Turbocharge Your Computer

Have your ever considered using your computer as a door-stop or as first base? If you are like me, the thought has crossed your mind. Fear not, you can wring the last drop of blood from your computer and skip the call to that nice customer service representative in Bombay.

First off: Housecleaning

When was the last time you removed unnecessary files, fixed damaged files, defragmented the drive, cleaned the registry or removed temporary files. Huh? That's what I thought. And your floor is sticky too.

The XP operating system has a host of features to help you keep it whizzing about.

The first is disk clean-up. To use this built in feature:

Click on the Start Menu. Left Click, "My Computer"

Right-click: "Local Disk C:"

Right-click: "Properties"

Click the box that says, "Disk cleanup" and let that puppy rip. After a few minutes of calculation, it will come up with a series of check boxes that let you know how much space you will gain. Check em off and brew a pot of coffee. This takes a while.

Disk clean-up, while possessing the sterling virtue of being free, only goes so far. To really keep your computer shiny and new, you will have to tinker with more dangerous parts such as the register.

The register is like a store inventory. Just as Macy's has to count boxes to distinguish between what is on the floor and what has departed with the light-fingered, your computer keeps lists of its programs.

When you add, remove or update programs, bits and pieces of junk are created. They are like the appendixes of the computer--there, but utterly useless.

If you don't want your computer looking for the non-existent merchandise, clean its registry. This can be dangerous. I use EasyCleaner by Toni Arts http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm. Its undo command corrects disasters promptly. I have been using this free program for many years, cleaning the registry weekly, and I have never had any problems with it.

EasyCleaner also has the ability to remove unnecessary files like the above-mentioned "temporary files" that your internet browser throws off. And it has additional, easy to use features that help you maintain your privacy and stop unnecessary programs from coming on automatically. I prefer to use this program for most of my clean-up needs because it is safe, simple and comprehensive, but to each his own.

Your computer tosses files all over the place like a frat boy's laundry. When the computer creates a new file, it creates a bit here, a bit there. In time the computer is looking through the entire house for its missing socks-- not good. The process of picking up the socks and putting them in the drawers where they belong is called defragmenting.

To defragment a drive on a Windows XP Computer:

Click on the Start Menu. Left Click, "My Computer"

Right-click: "Local Disk C:"

Right-click: "Properties"

Left-click: "Tools" tab, select "Defragment"

Disk errors, known as lost clusters, bad sectors or corrupted files most frequently result from a computer that is not shut down correctly. Accumulated errors can stop your machine in its tracks. Always click on the start menu and select turn-off computer to properly exit.

If you have been guilty of impulsively shutting the computer off at the power switch or have had the power interrupted in the midst of a program, you will need to fix the disk errors. Here is how this is done:

Click on the Start Menu. Left Click, "My Computer"

Right-click: "Local Disk C:"

Right-click: "Properties"

Left-click: Tools tab, select "Error Checking", click "Check Now"

A screen with two checkboxes will appear: "automatically fix file system errors" and "scan for and attempt recover of bad sectors." Check both boxes and press "start". Typically, you will be told that the computer is using some files and it will ask whether you want to run the program the next time you restart the machine. You will say "Yes". Fixing errors is a long process on even a quick machine, so try to do this when you won't need the machine.

Second: File Management

After you have finished your basic housecleaning, it is time to look at your files. If your computer has to look at everything in the drive before finding your document it takes forever and may even cause your machine to freeze or crash.

I worked for a major nonprofit whose machines were older than the pyramids. A professional staffer's machine froze every time she opened her Emails. Every one of her messages was in the in-box. To find a specific message, the computer had to search every message that she had saved for the last year, and it simply did not have the horse-power. It was literally blowing the computer's mind.

Start by creating appropriate folders for all of your programs and email accounts. Don't keep a mess of undifferentiated files on your desktop or in one big mass in Word or Excel. Use folders and then make sub folders for each folder.

For example: Suppose you are a secretary reporting to Tom, Dick and Harry. Your email and every program will have folders for Tom, Dick, and Harry. Perhaps nothing older than a year or so is germane. Then your folders will read: Tom, Dick, and Harry and each man will have three sub folders: 2008, 2009, 2010.

At the beginning of every third year, you will trash the oldest folders and create new folders for the coming year. This way, if Tom gives you a project, neither you nor your computer need look under Dick or Harry's folders. If you did this last year, you can go to last year's folder under the correct executive's name to find it. No looking through years of work. This is a bare minimum. Even better is creating additional sub-folders for major projects for each man for each year.

Third: Juicing Up Your Older Computer

If you have performed all of these steps and your computer is still running slowly, two main possibilities remain: your machine is an ancient mariner or it has been compromised. Adding additional memory to an older machine is easily done and not terribly expensive.

I recommend that you avoid adding memory however; because Microsoft is coming up with another operating system this October: Windows 7. Once it appears, the company may stop support for XP machines. You don't want to spend a great deal of money for memory on a machine that Microsoft itself is trying to force you to abandon.

At the same time, why be a guinea pig for Microsoft? Vista went over like a lead balloon, and it will take at least a year before you know whether the newest operating system has wings. Furthermore, it will take a least a year before all of the makers of the monitors, printers, speakers, and other hardware create the software, called drivers, that are required to make your existing equipment work correctly. Try to keep the old machine going for the next year without pouring money into it.

XP allows you to set your computer for either best appearance or best performance The default is for best appearance, but this will have to change if you want to keep Methuselah limping along.

Here is how you do it:

Click on the Start Menu. Right Click, "My Computer"

Left Click: "Properties"

Select the "Advanced" tab

Click "Settings" under the performance heading

Under "visual effects" change the check-box from "Let windows choose what's best" to "adjust for best performance." Once you have done this, your displays will be uglier, but your computer will run best.

Cleaning your Compromised Machine

Viruses and unwanted advertising programs known as Spyware or Malware may compromise your security and privacy and suck the life out of your computer. From the time that you purchase your computer you should have at the minimum: a firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware.

If you have not taken these precautions already, you may be severely contaminated and may need specialized assistance. Some of these pests can disable security software and are very adept at hiding. Should already have antivirus and anti-spy software , I recommend that you scan your computer with each while the computer is in Safe Mode. This is a special way of starting the computer so that only a minimum number of programs are loaded. When the bad guy isn't up and running your security software can bounce him more easily.

To start a computer in Safe Mode:

Click Start, click Shut Down, and then, in the drop-down list, click Shut down.

In the Shut Down Windows dialog box, click Restart,and then click OK.

When you see the message Please select the operating system to start, press F8. Use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate safe mode option, and then press enter.

Should you need to obtain a firewall, anti-virus, anti-malware, or anti-spyware try: http://majorgeeks.com/

I have used majorgeeks for many years and have found the software trouble-free. I run the free version of Zone Alarm, AVAST anti-virus, and Ad Aware. I have also run AVG anti-virus and Spybot in the past, as well A-Squared Anti-Malware. If your computer is already running slowly, I urge you to download each of these solutions one at a time and check for problems in Safe mode before you try the next. Otherwise you may consume what little working memory remains and freeze the machine entirely.

If you try all of this and nothing works, I have one last suggestion-- pour yourself a martini. You will need a stiff drink before you talk to that nice technician in Bombay.