Friedbeef's Tech » windows http://www.friedbeef.com Solving Everyday Problems With Simple Technology - Freeware, Productivity, Useful Tips & More Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:29:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://www.friedbeef.com http://www.friedbeef.com/favicon.ico Friedbeef's Tech 5 Easy Ways To Keep Windows Running Smoothly http://www.friedbeef.com/5-easy-ways-to-keep-windows-running-smoothly/ http://www.friedbeef.com/5-easy-ways-to-keep-windows-running-smoothly/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:01:22 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=683 Title

How many of us remember the experience of a silky smooth, fast-booting, hassle-free Windows following a fresh install? Unfortunately, this occasion is a rare one in the world of Windows, and the dream ride is soon reduced to a crawling nightmare in a matter of days. Here are some ways to capture that magic moment and keep your Windows running without hiccups!

1. How to clean up your registry

1 LRC

The registry is Window’s storage of vital program settings and instructions. As you install new programs, countless registry entries are created by Windows – but some do not get removed after the program is uninstalled. Because Windows have to sift through these unwanted registries, useful programs can be slowed down.  Little Registry Cleaner is a specialist in this area – it scans and removes redundant entries on your system.

2. How to manually disable startup items

2 msconfig

Ever notice that Windows is taking forever to boot? There may be too many programs trying to run at startup, many of which you cannot see. To check out what’s cooking during startup, execute ‘msconfig’ from the Run dialog box and go into the Startup tab. Un-checking some programs you do not need is a good and easy way to speed up startup times.

3. How to turn off Windows Indexing

3 indexing

Sometimes, you might notice your hard disk LED lights are on even when the computer is idle – indicating that Windows is up to something. Indexing was designed to allow faster search times for files on computers, but massive system slowdowns tend to occur when Windows tries to index the millions of files on your hard disk in the background. To turn it off, go to My Computer, right click on your main hard drive, click Properties, and uncheck ‘Index this file for faster searching’ under the General tab. Do the same for other drives you might have.

4. How to clean up unwanted files on your computer

4 Cleanup

CleanUp! is a powerful tool to remove your computer’s temporary and redundant files. Removing cluttered files may improve system speed by a long shot, because hard disks do not have to seek through these mess to reach useful files. Doing so prior to defragmentation is also recommended.

5. How to perform a do-it-all cleaning

5 CCleaner

If you’re the type who just wants to get things done without the hassle of downloading individual utilities, CCleaner is the solution. This little gem performs a holistic sweep of your registry and temporary files with a straightforward interface, sparing you of any technical jargon in the process.

This post was written by Chan Huey Hoong, if you wish to write for this blog, just drop me a line.

Do you perform regular maintenance on your computer? Tell us in the comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/5-easy-ways-to-keep-windows-running-smoothly/feed/ 19 How to Streamline Your Right Click Context Menu http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-streamline-your-right-click-context-menu/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-streamline-your-right-click-context-menu/#comments Fri, 23 May 2008 22:16:38 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/05/24/how-to-streamline-your-right-click-context-menu/ streamline

Just last month we talked about ‘Giving Your Right Mouse Button Super Powers’ where you were able to add a ton of features to your right click.   Some of you loved it, but some of you thought the extra options were just too overwhelming! 

For those of you in the latter group – here’s something which does exactly the opposite and helps you clean up and streamline your right click.   Think about it – whenever you right-click inside Windows explorer, you would typically only use only a fraction of the items on the context menu.

mmm

MMMFree is a piece of freeware which allows you to store these menu-items in a ‘rarely-used’ folder or hide them completely so you get to see only what you want to see all the time…  Perfect for a cleaner desktop!

Would you prefer ‘more or ‘less’ options in your right click menu?  Tell us in the poll & comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-streamline-your-right-click-context-menu/feed/ 3 How to Stop Windows Nagging You to Restart After a Windows Update http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-stop-windows-nagging-you-to-restart-after-a-windows-update/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-stop-windows-nagging-you-to-restart-after-a-windows-update/#comments Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:18:54 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/04/20/how-to-stop-windows-nagging-you-to-restart-after-a-windows-update/ xp

When Windows downloads software updates, it initiates a countdown to restart itself after the download is complete.  Tell it to restart later and it will constantly pop up again and again (every 10 minutes) until you finally relent and restart your system. 

To me, this is one of the most potentially harmful of all Windows annoyances.  Consider the possibility that you’re out for lunch… and you have all your work open on your PC… Windows decides to restart itself… and you’re not there to stop it.  You get the picture.

automatic updates

What can you do about it?

Well you can’t really completely stop this nag screen from popping up – but you can however disable the auto-restart (it will still prompt you), and delay the re-prompt by 24 hours.  Not perfect – but good enough in my books.

To implement – simply do the following:

  • Click Start –> Run –> type in gpedit.msc
  • Go to Local Computer Policy –> Computer Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Windows Components –> Windows Update –>

Then…

  • To disable auto restart: double click ‘No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Update installations’ and enable this function.
  • To delay the re-prompt by 24 hours: double click ‘Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations’ and enable this function.  Then set the timing to ‘1440 minutes’ – this is the maximum allowable time

All done!

ps. I think it’s important to note that you do actually need to restart your system soon after you download any updates so that Windows can patch itself up.  You don’t have to be nagged by Windows, but you should do it on your own.

Update: 21st April 2008: This only works for Windows XP Professional Edition, not XP Home Edition – Thanks for spotting this Ellie!

Got any helpful Windows tips?  Tell us about them in the comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-stop-windows-nagging-you-to-restart-after-a-windows-update/feed/ 5 How to Unlock Shared Files http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-unlock-shared-files/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-unlock-shared-files/#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:39:03 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/02/13/how-to-unlock-shared-files/ unlocked

If you’ve seen this error message…

error

…or any of these:

  • Cannot delete file: Access is denied
  • There has been a sharing violation.
  • The source or destination file may be in use.
  • The file is in use by another program or user.
  • Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

I’m sure you can identify how frustrating it can be not to be able to move, copy, rename or delete those files!

Unlocker is a free tool which helps locate any file locking handles running, and give you the option to turn it off.  Then you can go ahead and do anything you want with those files.

It’s that simple :)

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-unlock-shared-files/feed/ 5 How to REALLY Hide Folders http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-really-hide-folders/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-really-hide-folders/#comments Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:24:45 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/02/10/how-to-really-hide-folders/ hidden

Hidden files are good for organizing files, and helping to ensure critical files don’t get accidentally deleted. 

Hiding them as a security measure however, is pretty much useless.  A few simple clicks in Windows is all one needs to view everything which you’ve hidden on your system.

Free Hide Folder is a free tool which helps you REALLY hide everything, make it invisible, and secure it.  You’ll even need to run the program and enter a password before you’re be able to even view those files.

What I also liked about it was that you could back up the hidden key (Not the data just the key) so you can restore the data easily if something happens with your system.

I wish you could drag and drop files into the program though rather than having to browse from the program itself, but aside from that it’s a beautiful piece of freeware.

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