Finally broke down and bought a laptop. Won't get it for at least a week though. Dell's having a really good Memorial Day sale, ends May 31, 2007, 6am(CT). Here's the link if interested. Got the 14.1", Inspiron E1405, due to it's smaller size as I want something easily portable. Got it for $800 with another $60 in tax and 2% off from ebates. Saved a little over $400. The free 2gb of memory was the main draw for me. They also throw in the longer lasting 9 cell battery
Here's a tip if you're interested. The deal is only available from this link, so click on that, go configure your system. Sign in or create an account and save the cart or add to wishlist. Go to ebates, click on the dell link. That brings you to dell, sign in and check out the configured system to get the 2% discount. BTW,
I've been paid several times from ebates. Don't really do much shopping, mostly around the holidays, but when I do, I always go see if there is a discount available before placing an order.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Speed up windows part 5
Next step in speeding up your Windows PC involves tweaking the registry.
First, you should create a system restore point, just in case something goes wrong:
Click Start and choose either Programs or All Programs.
Go to Accessories, then System Tools, and choose System Restore.
On the welcome screen, you’ll be asked whether you want to restore or create a restore point. Choose Create a Restore Point.
Name it something you’ll remember, such as “Before Changes.”
Click Create.
Now if something doesn’t work, you can repeat these steps and choose “Restore” instead, to return to the status you just saved.
Ok. Let's make some changes.
1. Make menus load faster:
Start regedit by clicking Start, Run and type regedit.
Navigate to the following key by clicking the plus signs next to the name of each level:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel
Click “Desktop.” A list of entries will appear on the right side.
Double-click “MenuShowDelay” and change the Value data to 0.
Click OK.
2. Free memory from closed programs. Windows sometimes keeps dll's in memory even after the application using the dll has been closed.
Start regedit, following the instructions in this lesson.
Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion
Under CurrentVersion, right-click on Explorer, then choose New->Key.
In the box that appears (”New Key #1″), change the name to AlwaysUnloadDLL.
Hit Enter. On the right side, double-click the word (Default).
For the value data, enter 1.
Click OK.
3. Speed up the startup of programs.
In regedit, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control / Session Manager / Memory Management / PrefetchParameters
When you click PrefetchParameters, the right side of the editor will display a list of entries.
Double-click “Enable Prefetcher” and change the value data to 5 (in decimal, not hexadecimal).
Click OK.
4. Reduce time Windows spends updating “last accessed” time for a folder and it's subfolders.
In regedit, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / System / CurrentControlSet / Control
Under Control, right-click on FileSystem, then choose New, then DWORD Value.
Replace “New Value #1″ with NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and hit Enter.
Double-click NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and change the Value data to 1.
Click OK.
Close regedit.
5. Now let's use msconfig and do a final tweak to improve swapfile performance by telling Windows not to use the swapfile until the absolute last minute.
Click Start, then Run.
Enter msconfig in the box.
Click on the System.ini tab.
Click the plus sign next to 386enh.
Click New, then type “ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1″ in the box that appears.
Click OK.
All done. Reboot and see if you notice any speed improvements.
First, you should create a system restore point, just in case something goes wrong:
Click Start and choose either Programs or All Programs.
Go to Accessories, then System Tools, and choose System Restore.
On the welcome screen, you’ll be asked whether you want to restore or create a restore point. Choose Create a Restore Point.
Name it something you’ll remember, such as “Before Changes.”
Click Create.
Now if something doesn’t work, you can repeat these steps and choose “Restore” instead, to return to the status you just saved.
Ok. Let's make some changes.
1. Make menus load faster:
Start regedit by clicking Start, Run and type regedit.
Navigate to the following key by clicking the plus signs next to the name of each level:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel
Click “Desktop.” A list of entries will appear on the right side.
Double-click “MenuShowDelay” and change the Value data to 0.
Click OK.
2. Free memory from closed programs. Windows sometimes keeps dll's in memory even after the application using the dll has been closed.
Start regedit, following the instructions in this lesson.
Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion
Under CurrentVersion, right-click on Explorer, then choose New->Key.
In the box that appears (”New Key #1″), change the name to AlwaysUnloadDLL.
Hit Enter. On the right side, double-click the word (Default).
For the value data, enter 1.
Click OK.
3. Speed up the startup of programs.
In regedit, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control / Session Manager / Memory Management / PrefetchParameters
When you click PrefetchParameters, the right side of the editor will display a list of entries.
Double-click “Enable Prefetcher” and change the value data to 5 (in decimal, not hexadecimal).
Click OK.
4. Reduce time Windows spends updating “last accessed” time for a folder and it's subfolders.
In regedit, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / System / CurrentControlSet / Control
Under Control, right-click on FileSystem, then choose New, then DWORD Value.
Replace “New Value #1″ with NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and hit Enter.
Double-click NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and change the Value data to 1.
Click OK.
Close regedit.
5. Now let's use msconfig and do a final tweak to improve swapfile performance by telling Windows not to use the swapfile until the absolute last minute.
Click Start, then Run.
Enter msconfig in the box.
Click on the System.ini tab.
Click the plus sign next to 386enh.
Click New, then type “ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1″ in the box that appears.
Click OK.
All done. Reboot and see if you notice any speed improvements.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Speed up windows part 4
Several more ways to speed up your windows PC include the following:
1. Delete unnecessary start up programs:
Click Start, then choose All Programs or Programs (depending on your setup).
Find the Startup folder on the list and hover your mouse over it.
The list of programs that automatically start will appear. Check this list, and if you see something you don’t want or need to start automatically--such as some Microsoft Office task--right-click it and choose Delete.
2. Stop programs which start automatically using EasyCleaner.
3. Stop services which start automatically - use caution as some services are needed in order for your computer to run.
To get to the list of services, click Start, then Run.
Enter services.msc in the box. The screen that pops up is a bit intimidating at first, but it’s actually pretty straightforward. It lists every service on your machine and tells you whether it starts automatically or manually, among other things.
Click the Extended tab on the bottom, which will create a space that will give you a description of each service.
Now click on the words “Startup Type” at the top of that column, which will sort the services. The ones that say “Automatic” are--obviously--the ones that start when Windows does. They’re the only ones you care about.
The following lists services you can probably do without. Of course, if you recognize one that you use such as Windows Messenger or Telnet, don’t turn it off.
Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Error Reporting Service (if you don’t want to be asked to send error reports to Microsoft anymore)
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Access Devices
IPSEC Services
Messenger
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
Secondary Logon
Server
SSDP Discovery Service
Telnet
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Upload Manager
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Workstation
Pick one from the list and double-click it. You’ll see a drop-down menu next to “Startup type” that is currently set to Automatic.
Change it to Manual and click OK. This way the service will start only if it’s needed, not all the time.
4. Also considering disabling these services:
Indexing service - disable this if you don't use the Windows’ search function very often - Start, Run, enter services.msc -- see above), scroll down to Indexing Service, and set the Startup type to “Disabled
If you use the Windows Classic theme, free up some memory by scrolling down the list of services to Themes and set it to “Disabled.”
1. Delete unnecessary start up programs:
Click Start, then choose All Programs or Programs (depending on your setup).
Find the Startup folder on the list and hover your mouse over it.
The list of programs that automatically start will appear. Check this list, and if you see something you don’t want or need to start automatically--such as some Microsoft Office task--right-click it and choose Delete.
2. Stop programs which start automatically using EasyCleaner.
3. Stop services which start automatically - use caution as some services are needed in order for your computer to run.
To get to the list of services, click Start, then Run.
Enter services.msc in the box. The screen that pops up is a bit intimidating at first, but it’s actually pretty straightforward. It lists every service on your machine and tells you whether it starts automatically or manually, among other things.
Click the Extended tab on the bottom, which will create a space that will give you a description of each service.
Now click on the words “Startup Type” at the top of that column, which will sort the services. The ones that say “Automatic” are--obviously--the ones that start when Windows does. They’re the only ones you care about.
The following lists services you can probably do without. Of course, if you recognize one that you use such as Windows Messenger or Telnet, don’t turn it off.
Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Error Reporting Service (if you don’t want to be asked to send error reports to Microsoft anymore)
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Access Devices
IPSEC Services
Messenger
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
Secondary Logon
Server
SSDP Discovery Service
Telnet
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Upload Manager
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Workstation
Pick one from the list and double-click it. You’ll see a drop-down menu next to “Startup type” that is currently set to Automatic.
Change it to Manual and click OK. This way the service will start only if it’s needed, not all the time.
4. Also considering disabling these services:
Indexing service - disable this if you don't use the Windows’ search function very often - Start, Run, enter services.msc -- see above), scroll down to Indexing Service, and set the Startup type to “Disabled
If you use the Windows Classic theme, free up some memory by scrolling down the list of services to Themes and set it to “Disabled.”
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