Speed up your computer by removing “temp” files
If you run a Windows machine, there are likely a lot of “temporary” files on your hard drive. Temporary files are usually backup files created, for example, by Microsoft Word, Excel or other other Office applications, usually to help save your work in situations where the computer crashes suddenly. However, some temp files are left behind even when a program is quit correctly. This may be due to programming errors that cause temporary files to not be correctly disposed of when an application is quit. These files can accumulate on your hard drive without you even noticing.
Internet Explorer and other internet browsers also create these “temp” files. Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, create “Temporary Internet Files” to store user data, including cookies, images from visited Web pages, and the user’s browsing history.
So, temp files can be very useful, and can make using your computer more enjoyable.
However, these temporary can take up a lot of space on your hard drive. This can be inconvenient – in this era of digital downloads space is always at a premium on most PCs – and these temporary files can also slow down your computer. So, sometimes it’s a good idea to get rid of them. Continue reading...
Windows keyboard shortcuts
Sometimes, speeding up your computer can be as easy as avoiding using the mouse.
Believe it or not, keeping your hands on the keyboard, rather than reaching for peripheral like the mouse can really improve your computer’s performance. Here are a few keyboard shortcuts:
First of all, the” Window” is going to play an important role in this blog post; it’s the button with the little Windows logo located at the lower left of your keyboard, and will be abbreviated as “Win”. The Windows key brings up the Start menu, and can be used in combination with other keys:
- Win-D toggles between showing the desktop and restoring all windows.
- Win-E invokes the Windows Explorer window.
- Win-L locks your system until you enter your password–or lets you switch active users
- Win-M minimizes all windows.
- Win-R brings up the Run dialog.
- Win-U invokes the Utility Manager, which controls accessibility program options.
- Win-Pause/Break brings up the System Properties dialog.
Instead of using the Windows key, combining Ctrl+Esc will call up the Windows Start menu.
There are a couple of other favourite keyboard shortcuts are:
- Alt-Tab, which allows you to cycle through all of the open windows on your desktop
- Ctrl-Tab allows you to scroll through all of the open tabs in whatever browser is active
- Ctrl-Alt-Delete allows you to call up the Task Manager, in order to kill unresponsive programs
Finally, the most important keyboard shortcut has to be Ctrl-S, which saves your work in Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Continue reading...
Optimize Windows performance by cleaning your hard disk
It’s becoming easier and easier to fill up the space on the hard drive of your computer. People are increasingly using their home computers as media centers, for example, and download movies, television programs, and music. As well, as computer power and performance has increased over the past few years, software programs have gotten bigger, and take up more space on your computer. Finally, we all love to take photos and videos, and to store them someplace, and that someplace is our PC.
Eventually, we all find ourselves running out of hard disk space.
The obvious solution is to purchase additional storage. However, there are ways to squeeze more room out of your existing hard drive. Saving hard disk memory on your PC is important, because your operating system needs on-board memory (besides RAM) to function at its best.
So, before you go out and purchase a new portable disk drive to take some of the strain off of your poor hard disk, what are some ways to perform hard drive cleanup and optimize Windows performance?
First off all, it’s important to know that every time you open a software program or browse the internet, information is stored on your computer. Continue reading...
How to protect your PC from viruses
We’ve all been there at some point: our computer has suddenly become slow, or perhaps unwanted popups are appearing even if you haven’t navigated to a new page. There’s a million-and-one symptoms that point to one awful cause: you’ve downloaded a computer virus.
While there are plenty of tools out there that can help clean your PC if you’ve downloaded a virus or some malware, it’s a cumbersome process that can be by turns annoying and even annoying. Once your computer starts acting funny, it makes you wonder if the hardware itself has been damaged, or if you have somehow leaked information onto the internet. Contracting a computer virus can be a traumatic experience that’s best avoided in the first place?
But what’s the best way to avoid computer viruses?
Just like in real-life, computers contract viruses via “vectors” or by common pathways, much like human being contract colds. Here’s a couple of common vectors and how to protect against them:
Clicking on malicious links
One of the most common “vectors” is by clicking a link on a website that activates malicious code in your web browser, which then (speaking in very general terms) infects your computer. You may see an an ad prompting you to download a security patch for Windows, or it may be a “warning” that you’ve got a security threat (possibly a virus) on your computer, but if you click on the button you can get “help” immediately. Continue reading...