CompuClever Blog

Improve computer performance by tweaking printer settings

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Sometimes it’s the little things that optimize your PC and improve Windows performance. Ideally, using the computer should be a painless, fluid experience, but even with all of the advances of Windows 7, it can still take time to get things just right.

Take printing, for example. Often the printer default is set to “color”. This can be kind of expensive (and ultimately annoying), especially if you’re printing out something for your records, or as a first draft that you intend to correct and then revise once again on the computer. When the default printer setting is color, every time you print a document from Windows, you need to manually set the printing preferences to black and white, to avoid wasting expensive color ink. Before you know it, your color ink cartridge is empty, which often means you won’t even be able to use your printer at all!

improve computer performance

A good way to solve this problem is to have your printer default to black-and-white. That way, everything will print black and white unless you manually set it to color, which is much more convenient than the other way around.

How to set the printer default to black-and-white on Windows 7:

1. Click the “Start” menu button and double-click Control Panel. Continue reading...

Improve PC Performance and Windows Explorer Speeds

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Windows Explorer is a file manager that has been  included with every release of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95. It provides an easy and relatively intuitive way for us regular humans to view the computer’s file systems.

However, over the years Windows Explorer has become supercharged, and has received so many upgrades and extra added features that it’s hard to keep track of them

Windows Explorer in Windows 7 and now features something called “Libraries”, folders that collect content from various locations, including shared folders on computers on the same network. Libraries are generally stored in the Libraries special folder, which allows them to be displayed on the navigation pane.

By default, a new user account in Windows 7 contains four libraries, for different file types: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos. They are configured to include your user profile folders for these file types, as well as the computer’s corresponding Public folders.

In addition to collecting and presenting information about multiple storage locations, Libraries allows you to arrange and filter results (kind of like using Google or Bing search in a web browser) For example, selecting the “By Month” view in the Pictures library will display photos in stacks, where each stack represents a month of photos based on the date they were taken. Continue reading...

Windows tips: What’s the difference between Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Ultimate?

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One Windows tip we’re often asked for (but are only just getting around to addressing) is what is the difference between the different versions of Windows 7? Currently, Windows 7

Windows 7, released now just over two years ago in late July, 2009 includes a number of new features, such as  improved performance on multi-core processors, a new version of Windows Media Center; the Windows Security Center has been renamed to Windows Action Center, which includes security and maintenance of the computer.

The Windows 7  taskbar has also been improved; the Quick Launch toolbar has been replaced with the ability to pin applications to the taskbar. To the far right there is a small rectangular button that replaces XP’s “Show Desktop” icon. This button is part of the new feature in Windows 7 called Aero Peek. Hovering over this button makes all visible windows transparent for a quick look at the desktop.

Windows 7 has many more features and improvements on XP – too many to list here – but needless to say it’s a real improvement over Vista, and looks quite nice as well (perhaps even better than iOS).

What is the main difference between Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Ultimate? Continue reading...

Windows tips: how to adjust the Windows taskbar

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The Windows taskbar is a pretty important, and pretty basic tool that appears in every version of Windows.

windows tips

As in the image above, the taskbar that usually appears at the bottom of your screen, and it shows the programs you have loaded, and you can pin icons on any program you like for easy access. It’s possible to set the taskbar so that it automatically hides or disappears when not in use (this saves real estate on your Windows desktop), or you can also lock the taskbar in place. The thing is, it’s something we use all the time while working on our computers.

Then suddenly one day something happens: and the taskbar is now showing on the side of your screen and you can’t get it back to where it was. Or perhaps the taskbar is twice as thick as it normally should be. Or, on the other hand, maybe it’s more conventient to move the taskbar to the left-hand side of the screen (I do this for video editing).

How do you move the Windows taskbar?

1. Right-click on a blank area in the taskbar and deselect “Lock the Toolbar” by left-clicking on it. If there’s not a checkmark next to it, it’s already unlocked. Continue reading...

Watch out for new PC maintenance scam

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There’s a new PC scam popping up that we thought we should let our users know about.

You may get a call from someone claiming to be a computer repairman (and this person will most likely have a heavy accent). Once you pick up, there will be a slight pause as they connect you with a “technician”, who will then start asking you questions.

Many people will get fooled at this point because the technician will address them by first name and by their surname.

The first question they ask you is: Do you have a slow PC?

The technician will tell you the reason that your computer is slow is because your computer is full with “junk files” that are stored on your computer when browsing the internet. They will ask you to follow some steps that will show you the junk files:

  1. Turn on your PC
  2. Once Windows is running click on the windows key and R
  3. In the dialog box type eventvwr
  4. Now go to Windows Logs on the left panel and select Application

Eventvwr will show a large number of processes. What is eventvwr? It’s a legitimate Microsoft Windows XP program that displays event logs:

In Windows XP, an event is any significant occurrence in the system or in a program that requires users to be notified, or an entry added to a log.

Continue reading...