Slow PC? Optimize your computer for peak performance

The following tips can help improve your computer's performance and help make your computer run faster. The examples in this article are for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. However, these procedures work for all versions of the Windows operating system, with some slight variations from version to version.




 These tasks use utilities provided within Windows, so you can run them—free of charge and as often as you’d like—to help you achieve the best system performance and to help improve computer speed.

Note: This article does not address or recommend tinkering with the registry files. Such activities can be detrimental to your computer and should only be attempted by properly trained professionals.

Computer running very slow? This is a something that once kept bugging me after  purchasing  brand new computer that runs fast at first, then months later it is running very slow. Do you ever experience  the situation where you PC begins get awfully sluggish or sluggish in its performance Computers are supposed to be machines and should able to do what man can’t possible carry out, preserving a peak performance all of the time. If not, what is the level of getting one then?

People purchase a new PC that works fast at first, then several months later it’s running extremely slow. It isn’t the computers fault, it’s because you have not maintained it to keep running at it is peak performance level. So first, why does a pc begin slowing down? Well to be honest it can be lots of various things that may have an effect on a computers performance. We’re going to focus on the users actions and how it impacts the pc and what you can do to get it back up to it’s peak performance level and keep it running at that level.

Below are steps you can do to  speed up  the computer or determine why your computer or laptop run  slow

Here are several major causes  that makes your computer running slow and solutions  how to make your computer run faster :

 

Delete unnecessary files and programs

 

Delete some unnecessary files and programs, the more files and programs you have, the slower  your computer will perform . Therefore, delete data or programs you don’t really need and eat into your disk space such as games or pictures. By removing these files you can speed up the computer startup and gives energy to the CPU.

Clean up your Desktop 

 

Excessive  shortcut program shortcut  on computer desktop can make your computer lose its speed. Try to use the most frequently used program only.

Computer or processor is overheating

 

Ensure that your PC and processor is not overheating, extreme heating can trigger a substantial reduction in computer performance, some processors will even decrease the speed of the processor automatically to help compensate for the heat related issues.

Try to upgrade your memory 

 

If you have had your computer for more than one year it is likely your  computer does not meet the memory requirements any longer. It’s highy recommended that you should  have a computer with at least 1GB of memory.

Not enough hard disk drive space

 

Make sure that you have at least 200-500MB of free hard disk drive space. This available space allows the computer to have room for the swap file to increase in size as well as room for temporary files.

Hard drive corrupted or fragmented

 

Run Scandisk or something equivalent to help ensure that there is nothing physically wrong with the computer hard disk drive.
Run Defrag to help ensure that data is arranged in the best possible order.

Background programs

If you’ve got an anti-virus scanner on the computer, spyware protection program, or other security utility make sure it’s not running in the background as you’re trying to work. Often when these programs begin to scan the computer it can decrease the overall performance of your computer.

Hardware conflicts may slow your computer performance

 

Verify that the Device Manager has no conflicts. If any exist solve these problems as they can be the root of your problem.
Make sure you have  the most up-to-date drivers for your computer. Particularly the latest video drivers. Having out-of-date drivers could lead to an variety of issues.

Reinstall computer and start over

Lastly, if not any of the above-mentioned solutions solve your problems, it is suggested that you either reinstall Windows and/or erase everything and then start over.

Hardware issues

In case your computer continues to be sluggish after implement each of the above suggestions it is likely that the computer is experiencing a severe hardware related problem like a failing component in the computer. This could be a flaw or faulty or other component stops to work.

I do hope that after going over the above step-by-step instructions hopefully you will get your computer back to its original performance and run faster

Clean up disk errors

 Run once a week

Whenever a program crashes or you experience a power outage, your computer may create errors on its hard disk (sometimes referred to as a hard drive). Over time, the errors can result in a slow PC. Fortunately, the Windows operating system includes several PC tools, including a Check Disk program, to identify and clean any errors on your computer and to help keep it running smoothly.

Note: You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps. If you aren't logged on as an administrator, you can only change settings that apply to your user account.

Run Check Disk:

 

 

Windows 7 and Windows Vista users

Windows XP users

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Remove temporary files

 

Run once a week

 

Your computer can pick up and store temporary files when you're looking at webpages and even when you're working on files in programs, such as Microsoft Word. Over time, these files slow your computer's performance. You can use the Windows Disk Cleanup tool to rid your computer of these unneeded files and to help your PC run faster.

Run Disk Cleanup:

 

Windows 7 users

Windows Vista users

Windows XP users

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Optimize your data

Run once a week

 

As you add programs and files to your computer, it often breaks files side by side to increase the speed of access and retrieval. However, as files are updated, your computer saves these updates on the largest space available on the hard drive, often found far away from the other adjacent sectors of the file.

The result is a fragmented file. Fragmented files cause slower performance because your computer must now search for all of the file's parts. In other words, your computer knows where all the pieces are, but putting them back together in the correct order—when you need them—can slow your computer down.

Windows includes a Disk Defragmenter program to piece all your files back together again and to make them available to open more quickly.

Note: Windows 7 and Windows Vista are preconfigured to run Disk Defragmenter on a weekly basis. If you would like to run the tool manually or to adjust the schedule, click the section for your specific operating system.

Run Disk Defragmenter:

Windows 7 users

Windows Vista users

Windows XP users

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Make Internet Explorer run faster

 

The Internet is everywhere—from the home to office to the classroom. We use it to communicate, to work, to play—and even occasionally to waste time.

Yet there's nothing more frustrating than having this technical marvel at our fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, only to wait while our computers access it at a crawling pace. Thankfully, Windows Internet Explorer provides some useful options for quicker web surfing.

Reduce the size of your webpage history

 

Internet Explorer stores visited webpages to your computer, organizing them within a page history by day. Although it's useful to keep a couple days of web history within your computer, there's no need to store more than a week's worth. Any more than that and the collected webpages can slow down your computer's performance.

Note: Depending on which version of Internet Explorer you're using, the steps outlined and images shown may vary slightly.

Reduce your webpage history

 

Don't save encrypted webpages

 

Encrypted webpages ask for user names and passwords. These pages scramble information to prevent the reading of sensitive information. You can configure Internet Explorer to not save these types of pages. You'll free up space by saving fewer files to your computer, in addition to keeping secure information off of your computer.

10 tips to help improve your wireless network

If the Windows operating system ever notifies you about a weak Wi-Fi signal, it probably means that your connection isn't as fast or as reliable as it could be. Worse, you might lose your connection entirely in some parts of your home. If you want to boost the signal for your wireless network (WLAN), try some of these tips for extending your wireless range and improving your wireless network speed and performance.

1. Position your wireless router, modem router, or access point in a central location

When possible, place your wireless router, wireless modem router (a DSL or cable modem with a built-in wireless router), or wireless access point (WAP) in a central location in your home. If your wireless router, modem router, or access point is against an outside wall of your home, the signal will be weak on the other side of your home. If your router is on the first floor and your PC or laptop is on the second floor, place the router high on a shelf in the room where it is located. Don't worry if you can't move your wireless router, because there are many other ways to improve your connection.

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2. Move the router off the floor and away from walls and metal objects (such as metal file cabinets)

Metal objects, walls, and floors will interfere with your router's wireless signals. The closer your router is to these obstructions, the more severe the interference, and the weaker your connection will be.

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3. Replace your router's antenna

The antennas supplied with your router are designed to be omnidirectional, meaning that they broadcast in all directions around the router. If your router is near an outside wall, half of the wireless signals will be sent outside your home, and much of your router's power will be wasted. Most routers don't allow you to increase the power output, but you can make better use of the power. If your router’s antenna is removable, you can upgrade to a high-gain antenna that focuses the wireless signals in only one direction. You can even aim the signal in the direction you need it most. Consider a Linksys high-gain antenna—they’re powerful and easy to install. Or shop for other high-gain antennas.

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4. Replace your laptop's wireless PC card-based network adapter

Laptops with built-in wireless networking capability typically have excellent antennas and don't need to have their network adapters upgraded. These tips are for laptops that do not have built-in wireless networking.
Wireless network signals must be sent both to and from your computer. Sometimes your router can broadcast strongly enough to reach your computer, but your computer can't send signals back to your router. To improve this, replace your laptop's PC card-based wireless network adapter with a USB wireless network adapter that uses an external antenna. In particular, consider a Linksys Wireless-N or Hawking Hi-Gain Wireless-N USB network adapter. These add an external, high-gain antenna to your computer and can significantly extend your wireless range.

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5. Add a wireless repeater

Wireless repeaters extend your wireless network range without requiring you to add any wiring. Just place the wireless repeater halfway between your wireless router, modem router, or access point and your computer, and you can get an instant boost to your wireless signal strength. Check out the wireless-N repeaters from Linksys, Hawking Hi-Gain, ViewSonic, D-Link, and Buffalo Technology, or shop for a wireless-N repeater.

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6. Change your wireless channel

Wireless routers can broadcast on several different channels, similar to the way radio stations use different channels. In the United States and Canada, these channels are 1, 6, and 11. Just as you'll sometimes hear interference on one radio station while another is perfectly clear, sometimes one wireless channel is clearer than others. Try changing your wireless router's channel through your router's configuration page to see if your signal strength improves. You don't need to change your computer's configuration, because it can automatically detect the new channel.
To find your router configuration page, consult this quick reference table, which shows the default addresses for common router manufacturers. If the address is not listed here, read the documentation that came with your router, or visit the manufacturer's webpage.

Router	Address
3Com	http://192.168.1.1
D-Link	http://192.168.0.1

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7. Reduce wireless interference

The most common wireless technology, 802.11g (wireless-G), operates at a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz (GHz). Many cordless phones, microwave ovens, baby monitors, garage door openers, and other wireless electronics also use this frequency. If you use these wireless devices in your home, your computer might not be able to "hear" your router over the noise coming from them.
If your network uses wireless-G, you can quiet the noise by avoiding wireless electronics that use the 2.4 GHz frequency. Instead, look for cordless phones and other devices that use the 5.8 GHz or 900 megahertz (MHz) frequencies. Because 802.11n (wireless-N) operates at both 2.4 GHz and the less frequently used 5.0 GHz frequency, you may experience less interference on your network if you use this technology.

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8. Update your firmware or your network adapter driver

Router manufacturers regularly make free improvements to their routers. Sometimes, these improvements increase performance. To get the latest firmware updates for your router, visit your router manufacturer's website.
Similarly, network adapter vendors occasionally update the software that Windows uses to communicate with your network adapter, known as the driver. These updates typically improve performance and reliability. To get the driver updates, follow the instructions for your operating system:

• Windows 7
• Windows Vista

Windows XP

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9. Pick equipment from a single vendor

Although a Linksys router will work with a D-Link network adapter, you often get better performance if you pick a router and network adapter from the same vendor. Some vendors offer a performance boost of up to twice the performance when you choose their hardware (like their USB wireless network adapters). Linksys has the SpeedBooster technology for its wireless-G devices, and D-Link has the 108G enhancement for its wireless-G devices. These enhancements can be helpful if you have wireless-G devices and you need to transmit over a long distance or you live in an older house (old walls tend to block the signal more than newly built ones do).
If speeding up your connection is important to you, consider the next tip—upgrading your wireless technology.

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10. Upgrade 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g devices to 802.11n

Although wireless-G (802.11g) may be the most common type of wireless network, wireless-N (802.11n) is at least twice as fast and it has better range and stability. Wireless-N is backward-compatible with 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g, so you can still use any existing wireless equipment that you have—though you won’t see much improvement in performance until you upgrade your computer or network adapter to wireless-G, too.
If you're using wireless-B or wireless-G and you're unhappy with your network’s speed and performance, consider replacing your router and network adapters with wireless-N equipment. If you're buying new equipment, definitely choose wireless-N. Linksys Wireless-N routers, for example, are powerful, secure, and simple to set up. So are Linksys Wireless-N USB wireless network adapters.
Find out which wireless technology is installed on your computer:

Windows 7

Windows Vista

• Windows XP

Wireless networks never reach the theoretical bandwidth limits. Wireless-B networks typically get 2–5 megabits per second (Mbps). Wireless-G networks are usually in the 13–23 Mbps range. The average everyday speed for wireless-N equipment is about 50 Mbps.
Don’t forget—the security of your wireless network is as important as its speed and performance.

• Windows 7
• Windows Vista
• Windows XP

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എന്‍റെ നാട്ടില്‍ ഇറങ്ങിയ വെള്ളി മുങ്ങ (Barn Owl)

Metro Manorama (Trivandrum edition) published my Barn Owl picture on 15-01-2011

Wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year

It is difficult not to believe that the next year will be better than the old one...!!!! Wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year 2011

Bufalax - Ivan Kupala - Brovi

Tablet Evolution presented by Motorola

Ever heard of aggressive advertising? Yes the same ones which leave the competitor with a speechless. Motorola seems to have taken that to another level with their CES 2011 video!

The video starts off with various forms of “tablets” including Egyptian Hieroglyphic tablets and Moses’ Ten Commandments. In the end the video calls the iPad as “a giant iPhone” and moving on to the Galaxy Tab, it says the tablet runs on “Android meant for a phone”. It concludes with the camera moving to Motorola’s unveiled masterpiece with a bee hovering towards the shiny new red Motorola logo. The bee probably indicates the tablet could be running on the Honeycomb OS.

With all the excitement building up, we’re all waiting to see what the ‘Motopad’ will bring to the table. Till then, check out the video above and tell us how you feel about it.

Antarctic ozone hole smallest in 5 years

International efforts to phase out the use of chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting substances may be paying off, according to research revealed Friday by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand.

The Antarctica ozone hole is the smallest it has been in the past five years, NIWA said.
While a one-year reduction in the ozone hole can’t indicate a recovery stage, NIWA’s atmospheric experts say the new information adds to a pattern of less severe ozone holes in recent years.
Satellite data combined with ground-base measurements, including the Antarctica New Zealand Arrival Heights observatory near Scott Base, show the hole reached a maximum area of about 22 million square kilometers (about 8.5 million square miles) and a 27 million ton deficit of ozone this year, compared with 24 million square kilometers (about 9.3 million square miles) and a 35 million ton deficit last year.
The largest hole, according to NIWA, was 29 million square kilometers (about 11.2 million square miles) and a 43 million ton deficit, recorded in 2000. 

"We see a lot of year-to-year variation in ozone holes, caused by differences in atmospheric temperature and circulation," said NIWA atmospheric scientist Stephen Wood in a prepared statement. "So we can't definitively say the ozone hole is improving from one new year of observations."
"However, we have now had a few years in succession with less severe holes," Wood said. "That is an indication we may be beginning to see a recovery."
The Antarctic ozone hole forms in August and September each year, remaining until it breaks up in November or December.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol is an international convention phasing out the use of ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other man made halogen compounds.
While it's referred to as a "hole," the term refers to a large area of the stratosphere with extremely low amounts of ozone. 

The ozone layer protects all life from the sun's harmful radiation, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, noting ozone depletion is a global issue and not just a problem at the South Pole.
Less protection from ultraviolet light will, over time, lead to higher skin cancer and cataract rates and crop damage, the EPA says. The U.S., in cooperation with 190 other countries, is phasing out the production of ozone-depleting substances.


CFCs were used in refrigerants, solvents, foam blowing agents, and in other smaller applications, the EPA says. CFCs do not dissolve in the rain, only exposure to strong UV radiation breaks them down, and that releases chlorine atoms that destroy up to 100,000 times their number of ozone molecules.
By contrast, chlorine from swimming pools, industrial plants and volcanoes doesn't reach the stratosphere, but does wash out of the atmosphere when rain falls.

The EPA credits measures taken under the Montreal Protocol for falling emissions of ozone-depleting substances. Natural ozone production process will heal the ozone layer in about 50 years, it says.
Continued monitoring and measurements may reveal soon if "we are really seeing the start of a sustained, long-term recovery,