Technical Tidbits™

Posts Tagged ‘performance’

If you missed part 1 or part 2, click the links to view those.

Well, here is the long awaited final of my series for Why is my PC so slow!

No video this time. Just plain talk – or should I say read – and an outstanding give-away! Just read on.

Thus far I’ve shown you how to tweak your start-up menu so that you don’t have a ton of junk loading when you boot, and I’ve shown you a nifty way of keeping crap off your desktop, yet keeping it within a mouse click away.

So, let’s say you did all that and you still are running slower than molasses?  What then?

Well, we need to drill down into some of the basic, first glance reasons this could happen.

Are you running Windows XP with Service Pack 3? If so, that could be the culprit. I had to uninstall it because it was dragging my dual core into the mach speed of a 486! Consider uninstalling SP 3 and sticking with SP2 for several more months at least.

Are you running Spybot S&D and using the immunize feature while also running a major software providers Internet Security suite? By that I mean, McAfee, Symantec, Norton, TrendMicro, Webroot, Comodo, ZoneAlarm, and so forth. I’m speaking about the “pay for” type of Internet suites that include Antivirus software and a firewall.

If so, UNDO your immunization in Spybot. When Spybot immunizes, it takes control of the files that could become corrupt in the event of a spyware infection. Unfortunately, so does the Internet security suites! So what you in essence have happening, is two programs fighting over control over who’s going to protect your system files and the loser is you and your computer speed and performance!

What if you’re on Vista? Well, make sure that what you have running as far as software is compatible with Vista. Also, you may need to tweak some additional settings that I’ll cover in an up-coming post but for now, you may want to see if there’s some services you can shut down or off.

And this is true for XP also!

If you downloaded iTunes recently – like within the last year – you will have something called the Mobile Device Manager running in the background. Unfortunately, this wasn’t stated as an included part of your installation but is an additional component inside iTunes to help you synch your iPod. But if you don’t have an iPod, then it’s rather a moot point.

To shut off the Mobile Device Manager, right click over your MY COMPUTER icon either from your desktop or your Start button.

Choose Manage.

You will receive a pop-up window called Computer Management Console or plainly Computer Management in the title bar.

Click the plus [ + ] sign next to Services and Applications to expand the list.

Select Services.

On the right side of the window, change the tab from Extended to Standard - it makes it easier to read.

All services are located in here – whether running or not – and they are in alphabetical order. Find the Apple Mobile Device listing and click on it to select it.

Then, right click and choose Properties or double click to open the properties. Either one will work.

If the service status in the lower section says that it’s running or started, click the stop button.

Then in the drop down box above that, labeled: Startup Type, change that to Manual.

Click Apply to accept the settings and close the window.

Without you realizing it, the Apple Mobile Device manager will go out searching your network for an attached mobile phone or iPod every so many minutes. Changing this to Manual, will not disable your ability to use your iPod or iPhone if you have one. It just requires it to start when you want it to start!

If you are really hard pressed for resources, go through all your software and disable the automatic update features in each one. Most of them can be found in the Tools or Options section of the software. You will be amazed at how many software installations you have running that will just randomly go out to the web and look for updates!

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT disable your Internet Security or Antivirus software from auto-updating!

Now, what happens when you’ve done everything I’ve taught you to do and you still are running slow? Tune in tomorrow! JUST JOKING! I wouldn’t do that to you! (Well, maybe I would but not today!)

Well, if you’ve stopped all the junk and you’re still slow, it’s time to do some maintenance! Don’t groan! Oh, that wasn’t a groan? What’s that you say? You don’t know how to do maintenance? You keep hearing about it but you don’t know how? Really?

Well, have I got a treat for you!

I just happen to have an eBook that tells you how to do that! And NO, I’m not going to make you buy it. I’m going to give it to you FREE! That’s right, absolutely FREE.

You see, I found out that many people think I teach on some high level that even beginners can’t understand. I also found out that some people think I’m giving a sales pitch like all the other Internet marketers out there and I’m going to sell you a useless book that has a back-end product on it that will promise to teach you the real stuff. Guess what? That’s not me. That’s not how MICE does business.

But the only way I can prove that to you is to show you how I teach and how I write eBooks! So that’s the reason for this freebie. My best eBook that I think I’ve written is yours FREE today for being such loyal readers of my blog!

Okay, here’s the deal though, and it’s not a requirement it’s optional. If you like what you read, would you do one of three things?

1. Tell a friend to come here and sign up to get their free eBook to this specific blog; or,
2. Go to our shop and post a review about what you thought about the book; or,
3. Use my tip jar over there to give me a tip for what you think the book was worth.

Again, none of these items are a requirement, they are optional but you would be doing me a favor in return for my doing one for you too – giving you the free book!

So, how do you get the free eBook? Well, just fill in the information in the box below and it will be e-mailed to you! Make sure you have mice.org as an accepted sender or we might end up in your spam box. If you aren’t sure how to whitelist our name you can go to this page to see how to do it with your specific e-mail provider.

Now, just in case you still think I’m up to something, I will not be selling your e-mail address. I will not be sending you a ton of “Buy Me” advertisings. I will send you the next free book I give away automatically though! You wouldn’t object to that would you?

And once you opt-in (confirm your e-mail address), you will receive an unsubscribe linkwith every e-mail you receive. So, you can unsubscribe the minute you get your free book! See, no catches!

I really want you to see the value I offer and see that you can trust us.

So, fill out the form, confirm your e-mail address, and you’ll get your free book. It’s that simple! Do it now! And then think about doing me a favor and doing one of the 3 things I’ve listed above in return.

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So, what do I have in store for the next post? Well, we are going to talk about Google again! And why Big Brother might be interested in Politics!

For that you can stay tuned until tomorrow afternoon!

You know, in this day of unethical Wall Street money grubbers, it sure would be nice to know you can still trust us!

In her day she was top of the line – a beauty. Her ebony case glistened in sunlight and flirted mysteriously with you as you burned the midnight oil enjoying her high speed surfing capabilities and hyper-thread technology.

Or maybe yours was a muscleman with 6-packabs that put every gamer on the block to shame.

Okay, so maybe 6-pack abs are a stretch, but the blue florescent hue from his case lights and the deep hum of his fans was the envy of friend and foe alike.

But alas, beauty fades and so does PC performance and speed over time.

And just as mankind searches for the illusive fountain of youth, computer users search for the Viagra of PC performance. That magic pill – er, solution – to gain back that which was lost.

Okay, enough romanticizing!

Why is it the “new car smell” inside your new car lasts longer than the speed on your new PC or laptop?

Why is it we can put rovers on Mars but we can’t make a computer that doesn’t slow down a half hour off the shelf?

So, why does your PC, laptop, or notebook run slow? This is the question we will be discussing over the next several articles and video additions.

We may even start a reality show called, “How slow can you get?” But you’d have to beat one of our clients that clocked his boot at 6 minutes! And that’s only the boot!

His was a tale of hardware and software woes – totally unrelated to each other, but created a very difficult situation for troubleshooting. But you’ll hear about that in a later article.

So let’s start with the most obvious culprits of slow PC’s and begin with the boot process. This is the first step in creating a noticeable increase in boot performance time.

Look down.

No! Not at the floor or your shoes silly! Look down at the taskbar on your desktop!

Maybe you should really look up and down! I’ve fixed computers where they had two rows of taskbar icons and a toolbar flashing across the top and that’s without even opening a browser!

And while you’re looking at the desktop anyway, take a good look at your whole desktop! How much junk is on there? Icons, shortcuts, pictures, files, folders, and the like? Does your desktop look like a mine field?

If so, clean it off! Crowded desktops are the #1 cause of slow boot time!

Here’s a trick I use that helps keep my desktop tidy but keeps the stuff I just cannot live without accessible from my desktop.

I created a new folder called, “Debs” in my ‘My Documents‘ folder, and in it I put everything I want available at one click from my desktop. I even have sub-folders named: 2do, 2read, blog fodder, and so on.

Now, once you have your desktop cleared of the mess, go to the bottom, right side of your taskbar and right click.

Select Toolbars.

Select New Toolbar.

A pop-up window appears that allows you to select a folder or file! Select the folder you just created that holds your desktop items.

Once you select the folder, click OK, and you should see your new toolbar item like this:

Now, when you click on that new item, you should see any folders and files you put in there, as in this example:

Because the actual files are no longer sitting on the desktop and required to load at boot time, you should see a marked increase in your boot performance time.

Now, tomorrow, we are going to cover some of the junk that loads at boot time! That will include how it gets there, how to stop it, and how to know what the heck it is!

Until tomorrow……

And remember,

“The early bird catches the worm,
the second mouse gets the cheese,
but the wise mouse knows how to get into the fridge!”

Debbie