, there are ways to keep greedy .com's
from secretly gathering and transferring information for their benefit.
There is a wealth of information available on websites, such as the Gibson
Research OptOut and Anatomy of Spyware pages, Privacy Power, and Counter exploitation.
Find out if you are using programs that employ spyware with the
handy and free tool from Lavasoft
called AdAware.
This program will scan your hard-drive for know spyware files,
folders, and program references.
Get alternatives to your prized programs that you may have just
found are spyware by checking out some of my links,
all of which feature programs that are not guilty of spying.
Memory Optimization
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There are three main types of memory that Windows uses. You have your
actual, physical RAM, the drive cache, and virtual memory. Unfortunately,
Windows is not always great about managing your memory, especially for
specific system uses. That's why you can use this guide to improve
your performance and get more free memory.
You'll want to download a free utility called Cacheman, as the newest version
can greatly optimize aspects of your hard drive cache, and can
determine the correct values and options by your system specs.
Change your Virtual Memory settings by opening up your System
Properties window and going to the performance tab, and clicking on
the virtual memory button. Set both of the values to the current
amount of RAM that you have subtracted from 512.
This will make Windows have to think less to change the size of
the Virtual Memory and make sure that there is not too much space
allocated for the Virtual Memory, improving performance and the
amount of hard drive space that is available.
Optimize your files. Run the windows disk defragmenter
(Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk
Defragmenter), or buy one such as Norton Speed Disk, because a program
that is purchased separately is generally faster and do much more for
your drive.
Either of these tools will "defragment" your drive,
meaning that files will be moved to optimal places on the physical
drive surface, allowing faster access and compensating for drive
changes.
You should run a disk defragmenter after large changes to your
drive (lots of files added or removed) or once every few months to
help with the inevitable data shifting.
Remove items from startup. Use the Run... command on the start menu
and type in "msconfig" (sans quotes).
This utility lets you adjust what starts up on your computer
under the Startup tab, allowing you to free up memory by disabling
unneeded and unwanted programs.
Hard Drive Space
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Free up some space on your ever-shrinking hard drive with these
helpful tips and utilities.
Clean up your act. Use the Windows Disk Cleanup
(Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup).
This will find files that you no longer need and delete them
automatically.
You can, however, do better than the Disk Cleanup. By deleting
all of the junk in the \windows\temp folder, you can gain more
space where Disk Cleanup stopped short. Also, by finding
(Start>Find>Files or Folders...) "Content.IE5"
(minus quotes, of course), you can get rid of some extra internet
cache files that aren't normally deleted.
A common complexity of deleting the Content.IE5 file is that
many times windows will say the "Index.dat" file is
in use.
Simply make sure you have not opened up any windows on your
drive and browsers, and to use the right-click menu on the
Recycle Bin to clear it. If you run into the 'File in use'
problem, reboot and try again.
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