optimize

Making Your PC Take Care of Itself: The Free Way

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:15:13 PST

Earlier I wrote an article about how to easily make your Vista-based computer take care of itself, which you can find here:

Making Your PC Take Care of Itself - the Easy Way!

However, the methods described in that article weren't completely free, as it involved buying Iobit's Advanced SystemCare software license. So, here's a guide for those who are willing to dig deeper into the settings of their operating system to get an optimized Vista-PC to work with, for free!

This guide is divided into several steps to make it easier to continue following it after some necessary computer reboots. The steps are as follows:

Comfortability - Clean up the User Interface!
Updates - Keep your Vista up-to-date
Security - Make sure you're safe against viruses!
Drivers - Keep your hardware running!
Programs & Features - Save disk space!
Services - Don't have anything useless eating your resources!
Disk Cleanup - get rid of the trashes!
Registry - Don't let it get messy!
Defragment - Get it all nicely together!
Schedule - Deja Vu for your PC!

So, let's get started!

Step 1. Comfortability

The first thing that hurts my eyes when I start a freshly installed Vista-PC is the amount of useless stuff it forces on to the screen:

Welcome Center: Never has anything useful or interesting in it, so just un-check the box at the bottom left corner that says "Run at startup", and close it. It won't bother you anymore.

Sidebar: A nuisance with nothing to offer. You have the clock in its own place at the end of the taskbar, you don't need it in the other corner too. Neither do you need your computer loading you pictures to the sidebar constantly, and you're damn lucky if you ever find anything really useful for the sidebar anyway. Let's close it permanently! You should be able to find the sidebar-icon in the taskbar; it shouldn't be hard to find, as it has a screen with a bunch of useless stuff coming out from it, just like the taskbar makes your screen look! So, right click that icon and choose "Exit". In the resulting dialog, un-check the box that says "Start Sidebar when Windows starts" and click "Exit Sidebar". Ahh... better...

Quick Launch for Desktop and Flip 3D: Seriously, whose great idea was this? Or flip 3d, for that matter... Quick Launch should be dedicated for shortcuts to the programs you use the most, so that they're easy to access. If you do this right, you'll never have to look at your desktop while working! So, let's drag&drop these two shortcuts to the Recycle Bin.

From now on, when you have a program you use a lot, make a quick launch shortcut for it by right clicking its icon on the desktop or the start menu and choosing "Add to Quick Launch". Then delete the icon from the desktop, as you won't be needing it anymore.

The next thing to do would be doubling the taskbar, to get more room for your quick launch and open applications. To do this, right click on the task bar and un-check "Lock the Taskbar". Now grab the upper edge of the taskbar with your mouse, and drag it up until the size of the taskbar doubles. Now just right click the task bar again and lock it.

Now, let's customize the taskbar and start menu. Right click on the taskbar and select "Properties". This opens a dialog where you can customize what is shown in the taskbar and the start menu.By default, you should be viewing the Taskbar-tab now. I like to keep most of these on their defaults, but I just un-check the checkbox that says "Group similar taskbar buttons", just to get an easy access to every window I have open. When you're done with these, go to the Start Menu-tab. Here you can choose between the classic start menu and the new Vista start menu, as well as choose whether or not to display recently opened files and programs in the start menu. Explore these settings by clicking the "Customize" button and modify them as you wish.

For example, I choose to show the Control Panel, Computer and Personal Folder as a menu and hide the Games Explorer and music-, pictures- and documents-folder. This makes the Start menu a lot more compact and more comfortable to use. When you've made your changes, click "OK".

Now go to the Notification Area-tab. Here you can choose which items to show in the notification area. I like to keep it all visible there, so I simply un-check the box that says "Hide inactive icons". Now let's go to the Toolbars-tab. One thing I really love in Vista is the "Windows Media Player"-toolbar, because it makes it very convenient to listen to music with your Vista PC, as it makes the media player go to the end of the taskbar when minimized, instead of staying among the other applications, where you might unintentionally click it. So I just check the box next to it and the "Quick Launch" and then press "Apply" and "OK".

That's pretty much it for the User Interface-cleaning. The last thing you might want to do, though, is to disable User Account Control, just to get rid of all those annoying permission dialogs. To do this, just go to

Start Menu -> Control Panel -> User Accounts

Click the text that says "Turn User Account Control on or off", now click "Continue" on the last annoying dialog you'll see. Now all you have to do is to un-check the box that says "Use User Account Control... blah blah.." and click "OK". This change will Require you to restart your computer. Do that now, and then get back here and jump right into Step 2!

Step 2. Updates

Now that you restarted your computer, you probably noticed a notification warning about the UAC-settings. To get rid of this, you can either turn off the Security Center notifications only, or completely disable display of its notification area icon. If you wish to do this, click on the notification to open Security Center. On the left there should be text saying "Change the way Security Center alerts me". Click on it and choose the option that best suits you. I choose to disable both the notifications and the icon.

Now that you're already in the Security Center, you can easily get to Windows Update by clicking on its link on top of the list on the left. If you're not in the Security Center, you can find Windows Update in Start Menu, in the "All Programs"-list.

When having the Windows Update open, click the text on the left that says "Check for updates" to find the newest updates for your Windows Vista. After the search has finished, you can view the available updates by clicking the text on the right that says "View available updates". The important updates should already be selected, but you might want to also include hardware drivers in the installation. Choose the drivers you want to have included in the installation. Note: the drivers in Windows Update aren't always the newest ones available, especially for video cards!

When you've made your choices, click the "Install" button and wait for Windows Update to download and install the updates. This may take a while, depending on the file size of the updates, as well as your connection speed, so you might want to do something else for a moment now. I'd recommend making a cup of coffee and a bowl of noodles and watching an episode or two of the Simpsons, Family Guy or American Dad.

When the Updates are installed, it will most probably tell you to restart your computer again. Do that, and get back here to continue to Step 3!

Step 3. Security

Now what you need is security for internet browsing. The best, free way to get it is to download and install Avast! Home Edition. You can get it here.

While downloading the installer, you should register your copy to get the license key for it. The registration is completely free and you can do it here. The license key is then e-mailed to you.

After registering and downloading the installer, install the program with "Typical" settings. After installing, it will tell you to restart the computer again. Do that and get back here.

After restarting, you should see the "Welcome to avast! Home Edition!" dialog. Click "OK" to that.

You should see two new icons in the notification area of the taskbar. A sphere with a "i" on it and a sphere with an "a" on it. The one with the "i" is the icon of the Virus Recovery Database and the one with the "a" is the icon of the main antivirus application. We'll just get rid of the one with "i", just because we don't need to have two icons for basically the same program. Right click the one with the "i" and choose "Merge with main avast! icon".

Now you should only have the sphere with the "a" there. Right click on it and choose "About avast!...". This will open a dialog with your license information. Click the button that says "License key...", check your e-mail for your key and enter it to the registration-dialog. Press "OK" to activate your license and "OK" again to close the "About avast!..." screen.

Now, right click on the "a"-icon again and choose "Program Settings..." to open the "avast! settings..." dialog. Set the settings as follows: (if something's not mentioned here, leave it as default)

Appearance:

un-check "Animate tray icon when scanning", so it won't draw too much attention at any point.

Sounds:

check "Disable avast! sounds", for the same reason as above.

Update (Basic):

set both options to "Automatic"

Troubleshooting:

check "Check for full screen applications (e.g. games) before displaying popups".

Now click "OK".

You might also want to remove the "avast! Antivirus" shortcut from the desktop.

Congratulations! You now have a working antivirus!

Step 4. Drivers

This step is exactly the same as the Step 2 in my previous article

The next thing you need to do, is to download RadarSync, the free driver updater. Just go to RadarSync

website and click the button that says "Start Download". When the download has finished, start the installer.

On the first screen, click "Accept" to install RadarSync, but in the next screens when it asks about PC Confidential and Registry Power Cleaner, just click "Decline", because you really don't need these once you get Iobit's Software up and running. Also, uncheck the checkboxes in the last screen, or it will change your browser's starting page and add some screensaver advertising shortcuts to your desktop.

After unchecking those, just click "Accept" and wait for the installer to download and install RadarSync. When it says it's done, click "Finish". The program will start automatically and show a small window with the RadarSync's logo and a "Continue" button. Click that button, and it will show the main program window.

Here, you just need to click the big "Start Now!" button, and the program will scan your computer and find any needed driver updates for it. After the scan, the program will show you a list of available driver updates. Just click the button that says "Download all items" and then go to watch some movie or something, as this will probably take some time, depending on your internet connection speed. I would recommend the movie "K-PAX", a great story about a man who makes his psychiatrist doubt his own mind, and should make each one of us ask "what if?"

When the downloads have finished, click on the text "ready for install" next to each to remove it from the list and start the installer. Follow the steps of each of the installers. Each installer will probably tell you to restart your computer, but I'd say you don't have to do that until you've installed every one of them. Do that then, and then get back here and we'll move on!

Step 5. Programs & Features

Also this step is the same as one found in my previous article, but it's still necessary, so I've included it here too.

Go to:

Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Programs and Features

Here you can uninstall all the programs you don't need to have on your computer. Taking care of this now will save you from a lot of trouble later, when you really want or need to get something new installed. Just browse through the list of installed programs and when you spot a program you never need, select it and click on the "Uninstall" button on top of the list. Then just follow the uninstaller instructions.

You might also want to look at the windows features and turn some of them off. You can do this by clicking the text on the left that says "Turn Windows features on or off". This will open a new window with a list of currently installed and available Windows features. Move your mouse over these features to see a short description of each, and decide whether or not you necessarily need them. If you don't just un-check the box next to it. When you're done, just press "OK" and wait for the changes to be made. Sometimes, this may require you to reboot your computer. If so, do it, and then get back here to follow the rest of the guide!

Step 6. Services

Now it's time to get rid of useless services running on the background. To do this, open the service manager by holding the Windows-key and pressing R, then writing "services.msc" and pressing ENTER.

You can also do this by entering "services.msc" to the start menu search box.

Now, you can disable a service by double-clicking it and changing its startup type to "disabled".

Disable the following services:

DFS Replication
Distributed Link Tracking Client
IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules
IPsec Policy Agent
KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Offline Files
Remote Registry
Tablet PC Input Service (Unless you're using a tablet PC, like I am)
Windows Error Reporting Service

Also, take a look at the rest of the services and determine by their descriptions whether or not you need them running. If you're sure you don't need it, disable it.

Step 7. Disk Cleanup

Now open the run command again (Win+R) or go to the start menu search and write "cleanmgr /sageset:1" and press ENTER.

This will open the Disk Cleanup Settings. Choose what you want your disk cleanup to clean; I choose them all. Then press "OK"

Now go to the run command or the search box again, write "cleanmgr /sagerun:1" and press ENTER to start the cleanup. The first time will take a few moments because of the old file compression, but later on, this should be a very fast process and it will be scheduled to happen automatically.

Step 8. Registry

Now you need to download Wise Registry Cleaner free edition. To do this, click this link.

Install the program without creating those useless shortcuts it asks about in the end and remember to remove the mark from the checkbox where it says "Download Wise Disk Cleaner now", while leaving the one where it says "Launch Wise Registry Cleaner". Press "Finish", and the program will start. It will ask you about the language you wish to use, and for this tutorial I recommend you choose English.

When the program starts, it will ask you about upgrading to PRO-version. Click "no". In the next dialog check the box where it says "Don't show this window again" and press "yes". It will now create a restore point and report to you when it's done. Press "OK".

Now go to:

Options -> Options

In the General-tab un-check the following

Create Log
Show balloon hints
Auto get promote message

and choose "No Hints (Fastest)"

In the Auto Run-tab choose "Automatic" and "Only safe entries" and un-check "Show log when the program exits".

Click "OK" to close the Options-dialog and press "Scan" in the upper left corner to scan and fix the registry, after which the program will automatically close. Time to move on.

Step 9. Defragment

This step is also in my earlier guide. You need to download Iobit's SmartDefrag, the free, automated defragmenter with set-it-aand-forget-it functionality. Just go to Iobit website and scroll down until you see the button that says "Download freeware now". This will take you to CNET's download.com page, where you just click "Download Now" to start the download.

When the download finishes, install the defragmenter and start it.

In the program's main window, click the button that says "Options". Check all the boxes that have the word "(Recommended)" after them, as well as the one that says "Automatically check for updates".

Now click the button on the left that says "Schedule". This will take you to the schedule configuration. Check the boxes next to each of the hard drives listed, as well as the one where it says "Enable schedule" and from the drop-down menu choose "Defrag and Optimize". This will schedule automatic defragmenting to be performed once every two weeks, which should be just fine.

Now click the button on the left that says "Auto Defrag", which takes you to a screen where you can configure the automatic defragging performed on the background all the time when the computer is on. Just click the button that says "Recommended", and it should set everything just as it is best for your computer.

The last thing in this step would be a full defragment and optimization of all disks. For this, go to the main screen by clicking the button that says "Defrag Now". Check the boxes next to all drives listed and choose "Defrag and Optimize" from the drop-down menu. Now just click "Start" and it will start defragmenting.

Now, this also may take some time, so perhaps it's time for another movie? My recommendation this time would be "Wanted", a story of an anxious office worker who learns that he's really the son of the world's best assassin and possesses super-human killing and fighting abilities. Not really a good movie story-wise, but a perfect choice when you just want to enjoy some action.

When the defragmenting finishes, you'll see a report window, and you can just close it and also the program itself (it will keep running on the background, keeping your files in shape!), and we can move on to the last step.

Step 10. Schedule

Now we'll schedule the disk and registry cleaning to be made daily.

Go to the run command (Win+R) or the start menu search box and write "taskschd.msc /s" and press ENTER to start the Task Scheduler. On the left, click "Creat Basic Task..."

This will open the Task Wizard. In the first screen, write a name for your task, for example "Daily Disk Clean" and then press "Next".

In the next screen choose "Daily" and press "Next". Set the time you wish your task to take place in and press "Next" again.

Now choose "Start a Program" as the action and press "Next". Set the following:

Program: C:WindowsSystem32cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:1

and press "Next". Now press "Finish" and that's it! Your computer is now scheduled to clean the disk every day!

Now make another task and in the program set this:
C:Program FilesWise Registry Cleaner 3WiseRegistryCleaner.exe

Congratulations, your PC is now configured to stay in shape, for free!

Making Your PC Take Care of Itself - the Easy Way!

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:47:14 PST

In this article, I'll first show you how to get clean your system a bit, after which I'll tell you how to make it keep it clean and running afterward. After following the steps in this guide, I'm sure you'll find that you don't yet have to do that format-and-re-install procedure you had in mind! This guide is mainly aimed for Windows Vista, but everything described here can be done in XP too, with slightly different names for the Windows' applications, so it should be rather easy to follow for everyone.

The software we will be using are the following:

RadarSync - a free driver updater

Iobit SmartDefrag - a free set-it-and-forget-it defragmenter

Iobit Advanced SystemCare PRO - an all-in-one automated PC-care package.

The steps of these guide are the following, listed here to make it easier to return to the guide after some necessary reboots.

Program Removal
Driver Update
Defragmenting
Cleaning

Step 1. Program Removal

Before we get to these fance new programs, I recommend you go to:

Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Programs and Features

Step 2. Driver Update

The next thing you need to do, is to download RadarSync, the free driver updater. Just go to RadarSync website and click the button that says "Start Download". When the download has finished, start the installer.

Here, you just need to click the big "Start Now!" button, and the program will scan your computer and find any needed driver updates for it. After the scan, the program will show you a list of available driver updates. Just click the button that says "Download all items" and then go to watch some movie or something, as this will probably take some time, depending on your internet connection speed. My movie recommendation would be "The Illusionist", a great story about life's unexpected changes and one man's efforts to control it, full of twists, starring Edward Norton and Jessica Biel. Warning: you may have to watch it twice to get it!

Step 3. Defragmenting

The next thing to do would be downloading Iobit's SmartDefrag, the free, automated defragmenter with set-it-aand-forget-it functionality. Just go to Iobit website and scroll down until you see the button that says "Download freeware now". This will take you to CNET's download.com page, where you just click "Download Now" to start the download.

When the download finishes, install the defragmenter and start it.

In the program's main window, click the button that says "Options". Check all the boxes that have the word "(Recommended)" after them, as well as the one that says "Automatically check for updates".

Step 4. Cleaning

For this last step, you'll need to buy Iobit's Advanced SystemCare PRO. It's $29,95 for a 1-year license (19,95 right now, there seems to be some kind of a discount) and trust me: it's worth it!

Just go to Iobit's website again and follow the purchase instructions. After purchasing, download the installer, install the program and fill in your license information.

When the program starts, click on the "Options" text in the upper right corner to open the setting screen.

In General Settings, just check the first two check boxes, and all the ones in the "Context Menu" options.

In Maintain Windows -> Automated Care, choose "Perform computer care when the system is idle"

In Diagnose System -> System Optimization, choose optimization profiles from the drop-down menus, depending on what most describes your computer usage. My choices would be "Computing" and "LAN"

In Diagnose System -> Disk Defragment, check "Enable Smart Defrag".

In Update, choose "Update programs and database automatically".

Now press "Apply" and "Ok" to close the options screen. Press the big, shiny Care!-button and watch the program find and repair problems in your computer.

After this is done, you can close the program and well, do whatever you wish, as your computer is now taking care of itself! The only problem you still have to take care of is un-needed programs and files you might have lying somewhere on the disks, but everything else is being taken care of from now on, so you can concentrate on working or playing games, without having to worry about anything. Cheers!

Optimize Your Computer by Cleaning It Up

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:31:36 PST

Nothing slows your computer down more than overloading your hard drive with a bunch of files. Just because you may not think you are saving or creating a lot files does not necessarily mean that you aren't. Every time you boot up your machine, go on the internet or run a program, small files are created to keep track of what that software is doing, or cookies on the internet so when you go to the website again it loads faster for you.

You probably have a ton of files sitting right now on your PC from surfing the internet that you didn't even know existed. Help speed up your computer by cleaning those files out. There are a couple of options here for you if you are running a Windows based PC.

Start by going to your internet options first. You can get there by Clicking on “Start” then “Settings” then “Control Panel” and then finally double clicking “Internet Options” from the control panel list.

On the “General” you will see the option “Delete” under the heading “Browser history”. Clicking that button will permanently delete all of the files in your temporary internet directory.

On this tab you can also erase your cookies as well. That is entirely up to you. Ok so that gives you a start but it is not the be all end all of cleaning up your computer. Windows provides a nice utility called Disk Cleanup. To run this program, click on “Start”, then click on “Program Files” (or “All Programs” depending on the version of windows you are running, then click on “Accessories”, then “System Tools” and finally click on “Disk Cleanup”.

If you have multiple hard drives you will be asked which hard drive you want to clean up. The default is normal your “C” drive. Choose your “C” drive for now and click on “Ok”. The system will begin analyzing your computer. It may take a while depending on the size of your hard drive and how “messy” it is.

Once your computer has finished analyzing your hard drive a window will pop up giving you information on what should be done in order to free up space and clean up your computer. The computer's recommendations should be checked and is normally enough to go by. Click the “Ok” button and the clean up process will begin.

Again depending on the size of your hard drive, speed of your computer and other factors this could take a while. Once it is complete, you will have cleaned your hard drive up nicely.

If you do not see an increase in your machines performance you may need to run disk defrag to optimize your hard drive. You can learn more about disk defrag in my other article.

Defragmenting Game Files to Improve Performance

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 02:29:50 PST

The performance of games and graphics-intensive programs depends a lot on the graphics card, CPU, and memory - this a lot of people know. However, there is another factor in performance that is often ignored - the hard drive. Most games have a few large compressed files which hold the game's data. If those files are fragmented (and they often are), both performance and loading times will suffer a lot. Defragmenting those files is easy, quick, and will improve game performance a lot. They can be defragmented without having to defragment the entire disk.

There are many programs available for defragmenting separate files. Some good free ones are Defraggler, and a command line utility called Contig. Rapid File Defragmenter works the best, but it costs money.

In my case, for Supreme Commander, doing this has improved performance a lot, most noticeably loading times, which were now about four times shorter. My case is somewhat of a worst-case scenario; the data files had over 40,000 fragments.