PC Upgrades

If You have seen the first part of this then YOU are obviously ready for part Deux.

Here we go. I am going to show you a list of shortcuts that you can create to make a more efficient desktop. Have Fun.

To, use them simply type in the text below, the functionality (written in bold), in the ‘Run’ command, i.e. ‘Windows + R’ key combination too.

Ultimate Shortcuts

1. My Computer:
explorer.exe /root,,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

2. My Computer with C drive selected:
explorer.exe /select,c:

3. My Network Places:
explorer.exe /root,,::{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}

4. Recycle Bin:
explorer.exe /root,,::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

5. Task Manager:
taskmgr.exe

6. Computer Management:
compmgmt.msc

7. System Properties:
control.exe sysdm.cpl

8. Volume Control:
sndvol32.exe

9. Date and Time Properties:
control.exe timedate.cpl

10. Logoff:
shutdown.exe -l

11. Switch User / Lock Computer:
rundll32.exe user32.dll LockWorkStation

12. Hibernate:
rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState

13. Restart:
shutdown.exe -r

14. Shutdown:
shutdown.exe -s

15. Shutdown (abort):
shutdown.exe -a

Hope You Enjoyed. Thank you for visiting and Happy Upgrading!

Shortcuts are a great way for getting somewhere quicker than the conventional way.

You remember when you were a kid and reading little red riding hood. I know what you are thinking. What does little red riding hood have to do with computers? Remember how little red riding hood decides to take a shorter route to grandma's house. Ah she is taking a Shortcut. The same goes for your computer(aside from being attacked by the big bad wolf),I like shortcuts. I use shortcuts on my desktop whenever possible.

I have a 2 part series here on Windows shortcuts.

The First part I will explain how to create Shortcuts.
The second part will be different shortcuts that YOU can make yourself.

Here we go. Enjoy.

How to create shortcuts for quick access:

You can now create Shortcuts and keep them on your desktop to access these items easily, Take a look at the picture below, which shows how to create a shortcut.


Right click on the desktop, choose ‘New’, then ‘Shortcut’.
Creating Shortcuts Step 1

Type the text or code, in the text box as shown below.
Creating shortcuts Step 2



Enter the title or name for your shortcut

Creating shortcuts Step 3

Click ‘Finish’ to get the Shortcut.

Final Shortcut

Check out Part 2 Of this series Here.

Hope you enjoyed it, Be Sure to check out part 2. Happy Upgrading!

Computer Maintenance

A properly maintained computer can dramatically reduce the risk of infection. Below are a few tips to help you maintain your computer.

1. Install a good antivirus software

While the most common PC antivirus softwares are Symantec
(Norton) and McAfee usually run about $49/year there a several FREE alternatives that work well

A. AVG is free for personal use (fee based for businesses) can be downloaded from http://free.avg.com/

B. ClamWin is an Open Source antivirus that is free for all to use as long as you follow the GNU General Public License. http://www.clamwin.com/content/view/18/46/

C. Avast and Avira are free for personal use as well

2. Install a good anti-spyware software

Some antivirus software will help with spyware as well but we recommend installing specialized antispyware software as well. Below are a couple of free ones that work well.

A. Windows Defender (free if you own a legal copy of Window XP or higher) http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx

B. SpyBot SD http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

C. Ad-Aware http://lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php

3. Set up a user account for you to use that cannot install software

One of the biggest security holes anywhere is that almost everyone runs their computer with full rights (administrator, root, etc...) While this makes it more convenient to install software and patches it also makes it easier to install viruses and other malware. The safer way to operate your computer is to create an "everyday" user that doesn't have excessive rights. Log on as that user to do your day to day computer stuff. When you need to install an update or a new software log in as the administrator, do the update or software install then log back in as the standard user before you continue. This minimizes the time available for the bad stuff to access your computer.

4. Set OS updates to download and install automatically

While some techs do not like this, I have found that overall it is better to let the computer update itself every day. This occasionally causes other errors but at least you will be protected against newly found exploits that could be used to access your computer.

5. Set up antivirus and antispyware software to perform automatic scans periodically

Almost all antivirus and antispyware programs have both an auto update and an auto scan feature. I recommend letting it update several times a day, if possible, and setting them up to scan your entire computer at least once a week.

Norton Internet Security 2009 - 2-yr Protection

Email Safety

Email is probably the most common transport for infections today. Following a couple of simple rules can stop those malwares in their tracks.

1. Never open an attachment unless you know the person sending it AND they have informed you they are sending it.

2. Always save any attachment to the hard drive before opening. Once saved use your antivirus software to scan the attachment before opening.

3. Turn off any auto preview. Though they are convenient they can open some bad files without you even knowing it.

Safe Internet Browsing

Another common way for the nasties to get into your computer is through your internet browser. Hackers and even some malware can take over a legitimate internet site or redirect your traffic to their site while appearing to go to your chosen destination.

The most common theme is for them to pop up a window that look like a valid antivirus or antispyware software window saying that you have thousands of infections but not to worry just click here and I will save the day.

WRONG. When you click is when the true infection occurs. Below are a couple of suggestions to prevent this type of infection on your computer.

1. Do NOT respond to unexpected popups. Use the red "X" in the upper corner to close the popup. Some are even getting tricky enough to not allow the closing of the window using the "X". For these you need to open task manager (Windows) and close the program from there. If you are using Mac or Linux look up online how to "kill" a program and follow those instructions on the suspicious window.

2. Assume ANY site can be hacked or redirected. Use your common sense to decide whether to go there or not.

I hope you enjoyed this article. Stay safe and Happy upgrading!

If you say you have never had computer problems then you are either
A: completely lying or
B: completely lucky.

I know i have had my share of problems. I won't lie. So it is important to go over a couple of computer problems you may have or have had. So let's get started.


The computer wont boot
First, check to see that all cables are in all the way, especially the video and the power cords.
Then see if the lights on the computer turn on. If they turn on, it should only be a loose video cord, a broken video card or monitor, or the video card was not installed properly. It could also be a BIOS problem. If so, jump to the BIOS step.

If they don’t turn on, check your power supply.
Try to see whether the power supply fan starts to spin. If it does, go back to the last step. If not, you have a power supply problem. Replace it.

As stated in step 2, the BIOS might not be working. Rub your hands over metal to discharge any static, unplug all cables, and open up your PC case. Look for the CMOS battery, which is a small, circular, and silver battery near the CMOS jumpers. Its best that you look over a motherboard manual to find the CMOS jumpers.

There are 2 methods to resetting - set the jumpers to another position for 30 seconds, or taking out the battery. Be careful around the jumpers, since they’re easy to lose, and if you lose them, you’re screwed. For example, on my motherboard, the jumpers are set on 1-2, and there are pins in the order of 1-2-3. Remember that the position of your jumper now is the default. Place the jumper into the order of 2-3, wait 30 seconds, and move it back to 1-2.

If jumpers aren’t available, refer to the CMOS battery. Unplug it for approximately 5 minutes, than plug it back in. Then set up the default settings, such as dates and stuff.

Now if the case is that it freezes all the time at the boot screen, try booting into Safe Mode. If that works, the partition has a problem, and you will need to repair the OS with your Windows CD.

If both crash, you might have to reformat your computer.


- You are connected, but the Internet does not load

It happens once in a while. Try resetting your DSL/cable modem and router, if you have one. If that doesn’t work, move on.
Check for loose cables, and reconnect them in case.
Try using another computer to test the Internet. If that one works, your computer has a problem, and it can easily be resolved by opening Command Prompt (type CMD in Run/Seach Prompt) and then type in ipconfig /renew. If this doesn’t work or if the other computer does not, then move on.
If you’re behind a router, perform factory resets on your modem and router - make sure you know what your ISP password and username are. Set them up again, and they should now work flawlessly.

-You’re being assaulted with loads of pop-ups.
Scan your system with antispyware/antivirus

-Your PC is just running plain slower than usual.
Check how much hard drive space you have. Usually, when you have less than 15% remaining, your computer will lag more due to less virtual memory space. If you have a clean hard drive, try defragmenting.
If these don’t work, scan for viruses and spyware, and then clean out your registry, and defrag it if possible. Also, uninstall anything that you don’t need anymore.
You’ll have to move on to more drastic measures if the above don’t work, such as replacing hard drive cables and updating your BIOS. Also, try replacing the hard drive, as those slow down after a period of time. At worst, sometimes a reformat will speed it back up again, and that will tell you that you downloaded some crap. If these don’t work, your computer has just aged, and is running slower than usual. That's natural, and all you have to do is replace your PC.

Forgot your password?

Easy - boot up in Safe Mode, log onto the Administrator account that should appear in the login screen, and reset your password. Usually that account has no password.
Now if you set a password for your BIOS, reset your CMOS, as demonstrated in the My PC wont boot section. Also, try finding a trustworthy password reseter or cracker, such as Ophcrack.
Otherwise, youre screwed big time, and will have to resort to a reformat.

Hope you enjoyed.Happy Upgrading!

I have had my fair amount of battles with spyware. Quite honestly, It sucks. Before any body else that i know has their computer spied upon, I will show you what i consider the Proper ways to get rid of Spyware and Viruses.

* THIS DOES NOT INVOLVE ADWARE TRACKING COOKIES, AS THEY ARE EASILY REMOVED. IF YOU FIND A TRACE OF SPYWARE WITH A TAC RATING OF OVER 5, OR IF YOU FIND ANY VIRUSES, FOLLOW THIS SECTION.*

Always boot up in Safe Mode and disconnect from the Internet. If you have scanned over and over and deleted the same thing over and over again, but it keeps coming back, that is the reason why it keeps popping up in your scan results -the virus automatically redownloads and reinstalls itself through code that triggers a secret Autorun program that performs the reinstallation and crap.
So after thinking that you have successfully deleted the virus, you reboot to only find the same program back again...annoying.

That is why it is crucial to start up in safe mode.

Safe Mode disables all startup entries and only starts up vital Windows processes, so these programs won’t get the chance to launch on startup. While in safe mode you must run your anti spyware.
I prefer to run the anti spyware then after the scan is complete and problems are taken care of, now run anti virus program. then maybe if you would like run both one last time for good measures. Now restart your computer in normal mode and again run both anti spyware and anti virus programs.

After that, run spyware and virus scans, and delete them as normal.
Reboot normally and reconnect to the Internet, and scan again. Nothing should pop up now.

Another little problem i would like to address is this:

Removing Antivirus 2008 and 2009

Since so many people have encountered this virus someway or another it usually shows fake popup system alerts saying to scan with the product or buy it its annoying and its one of those bad malware that gets infected.

To remove it Download Malwarebytes link then do a full system scan and it should get rid of it. Next and last download link superantispyware to make sure everything is gone from your system. Remember to update it then run a scan.

Don’t run both at same time.

Why Not To Go With Windows Firewall
Believe it or not, Windows Firewall is a horrible firewall. If you'd ever call it a firewall. It only monitors outgoing traffic, and hardly notifies you whenever a program asks for permission. Personally, Windows Firewall has forced me to reformat a computer a few times, due to its lousy protection. I recommend getting ZoneAlarm Firewall to make up for this crap of a firewall.

Hope you enjoyed. Thank you and Happy Upgrading!

Excellent Free Programs To help Protect Your Computer


Avira Antivirus
My favorite Free Anvirus which is highly efficient at scanning, and removing viruses trojan you name it. Its protection is flawless although some people say it detects maplestory as a trojan, i cannot be 100% certain of this since i don’t play maplestory. But this would rank as 1st on my free antivirus list.

Avast Anti-Virus Home Edition
My 2nd favorite anti-virus program in the free market, Avast provides many features programs like Norton or Kaspersky have, for a free price. Avast has 7 different real-time shields for different functions, such as E-mail. The only hassle is that the shields drain quite a bit of memory, and you have to sign up for a free yearly subscription, which, even though is free, is annoying.

ZoneAlarm Basic Firewall
Loads better than that Windows Firewall crap. ZoneAlarm protects both incoming and outgoing Internet traffic, and has saved me from a few extreme situations Windows Firewall wouldnt have saved me from, such as an invasion of my computer through IE. However, it drains at least 30 MB of memory solely for the engine, and not to mention the firewall itself. Its a good deal, however.

Superantispyware FREE
This is one of the top Antispyware now in modern times. It has an excellent scanning system, gets rid of the malaware, tracking cookie etc, it provides a registry scan too. It also has one of the highest detection rates for a free Antispyware program.

Malwaryebytes Antimalware
Another one of those must have programs this small compact program is such an excellent scanner that removes malware one bit at a time and seriously its one of the best tools ive ever used and i seriously recommend everyone to get a combo of there antivirus combined with superantispyware and this program Malwarebytes and il guarantee you you don’t regret this.

Not so FREE Anti Virus Programs


Nod32
My favorite paid antivirus and i would say this is the most lightweight antivirus out there that scans the fastest and by far has the greatest realtime protection ive seen. It scans in just 30minutes on my computer and it creates 0 lag at all which i love. I use this myself and this is just one of my favorite Antivirus programs out there, so if you want to buy antivirus this is the number 1 product i would recommend.

Kaspersky
This is my other favorite antivirus to use. Kaspersky 2009 or version 8 or whatever you want to call it has very very good detection rate and great protection, but i find it has way too much settings to config. The interface is very simple and easy to use though, and i usd this for 6 months. Reason why i switched over to Nod32 is because this antivirus delayed programs from installing, experienced waits from 3-5minutes on some programs like installing call of duty 4, so i changed to Nod32. Other than that this program deserves a good 10/10 for me. Its pretty damn light on resources too as i see it using no more than 20k memory usage on my task manager.

* NOTE: Do NOT run 2 or more antivirus programs, antispyware programs, or firewalls at the same time. They will just conflict, and your PC will start to crash from them.

Hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned.Happy Upgrading!

Ah yes, the wonder of the world (of technology lol) that inspired many and opened up many opportunities.

But here are some tips you probably never knew.

Subtopics
* The Secret Behind IE6 And Above
* Speeding Up Your Internet Experience
* A Comparison Of The Most Popular Browsers*

The Secret Behind IE6 and Above

Never knew, huh? That IE6 and possibly IE7 are actually INCLUDED with SPYWARE THEMSELVES? Yes, you read that correctly. Internet explorer actually comes pre approved with it's own little dose of SPYWARE.
Microsoft contradicts themselves quite a lot. (Curse them, that’s why I’m an Apple freak. )
Going more into detail, IE6, as I know, was included with the Alexa plugin, which came with it. Now the Alexa plugin is a hidden plugin that my friends never knew existed. It tracks your actions online and sends you advertisements based on what you look at.

The plugin can sometimes receive personal information, which is BAD.

To get rid of it, you can either get the trial of TuneUp Utilities and disable the plugin from that program, or get a trial of ZoneAlarm Security Suite and scan with the spyware tool, as I know that it detects Alexa.

Speeding Up Your Internet Experience

There are many ways to speed up the Internet - the worst is through the registry. However, for all you Firefox users,Myself included in there(if you are not yet a firefox user i highly reccomend switching over) you've come in luck - the FasterFox plugin increases the number of connections made to web servers to increase the bandwidth transmitted.

By using Fasterfox, I could load up the main Apple website 2 times faster than regular.

You can also use TuneUp Utilities to optimize your Internet connection with a few simple clicks.

A Comparison Of The Most Popular Browsers

All of these browsers, compared with each other. Its ultimately your choice on what browser you want to use. What i do highly recommend is Firefox because it is safe, you can tweak it, plus many cool skins, but there are others too. Its all up to you.

Now here is a comparison of a couple of them.

Internet Explorer 7

I actually found it alright, but not what I expected. The new interface looked terrible, well maybe good thing is the tabbing, but thats in Firefox too, and web page load times were still the same as IE6. Security was still filled with bypasses and flaws, but Anti-Phishing is a nice addition. I’m a bit suspicious about this browser, as IE6 was included with the Alexa plugin, considered spyware, and it could be included here too. The application load times were good, ranging from 1 to 3 seconds.

Mozilla Firefox 3

My favorite pick. It’s secure, and versatile with the many plugins available, such as IE Tab, ForcastFox, Fasterfox, etc. Anti-Phishing is also on here. What I don’t like about Firefox is that some websites are screwed up by Firefox, ex. Xanga and Googlepages. Plus it has many skins you can add to make it look cool! It also loads slowly, tests ranging in around 5 seconds. However, this is my favorite. If you don't have firefox and would like to try it check it out here.
www.mozilla.org

Safari 3
Its the best browser if your running Osx Leopard but for windows its average speed but still better than ie. The interface is pretty neat looking so you should give it a try if you want.

Google Chrome Beta
This is one of the fastest browsers i have seen yet running on windows. Sadly it is not Mac compatible yet, so lets hope it will be MAC compatible in the distant future. Even though this browser is still in beta i see it as having very good potential in the future for its great interface, usability and what it offers compared to some of other browsers.

All in all Firefox is my personal favorite and if anyone asks it's the only way to surf the net.
Hope you enjoyed. Happy Upgrading!

Now I am not a huge Vista fan. I will be honest here. It has it's perks. That's why just like anything vista can use a little Tweaking and Upgrading as well. Recently i was able to sit down with a buddy and we played around with his Vista powered PC. He happens to be in love with Vista,and I..well...U know. So Here I am going to make sure and not become hated by the Vista lovers, and give some treats to them too. So here we go:

Here are some more tweaks that can be done with Vista to either increase speed, or to fit your need for speed. Remember to create a restore point if your lazy to do this and revert back.

Customize the size of desktop and file icons(Vista)

For some time, it has been possible to adjust font size in office documents and Web browsers simply by holding down the CTRL key while rolling your mouse wheel up and down. In Vista, the same action lets you tweak the size of your desktop icons. Just click on an empty area of the desktop, hold down CTRL, and spin your mouse wheel until the icons are the size you want. You can also adjust the size of your file or folder icons in Windows Explorer by doing the same thing. This is extremely handy for viewing thumbnails of images.

Increase SATA drive performance(Vista)

This tip “enhances” drive performance by allowing the drive in question to perform more write caching to system memory. The danger is if your system loses power and you do not have a backup power source (UPS), whatever data is cached to system memory will be lost. If you’re the adventurous type and want a bit more responsiveness out of your system, click Start, type Device Manager in the Search box, click the Device Manager, open up the Disk drives tree, right-click a drive, and select Properties. Go to the Policies tab and check “Enable Advanced Performance.” Click OK.

Speed up Flip3D(Vista)

This tip will be useful for notebook owners or anyone whose PC is packing less than stellar graphics processing power. The Flip3D animation can bog down weaker graphics cards if it has to flip a lot of windows, so this is a tweak that lets you set the number of windows that will be rendered in 3D at one time.

• Click on the Start Button, type regedit in the Search bar, and press Enter.
• Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, and DWM.
• Create a new DWORD and call it Max3DWindows.
• Set the value of this to something between four and nine (“4” and “9”) depending on the performance of your card (a higher number requires more video card power). You should then feel free to experiment to find the best value for your computer. Restart your PC to finalize the change.

Discover what applications are linked to certain processes

The Processes tab of the Windows XP Task Manager was a confusing, barren wasteland of cryptically-named processes. If you wanted to find out which application was responsible for a certain process, all you could do was to copy down the name of the executable, and then search for it in Windows to locate it or Google it. This was an annoying process. Thankfully, Microsoft has fixed this in Vista by adding an “open file location” option when you right-click any process. Doing so opens the folder the process is running from, which can help you figure out if a certain process can be turned off or not. You can also click “View” at the top of the Task Manager and click Select Columns to select which columns to display.

Turn off unneeded Windows features(Vista)

This one is self-explanatory. Do you need Tablet PC components installed? Probably not, unless you are using a Tablet PC. So turn off whatever you don’t need in the name of keeping your Windows install as lean as possible. I will go into more detail about this later.

Click Start, Control Panel, then under Programs at the bottom click “Uninstall a Program.” In the left-hand pane you’ll see “Turn Windows Features on or off.” Ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing. Uncheck whatever you don’t need


Hope you enjoyed tweaking in Vista. As Vista progresses more tweaks and tricks will be available. But for now Happy Upgrading!

I am a firm believer in that YOU can always tweak a computer to make it run just a little bit better. That is what i like to do on a daily basis. Tweaking, to try and get a little more performance out of that old machine.

Kinda like saying "Getting more bang for the buck".

If you didn’t know, XP wasn’t tweaked when you first bought your PC.
But after time your computer starts to run a little slow,starts dragging.
Now it's time to tweak it a little bit.

Today I will share some of my personal Tweaking tips, you can take advantage of your PC, such as speeding up page loading times, and optimizing your processor efficiency.

Subtopics

* Tweaking XP - The Simple Way
* Advanced Tweaking (ADVANCED USERS ONLY)
* Increasing Boot Times*

Tweaking XP - The Simple Way

Easy: just download a few programs and whatnot. A free choice is Tweak UI, the free PowerToy from Microsoft. Google it up, download, and install. It allows settings not seen in Control Panel to be changed.

My personal choice is TuneUp Utilities, which is not free, but is a handy tool. With that program, you can do a lot, from changing your boot and login screens and formats, optimizing Internet connections, and cleaning out and fixing up the registry, to optimizing system performance values. Its a handy tool, and the trial is available at cnets Download.com.

Another great tool, even though not free, is Diskeeper. It claims to defrag more files in a faster time than Microsofts included Disk Defragmenter in a shorter time, which is actually true from a test I conducted. I got 2 computers, fresh from a reformat, and all of its drivers and the same programs installed. One ran Diskeeper, the other ran the default defragmenter. Diskeeper finished the job in around an hour, while the other defragmenter finished when I finally woke up after a good nights sleep, so… 9 hours? Big difference, huh? And the computers were the same - 10 GB formatted Macbooks on a Windows XP partition, with the same stats. So Id recommend Diskeeper to those whod like to invest a little money into faster document loading times, leading to faster virus scans and a faster computer in general. The trial is avaliable - check the Downloads section.

TweakNow RegCleaner Standard is one of the free tools I use to maintain my PC. Its quite useful, scanning for obsolete entries that can conflict with your PC, and thus speeding up the computer. However, many Unknowns can pop up, and it'd be annoying to click every single one of them, since the last version I reviewed had no select all feature for the Unknowns.

Here's a cool little trick that i recently added myself. Make a Shutdown shortcut on your desktop,So instead of having to go into start panel and choosing shutdown. Now you can just double click a program on your desktop and it will automatically shut the computer down.

Right click on your desktop, then click create New Shortcut.
In the Location text box, type “shutdown -s -t 0″ (without the quotation marks).
Name it anything you want (Shutdown is the most common) and click OK.
Now whenever you wanna shut down, just click this shortcut and...Voila.

Type “shutdown -r -t 0″ to make it a restart button.
Type “shutdown -l” to make it a logoff button.
Type “shutdown -s” to make it a standby button.
Type “shutdown -h” to make it a hibernate button.


Advanced Tweaking

These tweaks can easily be triggered through Tune-Up Utilities, but if you can’t afford it (or crack it lol) then check out this section.

ADVANCED USERS ONLY - Registry tweaks

To access the Registry, you must be an administrator.
Go to Run, type in “regedit” and hit OK.
Registry Editor pops out and you’re ready to risk screwing up your PC big time. :P
And any tweak requires a system restart, so after you’re done tweaking what you need, restart to see its effect.

Force Windows to Unload DLLs from Memory

Why tweak: Windows automatically keeps DLLs loaded in memory in case applications using it are launched later on. This can be a problem on systems with 512 MB or less, because of memory shortage. This tweak will disable DLL caching.

To tweak: Find the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorer]. Create a new sub-key named “AlwaysUnloadDLL” and set the default value to 1. Delete the sub-key to re-enable DLL caching.

Disable Core System Paging

Why tweak: On default, Windows pages the system core to the disk to save memory space. This immensely slows down your PC as memory access is much faster than disk access. By disabling this feature, the core system will be kept in memory, speeding up system performance.

DO NOT USE THIS TWEAK IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN 512 MB OF RAM.

To tweak: Find the value “DisablePagingExecutive” in the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession Manager]. Change the value to 1. Change the value to 0 to re-enable core system caching.

Other tweaks

Here is a tweak that doesn’t require traveling through the Registry:

Disabling the Wireless Configuration Zero service

IF YOU ARE CONNECTED ON A WIRELESS CONNECTION, DO NOT DISABLE THIS SERVICE.
To those who are connected through Ethernet, disabling this service will speed up boot and login times. To do this, go to Control Panel, select Classic View, then go to Administrative Tools, then open Services.
Look for the “Wireless Configuration Zero” service, then double-click it.
Stop the service then select “Disabled” in the Startup Type drop box.
The computer should load a bit faster now.

To speed up your startup
Go to start>run>type msconfig>then on startup tab untick everything besides your antivirus. This applies to vista as well but run is in accessories.


Hope you enjoyed this little special on tweaking. Happy Upgrading!

Like anything in life making the right decision is important and is easier said than done. So when is comes to buying the computer that is going to be right for you, It's no different. The good news is this time YOU can have some guidance. Today I am going to give you a basic walk through of different scenarios you may encounter while choosing the right computer.

This section should basically give you a good walk through on what you should get.

The first and most relevant question should be of the following:
A. You want something that is portable and can tag along side you
B. You want something for the home that will be stationary

Now if you chose A, you need the laptop. If you chose B, you need the desktop.

The next set of questions involves both the laptop and the desktop. So consider:
A. You only need a PC for work, a bit of e-mail, and some easy Web browsing.
B. You are gonna listen to music, watch a few movies and videos, a bit of DVDs, play a few causal games, and burn some CDs.
C. You are gonna play a bunch of games, edit music and movies, and burn a bunch of CDs and DVDs.
D. You need all the power you can get - you’ll be playing the most hardware-intense games on the market, scan both viruses and spyware while playing a game and defragmenting a hard drive all at the same time, and edit movies, vids, pics and more while burning discs and doing a Photoshop job.

If you choose A
I'd say a low-end Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD Athlon 64 X2
Linux: 1GB XP: 1GB, Vista Home Basic: 1GB, Vista Home Premium and above: 2GB (RAM for all classes are DDR2)
Integrated audio and graphics or low-end dedicated graphic (ex. 8400GS)
120GB+ HDD
DVD Reader/CD Burner
Linux, Windows XP x86 (recommended), Windows Vista x86

If you chose B
I’d say under $600 for desktops, and under $800 for laptops
Low/mid-end Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD Athlon 64 X2
XP: 1GB, Vista Home Basic: 1GB, Vista Home Premium and above: 2GB
Integrated audio, low/mid-end dedicated graphics card (ex. 8400GS-8500GT)
160GB+ HDD (depending on uses)
Power supply depends on the system build (even though it is “low/mid-end”, the wattage requirements vary)
DVD Burner
Windows XP x86, Windows Vista x86 (either one works good in this price range)

If you chose C
I would say under $800-ish for desktops, and $1100-ish for laptops
Intel E8200 to E8400 or E8500 or Phenom 9850/9950, they’re actually not bad. About as powerful as a Q6600, but cheaper
2GB RAM for all OS or higher
Integrated audio, 9800GT/GTX260, or even a HD4850/70
200GB+ HDD space (depending on uses)
Power supply determined by builder i recommend 400+
Windows XP x86 (lenient on this one, but I won’t recommend one over another), Windows Vista x86
DVD Burner

If you chose D
High-end Intel Core 2 Duo (E8200+), mid/low-end Intel Core 2 Quad (Q6600/Q9300), would not recommend AMD here (unless you have an AM2+ motherboard already) *intel scores the higher benchmarks in gaming*
2-4gigs of RAM
8800GT 512MB+ or higher video cards in SLI or ATI crossfire , integrated audio, or not if you want good surround sound
Power supply depends on exact system configuration 500+ is recommended
Windows XP, Windows Vista
DVD Burner (dual layer and lightscribe if you’re going to use them)

Selection D: For laptops, just choose the most powerful part, so it’ll add something above $6000 if you buy at Dell and similar vendors, and something around $4000 if you buy from CyberPowerPC and similar vendors), desktop price is really anything at this price point
High-end Intel Core 2 Extreme quad core processor (ex. QX9770)/Upgrade to Nehalem
4GB+ High Performance Mushkin/Kingston HyperX/Patriot Extreme/etc.
Dual/Triple/Quadruple GPU setup (obivously, you would get the best stuff, not necessarily the GTX280 though, CrossFireX or SLi)
4x Velociraptor drives in RAID 0, 2x 1TB drives in RAID 1 (not completely sure if it can be done though).

If you are an average computer user(by average i mean just uses computer for basic tasks,internet browsing) then choosing between selection A and B is ideal. For the avid gamers,or video editors or someone that just wants a real powerful computer then sticking with selection C or D is what you are looking for.

I hope this helps with a basic idea. Be sure to check back soon for more. Happy Upgrading!